Saturday, 14 June 2014

Facebook Fan Page

I have created a fan page for this blog on Facebook. In July I will be traveling to a few different cities in the United States. I currently live in Toronto, Canada. I frequently travel to New York State. In July I will be traveling to 3 different American cities. 

My first stop will be in Buffalo, New York. I frequently go to Ordo Templi Orientis events in Buffalo. This is a city I am quite familiar with. 

The next stop will be Columbus, Ohio which I have never visited. I will be staying for only 1 evening in this city. This city is known as the hometown of James Thurber. He is an American writer who I remember from high school. 

The rest of the trip will be spent in Indianapolis for the Left Hand Path Conference. This event was created in 2012 by Jeremy Crow. They took a 1 year hiatus and now it is happening again. This time I will be traveling to Indianapolis to exhibit my visual art in their art show.

Friday, 16 May 2014

Wandering Old Montreal

I spent my time walking around Old Montreal as I was waiting for the bus. The bus terminal is within walking distance of the harbor. I checked out of the hostel at noon. I went straight to the bus station. I still had 3 hours to go. I strolled around. These are some of the photographs I took of this lovely historical region.




















































































































Montreal Visit

This week I traveled to Montreal for 1 evening. I was there to pick up my art work from a month long gallery show in the plateau region. This gallery is also a restaurant which features Hungarian Cuisine. They play some Gypsy music on Sunday evenings. This gallery is called Fokus Gallerie. It is on Duluth Avenue just off of St Laurent. St Laurent is a wonderful street to spend time on. There are many interesting shops and various places to get a coffee. 

The plateua is not very far from where I was staying. I arrived at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I came by bus. The tickets I purchased through Megabus. The tickets came to $33 round trip. This trip takes 5 hours from Toronto.  

I checked in to a hostel which I had never stayed at before that night. This hostel was the HI - Montreal Backpackers Hostel. It was more expensive than I had thought. I had signed up at Hostelbookers website. This website is the one I most frequently use to determine lodgings for my travels. This hostel is one of a whole franchise. The price listed on the website was for those who have an HI membership. I didn't and it cost about $30 to stay for one evening. This included a complimentary breakfast of bagels, cereal, fruit, coffee, and orange juice. Hostebookers website is connected to a rewards program. I collect points to redeem for gift cards. There is a site called Mypoints where you are rewarded for shopping online.  Hostelbookers is one of the websites where you can collect points.

In Montreal there are many things to do. This trip was very short. I didn't get an opportunity to do very much. I merely visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I really like this art museum. I went early in the day. It was a Wednesday morning. I had to wait for the museum to open. I took some photographs of the art work outside the museum. There are various sculptures which you can see outside.


















































Saturday, 29 March 2014

Planning For The Future

I have been back in Toronto from my trip to Montreal for a couple of weeks. There will be a return trip to Montreal this April. 

I have been making many plans to travel to Detroit this summer. There are lots of inexpensive plots of land and real estate due to the city going bankrupt. I realize this city has a lot of crime. I am still going to have a look at some of the cheap real estate. I hope to move to Detroit in the coming year. I am looking forward to getting away from Toronto and starting a new life. 

I have noticed that there are activities in Detroit which appeal to me. I am a little bit nervous about the crime rate. I do feel that the lower cost of living might be a good thing for me in the future.

Saturday, 22 March 2014

Back From Montreal

I am back in Toronto from my excursion to Montreal. This trip lasted 4 nights. I arrived home on Wednesday evening. It was a 6 hour bus ride back to Toronto. I listened to music on my way back. There are lots of details from my trip that I will be adding today in blog posts. While I was traveling I found that I was generally too busy to make posts about all the activities I took part in.

There were 4 nights spent in Montreal. This was a good time. I made good use of my vacation. I had an art show. I visited the fine art museum. I attended a fundraiser for my grade school classmate's theatre project.

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Old Montreal

Yesterday I spent my time wandering Montreal. I visited many shops in Old Montreal. I had some conversations with people in art galleries. I looked at some art work. I visited some shops which sell Inuit art. This was how I spent my morning. I woke up early and began walking south to the old port.

It was about a quarter to 10. I went into a design shop. There was a man sitting there at a desk. I started to talk to him because he noticed me admiring these illustrations of celestial events. He was very enthusiastic about these pictures. He worked in the store and was a man 8 years younger than me. He was an attractive fellow who was quite tall. He talked for quite some time. I found out that he is also a visual artist.

He showed me his art work on the computer. He manually alters photographs with drawing techniques. His art work is from photographs of a freeway structure built during Expo 67. These pictures he had drawn clouds into and darkened different shadows with graphite and other materials.

After I left this store I browsed another one next door. I had been waiting for this store to open because it had many plants. I saw many terraniums with cactuses which I enjoyed. I longed to have one, but know that this is not the time to make that kind of purchase.

I left the store and browsed old Montreal. I visited many shops. There were several art galleries that I visited. I chatted with a girl. She liked my art work, but gave me a few suggetions of ways I could improve it. She works in a gallery which is owned by a Quebec painter. He does all of his art work on black canvases.

I then went to 2 seperate galleries exhibiting Inuit art. I chatted for a long time with a young woman about the work. The second shop wasn`t quite as friendly. They had polar bears rugs. There were many animal rugs with the head attached. There were fur coats and life sized stuffed polar bears. I looked at them for a while before making my way outside.

Sunday, 16 March 2014

Gallerie Fokus

I have finished hanging my 3rd solo gallery show. It is in the plateau region of Montreal. I walked over there this morning. It was a 40 minute walk from where I am staying. I hung 19 pieces. I am hoping to sell some of them. It would be nice to make a little bit of money.

This will be a fun trip. I am glad I got this out of the way. Tonight there will be live music. I feel pretty tired right now. I am thinking of taking a nap before I leave.