New glasses New way of seeing I got new glasses recently. This is relevant but not in the way you'd expect. I wore them to a life drawing session in Paris with "life drawing Montmartre" ,side note highly recommend them, which seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I am a painter. I was there to draw. Surely seeing more clearly would help. It did not help. First attempt I kept trying to draw the model and the glasses were giving me every detail, every line, every distraction be

The second time I went to Budapest I was shattered. I had gone only to see Dave. I saw him once, for a few hours, and then he was gone the way he always is, somewhere he needed to be that wasn't where I was. I won't pretend that didn't hurt because it did and I was terrible at hiding it that trip. I found a coffee shop with a back garden. One of those quiet Budapest places that don't announce themselves, you just find them when you need them. I sat in the back with my sketchb

There is a pot in my bedroom. A twenty dollar drip brew situation that has never once let me down. Ok, maybe once, we've worked past that. I keep good coffee in it because I am not an animal Italian most days but any well roasted coffee will do. I never leave stale water in the reservoir because we have standards even on the bad days. The first thing I do when I come home, from anywhere that required something of me, is make coffee. Not unpack. Not check messages. Not do the

"Paris isn't Paris because of the city. It's the people you find inside it." What Paris Actually Feels Like I hated Paris the first time. I want to be honest about that because the mythology around Paris is so thick that admitting you hated it feels almost like a character flaw. But I did. It was overwhelming and loud and I couldn't speak much french and everyone seemed to already know where they were going and I did not. What changed it for me was the people. Paris isn't Par

"The first time I tried to find Grease Monkey I never made it on time. Budapest kept interrupting me." The Budapest Garden He stood me up again in Budapest. I won't get into the details because they don't really matter and also because he reads these occasionally and I'd like to keep him humble. What matters is I was alone in Budapest with a free afternoon I hadn't planned for. The normal thing to do would have been to go back to the apartment and sulk or go on a rant in a fi

"If I hadn't put my heart out there despite every reasonable objection, I would never have found that garden." The Budapest Garden He stood me up again in Budapest. I won't get into the details because they don't really matter and also because he reads these occasionally and I'd like to keep him humble. What matters is I was alone in Budapest with a free afternoon I hadn't planned for. The normal thing to do would have been to go back to the apartment and sulk or go on a rant

I'm sitting in Rome after a very long social media break. It may surprise you though that I am not here for art but for football. My dear...

The last few months have been crazy as far as travelling and teaching goes. Lucky for me it's daylights saving and my body is telling me...

As I fly away from Florence I always get the same feeling. The longing of wanting to be at school full time, the comradery of working with

It's early morning and I am trying to get back into the swing of my normal routine. The last few months have been bouts of illness and...

I am back in the winter wonderland that is the Canadian north. After the two weeks of travel I must say, this time, I was glad to be home.

I'm exhausted lol but happy. My first day at art school in Florence was stressful for me. Not because of anything in particular.....

I think the hardest part about being a self taught artist is knowing what you don't know you don't know. (yes I know a double negative 😬😂)

Back home to the cold north and is jetlag ever hitting me today. I don't know why, it's so random. Sometimes I'm fine others it just hits...

Why on earth did I book a morning flight? My stomach is in knots, I'm not a good flyer. If I could cancel it I probably would. That's why...

This topic is always hard for me. There are many galleries I love for one reason or another and I'm not sure I could pick just one. Here...

You know you're a lucky person when you have a friend who is willing to meet you at the last minute in another country. The last leg of...

How did I end up in Mexico city and what did I learn while I was there? When I started out planning this vacation it was intended to be a...

I only had a short trip to New York. That was on purpose. I generally find that with new cities, if you love them, there are never enough...

What are your tips for productivity without burnouts for creatives? Something people always ask is where do you find the time. I've...