Vivienne Westwood is spread eagle, naked on a couch.

To read that, and the rest of my June art column in 10 Magazine, click here.

branching out, best he can.

Don't bother me, I'm sleeping in Seoul.

On growing up and shrinking down

He came from a town of the smallest size. One school, one hospital, one post office, one bar. Two thousand five hundred citizens and room to run around. No light up billboards or subways, even city buses, not a single cab.

At seventeen the world got bigger, but out the rearview mirror that city still seems mighty small. Some seven hundred thousand citizens somehow hid in houses outside the city core. The inner became our playground; saw the same faces at all the bars.

Off to college in the big smoke, a town painted up to play New York. The subway system shot out to suburbs, counting some six million in its path. The world seemed grand, the buildings tall, eyes wide wandered through the night.

Four years later it had shrunk down to a village size. Degrees of separation became cut strings through hordes of common friends. So off it was to a sprawl of bigger brick. Double those millions, walk through a sea of stranger faces.

Still find ourselves round a table talking to new friends about names we both know. Even across the North Pacific the magnets pull land together. So those from past lives end up here, they never leave our sides.

The globe spins on its axis, smaller every turn. And if we were to launch off and land on the cratered moon, we’d just sit and order beers with space men, stir up the conversation starter, “So who do you know from Winnipeg?”

He can't see the forest for the trees.

Out with the old, in with the Andrea

It took ten minutes to drive the golf cart from her home to mine. Over the train tracks and down a gravel road, pull left onto the highway and right into my driveway. We didn’t have licenses or cars or anywhere to be, just cameras and time to kill in basements.

She dressed up in a furs and feather boas, I in ties and blazers. We poured slurpees into cocktail glasses and marched into town to rent movies. Pulled on ponchos to canoe in rainy rivers, explored junkyards and garbage dumps and boarded up schoolhouses.

We’ve long left Carman to find new cities, countries, and continents to play on. But after six years of bouncing back and forth between opposing spaces, we’re spending a summer in one place, together.

The car keys light the engine, time for one more adventure.

The sidewalk cycle

The job sounded easy enough. Each week I’d hit the streets and wait for stylish pedestrians. Once spotted, I’d snap a photo and ask a few questions about the subject’s style.

Turns out the fashion forward are few and far between. Hours would tick by with eyes glued to foot traffic, counting track pants and dog leashes like sheep before bed. Logo tee-shirt after logo tee-shirt would pass, followed by floral dress after floral dress.

The lot of them didn’t look bad, just casual and indifferent, anonymous in whatever was standard issue for wherever they were going. But now and then something a block away would catch my eye and I’d quicken my pace, dart between cars and people towards them, reach out and tap their shoulder. “Excuse me…”

Here are a few of my favourties.

*The full series can be seen on Canada.com. Click here to view the final installment. All content copyright Canwest twenty-ten.

Chris Seldon
Spotted: Queen St. W, outside Clafouti

Chris Seldon smiles when he hears his outfit called a “Canadian tuxedo.” Seldon, a marketing consultant in the music business, laughs and says he toned down his outfit today, but usually adheres to the “farmer look,” which explains all the denim. A pair of classic black Ray-ban sunglasses, brown boots and a helmet for riding motorcycle completes the ensemble.

Angelo Amante
Spotted: Beaches boardwalk

Angelo Amante’s look is straight out the Hamptons, but he is seen here strolling down the boardwalk in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. Amante, an aspiring fashion designer, paired his white Uniqlo jeans with a sweater tee bought on vacation in London and boat shoes to create a classic summer look.

Darina Escobar
Spotted: Augusta and Naussa

Darina Escobar’s bag is for both function and for fashion. The Ottawa-based student used the oversized weekender bag—a vintage piece given to her by a friend—to carry everything she needed for her trip to Toronto. Escobar’s Dollhouse brand shoes were purchased at Winners, her denim shorts are from H&M, and gold and white tied blouse was found second hand.

Elise Gatschene
Spotted: Queen and Yonge

Elise Gatschene had been looking for something to pair with these loud, high-waisted printed pants on a recent shopping trip. She came across a rack of Alexander Wang and inspiration hit. Gatschene purchased a dress by the hot young New York designer, but realized his signature black tube top was the perfect piece to wear with her printed pants. She finishes the look with a vest from Urban Outfitters, worn here outside the Eaton Centre where Gatschene was taking in another day of shopping.

Frank
Spotted: Yonge and Shuter

His name is Frank, but he goes by Fingers. Like Prince, Frank deems the surname an unnecessary accessory. On his breast Frank wears two pins; one from the 1992 American election (reading “I want Ross Perot for President”) and another with a Truman-era Republican slogan, “I Like Ike.” The tweed suit was purchased online and shipped from France. “You don’t find riding pants like these in North America,” Frank says.

Andrew Chipman
Spotted: Osborne and River

Andrew Chipman is the blogger behind the popular Winnipeg-based fashion and DIY blog Pull Teeth. He is seen here in Osborne Village wearing pleated shorts recently purchased from a thrift shop and a Converse cotton tee from Target. The accessories: thrifted sunglasses, a Yves Saint Laurent canvas bag, and a necklace Chipman put together himself—featuring three pendants, including a tiny tooth from Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Chanelle Salnikowski
Spotted: Albert and McDermot

Chanelle Salnikowski is pictured here pausing as she puts up posters for a local metal show in Winnipeg featuring the band Nuclear Assault. Salniko wore an outfit appropriate for the occasion: a studded leather motorcycle jacket by Miss Sixty, paired with a silver spiked bracelet and an acid wash skirt, both by H&M. Salnikowski is an aspiring stylist and has an upcoming spread in the Winnipeg-based fashion and culture magazine Sandbox.

Meghan Kinita
Spotted: Albert and Bannatyne

Meghan Kinita is seen here on her bicycle under a canopy of trees in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. Kinita is wearing a dress from Rodarte’s capsule collection for Target and shoes by Steve Madden. In hand is a red jacket covered in rosettes from H&M’s organic garden collection. What is Kinita’s style? “It’s based on colours and fabrics that remind me of people I love,” she says. “This dress reminds me of being in New Orleans with my boyfriend Dave.”

Meaghan Waller
Spotted: Winnipeg Folk Festival, main entrance

Canada’s Next Top Model cycle three winner Meaghan Waller is seen here in her menswear style blouse over a black bathing suit top, with exposed leopard print bottoms under denim cutoffs.

Meg and Erin Kroeker
Spotted: Winnipeg Folk Festival, in the food village

Meg and Erin Kroeker are well known in Winnipeg as a pair of stylish sisters. Erin, seen here in a re-worked graphic tee and bright red skirt, is the manager of Para Mix, the Osborne Village based boutique where many of her outfits are from. Meg wears a floppy oversized hat, perfect for creating a spot of shade during a long, sunny day at a music festival.

Friendly flashes

On messy nights it’s customary to wake to the camera and flip through, re-counting misadventure. And on very messy nights those photos reveal only one thing: you were lucky to have been behind the camera lens and not in front of it.

To Mr. Rob Reed: thanks for making faces for my flash. Sorry for trying to pick fights all night (and thanks for not kicking my ass.)

xx

Everything ends.