Lily S. May–Life with Art
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
On November 20, I went to the Brickworks, a park in Toronto, for a walk in the afternoon. It had been a cloudy week but that Friday the sun was shining and the temperature was abnormally warm—18 degrees Celsius. At the Brickworks, I took out my phone to photograph a scene that I found beautiful.… Continue reading On a Walk in November
I've been working on an appliqué that has had twists and turns I could have avoided--sewing, unsewing, repairing it finally. Had I followed what I knew I should do to correct technical problems, I would have arrived at the place I am now much faster. The work I didn't want to face has not been… Continue reading Getting Through the Night
I'm in the midst of designing another appliqué, but I wanted to tell you about a recent outing I took. On September 20th, my husband and I drove east out of Toronto to Presqu'ile Provincial Park. Because of the pandemic we have not been able to get out of the city to be in more… Continue reading Presqu’ile Provincial Park
I’ve taken many photographs with my phone over the years. Mostly I think they are remembrances and a sort of digital collection. I’ve turned even more than usual to photographing the sky over the past few months. Here’s several more sky and cloud photos over Toronto that I’ve taken, including one from a winter past.… Continue reading The Sky, 2
The sky, it feels like freedom, like safety, like a reprieve from this hard time on earth, offering a different perspective that the birds know and inhabit, flying south to the lake in seconds, soaring and diving with grace. I imagine flying with the birds, unchained from fear and vertigo, into the dusk clouds as… Continue reading The Sky
Arts of May 