Is this Vietnamese folk art

 

If you want an amazing bronze or marble sculpture then Asia is the area to look. Craft shops throughout Southeast Asia crank out replicas of famous Western sculptures in big and small sizes and everything in between.

That said, these ceramic pieces in the window of an area body shop operated by a couple who once lived in Vietnam bear no resemblance to much art found in the West. There is rolly-polly buddha feel to these ceramic cat pieces.

Are these art? I'm sure a lot of folk would argue these cats are not art. I'm not so sure. There is a clear aesthetic at work here. But, one thing that I think we can all agree on is that these cats are visually fun.

Why immigrants are good

It has been years since my body man and his wife lived in Vietnam. It was the country of his birth. But, Canada got lucky and the oh-so-talented Vietnamese gentleman took his wife and moved to Canada. Here, he and his wife have run a small but successful body shop and outside the business they have raised a son and a daughter.

The other day my wife got struck exiting a parking lot. The accident wasn't her fault but in Ontario we have a no-fault approach to accident repair. The accident was credited to the other driver; he will see his insurance rates climb. But the repairs for the damage are being covered by each of our insurance companies. Each insurance company covers their own client. That's where the no-fault comes into play.

So, our car goes into the body shop for a time-out where it gets to hob knob with other cars in for repairs, such as this bright, red muscle car being given a second crack at life. I'm in awe of body shop craftsman. I kept the car of my youth, a Morgan Plus Four, for forty-five years thanks to fine body shop experts and talented mechanics. These people give a whole extra dimension to the concept of "to recycle."

Second snowfall of season

Today the second snowfall of the season hit London. Kids were out with sleds, other children were busy making snowmen and housebound pets were out frolicking in the cold, white magic.

Farhi: a name frequently encountered in Ontario

The former Bell Building in downtown London, Ontario, now bears the Farhi name like so many hundreds of other buildings in more than 35 municipalities across the province. One cannot miss a Farhi owned building or plot of land, Shmuel Farhi plasters all he owns with his name writ large.

Built with bricks and mortar and code

Today our civilization is built not with just brick and mortar but also with code. We no longer rely as much on machines with carefully meshing gears but more and more we rely on computers with carefully meshing code.

The image today was created by my seven-year-old granddaughter. She used her iPad running a favourite app plus my white, blue-striped shirt. She moved the camera lens over my shirt, watched the resulting image on the screen and when she liked where it was going she fine-tuned the image, did a screen-grab and sent the file to my computer using wifi and Facebook Messenger. 

Is this art? What do you think?

A complete car once cost less than a set of tires today

Reportedly, the first VW beetle sold in the States back in 1949 went for $800. I can recall buying a bug for something in the neighbourhood of $1600 a few decades later. I  needed a dependable car for my first job as a photographer at a daily paper. 

Today the bug is out of production. The last cars sold at the London dealerships for something in order of $35,000 Canadian. Yes, today a set of tires with rims can cost more than an entire car once cost. A great example of the power of inflation, yes?

Despite the cold and wind, outside is a good place to be.

Today was chilly and the wind drove the cold right through one's coat. Still, for the little kids on the street, it was still a good day for playing outside. If truth be told. there are not many days when it is not good to play outside. So grab a hoola-hoop and play.