Month: July 2021

The Second Coat

I started a very small painting project a few months back.

The landing at the bottom of the stairs in our bungalow had been an ugly brownish-red colour since we moved in over 10 years ago. I have loathed the colour since Day 1 and had always wanted to change it.

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The Blank Canvas

We were married in 2007. Fourteen years ago this week. In the heat of summer. In an outdoor wedding. In the middle of the afternoon. On the western Canadian prairie. At a museum in our hometown. 

Like all marriages, at our wedding, we had a blank canvas. We had years, decades ahead of us; and like most young couples we were a blank canvas full of optimism, passion, and romance pushing us forward into a lifelong, loving relationship.

Alas, I’m not sharing a love story today. While a blank canvas is a great relationship analogy, we, quite literally, had a blank canvas at our wedding.

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The Van Gogh Visit

We need to establish one thing: I’m married to an artist but I’m not an art connoisseur; not by any stretch of the wildest imagination.

I’m not even sure I appreciate art in the way many people do.

And, I know I don’t appreciate it in the same way my wife does.

She could spend hours, days, weeks analyzing works of art for the masterful, technical skill involved in composing the piece. Meanwhile, I’ll take a look, make a glib quip or self-evident observation, and move on to the next. 

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The iPad Purchase — Pt. 2


You might remember recently my less-than-magical reaction to my wife, the artist, purchasing a $3,000 iPad with all the trimmings for her art business.

My jaw is still recovering, but we moved on amicably and there’s no ill will.

All the accessories have now arrived on our doorstep. It’s a veritable who’s who of Apple accessories:

  • A screen protector. Check.
  • An SD card reader. Check.
  • The Apple pen. Check.
  • And, of course, who could forget the magic keyboard. Check.

They’re all here and accounted for. They’re also all still in their pristinely wrapped, crystal white boxes sitting lonely on the cold, concrete floor of my wife’s basement studio surrounded by unfinished pieces, paint-splattered walls, and endless paint supplies.

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The Crazy Train

The Whyte Avenue Art Walk is a summertime staple in Old Strathcona — one of Edmonton’s oldest and most historic neighbourhoods. 

Think of Old Strathcona like the western Canadian version of Old Quebec, except 300 years younger, no walls, mostly English speaking, and lacking anything resembling stone architecture. So, nothing like Old Quebec. But still old by western Canadian, prairie standards. 

The Art Walk is one of the many mid-summer events that reinvigorates the former commercial core of the prairie city we call home.

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