Last weekend, we went up to a friend’s cottage on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park.

You may recognize the name – it’s well known as the lake where Group of Seven painter Tom Thomson mysteriously died at age 42 in July, 1917. He had left to go on a fishing trip, but after only a few hours his canoe was found floating in the lake. It wasn’t until a week or so later that his body was found.

Getting ready to head out. All images: VoCA/Scott Barker

On our way across Canoe Lake.

Thomson, who was a recognized outdoorsman, spent six months of every year in Algonquin Park hunting, fishing and of course painting. He had worked as a guide and fire ranger in the park, so the fact that his death was declared an accidental drowning on what was a apparently a clear and normal day seems unusual. Even at the time, people couldn’t believe it and rumours swirled about suicide and murder.

The gravesite is in Mowat cemetery, about a ten-minute walk into the bush off the west side of the lake. We took my dog, Hudson. You have to go through people’s cottage properties to get there and it’s entirely unmarked. You basically go up an un-maintained grassy road to the first big birch, and take a left into the bush, whereupon a faint trail becomes clear.

Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking recently about Canada’s arts granting system. With all this talk of financial reform, from the global to the municipal levels (hello, Rob Ford), maybe it’s time we looked at whether the granting system in Canada could use some reform of its own.

Image: canadianart.ca

Federal, provincial and municipal arts councils are all arms length agencies of the government. The Canada Council for the Arts is a crown corporation chaired by Joseph Rotman, which is funded from parliament along with endowments and donations. The visual arts are one division, the other five are media arts, dance, music, theatre and writing/publishing. The Ontario Arts Council is a publicly funded agency of the ministry of culture, and the Toronto Arts Council is funded by the City of Toronto.

Continue reading →

Did you know that UK-based Canadian author Sarah Thornton successfully sued a critic from the Daily Telegraph for a “spiteful” review of her book Seven Days in the Art World?

Author Sarah Thornton, and her book. Image: inforrm.com

I haven’t read the book, though I know many who have and who thoroughly enjoyed it. Her lawsuit resulted in Thornton winning 65,000 Pounds for libel – the critic apparently claimed to have not been interviewed by Thornton, when in fact she had.

“Most of the damages – £50,000 of the £65,000 – were awarded for this reason: that Barber’s review included a damaging and untrue allegation. But (the judge) added another £15,000 to punish her for being malicious. As he explained: “A reviewer is entitled to be spiteful, so long as she is honest, but if she is spiteful, the court may more readily conclude that misstatements of fact are not honest, since spite or ill will is a motive for dishonesty.”

Wow.

This excellent article in this weekend’s Financial Times is an overview of the situation is a must-read for any critic or any artist whose work has been subject to a critique. It’s HERE.

Thorton wrote a thoughtful reponse to the lawsuit in the Guardian, also worth reading, which is HERE.

Incidentally, Thornton’s book received excellent reviews in the New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, and Sunday Times to name a few.

Cindy Sherman, the American artist known for her Untitled Film Stills, 1977–1980 and subsequent self-portraits in which she transforms herself, through hair, makeup, prosthetics and costume, into various female characters from the seductive to the grotesque, is all about disguise.

Cindy Sherman for MAC Cosmetics. Image: heartymagazine.com

She’s been working this way for decades and is one of America’s best-known artists. In fact, she now holds the record for highest price paid for a photograph at auction when her work Untitled #96 was sold for $3.8 million at Christie’s in May.

Continue reading →