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I spend very little time east of home town.  To me, it's just this place I drive through on the way to my parents' house.  I think many Torontonians feel about Oshawa the way many Americans feel about Rhode Island.  We know about it;  we just don't care.
 

I don't recall ever having even driven through Oshawa.  It's quaint (i.e. filled with one-way streets, signs that can only be read if you're traveling at a 90 degree angle to the way you're actually going, and stores closed on Sunday).  And it's home to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

This building was donated to the city by Mr. McLaughlin's grandson, in memory of Grandpa who moved his carriage business from a little town south of the eastern tip of Lake Huron to Oshawa in 1877.  It became the largest carriage business in the British Empire.  According to the plaque at the front door, anyway.  I'm not sure what happened to the business, but I don't know anyone with a McLaughlin parked in their driveway.

The gallery seems to be dedicated to Canadian art.  No complaints.  I can be just as confused about what a Canadian painting is trying to express, as I can about a painting from anyplace else.

 

 

Sometimes, even for those who know zilch about art, it's easy to tell how a painter was feeling when they created a particular piece – I won't insult anyone's intelligence by suggesting here what mood the creator of this work was probably in at the time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't like to judge (and yet I do, all the time)...Is this art?  I assume it is.  It's framed and hanging on a wall in a gallery.  But I think I could come pretty close to an authentic reproduction using 4 cans of paint, 4 brushes and a couple rolls of FrogTape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is definitely not something you'd find hanging in my living room.  The giant eyeballs creep me out.   But I'm sure there are plenty of people who do like this style (and who are very well adjusted or have good therapists), so no disrespect meant to this, or any other, artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to my taste were surreal pieces like this one.  I love black and white photography.  True, I'm not sure what it means – a stark, almost desert-like landscape with lots of butterflies rising – but I stared at it for a very long time.  And still couldn't figure out a way to sneak it out of the building into my car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check this out – you'll remember it the next time you call CAA for a boost.  Charles A. Atkinson started his business in Oshawa.  Hard to believe at one point that the city was even more "quaint" than it is now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots more photos to be seen.  Currently, the gallery has an exhibit dedicated to the National Film Board.  No, they don't just produce sophisticated short films like "The Logdriver's Waltz".  In fact, up until 1941, they didn't produce any moving pictures.  "Film" referred that old fashioned stuff that used to be loaded into a camera.  But when the organization started making movies, they created the National Film Board of Canada's Still Photography Division. 

 

 

From 1941 through 1984, this

Division commissioned freelance photographers to travel all over Canada taking interesting/important photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like the ones for this article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one of some young ladies who worked at a munitions plant in Quebec City.

This amazing collection of photographs is worth the visit, if you're at all interested in Canadian history.  (A subject I found very boring in high school, because the only thing we ever studied was the Hudson's Bay Company – which isn't even Canadian anymore.)

The greatest portion of my time in the gallery was actually spent downstairs, visiting with their current artist-in-residence, Janice.  I wish I could show you pictures of her and her extremely colourful paintings, but I didn't think it would be appropriate to take pictures of material that was clearly so personal to her (and I don't think it was allowed anyway – what with the "no photography allowed" signs on every wall).   But Janice was absolutely fascinating, and one of the most spiritual people I've ever met.  Also incredibly intuitive.  I put it down to a powerfully functioning right brain, which I'm envious of, because, as an organizer, the right side of my brain barely functions.  It's a miracle that I even manage to express myself in words.

I wonder what kind of a painter I would make?  I'm guessing it's likely that I haven't progressed much beyond kindergarten - yellow blob in the upper left (sun), square with triangle on top (house), and stick figures (dysfunctional family).  But if I ever decide to give it another shot, I'll lay in a supply of bright colours and FrogTape...

 

One Thing That >50 Me Has Learned Along the Way...

Using a credit card ensures you never need to carry around large amounts of cash, which generally isn't considered safe.  But that little piece of plastic is not a device for supplementing your income.  If you can't pay your balance at the end of every month, you're spending beyond your means.  Bank credit cards charge currently almost 20% interest.  Store credit cards are more like 25%. These rates are practically usury.  So don't spend more than you can pay.   And if you're paying an annual fee, you're probably committing an additional wrong.  Banks already make tons of money off credit cards.  Charging you a fee on top of the minimum 3.5% merchant fee they get for every purchase transaction is adding insult to injury.