blogTO | Posts by andreamethot

Putting A ($2 Million) Price On Art

Andrea Methot — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:30:50 PDT

While you were at work yesterday, maybe feeling a little guilty about that $5 latte you just bought, a man named Ash Prakash was down on King St., spending almost $2 million on a painting. This painting pictured, in fact - Tom Thomson's Pine Trees At Sunset.

You've probably come across this story already, because it's smashed Canadian art auction records. Estimated to go for $900,000 to $1 million, by the time all was said and done, the final price tag was $1,957,000.

But the thing that gets me is a little detail dropped into CTV's story: that 12 years ago, this very same painting went up for auction at $65,000, and didn't sell.

(You'll have to watch the video to hear that fact; it's not mentioned in the write-up.)

What causes a painting to skyrocket in value like that? Some are citing Thomson's mysterious death, but that was in 1917, so you'd think this would have caught our attention sometime before today.

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The Best Baked Treats in Toronto

Andrea Methot — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:59:06 PDT

Narrowing down Toronto's best baked treats is hard. I mean, really hard. I doubt there's a neighbourhood in this city that doesn't have something delicious to offer. Buttery croissants, crumbly scones, chewy brownies, gooey danishes - there's no shortage of sweet treats out there.

Salivating already? The list below is just a starting point to discover Toronto's best cakes, cookies and pies - oh my!

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AGO's New Logo: Yay or Nay?

Andrea Methot — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:58:16 PDT

The AGO has a new logo, and this ... is it. Done by Toronto design overlord Bruce Mau, the new logo is -- well, to be honest, looking at it on the computer monitor like this is kind of giving me a headache. Or making me feel like I'm wearing those red and blue 3D glasses. I'm curious to see how it'll look when it's 100x this size.

Other than the cross-eyed feeling though, I kind of like this -- I think it's simple, but still interesting. Plus, in a year it's going to be so ubiquitous that we won't even remember what the old logo looked like. (Though if you're interested, here's a kind of neat logo retrospective that the AGO put together. I'm really liking the classiness of the 70s. (There's a sentence I never thought I'd type.))

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Art At The Toronto Zoo Has A Green Message

Andrea Methot — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:16:01 PDT

We've been talking a bit about zoos this week, and we always love a good plastic bag discussion, and now here's something that combines both: a new art show at the Toronto Zoo that uses plastic bags to bring attention to the environmental issues facing the moon jellyfish.

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'Toronto Noir' Imagines A Dark New Toronto

Andrea Methot — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:45:00 PDT

Toronto Noir, which launched last night at the Gladstone, is exactly what I've been waiting for. It's a book of short stories set in Toronto, but the stories are plot-based and non-boring, and the Toronto is dark and dangerous -- but familiar too.

These are stories of murder, passion, betrayal, (and a little necrophilia, just for good measure. What up, George Elliott Clarke?) and they're grounded very firmly and specifically in Toronto -- Dundas Square, The Beach, Dufferin Mall, Yorkville, etc.

I remember once Bert Archer, a Toronto journalist writing in uTOpia: Towards A New Toronto, described Toronto as "a city which exists in no one's imagination". To which I would like to say: Bullshit.

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The Best DIY Spots In Toronto

Andrea Methot — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:38:07 PDT

There's something so satisfying about having someone say to you, "I like your t-shirt/bag/earrings" and being able to respond with, "Thanks, I made it myself!"

And sure, you look like a huge keener but still.

The Do-It-Yourself mentality is wide-spread these days. The internet has been a big part of that (especially recently, with monster blogs like Craft: and Make:), but DIYers start (and grow) in real-life communities.

And Toronto has built a great DIY community. From hobbyists to those who subscribe to a whole DIY lifestyle, do-it-yourself-ers keep coming together to pool their resources, skills and ideas.

Keep reading to discover some of the best DIY spots in Toronto.

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'Domestic Science' Electrifies The Everyday

Andrea Methot — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:12:26 PDT

I admit, it was the name 'Domestic Science' that made me want to see this multimedia show, on now at the Pentimento Fine Art Gallery in Leslieville.

Although it takes inspiration from many things, it's partly a tribute to Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor responsible for incandescent lightbulbs, AC power, and wireless (radio) technology. Today, partly because of Tesla, electricity is everywhere -- animating, communicating, and radiating in every part of our lives. This neat little show aims to illustrate that, in the words of Tesla himself, ""Whoever wishes to get a true appreciation of the greatness of our age should study the history of electrical development."

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This Ain't The Rosedale Library Packs Up And Heads West

Andrea Methot — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:02:46 PDT

"What? They're MOVING?"

In just the few minutes I spent outside This Ain't The Rosedale Library, snapping the above photo, more than a dozen people walked by and stopped to exclaim over the sign. Yes, after the 22 years they've spent on Church Street, in the heart of The Village, the bookstore will be closing its doors as of May 31.

Keep reading for a bit about the current location, why they're leaving, and the plans for a new home (and focus) in Kensington Market.

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Warrior With Shells

Andrea Methot — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:44:49 PDT

Right here on blogTO we recently asked what's happening with all those zebra mussels in Lake Ontario?

Well, one thing that's happening with them is art.

The Power Plant's new (and first) commissioned art work is Simon Starling's Infestation Piece (Musselled Moore), a piece that combines those pesky zebra mussels with that pesky British artist, Henry Moore.

In a project that took almost two years, Starling made a steel replica of Moore's famous Warrior With Shield sculpture, and then submerged it in Lake Ontario so it would get covered with -- yes -- zebra mussels. When it came out of the water, the mollusks died, but their craggy shells still stick there.

It's a piece for Toronto, through and through. We've always had a bit of a thing for Henry Moore -- it's probably common knowledge that the AGO's collection of his sculptures is one of the largest in the world, and The Archer still sits outside City Hall. But in the beginning, Moore was considered an outsider, and was unwelcome by some. Much like the mollusks, which are thought to have only started showing up here about twenty years ago, on trade vessels. (Of course, the mollusks have taken over an entire body of water and threaten almost everything living in it and, to my knowledge, Henry Moore never did anything quite that bad.) Still, the pairing raises questions about the city's ecologies, about outsiders, about what we choose and what we don't get to choose.

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