A sure sign in Saskatchewan

There may have been snowflakes just a couple of days ago, but when these start popping up, you can be pretty confident winter is over.

Jessica, at it again

My friend Jessica Rotolo is at it again. Here’s a note I recently received from her: “My friend Robert, who is the President of TJX Canada, (Winners, Marshalls and Homesense), commissioned me to paint him a picture of a hockey player ‘Captain Canada.’ I delivered the painting and was given a tour of the TJX head office here in Mississauga. I got a sneak peak of the new Spring fashions from the Women’s Apparel Team. It was the best day ever!!!!” Jessica’s mom Dorlean said Robert told her he always hoped he’d be successful enough to one day commission an artist. His grandfather played for Ottawa and the team won something called the Stanley Cup.

And, Jessica’s other “best day ever” lately was to model for the cover of a book coming out soon called Average Girl: A Guide to Loving Your Body. I’ll have more about it when it’s published, but Jessica auditioned and is one of four young women featured on the cover. Here’s a little bit about the book:

‘Photographer Emily Lauren Dick has been photographing women over a six year period for this book. It is a resource. A workbook. A source of body positivity. A perfect gift for any tween, teen or young woman. A total of 150 women have been interviewed and nearly half of them were photographed in nothing but their underwear. The goal of this beautiful book is to show young women what real bodies look like while explaining the topics that surround negative body image.’

Watch for a shot of that cover when the book is near publication. In the meantime, Emily took a few shots of the vivacious Ms. Rotolo just for fun.

Monster mash

I was happy to receive this unsolicited portrait from my neighbour Andrew recently. He told his mother that he wanted to make a picture “for Karin across the street.” He brought it over and presented it. At first I thought it was a picture of me, but he says, “No. It’s a monster.” His mom labelled it. Still, it looks like a bad hair day.

 

Big skies

On Sunday, we took Mom and Dad on a country drive out to Blackstrap so they could see our “mountain range.” After 25 years in the Yukon, they are getting used to the open prairie and we are reminded to look up to see what our living skies have to offer.