Arts & Life

The Arts

Kristin Nelson. Copy Paper, 2014. handwoven cotton, digitally printed polyester. 21.5 x 27.9 x 17.7 cm. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Acquired with funds from the Winnipeg Rh Foundation Inc., 2017-532.1 to 77.

Paper trail

Allison Gillmor closer look 4 minute read 2:02 AM CDT

WHAT IT IS: Copy Paperis a 2014 textile-based piece by Ontario-born, Winnipeg-based artist Kristin Nelson, currently on view at WAG-Qaumajuq as part of the exhibition Terra Cognita/Incognita.

Of the 125 works in the show — which uses historical and contemporary pieces from WAG-Qaumajuq’s permanent collection to explore how artists have represented the landscape over time and across cultures —probably the most attention-getting are the beautiful paintings of Canada’s lakes, plains, forests and mountains.

So, how does this seemingly modest, somewhat enigmatic work connect to Terra Cognita/Incognita’s larger themes?

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In the middle of the exhibition, an antique desk holds several objects of beauty and utility, and this is where Copy Paper sneaks in, as something both “cognita and incognita,” known and unknown.

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Faith

John Longhurst photo The billboard promoting Christianity on Henderson Highway is created and sponsored by an Amish/Mennonite organization called Christian Aid Ministries.

Billboard evangelism may look outdated but group says it’s effective

John Longhurst 4 minute read Preview

Billboard evangelism may look outdated but group says it’s effective

John Longhurst 4 minute read 2:02 AM CDT

Maybe you’ve seen them in Winnipeg — billboards that say things like: “Jesus is alive!” “Are you prepared to meet Jesus?” “After you die, you will meet God.” They include a phone number to call: 844-FIND-TRUTH.

There are two billboards in Winnipeg. One is on Henderson Highway in Elmwood. The other is on Balmoral Street, by Cumberland.

Have you ever wondered who is behind them, and why they do it?

You might be surprised to learn they are created and sponsored by an Amish/Mennonite organization called Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). Based in rural Ontario, the group is funded by Amish and some conservative Mennonite denominations and individuals.

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2:02 AM CDT

Books

Supplied photo Chris Young was pardoned in 2021 after 10 years in prison; he went on to graduate from Southern Methodist University and is now a motivational speaker and adviser.

Facing life in U.S. prison for drug trafficking, former inmate found purpose in books

Reviewed by Barry Craig 5 minute read Preview

Facing life in U.S. prison for drug trafficking, former inmate found purpose in books

Reviewed by Barry Craig 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

The kid lived in a decaying and dangerous neighbourhood that should have been wrapped in police tape.

Chris Young grew up in a sordid backwater in Clarksville, Tenn., never knew his father, had a drug addict for a mother and, to stay alive, had to make money the only way he could in his world: dealing drugs in his neighbourhood.

By age 22, with three convictions for selling paltry amounts, Young was locked up in a maximum-security federal prison for life without parole under harsh mandatory drug sentencing laws. He had all the future of a cat in a dog kennel.

The Wound Is Where the Light Enters is an extraordinary book about a brilliant young man who has gone to hell and back, and knows how to put it into words without conceit or servility. It is about his resolute explanation of why it is better to take command of your future rather than accept it. It is powerful medicine likely to help the rudderless, people who find life bewildering or aimless. It is a zig-zag saga of growing up, much of it written behind bars.

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2:00 AM CDT

Books

Giovanna Dell’Orto / The Associated Press files Bob O’Hara has been paddling the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 67 consecutive years, and has been undertaking expeditions to the Far North for a half century.

Minnesota paddler’s many adventures in Boundary Waters, Canadian Shield chronicled

Reviewed by Chris Smith 4 minute read Preview

Minnesota paddler’s many adventures in Boundary Waters, Canadian Shield chronicled

Reviewed by Chris Smith 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Minnesotan Bob O’Hara was a young lad when he fell in love with camping and canoeing on the Boundary Waters that stretch from northern Minnesota to the Canadian Shield.

He first launched a canoe as a Boy Scout in the 1950s, and as of last summer you could still find him on the border lakes, his 67th consecutive year on the waterways that launched his 50-year odyssey of Far North expeditions. In Where the Green Light Shines, author Ryan Rodgers describes it as “an astonishing run, every year from the age of 18 to 84.”

As remarkable as that seems, it is the five decades O’Hara spent paddling through northern Canada — mostly as a leader, dealing with often horrendous weather, one set of rapids after another, food shortages and a myriad of other concerns while living in the exhilaration of discovery and of communing with nature — that tell the real story of a life lived large, outside the constraints of everyday urban existence.

Not that O’Hara didn’t have to work for a living and to finance his adventures. He began a teaching job in 1963 and started what he’d continue throughout his career: taking students canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters. During the first five years of the job, he taught for 180 days and camped for 125.

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Lobster, syrup on Dafoe prize long list menu

Ben Sigurdson 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize has unveiled the 10-book long list for the annual award presented to the best book about Canada, Canadians or Canada’s place in the world.

The prize is administered by the J.W. Dafoe Foundation, and is named after the former editor of the Manitoba Free Press (and then Winnipeg Free Press) and founding member of the Winnipeg Press Club board.

The titles in contention span a wide range of topics — among them are Winnipeg-born Allan Levine’s The Dollar a Year Men: How the Best Business Brains in Canada Helped to Win the Second World War, Peter Kuitenbrouwer’s Maple Syrup: A Short History of Canada’s Sweetest Obsession, Karin Wells’ Women Who Woke Up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada and Greg Mercer’s The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for Seafood on the Brink.

The short list for the prize will be announced on Sept. 28, and the winner of the $12,000 award revealed on Oct. 13. For the complete list of longlisted titles, see wfp.to/iRd.

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