Keira McArthur

Since University I’ve maintained a lively internal debate about the function of art in our culture, and in the world.  While most everyone appreciates a fine painting or sculpture, and would acknowledge that famous works by Tom Thomson, Emily Carr and David Milne are national treasures, most people do not have the budget or the […]

First coffee is almost cold.  Studio is too a little, at the dawn of Remembrance Day 2014. I know ’cause I was there, that night in Barkley Square… I played in the dark this morning at the Remembrance Day ceremony for a public school, grades Kindergarten to eight. All the kids were utterly silent as […]

Thank you for writing this. Very resonant, for all of us.

These days begin in darkness and wet. We live in multiple layers of clothing against the cold damp of constant seeping rain, walk under umbrellas, and peek out from under shelter until some blue sky appears. Then we breathe the blue and the coloured leaves, and roll in the damp ones underfoot.  We go to […]

Only slowly have I become aware of the enormous reservoir that floats above me like a helium ship vast, volatile impossible I am Astonished I’d have noticed it years ago, but I’ve only recently developed the habit of looking up Like the water towers in every small town there’s a name writ in large letters […]

I’m thinking about water. Water falls – either river or rain – speak a whole spectrum of the Language of Wet, from soft drip & trickle to pounding slam-hard powerful.  I’ve come to believe that all are profoundly healing in the long run – even Tsunami, Hurricane, Cyclone.  Sometimes tragically so, painfully so – but […]

The Harness is off.  It’s over there on the floor. Curious, to see this thing I’ve worn for 30+ years…  Who made it?  Why so tight?  Why the rough rope?  It’s ingenious, actually.  There’s a pull cord I see that will jab thumbtacks into my backside when I’m slowing down, and simultaneously tighten the collar […]

As predicted, each painting for #Selfie has had it’s own arc of becoming.  They have all been surprises, have all taught me things I wouldn’t otherwise know. It’s been a privilege to be at the centre of this project and participate in the discovery, the shaping and polishing of each facet.  Quite a geological process […]

4:30am in the studio is like hanging out with a special old friend I’ve not seen for a long time.  We both like gentle light, strong hot coffee.  We share a deep enjoyment of the act of listening to the day as it begins.  I feel my face wake up, muscle by muscle, and take […]

Candles are lit at 6:22am.  They burn straight up with no flicker, and this mesmerizes me – that fire can be so still. It has been stiflingly hot here for days – heavy sun from skies pregnant with this rain and well beyond term.  I played cello outside in it for two days at mid-day, […]

It’s been a week since the morning after #Selfie’s opening at Gallery de Boer.  That was such a profoundly good time, rich with love and excellence, risk and joy.  We all of us had about an inch of air beneath our feet as we walked through the space and played together on the roof afterwards.  […]

As I think I mentioned, each one of these paintings has had it’s own ‘arc’ from concept to completion, which I’m only partly in control of.  This one in particular has been a journey I wasn’t expecting. While I drew this I was actively wondering what the empty space at the top of the square […]