Michael Snow: The Transformer

It’s tough to keep up with Michael Snow. The 84-year-old juggernaut of art, who over the years has entranced the public imagination with such iconic works as the odyssey of grandiose geese in Flight Stop at the Eaton Centre, the sculptural gazers that toast the facade of the Rogers Centre in The Audience and the landmark film Wavelength, continues to provoke and stretch artistic paradigms in Canada and beyond. Unrelenting in his ability to transform and shape our visual perceptions of art, his current master strokes include “Objects of Vision,” an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), In This Way, a video installation featured in the National Gallery of Canada’s exhibition “Builders,” and a glowing canvas display that will climb its way up the Trump Tower in Toronto, illuminating a spectrum of light and Snow’s innovation and resilience. With works housed in prestigious galleries the world over, the thriving, decades-long career of Snow is a portrait of his permanence. The pluralist sees beyond single artistic realms, comfortably drifting through mediums, flowing through time with experiential art as new and relevant today as if unveiled decades ago.

What inspired you to create the 14 works that constitute “Objects of Vision,” your exhibit on display at the AGO?
It’s an assembling of works from various periods. I won the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, and one part of it is that you can have an exhibition at the AGO. And for many years I’d been thinking about attempting to bring together these separate sculptures that had been made at different times. The Gershon Iskowitz Prize was an opportunity to finally bring them all together and see what they kind of said to each other.
Read more

The Sky’s the Limit

After capturing Canada’s only gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games, you’d think Rosannagh (Rosie) MacLennan would be flying high. But the 24-year-old trampolinist remains as grounded as ever — and the weight of gold has nothing to do with it, either.

“It’s obviously something I’m really proud of,” says the King City native, “but at the same time there’s a lot more to celebrate than gold medals.”

Of course, such as how your victory could spark grassroots enthusiasm, encouraging a new wave of fledgling trampolinists to enrol in this relatively unsung sport, boosting local economies and laying the foundation for future Olympians?

“Yeah, but I think as a kid, even watching the athletes that don’t get a Read more

From the Ground Up

“I still feel his presence here all the time,” says Evelyn Dorfman. The petite, moxie brunette is staring at an oval-shaped frame featuring her late grandfather Max Harriman Thuna, founder of the famed family business she’s been running for the last 24 years. “He listens to the various conversations here, there’s a vitality to him,” she adds of the patriarch she barely knew. The intimate Danforth Avenue store, that’s redolent of the past and lined with more than 1,500 vintage apothecary jars, is perhaps better known for its history than its herbs.

Thuna planted the first seeds of his nearly 125-year-old legacy at a small shop on Queen Street West in 1888. The former storefront was, at the time, swathed in block-lettered promises of herbal remedies — something Dorfman says wouldn’t be acceptable today. Read more

The Florences and the Machine

Learning that your child suffers from cerebral palsy (CP) is a powerful blow, weighty enough that most families barely have the strength to weather it. Now imagine being told that all three of your children will struggle with this condition for the rest of their lives; the very thought causes any parent strain.

But for Dana and Jared Florence, the parents of darling four-year-old triplets Taylor, Brody and Cole, the heartbreaking reality of CP in their family opened the door to an opportunity that has impacted countless families struggling with the same circumstance.

“I don’t want to sit here and pretend it wasn’t difficult,” Dana recalls of the dizzying day when their triplets were diagnosed. “There were a lot of tears and a lot of anger and a lot of really difficult emotions. But Read more

So Divine

In a world where music is often treated like bubble gum, consumed and discarded fleetingly, how does an artist keep her music fresh, distinct and relevant? Sometimes, it means turning back the clock.

After a three-year hiatus, Canadian R&B singer Divine Brown returns to the spotlight with her hip-swaying blast from the past, “Gone.” Its infectious hook — “I’m Gone!” — accented by the ba-dant-dun-da-dant of bellowing horns, set to the steady rhythm of underlying keys and choir-like harmonies, transports you back to the vinyl-spinning, radio-rocking days of 1960-something.

This first single comes on the cusp of her third album, Something Fresh, slated for release in early 2013. She describes the album — produced by Woodbridge-natives the Rezza Brothers — as a Read more

Measure of Success

Decades ago, the Bhutanese government developed the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which measures the vitality and well-being of its population and encourages economic growth balanced by other priorities, such as the country’s spiritual values.

The idea of GNH captured my imagination while I was travelling through Bhutan last summer as it’s in such sharp contrast to our traditional Western thinking. We tend to measure success against material goals rather than focusing on what we really value. My own story is a familiar one: I spent years working around the clock in pursuit of “success.” My single-minded pursuit of wealth and power got me what I thought I wanted, but I eventually lost what really mattered to me. I was facing cancer, a failing marriage and barely-there relationships with my kids. That’s why I actively Read more

The Crux of the Matter

“What led me to where I am right now is kind of a circuitous journey,” says Dr. Andrew McCallum. The chief coroner for Ontario is sitting in a large, antiquated boardroom that’s covertly connected to his personal office in downtown Toronto. Behind him is a bookshelf brimming with encyclopedia-sized texts that advise on cerebral subjects such as expert evidence, fractures, forensic medicine and poisonings. From the strict security check-in to the closed-mouthed hallways, it’s the makings of a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode — but as McCallum contests, he’s no Al Robbins. “The big difference is that we focus on stuff that wouldn’t make great television but what really matters. I’m talking about, ‘how do you keep people alive?’”

What he means by “circuitous” is that after finishing medical school, Read more

A Knight to Remember

When we were children, we looked at the world with enchantment in our eyes. We wore gowns, crowns and capes and imagined ourselves as pretty princesses and noble knights. Now, years later, we have traded those imaginations for steady jobs and serious-looking suits. Breaking away from this norm is Sean Delaney. He has chosen a path that still allows him to play dress-up.

Ever since Grade 10 drama class, Delaney knew he was passionate about performing. “I liked working on plays and just entertaining others.” With this same motivation, Delaney went on to study theatre in university and is now head knight at Medieval Times. “One of the things that I love about performing is that every day I’m given the chance to take people out of the humdrum of their daily lives,” says the 35-year-old actor. Read more

Steven Reineke: A sit-down interview with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s newest hit

If you ever get the chance to experience an orchestral performance, your perception of what music is supposed to feel and sound like will suddenly be heightened to glorious proportions. Music — every note and bar of it — has always played a part in the life of virtuoso Steven Reineke.

On the rooftop patio at The Spoke Club on King Street West, City Life Magazine sat down with the charismatic symphonic composer, arranger and conductor to discuss what the city of Toronto sounds like, and what he hopes to bring to the mix.

Q: How does it feel to be the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s (TSO) newly appointed, first principal pops conductor?
A: I’m really excited. It kind of feels like we’ve been dating for about 14 years and just got married: I made my debut here back in 1997, Read more

John Paul Adamo’s Hockley Valley Resort

My passion for food began at an early age. Whenever I was allowed in the kitchen, I would help prepare family meals. My traditional Italian family continuously instilled an old-world culinary philosophy of simple, ingredient-driven food. Fresh pasta with seasonal vegetables from the garden tossed in a Tuscan olive oil was the start of many nights shared around our kitchen table. My culinary education took me across Europe and North America, and in 2006, I came home to Hockley Valley Resort.

We have worked very hard over the past five years to turn Hockley Valley into a top Ontario culinary destination. One of the biggest changes was the installation of our on-site, four-acre organic fruit and vegetable garden.

Investing in the garden has been such a worthwhile feat on so many Read more

Next Page »