The new solo shows at Loop Gallery are of artists Yael Brotman and Candida Girling. I'm a member of this collective. All the while I've been there I thought Candida was Candice. I think that's because of Candy Silverstein, my first big crush back in grade 5, plus everyone at the Q&A was calling Candida Candy. So I was a little bit right and lot wrong, but now I've got it right. Candida and Yael timed their shows to coincide with Printopolis. Both artists have work employing printmaking.
There were lots of people at the Q&A. It was packed. When I did a Q&A at Loop with Heather Carey back in January, moderated by David Holt, we had one guest. Oh, plus my wife. It was fun. The large audience at this one would have made me nervous. Yael and Candida both did a great job. They were very engaging and warm. William Huffman, the Q&A moderator, is a born ring master. His is timing is deft. Part way through the Q&A he had the throng stroll around the gallery to review work on the walls. He had picked just the right moment to wind things down in a sensitive way.
There was this tinge of academic pall though that did permeate the proceedings, but I guess that's Loop and it's constituency. Maybe the presence of that many degree's in one room at the same time was too much for me. I'm trying to get used to it and I can get a little bored, waiting for the speakers to work their way to what they are trying to get at, but by drawing the whole session I could handle it. I still haven't mastered sitting and listening to cultural art-speak without my hand needing to be busy. I don't think I ever will. And I can see now that if I had drawn my way through boring classes at The Ontario College of Art when I went there back in the early 70's, I might have survived long enough to get my degree too.
