We were both miserable workaholics the year or so that we studied painting and printmaking together. He did stunning work and try as I did to amass a collection of his finished works, all I ever managed to walk away with were funny and beautiful little doodles of giraffes, lions and this lonely guy in a boat wearing a where the wild things are suit. Then I went to Toronto for an even more miserable year and by the time I went back to Halifax, James has discovered conceptual art. He was building life-size frames of everyday, common objects out of two-by-fours and covering them in white vinyl siding. Things like the garbage bins you see on construction sites and mailboxes. He even did all the windows of a city bus and hung them the length of the gallery walls. I hated them then and I still do now. But they continue to be the first thing I think of when I mail a letter or get on a bus.
