Toronto | Mama Cormier

….recently featured at MOCA

Several weeks ago my daughter, daughter-in-law and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto. My daughter wanted to check out the zine show and I wanted to see the gallery. I’d never been to MOCA and the entrance fee was free that day….BONUS!!!

The zine show was packed with young entrepreneurs, displaying and selling their tiny self published magazines.

In the main gallery, the show that was featured was called ‘The Life of a Dead Tree’ and it consisted of sections of a dead tree that had been taken down here in the city. There was an on going study of the tree and there were experts around the room that could answer questions that you might have about what you were seeing. I’m glad we took the time to ask questions because it made the display that much more interesting.

The part that I found most interesting were the insects that inhabited the tree and were eventually the demise of the tree.

When I saw the patterns on the next two photos I thought that they were done by humans as part of the art project. To my amazement the guide explained how the emerald ash borer had made these marks….beautiful but deadly.

….turrets is what Winnie calls the playscape in High Park

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my granddaughter so that her mom could spend some time with her father in the hospital. She was very excited when she found out that I was taking her to High Park.

The Jamie Bell Adventure Park was a community built playground and very popular with families. In March of 2012 the place was torched by a suspected arsonists. The community quickly rallied and raised enough money to rebuild the structures and the adventure park was reopened in August of the same year.

When Winnie and I arrived there were ‘hordes’ (the word used by Winnie) of children there enjoying the space. Even though Winnie is not yet four she didn’t let the crowds deter her from having a good time. I got quite the workout running after her so I wouldn’t lose sight of her.

The only way I could get her away from the turrets was to bribe her with ice-cream.

Afterwards we headed over to the zoo to see Fred the peacock. She calls all the peacocks Fred but unfortunately none of them were displaying their tail feathers. She did like this goat standing on the rocks overlooking his harem.