CITY LIGHTS: Chalk of the Town

Not wanting Christmas to be over and with no real New Years plan as usual, I decided that I would finish up the rest of my holidays in our nation’s flagship city: Toronto. I’ve been mingling with the colour of the city and searching for the perfect Boxing Day sale for the perfect camel skin coat, which is really beyond my budget, and probably more than I deserve anyways, but what the hell, I do need a jacket. (A question to our readers: How warm is camel hair? The desert gets cold at night, does it not? So the camels must need protection. But of course it’s hot during the day. Does that mean that camel hair will self-regulate? Is the coat worth the dough? Or am I just liable to spill coffee on it? Any advice is appreciated.)

The base of my operation is a swell apartment on Queen Street West, right in the heart of the matter, and the most central location I’ve ever enjoyed in this city. A very inspiring mess. Its caretakers (tenants–I’m their guest, they’re my friends) are Pete Ryan and Jill Wood, two terrific artists in their own right. For my first three nights in the place I was by myself, the happy couple was out of town, so I used their apartment as a place to go to in between coffee, sushi, and the movie theater. When they finally came in from their excursion, they brought with them a blackboard that they had snagged as a Christmas present.  Meanwhile I was busy looking for ways to avoid work, so I figured I’d start by drawing this blackboard picture to commemorate the occasion. Kind of a neat style for an illusion, perhaps I’ll market it into an entire portfolio some day, schedule permitting.

Happy New Year, by the way.

JD