A friend of Benjamin’s parents took him aside and bestowed upon him his best piece of career advice.
“Just one word, Benny: Rebar.”
#Toronto #CondoBoom #ShitTonOmoney #ChooseYourLife
Kay Thompson
April 6, 2022
Pigeons & Elevator Buttons
April 2, 2022
In my latest book, I highlight all the things little kids do. ~ Enjoy!
[pdf-embedder url=”https://alisongarwoodjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Pigeons-Elevator-Buttons-April-2-single-page-spread-2.pdf” title=”Pigeons & Elevator Buttons – children’s book by Alison Garwood-Jones”]
Art Classes: Cocoa & Paint
March 25, 2022
Cocoa and Paint
Jamii is hosting a series of FREE “Cocoa and Paint” workshops for people of ALL ages in our community.
March 30 – April 6 – April 13, 2022 (3 evenings) from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. At the St. Lawrence Community Centre
Funded by Rama Gaming House
As a group, alongside artist Alison Garwood-Jones, we will be painting the same image individually as a group while enjoying a cup of hot cocoa. Alison will go through a step-by-step process on how to paint the chosen image. This will allow participants to learn new painting skills, while also putting those skills to practice in real-time! The paintings will be an urban scene, a floral painting, and lastly a portrait which is all beginner-friendly.
The sessions will also include a healing element as we will explore and express emotions through being intentional with our choice of colours, brush strokes, and technique in addition to our group discussions.
Alison Garwood-Jones is a Toronto illustrator and writer who makes art because it lifts her spirits and changes her sense of what’s possible. It’s a message she likes to share with others.
Participants have the option to either commit to all three paint nights or just attend one.
The workshops will be on Wednesdays from 6:00 pm-8:00 pm on March 30th, April 6th, and April 13th, 2022, at the St. Lawrence Community Center.
FREE – No previous painting experience needed.
To register, click below:
How I travel
February 22, 2022
I drew this Italian hillside town with a waterproof Uniball Vision Pen. I dabbed on colour with a small water brush, and a Cotman travel watercolour set. It’s my first time trying a Talens sketchbook (The Netherlands).
Reasons for Hope
February 22, 2022
I’m not a soccer nut. At all. But I love a good Davida and Goliath matchup.
Yesterday, a powerful drop kick soared across the big blue sky. The U.S. Soccer Federation finally agreed to pay the women’s national team the same salary as the men’s.
Prior to that, the women’s winning streak (better than the men’s), their viewership record (on par with the English Premier League) and their popularity with advertisers were all ignored.
In 2019, the women filed a gender discrimination lawsuit. In 2020 a federal judge dismissed their equal pay arguments, but the players appealed. And yesterday, they won.
This win coincides with the workplace shift to pay transparency playing out on LinkedIn and Twitter.
What’s on my nightstand
February 16, 2022
WHAT’S ON MY NIGHTSTAND: Anderson Cooper’s Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty (Harper Collins, 2021)
Anderson’s clear-eyed analysis of all the ways his Vanderbilt forebears set out to be as unequal as possible is America itself.
This is the story of entrepreneurship, wealth, success, and individualism built on the myth that all of it is available to anyone who is willing to work hard without help (another myth).
When I scan the non-fiction landscape today — all the articles, podcasts, vlogs, and social media conversations — I’m moved by the number of Americans, from all walks of life, who are staring this myth in the eye for the first time in their lives.
Some are shaking their fists at it, others are throwing punches or giving it the middle finger, but most are weeping at its feet. They are rejecting hustle culture and the winner-take-all definition of success that has long been the gas in America’s engine. BTW, Canada has always breathed in its fumes.
When this identity crisis subsides and another America emerges, it will be interesting to see if the country insists on more meaning behind all the striving, and if it chooses to help a wider swath of folks get there.
Those Americans who have never been equal have been insisting on this for centuries.
The Best Way to Complain
February 8, 2022
This moment in time calls for some slap-dash oil brushes.
Once again I turned to the “Classic Paints” collection by Sadie Lew, a Colorado-based designer committed to “making the digital look traditional.”
The model is James Murphy, one of the more intriguing lost boys still riding this planet.
To learn more about Murphy, this Guardian article is a beauty.
Don’t skip history class
January 11, 2022
As more tech companies hire programmers and developers without university degrees, here’s a thought: Incentivize employees who skipped the “humanities” by offering free access to online university courses in ethics, philosophy, comparative religion, mythology, and history (ancient and modern).
Then, increase their pay scale if they earn at least 80% in these courses.
Going forward, employers and employees with a solid grounding in history and human nature may save technology from some very existential “unintended consequences.”
