Eastside Culture Crawl at 1000 Parker Street

The Crawl was literally crawling with art lovers this year – young and old, seasoned and new. I found myself halfway between these extremes somewhere, walking up to 1000 Parker Street to check out the highest concentration of artists’ studios in the Crawl. There are a purported 141 studios in the Parker Street Studios Building…

If Grandpa Had Been an Artist: Reflections on The Black Paintings

If Grandpa had been an artist, he might have painted those years away. If he had been an artist, he might have sketched the face of the friend he held in his arms, dying, or painted the feeling of being left for dead all night. If Grandpa had been an artist, we might have something like…

Monet the Revolutionary

To paint something the way it felt, instead of the way it looked, was completely deviant To most art lovers, the name Claude Monet brings up images of art that is easy on the eyes. This is a show you can go to see without having to feel like you’re missing something. Monet doesn’t push…

An Evening with Susan Point at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Since I had been to see Susan Point‘s exhibit, “Spindle Whorl” at the Vancouver Art Gallery four times already, I was thrilled when I received an invitation to accompany Kenji Nagai, art photographer, to the private event at the Vancouver Art Gallery featuring Susan Point herself. Being an amateur photographer myself, I had the chance…

Audain: The Museum in the Trees

The weather was bipolar that day, which was fitting for my Gemini birthday. The drive up to Whistler was sunny and beautiful but as I ran up to the Audain Art Museum, I held my jean jacket over my head to avoid the rain. Before I reached the building though, it had stopped again and…

Journey to the Centre – An Art Meditation

This image is of a Susan Point sculpture in the rotunda at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The power of art can come, in part, through how it is set into space. I chose this image both for the art and how it interacts with the space it is in. This image is enough on its…

The Benefits of Art Meditation

“Art is Life”, “Art is Change”, “Art is Essential”. How many cliché art phrases have you heard in your life? Probably enough to convince you that art is not really your thing. How many philosophical commentaries on art have you passed over.  Perhaps enough to make you believe that art is something for academics to contemplate….

Sculpting Art, Shoes and Life

I assumed it was going to be completely outside of the art circles I had been spinning in since moving to Vancouver “Sensual Tektonica” was the name of the Art Gala showcasing Rudolf Sokolovski‘s work. I don’t even know what Tektonica means, it was a formal event and it cost me $20 to get in….

Howie Tsui on Art Made of Flesh

Heading downtown to the Vancouver Art Gallery on a Tuesday evening after work would have been worth it just to discover what the Kowloon Walled City was. But I didn’t know it was the inspiration behind Howie Tsui‘s animated piece, Retainers of Anarchy when I went to hear him speak that night. I went because his…

Colouring Outside the Formline

From the first time I saw Steve Smith‘s work at the Vancouver International Airport, I knew he was not a traditionalist. In a documentary by Fred Cawsey about the artist and the installations at YVR, Steve says: “My interest isn’t really to do traditional native art … I’m trying to do native art in a way…

Inner Balance in the Quest for Creativity

Attending the Susan Point show, Spindle Whorl at the Vancouver Art Gallery got me thinking about the balance of Masculine and Feminine in the quest for creativity. Point so beautifully blends the two elements in her work. She has such a design eye and has ventured into her art career with a drive for success….

Anarchy and the Hong Kong Influence in Vancouver

Vancouver has one of the most culturally diverse populations of cities around the world with the asian population being one of the biggest. However, this isn’t well reflected in the art world and so I was pleased to discover the two exhibits on floor three at the Vancouver Art Gallery recently. Howie Tsui‘s show, “The Retainers…