Lily S. May–Life with Art
The first sizable snow came to Southern Ontario and Quebec yesterday. At the end of a grey and white day, the sky cleared and a dramatic sunset appeared. Today brought blue skies and sun on snow. I took a morning walk that greatly helped my spirits. Evening, January 17, 2022, looking southwest, Toronto These conifer… Continue reading Sunset & Snow Caps
The weeks before and after Christmas were hard ones, what with much cloudy wet weather in Toronto and the fear inducing news about Omicron. I found that walking in the neighbourhood helped. The appearance of a flock of birds was a welcome surprise and rescue. The occasional hawk or two gliding above the ravines was… Continue reading Birds, The Sun and a Collage
Here is a poem I wrote in 2013 after a massive ice storm in Toronto. And a photo from the winter of 2017 at the Brickworks. Storm of ice A storm of icehas descended on uslasting over partsof three dayscoating branches and wiresbringing down the electricityacross the city.While the soft grey light remainsI sit writingthinking… Continue reading Storm of Ice
Here's a poem I wrote in 2013 and 14 that I've been thinking of. The word skinny doesn't refer to bodily thinness. Instead, I used it as a metaphor to express feelings and memories. Grasslands, Saskatchewan, 2009 Skinny Skinnygliding in the antelope's shadowstarved for lovefor the blossoms beside the lichen patterned stone. As skinny as… Continue reading Skinny
November 2021, Brickworks, Toronto Though the work I'll show today is black and white, outdoors the colours were magnificent this past week. We came out of much rain and clouds to days of sunshine on the turning leaves. Photos don't do the leaves justice, but invoke memories. I felt that that's as it should be,… Continue reading This Autumn
Near the end of September, we were able to spend nearly a week out of the city. We travelled to Haliburton county, northeast of Toronto. There, on the eve of days of rain that we joked was positvely Biblical in intensity, we visited Abbey Gardens. It's a place we had been to before for great… Continue reading At Abbey Gardens
I'm working on another scratchboard drawing, learning from further mistakes. And I take walks every day, in the neighbourhoods and parks in the city. On Tuesday, I was walking on a street I love, admiring the gardens and trees, the birds, the houses I passed. I took a few photos on my phone as I… Continue reading Seeing
It is difficult to find words up to the task of revealing what lies within. Obviously it's been a time of tragedy around the world with covid deaths, violence and injustice. I look for light wherever I can find it. However, that does not include turning away from the terrible news out of British Columbia,… Continue reading Tragedy Revealed
It's the time of lilacs and lilies of the valley, their perfume arriving on the breeze before I reach the flowers themselves in the gardens of houses that enchant me this spring. Mid summer heat has arrived early and the gardens are showing off: forget me nots, bleeding hearts, wisteria, irises, red bud trees and… Continue reading The Time of Lilacs and Lilies of the Valley
Last Saturday I went for a spring walk in a cemetery in a part of Toronto called Cabbagetown. The necropolis, which I had never walked through before, was established in 1850. It's a large tree filled space with the graves of many people, some with monuments and others with simpler headstones and ground plaques. What… Continue reading At the Necropolis
Arts of May 