creative forces

Blog # 137…January 2023

What better way to start the New Year than by celebrating Canadian women artists who gave me reason to rejoice and be proud last year. All Torontonians - coming to their art from very different backgrounds and adding progressive ideas to our cultural landscape.

Rupi Kaur: A compelling performer as well as a brilliant poet, Rupi published her first book of poems when she was 21. Born in the Punjab, she came to Canada as a small child and made Toronto home.  Now 30, with 2 more volumes and almost a decade of writing, performing and activism behind her, she’s responding to the pandemic with Healing with Words, a collection of curated poems and guided exercises encouraging readers to explore trauma, loss, heartache, love and self. After co-hosting the Giller literary awards in the Fall of 2022, she left on a world tour reading her work and delighting audiences with both her poetry and her wardrobe! 

Denyse Thomasos: Just Beyond, her current show at the Art Gallery of Ontario is huge, not only in the scale of the pieces, but also in the range of themes she incorporates…slavery, urban architectural forms, confinement, and the African and Asian diasporas. Born in Trinidad, raised in Toronto, Denyse was influenced by the travelling she did before her sudden, tragic death in 2012 at 47. She left behind a large and important body of work as well as a loving partner and a two year old daughter. This photo shows the magnitude of her art and the exuberance of her soul.

Sarah Polley: Born in Toronto, Sarah describes her early life as a child actor in her absorbing collection of essays about her life, Running Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory. The book’s title is taken from advice Sarah had while suffering from the consequences of a concussion about five years ago. Since her recovery, as well as the book, she’s added to her film credits, which already include Away From Her (Academy Award nomination for screenplay) Take This Waltz and Stories We Tell. She wrote and directed Women Talking, adapted from a novel by Miriam Toews (another great Canadian woman artist) which opened a few days ago and is getting Oscar buzz too. Sarah appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show recently and the photo by Thea Traff is taken from a recent profile by Rebecca Mead in The New Yorker,

 
The photos capture the great differences in the women; what they hold in common is a passion for their work and the ability to share it with us in unique and beautiful ways.

I've also been touched by the talent and courage of women, not so visible, who create their art from a position of physical challenges...they deserve a blog too and will get one soon.

Hope 2023 is OK  so far and we'll hope for better things as time goes by. See you next in February and we'll try and brighten the bleak midwinter.