2007, Active Citizenship, 2025
Free News Sharing & Social Artistry.
Birds of a Feather project
Art Is Freedom
HOMME MADE - DUNDEE LAW
Tribute to Virgil Abloh and Dennis Edney
2013, Social Art Projects, 2025
9 Years, Press Pass Denied
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Faith, Democracy & Nature
🎨The Art of Summer Fades... September marks the final chapter of Birds of a Feather—a social art project joining 13 years of social art projects, woven themes of humanity, legacy, environment, human rights and democracy. Each chapter connects like feathers in a wing, forming a larger story of collective experience and personal reflection. It’s been a journey shaped by brushstrokes and headlines—practicing free press, publishing commentary, attending government meetings, sketching doodle notes, crafting political cartoons, and at times painting a masterpiece in response to the stories I followed and studied over the years.
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🎨Painter’s Notes – Labour Day, 2025: Edmonton, Smokey Silence. Today, Edmonton moved beneath a heavy veil of wildfire smoke—thick, quiet, and strangely still. I walked a gentle 3 kilometers through the haze, masked and mindful. Environment Canada warns that during smoke events, everyone’s health is at risk. Yet the walk helped. Walking through the haze, I felt the pain loosen—movement as quiet medicine. This year’s wildfire season is among Canada’s worst. Over 5.5 million hectares have burned—nearly double the ten-year average. Alberta, B.C., and Saskatchewan remain hardest hit, with hundreds of fires still active. As of late August, 561 wildfires burned nationwide, 69 deemed “Out of Control.” The country is at Preparedness Level 5—our highest—while air quality warnings stretch coast to coast. Smoke is no longer an anomaly; it’s a daily presence. Climate change has turned summer into a season of survival. These themes have long shaped my creative work. Since my 2016 social art project Fire and Rain, which explored Alberta’s wildfires and floods, I’ve been drawn to the tension between destruction and renewal. That same year, Sarah and I married beneath a diamond willow tree, its canopy cloaked in wildfire smoke—a moment of beauty inside the storm. Today I carried my 2018 painting of the Low Level Bridge, Smokey Silence, along with three smaller works titled Faith, Democracy, and Nature. That same hush hangs over the river now. Bridge, water, sky—all blurred into one soft gray breath. And yet the sun still shines. The river still flows. The grass still grows.
2025-09-03, Painter's Notes: I visited mayoral candidate Andrew Knack's campaign office on Monday and was told by his volunteers that Better Edmonton Party mayoral candidate Tim Cartmell's party is funded by the Alberta UCP. At the time, Andrew, CTV Edmonton, and dozens of volunteers were running a marathon—despite dangerous wildfire air quality warnings issued by Environment Canada for the City of Edmonton. I wore a mask myself.
🍁🚫 Denied Press Access, But Not Silenced:
A Citizen Journalist’s Stand for Press Freedom in Alberta. For over nine years, I’ve been denied press pass access to both the Alberta Legislature and Edmonton City Hall. Not because I lack experience—far from it. I began my journey in journalism as editor of the Out To Lunch Newsletter at Bendale Secondary School in Toronto. Since then, I’ve spent 42 years in the newspaper industry as a graphic arts craftsman, and 18 years as a citizen journalist—reporting freely since 2007 with no paywalls, no advertising, and no financial backing. Just truth, transparency, and public service. I even founded a media company, Hawkeyi Media Inc., which—despite its short run—reflected my lifelong commitment to civic accountability and democratic engagement. But here in Alberta, my status as a citizen journalist—unaffiliated with corporate media—has been used to exclude me from public institutions that should welcome scrutiny. This isn’t just a personal grievance. It’s a democratic concern. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of the press. Yet in practice, access is often reserved for those with institutional clout, leaving independent voices like mine out in the cold. This kind of gatekeeping undermines the transparency and accountability that democracy depends on. Still, I continue to report, document, and speak truth to power—without credentials, without permission, and without apology. Because democracy doesn’t belong to corporations. It belongs to citizens. Free Press is Freedom.
Point of Order, Disorder
Bear🐻Whistle News
🍁US: Art Show & Tell, of a Point of Order, add a little ice cream, my just reward. A young woman, lingering with a tattooed crowd in downtown Edmonton near the library, complimented my artwork. After finishing my rapidly melting ice cream in the 24°C heat, I walked over to her gang to show the backside, titled Disorder. Suddenly, a young man lunged at me. "Get the f*** away from here!" he snapped. Before I could react, the group's matriarch—Mama Tattoo—spoke up. "I like your painting," she said, her voice steady. The young man’s demeanor shifted. He looked at the artwork again, his expression softening. "That's an amazing piece of art," he admitted.
