You can now find me on the Artist Toronto Network. <<>>

The Toronto Artists Network is a group of artists who are dedicated to provide art purchasers, corporate art buyers, interior designers and art lovers easy access to the original work of a wide variety of Toronto artists. The quality of the work on the site is fully juried. Whether you are a first-time buyer or a seasoned collector, you are bound to discover artwork that will suit your budget and taste. Browse through the listings, read about the artists, view videos of artists’ studios. Check out the latest gallery shows in The Artists Openings, read the views of our artists in the ArtROOM or browse through the artists' work in our on-line VIDEOS.

A general listing is free and it a great way to start getting your name out there.

Contact 2009

Been a while since I last posted. But that's beacuse I've been busy as a beaver preparing for my two Contact 2009 shows. Very exciting stuff.


1st up - Group Show

This year, the Shadow Collective will be participating again in Contact. Our show - Elsewhen takes a fresh look at all things historic and beautifully decayed.


If your looking for a fun evening, make sure you block off your calendars for our show reception:


May 28, 7 - 10PM
The Charlottle Room
19 Charlotte Street


2nd - Solo Show

I will also be hosting my Dream Scapes portfolio in a new collection at Trusz Gallery. A newly born gallery on teh east side of the art tracks (Leslieville). The space is beautiful and will nicely show case Le reve, a new abstract series of landscapes and water scenes.


The Artist recpetion, of course will be one not to be missed.



May 30, 5 - 10

Trusz Gallery
349 Carlaw Ave, Ste 305

Today is April 15

Today is April 15 - the 105th day of the year (106th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 260 days remaining until the end of the year. Also known as United States official deadline for filing an individual tax return.

On April 15 …

• 1452 – Scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer Leonardo da Vinci was born in the town of Vinci, Florence, in what is now Italy.
• 1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
• 1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
• 1955 - Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald's hamburger restaurant (Des Plaines, IL).
  

On April 15 …

• 1865, Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America, died at 7:22 a.m. from a gun shot wound.
• 1912 - On the night of 14 April, during her maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April
• 1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress dies in New York City at age 84

Yes, Today is April 15 – my 42^nd birthday – to be shared with other memorable events.

Birth of the Accidental Tourist

Ok - today it officially rained. The definition of rain is when I have to pull out the umbrella. My body is officially tired from pounding the pavement for three days straight - 12 hours with full gear, makes for quite a work out.

Flat, low hanging cloud make for boring skies and evens the light out to much. I ask my self - how am I to find the light and get that great shot with such grey skies? Well - of course, I start with the basics and work from there.

Now don't laugh Maureen / David - but yes, I had to ask myself ....

"How does this place make me feel?"

Answer:
Crowed and in desparate need of personal space. Anyone who has traveled extensively in Europe, will know that their sence of personal space is much closer than say us North Americans. Guess that is due to the fact that they don't have a lot of space compared to the massive unspoiled Canaidian rock. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get away from the crowds, and as they say, if you can't lose them, join them. This is when I became an accidental tourist and thus ..... the inspiration to my London trip.....

Concept:
When observing my surroundings I couldn't help but notice the massive cheesie tourist shots people would take. They would stand staight as a log pole in front of the iconic tourist spot and their partner / friend would snap a shot. This is how the accidental tourist concept was born, Based on a photo technique I used while shooting for the "Building Stories" project, I started including the tourists.

The more I thought about this - the more I loved it - what a great concept! Compose the shot with life and motion and try to single out one person posing in front of the subject matter of choice. It really embodies the vibe that downtown London gave. If one thing that London does well, is market it's royal charms internationally to the world - seeing close to 15 million vistors annualy.

I can't wait to get home and post a pix to show you what I mean. But now must retire to the room that has a smaller foot print than my 1 1/2 man tent - early morning, must catch the 9 am train to Bath.

A London Fog

So I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to show off my red wellies today - the weather was just beautiful. It's actually warmer here than I had anticipated. All the flowers and trees are in bloom and it looks and smells amazing.

1st Impressions:

• Too big and too crowded.
• More Starbucks per capital than Vancouver - and, which I should mention - my Canadian starbucks card works here.
• My room is too small, but at least it's clean.
• I'm walking distance from the palace, St. Pauls, the London and Tower bridge.

I took a few pictures today while walking the central core. But today was mostly to get out and orientate myself. Located the central train station and priced out some day trips outside of London - like Bath.

Anyhow - someone is waiting for the one, lonely B&B PC and it's 10pm - I'm wiped from the long flight and a long days walk. Will post more tomorrow - night

Red Wellies - check

So I'm off to London Eng on a short but well needed mental get away. I've passed through LHR many times on other travels, but never stayed to take in a few rain puddles.

The weather forecast looks quite inviting - 70% chance of precipitation for the next 5 days - and I'm sure if the web site listed the next 7 - they too would predict a wet one as well. So - I'm packing the red wellies!

This time every year, I take what I guess would be a self renewing journey to some foreign city that hasn't been time stamped in my passport.

Sole purpose - to get lost - wonder the city aimlessly in search of some unique English character.

Hey - you never know, maybe the queen herself will take pity of a single water logged photographer and invite her in for a little afternoon tea. Do you think it's proper to wear the red wellies if she does?

I'll leave you with some images from past travels.

BPC 2nd Annual Club contest - April 2009

On Monday, March 30 - our club had our 2nd annual photo competition. This was the 1st time we had used a different format where the membership would submit digital images and the judges would use the accepted GTCCC judging criteria.

The judging went very well. We had four (4) judges in total and three club exec to assist with the calculation of scores and comment capturing.

All were very encouraging and highly talented in their artistic fields. They were open and positive with comments. All found the overall quality of our members to be exceptional and forward thinking. Additional HMs, a Best Contemporary and Judges Choice awards were awarded on top of our club standard award practices.

Thank you - to all that help pull this together and a special thank you, to my good friend Maureen L for capturing the comments, Michael M who captured & tallied all the scores, Anthony G who helped me host and John W who assisted with collecting all the images.

The Judges:

1. Philip Sun - Toronto Guild
2. Simone Koffman - Toronto Guild
3. George Campbell - Don Mills
4. Ray Anderson

I was personally happy with how well my images did overall. And the results are:

• 1st Contemporary (Body Part category) - Body alive within these walls
• 1st (Body Part category) - Body alive within these walls
• 3rd (Body Part category) - Sunday afternoon
• 3rd (Open category) - Union Station - Afternoon Light
• 3rd (Triptych category) - Rust Bucket
• HM (Body Part category) - Good vs Evil - age old question
• HM (Open category) - Toronto Icons

1st post

I've been wanting to do this for a while now. But due to time constraints, just never really got around to it.

Still not 100% sure as to how I will structure the blog - but do know it will primarily focus on my travels and photography. We are all very unique and dynamic creatures - and what better way to capture our everyday thoughts, whims and actions - but through a form of journal keeping.

who knows - if I can find the discipline deep in me to continue this (and I'll have to dig deep) - this may form part of my auto-biography someday.