THE BIG MOVE

Welp, it's been nearly a month now, since I somehow, miraculously managed to wrap everything up in Toronto, pack up my wee apt there, and move into homelessness (but I'll only be homeless for a couple months, then I'll be living in Florence, Italy for most of next year;) But yeah, the move was a crazy hectic experience, coupled with exams, planning a workshop and a solo show and so many other things. At a certain point I didn't think I was going to be able to get everything done, and started to wonder what happens when you have all these things that absolutely must get done, but it's impossible to do it all.... what happens then? They get done. Yayy! And so they did! My friend Ciaran drove a crying me all the way up to Ottawa with a bunch my paintings and stuff, which needed to be there for a solo show I have opening Aug. 14th (runs through Sept. 9) at Artguise Gallery on Bank Street. The night before the move though, instead of finishing up with packing, or wallowing in my own self pity, I did a quick painting of Ciaran, who agreed to pose for me despite the fact that he was sooooo hungover. I've attached below the painting I did of him that night, along with some photos of the big, horrendous move. Actually, just before I left Toronto, I got on a bit of a painting role and painted a bunch of my friends who were kind enough to sit for me, so I've attached some of those paintings as well. Yup, so I moved to Ontario on July 1st, 1998, and moved away from it 11 years later, on July 1st as well. Now that I've spent nearly a month painting in BC, the craziness of the days leading up to the move seem like a distant memory:D

So here was a happy, chipper me, full of hopes and possibilities, all moved into my apt in Toronto last Sept






















And here's what it looked like when I was almost done the move... (those are my feet poking in the shot)

















It was totally raining that day...

















In between crying and feeling sorry for myself, Ciaran and I played the "Wiggly" game (It's pretty basic, you just scream "WIGGLY!" everytime you see one of those road turning signs, and keep track of your points (one point for each wiggly spotted first, deduct one everytime you say wiggly and it turns out it's not... I think Ciaran won (I was crying more the he was;)

















Here's the painting I did of Ciaran the night before the move:





















"The Hangover" 10 x 8 inches, oil on panel

And these are some of my other friends who posed for me near the end of my days in the big Tdot:)

















"Alison" 20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas























"Jessica in High Park," 12 x 9 inches, oil on panel



















"Nyoka," 20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas