Sadko Hadžihasanović at Paul Petro

Bill and I braved the cold weather yesterday to see Sadko Hadžihasanović's suite of new paintings: "Close Shave" at Paul Petro on Queen West. We've been following Sadko's work for years and I was curious to see this new work which he had set in barber shops around the world. 

We arrived early and had the artist to ourselves. Here he is in one of his self-portraits. When I learned Sadko was working from photographs I sent him some of the photos that Bill and I have taken in barber shops over the years and Sadko used some of them. 

The paintings are oil paint on 10" by 10" wooden panels. This photo by the painter. The energetic paintings speak for themselves but I can tell you something about the subjects.

This painting is based on my photo of a friend getting his hair cut at Lloyd's Barbers in Toronto in 1998. The background lattice is the artist's invention.

Sadko also painted this portrait of Bill

getting a haircut from Mustapha in a barber shop in Istanbul in 2001. Great portraits of both figures!

This is Bill's photo of the artist and his model (me!) based on a picture Bill took in Palermo in 2002.

Love how the artist has rendered the flesh and the fabrics and the shaving cream. 

This gorgeous painting is set in the Terminal Barber Shop, Toronto, in 2003. I love his delicate painting of the red stripes on the barber cape.

Because we were alone, Sadko had time to tell us about the challenges of painting in a square format. The compressed, cropped, images carry quite a punch.

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p.s. I asked Sadko to help me pronounce his last name correctly: "Had-gee ha-SAN-oh-vitch". Show continues until February 19th.

A Fourth Wave of Postcards

Entering our second pandemic winter we find ourselves very much ahead with global vaccinations on the rise, but still very much in it with the success of the Omicron variant. It's back to movies in this house. See you in the spring!

"Their vanity is greater than their misery." Burt Lancaster in Visconti's Il gattopardo (The Leopard), 1963.

"You think we're any better?" Anouk Aimée in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, 1960.

"It should be so easy to be happy, shouldn't it?" Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde in John Schlesinger's Darling, 1965.

"Turns out lonely people are all the same." Tony Leung in Wong Kar-Wai's 春光乍洩 (Chun Gwong Cha Sit/Happy Together), 1997.

"What do you suppose my time's for?" Mae West in Lowell Sherman's She Done Him Wrong, 1933.

"What if we trusted each other?" Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, 2009

"But one mustn't always forgive." Max Cartier in Visconti's Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), 1960.

"Do you lie to him often?" Romain Duris and Anaïs Demoustier in François Ozon's Le nouvelle amie (The New Girlfriend), 2014

"I hate lying." Amanda Langlet and Melvil Poupaud in Éric Rohmer's Conte d'été (A Summer's Tale), 1996.

"It's human to lie."  Toshirô Mifune in Akira Kurosawa's 羅生門 (Rashomon), 1950

"There are no liars." Caroline Proust in Engrenages (Spiral), Season 1, episode 4, 2005.

"Nightmares are alibis." Françoise Prévost in Jacques Rivette's Paris nous appartient (Paris belongs to us), 1961

"It's horrible, isn't it." Olivia de Havilland and Leo Genn in Anatole Litvak's The Snake Pit, 1948.

"This will end badly, mark my words." Kristin Scott Thomas and Fabrice Luchini in François Ozon's Dans la maison (In the House), 2012.

"That's when Miss Wang began talking to herself." Faye Wong in Kar-Wai Wong's 2046, 2004.

"No one can say what I will do, once I am back in my element." Utpal Dutt (right) in Satyajit Ray's Agantuk (The Stranger), 1991.

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More posts like this:

Thirteen Postcards in a Pandemic, May 2020. 

A Second Wave of Postcards, October 2020.

A Third Wave of Postcards, March 2021.

Second Pandemic Summer in Toronto

Bill and I continued our photo-walks this summer.

Bill has developed a radar for good murals and graffiti.

Pho Hung restaurant on Saint Andrew Street.

I'm always looking for something abstract.

Here's something!

And here's a doozie! Detail of Douglas Coupland's "Monument to the War of 1812".

One morning in Kensington Market we stood mesmerized by this talented musician. Bill got the picture.

When I came out of my trance I saw this little face at my feet.

Now for some Toronto vernacular. Bill's shot of a private back garden. A garden? Under those tarps?

Bill calls this "the narrow house".

This little old shop is called the Winners Lotto Mart.

I looked at the back of this sunflower for some time and decided that this thing is seriously over-designed.

Ragweed or goldenrod? One causes allergies the other does not. Sure hope these are goldenrod because they are thriving on every corner.

Is it old age? I find myself warming-up to this mid-century brutalist building on Yonge Street. Sure is abstract!

The city has taken down a construction fence near Grange Park and we can now get the Sharp Centre for Design and Above Ground art supplies in one shot.

In a service alley near Palmerston I was lining up this garage door on my phone. Bill said, "Don't move. I'm taking your picture." And that was our summer.

Potting Season

Every year, about halfway through May, Bill decides it is safe to plant on our balcony.

He favours two small nurseries on Dundas Street.

We had a spell of summer weather last week. For the first time this year I was able to sit on the balcony with a book. Bliss.

But I was happy to clear the table and let Bill get some planting done.

He plants. I clean up. That's our deal. Later I spread my books out again.

I think Bill's recycling looks like contemporary sculpture.

I also love the look of his "drainage" bits.

His broken pottery shards look like artifacts on "Digging in Britain".

Pottery shards cover drainage holes.

So the water doesn't collect in the bottom of the pot. 

On the weekend we bought some lobelia

Bill planted them around the zinnias in the long pots.

Then I settled in with a new crop of books.

I had a look at the zinnias. They look happy.