JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Book plates are little devices created especially for you; embodying your individual tastes or coat of arms. One pasted inside the front of your book not only ornaments the volume, but to the borrower with a defective memory, is a constant reminder of your ownership. - artist C. Valentine Kirby, 1911.  Sometimes, when browsing used books, you'll find a decoratively illustrated imprint or sticker indicating whose library the title once belonged too. It tells you a little about its former owner, who either cared enough to individually mark their books with illustrations that reflected their personal style, such as a sense of humour or a flair for the romantic, a tribute to family history, or betray an inflated ego. Inspired by an exhibit in Salem, Massachusetts, The Buffalo Sunday News placed a spotlight on book plates in its October 29, 1911 edition, focusing on the work and thoughts of artist  Clarence Valentine Kirby (1875-1947). In the years following this piece, Kirby ser...

This is a friendly public service announcement to those in the world who find any kind of art, fine or not, unworthy of public support. Perhaps the cold-hearted, controversy-seeking executives of Sun Media (whose coverage of a play about a terrorism suspect assisted the federal government's last-minute decision to pull funding for Summerworks and whose TV channel went off the deep end its in attack on arts funding ) had parents who determined that "you gotta have art" was a dangerous message to impart onto their budding shapers of public opinion. Based on the song "Heart" from the musical Damn Yankees , the "You Gotta Have Art" campaign was a Detroit television staple in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marvelling at the Diego Rivera frescos on your way into the Detroit Institute of Arts might make you dance too.

Toronto Free Gallery launched its new space at Bloor and Lansdowne two weeks ago, opening with an exhibit focusing on creativity in urban activism, Creative Activism . The gallery was jammed, the common joke being you come to an opening for the food and booze and return several days later to carefully observe the art. A dog watched the goings-on from a safe spot underneath one of the pieces. Either the view was good or it was out-of-the-way enough to dodge the crowd. Some of the works on display, ranging from a collection of "bills" to an assortment of signs and photos from Streets Are For People . *** The opening also served as a starting point for that week's psychogeography walk. From the gallery we headed south along Lansdowne, past a block of front yards that belonged to members of the Adam Giambrone Fan Club... The signs stemmed from the Lansdowne Renewal Project , a reconfiguration of the street with measures to narrow the street incorporatin...

Day 6: Pittsburgh, PA (Part 2) The rain started up again as I left the Strip, scotching plans to wander around the core of the city. I drove around, tangling myself up in a mess of one-way streets, crossing the three rivers a few times. Not many opportunities to shoot pics out of the car, but I managed to capture these shots of Heinz Field (home of the Steelers) and the incline railway. With no sign of the rain ending, it seemed like the perfect time to head to the Carnegie Museums on Forbes Avenue. The Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural Science share the same complex, with floors of each museum colliding into each other, especially due to renovations and installations. If you tire of the arts, you're only steps away from nature. A room of chairs. The Great Love , Robert Indiana, 1966. I associate this with a US postage stamp from my childhood collection. Bob, The Vigilant Fire Company's Dog , H. Rebele, 1863. From the museum's websi...

In an optician's window at Duluth and St, Denis, more than eyeglasses were on display... Inside were two women with short black hair in white lab jumpsuits arranging mutilated/mutated baby dolls. The piece appeared to a statement on genetic manipulation, with videos of "ultrasounds" with deformed fetuses. It was credited to "Frank Ketchup", which isn't turning up in net searches. At St. Denis and Duluth, the mutated babies grow Between the plastic dividers Row on row - JB