Behind the Eyes of Kathryn Jordan

An interview with aspiring model Kathryn Jordan, who grew up in New Minas, Nova Scotia, and is now based in Toronto.

Is she the “next big thing”? I have no idea. But I do know that she is on my list of people that I want to work with someday. I haven’t chatted with her in person in a few years, so I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up and give our readers here a closer look at a talented and driven young Nova Scotian working hard to make her way in a tough profession that requires character as much as it does a “look” if you really want to succeed.

Fortunately, Kathryn Jordan has both in spades.

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The Vision & Passion of Stephanie Steele

Regardless of the medium, artistic expression provides us with the unparalleled potential to transcend the barriers to true communication that language and culture impose on us. It liberates us from the confines of the “here and now,” and allows us to imagine and to feel. It’s a shared experience that provides a vehicle for travel beyond the temporal boundaries of our linear existence. The artist creates a work and then we then create our own interpretation. In the process we become a part of the work, and we also become artists ourselves. Marcel Duchamp expounded upon the nature of this relationship when he stated, “Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity. To all appearances the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.” Which brings me to my one of my favourite artists in any medium, Cape Breton native Stephanie Steele. Her art is passionate, eclectic and visionary… and so is she. I’ve been a fan of her work for several years now (I included some of it in my book The Other Side of Truth in 2012 as an example of how art can serve as the ultimate tool for non-verbal communication), and I thought this would be a great time to ask her a few questions about her life and how she views the creative process.

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The Corridor now on Shudder

The Corridor is now available on Shudder, a sort of “Netflix for Horror”. The website Slashfilm just curated 10 Double Features out of Shudder’s roster, and included on the list was the Nova Scotia indie flick, which is equal parts horror, science fiction, and psychological thriller. Written by Josh MacDonald, directed by Evan Kelly, and starring Stephen Chambers, James Gilbert, Glen Mathews, and David Patrick Flemming, the film was a smash at the 2011 Atlantic Film Festival, and garnered critical acclaim as it made its way around the festival circuit. Ain’t It Cool News summed up the general consensus at the time in its review when it called The Corridor “one of the most terrifying new films of the year.”

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Dalhousie Art Gallery kicks off first film series of 2016 – The Art of Film Noir

I attended a great kick-off night to this year’s Winter / Spring film screening series at the Dalhousie Art Gallery, curated by film expert extraordinaire Ron Foley Macdonald. The current series is The Art of Film Noir II, and it’s set to build on a similar series held last year. It started off with a bang as we all enjoyed This Gun For Hire, an early noir classic from 1942 featuring the great Alan Ladd (in a riveting performance that made him a star) and the wonderful Veronica Lake, two of my favourite actors from the golden age of cinema.

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