Lily S. May–Life with Art
The war in Ukraine has got me thinking about my maternal grandparents. I know my grandmother's story more than my grandfather's, perhaps because he died when I was very young. She, Esther, was born in Odessa in the late 1800s when it was part of Russia. She and her family fled their home because as… Continue reading My Grandmother
One day last month, after making a few drawings, I scribbled a wavy line across a page in my sketchbook. I turned the page this way and that and the line became a face of sorts. I named it covid-19.
As you may have heard, it's been a hard week in Toronto what with a man driving a van onto a busy sidewalk and killing and injuring many people. I don't live in the neighbourhood this happened in, but this horrendous crime has affected people around the city. I've been looking for solace and have… Continue reading Flowers and Frames
It's federal election day in Canada. In honour of that, and after voting earlier this morning, I'm posting this portrait I painted of our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, in 2009. It was autumn then, as now, and I happened to have some ornamental gourds in my apartment. I placed one of them on his head… Continue reading Election Day in Canada
When my father died in 2007, I took up oil painting again after not having painted with oils for many years. I made the three paintings in this post to express some of my feelings about his death and my life. Each one includes a self-portrait plus a portrait of him. In the final painting,… Continue reading Portraits on the Theme of My Father’s Death
Arts of May 