At the Royal Ontario Museum

Beauty afternoon for it, Saturday, October 22, 2022: Indian summer in the city! On the agenda: the latest Kent Monkman thing. We’ve been here and there checking out his work: at the MET when they opened his 2 jumbo pictures in the grand gathering space way back when, and even walking through his studio when it was on Stirling in Toronto, way back further when. Neither of us had been to the ROM in years so we thought okay, let’s go have a look.

What the Globe is saying about it.

Swanky entrance, in Cree, English and French!

That’s the first one you see and let me tell you there is a lot going on in that picture!

Oh my goodness the things you see at the Royal Ontario Museum on a Saturday afternoon!

Super heavy. I can relate being a dad. Now in the empty nest, it is the way of it. But I can not imagine the horror of it, say, if she were in grade 2 and it happened.

But I have been through it myself. Taken away while in kindergarten and put through a journey of hell on earth, true madness and the ultimate in ugliness. But in my experience, my parents didn’t want me anyway.

So we’ll have to work on that one a little more.

“Eddie and Buzz”, flash urban photography by Mark Seabrook, October 22, 2022. I doctored it up with the MacBook photo tools. We were walking to the onsite bar for a splash and saw this huge eagle behind glass and of course that jumbo brontosaurus or whatever it is, in back and I though, what a kooky picture that is!

It was an interesting show. Not sure if it was worth the 50 bucks it cost for the 2 of us to get in but maybe if we made a day of it things would have been different.

On the way in to see one of his shows in a long ago summer time, Toronto, East end. That one was free!

At his studio on Stirling, many moons ago! (That studio space and the party going there was very cool!)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Waiting for the turkey to cook and the gang to arrive, here on the swanky 9th and looking at a 36×48 inch blank canvas that was supposed to be finished on Thursday… hmmm. It was supposed to be Moon Boy No. 3.

At right is Moon Boy, 36×48 inches, acrylic on canvas, c. 2005, Private Collection. At left is Moon Boy No. 2, 30×40 inches, acrylic on canvas, c. 2020, Private Collection. Moon Boy No. 3 was to address the dreaded “empty nest”, which I am surely in for about 360 days per year. Moon Boy No. 3 is going to be a 36×48 inch acrylic on canvas. For some spooky reason, the paint just didn’t start happening last week… Spooky and strange indeed. The composition is mapped…

I’ve been looking at old sketch books and wishing I had the hand skills and brush skills to put something like this into the picture. That is a fancy shawl dancer flying over Lake Mindemoya, Treasure Island can be seen below. She is being ghosted by a male traditional dancer who is wearing an all black outfit with a bustle and head gear made of raven and crow feathers. Two large ravens flank the lad as he closes in for the “you had me at hello”…

Check out the date on that drawing: February 22, 1995! Wow. Many a fine moon ago.

Speaking of dates: at the end of this month we have this gathering happening in Ottawa. I’ll be sure to go and cool that it is the same weekend as the Ottawa Halloween scene! We can bring the “mod native Trickster outfit” with us and maybe take in a few evenings of entertainment while we’re over there!

Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are!