Oh, where do I begin? This show is so important to me. It’s an ode to a Canadian great – singer songwriter and front man of The Tragically Hip, Gord Downie. If you’re Canadian you know all about The Hip. For those of you who don’t, they are an iconic band that so many of us know and love. Gord is a musical genius, and sadly was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last year. You could hear a nation gasp when that news was made public. I wanted to do something, but what? An art show, of course. Here is the curatorial statement for the show that opens THIS SATURDAY, JULY 8th at Mayberry Fine Art in Toronto {4-7pm}

“That Night In Toronto” 

Poetry. That is the best way to describe any and all lyrics written by Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip. From “wheat kings and pretty things”, to “musical chairs, double dares, memorized stairs” the words from these generation defining songs strike a chord in, well, anyone who has ever heard them.  As a curator, and artist, I want to honor this poetry the only way I know how – visually. I asked ten Canadian artists to create original work inspired by their favourite Tragically Hip lyrics. FYI, it was very difficult to choose, which is why some artists have more than one piece in the show! Originally, I was going to assign bits of Hip poetry to each of them, but every artist came back with stories of their favorite songs – memories from road trips, University, concerts, breakups, dance floors, house parties and the list goes on. The paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, paper-cut pieces they’ve created are beyond what I ever could have imagined. Stunning artwork, each with the magical power to conjure up a song.

This show is a heartfelt tribute from one group of Canadian artists to another – and simply our way of saying, “Hey man, thanks”. 

ps. Twenty per cent of sales will be donated to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research via Sunnybrook Hospital. 

If you can come, please do. I will be there with bells on, or at least a Hip t-shirt. Mayberry is just across the street from the AGO {324 Dundas Street West}. Send your RSVP to toronto@mayberryfineart.com – see you soon!

Artists {in order shown} : Annyen Lam, Ben Skinner, Meghan Hildebrand, Danielle Krysa {me!}, Sara Genn, Sean William Randall, Don Proch, Jay Dart, Brandy Masch, Sarah Gee Miller

Sigh. I love everything she does, every time she does it. These are a few of the most recent oil paintings by Toronto based artist Jen Mann… and you can see them at Gallery Jones in Vancouver starting TONIGHT! Her new show, titled METONYMY, opens tonight, Thursday November 7th, at 5pm. Here is the gallery’s description of this must-see show:

“Jen’s first solo exhibition at Gallery Jones, is diving deep into the culture of celebrity, social media and constructed personas. Through a variety of media (film, sculpture and primarily painting), Mann employs the masking tools available in this hyper-selfconscious age to question perception and ideas of identity. With herself as the subject, obfuscated by luminescent layers of distraction such as glossy wigs, theatrical make-up and the text of magazine covers, in METONYMY Mann challenges our definition of real as it relates to the self.” November 7, 2019 ~ December 4, 2019

Jen will be there, and you should be too. GO! 

ps. Ooooh, last minute addition to the post, because these photos just arrived in my inbox … a sneak peek of the install:

Oh. My. Word. Those magazine paintings have spines on the side! And that GIGANTIC diptych? I have no words, just these … ♥ ♥ ♥

Sigh. I was lucky enough to see some of this work in progress when I popped in for a quick visit to Kris Knight‘s Toronto studio this past September. I love everything that he paints, but those last two pieces… the boys in their summer hats… GOR.GE.OUS! Gorgeous and absolutely perfect for Kris’s latest show. You can see this work in Miami at Spinello Projects – an Art Basel popup show – but it closes today! If you’re in Miami get yourself over there immediately, because these boys are absolutely stunning {and big!} in person. ps. That green visor is killing me.

Sigh…so many rosy cheeks… I’m feeling a little flushed myself!

This is the third time that I’ve written about Toronto based artist Kris Knight. His work is just so hauntingly beautiful that I literally cannot help myself. When I saw this body of work, titled Secrets Are Things We Grow, I was blown away. His color choices are stunning, and his subjects are so, so beautifully painted… and those delicate florals… gorgeous! Here is the description of this series:

With “Secrets Are The Things We Grow” Canadian artist Kris Knight paints a cast of characters who consciously conceal aspects of themselves from those around them. They hide truths of who they are, where they come from and whom they love. They fear shame, rejection, gossip and embarrassment. They whisper stories but never want the story to be about them. Secrets have roots, they have currency, they accumulate and grow with time; some are short lived, while others haunt generations. Knight’s character’s front, they put on airs, and they pass; some bluff while others reveal their confessions without saying a word.

Oh boy! Flaming cars burning across the wide open skies of the Canadian Prairies… why? Well, you’re about to find out! Today I’m talking to Canadian painter Sean William Randall. We’ve been trying to make this happen since August, and today is finally the day! You can listen to our conversation right under that “tranquil” nightscape, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First up, the painting Sean did for “That Night In Toronto”, the show I curated this past July at Mayberry Fine Art in, you guessed it, Toronto. I asked each of the ten Canadian artists in the show to make a piece inspired by any lyric from any “Tragically Hip” song, as an ode to an iconic Canadian band whose front man, Gord Downie, had recently been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. This was the piece Sean made, titled “I thought of leaving it behind”:

Gorgeous! I had to include closeups of this beautiful beast – the final painting is 48″x60″ but the brushstrokes are so tiny! From across the room it’s hard to believe you’re looking at a painting – only when you get really close up (which I totally did) do you understand it is, in fact, an acrylic painting.

Speaking of flaming cars, here are some more (because I love them so much!). I realize Sean is beginning to move on from this series, but apparently I’m not! Oh and ps. the first one below is the first car piece he ever did – thank goodness for that frustration-filled, painting defacing, wonderful turn of events:

Gah! Again, so good! These are all quite big, so pretend you’re standing really close up, taking in all of the detail done with Sean’s teeny tiny brushes.

Next, I’ve always thought the paintings from this series would make a great album cover… turns out, they do!

Yes, orange vinyl! This was part of a project Sean did with Vinyl Moon.

And now, a few of his latest pieces featuring diners, astronauts, and of course, ice cream:

… and let’s not forget his dogs! This little fella got a starring role in “Sun Machine” :

Big white dog, tiny little brush. Love! All of this new work will be featured in his show, “IRREMEABLE”, that opens TODAY, Saturday October 14th at Mayberry Fine Art in Toronto. The opening is from 2pm – 5pm at 324 Dundas W (right across from the AGO). Sean will be there, so pop by if you can! Thanks so much to Sean for this really fun chat – life-threatening stories included; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode; as always thank YOU so much for stopping by to look and listen! There will be more art for your ear next weekend:

Other links:

1. Gordon Adaskin
2. Frank Lloyd Wright
3. University of Manitoba
4. Andrew Wyeth
5. Mayberry Fine Art

If I told you these were casting storyboards for the next Wes Anderson film, I bet you’d believe me… ok, they’re not, but they should be! These pieces are all from the “people” section in the portfolio of Boston based artist/illustrator Anne Bentley. She uses traditional painting and drawing with digital techniques, resulting in a slew of characters that I’d love to meet … or at least eavesdrop on at a cafe. Happy weekend! {Found via Thrive Art Studio’s Instagram}

ps. If you happen to be in Toronto this weekend, come to the opening of my latest show, “That Night In Toronto”, 4-7pm at Mayberry Fine Art, across from the AGO.

Hello, campers! Here we are at week 5, but before we get started I have to show you just a few of your favorite places “captured with collage”. Since I gave you guys the option of doing a Venice themed collage for the European Cultural Academy contest, I decided that’s the route I’d take too…

“hollywood had not led lana astray – italian men were absolutely effervescent!”

Ahhh, gondolas and gelato – see you soon! And, once again, you all did amazing things with this challenge. From dreamy visions of Venice to art galleries made of cake… here are a few pieces pulled from Instagram via our summer camp hashtag, #AFYEcamp {photo credit links are at the very bottom of the post} :

What?! Seriously, so much goodness lives at this hashtag. Speaking of our hashtag, let’s find out what’s going to show up there later this week…

Art Project No.5:

“Bad Art ’n Good Snacks” : Have you ever done this? It’s such a great way to spend an evening! Here’s what you do – get a group of friends together this week {even just one friend will work}. Everyone shows up with their old art supplies and junky craft materials … you know, the stuff you don’t want in your house – old yarn, glitter, brown acrylic paint, leftovers from the grocery store project. Next, add snacks, wine, s’moreos, whatever you like. Finally, make the ugliest thing you can possibly make – this way the worst thing you’ve ever produced is behind you and there’s nowhere to go but UP! Also, it’s just a really great excuse to hang out with some good friends while eating pizza.

Artist Examples:

Let’s start with a peek at Martha Rich‘s wacky group projects. I’d LOVE to live closer to her for all sorts of reasons, but getting invited to these art nights is right at the top of that list:

Hilarious! Can’t you see this as her bio photo in an art history text book one day? Totally.

And now, onto the gorgeous paintings of Leah Giberson. Yes, these are paintings:

Crazy. And, not only do I love her work, I also love Leah’s story about getting together with her group of artist friends once a month. We should all do that … we all need to do that. Perfect segue into this group of artists… Canada’s “Group of Seven”:

That’s one of my favorite Group of Seven paintings above. It’s the work of Frederick Varley {titled “Stormy Weather”}, and below that is a photograph of Tom Thomson in his ill-fated canoe.

Another member of the group I mentioned, Lawren Harris … and one of his biggest fans:

*Photo of Steve Martin by Gus Burdick, Toronto Star article

And finally, my favorite painting by Emily Carr – the only woman to be considered part of the group:

Oh, so much Canadiana packed into this episode! And with that, our last AFYE campfire is slowly going out. Thank you to Saatchi Art for supporting summer camp, and thanks so much to you for listening! AFYE will be back with Season 2 of artist interviews in September … until then, be sure to hashtag your work this summer on Instagram with #AFYEcamp, and I’ll do the same ~ Danielle xo

Other info/links:

VENICE CONTEST: Make a Venice inspired collage and then post / hashtag it on Instagram with #AFYEcamp AND #JealousInVenice. The weeks you can choose from are the weeks of August 7th, and August 14th {that’s when I’ll be there as one of the instructors}. I will be choosing ONE WINNER on Friday June 30, 2017.

1. European Cultural Academy, Venice
2. Kate Bingaman-Burt, Episode No.22
3. Leah Giberson, Episode No.34
4. “That Night In Toronto” show at Mayberry Fine Art, July 8
5. The Tragically Hip
6. 12 Creative Unblocking Projects for you TO DO with friends!
7. 100 artist interviews to listen/relisten to!
8. TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST: subscribe on iTunes

*Photo credits from Project No.4, in the order they appear above:

1. @metapasteta / 2.@kc.christmas / 3. @griffinkcarrick / 4. @kikibirdiestudio / 5. @making_pages  

Magical forests, triangle mountains, Sasquatches, small towns, a question about beaver tails, AND a fellow Canadian … painter Meghan Hildebrand is my lovely guest today. This is a description of her work that sums it up perfectly: With a unique vocabulary of symbols, she translates her northern coastal landscape into electrifying dreamscape scenarios, each image often alluding to a larger narrative. Exactly. Listen right up there under “If The Flame Rises”, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First up, Meghan’s visual vocabulary that she calls on in all of her work. There are dots, dashes, rainbow-esque lumps, upside down Vs, and lots of pointy Ms. Take a peek:

Sigh. Love.

These are a few pieces from her latest series, titled “Fire Season”. It was the body of work she mentioned that began with a coat of light pink gesso! Gorgeous, and a really smart way of getting around the whole ‘scary white canvas’ situation:

Oh, it’s all just so beautiful! For those of you in Toronto, this is the info for her solo show of this work opening at Mayberry Fine Art on May 6. GO!

Up next, “Giants”. This is my favorite series… Sasquatches staring back at the viewer, dreamy watercolor tree bark, tiny faces hiding in the trees, and oh, all of those patterns! Seriously, just so gorgeous:

Doesn’t that just make you want to make stuff? Beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, Meghan lives in a lovely small town on Vancouver Island overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Not a bad place to spend your days:

Ahhhh, that view. I’m kind of waiting for a bear or a Sasquatch to pop up into frame though.

And finally, I’ve always thought Meghan’s work would be perfect for a mysterious, beautiful, fantastical kids’ book… especially her whimsical watercolors. I mean, just look at these:

Right!? Someone call her about this because seriously, these could become one of those books that children remember forever … much like the three books that Meghan and I were reminiscing about – links below. Oh, and btw, I am totally reaching out to galleries in LA and Portland because this woman should be showing up and down the coast, yes? YES. {Watch out Seattle and San Francisco, you’re on my list too.}

Alright, and with that I will say thank you so much to Meghan for doing this with me,  granted I wish we’d been eating ‘Beaver Tails’ during our conversation… next time! Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode, and as always thanks to you for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. “That Night In Toronto” – the show Meghan is doing with me!
2. Mayberry Fine Art
3. The Tragically Hip
4. Madrona Gallery, Victoria BC
5. Martha Rich, Episode 1
6. Kootney School of the Arts, Nelson BC
7. NSCAD
8. “Norbert Nipkin” / “The Rainbow Goblins” / “Swimmy”
9. Beaver Tails!

PAPER. Each of these are just one piece of PAPER. My mind is officially blown. This is the elegant, meticulous, beautifully cut work of Toronto based artist Annyen Lam. Not only is she a paper-cutting artist, she’s also a printmaker. In fact, these pieces are a combination of those skills… “Lithograph, hand-cut paper, one sheet”. Mind blown. Again.

ps. so excited to say that Annyen is one of the Canadian artists who’s participating in “That Night In Toronto”, a show I curated to honor Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip. The show opens on July 8th at Mayberry Fine Art in Toronto. Put it in your calendars!

My email to Toronto based artist Brian Donnelly went something like this: “Do you want to come on and talk about hand sanitizer, turpentine and burning stuff?” He said, “yes”. Turns out we also covered axe throwing, chips ‘n dip, “Degrassi Jr. High” and oh so much more! You can listen right up there under his painting titled “Pineapple Express”, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

As always, let’s kick things off with a few of my favorites:

Yep, this is where both the hand sanitizer and turpentine come in! These paintings are the result of years of experimentation, and a desire to explore the idea of “loss of visual information”. Nailed it.

Next, nudes from an earlier series {which ultimately evolved into the work above}:

Stunning work, but after awhile he didn’t feel like they were telling the story he wanted to tell. Time to push further, and take more risks… a constant theme for Brian.

Ok, his hair! Well, not his hair, but the hair on some of his paintings… LOVE. Now, just to be totally clear, he also paints men in this series but because I’m slightly obsessed with portraits of women those are the pieces I’ve chosen to show. Also, pink top knots are my jam. The first piece below {titled “Fountain of Youth”} is from 2014, the year Brian got really into painting detailed tresses:

Gorgeous! I threw in the bald guy so you could see what Brian was talking about re: the challenge of painting stubble.

Alright, well that was hand sanitizer and turpentine… now it’s time to talk about burning stuff. Enter “La Pucelle”:

The original painting burned completely, with only 19 prints left behind… each signed and numbered with the ashes of the original. Yeah. Add to that his story about Joan of Arc, aka “La Pucelle”, being burned alive at age 19 {hence the 19 prints} AND his ideas around making duplicates of work and voila, you end up with this show/series titled, “ORIGINAL COPY”. Brilliant! If you happen to be in Toronto you can see this show at Unloveable Gallery until the end of April. You can also hear Brian’s artist talk there on April 22. Grab a free ticket right here! {maybe he’ll bring sour cream n onion chips!}

Up next – “Reliquaries”:

Yes, they’re pins! I’m so curious to see where this goes. Somewhere? Nowhere? That’s the exciting part!

Ooh, and while we’re getting excited, who’s up for a little axe throwing?

Work in progress

A post shared by Brian Donnelly (@bbbriandonnelly) on May 28, 2015 at 1:52pm PDT

YES! All hail the University of Windsor and their artist residency because I’m pretty sure nobody else would say, “Sure you can throw axes on campus – where would you like to start?” This is a self portrait of Brian that wound up slightly, well, axed.

I had to bring this up in the Not-So-Speedy Speed Round. Degrassi Junior High… ok, it’s a Canadian thing. It also happens to be a fun/weird exercise in “being right” that Brian has made into a, um, hobby? This was a teen TV show in the late 80s/early 90s set in Toronto. When Brian isn’t painting, burning things, or throwing axes he likes to ride his bike around the city proving that he knows exactly where certain scenes were shot. All of his “proof” lives on his site, DegrassiPanthers.com. Here are a few of the THEN and NOW photos:

This makes me so happy. I haven’t heard the name “Joey Jeremiah” in decades!

And finally, a shot of Brian in his home studio:

Ah, yes… safety first. Thanks so much to Brian for sharing all of his funny stories, his process, and a new chips ‘n dip combo for me to try! Thank you as always to Saatchi Art for supporting another episode, and of course thanks to you for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Sheridan College
2. OCAD University
3. Robert Bateman
4. “Origin of the World” article
5. Unloveable Gallery, Toronto
6. Marni White {artist, and Brian’s partner}
7. Stephanie Chefas Projects, Portland
8. Venison Magazine 
9. University of Windsor
10. Brian’s Instagram
11. “Pretty / Peculiar”, Alison Milne Gallery
12. “That Night In Toronto”, Mayberry Fine Art