Anybody up for breakfast in Vegas? On the menu… “over-sized pancakes made from photo optimized recycled fabric, stuffed with what actually feels like real pancake.” Sounds good to me, and although I usually prefer my pancakes without fur, I think I’ll make an exception for that last one!  Todd Von Bastiaans, and Bryan McCarthy have teamed up to bring you Todd & Bryan’s Pancake Bed and Breakfast at the Trifecta Gallery in Las Vegas. It opens tonight, June 30th, and runs until July 29th. I’d get there early, because I’m pretty sure that these 54″ pancakes will be sellin’ like hotcakes!*

*I totally stole that quote from a writer that I used to work with named Jane Murray, because well, it’s hilarious! Thanks Jane : )

Vancouver based artist Jamie Armstrong has found his way into my heart with these vintage photographs complete with painted-out faces, rosy-cheeked men, and of course… a huge amount of gold glitter. Really, what more could a girl {and a bunch of rosy-cheeked men} want?

{Yet another find from The Cheaper Show No.10}

Hockey legends, and cross-stitching {yes, I said cross-stitching, not cross-checking}. And if the subject matter/medium isn’t fantastic enough, Canadian artist Mike Macri has framed his soul crushing work in fancy white frames. Yep, I can honestly say, I’ve never been a huge hockey fan, but now I’d do just about anything to have one of these guys hanging on my wall {including a little cross-checking, if necessary}.

{I saw Mike’s work at The Cheaper Show on the weekend, and you guessed it, I was jealous.}

Oh, where to begin. This year’s Cheaper Show in Vancouver was, umm, fantastic! From the Friday night preview show, to the giant line-up that started in the wee hours of Saturday morning and lasted late into the night, straight through to the actual event. An amazing venue, thousands of very cool people, some very tasty chocolate cake, and of course, fabulous art. I got there early on Friday night and was able to go around and see the entire show… that was a little trickier later that night, and almost impossible on Saturday {too many interesting people to stop and chat with!} As I made my way around the gorgeous space, this was the sound I kept making {please note, I was alone at this point so I’m sure I sounded like some kind of crazy art groupie}… Gasp! Wha?! The dialogue in my head went something like this: “What?! They’re in this show!? I’ve written about him/her, I love him/her, and now I’m seeing their work up-close and in person! Holy #$%@”. Yep, that’s what it sounded like inside of my head, all night long. 1. Ben Skinner, 2. Vincent Pacheco, 3. Aaron Moran, 4. Erin M. Riley, 5. Russell Leng, 6. Zoe Pawlak… and the list could literally go on and on. There were also a truck load of artists that I’ve never written about before who I now love, have seen their work up-close and in person, and will be writing about in the very near future. Like tomorrow.

{ps. I was lucky enough to have two of my pieces in the show, and they both sold! Yay/phew.}

Yay! I could not be more thrilled to have Canadian writer Mary-Jo Dionne as my very first weekend guest of the summer. The list of reasons to be jealous of her is much too long, so I’ll just give you the highlights: She’s an amazing writer {funny, thoughtful and insanely smart… the next Tina Fey, really}, she started a charity to protect the rights of doggies everywhere called The Fleas Knees, which she pours her heart and soul into {and in true Mary-Jo fashion, instead of a normal launch party for the line of t-shirts created to raise funds, she kicked the whole thing off at the Playboy Mansion?!?} Wait, there’s more! She has done stand-up comedy, she has her own radio show, she is a triathlete, she’s pretty… ok, you get the idea! Anyway, just when I thought she couldn’t be any more thoughtful or inspiring, she writes this:

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I’m jealous of my city…

I believe it was writer Marianne Williamson who said, “It’s not to our discredit we have fallen. It’s to our credit we have fallen, … and gotten back up.” Whether I’m right or not about the author of that sentiment, this insight was also delivered by Lionel, the butler in the film Maid in Manhattan to Jennifer Lopez’s humiliated character, after she was exposed as – gasp – a chamber maid and not the millionaire she’d pretended to be. “What we do, Miss Ventura, is not what defines us,” Lionel said. “What defines us is how well we rise after falling.” From Greek mythology to Valerie Bertinelli’s career, nothing’s more inspiring than a resurrection.

On June 15^th, my city – consistently depicted in glossy marketing materials as the Mecca for perfect-living – underwent a massive punch in the gut. In the wake of a disappointing Stanley Cup finish (for Vancouver, anyway), what started as a few chest-thumping twits snowballed into multiple chest-thumping twits and soon my streets were thick with flipped-cars, smashed store fronts, and pepper spray. As rioters put themselves – and others – in precarious situations, not the least of which included setting cop cars on fire, it was the prime location for a Darwin Awards convention.

But the following morning, something happened. Figuratively and literally, the city woke up. Hung-over not from alcohol – okay, there was that too, however allow me this metaphor – but from a reality check. Our city – consistently voted the #1 place in the world to live – could get ugly?! Like the prom queen who gets a zit, so too did we have to face a sizeable blemish.

What emerged was a new brand of expression. This wasn’t some multi-million dollar advertising campaign. No, this sprouted organically. As if decades of unexpressed loyalty had been sleeping in the soil and under the pounding of looters’ feet was finally ready to blossom. The air was thick not with pepper spray, but a renewed sense of civic commitment – indicated on murals that covered shattered windows. Whether art is “good” or “bad” is not relevant – so long as it tells the truth. And as far as I’m concerned, this new Vancouver – Vancouver 2.0 – tells the truth. It’s not about the pages of a shiny come-visit-us brochure. It’s about what happened on the night we fell. When our noses were pressed into the ground, and when the kicks just kept on coming, we made the decision to rise again.

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Thanks Mary-Jo… so inspiring, yet again! xo

Come on, paint a cigarette… all of the cool kids are doing it. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life  – ok, once at a bar in Belgium when I was 18 – it did not go well. I’m hoping things go a little smoother tonight at The Cheaper Show preview party when I find myself up-close and personal with the work of Seattle based artist Vincent Pacheco {aka Mudchicken, and the founder of WAFA!?!} I wrote about him last year, and have been insanely jealous ever since… obviously you can imagine my delight when I was doing a final perusal through the list of 200 Cheaper Show artists, and there he was. I’m not sure if he’ll be at the show, but if he is, let’s hope I don’t cough, choke and tear up!

{The Cheaper Show officially opens on Saturday night at 6pm… 200 artists, 400 pieces of art, everything priced at $200. Get there early… and I mean really early!}

You know my little phrase, “Damn, I wish I thought of that” – well, Australian artist, curator, and writer Tai Snaith has come up with a project that makes me think exactly that. She recently collaborated with eight writers, asking them to describe the one thing that they could not live without… and then she drew all of those things, as she imagined them from the writers’ descriptions, to scale! Um yep, I totally wish I thought of that.

The Best Things In Life Aren’t Things opens at the Helen Gory Galerie on June 29th.

{I wanted to show more images, but this lovely yellow dress is the only image I could find [via frankie magazine]. Hopefully when the show opens we’ll be able to see everything!}

This makes me want to cry. I’m not sure why. It must have something to do with childhood nostalgia, and the fact that even though the streets and houses haven’t changed that much, we have. We’re all grown up, and we’ll never be little again… but I digress. These images are part of a lovely online project called “Dear Photograph”. Anyone {yes, even you!} can send in a photo to be part of the collection. All you have to do is “take a picture of a picture from the past in the present.” Easy… and apparently kinda sad, if you’re a sentimental sap like me.

Yes. I want everything in my home upholstered in this kitty bud fabric. Ok, you’re right, that might be overkill, but I’m definitely going to need a couple of throw pillows… oh, and maybe a jaunty summer dress! Now, just to be clear, Toronto based artist Melinda Josie does paint lots of other things besides cats, but come on… these textiles, and obviously the kittenwillows, are fantastic!

{via ML4U}

Yes, it’s finally summertime, and on The Jealous Curator that can mean only one thing… weekend guests are about to arrive! These fabulous friends show up first thing Saturday, and stay until early Monday morning… when every good house guest really should be heading home anyway! All summer long, bloggers, artists, designers, and a bunch of generally super-creative people will be writing about who makes them jealous, and of course, smoking in the pool. So get ready, my first amazing guest arrives on the 25th {Hm, I better put out some ash trays.}

{Images by Nina Nolte}