Canadiana

I met this fellow one day while walking in the woods near Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia. He was part of a road crew and had been left on watch in the middle of an uncompleted road with nothing to do. So he spent his time good-naturedly catching flies in his hat. In the contrast between his two occupations and in his blithe atitude to both there was something overwhelmingly Canadian. So I have put him here on my Canadiana front page as the lead player in the most Canadian moment I ever expect to witness: a man catching flies in his hat. If his statue was in every Canadian town Canada could not help becoming more Canadian with every glance of every sky-reflecting eye.

 
I live in France, but like a migrating goose, I am never away from Canada for long. On this my Canadiana page are over 100 drawings and silhouettes that form a portrait of Canadian life and places, peoples and creatures. In the Spring of 2003 I made a coast-to-coast journey - from Halifax, Novia Scotia to Vancouver, British Columbia - sliding across the continent like a wild hockey puck. Two Horsemen of the Apocalypse were riding at the time: War began in Iraq and the SARS virus broke out in Toronto. But also snow fell upon silent forests and bears awoke skinny in the great wide land.

 

Silhouette Diary
Twenty-three Silhouettes documenting a coast-to-coast journey across Canada, including Steve Walker's daring picture of the Northern Lights in black & white.

 

Habbakuk of Ice
The background story to Steve Walker's radioplay about the Canadian Habbakuk project, which built a battleship out of ice during World War II.