Blog # 176..April, 2026

 I started this blog thinking it was a one of, but then kept going as there I kept noticing how art enriches and reflects our lives. It's sort of taken on a life of its own, veering into hope...the two things have much in common.

Panya Clark Espinal encourages us through her art to look at our surroundings more carefully  and feel differently about them. Her installations enhance many corners of Toronto, including the Bayview TTC station on the Sheppard line. She's an  artist to watch as she honours both the present and the past with inventiveness.  In,I Am Your Window, her current exhibition at the MKG127 127 gallery, she's ventured int weaving, referencing the art of her grandmother Paraskeva  Clark,  The actual tablecloth that appears in one of Paraskeva's canvases is placed beside the painting. both of which form part of Panya's childhood memories.  Different renderings of the pattern form the centre of this small but stunning show, full of craft, memory and love.

My cousin Billy gets a shout out for sending me a clipping from a Georgian Bay magazine that featured a cousin of our grandmother's. Jay Blairwas a well loved and eccentric figure from our  childhoods as well as those of our fathers. He lived well into his 90's without having conventional work, but was always totally occupied with his passions. He was well known as an amateur archeologist, devoting himself to searching for relics of previous inhabitants of the area around his home in Duntroon and reaching as far as  Midland and Penetang. The Royal Ontario Museum has several of his finds on display As a side hustle,he created new varieties of fruit by grafting plum branches onto apple trees, coming u[ with some pretty weird results that he delighted in showing us when we'd visit.

March brought the paralympics which always engage me more than the big show. The games that feature people with a range of disabilities  have slowly entered the public sphere much as people themselves have done.  In one of my many lives, I made documentary films, focusing on my experience with people with disabilities.  The first one, FREE DIVE, was about a group of kids in wheelchairs who had started a snorkel and scuba club. I learned many things from them, including how important it is to engage in something where they can be just one of the gang. The short version had a theatrical release across Canada in 1981, if you're interested and have 7 minutes to spare, you can view it at https://youtu.be/AN91JtDwCJQ

 What a mix of joy and sadness to see Joni Mitchell, that incredible genius of poetic expression struggling with the language to express her gratitude at being honoured with Juno's Lifetime Achievement award. An aneurysm robbed her of some of her physical ability but her spirit and courage brought a lift to my heart and a tear to my eye.

Despite the balmy weather that's arrived, visions of the art that we saw in the bleak midwinter at the National Gallery in Ottawa occasionally pass across my screen, especially the wall with the many inuit words for snow. A psychiatrist friend who spent time working in Iqaluit discovered that they had no word for depression, called it, thinking a lot and crying.

After the April showers, we'll have May flowers, see you the.

Blog # 175...March 2026                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

One winter morning many years ago, my next door neighbour Lesley called excitedly to tell me there was a snowy owl perched on the roof of the hoiese across the laneway from us. I rushed out on the 3rd floor deck without stopping for a coat amd watched until freezing set in.                                    When I shared this amazing experience with my friend Robert, he gave me this photo, taken near Collingwood where we used to ski.                           I've had many pets over the years...this one sits quietly over my desk as I'm writing this, not demanding anything but my admiration

                                                                     February has been Black History Month with some  great art in the subway stations, and attention directed to contributions made by Balck citizens that may have gone unnoticed. I was touched by many of the stories featured on CBCand spent some time imagining the early Black residents who settled my neighbourhood. Deborah Brownand her family lived several doors away, I wish I'd had a chance to know them. 

Artificial intelligence is all over the air waves these days, accomplishing both good and evil, There's much pondering whether it will ever take over and leave us floundering in the.dust.  I heard an interview with science and nature writer Michael Pollen recently about his latest book, A World Appears... journey into consciousness. It looks encouraging as he reminds us that our brains have distinct areas of thinking and feeling, unique to each indiividual, and difficult to replicate, unlike computers with hardware and interchangeable software. He explores the mysteries of consciousness combining insights from a broad range of fields, including neuroscience, philosophy,  literature, and the study of psychedelics. It's all about our favourite subject, ourselves, and sounds like a worthwhile read.

Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the brave activist gill band Pussy Riot, ventured out of exile  recently to bring an interesting show on tour. She uses her art to channel her rage and frustration towards her native Russia and how it treats its citizens. The ICE activities going on in the US couldn't help reminding her of the repression and brutality that forced her too leave her country.

Church parking lot on a 19th cetury Sunday

I promised to share impressions of the show of winter art at Ottawa's National Gallery\last month. Since we're g.hrough a winter that seems endless, it was great to be cosy inside and admiring the beauty of winter captured in  paintings and sculptires...a sort of hygge (remember that?) Whole rooms were devoted to winter light and abstractions, those wonderful shapes created by snow and ice

There were many highlights, I particularly loved a piece by Kathleen Moir Morris, a Quebec artist who painted with the Beaver Hall group and whose talent surpassed her disablement  with cerebral palsy.                                                                                                                                                                                                      Indigenous artis are well represented with a room devoted to clothing created and worn to survive the cold, sleds and implements to hunt and cook.The walls of the final room of the show are lined with the many words for snow, my favourite was snowdrift caused by wind.                                                    

March brings longer days of light, International Women's Day, the ides, St Patrick's Day and the first day of Spring, and time to begin to think of filing your income tax...something for everyone..                                                                                  I'm always aided in getting this blog out, John Bilodeau, who got me started all those years ago, and is always there when I get caught up in technical tngles.  And Margeret Adamson, who has been contributing her eagle eyes for the past six months to send out work free of typos.. Thanks to them and to so many of you who tell me that you find ithe bloginteresting...I love writing it!  See you next month.

 Blog # 174...February, 2026

Well, we've taken a bite of the new year, bittersweet so far,  predictables and surprising, many elephants lumbering around the room, keeping me awake at night...business as usual.

I mentioned, Hope in Action, last month and I'm now reading it. I've always been interested in Finland, visited a number of times and had some long term close friends there. I've been struck by some similarities to Canada, two official languages, many lakes and forests and northern regions  stretching to the Arctic. They also share a long border with a large super power, theirs took Karelia, a large chunk of their land in 1942, ours is threatening. Reading Sanna Marin's memoir has given me a totally new look at the country from the inside and helped put some hope in action myself.  

Sanna became Prime Minister of Finland in 2019, at the age of 34, bringing together a coalition government with 5 parties, Left, Right , Centre, Green and Swedish, all led by women, all but one under 40. She's open about being raised by a single mother in a same sex relationship, surrounded by the LGBT community,  Her memoir tracks her involvement from an early age and includes many candid looks at the political process, both inside her country and in the many EU agencies and committees on which she served. I'm loving it.

Politics and hockey are both pretty hyper masculine settings and it's comforting to see some push back against the two sex only rules being enacted south of our border. The TV series, Heated Rivalry, has attracted huge audiences around the world, in communities both straight and gay, sports loving and not so much. I'm lacking the equipment to see it, but will figure something out to deal with that.

Watching the world spin into disorder sometimes seems like some cruel version of whack a mole (not to be confused with guac a mole which is delicious).   Ukraine, Gaza. Sudan, Venezuela, Iran, and othe troubled spots, not to mention Minneapolis! Two speeches in Davos, ours and theirs.  And Greenland, which evokes memories for me, not just from a few days spent there but from Peter Hoeg's 1964 novel,  Smila's Sense of Snow. A young indigenous woman from Greenland struggles with life in Copenhagen. We're not the only people with a history of treating our first nations brothers and sisters badly  

In the Cree language, when they ask someone's age, it translates as,"How many winters do you have?:  The National Gallery, as well as stirring up political scandal,  has been busy putting up, Winter Art, a vast and ambitious show featuring artists from around the world...Kurelek to Kandinsky, Monet to Monkman. I'm planning a trip to Ottawa in February, so I will tell you all about it in March. In the meantime, Katherine May’s book, Wintering, offers rest and retreat in difficult times..