Art

Santa Monica

Back home
I dream of the water
beyond the break
and wake older
angry at borders
that keep me foreign
and dry.

Did my wretched ancestors
who walked inward
abandoning shorelines
and settling centered
fear the power
tides gift me?

And will my absence
pull from both coasts
to my landlocked city
salt water so deep
as to drown
their evil
guiding star?

— July, 2017, Toronto

Your Call Pulses Through Me With A Glorious Dynamism

I've felt this wave before,
in Havana and Piles, too. 
You were with me, then,
and the water senses your absence.
I lay back and conspire with the tide.
The sunlit Santa Monica sky turns black and star-pricked.
I drift, whispering your name,
until I feel your faint but unmistakable touch.

— December, 2017, Santa Monica

Nick Tauro Jr has a series of refracted photos taken in Paris.

More on Nick's website.

Brighten up a gloomy Sunday with illustrations by Yellena James.

More on their site.

Ambyence is a collection of live streaming microphones from around the world. Many of these are run by universities, but others are businesses or personal residences.

Along with a connection to the live audio, each location displays local time and weather as well as a brief description of the environment. Satellite images from Google Maps show the general location from above.

Tremendous use of the web and a fantastic interface on the site.

Ambyence

Listen to a collection of live, streaming, microphones from around the world.

Ambyence

If you've ever been in my home, you'll recognize these paintings, some of which I've owned for almost 30 years. They're all by Toronto artist, Dana Boettger.

Here's a shot of two of her works in my space. Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of the red one. The one on the right is Waiting, which is also pictured above.

Though her site hasn't been updated in some time, she attended my birthday party not too long ago and confirmed that she's still painting.

Phoebe Todd-Parrish's woodprints of Toronto area eateries are fantastic. You can view the whole series on her site. Phoebe's the proprietor of Flycatcher Press, a Toronto letterpress and printmaking studio.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has the largest collection of Amish quilts in the world. Some of them are quite stunning.

Unfortunately, none of the quilters names are known, probably because they were considered utilitarian rather than works of art. Probably, also, because it was "women's work."

Nice 5min doc on them here:

The SAAM exhibition, Pattern and Paradox, runs through August 26, 2024.

As an added bonus, how sweet is this video of TheFlippist at Pee-wee's Playhouse:

Some wonderful work by Anna Cabrera & Ángel Albarrán, who collaborate as Albarran Cabrera.

All of these images are from their series Nyx:

The name of the Nyx series comes from a Greek creation myth. There are many of them and often they begin in darkness. As children of the Mediterranean living in Barcelona, we learned of the story of Nyx through several poems by Orpheus in which Nyx is depicted as the origin from which all creation emerges. 

The rest of the series is here.

The Burn My Eye Photography Collective has some superb street photography categorized by theme. I've provided credit when it's been shared.

Plenty more on the Burn My Eye website.