Under the Diamond Willow Tree
Citizen Free News from the Public Gallery
Jodi Smiles after all that...
2017, Not a Bystander Art Project
XLife
Left Stage, Exit Right: Only in 2026, after NAFTA,🍁US-Mexico free trade agreements during the Brian Mulroney years, World Trade Economy, can a simple battery change turn into a global Telus call‑centre odyssey. One wobbling chair later, I cancelled the whole plan and kept my body safe and my sanity intact. Seniors lesson: know when to step off the chair. 
Nine Afghan Boys Gathering Firewood
War & Peace, 2000, 2001, 2013, 2015, 2025.
1979, Between Friends 
Montana-Alberta foothills

Painter's Notes: This being Seniors Week, I should try to behave more like a 71‑year‑old senior, I’m thinking. Forever a child at heart, I matured some this year from my preteens — thirteen to twenty‑four — and so much more. I’m still having fun with life. Good or bad, happy or sad, life will always be a blessing in the moment. ❤ Shout out to Mom, Dad, and Sister Kate! 

Somewhere in the middle of all that “maturing,” I ended up in a full‑blown Pink Panther moment late last night— wobbling on a chair, wrestling with a door sensor while a Telus operator on opposite sides of the planet tried to guide me through a simple battery change. It was chaos disguised as customer service, a reminder of how modern systems can turn the simplest task into a global scavenger hunt. 

When I finally stepped down, yelled "Hang Up" and cancelled the whole plan, it felt like reclaiming a little sanity in a world that keeps trying to complicate the basics. Knowing when to stop fighting the current, when to let go, and when to turn a household mishap into a story that needs  sharing. The sensor broke, but I didn’t — and that small victory feels just right for Seniors Week. Thank you Telus, formerly Ed Tell, for helping me see the wasteland. 
Art is Freedom
It’s been a couple of weeks since the spring session of the Alberta 31st Legislature wrapped, and it’s been hit‑and‑miss trying to attend Edmonton City Hall meetings. The Mayor and the NDP‑leaning council often vote to move public meetings behind closed doors — or cancel them outright — leaving the city’s business happening out of sight and out of mind for me and the general public.
Thank You Virgil Abloh, Chicago, 2019 Figures of Speech. Life’s too short for small labels. XL Life - Introducing my personal 'LISTEN label wear, worn inside the galleries, T-shirts, Summer Baseball Caps and Winter Toques of Alberta. 2020, Freedom to Express and Listen Art Project.

Left Stage, Exit Right
Free from Artifice