During my visit to NYC, I took time out to visit the Chelsea Gallery District. Of all the shows I took in, the most interesting was David Hockney’s Exhibit at Pace Wildenstein.  In this exhibit he presents a body of work of large rural landscapes, using non local colour on a mural scale.  The canvases, like his photographs are individual square segments merged together to make the whole.  The paintings are his trademark pictures of loosely painted images layered on top of each and very flat.  The only sense of depth is created through overlapping and relationships of scale.  There is little sense of depth created through colour tempurature and and atmospheric perspective.  However, there are about three massive paintings that stand out more than the others.  They come across as a new and refreshing direction for the artist.  They have more depth and an almost surreal sense of representation (there are strange multiple vanishing points). The colour relationships and the tensions they create are captivating and have the ability, for such large pictures, to draw you in.  So much so, that you become part of the painting.  I think the works shown above are some of the best by the artist I have seen in a long time.  I look forward to seeing more.  View work at Pace Wildenstein here.

After almost giving up on this site due to technical issues with WordPress, it has all worked out for the better.  My artist/journal page now has a new format and features such as: a scrolling billboard, new gallery viewer overlay, footers, direct access to twitter, and format/content changes.  I be using this site primarily from now on and using Facebook and Twitter to compliment it and extend its reach.  I will also be posting my video journals here as well.  The images in the gallery need to be re-organized and I will get to that ASAP.  I am happy to have a more complete and active webpage to use from here on in.  Scott.

A Response to David Olive’s article: Pension Crisis? Not so fast

David Olive’s article trivializes and masks the rightful claims of former Nortel employees and elicits a false sense of security among other private sector pensioners. This is not about Nortel, a failed company. This is not about the CPP being better than the poorly funded US system. This is not about the increase in housing prices. This is not about Canada scoring 73 on a scale of 100 in an international pension comparison. This is about 20, 000 people who through no fault of their own have been misled and let down by their employer, their governments and the regulators. This is about people who have been denied their severance entitlements. This is about people who can not turn back the clock and reenter the workforce to supplement their pension income. This is about people who will be pushed to the welfare rolls. This is about disabled people who potentially receive nothing. This is about human dignity and human rights.

Chuck McEwan
London, ON

I wanted to post a letter my father sent to newspapers in Southern Ontario.  He has become actively involved in the pensioners rights movement started by retirees from Nortel which has filed for bankruptcy and is currently being liquidated. Please read and feel free to circulate.

We are not going away!

On October 7 some 2,000 Nortel pensioners, former employees and supporters rallied at the Legislature in Toronto.  We called on the Government of Ontario to prevent the wind-up of our pensions under current regulations, to honour our entitlement under the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund and to engage with governments at all levels to address the pension crisis facing Canadians.  Formal requests by representative groups to meet with the government to explore possible solutions have gone unanswered.  The invitation for the government to address the rally went unanswered.  While the government wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, example the e-health fiasco, the call of desperate pensioners and disabled workers, many of whom will soon be forced to the welfare rolls, go unanswered.

The Government of Quebec is showing leadership and making a conscious effort to support Nortel pensioners by offering to take over the management of their pension.  The Quebec plan allows pensioners three investment options aimed at increasing the value of their underfunded pension.  The Ontario government has shown no interest in such creativity.  In fact the apparent lack of interest in pensioners and disabled workers smacks of indifference and arrogance.  Pensioners have a right to their pensions and benefits and will continue to fight for them; we are not going away.

Chuck McEwan

London, Ontario

I just wanted to leave an entry to let people know that my website designer, the awesome and lovable Michael Kormendy, is doing a redesign on the site. I will start posting entries soon, but wanted to let you know that some features of the site may not be fully operational. Thanks for your understanding. Scott and Mike.