NEGATIVES INTO A POSITIVE
The dress is snow white with long, flowing sleeves gathered at the wrists, and is made with chiffon, so it is lightweight in the warmth of spring. A wedding dress, it has been modified for its new purpose, the train excised so the girl can dance away her prom night unfettered, a row of flowers woven into her hair. A proud member of the PoCo High class of ’81 — Go, Ravens! — looks at the image and feels not what-was-I-thinking? regret about her fashion choices or hairstyle but a satisfying warmth.
JOE’S HOUSE
In June 2009, my father, Giuseppe Dal Monte, died at the age of 83 due to complications from heart surgery. In April of this year, my brother and I sold the family home in East Vancouver. Last week, the new owners took possession.
To the new owners,
Let me start with an apology, or at least a warning: You live in Joe’s house.
Here are samples of front pages I designed as editor of The Tri-City News, a community newspaper serving the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, B.C.
NO WAY, HAY
NO WAY, HAY
AGASSIZ – As Donald Hay campaigned for his freedom in the last two years, Abby Drover said repeatedly that her former captor “just doesn’t get it.”
He doesn’t get that he, not the booze he drank, abducted a 12-year-old girl and held her captive for 181 days in 1976.
BA, BA, BA, BA
BA, BA, BA, BA: DONNA OTTO FINDS HER VOICE AGAIN
For a singer, the voice starts in the gut, or just above it. The diaphragm, a muscle between the chest and abdomen, forces air stored in the lungs up and out – through the bronchial tubes and then the larynx, past the vocal chords, through the glottis and past the epiglottis, and, finally, out through the mouth in a rush of sound.
For Donna Otto, the voice starts in the heart, and hers threatened to break when her voice was taken away.
THE REASON, THE RUN & MOM
THE REASON, THE RUN & MOM
It all begins and ends with this: On May 10, 1981, in the early evening, after the supper dishes had been washed but before daylight gave way to dusk, my mom, Irene, died of cancer.
I was 17 and a month from high school graduation.
And it was Mother’s Day.
A GIRL, A GOWN & A FUTURE
A GIRL, A GOWN & A FUTURE
The girl has jewels in her hair and sneakers on her feet. She is wearing a gown of deep royal blue adorned with glittering rhinestones. She tries on two or three jackets, trying to determine which goes best with the dress and will protect her from the chill of the evening to come.
A BOY ALONE
A BOY ALONE
Jessica Chan Peng liked beautiful things. She liked a pretty dress for dinners and parties and church. She liked bright-coloured flowers and trees in bloom. In photograph after photograph in family albums — images from Hong Kong and Taiwan, Whistler, White Rock and the Oregon coast — branches laden with pink cherry blossoms and beds of yellow tulips and blue, blue ocean horizons were the backdrops as she posed, smiling only when her son was in the picture.
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