Month: March 2026
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This is the 30th drawing in the Red Book. I was both looking forward to drawing on this page and also had a certain level of anxiety. The photo at the top of Jesse Owens in mid jump is such a powerful image to react to that I knew I would want it to stay the focus of this drawing. That comes with anxiety because I don’t normally have anything preconceived or assumed before I start drawing. Not that I knew at all what I would do ahead of time but just simply that one aspect of the existing page…
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I shared a number of my recent drawings with some friends and it was a nice reminder to keep how and when I share what I do a wide circle. For me at least, I do better at being kind to myself and making more things that feel good to me when I share aspects of that making and the feelings that come with it. One artist friend asked… “Are you just going with the flow when you work on these? Letting your hands make the decisions instead of your brain, like a creative game of Ouija board?” To which…
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Because the book that forms the container/surface for the Red Book drawings is a 1976 Olympics commemorative book, it’s not surprising that some of the existing photos and illustrations are sports related. That aspect has nothing to do with why I chose this book to work in and in many contradictory ways I want to avoid those direct associations. This particular page I’m currently working on had a colour diagram of a stadium layout. I enjoyed the pop of green as something to react to but didn’t want the sports stadium aspect to feel like it was a focal point.…
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Before our neighbour’s very large Manitoba Maple tree fell on our garage I would take night sky photos with it in frame and had named it Ghost Tree. Since then this tall but much smaller and further away from our garage Cottonwood tree has become the New Ghost. It doesn’t have the same presence as the other tree but it still adds some drama to these shots. On clear nights when our relatively countryside-adjacent property doesn’t have much light pollution — other than the same neighbours’ perpetual backyard security lights — I love star bathing. Moving out here from Toronto…
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I ordered this gorgeous photo zine from Diana Pappas and Tom Bland and it came this week. The photos themselves are wonderful but the storytelling and the overall care in how they designed and packaged it really shines. Get your own! https://pappasbland.com/fffb
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At a plaza here in town recently, I saw this scene from a distance in the fog and drove over to snap a few phone shots. This is a development site for new housing that used to be meadow and a pretty woods I hiked through a few times. A deep swath of the woods was cut down and the meadow scraped down and this year it looks like there is further excavation to probably make way for utilities and such. It’s an ugly eyesore and sure, people need homes but the way we treat the land to make that…
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In May 2007 I created an outdoor photo show in reaction to the large photography show Contact taking place in Toronto at the time. Down the block from our apartment near Queen and Dufferin was a brownfield site with a tall chain link fence along the sidewalk. I snuck in a back gate and made my way down a rough slope into the tangled brush behind the fence and arranged 36 photos I had printed at 2×3″ and mounted on popsicle sticks. The size and the placement of the photos where less about people seeing my photos and more about…
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Red Book 28 I wanted to be blocky and messy and I got messy for sure. There were more heavy black shapes initially but the impulse to make grids won out.