Winter Olympic Art - Marc Ahr

Artist Marc Ahr attended many of the Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler over the 17 days of the Olympics, rapidly painting a total of 25 watercolor sketches of events. His goal was to complete his sketches in time with the race's winner to add their autograph. We first saw his work in a store window late one evening, then got a glimpse of the artist on the 18th day, when he stopped by Time Frame Gallery in Vancouver. He was exhausted!

We liked them all, but finally settled on a small version of the Closing Ceremonies. See thumbnails of his marathon on Marc's website. I suspect his sketch of the ice hockey game between Canada and Team USA will be most popular! Sketches are available in print and on T-shirts.

Wonder if he will be recuperated in time to paint the Paralympics, two weeks later.

Party Town Vancouver - LiveCity

Saturday night, the night before the Closing ceremonies, thousands took to the streets to watch fireworks and large outdoor television monitors, listen to loud music, and celebrate. The City of Vancouver, with support from the Government of Canada, hosted two outdoor celebration sites: LiveCity Yaletown and LiveCity Downtown. Canada has won a record number of gold, silver, and bronze medals and their national spirit is soaring. All are dressed in red. Maple leaves are everywhere. All are anticipating the final ice hockey game, which will be between the USA and Canada.

We were encouraged to wear red on Sunday afternoon (in anticipation of Canada winning its national sport). The big game starts at noon. Vancouver's Sunday newspapers were 99% focused on the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the big game. One whole section was devoted to the hockey game. The headline:

ONE GAME. OUR GAME. This is it. Team Canada v. Team USA. The biggest hockey tournament ever. OUR COUNTRY. OUR RINK. OUR GOLD?

Tonight is the Closing Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. CTV, Canada's Olympic Network, is billing the event as the time to "celebrate 17 days that changed Canada forever". Canadian coverage of the Olympics is so much different than American or California coverage, given all the focus is on Canadian athletes, businesses, volunteers, local stories. Canadian coverage, "Memories of 2010", is available on DVD and Blu-ray at CTVOlympics.ca/store

Virtual Olympic Stadium

We received an Olympics digital souvenier (snow covered Whistler with glowing image of the Canadian maple leaf) and an invitation from the Olympics committee to add our photos to a "Virtual" Stadium for the Closing Ceremonies. At this early date, there are 2,500+ photos uploaded to the site. Virtually, all are welcome.

Looks like we'll see a good number of web 2.0 social media tools used for the 2010 Winter Olympics.