Baby Steps for Adventures Far-Flung and Close

I did not travel outside of my home province, Ontario Canada where I was born, until when I was 25 years old. It was a train trip to Quebec City with a sister. I can’t even remember if we stopped in Montreal on our way into la belle province, Quebec. So, no de rigeur European…

Gathering Cosy and Safe for Christmas

It seems quaint now, to see photos of being caught up in last year’s bustle of holiday crowds in cafes, stores and yes, even the hotel that hosts for the public, gingerbread collection of cookie, candy and sugar dusted winter tableaux and figurines. At the time, we thought the gingerbread cruise liner ship with onboard…

Outdoor Art Adds a Different City Heartbeat

If you need a break from the city’s fast pace and crowds while in the midst of its heartbeat, outdoor art can be a wonderful antidote to slow you down.  Or indoor art in public places, such as the stained glass of Mount Rundle below, taken inside St. Paul’s Church, in downtown Banff. Not every…

Social Bonding Over Food

Before covid-19 hit the brakes hard globally on health and our social lives, the last social meal I had with several people was the last day in February. At lunch, I hung out over sizzling stone bowls of bimbap with egg, at a popular Korean restaurant with 3 other employees from another department. In fact,…

Daily Life Lessons During Covid-19 Pandemic

For some folks, a global plague highlights a lot what they took for granted since this past March.  Or confirmed what one knew or decided long ago: Mask-Wearing for Hours is Hot I mean kind of sweaty.  My double-sided, non-medical cloth mask is hot to wear for several hours at room temperature. When reading a…

Dinosaur Dreams and Stories –Past and Now

Until I moved to Alberta, dinosaurs never dented my consciousness. World’s Biggest Museum Dedicated to Dinosaurs It was not until a few years ago I accompanied a sister’s family to dinosaur excavation and research hub, at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller. It’s in Canada’s Badlands where the dinosaurs roamed or swam and…

Art and Alchemy of Glassmaking: Tacoma, Washington

After viewing Chihuly’s Glass and Garden site in Seattle, the following year we took the train 45 km. south of Seattle to Tacoma. Tacoma has been historically a poorer, smaller sibling town to Seattle. It has had a predominantly blue collar population with some water vessel building and maintenance facilities for the military and private…

Glass Art Fantasia in Seattle

Many times when in downtown Seattle, we strolled by the Chihuly Glass and Garden, or colloquially named the Glass Sculpture Garden, near the Space Needle.  We finally paid the admission fee and went inside to discover what lay beyond the glass sculptural twirling shapes sticking up over the bush hedges. Alchemy of Glass Colour, Textural…

Bowing Wild Deer, Warrior with a Writing Brush

Since Japan was my first step into Asia, here’s a salutary bag of traveller stories and pithy impressions. After we happily munched on just warm pounded, luscious matcha mochi from a downtown Nara shop, we strolled over to Nara Park, a heritage park steeped in Japanese Buddhism, some temples …and its wild deer. Bowing, Hungry…

Art Awakens Commuters, Tourists: Transit Rail Stations

This blog post aims to inspire the cynic and apathetic.  In other words, art deniers don’t want to appreciate art for waiting commuters and walk-through visitors who appreciate visually distinctive stops for a liveable city. A city worth visiting, stopping and remembering well.  For locals and for attracting tourists to even take transit as part…

Touch My Seoul and its Strength

Oddly, the official tourism sites for Seoul seem to be tepid and lack lots of dynamic photos for this great vibrant and historic city in South Korea. It’s only 20 km. away from DMZ, or demilitarized zone by North Korea. Seoul and South Korea – Not Same Romanticization as Japan Maybe Seoul or indeed South…

Deep Temple Bell, Celestial Female Musicians

Jack and I were wandering in central Kyoto city, somewhere not far from Nishiki Market and the Kamogawa river.  During our trip in Kyoto, for several days we would wander into neighbourhood Shinto shrines or come upon a Buddhist huge bronze temple bell either a small one or at large Zen Buddhist temple complexes. Needless…

Escape to Arashiyama, Part I: Many Faces of Buddhism, Nuances in Zen Moss Garden

While travelling in Japan, I often felt I had not done enough research to swallow the meaning of sights and details unfurling before me.   That feeling lingered when we wandered around in Arashiyama-Sagano.    Arashiyama lies on the western fringe of Kyoto — an hour train ride away. We had initially just planned to see…

Reverence, Respect, Omission or Violence – Paintings on Women Over Centuries

This blog post can not adequately cover how women are depicted over centuries in art masterpieces.  After all, PhD dissertations and books have been churned out on narrow topics for just one artist and their paintings or just one country’s century- long treatment of women in art. I’m just going to take a stroll with…

Care and Creative Expressions: 500 Years for L’Hotel Dieu

Initially I wasn’t keen to visit a heritage hospital and convent in Beaune, France.  Like many folks, I associate hospitals with dull institutional places that ..do great work for people from birth to death. There is no North American equivalent like L’Hotel Dieu  —  very old and with past health care public service for 500…

Awestruck on La Rambla and Beyond: Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona, Spain is like Vancouver, British Columbia  –millions of tourists pour into each city every year.  After four days, we still had not exhausted its rich treasure chest of sights and experiences.  Inevitably visitors end up crossing or on its main pedestrian street, La Rambla. It was my first time in Spain whereas for Jack,…

Blogging is My Truth-Telling

Sometimes I wonder  if I am a rare, geek blogger:   I date photos on my personal blog.  What a dork.  Do people really care about photo dates? I can’t help it.  It’s about truth-telling –things I’ve seen, propel me to tell stories.  Stories of truth.  My photos are part of truth-telling. As Witness to the Marvellous…

Humanities and Arts: Talent and Creativity Redefines Logic

Whenever there are cutbacks to classroom time, courses or extracurricular school activities for: the arts, theatre, music, creative writing, I’m concerned. Arts, Humanities Touches Daily Life:  Highest and Mundane Details Those snickers about people who major in philosophy, history, literature  –university / college programs which don’t provide a clear-cut path to an immediate job, I wonder:  …

Warming Up to Bison Art and Branding

A sign of an entrenched native prairie animal icon, is  a hulking, ugly bison stamped into Alberta handmade soap.  Not that I’ve seen a salmon icon on Pacific coast local soap  –yet.  Pacific coastal soapmakers might find dolphins and whales more romantic iconography for beauty soap products. Not Exactly Cuddly While the bison isn’t cuddly nor evokes…

Rothenburg ob der Tauber: Tracing German Medieval, Reformation Restraint and Northern Renaissance

We’re not purists when we travel overseas to see “perfectly”, preserved towns. Others may scoff  for being too touristy.  To me, it’s all part of the same culture –the well-kept heritage, the tourist-kitschy and ordinary messiness.  Rothenburg ob der Tauber was a charming, historic town of 11,000 that ostensibly relied on its tourist economy.  No problem. …

Reject Not at First Glance : Stained Glass Church Art

Two decades ago, I tossed out my 30-lb. stained glass artwork into the garbage a few years after I finished two stained glass art courses.  I dubbed the art piece, “Spring Thaw”. “Spring Thaw” was hoisted out into the garbage room,  because I thought it was unworthy of transporting 4,000 km. in moving  to Vancouver from Toronto.  Yes, it was…

Sagrada Familia: Gaudi’s Church of Flowering Spirit, Exaltation, Chaotic Life and Sanctuary

I first saw from afar,  the shadow of Antonio Gaudi’s contemporary and wild cathedral.  We were gazing over the city rooftops of Barcelona,  Spain from the palatial hilltop at the National Museum for Catalonian Art. The church looked ghostly grey and foggy, with a tangle of towering construction cranes. Cathedral Masterpiece to Be Done After…