Painter Gilles Arsenault is going up on the walls of Andrew Horne’s Flying Pony Café. The official opening is on Saturday (drop in 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.) but I was lucky enough to stop in for coffee just as Andrew was hanging the first canvases. Gilles was busy signing the backs, so I got to meet him. too.
The show is well named. Gilles Arsenault uses colour in completely surprising combinations that really work. I thought the pieces looked like jewels hanging against the dark brick of the Flying Pony exhibition wall. Compositions wrap right around the stretchers, so no need for frames.
The chap assisting with title tags asked about one of the paintings, “What’s this one called?” “Excellent, if I say so myself,” Arsenault replied. “Could you make that title a little shorter?” asked the tag man. “Just use the first letter of each word,” I suggested.
Now you know what the work called EIISSM is about.
You can call the next one “Modesty is Bullshit”, laughed Andrew Horne.

Thinking different.

Harry Locke turns 87 today. He was my English, Art and Music teacher during my high school years at University Hill in Vancouver. Harry was one of those rare teachers who influence students for their lifetimes. He opened my eyes and ears to literature, to art (especially avant garde art) and music. Harry composed music, too. I remember attending a performance of one of his works in the 1960s. Full orchestra. I was very impressed.

Harry did more than teach, appreciate and create art … he encouraged and supported others. So important! Above, he appears in a 1989 photo taken in Bill Reid’s studio, while the famous Spirit of Haida Gwaii sculpture was still in its plaster stage. That’s my mother, Helen Andersen with him. The photographer was probably Bill Reid himself, because he appears with Helen in this picture, taken the same day, probably by Harry.

Thank you, Jack Richmond, (a former classmate) for alerting us all to Harry’s birthday. I’m sure many stories and good wishes will pour in for this distinguished, kind and accomplished man. He’s one of the good guys.

There is some question about how long this game will be available, so abuse it while you can.
The trick is to make labels that get around Coke’s list of banned words. A nod to the creator of Puck Futin.
At the same time, you find out about some of Coke’s sensitivities. The word “calories” is on the blacklist, and even the word “water”.
[My NoMore Fords can was inspired by Cheryl Cooke’s excellent campaign cry for Toronto, 2014]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI6f3FTNr2U&sns=em
Danica and I both enjoy this little spot, not just because we live in Truntoh but because the acting and editing is so nicely done. We like Oka Cheese, too.
“Kes-kah-say le cheese don le my wife’s boosh.” Magnifique!

The warmth of the sun is where you can find it during these cold, below-zero days. Local squirrels know that they can sunbathe for hours on a piece of our back fence.

The sun’s path runs parallel to the fence for many hours of the day, so the trick is to warm up one side, then turn around and do the other for a while. Wearing a fur coat over a ball of winter fat helps, too.

I am having a lot of fun using Linux on my new-used netbook and have elaborated my view of the cost of using free software. Although Linux costs no money, there is a price for using it. Some learning is required.

When windchill drops the temperature to 30 below, joining the moles in the underground PATH makes a lot of sense. My friend Bill and I met for lunch at Front and Queen, then descended.

We started from the Galleria in Brookfield Place.

According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 30 km (19 miles) of shopping arcades.

From the Burrard Bridge by Helen Andersen, April, 1986. Gouache on paper
It’s been a while since I worked on organizing the Helen Andersen collection, so here’s one to start things rolling again. This one has a very Asian look to me … the stylized boats on the left, with their wakes fanning out, appear so parallel to the picture plane, they read like calligraphic characters.
The title refers to Burrard Street Bridge but that orange bit in the lower left corner is much more suggestive of the Lion’s Gate Bridge. I think. I love the generous use of open space in this unconventional composition.

If it weren’t for all of the Blackberry layoffs, Visnja and Stanko would still be here enjoying the winter in Waterloo instead of suffering in the heat of Sydney, Australia where they live now.

So there you go, V&S. We miss you more than you miss our cold, no doubt!
Thanks, Bozidar, for sending the Youtube link.