- William Young Ottley, English collector of and writer on art.

- I hope everyone had a warm, happy and healthy holiday.

- I am very happy to say that I am working with the lovely folks at Solis Animation as the production coordinator for the next few months on Ugly Americans! Week one was exciting and I learned a whole lot of new, other side of the brain stuff.

- Text Sculpture 1968 (broken) by artist David Aitken, shown at the Victoria Miro gallery in London. I find this piece stunningly beautiful.

*photo credit: Art From Behind.

- Charlie Rose hosts a very interesting discussion with Kirk Varnedoe and John Elderfield about the Mattisse and Picasso show at the MOMA Queens back in 2003. Elderfield succeeded Varnedoe as chief curator of painting and sculpture at the MOMA. Elderfield retired from his position at the MOMA in 2010; Varnedoe passed away from cancer in 2003.

- Willem de Kooning is showing now until January 9, 2012 at the MOMA. I'd love to fly down to New York one weekend to see it.

Willem de Kooning Orestes 1947. Enamel

on paper mounted on plywood.

Martin Amis

- Last night I stayed up late to finish London Fields by Martin Amis. I can only read one book by Amis a year; the characters and plots are intense and really stick with me. (One thing I absolutely love about Amis' writing is his vast vocabulary.) I put the book down and shivered, then shook it off. It's a great read, as are all of Amis' books, and I do recommend it, just get ready for a ride you may, or may not, try to quickly forget.

Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Guisto Sustermans.

- A new book "Galileo's Muse" by Mark. A Peterson illustrates how Greek science, Roman technology and the arts helped shape Galileo's genius. More in an article here by the New Scientist.

- "Along a Long Road" is the new book by Frank Viva. I made an earlier post about him here. The book made it to the finals of the Governor General's Award. Congratulations Mr. Viva! I am definitely giving this book to a few people this Christmas, and keeping one copy for me, of course.

- Painting of Dennis, done by artist Andrew Sookrah, member of the Portrait Society of Canada which is located here in Toronto. The society has some incredibly talented artists.

- Today I attended the Liss Gallery to see photography by the great rock photographer Bob Gruen. He was in attendance and had some interesting stories to tell.

- Justin Lee Williams, an Australian based artist, makes some haunting and beautiful images.