Musing
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Immersion: getting in over my head
I’m crazy for water My first memory takes place underwater at Dixie Pool in Lachine, Québec. I slipped on the silver ladder and for a brief moment I saw a new world beneath the surface—my family’s legs and a distorted sky. (I was quickly rescued.) My parents were both...
Art in your home: it’s like living with animals
I’ll explain... After our cats died in ripe old age, we went catless for a couple of years. It was wonderful to head up north spontaneously without having to arrange a cat-sitter. I relished putting on a perfectly furless black sweater. We vacuumed less. But when we...
Working without expectation: exercises, experiments, and no pressure
If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed a change in my work. I’ve been creating large black and white (cream actually) drawing exercises on paper. The specific exercises come from Steven Aimone’s book Expressive Drawing. It’s a great book. My friend Marie...
Oil Curious: trying oil paint for the first time
Why did I want to try oil paint? Curiosity: oil is an important material I’ve never tried at all—which seemed like a major oversight, or gap in my art experience. Frustration: I have lots of great things to say about acrylics, but there are downsides—waste...
Everything is Changing: new address, new medium
“There is nothing permanent except change.” —Heraclitus THE SEASON IS CHANGING, my address is changing. Everything is in flux. It’s a bit unsettling and exciting too. Shortly after my summer art show closed, actually the day the online part of the show closed, we...
Pond Life: the inspiration behind the paintings
“I used to visit all the very gay placesThose come-what-may placesWhere one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of lifeTo get the feel of lifeFrom jazz and cocktails” —from “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn A FEW YEARS AGO, if you told me I’d fall under the spell of...
The Evolution of a Painting: from start to finish
I SAW LOTS OF BABY PICTURES on social media yesterday for Father’s Day. It got me thinking about my paintings and their baby pictures. Right now I’ve got my new series of paintings in the Riverdale ArtWalk. I’ve got shots of them from the front, from the side, hanging...
A Passion for Purple: love it or hate it?
A few weeks ago, I felt inspired to return to an old favourite—purple. When I was a kid, I was crazy for purple. I had a purple pantsuit and an orange coat with a purple lining. I used to sit and stare at my mother’s irises and “accidentally” break one of the stems....
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