Check out my profile of the young design team Reigo & Bauer, in the current issue of DesignLines magazine. The Toronto couple has renovated a Deco-style building into a number of apartments, retaining many original details. They make the most of the space in their tiny apartment, which opens onto a fantastic roof deck. And they have set up their firm in the offices below.

Click the thumbnails to read (and click again to zoom in):

Here’s my review of Ross King‘s excellent book on the Group of Seven, in the current issue of Quill and Quire. It’s also at the Quill and Quire website, HERE.

Image: mcmichael.com

Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven

by Ross King

From a young age, Canadians learn about our country’s most famous painting movement in art classes, yet the Group of Seven’s dramatic landscapes and blazing depictions of Canada’s wilderness still don’t seem to get the respect they deserve.

Ross King, the best-selling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome and, more recently, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, redresses this imbalance by situating the group of artists within a larger historical context. His compellingly detailed account begins in 1912, as the painters were just meeting, and continues through the Great War, culminating with the group’s eventual disbanding in the 1930s. King’s elegant prose is a joy to read as he introduces each figure, giving the reader a rare glimpse into the lives of young men who were united by the desire to create a distinctly Canadian painting style at a time when critics, collectors, and the public were hostile toward the aspiring modernists.

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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.