Month: August 2013

Done in Vancouver, B.C. in 1963, it was the only colourful pastel in a series of black marker drawings. Helen liked marine industrial subjects… industrial subjects in general. I think the jumble of activity appealed to her… the energy and the complexity of such scenes. She did a lot of work reflecting local conditions in those days… sawmills, working boats, wharfs, massive roots of driftwood. Vancouver’s grit, not its glamour.

I StumbledUpon this excellent graphic strip only today, even though it’s been online for years. Does preference for one author’s vision over that of the other say something about your own world view?
Read the whole strip below and see. I’ll tell my preference at the bottom.

I knew that better shots than mine would be available! And in video, too, thanks to Peter Mykusz.

I wondered why Stephen Harper wants to build more prisons when the crime rate is in decline. Who’s he going to jail?
Today I hear that all of the members of the Canadian Senate will have their expense reports audited. Results that fail the sniff test are being turned over to the RCMP for investigation.

Sorry if my items are leaning a little heavily on art subjects these days, but that’s the way it has to be, as I rummage through the treasures of the “Ekland Find” of lost Helen Andersen art. Today I was wondering who was the subject of the sketch above, likely made while watching television. I thought perhaps Konrad Adenauer, Former Chancellor of post-war West Germany.
I went to compare images and found this lovely quote.
As much as I like the quote, I’m not sure that it was Adenauer Helen was sketching. Maybe it was Eisenhower. Both were is the news at the time (1960). Or maybe it’s neither one of those. In any case, I like the sketch. It’s full of personality.

Inside one of my mother’s sketchbooks, I found 3 delightful little sketches by her friend and mentor Gordon “Kit” Thorne. All of them were of the same subject, composed differently. The paper looks like ordinary typing paper and the rendering was probably done with a refillable artist’s marker pen. He and Helen were both using such pens in those days.
This sketch is characteristically loose and sure, but it pleases me particularly because he recorded a monumental torso that I sculpted and stood in our back yard in Vancouver’s University area.
The sculpture was made of cheap, but fairly durable black cement over a wire armature. I never finished it and it’s long gone now, no doubt. Thanks to Kit, it survives in a modest way.

The plant in the window of the Flying Pony Café turns some of its attention away from the sun, reaching inward for one of proprietor/artist Andrew Horne’s photo realistic paintings of old neon signs. (Photo realistic except for the vivid red underpaint that the artist allows to show through.)

There will be lots of places to see pictures of the food and the performers at the annual celebration of everything Greek, but where else can you find details about the crowd that attended… with names, even.

Brendan and Julianna, son and daughter-in-law of my friends Crawf and Ulli, invited me to join them and their friends Emily, Thomas and their kids Charlotte and Owen for my first experience of the Taste of the Danforth street fest. Julianna’s mom is still here from Korea, helping her with her early days as a new mother, so this was also my first chance to meet her and Hayden, the new baby.
Thank you all for including me in your day. It was perfect weather and perfect company.
Oh OK, one food shot. Here’s what I tasted on the Danforth…

I’m not sure exactly where he is but the family went on an outing to Cowichan, B.C. yesterday, so my guess is that he’s at a marine display there.
Carson is the eldest son of our niece Stephanie and her husband Trevor. He’s about 64 years younger than me but he could teach me a few things about looking cool.
Photo credit: Danica

I like libraries, so I suggested that John Robert Colombo and I explore the Beach Branch while his wife Ruth shopped for sandals. We paused outside to examine Wordsworth, the bronze owl. It looked stylistically similar to the Lion/Griffin pair flanking the entrance to the College Street Lillian H Smith Branch. Sure enough… made by the same architect/artisan team of Phillip H. Carter and Ludzer Vandermolen and installed in 2005 as part of the library renovation and expansion.
Colombo’s expression is hard to read. Is he just humouring my photo request? Or does he have some doubts about the owl? I’ll go with the latter, because doubts are in order. The librarian inside pointed out that the owl is female (baby owls hide at her feet), yet the unheeding public chose “Wordsworth” the winner in the naming contest. “Should have been a female name,” the librarian asserted. Well, yes, but technically, since Wordsworth is a surname, let’s say it’s uni-sex. Moving right along…

Striking paint job, eh? It looks even more vibrant against all the greenery showing through windows that look out onto adjacent park.
I took the photo from a small mezzanine, to show the second floor which had been closed to the public for many years before the refurbishment. A new addition on the west side expands shelf space considerably and adds a window-lit reading area with big, comfortable chairs.
It’s a Carnegie library. One of the great things about visiting with Colombo is his encyclopedic knowledge. He was able to flesh out my “Carnegie” labelling with the fact that the great and lasting program of philanthropy had been enacted in order to whitewash Carnegie’s reputation as a ruthless union buster.
For years