Weekend Out of Quarantine

I suppose that is a bit of an exaggeration.  Ontario is still fairly locked down, but starting Friday restaurants could open their patios and non-essential stores (not embedded in malls) could open at 15% capacity.  This also meant that Walmart and Dollarama could let anyone go buy anything in the store.  Even on Friday, all the knickknack aisles were full (and indeed I bought some pushpins that had been off-limits for a couple of months).  Interestingly, Shoppers had never bothered to block off their aisles.

I didn't go in to any other stores on Sat., but I saw some massive line-ups while biking by.  I'm not blaming anyone in particular or throwing shade, but I simply can't imagine lining up for an hour or more to get into a Winners...

Museums are not open yet (though they should be in August if cases keep coming down).  However, private art galleries can reopen.  I swung by Bau-Xi Gallery.  I think last month they were supposed to have some Michael Wolf photos on display, so I was extremely disappointed to have missed that (though I did see a few of his Parisian rooftop photos last summer), but I was quite taken by the George Byrne photo exhibit.  I found a couple of pieces (here and here) about the artist and his technique (which apparently does involve some digital manipulation after all).  Most of the photos on display are from Miami and they have a lot of neon on display (though more clinical and abstracted than what I remember from Miami Vice).  This one reminds me just a bit of the look of a David Hockney painting, but perhaps that is just my imagination.

George Byrne, 8th Street, Miami

In the other building, they had a couple of painting exhibits going on.  I was particularly interested in Adrienne Dagg, and indeed I remember a couple of her paintings from last year.  Her current work seems to be referencing Vuillard or Matisse but then with a touch of surrealism thrown in (usually in the form of a bunch of out of place fish heads, which may itself be a nod to Mary Pratt).  I liked this one the best, though not quite enough to try to acquire it...

Adrienne Dagg, Place Setting

This art will only be up one more weekend until they start getting ready for the July shows.  I had initially thought I would hold off on visiting 401 Richmond (which also has a number of galleries) and save that for next weekend, but then John St. was closed to traffic, and I was funnelled that way after all.  I was extremely annoyed to find that the majority of stores decided to take one more week to prepare and the building was closed (at least the door I tried), so I continued on to Union Station.

My main goal was to get a lot of tax material together, as I have to amend my taxes (as well as apply retroactively for the Canadian child benefit, though that's another story).  Every year it is something new when dealing with the CRA.

I probably would have headed back to work on Sunday as well, but it rained on and off most of the day.

I did not stop by the farmers' market in Withrow Park.  Maybe next week, depending on the weather of course.  The other thing I should do, maybe when biking home this week, is to swing by the Distillery District and check out some of the outdoor artwork.