A quick little post for today ...

Here is a cute company Minimii. I especially like their dollhouse Arne Jocobsens Own House, 1929 (pictured below)

"Kids can play for hours with a dollhouse. With miniature furniture, the house can be redecorated again and again, differently each time. With dolls, countless stories play themselves out, scenarios that remind us of what happens in a real home. The idea with Minimii is just that, to create dollhouses and furniture that look like a real home which both kids and adults can play with."

Here are some great blogs ... Apartment Therapy Re-Nest + April and May

I love the work of Shana Faust, she is a Toronto photo-stylist who has worked for Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. She is now based in Brooklyn. I love her props/crafts styling ... Here is a sample of her work ...

Katrin May is an internationally recognized professional origami artist. First introduced to origami in France in 1989, she and her partner developed this art in a heretofore unseen way. Now residents of Toronto. Here is their website ORILAND and some of their work is shown below.

What a whirlwind trip to Toronto!!! It went by so quickly, I guess vacations always do ... I visited lots of little galleries in Toronto, but I really enjoyed the exhibits at the Royal Ontario Museum ... Here are some of my favourite things I spotted at the ROM ...

Miniature room including silverware

Wallpaper from different eras

Displays of vegetation

Stairwell displays leaving the Museum

Art Nouveau flower vase

Nelson Mandela Doll

And what a way to end a vacation - the day before we flew home to Calgary, I received an email from The Daily Undertaker wanting to interview me and feature my artwork (series: Vanitas and Vanitas 2) ... I'll post the link to the article on my blog once it's posted ...

My first week in Toronto has been fun, spending some time checking out the city, shops and galleries ...

I checked out a show featuring Saskatchewan artists at the York Quay (Harbourfront) Centre, here is the show's write up ...

COMBINE situates the works of 18 artists from Saskatchewan throughout York Quay Centre. The title joins two iconic references - the image of the prairie farming machine and the assemblages first created by Robert Rauschenberg - to provide a hint as to where the artists are from and what they are up to. Participating artists were selected for their mutual understanding of how the amalgamation of disparate objects and images can create new stories and meanings.

Here are some photographs I took at the show ...

At the harbourfront I was impressed by this wave boardwalk for children to play on ...

Another show I briefly saw was Christina Leslie's photographic series (MISSED) PERCEIVED at the Gladstone Hotel. It showcases multiple portraits and deals with satirical representations, for example the portraits reference the sambo character and representations of othering in media and popular culture. Leslie juxtaposes the sitters actual portrait with their 'caricatures'. Here are some photographs I took at the show ...

Some more fun finds on Queen West + Ossington ...

First week in Toronto ...

(Shop on Ossington - window display)

I had wanted to see 'Friends with You' public installation 'Rainbow City' in Toronto, but the event was held in June. So come the end of July, I was really pleased to find some of their work still alive in Toronto. The following images were taken at Magic Pony Shop + Gallery on Queen Street West.

Baron Adolph de Meyer was a fashion photographer, most notably for Vogue magazine, but what I really admire are his still-life and floral photographs. His work is shown below ...