Hello my friends – here’s the latest episode of “Hard Truth and a Big Hug”. It’s a small part of a book that I haven’t yet got around to publishing – but I thought the big ideas and the final take-away were
Caught ‘The Art of Banksy’ show with Nada the other day, and for anyone who is interested in modern art, it is very much worth seeing. Banksy is precisely in that most curious spot where pop-culture, politics and the art world meet.
Here’s one of a cluster of five poems that came to me all at once as a gift, a few days after finishing Ladinsky’s translation of “The Gift” by Hafiz (superb). It’s another one of those very small poems with a good
Nada and I met a fantastic photographer on our recent East End expedition. The work displayed in his shop was admirable, prices reasonable (yay, now we know where to get great prints made) – naturally, acting in my official capacity as captain
A friendly Zoroastrian restauranteur who ran the place I used to go for lunch every day once told me, “You know, Paul, a lot of my customers read – but you actually make love to your books!” He had me pegged, no
Last time, I posted about trying to understand more about my grandmother, the second war, and drawing. Here’s some more about all of that – and a bit of meta-thinking about life itself, while I’m at it. I had an odd
Many years ago, I had a period of illness during which I wasn’t able to do any drawing or writing at all, and then came out of it with two especially clear strong drives – one was to take my lifelong curiosity
Caught a curious assortment of saplings, cut lumber, and many stages between those extremes the other day, which struck me as oddly suggestive of a useful meditation on humility and self awareness. It can be hard to talk about psychological realities nowadays,
I know I may seem overly provocative (or perhaps just foolhardy) for going after both left and right, and also recommending their shared virtues, ahead of the customary vitriol. I am not one of those cynics who thinks there is no difference
One of the best things about an excruciatingly-long winter is that, eventually, it ends! (Definitely one of those feels-so-good-when-it-stops, phenomena). Curiously, I ran across all sorts of signs today, that it wasn’t just me feeling like I had a month of missed
“The beauty of everything will certainly kill me” (top photo) All paintings and photos in this piece – Courtesy of Tristram Pinney I have met a lot of interesting and beautiful people through Facebook, and as a long-time skeptic, I’m still regularly
Here’s one of my more popular songs, which I shared on FB awhile ago, only to see it get rather badly mangled by their brutal compression algorithms. Once again, with HD settings, it should now go full-screen quite prettily. (Apologies for visual
Seriously – what could go better with a kitsch table like that, than a nice old comfy sofa? Curious view you don’t easily (and won’t again) see, here. The big blue box at left is part of Frank Gehry’s AGO redesign –
This may come as a surprise to those who haven’t yet read my book, only the more personal and incidental poetry I’ve shared here so far – but the majority of my serious poems are very specifically purposeful. Weirdly-so, for modern poetry,
Downtown’s best (top photo) I’ve always had a great fondness for urban subjects – from Edward Hopper and the earlier (under-appreciated) George Bellows, to photographers like Feninger and Nan Goldin, all exploring the built environment and it’s inhabited feel, from a huge
Across the bay (top photo) Some of the most interesting unexpected treats I’ve found, while getting back into photography, are the insights I keeps stumbling into about art in general. When we’re studying painters we like, we can easily get hung up
I am a big believer in the value of a good walk – lucky happenstance has a much easier time finding us when we’re out and about – but moving slowly enough to pay attention. Sights and sounds come at us –
Proscenium and soloist (top photo) I have to admit right up-front, that despite my profound adoration of fine-art and it’s many techniques and curiosities, I will probably be forever corrupted by my youthful (and enduring) bias toward comic-art. Just as I often
I am of a naturally skeptical bent – but I’m insatiably curious too – so I was intrigued by the idea of the Frank Gehry redesign of our lovely Art Gallery of Ontario, without, at first, being entirely convinced. I was lucky
Some keen observers may already have noticed our long-arc deliberate step-by-step building-out process. Here’s another big (fun) new area which we’ve been intending to add for some time – video! This (filterable category) will contain poetry readings – and also original music
Hello friends, artists, fellow-travellers and various and sundry curious investigators – we are delighted today, to announce the inaugural book-release from Large Ess Small Press. – Yes, the mission-clock is at last, running! The official release-copy follows. Thanks sincerely for contributions, inspirations,