Miller Brittain at the McMichael
Kate, lemur_catta and I went out to Kleinburg today for a visit to the McMichael Collection. There were several special exhibitions on but the pick was unquestionably Miller Brittain: When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears. I don't remember coming across Brittain before, though I suppose I must have seen some of his pictures in the Beaverbrook Museum in Fredericton. I was very, very impressed. He was a superb draughtsman, as even his work as a teenager shows, but it's his post war work fuelled by his war experience, his relationship with and premature death of his wife, alchoholism and madness that really impresses. Blake is an acknowledged influence and his best work has the same luminous quality that one finds in Blake's best work. It's good to discover another really good Canadian artist. If you can, go see it.
On a different note, what is this "greenbelt" that the provincial government s tootling about? I keep seeing signs saying I'm entering it but all I see are miles and miles of new tract homes. Kleinburg is about on the verge of being swallowed by the ugly sprawl that is Vaughan, I did see signs announcing an Asian Long Horned Beetle control zone just as one enters the completely developed part of the suburbs. Are they in some way responsible? Most of the houses, strip malls etc look as if they were designed and built by and for insects.
On a different note, what is this "greenbelt" that the provincial government s tootling about? I keep seeing signs saying I'm entering it but all I see are miles and miles of new tract homes. Kleinburg is about on the verge of being swallowed by the ugly sprawl that is Vaughan, I did see signs announcing an Asian Long Horned Beetle control zone just as one enters the completely developed part of the suburbs. Are they in some way responsible? Most of the houses, strip malls etc look as if they were designed and built by and for insects.