CORNWALL Ontario – In 2005, after telling a friend that I was moving to Cornwall, her eyes bugged out: “What about all the pedophiles?” she asked. I was taken aback: “For silly sakes, you can’t paint a whole community with one brush.” Project Truth was in full swing when I got here. There were 34 […]
CFN – While Canadians were taking pleasure in the radiance of June-blooming poppies, something unlovely was germinating within the contaminated soil of a Cornwall-area Facebook group that specializes in mockery and cyber bullying. But it is the group’s pre-Canada Day defilement of the poppy that has the Royal Canadian Legion seeing red. “It is a […]
Songwriter, guitar man and outlaw rock and roller Chris Andres, laughs a little when he tells me that after writing 500 songs over 30 years in the biz that: “Everybody has ‘one’ great song in them. The rest is work.” But just below the surface of that wit, musicality and outlaw rocker “look,” is the […]
To me, Gordon Harrison’s works are like love songs to the Canadian landscape. And I learn that art lovers – from Iceland to South Africa, Argentina and Australia – are listening. In fact one, Julie Jacobson – wife of the former U.S. ambassador to Canada – made headlines a few years ago when she bent […]
Michael Clifton says that from the moment he first saw the Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in ’64 it burned onto his brain like a laser beam. But for Clifton – who was then just a kid in Cornwall, Ontario, and who, with brother Dave would eventually form a rock band called The […]
Abstract painter, Chelsea Jodoin, says that before she pursued a BA in fine arts she was the quiet type; the main reason why her first solo exhibition – at Centre culturel de Cornwall – is titled Extroversions. Chelsea explains the transformation was due, in part, to discovering painting. But enriched by educators who encouraged […]
Cornwall Ontario – This news-story photo of a coyote, cozily curled up on the seat of a commuter train, is both compelling and concerning. On one hand, it hints at the remarkable intelligence and adaptability that has ensured the species’ survival over evolutionary time. But it should also make us stop in our tracks […]
CFN – Sitting in what was once the principal’s office at a school in Martintown, Ontario – the one Shannon Spooner bought and transformed into a multi-service, pet-centered mecca for clients who come from as far away as upstate New York, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal – I learn that the hundreds of families who turn […]
From cave painters to Picasso, man’s best friend has always captured artists’ imaginations. There are many reasons why. Among them, dogs – all descendants of Grey Wolves – have for tens of thousands of years given humans so much: Protection, warmth, hunting and herding assistance, as well as comfort, companionship and affection. And all these […]
Their story is captivating, complex and creatively inspiring. But it’s also a story about their soon-to-be-opened glassblowing studio so has an additional layer of excitement. Because as the artists have helped me understand: You can’t open a studio if you’re looking through rose-coloured glasses. To begin, operating costs run high. The glass-melting furnace alone must […]
CFN – December – with its somber march to winter solstice – seems the perfect month to probe a poet’s perspective. April could prove too cruel with its seductive and expanding light, sometimes gaudy-vividness and abundant post winter distractions. And I hope Doug Hill will forgive me for using a painting to help illustrate his […]
Cornwall Ontario – It’s subzero outside and the November sun has begun its mid-afternoon descent. Yet, as it arcs ever downward, wide bands of warmish yellow light are suddenly streaming through the windows of Flowers Cornwall, right about the time Robert Martin says: “Flowers have a language. They can and do speak to us.” Robert […]
You know the expression: Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. While it may not wax as poetic as the alleged Van Gogh quote: “A picture without a frame is like a soul without a body,” when combined with Dawn Dempster’s insights, both may offer useful ways to frame the essence […]
Friday, Nov. 8, 9:20 a.m.: I’m on my way to the Mystic Meadow B & B on Pilon Point Road to interview owner and artist Virginia Lake, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting before. For starters, she’s one of our own Apples & Art champions and I personally enjoy owning […]
CFN – On Thanksgiving weekend, at our grandkid’s cottage near Kinmount, Ontario, I got up in the burgeoning pre-dawn orange light to prepare the big bird. But that was my secondary goal for the day. I had something far richer in mind. So after slipping the 20-pounder into the oven, I quickly showered, […]
CFN -If necessity is the mother of invention, then Tru-D – the superbug slaying robot – is a technology giving newborn hope to hospital infection control teams in the US, and now, Canada. This is especially true for the Vancouver General Hospital where Tru-D – in her first Canadian mission to seek out and destroy […]