If North American urbanites could have cosy, yet sophisticated and relaxed cities like Dijon, France, we would all be happier and healthier. Timeless, Relaxed Elegance Dijon is like a timeless elegant lady, yet sitting relaxed in a polished, antique chair. She wears a silk blouse with a pair of worn jeans and stylish deep red…
Category: Art
Creative Alchemy of Making Unfettered Art. Part 1 – Visual Art
One of the glass barriers I want to shatter every time when creating art, is my own inhibitions. That blank canvas, tabula rasa, that snow-white endless blank computer screen or empty writing page either begs an artistic watermark or taunts me to sully its virginal purity. Making Art, Take a Risk of Falling Last year, a blogger-writer and…
Easy-Peasy or Daunting: Getting to Local Art and Attractions by Bike, Foot, Transit
A long while ago, I was volunteer blogger for Tourism Vancouver’s blog, Inside Vancouver. My special self-chosen niche, was flogging outdoor Vancouver attractions, reachable by bike, foot or transit. So I zoomed into fabulous outdoor art, parks and scenic vistas. Metro Vancouver is abundant with an array of jaw-dropping scenery, galleries and historic sites clustered…
Balancing Between Active and Brain-Based: Your Passions For Life
Awhile ago, I wrote a blog post on discovering your favourite exercise, a sport or your physical activity that dovetails neatly into your lifestyle and personality. A sure bet you will want to take up that exercise several times per week for health, fun and for a long time. Brain-Based Passions Well, at the other…
Mountain Leaf and Light Dancing
Art and poetry are mere light and colour shadows, whisper-thin metaphors of Nature. Here are some paintings and haiku I fashioned. Windswept leaves flung Down mountain, spin freewheelin’ Water cradles home. Translucent layers Fold a mountain range, Copper-flames burnish gently. Glory gold glitter Rustles stories and dream-light Cast a fairy spell.
Paint My Heart in Autumn Red-Gold and Orange
So far, there’s only one painting I’ve done, stoked by warm memories of Ontario’s stunning autumn leaf colour. Swaths of flaming orange, red and gold paint forests, in parks and trees along streets and attract many walkers, cyclists and car trip drivers. While Vancouver, BC maps cherry blossom viewing locations every spring, in autumn, Ontario…
Crafting My Personal Blogger Infographic
After stumbling across Piktochart and free template, I cobbled my first personal blogger infographic. Clearly I am behind: I didn’t know resumes could be dolled up as an infographic. Here’s more information than you’ll ever need. I spent too much time having fun. You might have to increase your Screen View to 125 – 150% to read this…
Cycling Fires My Five Senses, Inspiration
While I was blissed out during a wonderful Christmas baroque music concert, it suddenly dawned on me why I bicycle day after day. Year after year. The frenzied violinists with half closed eyes in their Zen trance while teasing music from their strings, was akin to cycling as a great sensory experience. Cycling –An Easier Sensory Journey Cycling is…
Prairie’s Declaration of Horse Love in Art
Alberta loves to trot out its love for horses in visual art, equestrian arts and competition, as well as rodeo events. It wasn’t until I moved to Calgary in the prairies, where I’ve met more ordinary folks in this Canadian region, than Toronto or Vancouver, who have family members that own and ride at least…
Salmon Art Leaps Into Pacific West Coast Imagination
Salmon is king in Vancouver –in local cuisine and in art. After a few days wandering in the city or anywhere along the coast of British Columbia, you are bound to stumble across salmon swishing through water or jumping up in sculpture, murals or mosaics. Salmon iconography is in Salish coastal Indian art, outdoor contemporary…
Hanging Onto My Broken Mother Tongue
It may be weird, but I don’t even know Chinese words for “please” or “good-bye” . Yet I dutifully check off Chinese, as my mother tongue on Canada’s census form. Am I delusional about my own Chinese fluency? Does that mean I come from a rude, brusque family? Meh. Maybe. Each family has their own…
More than Just Dragons- Art on Chinese-Canadian Experience
Don’t get me wrong: I love dragons. A dragon pops up often enough: whenever there is a celebration or poster flogging a Canadian Chinatown event or something involving Chinese-Canadian history or culture. I love the dragon for its aesthetic drawing power –in parades, dance, paintings, textiles, rugs, sculpture and jewellery. Dragons in Canada- Convenient Icon? However, I…
Halloween Night of Super Heroines and Feminist Beginnings
My Halloween night was about comic super heroines and feminism. Oddly it made me reflect on what stoked my awareness of feminism –real people and popular culture. Celebration of Friendly Feminist Past Ghosts: Heroines and TV Characters Out of curiosity, I went to fundraising event, Take Back Halloween, hosted by a theatre group. Urban Curvz for a…
A Shimmer of Watery Flower Dreams
Cycle Write blog serves as my memoir tablet of things I’ve seen, things I’ve done and things I dream now and later. This mixed media painting, A Shimmer of Watery Flower Dreams, is both art and a memory fragment. It’s art done and gone because I have given away this piece as a gift, to a family member. Yes, this painting…
Rising with Community Gardens: Three Cities
Vancouver’s Sole Foods: Bringing Back Dignity and Purpose to Emptiness Last year, a large dreary parking lot in downtown Vancouver was transformed with rows of bright green vegetables under the shadow of B.C. Stadium, elevated light rail viaduct and condo towers. It didn’t take long for rich green leaves to unfurl and cover part of the…
Blogging is Painting My Story Robe
The Blackfoot Indians in the prairies passed on their history and collective memory through storytelling and in pictographs. Painted images on tanned buffalo leather hide are called story robes. Occasionally they painted stories on tipi covers, blankets and rocks too. Blogging is our 21st century painting and wearing our story robe. When I began blogging,…
Chameleon Art: Art That Teases Imagination
This blog post will not be a violin whine of apologist on abstract art or non-representational art. No, I just want to show you how to see this art in new light — several different ways. Before I took several art courses on mixed media painting art at mid-life, I didn’t have much appetite for abstract art….
Firing Up Green Space: Eco-Transformation of Brick Works. Don River Valley, Toronto
It was strange for me to reach the Brick Works by car. Over a decade ago, I used to cycle daily near this area, between home and work, through the Don River Valley ravine park system when I worked up near the Thorncliffe Plaza area. Several times when we lived in Toronto, we would cycle hesitantly…
Post-Flood: Art and Memory Along the Bow River, Calgary
Do you ever blog, write, paint or photograph something that you saw but know it will disappear forever? That your act of solidifying its image, is to brand it alive in your memory and heart for years to come? I’ve been feeling this way lately. Several weeks ago, a major flood in Calgary destroyed several hundred…
Waterfalls, Falling Sheets of Mist
Misty water, suspended water and waterfalls have teased my imagination. When I visit somewhere or dream, I like to capture it in photos, poetry and in art. I may have not visited the exact spot. But tumbling waters that leap over the edge and rocks, release a memory of other places where I’ve been –Takakawawa…
Injecting Life and Identity: Outdoor Public Art in the Prairies
When the prairies lack a rich, green tree canopy in its cities, outdoor public art injects animated life. That is, certain types of art works. Rolling oceans of grass, brilliant blue sky expanses that are Nature’s canvas for dynamic cloud shapes, are already fantastic abstracts for me. Beyond Artifice of Abstract Art- Search for Prairie…
Escaping Slavery into Ontario: Underground Railroad Spawned Afro-Canadian Communities
As a 12 year-old, I launched my understanding of the 1960’s civil rights movement with the Civil War, the slave aboltionists and Harriet Tubman. She was an Afro-American former slave who helped some slaves escape to Canada by using the Underground Railroad, a loose network of people who guided 30,000 escapees secretly northward. I had heard of the…
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