It is with deep regret that I write this post to inform you that Canada recently lost a preeminent glass artist.  Jeff Goodman passed away after a valiant battle with cancer.  Jeff was an outstanding artist, passionate creator, designer and so much more.  He was a loving husband and father.  He was a great neighbour and friend.  I met Jeff many years ago when our children were babies.  When I was introduced to Jeff and told he was a glass artist I didn’t quite understand – prescription glasses or drinking glasses?  Silly me!  I have come to understand that Jeff’s talent of creating with glass has ‘wowed’ the world over.  Jeff’s dramatic blown glass vessels and chandeliers, as well as his architectural glass installations can be seen in public spaces, galleries and centers throughout the world.  In my own home I have a few pieces of Jeff’s glass, ok…..12 to be exact, that I cherish.  Here are 2 of them.

But the pieces that I hold near and dear to my heart are the ones that Jeff truly showed his talent of his thoughtfulness and generosity.  When our children were small, Jeff invited us into his studio to cast in glass our hands and the children’s little feet.  As you can imagine 3-year olds would be very excited and rather rambunctious running around the studio, but Jeff always had a smile on his face and seemed to be truly happy creating one-of-a-kind masterpieces with all of us.  One year we even cast our faces into glass!  Here is a photo of Jeff and my then 3 year old son pushing his hands into a special sand mixture before the liquid glass was poured into the cast.

My son’s hands and feet.

Jeff is no longer with us but his generosity, passion, talent and love will live on forever.  I encourage you to visit the Jeff Goodman Studio website www.jeffgoodmanstudio.com and have a look at his beautiful creations and lasting legacy.

All images via Modmissy

As I have previously written, I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto.  When my parents moved to the ‘burbs’ the neighborhood was then located next to farmland and was somewhat removed from the services and conveniences of the city.  Therefore we had a milkman deliver our dairy products, the Fuller Brush man sell us brushes, the tinker man mended our household utensils and a man sell us vacuum cleaners; the list was lengthy.  Don’t get me wrong, we did have stores nearby but I guess these ‘vendors’ saw a wealth of opportunity in all the new residents setting up house.  Out of all these door-to-door merchants the ones I found most interesting were the artists selling their paintings.  My parents had a lot of blank walls in their new suburbia home to fill so they bought 3 pieces of art from an artist who came to our door one day.  I remember the artist was a young man who stated he had just returned from Europe where he had been painting the sights.  All 3 paintings were done in oil; a water scene, a street scene and one with 3 children (Renaissance-style).  These paintings became well-loved features in our home but sadly when our house was robbed in the mid-1980’s the thieves’ stole off with one of the paintings – the renaissance children one.  I always found that rather curious – thieves with art knowledge!?   Now years later the street scene painting hangs proudly in my home.  I have looked at this piece of art for years (and loved it) but it was not until recently that I thought to do some research on it.  The artist’s signature in the corner is undecipherable but on the side of one of the buildings is a name that I discovered after some ‘Google-ing’ reads Cabaret du Lapin Agile.  French for the Nimble Rabbit Cabaret, the Lapin Agile is a famous Montmartre cabaret located in Paris, France that to this day is still open for business.  The Lapin Agile originated in the mid-1800’s and over the years became a favorite spot for struggling artists and writers to frequent including Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo.  Around 1915, Maurice Utrillo painted in oil on board the Le Lapin Agile which recently sold for over $200,000 at Christie’s auction.  My painting was painted circa 1960’s and sold to my parents for a fraction of the cost but to me it is priceless.

Modmissy's Lapin Agile

Maurice Utrillo's Lapin Agile

 Image 1: via Modmissy  Image 2: via Christie’s

Regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century, Sir Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) inspired a nation, “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar”, outlined a nations aim “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory.”, and defined a nation’s belief, “Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”  Best known for his leadership of the U.K. during WWII, Churchill was also a noted statesman, orator, historian and writer.  He is the only British Prime Minister to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.  Although unknown to many, Winston Churchill was also a talented artist and took great pleasure in painting.  Churchill suffered spells of depression, “Black Dog” as he termed it, throughout his life of which his painting was a haven from.  He was taught to paint by his artist friend, Paul Maze, whom he met during WWI and was a great influence.  Many of Churchill’s paintings were oil-based and feature impressionist scenes of landscapes of the South of France, Egypt and Morocco but he also did a number of portraits and interior scenes.  He continued his hobby throughout his life and painted hundreds of paintings, many of which are still on display in his studio at Chartwell, the home he bought in 1922 with his wife, Clementine after the birth of their 5^th child. 

“We shape our dwellings and afterwards our dwellings shape us.” Winston Churchill