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alfvaen · 3 months

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Novel Madness

Still reading, and apparently still blogging about it.

So this is what I read in March. Possible spoilers for the Vorkosigan Saga, and the Mercy Thompson and Peter Grant series, among others.

Jeffrey Cranor & Janina Matthewson: You Feel It Just Below The Ribs, completed March 2

So as you may recall, back in February, I had given up on Ruth Ozeki's A Tale From The Time Being, wasn't fond of Kristen Painter's Flesh And Blood, and was also not really liking the nonfiction book on Reddit I was reading.

I was somewhat tempted to just skip ahead to my reread of Memory, my favourite book in the Vorkosigan series. I mean, when I had started doing more frequent rereads, it had been after just such a string of subpar books, and I wanted to retrench and remind myself why I loved reading. Looking back in my records, I can't actually find that string of subpar books, but I can find about when I started doing the rereads--the fall of 2007, when I started doing a Wheel of Time reread, where every second book was a reread; it was the first time I reread the entire series (up to that point, which was Knife of Dreams). After that, my rereads went back to their more sporadic pace, until the spring of 2008 when I did an every-second-book reread of the Vorkosigan saga (the first of three such rereads in the next few years). And I kept doing every-second-book-a-reread for two years, at which point I slowed down to mostly every third book. By 2012 this was down to every fourth book, and there it seemed to stabilize. So it wouldn't be unprecedented for me to do my rereads more frequently, but the cycle has been stable for a while--I added in the alternation of author gender, the diversity slot, the trying-out slot…it would throw my cycle off now if I did the rereads more frequently. But don't think I wasn't tempted.

Anyway… I was looking for a male author, something that wasn't urban fantasy (because of the Kristen Painter), probably something that wasn't space opera (because Memory was still coming up)… I toyed with the idea of selecting something that might be "fun" (like John Scalzi's Agent To The Stars or the Doctor Who And The Krikkitmen book), but there were also books that I had been thinking "maybe" on for some time and hadn't yet picked up. And You Feel It Just Below The Ribs was one of them.

Many of you are likely familiar with Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor's "Welcome To Night Vale" podcast, which I discovered relatively early (by current standards--maybe around the "Sandstorm" episodes?). I've see the show a couple of times when it came through (or near) Edmonton, I try to keep up on the podcast (though mostly I fail because I can't keep up with a bimonthly podcast schedule any more), and I have read all of the tie-in novels and the script books. The novels are decent, not great, but okay. And I have also tried out a lot of the other related podcasts--"Alice Isn't Dead" and "Within The Wires" are the ones I stuck with.

"Within The Wires" was always weird, and not every season was great, but it was an interesting combination of two conceits--one, that every season was done through "found audio", which included relaxation tapes with hidden messages, dictaphone recordings, answering machine messages, and museum audio guide recordings, among others. And two, that this all took place in an alternate history where, due to an early-20th-century upheaval called The Reckoning, the new regime had taken the drastic step of abolishing the family: breaking the emotional links between parent and child by altering their memories and raising the children in communal creches. (There's also a distinct shortage of male characters in the podcast, which is fine--at some point I'd even thought that men had been wiped out entirely, but there are occasional male characters mentioned now and then. And the new season features a male voice actor for the first time.) But we've never really gotten much detail about the Reckoning, because it was too far in the past, and nobody needed to talk about it much because it was just part of their common world. (Maybe in the season where we were following a woman who was part of a secret rebel group that did raise their own children, but even then we didn't get much.) So I was very interested in the novel that they came out with, in hopes that we would find out more about what the Reckoning actually was and how the change in society came about.

It's a bit of an odd novel--it has a sort of framing story of it being a found document, and has frequent footnotes. But I'm not clear why it was done like this. The document is the memoirs of a woman who was orphaned during the Reckoning--which seems here to have been a worst-case version of World War I that lasted until 1941 and did literally engulf the entire world, possibly with a worse flu pandemic as well. (This was published during Covid so that may have affected things a little.) The author, Miriam Gregory, ended up being influential to the whole post-Reckoning New Society practice of editing memories to remove parent-child bonds. She later got involved with the mysterious Institute from the first season, and there were some hints of the plot from the third (the political thriller told through dictaphone recordings). The footnotes mostly seem to be there to try to point out places where the editors of the document found stuff they were pretty sure was inaccurate. They quoted information from the official record and mentioned when there was no evidence of something existing or having happened at all. Which, okay, maybe this was people parroting the official history even with all its inaccuracies, as a method of showing how the truth had been hidden. But supposedly the publication of this document was being done by a group which was already not following the New Society party line, so why would they be so certain that this was wrong whenever it contradicted the accepted source of truth? It's not clear, and so it seems like they're just there to undermine the story whenever it gets too dramatic. It doesn't feel like an effective technique.

Overall it was a decent book, but flawed, and I felt like it could have covered more of the world than it did.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Memory, completed March 5

I have probably mentioned before that Memory is my flat-out favourite Bujold book. It's not an easy one to recommend to other people, though, because it may only work (and certainly works much better) if you've read all the previous books first. Jo Walton has talked about the "spearpoint theory", where a tiny sharp point can be made much more effective if you've had a lot of buildup to it. This book has a shaft consisting of all the Miles books and stories that came before. Obviously Mirror Dance, of course, the immediate prequel, but it has an especially poignant revisiting of "The Mountains of Mourning", as well as the reappearance of Duv Galeni from Brothers In Arms, and robust roles for Emperor Gregor Vorbarra, Delia Koudelka, Ivan Vorpatril, and Simon Illyan, who is central to the plot. It also has one of the dullest titles in the series, though it is relevant, not least because of the reference to Simon Illyan's eidetic memory chip.

The first part is the most painful, as Miles manages to lose most of what's important to himself through an attempt to keep it from slipping away. But I love almost every scene that takes place on Barrayar. It's such a treat just to see Miles coping with day-to-day life there (my favourite bit is still the convenience-store "Reddi-Meals!"), plunged back into a life he's been neglecting for years, that it doesn't even feel disappointing when it's over a third of a way into the book before the "real" plot really gets going. Because the shaft of that spear is still building up.

In later rereads, there are some bits I find fascinating. Like the worldbuilding details about the existence of Imperial Auditors, special investigators answerable only to the Emperor himself, that actually were never mentioned before in the series. But the way the native Barrayarans explain it to one Komarran feels completely organic, and they've known it all along, so surely these Auditors have been mentioned before? Nope, they're probably something that the author pulled out of her hat for this book (there were "auditors" mentioned in the framing story of Borders of Infinity, but I think they were just regular auditors, not Imperial ones). But if feels like they've always been in the background. (Maybe, if they were, they should have been mentioned in Barrayar somewhere? Well, whatever. Good enough.) Also, there was one relationship that blindsided me first time through, but now I can spot all the groundwork being laid for it all the way through. Very deft.

Steven Barnes: Zulu Heart, completed March 12

Next, according to my cycle, it was time for a book by a "diverse" male author. As I may have mentioned before, I seem to be much shorter on those than I am on female diversity, particularly on the black authors.

I first read Steven Barnes many years ago, at least in collaboration. His book with Larry Niven, Dream Park, has long been a favourite; I recall one day, after a stressful move between cities, that I spent just rereading the book from cover to cover. The sequels never hit quite the same spot, though, which may be why, although I did occasionally buy a Barnes solo book in a second-hand store, I had never actually gotten around to reading any of them. But they were there when I needed to draw from them for this slot. A couple of years ago I read his Lion's Blood, an alternate history novel about a world where African (and mostly Muslim) nations colonized the New World (which I believe they called Bilalistan), and they enslaved Europeans. (I don't recall if there was an in-universe explanation for the change in dominance--maybe the ever-popular Hyper-Virulent Black Death--or if it just turned out that way. There was something about Alexander The Great maybe going to Egypt…) One of the main characters was an Irish man named Aidan who was enslaved as a child near the beginning of the book, and separated from his sister; the other one was a black Muslim named Kai, son of a Wakil in Bilalistan. It probably covers a lot of slave-story tropes, but race-swapped, plus there's also drama an intrigue centered around Kai's family. It was an okay book, but I wasn't particularly planning on searching out the sequel; however, last summer at the When Words Collide convention in Calgary, I saw it on a table of "free to a good home" books, and decided to pick it up. And having basically exhausted pretty much all the other possibilities, I was perforce reading it next.

Once of the principles I mostly stick to with the diversity books is that I don't give up on them. (Maybe I should have done this with the Ruth Ozeki book last month, but I guess I didn't.) It's supposed to be about broadening my horizons, approaching different kinds of stories, etc. I've always been a little hit-or-miss with alternate histories; my perception, at least, is that a lot of them tend to focus on the same things--the American Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, World War II--all American stuff. This one is, at least, a little more creative, and is very black culture focused in a way that, frankly, Barnes's other books I read really weren't.

Plotwise, though, it's only okay; some threads are interesting, some I'm less interested in, and some seem to be a little rushed, as if he was trying to squeeze in plots from a third book the publisher had nixed. The back cover blurb seems to imply that the book is going to cover this world's version of the Civil War, but given that they're still colonies of overseas nations (Egypt and Abyssinia) it's really more like a Revolutionary War. And, spoilers, what there is of it is not a major part of the story. In that sense it's almost more like Diana Gabaldon's later books where the (American) Revolutionary War is going on, and it affects our characters, but it's not primarily about the war itself. And maybe this book would have benefited from being even longer to have that increased scope.

I do worry a bit about the reversed slavery idea--on the one hand, maybe it'll give some of us white people a better feeling for what the Africans suffered under slavery if we replace them with Europeans. The concepts that stuck with me were things like having white slaves given Arabic or African names rather than names from their own culture, and also all the African cultures being treated as distinct things while all the European cultures get jumbled together. But I also picture some people pointing at this and saying, "See? They'd do just the same as us if they were in charge!" Which may be true, but of course it doesn't say that, in our world, the slaves in America didn't suffer, and we're not living in that alternate world. It means that one group may not be inherently nobler than another, but that doesn't mean that they're not deserving of justice, or equity, or reparations. (I can also picture frothing white supremacists screaming that this the what the blacks want, and turning it into a story of white victimhood. Well, I guess we can't control what white supremacists are going to froth about.) It's not a bad thing, but it seems like it can be mischaracterized. (One novel I was working on, I have a setting with an area's native inhabitants being oppressed by intrusive colonials, and I was toying with the idea of having the natives be white, but I'm afraid it'd get read as anti-immigrant rather than anti-colonial, so I probably won't.)

Natalie Zina Walschots: Hench, completed March 16

After the long and somewhat topically heavy slavery book, I decided I was in the mood for something maybe a little lighter, and it was time to get back to a female author. My wife had recommended this Hench book to me, and nudged me about it a couple of times, and I decided to give it a go. I know that technically I do have my special slots for new authors (with the "try but feel free to give up if it does not spark joy" parameters), but if I never tried a new author outside of those slots, then it would take forever me to try all the ones I'm interested in, so I decided to let myself read this one.

The book is clearly set in a world with superheroes, and of course supervillains. I've read a lot of comics--mainly Marvel comics from the 60s through to the 90s (my attempt at a comprehensive read-through on Marvel Unlimited has just inched its way to the end of 1993, so I may be a little behind on the current state of the superhero genre, apart from the MCU stuff) but fewer actual prose novels. I suspect that the modern superhero novel, with its narrower focus, is more prone to examining superheroes in more depth, and frankly most of them tend to come out on the anti-superhero side of things, and at the very least turns them into more complex, flawed characters. The Annihilation Score tended to treat them as problematic; Brandon Sanderson's "Reckoners" series treats them as existential threats (admittedly, in that setting their powers literally drive them insane); and at best, they are severely flawed people who just happen to have powers, as in James Alan Gardner's "Sparks Vs. The Dark" series. Maybe it's a generational thing--in an age where the status quo is far from kind to the vast majority of those who are Millennials or younger, who are your sympathies with--heroes who fight to uphold the status quo, or the villains who subvert it? (Which is not too far off from the logic from that gets people to vote for Trump…)

Hench shows us mostly the villain side of the story, with superheroes mostly shown as overpowered thugs and walking disasters. We're mostly concerned with Supercollider, an example of the former, whose every brush with our protagonist leaves her damaged, and his longtime nemesis Leviathan, who lifts her up and makes her feel valued. I keep wanting to draw analogues with the heroes I'm familiar with--is Supercollider basically Superman? Leviathan seems more like Doctor Doom than anybody. Supercollider's partner Quantum Entanglement (a bit of an awkward name) seems more like a combination of Invisible Woman and Shadowcat than anything else. (I'm always low-key amused at superhero naming where they just silently have to avoid the names of real Marvel or DC characters, without seeming to. In my superhero stories I mostly tend to think that the real heroes are afraid of getting sued by the corporate juggernauts who own the trademarks on the fictional ones…) It got a lot darker than I was expecting, actually, but it was absorbing and I liked it a lot.

Patricia Briggs: Silver Borne, completed March 19

I had originally been thinking of something like Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower for my next book, but after Hench I wasn't feeling like it; instead I thought it might be time for another urban fantasy. I have started so many, and finished (or even caught up with) so few--the Dresden Files, for sure, and the Kelly Meding might be the only one. I find a lot of them appealing in the abstract, but it seems like they appeal to my wife more, so she's the one who reads then, gets hooked on the series, stays caught up, buys them in hardcover, etc. She has always been more of a fan of romance, and a lot of the female-authored urban fantasy seems like it's on a spectrum to paranormal romance. (The main difference, of course, is probably whether there's a single continuing protagonist, or a different romantic pairing every book.) Anyway, I'm in the middle of a lot of series, and it seems to take a lot to get me to the state where I get hooked and have to start reading them faster, so it can be years between books for me.

Patricia Briggs has, like many, split off a side series--her main series follows Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson, but there's also a "Charles & Anna" series which crosses over, and after the last Mercy Thompson book (Bone Crossed) left me a little underwhelmed, I had started those books, so the last Briggs I read was actually side series novel Cry Wolf. Apparently reading them in alternation is not a bad idea anyway, so I went back to Mercy for this one. I even remembered most of the characters, or at least was satisfied with the author's descriptions of them (a lot of minor werewolf pack members showed up, and I couldn't tell you for sure which ones we'd seen before or had character traits before this book).

The pacing was a little weird--there's basically three plot threads which show up at different times, which aren't really connected causally but do interact with each other, and the balance doesn't always work (like pack politics dominating everything else for a few chapters until we get back to our other plots), but it was better than Bone Crossed, at least. It's unfortunate, given how much urban fantasy I read, how little I enjoy the dominance politics of werewolf packs, and particularly the touchiness of Alphas. (Oh, no, we can't meet their gaze or undermine their authority or it's a challenge and they'll have to kill us. And they can't show any weakness or others will try to kill them.)

Next book in the series will be back to Charles & Anna, anyway. I am not yet really hooked on the series, but I'll keep going for now.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Komarr, completed March 22

Back to the Vorkosigans again, for Komarr. Like her other planet-named books, it takes place entirely on the planet in question (if we allow space stations in the same system to be close enough, anyway), the troubled vassal of Barrayar. Because the only current access to Barrayar comes through a wormhole in the Komarr system, and the earlier Cetagandan invasion of the planet was abetted by the Komarrans, Barrayar ended up conquering Komarr to secure its interface to the rest of the world. (I always wondered if it was only upon conquest of a second planet that Barrayar became a true empire, but I think they had emperors before that so probably not.) They've tried to be benevolent rulers since then, but we already saw in Brothers In Arms that there are those, like Ser Galen, that want to get rid of the Barrayaran yoke. And Aral Vorkosigan acquired the sobriquet of "The Butcher of Komarr" when a group of prisoners in his custody were executed--supposedly on his orders, but in fact it was an overzealous subordinate who Aral later killed.

Miles comes along to investigate a bizarre act of destruction--accident or sabotage, we don't yet know--where the "soletta array", a group of orbiting mirrors reflecting additional sunlight onto the cold, still-being-terraformed world (the world's population still lives in domed cities), has been damaged through collision with an off-course ship. He's mostly just shadowing older Lord Auditor Vorthys, the engineering professor who's analyzing the debris, and they end up staying over with Vorthys's niece Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who is our other viewpoint character in the book. Ekaterin has a highly unsympathetic husband, Tien, who has a secret shame, a hidden genetic disease called Vorzohn's Dystrophy. He also happens to be in charge of a small department of the terraforming effort.

I guess my biggest problem with this book is just that Tien and his department turn out to be directly related to the soletta disaster. I mean, think of it--the disaster happens, and an auditor is sent to investigate it. If it hadn't happened to be someone connected to Tien, the investigation might have gone nowhere, or taken a lot longer, because they wouldn't have had that extremely gratuitous link. It bugs me every time.

So the best part of the book is probably the introduction of Ekaterin, and her growth as a character through to the end of the book, where she strikes a decisive blow. And without it, we wouldn't have A Civil Campaign (or would, at least, have a much different book). But it is a dip in what would otherwise be a five-star run from Mirror Dance.

Shaun Barger: Mage Against The Machine, completed March 27

Catchy title, eh? That's probably part of why I picked it up in the first place, though I don't remember for sure. This is in my actual "trying a new author" slot, generally with permission to give up if the book doesn't grab me.

Essentially, it seems that the world ended at some point (2020?) when the machines/AIs rose up against the humans. The mages, who had been living in secret veiled communities for centuries, were hidden and thus not affected by this, though they're pretty sure that the humans were all wiped out. At least, that's what Nikolai, a young magically-talented officer (with a traumatic past) in the year 2120, has always been told.

Meanwhile, outside the veil, a young human cybernetically-enhanced woman named Jem, who remembers the machine uprising ten years earlier (she has her own tramatic past), and who mostly escaped because they were on the way to a colony on Venus at the time, is working as a courier, escorting a rare pregnant woman (unaffected by the fertility plagues the machines spread) through the fringes of Philadelphia.

The two stories go back and forth for several chapters in what seems like an attempt to sow confusion in the reader about the inconsistencies between the two versions of the timeline, which mostly led me to conclude that either these are literally parallel worlds, or that the mages are severely misinformed about the last century of history outside the veils. Or, presumably, most of them are misinformed but the ones at the top are all in on it and keeping the secret for their own reasons.

It seems like a bit of a hodgepodge. Part The Matrix, part Harry Potter (the mages have a sport named "flyball" that seems a lot of like Quidditch without broomsticks), part Brandon Sanderson/Brent Weeks (the flavour of the actual magic system), part Children of Men, part Wool (for the sheltered society ignorant of the world outside)… But I guess that means it's not too derivative, because of the variety of sources?

The biggest problem with it, really, is that the story clearly is not finished…but, in the five years since its release, no further books have come out. The author still seems to be actively posting on Instagram, and I found a Reddit post which said that as of two years ago the sequel was finished (and apparently there are supposed to be four books total), so I hazard a guess that the roadblocks are publishing-related. Like, his editor, Navah Wolfe, bought the first book for Saga Press, but moved on, so he might be editorially orphaned, leading to Saga passing on later books, so he'd have to be looking for a new publisher, or giving up and self-publishing (or just giving up). Always awkward--ask my wife who has two self-published sequels to the books that Scholastic published twenty-some years ago, because no other publisher would take them without rights to the first two. (Diana Rowland managed it somehow, but mostly it just doesn't work.) So I may hang on to this one and await further news (which presumably he'd post on Instagram or something…)

Ben Aaronovitch: Whispers Under Ground, completed March 31

Most of the urban fantasy series out there had female authors and female protagonists; I tend to call this the "post-Buffy" wave--before that, it felt like "urban fantasy" was more like Charles de Lint, with people in and around cities coming into contact with fairies and the like. Although stuff like Tanya Huff's "Blood Ties" series was also around back then, and that's clearly very close to what we call urban fantasy these days. Anyway. There are a few male authors as well, Jim Butcher the most famous, and Kevin Hearne, but they have a different flavour to them. And then there's Ben Aaronovitch, which is different again, being very British. Which is all just a way of saying that, while I normally try not to read too-similar books too close together, this doesn't really feel very much like the Patricia Briggs book I read a couple of weeks ago.

I'm a bit behind on this series--I read Midnight Riot (the North American retitled version of Rivers of London) some time ago, and Moon Over Soho more recently but still a while ago. But my wife was just reading the latest, Amongst Our Weapons, from the library, and apparently it's full of Monty Python references (in the chapter titles, if nothing else), and my eldest son was just reading Midnight Riot (apparently he'd heard that this series's magic system is vaguely similar to the system from the Ars Magica RPG we've been playing recently), so it felt like time to revisit it. My memory is of course a little fuzzy, but my overall impression is that this book is a little more police-procedural murder mystery than the previous two. Definitely there is a murder to solve, and there is a lot of interaction with other police (and an American FBI agent). Definitely a certain amount of underground (including sewers), as the title implies (so it's not just the London Underground). I enjoyed it and will have to try to revisit the series a little more frequently.

And that's it for the prose fiction books for March. For completeness I can also add in a graphic novel I squeezed in (literally just finished it before midnight on the 31st). See, one of the podcasts I've been listening to for a while is the "Endless" podcast, about the Sandman, cohosted by Lani Diane Rich and Alisa Kwitney. Kwitney, who was a former DC editor, particularly on Sandman itself, also apparently did a series for Ahoy Comics called "G.I.L.T.", which they were shilling on the podcast, so I thought I'd give it a try. I got my library to order what turned out to be a collection of the first five issues (I guess I'm not sure if there are more, but I wouldn't be surprised). "G.I.L.T." apparently stands for something like "Guild of Independent Lady Temporalists", though I'm not sure such a guild actually turned up… Anyway, two women, 70ish Hildy and 50ish Trista, get sent back in time to 1973, though Trista wasn't supposed to come along; they try to deal with their respective pasts, linked by a creepy cult-leader type that Hildy was engaged to and Trista's mother was a follower of. They're not supposed to be able to change anything, but they're also not supposed to both go back at once, so things get a little screwy. I wasn't 100% sold on it, but it was interesting.

And now I am actually reading The Raven Tower, but that'll be for next month's post.

#Lois McMaster Bujold #Vorkosigan #Ben Aaronovich #Patricia Briggs #Steven Barnes #Shaun Barger #Natalie Zina Walchots #Jeffrey Cranor #Janina Matthewson #Within The Wires #books #reading #Alisa Kwitney

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yegarts · 1 year

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“I Am YEG Arts” Series: Layla Folkmann

Layla Folkmann, photo provided by the artist.

Ever looked around a room full of talented peers and wondered if you had the secret sauce to stay in the game? If you ask Layla Folkmann, she’ll tell you there’s no secret to it at all—just stubbornness, consistency, and fortitude. Some days, that looks like slogging through the rough patches. Other days, it looks like international success. No matter what the day though, Folkmann is never without gratitude for her unshakable foundation—one built on encouragement and education, with no backup plan in sight.

Mural artist, painter, and public-art advocate, this week’s “I Am YEG Arts” story belongs to Layla Folkmann.

Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and how it’s influenced your path.

As a free-range child of artist parents, I have many fond memories of being immersed in the Edmonton arts scene. From running through gallery openings and eating an excess of cheese off unattended platters, to bouncing restlessly in theatre seats, these early experiences have undeniably influenced my life in both obvious and imperceptible ways.

Education and early encouragement are undeniably the foundation on which my art career rests. I attended Victoria Composite School and the Grant MacEwan Fine Arts program, which provided a solid technical vocabulary that I consistently apply to my work to this day. It’s all these elements that have allowed me to confidently throw myself into the professional realm with the knowledge that I could make it work as an artist.

What themes are you drawn to in your work?

Luminosity and vibrant harmonious colours are aesthetic themes that I work with in all aspects of my painting practice, whether abstracts, portraiture, or large-scale mural work. I'm constantly searching for exciting colour combinations in the world around me to translate into my painting.

Honest portraits of real people is another consistent theme that my artistic collaborator, Lacey Jane, and I explore in our public mural work (Lacey & Layla Art). We find portraiture to be a compelling tool to encourage human connectedness by representing authentic members of a community and, hopefully, strengthening local pride. We aim to celebrate each community's unique character and urban diversity and to highlight community members and the human experience. We also explore what we like to call “techno nature,” which is a combination of design-based graphic elements and natural scenes. These pieces are our exploration into our contemporary interpretation of the natural world.

How do large-scale murals and public art play to your strengths as a storyteller?

By the nature of their size and location, murals can be an impactful and compelling storytelling tool. They are accessible in public spaces and memorable with their imposing format. People have explored this format from prehistoric cave paintings and the Mexican revolution, to the graffiti in New York subway stations. The power of the format is undeniable, reaching everyday people in everyday places.

Art speaks a universal language, and what continues to excite me about public murals is that they remove both the real and perceived barriers of a gallery or museum space and release artwork into the public sphere.

Public art has an unparalleled ability to transform urban—and even rural—spaces into an open living gallery that is free and accessible to everyone. It redefines communal areas and creates new opportunities for engagement, curiosity, appreciation, and ownership for the beautification of often neglected or forgotten spaces.

Each story we tell is curated to the space and the community in which we create the artwork. Each new location provides an opportunity for a new narrative to touch on the core aspects of the neighbourhood and the people who exist within it.

Top: Colour Outside the Lines by LALA, photo provided. Bottom: Larger Than Life A Mr. Chi Pig mural by LALA, photo provided.

What’s the first thing you ever made that inspired your artistic path? Did you know then that you’d unlocked something?

It has always been clear to me that art is what I was going to do; there was just never any other option. The form in which my career took was a happy accident and had everything to do with timing and chance. When I envisioned a career in the visual arts as a youth, becoming a mural artist wasn’t even on the radar. One opportunity presented itself, which led to the next, and then I ended up here. Luckily for me, there has been an international boom for mural art and I got on board early enough and have been riding that wave for over 10 years now. It seems that there is a new appreciation on the part of funding agencies and municipalities for the inherent value that murals can bring to a community.

Tell us a little about LALA (Lacey & Layla Art) and what that collaboration has meant to you.

My artistic collaboration with Lacey Jane has been fundamental to my continued growth as an artist. We initially met while studying Fine Arts at Grant MacEwan University in 2009 and have nurtured our “artnership” ever since. It is surprising to everyone, including ourselves, that we’ve maintained such a close friendship after the hundreds of travel hours and months of 12+ working hours a day in the rain, snow, and +40C heat. Each project has its unique challenges and unforeseen obstacles, but humour continues to be our greatest coping tool. Our enthusiasm for art is what brought us together, and it’s what continues to fuel our creative partnership. Together we push each other to take on bigger and more ambitious creative challenges.

What’s one piece of advice someone gave you growing up that turned out to be true. What’s one piece that didn’t hold up?

A professor of mine once mentioned that stubbornness, consistency, and fortitude are the qualities it takes to become a successful professional artist—not raw talent or early success. I see this truth demonstrated consistently within my artistic peer group. The people who make it work just simply do it, and then they keep doing it. They slog through the rough patches, make the right connections, and see it out the other side.

“Have a backup plan” was advice that didn’t hold up for me, personally. Perhaps it seems reckless to bet all your chips on red, but fully committing gave me the determination and motivation to pursue my passion without deviation or distraction.

What does community mean to you, and where do you find it?

Community is quite simply who one surrounds themselves with. I believe in making active choices rather than passive choices about those who remain in my close sphere. I consider those who I surround myself with to be a defining aspect of who I become as a person. I aim to have a community that I admire, full of positive, enthusiastic, and hard-working people who challenge and encourage me to become more of that myself.

Portraits by Layla Folkmann, photos provided by the artist.

When you’re struggling to stay on task, what’s your favourite way to procrastinate?

Productive procrastination seems to be a method I'm particularly fond of. I tell myself I can concentrate better when I “clean out my corners,” but I have a suspicion that is just an advanced avoidance technique. I also collect hobbies, such as soapmaking, felting, fermenting, carpentry, etc. Any of these can take precedence at inopportune times.

Tell us a little about what you’re currently working on or hoping to explore next.

My most substantial and challenging venture to date has been designing and building my own tiny house on wheels. It has been an ongoing, character-building exercise in creative problem-solving and patience, but it has me hooked. I am thrilled with the range of new skills it has taught me and the obstacles I've overcome. I did a whole lot of things wrong the first time before I could eventually get them right.

New and exciting mural projects with LALA are always in the works, and the winter months are dedicated to planning the next mural tour. Summers in Canada seem to disappear pretty quickly, but the winter allows me to decompress, plan, and create some studio work.

Most of my artistic career has been about mastering realism and representational work, but over the last few years, I have been exploring abstract painting to take a break from portraiture and the faithful replication of photographs. My abstracts provide me with a much-needed refuge in the pleasures of simple colour, light, and composition.

What excites you most about the YEG arts scene right now?

After relocating to Montreal for nine years and then returning to Edmonton, I’ve viewed the strength and quality of the YEG arts scene through a new lens. What I used to view as small, I now can appreciate for its intimacy, strength, warmth, and tight-knit community. The YEG support that our mural work has received throughout the years has been quite touching, and I feel quite at home.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here all year and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Layla Folkmann, Lacey & Layla Art, and more.

A Charm by LALA, photo provided.

About Layla Folkmann

Layla Folkmann is an Edmonton-born internationally recognized mural artist and painter. She studied Fine Art at Grant MacEwan University (2009), École d'Enseignement Supérieur d'Art de Bordeaux (2015), and graduated with distinction from Concordia University in Montreal (2016) with a major in painting. For over a decade, she has dedicated her practice to socially and culturally engaged public art as part of LALA (Lacey & Layla Art) while fostering a passion for portraiture, realism, and the representation of compelling characters. Layla has collaborated on hundreds of murals across Canada and internationally in places such as Iceland, France, and northern Uganda. Layla has travelled extensively, having backpacked through nearly 40 countries. Over the past decade, she has received numerous grants, notable public projects and awards such as the 2021 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award. Layla is currently designing and building her own self-sufficient tiny house and maintains a full-time studio practice in her home town.

#yeg #yegarts #yegmurals #edmontonarts #IamYegArts #artistfeature #public art

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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“Ford Strike Second In Numbers,” Windsor Star. November 26, 1942. Page 3. ---- Only Winnipeg Walkout Involved More Men Than 13,500 Out in Row Here ---- A study of available records shows that the strike at the Ford Motor Company of Canada war plants, affecting an estimated 13.500 workers, is overshadowed in numbers only by the sympathetic general strike at Winnipeg in May, 1919. which involved about 27,000 emploves.

SYMPATHETIC STRIKES The work stoppage in Winnipeg, stemming from a dispute which members of the metal trades there had with their employers over wage increases and the question of a 44-hour week, led to the calling of sympathetic strikes in Brandon, Man., Calgary, Edmonton. Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, Sask.

After the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council had championed the cause of the striking metal workers, street railwaymen. elevator men, postal employes, clerical and stenographic workers, employes of department stores and some classes of railway and municipal workers stopped work in sympathy with the strikers.

Later, newspaper pressmen struck, being joined by telephone, telegraph and electrical workers and cutting Winnipeg off from communication with the outside world. Processions, demonstrations and rioting followed, resulting in casualties, including one death.

LEADERS ARRESTED On June 17, seven labor leaders who had taken prominent part in the strike were arrested on charges of seditious conspiracy, and on June 25 a royal commission of inquiry was requested by the strike committee and subsequently held. Within a few days there was a general return to work.

Of the strike leaders arrested, six were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment April 6. 1920, five for one i year and one for six months.

In 1924, more than 7.000 coal miners in Alberta and British Columbia engaged in a walkout which lasted from April until October, and caused a time loss of more than 1.000. 000 working days.

Approximately 11,500 Nova Scotia coal miners were involved in a walkout in 1925, and before this dispute was settled they had lost nearly 1.500.000 working days. Disputes in the mining industry accounted for slightly more than 90 percent of the total time lost through work stoppages that year.

CAUSES OF FRICTION Records of industrial disputes show that from 1901 to 1936 changes in wages constituted the most, important cause of friction between employers and employes.

Since 1936, however, union questions, chiefly union recognition, the discharge of workers for union activity or membership and the employment of union members only in closed shops have led to many strikes and caused about 40 percent of the total time lost.

Most of the important disputes after 1931 occurred in textile and clothing manufacturing, logging, saw-milling and wood-working industries, with a substantial number arising in coal mining.

In 1941, strikes in the mining and metal manufacturing industries caused three-quarters of the time loss, which that year was greatest in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec. The principal disputes involved gold miners at Kirkland Lake, Ont., coal miners at Glace Bay, N.S., metal products factory workers at Toronto and St. Catharines. Ont., aluminum workers at Arviria. Que., and steel rolling-mill workers at Montreal.

Ford Plant Gates Are Closely Picketed TYPICAL of the manner in which the tightly-guarded gates of the Ford Plant were picketed this morning is shown here. The man directly in the centre of the croup of pickets, carrying a parcel, identified himself as a painter who had been previously denied admission to Plant 2. He is shown as he was surrounded by pickets at the door of the main office where he evidently intended to learn his status. As an hourly-rated employe, he was meat for the pickets because they have instructions not to admit any in that category. The photographer who took this picture, contrary to picketing instructions, was told to get out of the vicinity of the plant or have his car overturned and his camera smashed. The union denied instructions had been issued to bar photographers.

#windsor #strike #ford motor company #auto workers #picket line #picketing #picketers #working class struggle #working class politics #united auto workers #winnipeg general strike #winnipeg #canadian history #canada during world war 2

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rrs1188 · 2 months

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Skip the Mess, Embrace the Freshness: Why Hiring Rapid Repair Services for Your Edmonton Home's Paint Job is the Smart Choice

A fresh coat of paint is magic. It can transform a tired Edmonton living room into a vibrant oasis or turn a dull kitchen into a culinary haven. But before you grab a paintbrush and a questionable DIY attitude, consider the many benefits of hiring professional painters from Rapid Repair Services.

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Peace of Mind Comes Standard: Licensed and Insured Professionals

Rapid Repair Services is a licensed and insured company. That means you have the peace of mind of knowing you're protected in case of any accidents or damages during the project. They'll handle everything from furniture moving to drop cloths, ensuring a stress-free experience for you. You can relax and focus on the exciting part – choosing the perfect paint color!

Rapid Repair Services: Your Edmonton Painting Experts

Located right here in Edmonton, Rapid Repair Services offers exceptional service and top-notch craftsmanship for all your painting needs. They can handle everything from a single room refresh to a whole-home makeover. Their team is dedicated to providing a clean, efficient, and professional service that leaves you with a beautifully painted space you'll love.

Invest in Lasting Beauty and Value

A professional paint job from Rapid Repair Services is an investment in the beauty and value of your Edmonton home. A fresh coat of paint not only enhances the aesthetics of your space but can also increase its resale value.

Contact Rapid Repair Services Today!

Skip the mess, the stress, and the questionable DIY results. Contact Rapid Repair Services today for a free consultation and quote. They'll discuss your vision, recommend the perfect paint colors, and get your home looking its absolute best. Let them handle the painting, so you can relax and embrace the fresh, beautiful transformation of your Edmonton space.

#painting #home repair #business #repair #commercial #handyman services

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arumlilyedmonton · 3 months

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Roses Bouquets At Arum Lily Flower Shop. #online #orderonline

Arum Lilly Flower Shop Edmonton, 17006-100 Avenue, North-West, Edmonton, Alberta T5S 2E7 CANADA. Arum Lilly Flower Shop has been open for over 18 years in the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We're a Back-to-Back Gold Winner for Readers Choice Awards in the Best Florist and Flower Shop in Edmonton. 2024 Top Choice Flower Shop in the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Order Now at www.arumlily.ca

We deliver within all of Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan, Devon, Morinville, Nisku, Leduc, Beaumont, Spruce Grove, Sturgeon County, Parkland County, Strathcona County, Stony Plain, Parkland County and any place in between!

We are a proud & independent woman-owned business! We care about each & every flower that leaves our shop to ensure the best quality and your happiness! We will do everything in our power to make you happy because we care!

You can order flower arrangements online 24 hours a day and seven days a week for your shopping convenience. Order Online by 2:00 pm and have the same-day delivery. After 2:00 pm, please call us at 780-475-3545, toll-free at 1-855-475-3545 or email at [email protected] We are proud of providing the best service, designs and quality of flower arrangements to our customers in Edmonton and the surrounding area.

Our passion for flowers, in-depth product knowledge and incredible attention to detail guarantee that you'll be sure to find the arrangements that work for you, no matter what the occasion ~ Beauty In Bloom! If you don't see anything you love on our website, give us a call.

betterworkplaces #painter #partofthechange #painttochange #yegbusiness #yycbusiness #powerofcolor #yegentrepreneur #yycentrepreneur #yycpainter #yegpainter #yegcontractor #yyccontractor #yycconstruction #yegconstruction #lovewhatyoudo #dutchflowers #dutchmarket #floristsofinstagram #flowerart #yegflowers #yegbossbabes #buyflowersfromaflorist #gorgeous #amazingfinds #amazingflowers #flowermarket #yeglocal #yegflowers #yegflowershop #flowers #yeg #edmonton #alberta #exploreedmonton #yegbased #showlove #yeglove #stayhome #staysafe #sendflowers #yegmoms #madeinedmonton #madeinyeg #yegbusiness #edmontonhospital #albertababy #yegmom #yegblogger #shoplocalyeg #canadianbabies #yegbossbabes #shopedmonton #edmontonbaby #yeghealth

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canadianjobbank · 4 months

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Apply now: https://canadianjobbank.org/painter-helper-construction-2/

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franksautobody · 4 months

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Frank's Auto Body: Expert Auto Body Repair Services: From Dents to Full Restorations

Are you in search of a Trusted Auto Body Shop in Edmonton that can handle everything from minor dents to full vehicle restorations? Look no further than Frank's Auto Body! We are your one-stop solution for all your Auto Body Repair Needs in Edmonton and surrounding areas.

With years of experience and a team of skilled technicians, Frank's Auto Body has established itself as the Best Auto Body Shop in Edmonton. We take pride in our commitment to excellence, ensuring that every vehicle that comes through our doors receives the highest quality care and attention to detail.

Whether your car has been involved in a minor fender bender or requires extensive collision repair, our experts are here to help. At Frank's Auto Body, we specialize in collision repair and are equipped to handle any job, big or small. From frame straightening to panel replacement, we have the expertise and tools necessary to restore your vehicle to its pre-accident condition.

In addition to collision repair, we also offer a wide range of other services to meet your auto body needs. Our Car Paint Shop in Edmonton is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to ensure flawless color matching and a factory finish every time. Whether you need a touch-up or a complete repaint, you can trust our skilled painters to deliver stunning results.

At Frank's Auto Body, we understand that accidents happen, which is why we offer affordable and Cheap Auto Body Repair in Edmonton. We believe that everyone deserves access to high-quality auto body services, regardless of their budget. That's why we strive to keep our prices competitive without compromising on quality.

In addition to collision repair and painting, we also specialize in rust repair, dent repair, scratch repair, and more. No matter what type of damage your vehicle has sustained, you can count on us to restore it to its former glory.

When it comes to Auto Body Repair in Edmonton, trust the experts at Frank's Auto Body. Contact us today to schedule an appointment or stop by our shop to see why we're the top choice for drivers in Edmonton and beyond

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galaxypainting · 4 months

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Hi Everyone I'm Mohamad Tegiri, owner of Galaxy Painting Ltd., based in NW Edmonton, Canada, and our company provides painting services in Edmonton, interior painting Edmonton, exterior painting Edmonton, residential painting Edmonton, and commercial painting Edmonton services. We possess the expertise and dedication to bring your vision to life.

#Painting services Edmonton #Interior Painting Edmonton #Exterior Painting Edmonton

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yegarts · 1 year

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"I am YEG Arts" Series: Jeff Collins

Jeff Collins at Collins Studio Gallery. Photo provided by the artist.

For Jeff Collins, the key to having a successful career as an artist is showing up every day. His consistency and commitment have defined his long career. “The inspiration shows up when you’re at work,” are words he lives by. At the end of his studies, advice he received from his Red Deer College painting instructor, Joseph Reeder, to “forget everything he’d been taught,” inspired him to lock himself away in his studio for six months and shut out all distractions. During that pivotal time nearly 30 years ago, his practice in landscape painting took form, and he’s maintained a studio in Edmonton ever since. In 2019, he took a big leap with the opening of Collins Studio Gallery, which serves as his working studio, a classroom where he teaches oil painting, and a gallery that welcomes community and is an exhibition space for emerging artists and curators to show their work.

This week on the YEG Arts blog, we catch up with Jeff Collins.

Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and what keeps you living and working here.

I was born in Edmonton and studied through high school here. I moved away for about ten years and during that time, I lived in Jasper. In Jasper, I had my first apartment and when I wanted to put art up on the walls, everything I saw was just cliché posters, and so I thought “I can do better than this, look at all the scenery around Jasper.” My mother was a painter, so it was always part of my life although I didn’t pursue it much until then. With some encouragement from those who saw my early work, I decided to study art and design at Red Deer College [now known as Red Deer Polytechnic] and the University of Alberta. I then went on to Grant MacEwan Community College [now MacEwan University] to study arts administration.

After returning to Edmonton, it was really the first time I was part of the arts community here and it was just so supportive and amazing. Some of the highlights for me at that time (the early nineties) was the Works Art & Design Festival. They were so, so instrumental in creating community and making Edmonton a supportive place for artists. Latitude 53 was an influential gallery for me, also Arts Habitat Edmonton, and of course the amazing river valley and the fabulous people here. I’ve been here ever since working away as an artist and really being part of the community.

By Jeff Collins (left to right clockwise): Turtle in the Woods 001, acrylic on paper; Heartland, acrylic on canvas; and King of the North, acrylic on canvas. Photo provided by the artist.

What’s one of the biggest professional risks you’ve taken, and how did it influence where you are today?

As an artist, you take risks every single day and you’re putting yourself out there, and if you’re true to your craft, you’re really pulling deep inside of you to pull that out and to put it out there, where other people can see it. That’s always so risky. It’s kind of like every day as an artist is a risk. I worked at the Alberta Craft Council for many years and when I decided to quit and work full-time in my studio, that was a pretty huge risk financially. I am very happy that I did that, though it’s always been a gig-to-gig kind of thing since, and I worked out of my studio between contract positions. It’s been four years — I can’t believe it — since I opened Collins Studio Gallery! I signed a lease, and I trusted that if this is meant to be, it was going to happen. So, leaving my full-time job and signing the lease on where I am now and opening a gallery — where I also teach classes and have my studio — were all big risks! Sometimes I think “well I don’t take any risks,” but other times I think, “well, I guess everything I do is kind of risky,” depending on how you look at it.

What does community mean to you, and where do you find it?

One thing I enjoy about Edmonton is that the art community is so supportive, diverse, and I find it’s non-competitive. When I think of community, what I really think of is everyone really supporting each other and looking after each other and knowing that you can rely on that community when you’re having hard times. I find that so rich in Edmonton. There are great things about other cities for sure, but I feel there’s a little more competition elsewhere. I find Edmonton is a lot more collaborative, even in between disciplines, for instance musicians and dancers will team up with painters to put on a show, and that’s really cool!

I’ve met some great people. Will Truchon and Vince Gasparri, whom I’ve known since Red Deer College days, and I have decided to pool our resources and talents to bring some exciting visual art and collaborative events, including experimental electronic music to the gallery [Collins Studio Gallery]. The idea is to stimulate an even more collaborative and dynamic art community in Edmonton where people are allowed to take risks creatively and have it shown before the public.

This is what I want my gallery to be, a community gallery where I can facilitate things that aren’t necessarily shown in other places and if I can allow that to happen, I mean I’ve got the space and if you’ve got an idea, come to me and let’s see how we can make it happen.

sKiN performs live in front of collaborative paintings from Stop, Drop, and Paint at Collins Studio Gallery. sKiN features Jason Dublanko on lead guitar and vocals, Tim Rechner on drums, and Mike Garth on saxophone. Photo provided by the artist.

Tell us about how collaborating has changed the direction of your work.

One of the music events at my gallery, we call “Shapes and ‘Scapes,” is where we team up musicians with painters to do an experimental electronic improv music and painting set. Usually, it’s a 20-minute set and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve become a lot more experimental in my work and one reason is that I was involved in a “Shapes and ‘Scapes.” I completed a painting in the time frame whereas it usually takes me a month or so to make a landscape painting. I really wanted to see what I could do and really push myself to experiment, and I came up with something that I thought was interesting, and from there I’ve really pushed my painting. Another reason that my work is in the experimental stage is that during Covid, like many of us, there was some personal tragedy in my family, and because of that I decided to take a year off, a kind of sabbatical away from painting. It’s been almost a year now since I’ve come back to it.

What qualities overlap in being an artist, teacher, and gallery owner? How have you grown most in each role?

They overlap in that they all involve getting over fears, that’s for sure. With painting, looking deep inside of yourself and bringing that forward, that’s kind of a fearful act to do, to be really honest with yourself and bring something out that other people can see. When I first started out teaching, I was really fearful, I wanted my students to like me and didn’t want to waste their time. But then, I realized that with that fear, I was thinking of myself! I was able to turn it around and focus on each student. And as a gallery owner, again I keep on thinking, what can I give to people? Not, “oh I hope they like my gallery when they come in,” it’s like what can I give to them because they’ve come in here and maybe they want to learn something about art or maybe they’ve never been in an art gallery, and I try to make my space really kind of a community gallery. How I’ve grown in each role is just an evolution.

Earlier landscape paintings in oil by Jeff Collins (left to right): Islet Lake; Tamarack in Jasper; Lake Isle. Photo provided by the artist.

Tell us about what you’re currently working on or hoping to explore next.

For the nearly 30 years that I’ve been painting, I’ve been painting pretty traditional, great Canadian landscapes. For a while now I’ve wanted to push that in a new direction and with the “Shapes and ‘Scapes,” where I had 20 minutes in front of people to actually do it, I just got out of my way and made it happen. It took a long time for that 20 minutes to actually happen. I’m now exploring symbols that have meaning to me, and they may be symbols that other people use or have picked up on but they’re all symbols from my life that I’ve experienced. There’s also a spiritual aspect to my work. At one time it was all about me being present in this time, in this world, in this physical realm, so it was very important to me to paint actual places and get inspiration on location and take that back into the studio. Now it’s more like ok, that’s my physical body or physical being speaking to my spiritual being and now I feel like exploring symbols and what they mean to me and now it’s the other way around and my spiritual being is reacting to the physical world around me.

Recent abstracts (acrylic, oil, collage and gel transfer) and a winter landscape in oil by Jeff Collins. Photo provided by the artist.

What excites you most about the YEG arts scene right now?

After two years of not going out and seeing hardly anything, it all really excites me. I did a music show in my gallery last month where it was sold out, there were about 35 people in here — it’s a small gallery! The collaborative work that’s going on between different disciplines excites me, the festivals coming back and gaining traction, I love that. I’m really excited about what’s going on in the Alberta Avenue district, and Arts on the Ave is spearheading all of those things. The Kaleido Family Arts Festival and Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival, for me, they are my favourite festivals in Edmonton because they’re so eclectic and you get to see it all in such a short period of time, it is a lot of fun. I’m really excited to see where things are going to go next, as well. I’ll quote the Tragically Hip, “bring on a brand-new renaissance.” It’s what I feel we’re going into here, a rebirth.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Jeff Collins and Collins Studio Gallery.

About Jeff Collins

Jeff Collins is an artist living in Edmonton, with nearly 30 years of studio practice. His formal studies were at Red Deer College (now known as Red Deer Polytechnic) and the University of Alberta. Jeff has received many awards and recognition for his artwork, notably the Telus Courage to Innovate in the Arts Award. In 2013/14 he served as the City of Edmonton’s inaugural Artist in Residence. His paintings have sold nationally and internationally. As an art educator and facilitator, he strives to connect people to art and creativity, encouraging skill-building, laughter and personal growth.

While he’s made a name for himself painting landscapes in oil for most of his career as an artist, he also loves to paint still-lifes, figures and almost anything else he sees and encounters in the natural world. Jeff is also fascinated with abstraction and using the properties of paint with the formal elements of painting and drawing to express emotions and captivate viewers.

In 2019, Jeff opened Collins Studio Gallery in the area of Alberta Avenue in Edmonton. It serves as his working studio, classroom where he teaches beginner and advanced oil painting, and exhibition space where emerging artists and curators are given an opportunity to show their work in front of a public audience.

#yeg #yegarts #yegpainting #edmontonarts #IamYegArts #artistfeature #yeggallery #yegpainter

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