My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell - Music Video for Nick Storring

This video was created by me in 2019 for award-winning composer and long time friend Nick Storring, for the title track from his new album My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell. The song draws both name and inspiration from Roberta Flack’s chilling rendition of “Sweet Bitter Love” by Van McCoy. My primary medium is collage, and stop motion animation using collage has proven a natural extension of my practice. I created this video in my basement using an iPhone, a free stop motion app, over 7000 photos and lots and lots of cut-outs. The video is about the city of Toronto (especially as a mecca of art and culture for those outside of it) and the experience of a young woman artist creating, trying and failing to make it in "the big city". Other themes include the erasure of identity, existence and experience by time and soft things being dominated and destroyed by strong things.

See More at National Sawdust  and Oh Es Tee.

You Don't Own Me

mother figures

last night i watched a meteor shower

and wished on every glowing trace

for us to be strong, and bright and pure

and for me to be shot like a light into space

i could almost outline the shadowy figure

i want to believe that we’ll win this race

and for you, our future, to come true

may the extra terrestrial firings grace

my heathen prayer from the observatory

to see your precious martian face

Ladies Who Lurch

A Wing and a Prayer From Oprah

by Emmy and Ellie Anglin, written at Mother's Pizza in April 2018

O, Oprah, give us wings...

I'm praying that you'll give me my first public forum

but first forgive my sinful decorum

give me a wing - mild, BBQ or plain

and if you don't lift me up, I'll go insane

I know I'm acting like a common fan

but i want chicken so small it'll fit in my hand

If you won't make me famous at least give me wings

but of the two we prefer the first of these things

the first, figurative wings, will set our careers in flight.

the second, finely sauced, will at least set us up for the night

Between these two desires we are torn

but if you give us our own show, we'll give you our first born

Time Moves Both Ways

Time passed hard
And the task was the hardest thing she'd ever do
But she forgot
The moment she saw you

So it would seem to be true
When cruel birth debases, we forget
When cruel death debases
We believe it erases all the rest
that precedes

But stand brave, life-liver
Bleeding out your days
In the river of time
Stand brave
Time moves both ways

In the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life
The nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating
Joy of life

The moment of your greatest joy sustains
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains

And it pains me to say, I was wrong
Love is not a symptom of time
Time is just a symptom of love

- Time, As a Symptom of Love by Joanna Newsom

Glitter Theory by Allie Brenner & Ellie Anglin

Glitter Theory

These photos are stills from a stop-motion animation collaboration that I worked on with the wonderful Allie Brenner in 2016. 

Collages for Emilie

I made three collages out of old kids books, comics, and Disney books, some of which Danielle gave me, for her newest baby, with David, named Emilie! I hope she likes them!

Cream Soda collage

I've been experimenting with more abstract collage styles, using a lot of kids books and graphic novels (my love Daniel Clowes), stamps I got in NYC and small illustrations.

Food Truck Fam Jam poster for Downtown Kitchener.

Apartment Search, by Emily Anglin

Poem, Apartment Search, by Emily Anglin. Illustrated by Ellie Anglin. 

The Cave

The Cave

Living in a cave, dripping grey

with glow worms and lamp light

your neon strobe light 

makes me feel so 

masochistic

spiritually shooketh

weak as a kitten

I can't get over it

spelunking psyches

wandering strange-wise

remembering memories wrong

dancing sideways

measuring years of time

managing hours minutes days

dying somebody else's death

doing it my way

Steel Rails 2016 & 2017

Steel Rails 2017 with Myss Taken, Nico Lavender and Andrea Hawkins

Queer Canada No 4 - The Brunswick Four

The approach of Canada 150 is the cause of much discomfort. It recognizes the Canada of white people and colonialism, and in effect ignores the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people that have been here for 15,000 years. This complicates the consideration of my own Canadian identity, but one thing remains constant - it is inextricably tied up in being queer. I kneel at the altar of what the queer imagination has created throughout history but I often look to the US and Europe to find my LGBTQ+ foremothers.

For the 150th anniversary of Canada's colonialism, I have created a series of collages celebrating some of Canada's queer icons. They will be exhibited in the window of The Button Factory in Waterloo, Ontario for their Views 150 exhibition on June 23, 2017. Throughout the collages I've used the traditional colours of the pride rainbow, as well as brown and black to represent the queer people of colour that have made Canada great.

Here is the fourth one, honouring The Brunswick Four.

THE BRUNSWICK FOUR

Four lesbians were involved in a historic incident in Toronto on January 5th 1974. On that night Adrienne Potts, Pat Murphy, Sue Wells and Heather Elizabeth performed the song “I Enjoy Being A Dyke” (a parody of “I Enjoy Being a Girl”) at an amateur night at the Brunswick Tavern, a working-class beer hall on Bloor Street. They refused to leave after being asked to by the bar owner, and were subsequently arrested. The women were physically and verbally assaulted by the police, and three were later tried in Ontario Court for obstruction of justice. Two of the women were acquitted, and one, Adrienne Potts, served three months’ probation.

Charges of assault by the police were laid after the women produced doctor’s notes and photos of their extensive bruises. Because the police officers exchanged hats and badge numbers, however, the women couldn’t accurately identify them. In response, the women refused to participate in the trial, calling it a sham and a miscarriage of justice. The women refused to rise despite several orders by the court clerk, and were charged with criminal contempt of court and led to the cells at Old City Hall. Potts and Elizabeth returned to court hours later to apologize but Murphy refused, earning 30 days in jail. The officers were acquitted.

The arrest of The Brunswick Four and subsequent trial was one of the first occasions that an LGBT+ topic received extensive coverage in the Canadian press. Gay historians believe it was a key incident that politicized the gay and lesbian liberation movement in Canada.

Queer Canada No 3 - Elsa Gidlow

For the 150th anniversary of Canada's colonialism, I have created a series of collages celebrating some of Canada's queer icons. They will be exhibited in the window of The Button Factory in Waterloo, Ontario for their Views 150 exhibition on June 23, 2017. 

Here is the second one, honouring Elsa Gidlow.

ELSA GIDLOW

Elsa Gidlow, born December 29, 1898 and died June 8, 1986, was a Canadian-American poet, journalist, and philosopher. She is best known for On A Grey Thread (1923), possibly the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America. In 1917, she co-published Les Mouches Fantastiques, one of the first gay magazines in Canada. In the 1950s Gidlow helped found Druid Heights, a bohemian community in California.

She was the author of thirteen books and discussed her life as a lesbian and artist in the 1977 documentary, Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives. She completed her autobiography Elsa, I Come with My Songs, just before her death, and in it she gives a detailed account of seeking, finding and creating a life with other lesbians. Gidlow’s extensive personal papers are now archived at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.

Queer Canada No 2 - Craig Russell

For the 150th anniversary of Canada's colonialism, I have created a series of collages celebrating some of Canada's queer icons. They will be exhibited in the window of The Button Factory in Waterloo, Ontario for their Views 150 exhibition on June 23, 2017. 

Here is the second one, honouring Craig Russell.

CRAIG RUSSELL

Craig Russell was a Canadian female impersonator and actor. Born in Toronto in 1948, Russell became president of Mae West’s fan club as a teenager, and briefly worked as her secretary in Los Angeles. Upon returning to Toronto he worked as a hairdresser while pursuing a career as a stage performer.

By the 1970s he had a burgeoning following as a performer in gay clubs throughout Canada, the US and Europe. While performing, he always spoke and sang in the voices of the celebrities he impersonated, including Carol Channing, Bette Davis, Mae West, Barbara Streisand, Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland.

In 1977 Russell starred in the film Outrageous!, based on a short story written by his roommate, Margaret Gibson. A decade later, he starred in the movie’s sequel Too Outrageous! A play entitled Margaret and Craig, based on the writing of Russell and Gibson is currently in development by writer David Solomon.

Although Russell publically identified as gay, he married his close friend Lori Jenkins in 1982. He remained married to Lori until his death in 1990 of a stroke related to complications from AIDS.

Queer Canada No. 1 - Jackie Shane

For the 150th anniversary of Canada's colonialism, I have created a series of collages celebrating some of Canada's queer icons. They will be exhibited in the window of The Button Factory in Waterloo, Ontario for their Views 150 exhibition on June 23, 2017.

Here is the first one, honouring Jackie Shane.

JACKIE SHANE

Jackie Shane is an American-Canadian rhythm and blues singer, best known for the 1962 single “Any Other Way”. Although male-identified during her active music career, in 2017 Shane came out as a trans woman.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1940, Shane developed deep roots in the drag traditions of the Southern US Chitlin’ Circuit. At the age of 20 she moved to Montreal, where she was discovered by Frank Motley and his Motley Crew after performing a Ray Charles song at the Esquire Showbar in a bright red dress. Thereafter she became the band’s lead vocalist, and they re-located to Toronto, performing regularly throughout the ‘60s at Toronto’s historic Sapphire Tavern.

Shane’s recording of “Any Other Way” was noted for its double meaning of the lyric “tell her that I’m happy/ tell her that I’m gay” and was the first instance of a song containing an allusion to homosexuality reaching the mainstream. It became a chart hit, reaching #2 on Toronto’s CHUM Chart in 1962. In 1965 Shane appeared on Nashville’s Night Train, performing “Walking the Dog” in a sequined blouse.

CBC aired the documentary “I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane” in 2010. In 2015 and 2016, the Polaris Music Prize shortlisted Jackie Shane Live as a nominee for its Heritage Award to honour classic Canadian albums. A two-disc compilation, slated for release in 2017, marks the first time since 1969 that Shane has been directly involved in the reissue of her music.

A 2017 anthology on the history of Canadian LGBT culture is titled Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer. The inclusion of Shane’s hit song in the title and an essay devoted specifically to her, is indicative of the incalculable and previously untold contributions she made to queer culture in Canada and the US. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee - the place where she was born.

Eiyn Sof - Orchard

A music video I made for Orchard by the incredible Eiyn Sof, from her album Meadow Thrum, which you can get here!

Downtown Live

Downtown Live, Collage poster for a DTK event, 2017.

Bitches Get Stuff Done / Grandma Alberta

"Bitches Get Stuff Done", Collage from Grandma Alberta's old recipe stash, 2017.

This City Has Sucked Me Dry.

"This City Has Sucked Me Dry", Collage, 2016.