The way the East Van Cross faces off against the financial centre of Vancouver is perfectly defiant

Wreck Beach is an odd name for a clothing optional beach but no doubt makes for enthusiastic slogans.

The dividing point between East Van and the West Side.

Snow Day. If only transit were this peaceful.

East Van view down the rail corridor towards the Militant Mothers of Raymur Pedestrian Bridge.

Beach, blooms, boats, bliss.

Railway tracks and East Van night lights. 

Vancouver as it usually looks: overcast, mountains, industry, water, trees.

Vancouver archetypes coming together for the 7pm cheer.

Rio's iconic Cristo. There is always a cultural longing for a saviour. More poignantly at some times than others.

Cioffi’s and the Heights sign, painted when nights on the street seemed a little darker than usual.

Lights, snow, and East Van magic.

In pub hierarchy, the Brewhouse is between aprés-ski and pre-club.

Learning is the best trip you can take.

Vintage industrial crossed with steampunk tourism.

Solid-gold sunshine and champagne water.

Tribute to a splendid vacation in the romantic highlands near Loch Tay.

Hot town, summer in the city.

Springtime burst of pink confetti petals.

Few scenes are as Canadian as a well-scored hockey net on a frozen pond.

Like flying over Never Never Land at dusk.

Very green. Very dense.

Icons of East Van: a Vancouver Special, the East Van cross, and exactly 13 crows flying overhead.

A rapidly gentrifying commuter corridor.

This is a painting I did in appreciation of where I grew up, which was more or less on these hills.

That brief period when everything glows.

Jazz music as colour and smoke.

I painted a similar scene a few years ago. There are sure a lot more buildings.

A happy East Van home with all sorts of built-in architectural grins and an even happier dog.

Crows are totally punk.

Howe Sound as blush satin.

The iconic Rio Theatre on Broadway and Commercial is one of Vancouver's most beloved multimedia venues.

A synecdoche is a part that represents the whole. This is a rainbow of east and west side Vancouver landmarks.

Vancouver is a city of beginnings and endings. But, oh, the sunsets.

Inversions are an atmospheric metaphor.

Playland in the off season feels more gothic than giddy.

Sometimes there's much to be done and a long way to go.

A diptych of a heavenly view as if floating among clouds. From up here you can see everything.

Nighttime, the East Van Cross, and graffiti symbols that hint at a colorful life.

Kits Beach is the perfect tranquility base.

Osoyoos is a perfect vacation spot if you like warm water, wine, and sunshine.

Spike is very colourful, which is fitting for such an exuberant fun-loving breed.

Samantha is an energetic Border Collie/Australian Shepherd. Her mission in life is to catch all the sticks in the entire world.

A truncated view of Hastings Street at night under a full moon.

A cheerful family home in Dundarave.

A stately and beautifully appointed Dunbar home.

Special birthday present of a favorite place.

Pretty corner house in Burlington, Ontario.

Hydrangeas are a symbolic flower in the Azores and make for colorful windbreaks along the coastal trails.

There's a special confluence of festivity when Vancouver gets snow in December.

Hydrangeas are beautiful even as they fade.

Starry night in Washington over dancing pines.

Autumn and winter are the best times of year to see spectacular sunsets in Vancouver.

Hydrangeas are the world's most beautiful understated flower.

At sunset, the world is simultaneously calm and vibrant.

This English Bay scene contains pertinent symbols: hearts, a tiara, and a "Y" pathway to denote "Yes".

This is a truncated view of Hastings Street featuring the most beloved signs.

Bait stations remind us that unwanted and unseen living creatures exist.

Being the greenest city in the world by 2020 means there's a big program in place to change our behaviour.

Industrial structures look gentle and unthreatening in the soft early morning fog.

Piles is a colloquial term for hemorrhoids. And sulphur used to be called brimstone.

Siwash Rock looks like a small child tree who wants to wander off into the dangerous unknown.

"Great White" brings three concepts to mind: Great White North, Great White Hope, and Great White Shark.

The 4/20 celebration in Vancouver is comparable to the Fireworks Festival except with fewer liquor containers and more food wrappers.

Escape is often an uphill struggle, whether cultivated or naturally grown.

Vancouver's 2010 Olympics logo was intended as a world welcome. Locally, it's more of a pretty insignia for beach volleyball.

The East Van Cross is an emblem of light which is both a threat and a beacon.

Crows represent our dark and feisty domestic urban lives.

Predators live on the surplus of others except Vancouver housing doesn't have any surplus.

Density is a contentious topic in Vancouver.

The bridge lions face traffic going into north Van. They are a subtle North Shore defense mechanism.

The shoes-over-wires thing is a literal environmental footprint.

“FTW” means “For The Win!” to one generation but it is is a punk epithet to an older one.

In practice, “Mono No Aware” means appreciate what you have because it never lasts.

In the 1880s, Canada's National Dream was unity.

The orange fences of doom signify that this old wood house will be demolished to make way for larger plywood one.

Pork Bellies are a commodity. Housing isn’t.

The River District is an ex-industrial site on built on reclaimed swampland. It is marketed as the next Yaletown.

Stem cells are blank cells that can become any cell. STEM is also an acronym for "science, technology, engineering, and math."

Places where people read and learn are full brightness.

Until recently, Vancouver's real estate market was a somewhat laissez-faire system with houses flipping faster than fingers at a Main Street cyclist.

Oil tankers and sunsets: there is nothing more symbolic of End of Days.

If you travel a lot, this is the view out your window.

People go nuts when the cherry blossoms come out in Vancouver.

A field full of sunflowers plus a bright blue sky will always make you feel happier.

Illustration project showing a variety of stereotypes plus one that combined them all.

This is a valentine to Valentine's Day because love isn't a simple heart-shaped experience.

Autumn and winter are the best times of year to see spectacular sunsets in Vancouver.

The many symbols of East Van.

The essence of this scene is the anticipation of a night out: sequins, sparklers, lit pathways, and dancing stars.

View from West Vancouver on a breezy late summer day. You can see all the way to Washington state.

View of Toronto's many skyscrapers over Riverdale Park's bright autumn trees.

Winter version of my East Vancouver icon panorama scene.

This charming East Van house has many personal touches that made it "home."

A little study of Indian Arm for the 2015 Anonymous Art Show in North Vancouver.

The Ironworker's Bridge set against the Lions Mountains.

The York is a success story for everyone who despairs at all the disappearing cultural centers in Vancouver.

This bench has a terrific view of Calgary and was also the site of a joyfully accepted marriage proposal.

This is Scarboro Church in Calgary. The bride and groom are (literally) all smiles.

The way sunflowers turn their faces to follow the sun reminds me of Vancouver.

Panoramic view of Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Some elements have been exaggerated.

When you spend a lot of time working on your home, it tends to carry your stamp and lifeblood for a long time

Brentwood Sanctuary's acoustic architecture is well suited for intimate musical and dramatic performances.

Main Street, Vancouver, runs down the center of Mount Pleasant, and is often referred to as "Hipster Central."

Vancouver alleys, whether they are urban gritty or backyard overgrown, are lovely in their roughshod untidiness.

Vancouver's harbour on an early fall morning.

This is Hansel and Gretel at Hastings and Main looking westward at apocalyptic destruction.

The East Van cross is the most significant symbol of East Van, but you can't be in East Van and not think of crows, graffiti, and concrete.

Coal Harbour is a busy place, especially for boats and bikes and planes and pedestrians.

The eye-catching red roof and trim make this one of the most distinctive houses on the block.

Burrard Inlet with turbulent rainbow waters.

Theatrical backdrop design of the alley where Cinderella and her vermin friends hang out.

Theatrical backdrop design to show the interior and exterior of Cinderella's Fraser Street heritage house.

Theatrical backdrop design depicting a property mogul's office view of Vancouver.

Magic hour is when the sun sets or before it rises. The reddish, indirect light makes everything seem more vibrant.

These are scultural painted shoes based on a Fluevog boot. The left shoe show East Van, the right shoe shows the west side.

This beautiful North Shore house features a lush well-manicured garden that explodes like fireworks in the spring.

The bright cranes are a necessary hit of color on many a dreary rainy Vancouver day.

The saturation of rain in Vancouver combined with certain lighting effects often gives the city a Monet-like aura.

The Whip Restaurant & Gallery is located just off Main Street on 6th.

This perspective of the East Van cross makes it look towering and monolithic.

An iconic Vancouver view.

This is a pretty little house in Vancouver's West Side neighborhood.

This is the view from Sandy Beach Park of downtown Calgary on a late afternoon fall day.

Shuswap Lake is a favorite BC summertime destination. Every local secretly hopes that the rest of the world doesn't find out about it.

This house is known throughout its Windsor Street neighborhood as "The Turret House."

The Red Bridge was built before the mass production of automobiles; you can tell when driving over it.

Dido, or "дідусь" is Ukrainian for "Grandfather"

This image is often how I feel when I read the news.

The view is a collage of many landmarks that East Vancouver residents know and love.

We all start somewhere.

Lion's Gate bridge bracketing downtown Vancouver at night.

Theatrical backdrop design the East Van Panto. All the symbols of East Van.

Theatrical backdrop design for "Jack and the Beanstalk" East Van Panto. This is Jack's House.

Theatrical backdrop design for "Jack and the Beanstalk" East Van Panto. Giant's sky condo.

Bitondo's Pizzeria is a no-nonsense thin-slice pizza joint in Toronto's Little Italy.

This painting is of an East Van centenarian character house. I lived there during a time of big change and transition.

"The Drive" is Vancouver's first ethnic neighbourhood.

The Grind is a 3 km trail up Grouse Mountain. 3 km may not seem long but the incline makes it feel a lot longer.

Morning fog is magical: mountains become an opalescent mirage while the cranes become primordial pack animals.

A little juxtaposition of some of Vancouver's primary colors: blue mountains and water, red oil tankers, and yellow sulfur piles.

The nightly crow migration is an awesome sight in East Van.

Kids used to jump off the top of that bridge into the high river every summer.

Playland painted all crowded and bright and dizzy, which is how you experience it as a kid.

Mom loved her garden.

Ambleside has one of the nicest views of Vancouver and the Lion's Gate bridge.

Kamloops is full of golden tones, subtle pastels, and quiet beauty that resonates over time.

The Okanagan has a "big sky" feeling.

Some days you can almost feel the earth turning like sunflowers in the sun.

This is a perfectly happy "Hello Bluebird" house in East Van.

The HSBC Canada "pendulum building" is well-known office tower in Vancouver.

This scene is of a lovely cabin in the woods near Barriere, British Columbia after a fresh snowfall.

Eastside Market was a cheerful place with tons of flowers. Closed, alas. Probably will become condos.

The Ridge Theatre was a long-standing Vancouver landmark.

The Waldorf at twilight, with warm inner lights. Adios, Waldorf.

This cottage sits on the shoreline of Lake Wenona in Ontario.

Vancouver spring scene on one of those days when the sun surprises us all.

Cities built near water get double the nighttime sparkle because of the reflection effect.

Every September, there's a sense that everything starts and dies all at once.

This classic Vancouver scene is what you see when you cross the Granville Street bridge.

Some early mornings make Vancouver seem like the most magical place on earth.

Some people describe crossing the Capilano suspension bridge as "walking on air."

You always think of fairytales whenever you see a castle.

Illustration for a course on graphic narrative.

One of those rare clear and calm mornings in Vancouver: it will be a good day.

This painting shows the Granville and Burrard Bridges framed by Granville Island and downtown Vancouver.

Colorful houseboat community on the north side of Granville Island.

This is a century-old former boarding house near Commercial Drive in East Van.

Row of City Hall character houses with full summer blooms.

Classic Ontario cottage.

Ontario cottage life is at full tilt in the summer.

Spring cottage scene.

This building is painted as if poised for flight above the well-groomed, colourful shrubbery.

Autumn sunsets are closer to the horizon and seem to bathe everything in gold.

Red represents vitality, passion, and love, as well as rage, sin, and debt.

Orange represents citrus, zest, endurance, and embers. It doesn't have a negative association.

Yellow symbolizes sunshine, warmth, summer, and happiness. It also means fear, caution, and toxicity.

Green is associated with growth, newness, and nature. It is also associated with envy, greed, money, and nausea.

Blue means loyalty, masculinity, tranquillity, and favoured status. Blue is also the color of cold and sadness and death.

Purple stands for eccentricity, ceremony, mystery as well as mourning, transformation, and bruising.

Pink has several meanings. In Vancouver, the pink cherry trees make even the grittiest urban environments look bridal-pretty.

This painting shows a late-spring morning when Burrard Inlet is calm and the commuters haven’t started bustling yet.

Heritage Hall is located at Main and 15th in Vancouver.

This was an experiment for a friend who loves crows, and even owned a pet crow in his youth. The topside is based on a photograph that he took of seve…

The Lee Building is a well-known building located at Main and Broadway in Vancouver.

Imagination is the best part of childhood. When you're young, you imagine more because you know less.

Illustration for a writing contest poster. The slogan was "Writers Are Sexy."

Illustration for a course in Banned and Censored Books featuring Lolita and American Psycho.

Quintessential Vancouver: Oz-like green radiant city at sunset against the jagged mountain backdrop.

An aerial view full of all the symbols of Vancouver.

The Ivanhoe is a backpacker's hostel so I gave it an easy sag to the walls, like a comfortable mattress.

The Sun Tower is a standard fixture in Vancouver's historic downtown.

The Dominion Building was Vancouver’s first steel-framed high-rise.

The ubiquitous harbour cranes are like dinosaurs flexing across the sky. They make the landscape seem prehistoric.

Vancouver is one of those cities that becomes like Oz when you see the setting sun reflecting off the buildings.

Ukraine’s flag is blue and gold. Blue represents the sky (hope), and gold represents crops (prosperity).

Kitsilano triplex with a cat and flowerbox.

City Hall character houses.

This is a hundred-year-old house in East Van. There were two dogs and three people who lived there as well as a backyard filled with sunflowers.

The cranes are the most lifelike elements in this painting. Cranes are a motif for hard work and manual labour.

Vancouver is full of endless damp grey days so when you get a break in the weather, the city seems extra bright.

Harbour Center view with brontosaurus cranes.

Phra Nang Beach in Thailand with a view of Happy Island.

Starter home in Calgary.

The Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral is located a block west of Main on 10th Avenue.

Ken Lum's light statue, Monument for East Vancouver, is installed at East 6th Avenue and Clark Drive,

The City Centre Motel was often used for filming Da Vinci’s Inquest, a Vancouver-filmed TV show about a coroner.

Eat, Read, Play: this slice of Main Street shows The Wallflower Modern Diner, Pulp Fiction Books, and Guys and Dolls Billiards.

The Cobalt Motor Hotel was built a century ago as working men’s housing. It was also a pretty awesome punk music venue for a while.

There are days when Vancouver is not all gray: some days, like late summer, it can be perfectly golden.

There are certain traits all Yaletown locals share.

Carnegie Centre with a slightly-askew toque and two front columns bent like hands cupping a flame.

Joe's Café Bar is an unpretentious coffee-sandwich-bar place on "the Drive."

This is the view looking west from Capitol Hill in Burnaby.

This is my studio building at 316 W. 5th Avenue, where I work. Or try to, most of the time!

This is a bright rendition of the Kits Point “dog beach” where dogs can swim and frolic.

Some of the most famous names in R&B have played here.

I always felt at home at the Ivanhoe.

This restless scene is characteristic of Vancouver itself. It’s an active city.

City Hall with festive fall trees and collapsed wedding-cake architecture.

Charthouse Restaurant on the wharf at Steveston Village in Richmond. Seafood doesn't get any fresher than here.

This is looking north down Granville Street at Nelson.

View from the top of the Pan Pacific, overlooking Coal Harbour, Stanley Park, and the North Shore.

Teakerne Arm proposal spot.

Winter wonderland view.

The Okanagan is a summer playground.

Mayne Island view of the West Coast.

Alexander and Main is near the docks in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.

The Vancouver Art Gallery was originally a courthouse and often plays one for various film crews.

This is the view from the Burrard Bridge looking out at the Pacific ocean and down on Vanier Park.

Granville Island is colorful against the buildings of downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver's dancing core. This painting was stolen October 31, 2010 from the Beaumont Gallery.

Heritage building and passport office.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is like walking through the forest on stilts.

The iconic Brockton Point lighthouse is like an exclamation mark on the seawall.

I have never failed to get dizzy on this ride. That is why it is probably painted a little more swirly than usual.

The gateway to the North Shore and a daily commute – and sometimes frustration – for many.

Ironworker’s Memorial Bridge, AKA Second Narrows. All roads lead to North Van.

The seabus is a daily commute for many. It's a relaxing way to get downtown.

North Shore Credit Union's Parkgate Branch on opening day. It's called "Blueshore" now.

If you live in Deep Cove, it is almost a requirement to own a boat.

One of North Vancouver’s most idyllic spots.

Cute, eclectic Edgemont Village is a city of sidewalks and color.

The Lions are also known as “The Twin Sisters”.

These are two tall vertical views of the Lions over Capilano Lake in the summer and the winter.

The view of Lion’s Gate from Ambleside with Vancouver in the background.

View of Lion’s Gate looking west. This is the path the cruise ships take out to Alaska.

Parkgate Library at dusk with the lights on.

The Tomahawk Restaurant in North Van is like going back in time. I hope they never change it.

The seabus terminal at Lonsdale Quay.

The dramatic lighting and the red bricks against the greenbelt of Victory Square give this scene a sense of salvation.

Science World is a favorite school field trip. There's a lot of jumpy movement in the painting, kind of like hyped-up kids on sugar.

This is the Rowing Club in as it appeared in the 1980's, when neon was a perfectly acceptable clothing colour.

A quintessential Vancouver scene on one of those perfect late-afternoon winter days.

Calgary family home full of memories.

Whistler Village is a charming place full of bright little buildings nestled against snowy slopes.

The Kamloops of my childhood seemed a lot more wintry and neon.

Backyard in Kamloops looking at the North Thompson river.

This is a street in Kits dressed up like a cheerful Saturday Morning cartoon.

This is the Lonsdale Quay/Seabus View of Vancouver.

Vancouver in the background of Ambleside park.

This is Granville Island on a bright fall morning against a backdrop of tall and willowy downtown buildings.

Edge of Granville Island as seen when walking across the Granville Street Bridge.

Island Park walk in False Creek.

Shuswap cabins are summertime paradises.

Where the rivers meet.

This Mediterranean city gets a Renaissance look, which means a pale sky against a more dramatic foreground.

Mixed media collage to advertise a course in “angry” novels.

Poster illustration for a musical called The Wild Party based on an epic, book-length poem written by Joseph Moncure March in 1928. The poem was wid…

Film Noir elements include: stark lighting, a femme fatale, a gun, bullet holes, and a bit of spot color, usually blood-red.

Yearning is when you secretly believe that what you want is possible.

Charlie Parker, 1920-1955, was arguably the greatest saxophonist of all time.

People always paint jazz musicians playing; this is of someone listening.

This is based on Lisette Model’s black and white photograph, “Woman with Veil, San Francisco, 1949”.

Painting of a mummified corpse and still a favorite in my inner goth world. I was intrigued by the position and the "scream" effect. I used to pull it…

T.S. Eliot series: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust".

This is based on the first "DA" in the closing of What The Thunder Said, from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, lines 401 to 409: Datta: what have we gi…

T.S. Eliot series: "We think of the key, each in his prison; thinking of the key, each confirms a prison."

T.S. Eliot series: "I sat upon the shore fishing, with the arid plain behind me; Shall I at least set my lands in order?"

T.S. Eliot series: "These fragments I have shored against my ruins."

TS Eliot series: "Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

TS Eliot series: "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."

Like the frost you see melting on a cold windowpane.

Red embers to glacial ice. An emotional journey.

Springtime is when that annual resurrection occurs so the flowers have a current of electricity around them, as if they are being jolted to life.

The sense of reflection and the up-and-down movement reminds me of those EKG heart monitors.

Once upon a time, I had a lot of practice depicting Caterpillar equipment.