Back-to-back takes on Back to Black.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Hi, Art!

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Hi, art lovers!

 
Colourful 2D digital illustration. Four quadrants containing geometric patterns.

The illustration for Jessica Eaton's Think Like An Artist card. Why is it at the top of this newsletter? Scroll to the bottom for the answer. (Nolan Pelletier/CBC Arts)

 
Are you a music person or a lyrics person? If you’re a fan of Amy Winehouse, it could go either way. The singer, who died in the summer of 2011, had a raw and cutting wit and a voice that could never be duplicated. And she’s now the subject of a new Hollywood biopic that arrived in theatres this weekend. That film, Back to Black, has generated a double feature of shareable CBC Arts content (find those stories below). The movie’s been panned — though maybe not as extensively as another cultural property involving a famous Brit. Still, CBC News was unimpressed with the drama, giving it a middling review. Among the outlet’s quibbles: there’s precious little in the movie about Back to Black, the artist’s most celebrated album. (Don’t let the title fool you.) If the reviews have convinced you to skip it, there’s always this: Amy, an Oscar-winning documentary from 2015, is streaming for free on CBC Gem. 

We began last week with another artist on our minds, however — one of Canada’s greatest authors, Alice Munro. A master of the short story, Munro died Monday in Port Hope, Ont., and you can hear more about her legacy on Commotion. Or better yet, revisit a conversation with the Nobel Prize winner herself. Here she is in 2004, discussing her life and career with CBC Radio’s Eleanor Wachtel.
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Still from animated film Unblending. Hand painted scene. A pink cartoon character lies in bed. The scene is painted in shades of purple and blue. Their head appears to explode into a multitude of colourful blobs, some with cartoon faces.

Michelle Ku

Remember this CBC Arts logo design by Michelle Ku? The Calgary-based artist has debuted a new animated short, which she produced through the NFB’s Hothouse animation mentorship program. Watch Unblending here.
 
Abstracted figurative painting in shades of red, orange, white and green. Appears to depict a person as seen from above, walking a dog on a red leash.

Marina Levit

Softening the line by Vancouver-based artist Marina Levit.
 
Photo of an ornately beaded bag with a chain strap. At its centre is a tiny outdoor scene.

Julia Vysokova


Here’s a little something from Minutiae, an exhibition of miniatures that’s up at the Alberta Craft Council Feature Gallery in Edmonton. Pictured: Morning of a New Life by Julia Vysokova. (CBC News has a closer look at the show.)
 
Photo of a white walled gallery filled with colourful plinths topped with colourful kinetic sculptures.

Tony Romano

And here’s something big! The Big Hat is the name of Tony Romano’s exhibition at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ont. For the show, he’s created a veritable city of whirligigs — kinetic characters that he’s made from upcycled metal. (More info here.)
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Medium shot of director Sam Taylor-Johnson, a white woman with long wavy blonde hair. She stands in front of a poster that reads
Getty Images for Focus Features

How do you capture the genius of Amy Winehouse? Start by listening to her music

 
Sam Taylor-Johnson, director of the new Winehouse biopic Back to Black, reveals how she set the tone for the film.
 
Scene from Back to Black. An actor portrays Amy Winehouse, performing on stage. She wears a tall black beehive wig, heavy winged eye makeup and a black halter dress in a pin-up style.
Focus Features

All these years later, we’re still exploiting Amy Winehouse

 
At the height of her fame, the pop star was a punching bag for the gossip blogs. “We like to think we know better now,” writes Anne T. Donahue, but a Hollywood movie about the singer’s life won’t erase the mistakes of the past.
 
Still from the hand-drawn video game 33 Immortals. A three-headed monster with bat wings emerges from a glowing hellscape.

Thunder Lotus Games

 

Abandon all hope, ye gamers who enter here

 
33 Immortals takes players on a journey through hell. They didn’t have games like this in Dante’s day. 
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Jessica Eaton

@jessicaeat
Photo of a flower arrangement on an all-white backdrop. The quality of the colours is almost like infrared or a film negative: sharp and unnatural.

Jessica Eaton

Gorgeous, right? But how did she get that photo? Jessica is one of the all-stars who contributed advice to CBC Arts’ Think Like An Artist, and she gave us an in-depth interview about her creative process. 
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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