XLife
Birds of a Feather Art Project
Faith, Democracy and Nature
Cover Art: The Alberta Legislature Diamond Willow Tree located on the back lawns where weather, politics, and personal stories cross paths. In May 2016, it became part of mine. On the day of May 19, 2016, Sarah and I stood beside this tree, facing east into a sky dimmed by wildfire smoke. We said our vows in that half‑glow, wrapped in the stillness of a province in crisis, the smoke settling over the Legislature grounds like a veil. That same year, I was deep in my Fire and Rain art project — 25 paintings, 160 public shows, and a province moving through fire, flood, and renewal. a moment in Alberta’s history — personal freedoms and civic courage featured into one canvas.
2026-05-13, Paint day under a bright sky, soaking in vitamin D. Gratitude to every contributor — including one government MLA who helped revive this 2019 painting, "The Legislature has no Dome, Unity" with a renewal of spring of green leaves prior to the thorny rose stems before the white rose.
Flip the canvas, and you meet its counterpart: The Grande Stage Democracy. Along the baseline and beside the cross, new flowers bloom — painted by dozens of hands, from kids to elders. They mark renewal, just like the rose bushes rising today from the top of the Legislature, reclaiming the space where the dome once stood. Back in 2022, HBO’s TV Series, 'The Last of Us' turned the Legislature into its film set before blowing up the Legislature's dome, using CGI, for thier season one.
Art is Freedom
Left Stage, Exit Right, Free from ARTifICE
Life’s too short for small labels. XL Life - Home of my personal 'LISTEN Label Fashion Wear, worn inside civic galleries T-shirts and Sports Jersey Cover-Ups. Outside Summer Caps and Winter Toques of Alberta.
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Cover Art: Between Friends. Montana, Alberta border,🍁US."Your job is more important than your family; without a job, you have no family." Edmonton Sun Pressroom Forman. My thanks and gratitude to all my employers in the Newspaper Industry, Bob Chittick, Web Offset Publications. The Toronto, and Edmonton Suns, Webcom, and The Edmonton Journal.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”― Calvin Coolidge
“Art is made for people to react. Having a position means what you are doing is needed and it is creating change. In the long term, a lot of people are going to appreciate it.” — Venezuelan woman, 2017, Not a Bystander Art Project, Show and Tell, LISTEN, Alberta Legislature Grounds.
The Red Italian Coffee Pot
Happy Rest, Red Dress, and Recycle Bin
Happy Rest: a female-shaped Italian red coffee pot simmering on the front, flanked by pizza slices and the City of Edmonton emblem, all garnished with words along the edways by a local word‑chef known as the Ukrainian Sausage. Flip it over, and the backside serves as a memory of an Indigenous Red Dress, and asparagus exploding out of a recycling can like a vegetable firework. Enjoy, and Bon appétit!
