Just before Christmas I attended an ACI artist’s talk at Massey College. At the end of it, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, “Wasn’t that good?” She agreed and we shared our favourite ah ha moments in the life and career of Paul Kane. Kane was born 150 years before Neil […]
Dude, you inspire me
Originally published in January 2015 in Blog
Failures, I’ve had a few
Originally published in January 2015 in Blog
“Lost and Found at Uni” series, by Alison Garwood-Jones When I met Stewart,* he was standing outside the coffee shop I’d suggested with his hands pushed deep inside his pant pockets. “It’s closed, isn’t it?” I said, walking up to him. “Yup,” he said, and we gave each other an awkward hug. “Sorry about that,” […]
How to deal with mean girls
Originally published in November 2014 in Blog
I wasn’t a mean girl in school. That automatically made me a target. I didn’t solve this by auditioning to join the girls on their power trips. Rather, I tried to exist in the world despite them. My refuge was drawing. Trays of rainbow markers thrilled and distracted me most of the time. But sometimes the girls’ […]
The Wall
Originally published in May 2014 in Blog, Uncategorized
Artchivist
Originally published in January 2014 in Blog
Sara Angel is one of Canada’s leading visual arts journalists. Her latest vision, an online art museum, re-imagines Canada to the world through the works of our best painters and photographers. I sat down with Angel last fall to to find out how she coaxed Canada’s top museum directors to finally crack open their vaults and […]
In conversation with Erin Cooper Gay
Originally published in May 2012 in Blog
“In Conversation” is a popular Q&A Segment on “Society Pages” that features interviews with creative risk takers. So far, I’ve profiled Bruce Mau, an industrial designer turned global thinker, Maureen Judge, a Genie Award-winning filmmaker whose real life docs focus on family dynamics, and Evan Jones, a pioneer in Alternate Reality Games. Evan’s computer feats have […]
In conversation with Royal Art Lodge
Originally published in January 2012 in Blog
Google doodle
Originally published in January 2011 in Blog
Cézanne was a Google doodle yesterday. That’s because he turned 172. I was glad to see he made it into this digital pantheon. See? It spells out G-o-o-g-l-e Usually the kids at Google HQ reserve the space around their name for astronauts and civil rights leaders — you know, more splashy role models. I wouldn’t even […]
You can’t say that
Originally published in October 2010 in Blog
Art depicts all we fear, all we love and all that we are. But this wasn’t always true. Back when I was an art history major, and sitting through hundreds of slide presentations, I came to the conclusion that European painting and sculpture only really came alive, emotionally speaking, after the Church stopped being the primary […]
