Here is some art and artist which I like:

Catherine Jeffrey’s November Rain, Bay and Dundas (Toronto)

© Catherine Jeffrey via Toronto Public Library Digital Archive

Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire

The Savage State, or The Commencement of Empire

Public domain image created by The Thomas Cole National Historic Site via Wikipedia

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

Public domain image created by The Thomas Cole National Historic Site via Wikipedia

The Consummation of Empire

Public domain image created by The Thomas Cole National Historic Site via Wikipedia

Destruction

Public domain image created by The Thomas Cole National Historic Site via Wikipedia

Desolation

Public domain image created by The Thomas Cole National Historic Site via Wikipedia

John Everett Millais’s A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew’s Day

Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons

John Everett Millais’s The Black Brunswicker

Public domain image created by Lady Lever Art Gallery via Wikimedia Commons

Jacques-Louis David’s The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons

Public domain image created by Artchive via Wikimedia Commons

Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Socrates

Public domain image created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikipedia

Anthony van Dyck’s Charles I in Three Positions

Public domain image created by Royal Collection Trust via Wikipedia

Kaws:Family

© KAWS KAWS, FAMILY (2021) via AGO

People say that some art captivates you and just brings you in. This is the first time I remember that happening to me in an organic way.

I’ve tried to … force that, intentionally sitting in front of painting that I like for 10 or 15 minutes. But this is the first time when the painting forced me to keep looking.

I was struck by how each of the family members were similar to each other and different. And how the differences don’t make them not family. The family is something that transcends the differences.

I just had to stop there and stare and keep looking at it and thinking about how the piece reflected life.

Oliver Husain and Kerstin Schroedinger’s DNCB

Photo taken by Lynne Li (Thanks to her for allowing me to use it)

DNCB, or dinitrochlorobenzene, is a chemical compound that was used an experimental treatment for HIV.

I was deeply moved by the idea of a dying man applying poison to his skin to try to live.

Pavel Bondarenko’s Monument to Yuri Gagarin

From acorbo via The Last Great Arrakian Dynasty. Unknown photographer

I am not usually a fan of socialist realist statues, but this one seems apt. Also, this photo is amazing, other photos of the statue don’t seem to capture its beauty.

Artists I liked at the 2023 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair