Author: Andrea Cordonier
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Caplansky’s Delicatessen Toronto
There is nothing I like better in this world than serendipity, except, perhaps, a great smoked meat sandwich. So there we were at U of T, hungry and cold, and Husband suggested eating at Subway to which I replied with a choice expletive or two. We’re in Toronto, for God’s sake, surely we can do better Read more
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Giving Grace to Utility
Excerpt: John Ruskin ~The Relation of Art to Use, 1870 Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical requirements of human life. Read more
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William Goyen: The House of Breath
…and then I walked and walked in the rain that turned half into snow and I was drenched and frozen; and walked upon a park that seemed like the very pasture of Hell where there were couples whispering in the shadows, all in some plot to warm the world tonight, and I went into a Read more
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360° of Franc van Oort (Pt. 1)
For the two years I attended trade school at Algonquin College, Perth became my second home. Between classes I photographed the countryside, explored abandoned buildings, foraged in antique shops and became a regular visitor to Riverguild’s mezzanine, concocting a mental list of the works I would buy from artist Franc van Oort when I’d finished spending money on my greedy old Read more
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360° of Franc van Oort (Pt. 2)
Note: There is now a Part 1 which can be found here. Don’t go looking for Part 1 of this piece because it has yet to be written. I am exercising my right to choose the cadence and order of storytelling; here the order is immaterial except for the lack of a formal introduction of artist Franc van Oort, and Read more
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Fogo Island: Strange and Familiar
Not long after Newfoundland began to impress itself upon me through its stories, the epic story of Fogo Island and Zita Cobb emerged. Read more
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On the Waterfront
While on the Canada Line from Vancouver to Richmond, B.C. I spied a sculpture on the skyline. One right and a quick left from our hotel and an old-school waterfront appeared, featuring a walking path and imaginative art installations. The photographic conditions were spectacular: warm, morning light, a fierce hoar frost embalming the rocks and vegetation, and not a breath of wind. I Read more
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Walking with Our Sisters
Over 1,181 native women and girls in Canada have been reported missing or have been murdered in the last 30 years. Many vanished without a trace, with inadequate inquiry into their disappearance or murders paid by the media, the general public, politicians and even law enforcement. This is a travesty of justice. ~ Walking With Our Read more
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Unexpected Things You Find in Your Garden
I stand in my robe in the front yard at 7:15am staring at my newly-installed siding, admiring, critiquing, dreaming of spring plantings. The sky is a grim, Vancouver-grey, and every deciduous thing is naked and brown. We inhabit the season of ugliness which refuses to yield to the energetic vibrancy of indigo and goldenrod, my house colours. I don’t Read more
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What We Think We Want
When Eat, Pray, Love first came out and I got the big check, I bought a big house, a five-bedroom Victorian with a wraparound porch in this small town in New Jersey. I put a ton of money into making it really magnificent. I spent four years restoring it, putting in amazing gardens, a new kitchen and Read more