Category: News

I have been involved with the Comfort Choir for more than two years. Twice a month, I join a small group of choristers to sing at the beds of palliative care patients at the Michael Garron Hospital. It’s intense but rewarding work with seniors. Here’s an article from the Toronto star that shows my involvement.

Link to Comfort Choir: thestar.com

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Photo Artist and retired teacher Martha Davis launches a new phase of her DIORAMA DRAMAS project: HEALING OUR WORLD. She is now inviting school groups to create their own dioramas from kits she has prepared on several challenging issues: Climate, Food Security, Housing and others. All materials provided! Workshops take place in a prominent downtown Toronto location. Read the reviews below in the Blog “Comments”!

The Future of Food?!

Here’s my second diorama on food insecurity. I wanted to place the children in a classy contemporary kitchen to contrast with the giant insects and register the almost unfathomable possibility that we might all be eating insects, if, as an eight year old kid put it, “agriculture goes down…” 

This diorama went through many iterations, including the insects attacking the children, which I then decided was too frightening! That’s a little model of me being greeted by the giant centipede. I had it made at “Little Canada.” The insect “porridge” is actually just pulverized Shreddies and water. 

Fantasy Food Bank

I went to fantasy in this one, while keeping the actual scene as realistic as possible. What would a food bank look like if you could get everything you wanted?  Of course the kicker is the left side, where we see the line of people with their empty carts standing in the aisle with the empty shelves. Why do we still need the food bank? How can we move away from it? 

Older kids talked about healthy and unhealthy food choices and chuckled at the toddler hoarding the burgers and the boy ensconced in peaches. Little kids were fascinated by all the tiny foods, lights and movement and stared for long periods at this diorama. The centre carousel revolved slowly when it was installed in the light box. There was also a coloured light effect that shot up through the clear plastic pill bottles separating the shelves, which were CDs. It was “better in person” but a nice big photo will do it justice, too. I worked on this one for about a month. What do you think ?

Want and Need

I’m not sure about the title for this one. I’m temporarily calling it “Grocery Gateway”. Is it a have/have not situation, or are both parties getting what they need? The little one is just getting two different items, the big one piling it on, with several recognizable items from the Fantasy Food Bank in the cart. The big one seems surprised to have run into the little one. This is actually a sequel to the following diorama, called …

Special Delivery

Now the big monkey’s surprise at seeing the little one seems wholly appropriate. Do we pay any attention to the delivery people who bring us our stuff, straight to our door, through all kinds of weather? Or are they faceless, nameless? Are the curvey brown monkeys in a family? Are the little ones outside being rescued by the skinny one and brought home? Or are they simply containers to be emptied and discarded? You decide. 

I enjoyed making the inner walls for this one: the inside looking out and the outside looking in. In the diorama as installed in the light box, the wall was just a flat panel which the viewer peered around, but for the photograph I didn’t have that luxury. I’m quite pleased with the way it worked out, as that wall now takes up a third of the diorama and heightens the theme of inside/outside – have/have not. Maybe you see it completely differently. What are your thoughts?