Tag: Drawings

A Toronto Intermission

On By ResaIn Parking Lots106 Comments

Excerpts from “toronto”-by Chinkok Tan(1942-2025)

Found this installation art in an outdoor parking lot. The images & “words” are from a rare book. Only 58 copies were ever made. They reside in private collections and rare book libraries.

“toronto (canada) is a place like no other place, for all i know”

Chinkok Tan’s drawings of streetscapes and buildings are visual love letters, from his early years. He arrived in Toronto from Malaysia on December 4, 1967, with $129.00.

"first,
i felt the cold
the cold i had never felt before

the wind
icy cold wind
biting, penetrating,
- going through me like i was nothing."

Tan had come to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art (OCA – now OCAD).

"the y.m.c.a. i was told
is cheap.
it cost four bucks a night
my room was small, cell like,

*
it was my fortune on the second day
to meet the cleaning lady,

*
out of loneliness i spoke to her,
my problem became hers,
she understood."

Tan found a job as a bus-boy in a restaurant on Bay Street. For 2 years he worked nights, part time.

*
"time old buildings expressing nostalgic past,
residential streets within the city,
people actually make their home in downtown
toronto - the city is for the people!"

He turned these drawings into a book in 1973. It is now a time capsule of Toronto in transition.

"recently, the city has changed because of the
fantastic building boom
that will soon turn toronto into a city
none of us know."

Pics taken by Resa – August 13, 2026

Baldwin Street – near the Ontario College of Art & Design

Toronto, Canada

❦ As this post was ready to go, and I am swamped with “to do’s”; I decided to post it now. The Underpass “Scattered Order III” will resume after a brief intermission. ❦

Something Fancy

On By ResaIn Book Reviews354 Comments

by: Robbie Cheadle

In Robbie’s words:

"but I have moved on to drawing and painting,
which now dominate my artistic life."

"This book is a celebration of my cake and fondant art phase of life"

And what a fantastic phase it was! Just check out her “Jack Frost” cake above! I was so inspired, I drew the “Jacquie Frost” Art Gown below.

I’m just learning how to do white, so did a rendition of icy-blue white with window frost effect.

Of course there’s more to the book than cakes! There’s recipes and background history of both how fancy desserts and their recipes came to be, with a focus on:

Christmas Cakes

Okay, so that’s another kind of cake, but it is Christmas soon, and I just had to show off Robbie’s Tiered Rainbow Fairies Christmas Cake!

Which leads me to another Art Gown drawing inspired by the above cake; The Rainbow Fairies’ Art Gown.

Robbie says – “The ice cream fairies cake is a very happy one for me.”

Well, I can add more happy!

More! There’s poetry. There’s photos. There’s fondant art. There’s heart.

And there’s Gingerbread!

If there is anything that could be constructed out of gingerbread, Robbie has engineered it.

To the left is her gingerbread Chapel.

To our right, is her gingerbread Windmill.

There are a lot of gingerbread creations in the book, but these two are the inspiration for my Gingerbread Art Gown, below.

Ginger models the Gingerbread Art Gown.

This lovely 100+ page book can set you up nicely for the oncoming holiday season, or any celebration that comes your way.

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, and written and illustrated four poetry books. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies. .

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

OR – Just click on Something Fancy above, and go directly to its Amazon page!

Something Fancy is available in book or ebook formats!

You can find her books on Amazon sites around the globe. Just search “Robbie Cheadle” for children and youth books – “Roberta Eaton Cheadle” for adult books.

Visit Robbie on her blogs! Roberta Writes and Robbies Inspiration

Visit Robbie on her YouTube Channel to watch her bake, and get some tips! 


Famous Artists and Their Models

On By ResaIn Famous Artists and Their Models121 Comments

In the March 23, 1962 issue of Life magazine was an article titled “Famous Artists and Their Models”.

In getting rid of stuff, old magazines used for research are going. I bought them in the early 2000’s when I was working for Showtime.

In going through the magazines, I found this article. It is so fascinating, I have to share.

Nick of time, the magazine crumbled as I held it. I did my best taking pics.

The articles are photographed and presented in a way to see and read best.

I adore all of the anecdotal editorial that came with these fabulous images.

Click on the cover of the issue, and it will take you to a PDF of the article as presented in the magazine, as opposed to how I have presented. It is downloadable.

I can’t think of a more fitting work of music than “Frozen” by MK-O, featuring our dear dahling Marina on vocals ( & more). After all, the models are gone, but the images that came from their poses are frozen in time.