My much missed paternal grandmother, Vera Grace Mollins (nee Nickerson -- 1897-1992), crocheted outfits for tiny dolls with moveable arms and legs. It's a tradition I've upheld, although intermittently. A cousin asked me to dress a couple for her grandchildren. I found the dolls for sale on Etsy.
A giant rubber duckie is creating controversy in Toronto on the eve of Canada's 150th anniversary party.
As much as I love rubber duckies, it is shocking to think that politicians think this is something we, the people, would want to see on the country's national day.
What does a rubber ducky have to do with Canadian history?
According to a press release, the 6-storey rubber duck is the world's largest.
It will be in the H2O park on the Toronto waterfront over the weekend. The rubber duckie will star at the Redpath Waterfront Festival funded by the federal, provincial and city governments.
The Ontario government is contributing $121,000 toward the festival, according to the CBC, Canada's national broadcaster.
Background research shows that the first rubber duckies were made as chew toys at the end of the 19th century. It wasn't until the 1940s that manufacturers transformed them into the familiar floating bath toy, according to the Toy Hall of Fame.
Many people think the 150th anniversary of confederation is nothing to celebrate, least of all with a giant rubber duckie.
The poster featuring a representation of the rubber duckie (and U.S. spelling of "honor") shown in the photo above is one of many plastered along Bloor Street.
One friend said we should greet the rubber duckie with a giant hat pin, but I've heard nothing specific about protests:
I think a a giant and very sharp pin would be appropriate
Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again
Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train
Get your bags together, go bring your good friends too
Cause it's getting nearer, it soon will be with you
Now come and join the living, it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer, soon it will all be true
Now I've been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again
An exhibition featuring the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera currently on show at Toronto’sArt Gallery of Ontario(AGO)
would have sparked heated debate in the late 20th century, but in
today’s post-feminist world the pairing sidesteps controversy
altogether. In
the past, celebrating a woman artist side-by-side with her husband
would have been seen by feminists as a sign of her oppression by the patriarchy.
However, traditional feminist debate about women artists, which has
historically centred on a fight for individual recognition in a
male-dominated art world -- so common in decades gone by -- is not
mentioned in the AGO show or in the exhibition catalogue. Instead, curatorDot Tuerinverts
the tradition that would have cast Kahlo in Rivera’s shadow and
celebrates Kahlo’s artistic abilities, proposing that the powerful
feminine themes of her work have eclipsed the outmoded activist bent of
Rivera’s. Rivera
reached international renown as a communist mural painter in the 1920s,
depicting the Mexican revolution and class struggle, while Kahlo -- 20
years his junior -- was at the time more modestly acclaimed by the
surrealist movement and the Mexican art world for works focused on her
own personal suffering. “Rivera
no longer looms larger-than-life in the public imagination as Mexico’s
greatest muralist accompanied by a much younger and diminutive wife,”
Tuer says in the exhibition catalogue. “Instead, Frida is seen as the
iconic artist with Diego cast in a minor role as her much older and
philandering husband. “Numerous
exhibitions have enshrined her as one of modernism’s most profound
women artists, whose self-portraits embody both the physical suffering
she endured after a debilitating bus accident and the spiritual anguish
caused by Rivera’s infidelity and her inability to have children.” Rivera’s
reputation declined during the Cold War and with the rise of abstract
expressionism, Tuer writes, his work now dismissed as cartoonish
political propaganda, despite major retrospectives in Mexico City,
London and Detroit since the mid-1980s. These supportive claims for Kahlo’s work must surely mark sweet victory for such feminist art critics as Lucy Lippard,Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollockwho
struggled in the latter part of the 20th century to stake a place for
forgotten women artists on gallery walls in the world’s major art
collections. Also for such artists asJudy Chicagowho
sought to generate valid “herstory” through her internationally
recognised “Dinner Party” and “Birth Project” art exhibitions of the
1970s and 1980s. The
installations, which featured ceramic plates and tapestries, named
women whose importance Chicago said had been largely written out of
history. She argued that craft should be considered art and that art
made by women should be taken seriously by the establishment. Such universal concerns led eventually to the creation of a women’s art museum in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1987. “By its very existence, theNational Museum of Women in the Artschallenges
the unequal representation of female artists in other museums, in
galleries, and in major shows and offers an important and national
alternative space,” wrote art historianAlessandra Cominiin the 1987 museum catalogue. Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting,which closes at the AGO on Jan. 20, 2013, before re-opening at Atlanta’sHigh Museum of Arton Feb. 14,offers an unapologetic perspective on Kahlo as an equal with her husband, not as a victim toiling in his shadow. More
than 80 drawings and paintings, accompanied by photographs of the
couple show how their lives were intertwined, despite troubles that led
to their divorce and remarriage. Not
long before Kahlo died in 1954 at age 47, she referred to Rivera as “my
child, my son, my mother, my father, my husband, my everything.” Rivera referred to Kahlo’s death as the most tragic day of his life. “Too late now I realised that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida,” he said. Picture credit: Hospital Henry Ford, 1932, oil on metal, from the Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, Mexico. Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society, New York. ________________________________________
Addendum
I painted this plaster cast, a copy of one Kahlo wore and painted, for a production of a 1994 play titled "Frida K" produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
The postings on this Web site do not represent the views of my employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation. Following a specific blog or person does not equal agreement.
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