Essays, Articles & Interviews

A resident of Canada since 2002, award-winning visual artist and educator Bert Monterona is looking forward to a well-deserved retirement in the Philippines. But before he makes the move back home, he’s preparing a second generation of artists to take up his cause of community mural painting. “I am an artist and, at the same time, a social realist,” Monterona explains as we sit together in the East Vancouver garage that has been transformed into a studio for this project. Bef

I've spent the last few days lost in the art of Mrs. Mary Delaney, an 18th-century lady who invented a unique art form, what she called "flower mosaicks"—botanically correct representations of flowers made of bits and slivers of painted paper, cut out by hand and glued onto black backings. The mosaicks are still preserved at the British Museum, and if you can't go to see them in person, you can view them online, which is what I've been doing. The works are mesmerizing in the

We do what two people do to get to know each other. Share meals, laughter, opinions, advice. Trade stories that reveal ourselves, layer by layer. And apply questions like a pick-axe to ice: carefully chipping away to reveal the depths below, while trying not to cause any irreparable cracks. When we have lunch, we always go to the same food court, where there is a Chinese take-out counter of which my new friend, Ying*, approves. She ought to know; she’s Chinese. Not Hong Kong

An edited version of this essay was published under the title “Found in translation” in the June–July 2013 issue of Verily Magazine. One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man. ~ John Berger Soon after I moved from to Montréal from Vancouver last fall, I signed up for French classes, deciding that learning the language would be a good way to start feeling more at home in my new city. For seven week

“As long as you’re working, juggling the demands of career and personal life will probably be an ongoing challenge.”~ The Mayo Clinic In today’s hectic world, who hasn’t felt like a juggler trying to keep all the balls in play, or worse, like a tightrope walker struggling to stay on the wire? For many people, this circus act is a way of life. Wouldn’t you much rather be lying under a tree somewhere, with soft grass cushioning your back and lazy white clouds floating overhead