Thanks for the #Woot, Williamson Chong. In my humble opinion, architect Don Chong is the next Jane Jacobs. None of that made it in to my profile of Don’s work for Pilot Coffee Roasters, but the evidence is sprinkled throughout the transcript of my interview with him. Some of you may remember Don for his “Small Fridges Make Good Cities” […]
Street smarts
Originally published in April 2014 in Blog
A version of this post appeared in the April issue of Applied Arts Magazine. “Electric City”: The author at the Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Spring 2014. Partnerships with big-name brands are the bread and butter of most multinational ad agencies. They are what built Tokyo’s “Electric City,” New York’s Times Square and Toronto’s rapidly expanding Dundas Square — all […]
Spring Break
Originally published in March 2014 in Blog
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 […]
Chicago
Originally published in May 2013 in Blog
In my mid-twenties, when I could have bottled my excess energy, I was presented with a choice: Chicago or New York. I weighed both options and chose Chicago. That runs counter to the narrative we’re used to for young women with vague dreams of writing. To arrive at that decision, I didn’t make a long […]
Hot off the press
Originally published in April 2013 in Blog
Good work
Originally published in March 2013 in Blog
I love Betsy Bauer’s Google Doodle today celebrating International Women’s Day. Bauer has only been with Google six weeks. But, as Rebecca Jarvis of CBS This Morning noted, this opportunity is typical of Google where good work trumps hierarchy. Here is Betsy’s first Doodle posted on February 5th in honour of Mary Leakey’s 100th birthday. And […]
Hot off the press
Originally published in August 2012 in Blog
The lines in this drawing are actually clumps of pulled wool caught in fishing line. Drawing stares Despite itself, the computer age has given rise to a more intense engagement with objects. Miles Davis on vinyl, homemade scrapbooks assembled with a medieval attention to detail, and libraries of real books stacked in such unexpected places as abandoned phone booths […]
