Bill

Dupont Station mosaics

2008-05-18T17:14:49Z

These mosaics are in one of our less-used subway stations, Dupont. These two flowers, plus a group of smaller ones, constitute James Sutherland's Spadina Summer Under All Seasons.

What these photos don't tell you is the enormous scale: something like twenty feet high. These images were just quicky handheld, a bit blurry at 1/4 and 1/2, so I'm going to try and go back there with a tripod. The Toronto Transit Commission has only recenlty become camera-friendly, I remember an occasion - only five years ago - of dire warnings from a TTC constable of confiscated equipment and criminal charges.

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-17T00:19:00

2008-05-17T04:25:21Z

The dinosaurs are back at the Royal Ontario Museum. And it is very weird seeing them in the Big White Rooms with Bizarre Angles of the new building.

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-15T17:50:00

2008-05-15T21:54:00Z

Couldn't resist. Art about tourists looking at art about tourists looking at art.

Aquilegia canadensis | canada columbine

2008-05-15T13:50:36Z

I've always had a hard time with these outdoors cause the slightest breeze sets them moving ... but yesterday I found this one clump growing in a sheltered spot right in front of a grove of junipers providing a dark BG.

Tulipa "Black Parrot"

2008-05-14T12:59:07Z

Tulipa "Estella Rijnveld"

2008-05-13T22:29:25Z

Jim K

2008-05-13T14:33:52Z

Liking this composition more and more.

Yesterday I was on the train, and looked out the window, up at the sun, through several layers of clouds; there were concentric circular rainbows around it, four or five. Never seen anything like it.

Comments are NSFW.

Arabis spp.

2008-05-13T04:10:19Z

Jim K

2008-05-10T21:21:20Z

more of Jim on flickr

huzzah!

2008-05-09T19:14:25Z

I made it into the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition! Three days of nonstop public-on-artist action! July 11-12-13! Come see me in tent 38!

oops I think I used up a week's worth of exclamation marks

For a map please click here.

Chaenomeles speciosa cv. | ornamental quince

2008-05-09T00:18:57Z

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-07T10:28:00

2008-05-07T14:34:59Z

OK. I identify with bears as much as with any other group.

But.

I am so very, very, very sick of being dicked over in the name of The Community. Yet. Again. Time and money and work down the toilet, and all sorts of Drama and Behaviour. I certainly understand the urge to flounce. So I am not inclined to condemn people either for "staying" or for "leaving", if those terms even mean anything in this context. But I am daily less inclined to put any resources into anything just because it's bear-themed.

spryngge is ycomen in

2008-05-06T23:22:30Z

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-06T19:19:00

2008-05-06T23:20:31Z

more Geo

2008-05-04T13:23:33Z

A couple more of Geo.

Geo

2008-05-03T23:21:09Z

The lovely and talented Geo.

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-02T21:45:00

2008-05-03T01:46:41Z

Three more portfolio reviews today.

Some really good connections.

If it wasn't already apparent, the kind of work I do is not in vogue at the moment LOL

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-01T22:23:00

2008-05-02T02:32:42Z

Oh also. I thought I was going to be busy through May, so I did not book a lot of shoots. Which means, I have a certain amount of unbooked studio time and the energy to use it. If you've been curious about a shoot, or it's been a while and you want a new one, drop me a (screened) comment with your email and let's talk.

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-05-01T22:01:00

2008-05-02T02:23:30Z

So it's May. Which means it's CONTACT month in Toronto. I'm signed up for three portfolio reviews, the first of which was today (Maia Sutnik - she used the terms "accomplished" and "gallery worthy", and suggested places that might be interested in Uneasy Truce).

Since The House is sold (gone!) now I have some free time. I have installed Flash and Dreamweaver, and am beginning to wean myself off GoLive. Another month or so and I *may* not feel like I have forgotten how to do everything.

gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate

2008-04-29T21:56:58Z

This was my last day in the house in Hamilton. I am absolutely gutted. For me this is the end, the scattering of what was my childhood and youth. Going, gone, never was.

My dad stuck this on the bathroom door. On the mirror he stuck a handwritten flea market price tag "looking in mirror - free. use toilet - 25 cents".

The Harvest Gold stove with the "digital" clock that has been right twice a day, every day, reliably, since about 1975.

The only person to see us off and say goodbye was friendly kitty, above. Which I take as a good omen.

tulip, "parrot" cultivar

2008-04-29T02:03:06Z

tulip, "parrot" cultivar

2008-04-29T02:02:30Z

of deep social & political significance

2008-04-27T13:02:26Z

As proposed by mafuta67: If your mind were a desktop, what would be on it right now?

bitterlawngnome @ 2008-04-25T10:23:00

2008-04-25T14:43:49Z

Snail graveyard. Several thousand of them. Why did they gather in one place? What I enjoy about this framing is that in the rock - perhaps at this size you can just barely see it? - is the fossil of a shell, laid down here millions of years ago.

In Hamilton nature happens in areas that are not so much set aside for it but in areas that are inconvenient for building on (I realize now, this deeply informed how I think about many aspects of life - the interesting stuff happens in the margins, in places that Official Life hasn't - yet - paved over). And indeed I think this is common across most of urban North America, areas that are not deemed worthy of Development are through neglect allowed to become "wild", and that is seen as somehow beneath the notice of Decent Citizens. Or at best, as a Problem that must be Cleaned Up. The idea of having managed urban natural areas is not at all popular here - it is a tremendous struggle to find funding for upkeep of the Bruce Trail, for instance.

BTW, yes I pick on Hamilton a lot, but stuff like this shit still makes me want to smack people. "About Ontario (except: Toronto, Hamilton or Ottawa). A group for photos of Ontario, and discussion of the province as a whole. There are different groups for Ontario's larger cities, but this group looks outside of those grubby grubby metopolises."

the throne room

2008-04-24T15:24:53Z

OK, your basic boring self-in-the-bathroom-mirror shot right? But here's what I am thinking about in relation to this.

This is the bathroom mirror in The Ancestral Home (yes, only one bathroom - I hear the howls of disbelief already). Soon this place will be gone gone gone. Sold, torn apart, reconfigured. But here I am looking at myself in it, one last time, critically. Saggy diabetic-diet-body, stretch marks, and whatnot. Thinking of all those years of looking at myself in this mirror feeling ugly ugly ugly. Too fat too young too tall too poor, bad hair bad skin bad face bad bad bad. In front of this exact same piece of glass. So through the magic bathroom mirror I am sending back to my 14 year old self this image of how I am now, cause at 14 I would have done *anything* to look like this. Call it vain if you like, but we all create ourselves to some extent don't we?

Hey 14, all you have to do is survive another twenty-some-odd years: but now you know that eventually, you will feel OK about how you look. Now go ahead and get back to wanking or stoning or reading or whatever the hell you're doing in here, behind the only door in the house that you can close and not have anyone walk in on you. Oh and BTW. I have a Levis jacket, they have not changed at all in 30 years, except now they are made in a sweatshop in the Philippines instead of a sweatshop in New York.

I don't think I will ever look at another "self-in-the-bathroom-mirror" snapshot on a personal profile the same way again.