Tag Archives: canadian

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Paraskeva Clark, Self Portrait With a Concert Program

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paraskeva clark self portrait photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

Paraskeva Clark  (1898 – 1986) came to Toronto via Paris as a Russian émigré, arriving in 1931. Having experienced the 1917 Russian revolution firsthand, she never forgot its terrors or its utopian promise. Once in Canada, she remain committed to her homeland. In 1942, the year in which she painted Self Portrait With a Concert Program, her country was under siege during the Second World War.  At that time, she held a sale of her paintings in support of the Canadian Aid to Russia Fund. In this painting, she incorporates the paper program from a concert of Russian music into the surface of her work, her gaze meeting ours with wary pride.

Photographed in the Vancouver Art Museum in Vancouver BC.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Deserted Mine Shaft, Cobalt, By Yvonne McKague Housser

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deserted mine shaft cobalt photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

Cobalt is a town in Ontario, Canada, which had a population of 1,118 at the 2016 Census. In the early 1900s, the area was heavily mined for silver; the silver ore also contained cobalt. By 1910, the community was the fourth highest producer of silver in the world. Canadian artist Yvonne McKague Housser’s depictions of Cobalt ranged from the downright scruffy to the homey and cozy to the faceted and austere as she wrestled with her subject matter. Some of her larger paintings of Cobalt, made later in her Toronto studio, express a bold utopian vision of industry in the North, a view she relates in her letters to friends. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Deserted Mine Shaft, Cobalt, By Yvonne McKague Housser →

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Anne Savage, Country Scene

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anne savage country scene photo by gail rorley
Photo by Gail

Known for her lyrical, rhythmic landscapes, Anne Savage (1896 – 1971) was one of several important women artists who were active in Montreal after the First World War. As with the Group of Seven, she shared  a romantic vision of the Canadian landscape as a symbol of nationalism, as well as a modernist concern for the formal elements of painting. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Anne Savage, Country Scene →

Music, Pop Culture

Video Clip of The Week: CROSSS, “Dance Down”

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OK, I realize that this is asking a lot (i.e. too much) of those out there who are wantonly ignorant of all music recorded before 1995, but imagine if you can a mash-up of Jefferson Airplane’s “Lather,” The Zombies “Beachwood Park”, and any Sid Barrett-era Pink Floyd tune that teeters on the precipice of sanity, only one million billion times creepier, and that’s what “Dance Down” by Canadian trio, CROSSS (yes there are three “S”s) reminds me of.

“Dance Down” is a song that is mastered so loud that I bet when the volume is on zero you can still hear it, and it is Fucking Amazing. Visually, the no-frills (and yet, highly stylized) Monty Pythonesque animation resembles a series of Edward Gorey drawings come to life. This my favorite thing I’ve seen or heard in months, though I admit that the first time I played the video I had to stop and re-start it three times to make it to the end, because it freaked me out so Intensely.

“Dance Down” comes from CROSSS’s sophomore LP, LO, which was released on June 16th, 2015. Take some drugs and listen to this one in the dark. Enjoy!

CROSSS LO CD Art

Music, Pop Culture

Video Clip of The Week: Big Wreck, “Come What May”

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I’ve got a story about the band Big Wreck – specifically involving lead vocalist/ guitarist Ian Thornley — and it goes all the way back to 1997. In those glory days, I was writing about Rock music exclusively and interviewing bands at a pretty steady clip. Big Wreck had signed to Atlantic Records and their debut, In Loving Memory Of… was creating a pretty respectable buzz (radio hits, etc), so I was assigned to Interview Ian for I don’t even remember which outlet.

Since Big Wreck had a gig booked at NYC’s Irving Plaza, the interview was scheduled to take place at the venue during sound check the evening of the show. Pretty standard procedure.
Continue reading Video Clip of The Week: Big Wreck, “Come What May” →