Check out my article in this month’s issue of Azure magazine, on the incredible Emu feather concoctions by Colombian artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso.

One of Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s Emu Wear pieces. Image: ifoundsometreasure.com

Cardoso decided to investigate the Emu - the Australian, ostrich-like bird - as a way of relating to her new homeland, Australia. She began with feather sculptures and ended up with sculpture-like cloaks and hats that work as a kind of camouflage for the wearer.

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Check out my piece on artist Kent Monkman’s home and studio in the current issue of Design Lines magazine. The studio, a former factory, was re-done by Jason Halter of boutique design firm Wonder Inc.

You know Monkman for his traditionally painted landscapes into which he inserts contemporary figures of First Nations people, often doing rather unconventional things…

Kent Monkman, Achilles and Patroclus, 2008. Image: kentmonkman.com

Or for his drag performances as Miss Chief Eagle Testickle…

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Last week we posted HERE part one of our conversation with Douglas Coupland. In this post, Coupland talks about his collecting habits, coming from a “guns-and-ammo” family, his interest in nuclear culture and his new TV mini-series, among other things.

Douglas Coupland’s tiny cubes of 100 stamps. Image: VoCA

Coupland brings out a bowl filled with small cubes of 100 stamps, held together with a band of paper.

VoCA: Wow, did you make all these?

DC: Oh God, no. I collect stamps, I collect Japanese stamps.

VoCA: See, you do collect! You collect tons of things!

DC: Ok, the thing is, there’s a show on A&E called ‘Hoarders’, have you seen it?

VoCA: I’ve heard of it. It’s about people who obsessively collect things.

DC: No, no. I collect. These people don’t get rid of shit. (laughs) These are people who use a paper towel and don’t throw it out thinking it might be useful in the future. People who hoard have almost always had a huge, catastrophic loss in their life, a family member usually and it’s almost impossible to get rid of once you’ve got it. It becomes for them, ‘something you can’t take away from me,’ kind of thing.

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Last week at his beautiful, art-filled Ron Thom designed home in Vancouver, VoCA sat down with artist-slash-writer Douglas Coupland to get his views on everything from Warhol to techological obsolescence to City of Toronto love.

“All young artists secretly think they’re the next Warhol,” says the Generation X author.

Douglas Coupland. Image:anthonygeorge.com

Here are some highlights:

VoCA: Douglas Coupland, are you more artist than writer or vice versa?

DC: I don’t differentiate. I don’t see a real difference. Is cooking different from roasting?

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Check out my article in the new aggregate news website The Mark News - it’s about why cities, and Toronto in particular, need to develop a culture of excellence. It’s because whether cities are great or mediocre has a significant effect on quality of life for citizens. And cities that pursue excellence end up with a highly developed, sophisticated cultural sector.

Image: downtownwinstonsalem.com

Read the full article HERE.

Going up to Drag Lake, in Haliburton to look at a glass box ‘cottage’ in the middle of the forest. Boat access only!

My profile of the house is coming up in the August issue of Toronto Life magazine…stay tuned

The text I wrote that accompanied architect Paul Raff’s winning submission for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Allied Arts Medal has been reproduced in Canadian Architect magazine.

A pavilion by Paul Raff Studio. Image: canadianarchitect.com

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Doug Wright’s most famous character, Nipper. Image: calgaryherald.com

The graphic artist Seth has designed and co-edited a gorgeous coffee table book on the erstwhile celebrity cartoonist, whose Nipper comic strip became a huge hit across the country in the 1960s.

This book is a wonderful object and a highly entertaining read, even if you’re not into graphic novels, or comics.

Read my review, in Quill and Quire, HERE.

How relevant are art schools today? Do artists really require education beyond basic technical training? Do art institutions hinder, rather than help the creative expression of artists today?

Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967.
Image: truthinart.wordpress.com

And what does Bruce Nauman think?

Read my opinion piece on the brand new news website, The Mark.

Click HERE.

Karen Engle’s book Seeing Ghosts: 9/11 and the Visual Imagination takes an intriguing, and - she argues - much needed look at the artworks and ephemera that surrounded September 11.

Eric Fischl, Tumbling Woman. Image: artnet.com

You probably haven’t given much thought to Eric Fischl’s sculpture Tumbling Woman, which was placed and quickly pulled from Rockefeller Centre when it became clear that a woman in mid-fall wasn’t an appropriate memorial (no closure).

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