Finally, a post about my Art Show with Diana.
It’s posted on Art Gowns. I hope you’ll pop over and have a look!
Dream Big
Eyes of the Storm – Beatlemania
Featuring Photos by Paul McCartney – 1963 – 64
The exhibition began at The National Gallery in June 2023. In early June, 2026, after Toronto, it heads to Aix-en-Provence (France) until January 2027.
With Special Guest Matt Snyder
GEORGE
RINGO
JOHN
NO PAUL? Well, he’s behind the camera. NO selfies back then!
Resa – So Matt, what drew you into the Beatles? I seem to remember you saying you had watched the cartoons when you were a kid.
Matt – No, I’d say my first exposure to the Beatles was their Animated Film, The Yellow Submarine, which I caught shown on tv as a kid in the 70’s & 80’s.
Resa – Oh, the movie, not the cartoon series!
MATT – First off, I forgot about that cartoon. My Father-In-Law who is a huge Beatles fan raves about that cartoon.
Matt – Having been born in April of 1970 I sure didn’t catch Beatlemania while it happened. The animation is very quirky and reminiscent of the French Film Fantastic Planet. I love animation, I love musicals..put em together and ya got a fan.
Resa – Did you have a fave Beatle in those early days?
Matt – As a band I prefer them in the following order by favorite song:
Paul: Let it Be
Photo from when he was dating Jane Asher – At the Ashers – 1963
John: Nowhere Man
In Paris – 1964
Ringo: Yellow Submarine
Paris – 1964
George: Here Comes the Sun
Backstage at the London Paladium – 1964
Matt – Nowhere Man was the first 45 rpm single I bought when I was 12 in 1982 and began to immerse myself into artists from the 1960’s.
Resa – Did you have a fave Beatle after they broke up?
Matt – I equally enjoyed the post- Beatles work of –
John Lennon: Nobody Told Me (I had this song on 45 rpm it was released post humously in 1984), Imagine, Instant Karma, Give Peace a Chance & Beautiful Boy
I was 10 when Lennon was assasinated and vividly recall all the news surrounding it on the tv.
Paul McCartney: The only McCartney LP I ever had was Give my regards to broad street having seen the film of the same name in 1984. Song wise My love & Silly Love Songs (Both with the band Wings), Ebony & Ivory (With Stevie Wonder)…
…The Girl is Mine & Say Say Say (Both with Michael Jackson), The Pipes of Peace, No more lonely nights, My brave face & FourFiveSeconds (With Rhianna & Kanye West)
Through the Limo’s Windows
Many of my fave pics were ones Paul took when they were in a limo, driving through cities.
New York City
Resa – So Matt, I feel somewhat nostalgic about the USA when I see the images from NYC, Washington DC & Miami in the early 60’s. I’d like to know what you think of the America Paul captured.
Matt – Commercialized
Washington
The following images from Washington and Miami are some of Paul’s personal favourites.
Matt – Grimy, Easy & Willing, Stark
Miami
Resa – This police officer was one of many escorting The Beatles in an open top car transporting them from the airport to Miami Beach. I’m fascinated by this shot.
“It was slightly shocking for us to see a gun in real life, as we didn’t have armed police officers back home.” -Paul McCartney
Arriving at The Deauville Beach Beach Resort in Miami Beach, was a crowd of hundreds.
Matt – Fear, Fascination, Overwhelming.
From the Train
Train is my fave mode of travel. I adore what one sees from the coach. I find these pics fascinating.
Matt – The Working Class, perhaps reminiscent of home.
Pics of Paul by Others
Reading the Toronto Star on the plane to Montreal.
Seems he liked reading newspapers. The pic below was taken by his brother, Mike McCartney in 1960.
Miami – Colour Film and R&R
At some point during the stay in Miami, Paul switched to colour film.
Before Paul switched to colour film, there were some black and white Miami shots.
Matt – I will say that photo of Cynthia Lennon definitely captures loneliness in contrast to the fun being captured in colour.
Resa – Interesting comment, Matt. I have to think it was an unnerving experience for her, to see all of the unbridled attention aimed at her husband. A “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” moment.
Presentation
Some of Paul’s photos were made larger than life. As I walked into the rooms, I felt immersed in Beatlemania. Their appearances on Ed Sullivan ran on a loop.
Resa – Matt, would you please compose a Cento Poem of lines from Beatles songs from that 1960-1969 era? Your choice of songs & lines.
Matt – All the songs from 1960-1962 are cover songs. I am only taking original compositions from their albums released. I used lines from the following songs to compose this cento:
And I love her, Eight days a week, You’ve got to hide your love away, Nowhere man, Eleanor Rigby, With a little help from my friends, A day in the life, Happiness us a warm gun, Golden Slumbers, Carry that weight, I’ve got a feeling & Let it be.
OBSESSION
(A Cento by: Matt Snyder)
A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me
Guess you know
It’s true
Hope you need
my love babe,
Just like I need you.
…How can I even try?
I can never win
Hearing them,
Seeing them,
In the state
I’m in
“Nowhere man, The world is at your command”
All the lonely
– people
Where do they all
come from?
Does it worry you
to be alone?
How do I feel
by the end of the day?
A crowd of people stood and stared
I need a fix
‘cause I’m going down
Down to the pits
that I left uptown
Sleep,
pretty darling
Do not cry
Boy,
You’re gonna
Carry that
Weight
Carry
that weight
A long time
Everybody had a hard year..
Everybody had a good time
Everybody had a wet dream
Everybody saw the … …….
…And when the
broken hearted people
Living in the world
agree ?
There will be
an answer…
Pics inline blow up if clicked
Resa – I love your Beatles Cento!
There was lots of memorabilia, as well as pics of other celebrities they worked with or met along the way and people who worked for them. All in all, a fascinating experience.
THANK YOU, MATT!
Resa – It’s been great having you here today!
Matt – Always a pleasure to collaborate with you Resa. I kinda hope this exhibit travels to any of the museums my wife & I frequent in Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Delaware.
Resa – I hope so, too! You will love it! I did see it listed on line a few weeks ago, as going to Philadelphia, but now I can’t find it.
Pics taken by Resa – March 4, 2026
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
POSTSCRIPT: Shey adds in her comment – “my home city, Dundee, is recognized as the place where the term Beatlemania was coined after a concert at the Caird Hall there where seats got torn up and eardrums did too by the screaming frenzy of the fans.”
Home Is Where the Art Is
One Sunday all I had to do for the art show was to pick up a couple small things. The place was only 4.5 km. from home, so I walked.
There and back was only 5.6 miles, a perfect walk on the first nice day in a long time.
It was an odd location, with no visible street art as I walked there.
I took a different route on the way home,
.. and found art.
I also found the artists working on the art.
I spent some time chatting with each artist.
They were generous with their time, and let me take some pics of them working.
It felt good to be back in my street art shoes. It felt like home.
Pics taken by Resa – April 2, 2026
Toronto, Canada
The Artists:
Note: The Art Show is open for another week, but there is someone else babysitting it. Wrap out is the week after. Then I can make a post about it!
April Squeeze
April Showers paints her beauties in the worst spots.
This one was at a truck rental parking place. Yes, I almost got stuck squeezing through.
Of all the graf tagged onto the wall, all I wanted was the April Showers face. The best I could do in a 2 foot slot was some demented up angles and truck window reflections.
And now, I am squeezing through from here, until middle/late April. This is my last post until then.
But, I will be visiting when I can.
It’s because I got involved in an ART SHOW. YAY!
So, like April Showers, I’ll be sharing my beauties, but in a nice place.
But if I could, I would have a fashion show in an alley filled with graffiti.
There’s nothing like finding beauty in the roughest places; like Velvet Tango, the Art Gown I made for Holly House of Heart in a tagged up alley.
April Showers will bring art & flowers, and I’ll have lots to share with you!
Of the plethora, I’m mostly super excited to share the show of Paul McCartney’s amateur pics from 1963-64.
Our blog pal MATT is going to be on board for that!
There’s pics Paul took of the other Beatles, of America through the limo & train windows and some colour shots from Miami.
The show was SPLASHTACULAR!
There were also a few old professional promo shots.
So until then, like this art is tagged, I Wish You Roses!
Pics taken by Resa 2024 – 2026
Toronto, Canada
Mandala – Mandala-ish
Check out this Spectacular Mandala by Graham Stephen of Mandala Vihara!
Mandala – a geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism.
Vihara – a Buddhist monastery and place of religious education.
For many years I have been a fan of Graham’s mandala art. Every so often on my art hunts, I’ll find something that is not a full mandala, but mandala-ish, and I think of Graham.
It was upon finding this mandala-ish paste-up with eyes in the centre, that I considered a mandala theme post, and dedicating it to Graham.
Better, why not involve him?
I asked, he agreed and said “Looking forward to seeing your collection of street mandalishes + 1 gowndala.”
Wait until you see this “Gowndala”!
Mandala-ishes Collection
We chat with Graham as the collection is shown.
Resa – What drew you into making your gorgeous mandalas?
Graham – The intricately beautiful sand mandalas created by Tibetan Buddhist monks have long fascinated me. After spending days laboriously creating those wonderful designs, with great non-attachment the monks sweep away the sand in an act symbolic of Impermanence.
Resa – That is of keen interest to me, as the ephemerality of street art is what drives me to it.
Graham – So, about seven years ago when I happened to come across some mandalas online created from digital photographs, the thought arose that that could be a fun thing to try. The best part turned out to be being able to lose yourself in the creative process.
Graham – That applying orders of rotational symmetry to various real-life scenes of nature, architecture, and so on, should give rise to such an endless variety of outcomes is also rather satisfying. And then there is the aspect of pareidolia — it can be fun looking for unexpected forms such as faces created by the new alignments of the rearranged slices of reality.
Graham – Digital mandalas may seem to be more durable than their Tibetan sand counterparts, but at some stage they too will, inevitably, be long forgotten. At another level, and as with any image on the web, their existence is only fleeting — being reborn each time the page is viewed and then dissolving back into emptiness when the viewer clicks away…
Resa – You pair quotes with your mandalas. Are the quotes you pair with your mandalas inspired by the mandala? ie: you have the mandala then search for a quote that works, OR do you have a quote and then are inspired to make the mandala to go with it?
Graham – Actually, neither! This part of the process is surrendered to chance. When it comes to drafting a post, the mandala just gets paired up with the next unused item from my collection of quotes. Sometimes they complement each other, sometimes they contrast, and at other times there may seem to be no apparent connection — the unpredictability of the random juxtaposition is a bit of fun, with echoes of the “cut-up” technique of Dadaism.
Resa – Oooo, I love that!
Resa – Do you purposely take a photo of something because it will make a fab mandala?
Graham – Rarely. In practice I tend to review all the shots afterwards when editing a series of photographs and select one or two of any that might be suitable.
I began looking for mandala-ishes everywhere, indoors and outdoors.
I have unfortunately been visiting a friend at the Toronto General Hospital over the last couple of weeks. In the hallway is a Mosaic Mural made from 10,000 tabs, lids, pins, levers, screws and connectors collected over 28 years by nurse Tilda Shalof.
Within the mosaic are several mandala-ishes . Those, and information on the mosaic can be seen in the slide show above. Below is the entire piece.
Très ish mandala-ish
The above work of art by Gordon Rayner was hanging in a random hallway, in a converted warehouse/factory filled with artsy retailers.
The Most Beautiful Mandala … Ever!
Lilac Fan Dance is Thunder’s (aka Dale) dedicated Art Gown.
Thinking the texture and colours would make a cool Mandala, I sent 3 pics of her to Graham.
He chose the first one saying,
Graham – “as that one had a nice bit of plain background to the left to create a bit of negative space around the result.”
OMG! LOVE THIS!
Thank You Graham!
Visit Graham from MANDALA VIHARA! It’s a beautiful place.
Street art and indoor art pics taken by Resa – 2025-2026
Toronto, Canada
Cats – The Big Ones
For Cat Lovers (& all animal lovers).
I was in a area by the tracks, and not expecting to find anything.
There was an alley across from the front of the building with the word GEARY.
One garage was painted, with big cats.
Talk about a thrilling find!
Yet another mural I was loathe to leave.
It looked new. A passerby told me it was a year old.
This lion breaks my heart.
What a sweet old soul the artist captured. Humans are not nice enough to animals.
Hmm, I think these may all be endangered cats?
I searched endangered cats and cats on the edge of extinction.
Seems almost every cat, except house cats, are on the list.
Pics taken by Resa – November 18, 2025
Toronto, Canada
The Artist:
A Work of Art & Thank You!
For Yvette
It was a lovely honour to be the focus of a Mini-Interview on Yvette’s Priorhouse blog.
I sent this to Yvette, so she could see the image I was using to say Thank You to her.
Resa – That image is like me & many …blogging, trying to keep up.
Yvette – That really could apply to blogging, and keeping up during a busy season.
Yvette – I also think it could apply to life – and just enduring a challenging season. There is a certain contentment I feel in that art – with a certain suffering or enduring and I think in another way there might be a hint of performance burnout – ?
Resa – I also think it can apply to life.
Yvette – Especially when you see the full photo – or is that part of the contentment feel- the balancing on one arm and the placement of that other arm is a bit athletic, sure, strong, poised, and in motion – and that adds to it.
Yvette – Oh and the other elements/principles in that photo street art – we have the soft blue going across the body into the green – giving us this horizontal split that syncs with the body – other line designs stand out – like the hair being in sync with the background and other line design.
Yvette – And you know, the legs stood out on the third look – that is a strong pose – to be sideways – are those “eagle” legs? either way – that is why this feels strong and poised and enduring –
Resa – Thank you, Yvette! What a wonderful interpretation of this piece of art.
Pics taken by Resa – June 27, 2025
Toronto, Canada
The Artist:
Karen Roberts
Graffiti Lux Art & More 
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