Graeme TRUELOVE
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A Toronto sunset and my favourite photographer

5/30/2014

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Two nights ago, I was proud to accompany Janine to the Ottawa Wedding Awards in celebration of her nomination as "Best Photographer." It was a wonderful night, with great food and friendly people, and of course the highlight was seeing Janine's work recognized.

It's nice having a photographer for a wife. Not only are there gorgeous landscapes on our walls, but I also have a charming collection of photos of myself in front of various monuments (it's harder to get Janine on the other end of the camera). But the best part is seeing how she finds beauty in unexpected places. An overlooked corner of a mundane street, transformed and given its moment to shine in romance and adventure. A bike chained up in an alley. Immense, intense emotion passing between two people in a private moment. It's taught me to look a little more carefully at the world around me. 

Late last fall, we were in Toronto - and this is a bit corny but entirely genuine - and we turned a corner and peeking over the skyscrapers was a sunset.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed spontaneously, turning to Janine.

A quizzical look.

"For what?"

"Well, for the...." I realized that I was giving her credit for the daily disappearance of the sun behind the western horizon, and in general, wives don't find comparisons to images of closure and finality romantic, so I gave up and we had dinner.

Objectively, it wasn't a postcard sunset, but it had a certain confidence to it, as though, in bursting through the grey clouds, it proclaimed the irrelevance of the Toronto skyscrapers that otherwise dominated my viewpoint. It wasn't something I would have noticed before learning to see the world through her eyes.

I feel so grateful to have so many artists in my life: photographers, writers, actors and musicians. It feels a little funny to say that we underappreciate art in such a celebrity/entertainer-obsessed culture. Perhaps what I should say is that we underappreciate good art. Part of the problem is that, too often, we aren't willing to pay for it. If we want to experience the fullness of artistic expression, we need to allow people to dedicate their lives to their craft, and while they're doing that, they're going to need to eat. But I also think that another way to get more good art is to have more of us doing it. Do it in your spare time, even if your spare time is only about 15 minutes, once a year. Draw something, sing something, write something, as often as you can. As songwriter Glen Hansard said as he accepted the Oscar for Best Song a few years ago, perhaps feeling a little out of place among the Hollywood celebrities and searching for some commonality, "Make art."
 
Or maybe it's even simpler than that. Recognize the art around you. Recognize the art you already make.

 

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What a weekend!

5/6/2014

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Last Saturday, I was thrilled to be able to attend the 2014 BC Book Prizes Gala in Vancouver, where my book on Svend Robinson was one of five finalists for the Roderick Haig-Brown regional prize for the book that “contributes the most to the enjoyment and understanding of the province of British Columbia.” (I still can’t believe it – what an honour!)

My book didn’t win (congratulations to
Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life author David Stouck, who also won the Hubert Evans non-fiction prize), but the entire thing was an incredible experience. There was a distinctly Oscars-esque atmosphere. It began with a VIP reception with the Lieutenant-Governor in which the nominated authors were able to meet the LG and go over the protocol for accepting an award. The organizers even specially selected a boutonniere for me (to go along with the tie my wife Janine had given me as a gift the night before). Next, we mingled with other industry people and friends and family of the authors (including Janine and my mom, Judy). I enjoyed meeting fellow nominees Roy Henry Vickers, Grant Lawrence, Jordan Abel, Kathryn Para and Renée Sarojini Saklikar, and others in the publishing industry, and, of course, I had a great time hanging out with Mike Leyne and Rolf Maurer of New Star Books, too. 

Then, we headed to the dining room for the dinner and awards presentation. Host Charlie Demers was hysterical, and even though my book didn’t win, it was very exciting to watch each presenter open the envelopes containing the winners’ names, and then hear the acceptance speeches. They were funny, heartfelt, and all made me very, very proud to have my work considered alongside theirs (I’m still pretty blown away).

Congratulations to David Stouck and all the other writers who were there. And thanks as well. There are a lot of voices in our society telling us to think less. Thank you for challenging us to think
more.

I’m tremendously grateful to the BC Book Prizes for the nomination. It’s an honour I’ll cherish forever, along with the many wonderful things people have had to say about the book. It was also very special to me to be able to share the occasion with Janine and my mom, both of whom contributed so, so much to this project. Best of all, I feel more energized than ever about looking ahead to the next book…


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Robinson bio now available as an e-book

5/2/2014

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I’m happy to announce that Svend Robinson: A Life in Politics is now available as e-book through Kobo and Google Play.

I think it’s great that the book can now be read either electronically or in the traditional printed version. Personally, I prefer the printed version, but it’s hard not to like the e-book format too – it’s cheaper for the reader, and it saves paper.

How do you prefer to read? Leave me a comment!


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    Graeme TRUELOVE

    Here Graeme blogs about whatever he's working on.

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