Prospect | Canadian Fine Arts
‘Steps away from my mother’s house’, is a new acquisition of Toronto’s Canadian Fine Arts gallery. Available are several of my new works from ‘Prospect’ and paintings from ‘Summer and Smoke’.
Goings On
The past couple of months have been a flurry of activity and opportunity. I was fortunate enough to view several worthwhile art exhibitions in both Toronto and Ottawa…
Where They Are Now| OCADU Alumni Exhibition
This is Ontario College of Art and Design’s (OCAD) first alumni exhibition, a voluntary initiative made possible by some very committed individuals, two years in the making. Opening night, Art Square Gallery & Cafe was bustling…
Liquid Thought | Oil Painting
What’s going on in my mind when I am engaged in painting? As an artist, I concurrently think about the technicalities – that’s the front-end; the marriage of paint and canvas. But the back-end is a cacophony of feelings, thoughts and ramblings…
AUG 2 – SEPT 11/ Art Bazaar
The squares and fools have left my studio for an art bazaar at B ART Gallery, Toronto. It’s an eclectic show of painting, photography, glass and sculpture. The gallery’s mandate is to showcase work that is ‘provocative and edgy created in the fusion between art and design’.
Grand Exit
I survived the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. Two and a half days at the show and two and a half days in the hospital. My apologies for not waving while being wheeled out to the ambulance – a grand exit, indeed. For those of you, who saw my paintings at the show and want to contact me, or arrange for a studio visit, please submit a comment. Sorry I wasn’t there.
A Toy
Zeal overtook me. Held tightly in the palm of my hand was a brilliant orange, wooden top. Oblivious to the people browsing in the little shop, I crouched down upon my haunches and spun the top. It wobbled and then straightened into a still like spin, a marvel of tension and balance.
Booth 12
Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
July 9, 10 and ll at Nathan Phillips Square
Friday 10:30 am – 7:30 pm
Saturday 10:30 am – 7:30 pm,
Sunday 10:30 am – 6:30 pm
Yikes! Lengths of bubble wrap consume the flat, cardboard everywhere, works in process and food simmering on the stove. Is it any wonder that I don’t put my clothes on inside out, or mistake a dust ball for a cradle in the sky?
The show is a go and I am busy organizing the logistics for the 3-day event. Never too old, I suppose, to be schlepping work about, rain or shine.
Witch On Fire
Cauldron boil and cauldron bubble.
Bits of flesh, shards of crimson
and a relentless ideology
Time, space and ambiguities co mingle.
Building a fire of things known and unknown.
Ah hah, the studio is in transition.
I wrung dry the acrylic.
Bring out the oils – Queen of alchemy!
Collage
I have encountered an artist fascinated with Ping. Tap the end of a metal rod upon a concrete floor and you hear, a Ping! The sound is held, somewhere in mid air, ‘where time and space are epitomized’.
The theme of self betrayal inspires a colleague to negotiate it through dance.
Figurative collages by Wangechi Mutu, currently on show at the Art Gallery of Ontario, are distinctive in style. Her work is provocative; seduction and disturbance are at play; the final image is powerful. A mother protectively draws her young son’s gaze away from the encased collages – something caught his curiosity – a familiarity perhaps, disturbingly incomprehensible to a child’s mind.
Uncertain as to how these seemingly disparate short term events will act upon my mind and my heart.