VALUE: $1,500.00, Unframed Signed Limited Edition Offset Lithograph (54/300), SIZE: 28 x 26.5 in, ABOUT THE ARTIST: Joe Average made the decision to devote his life to making art in 1984 following being diagnosed as HIV+ at age 27. His highly recognizable work is found throughout Vancouver’s Davie Village and in art collections throughout the world. Recognized numerous times for his contributions to AIDS awareness and other charities, in 2019 The Royal Canadian Mint issued a coin featuring his art symbolizing the progress the 2SLGBTQ+ community had made to date as well as the work yet to be done. ARTIST'S DESCRIPTION: https://joeaverageart.com/shop/ols/products/art-1

VALUE: $25.00, Unframed Woodcut Print On Handmade Japanese Paper, SIZE: 12 x 9 in, DESCRIPTION: Taking inspiration from conventional tarot card decks, Graham Blair takes the Strength card and reinterprets it for an Atlantic Canadian context using woodblock print. Traditionally, Strength in tarot card decks is depicted as a woman taming two lions. This imagery functions as an allegory of taming one’s emotions. However, Blair’s version features a MerB’y, a combination of the words “merman” and the Newfoundland word “b’y”, short for “buddy”. Blair’s Strength is an exploration and an embrace of the myriad forms of masculinities, particularly gentler ones.

VALUE: $25.00, Unframed Woodcut Print On Handmade Japanese Paper, SIZE: 12 x 9 in, DESCRIPTION: In L’Amoueux, Blair uses three gender-ambiguous fairies to reinterpret the Lovers tarot card. In some Newfoundland folklore, fairies are liminal beings associated with the unknown and transformation. Blair conveys their dangerous nature through the fairies’ hair. As their hair intersects, overlaps, and tangles, their hair becomes impossible to trace and may result in disorientation. However, like their erotic and playful interactions, their hair also alludes to their connectedness and alignment with each other and to their liminal nature. There is peace in liminality, and these fairies fully embrace it.

VALUE: $150.00, Unframed Signed Poster, SIZE: 14 x 11 in, DESCRIPTION: The piece part of the advertising for the popular Toronto monthly queer events created by Munro known as Vaseline (later renamed Vazaleen) early in the 2000’s. The unique events were a response to the then club scene that seemed to exclude those who didn’t fit into the then mainstream queer community. This poster is from the popular bear nights. The Chunk (Blue) poster is signed by Danny Buchanan, one of the club’s DJ’s. The Chunk (Blue) poster is notable for mention of Canadian queer film maker and bad boy Bruce LaBruce who was a guest DJ that evening.

VALUE: $200.00, Framed Digital Print, SIZE: 11 x 10 in, DESCRIPTION: Part of Barbara art practice involves collecting found objects, bits and pieces of street objects, things people give her, or random objects somehow that find their way to her studio. She scans the objects into her computer, plays with their individual dimensions and orientation, and then assembles them to create something new. See how many objects you can recognize. The Philosophical Santa took its name from the thoughtful look that emerged in the assembling stage of its creation.

VALUE: $400.00, Framed Ink On Watercolour Paper, SIZE: 10 x 8 in, DESCRIPTION: Part of Barbara art practice involves collecting found objects, bits and pieces of street objects, things people give her, or random objects somehow that find their way to her studio. She scans the objects into her computer, plays with their individual dimensions and orientation, and then assembles them to create something new. See how many objects you can recognize. This piece is an homage to Barack Obama’s November 2008 election and his campaign based partially on that positive slogan.

VALUE: $200.00, Unframed Digital Print, SIZE: 20 x 13 in, DESCRIPTION: Ottawa artist Barbara Carlson has a penchant for drawing people’s secrets and amusing stories out of them when they least expect it.
A favourite thing of Barbara’s is to invite prospective customers to her home and invite them to draw something unexpected. In this piece, guests has been asked to draw a chair. Guests signed their naive drawing, which Barbara collected and assembled.

VALUE: $450.00, Framed Serigraph (Signed 1982), SIZE: 25 x 20 in, DESCRIPTION: After retiring from his career as a world-champion gay figure skater, Cranston devoted his time to his passion for making art. His colourful and flamboyant painting style is instantly recognizable. In 1970, he walked into the home of a California coach and his psyche was ignited by her over-the top, exuberant strawberry décor. He went home and painted “The Strawberry Queen", followed in quick succession by other strawberry themed pieces. (https://bevsmithwrites.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/tea-for-toller)

VALUE: $175.00, Wooden Block Sculpture, SIZE: 8 x 10 x 1 in, DESCRIPTION: Ottawa artists Rene Dick created a series of works contrasting children’s colourful wooden blocks to spell out some occasionally off-colour observations and remarks. The playful sculptures initially evoke an innocent recollection of imaginative youthful play that, on inspection, reveal a less innocent more adult message via a pointed dig. The piece plays on the contrast between the small blocks and the seemingly never outgrown male insecurity over size.

VALUE: $350.00, Framed Mixed Media On Paper, SIZE: 16 x 12 in, DESCRIPTION: Gwen Douglas was a well-respected and popular tattoo artist living in Ottawa when she created this playful take on the wordplay between Homogenized or Homo milk and the repatriated sometime slur for homosexual. Tongue firmly in cheek, Douglas gives the viewer an exuberant bearish partier on, a tea-stained starry background, hedonistically lapping up the cream while off to the side he has tossed his cookie. Douglas moved to Rotterdam to pursue her ink career, so fans of her work and sometimes queer sense of humour will have to content ourselves with the rare pieces she left behind for our enjoyment.

VALUE: $600.00, Framed Digital Print, SIZE: 15 x 15 in, DESCRIPTION: The piece is a Digital C-Print from a unique Polaroid, part of the series "A Chronicle of Love & Loss in Sickness & in Health" by queer NYC artist Devin Elijah.

VALUE: $500.00, Framed Limited Edition (28/34) Silkscreen And Ink On Paper, SIZE: 39 x 26 in, DESCRIPTION: Born in Ohio, Jim Hansen moved to Newfoundland in 1970 and began working on The Newfoundland Album - an ambitious series of more than 160 silkscreen prints that combined text, drawings, and photographs to create a visual journal. Hansen has referred to these prints as "thought machines" which allow him to process his ideas, propositions, reactions, and experiences. In the 1980s, he began to explore themes of sexuality, masculinity, and domesticity, and to place images of himself in his art. His work became noted for its complex and often ambiguous imagery, and for its quirky sense of humor.

VALUE: $200.00, Unframed Poster, SIZE: 11 x 14 in, DESCRIPTION: The poster was acquired in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and is an original theatre card from a cinema showing of the 1963 musical. The poster evokes fond memories for Garland’s voice. “I Could Go On Singing” was Garland’s last movie. The cinema card is numbered 63 of 97.

VALUE: $300.00, Framed Photograph, SIZE: 16 x 10 in, BILL'S STATEMENT: This highly introspective self-portrait was not originally intended for sale. Seated on what might have been a traveler’s trunk, the nude older figure stripped of any pretentious trappings of life, spoke to me of an unvarnished self-examination of where one finds themselves later in life and an effort to pull together where it all went and what it all means. The stark beauty of the human body contrasts with the severe nature of black and white photography and whether to sitter feels alone or simply privately exploring their thoughts is left for the viewer to consider.

VALUE: $800.00, Unframed Signed Silkscreen, SIZE: 14 x 10 in, DESCRIPTION: The piece is part of the advertising for the popular Toronto monthly queer events created by Munro known as Vaseline (later renamed Vazaleen) early in the 2000’s. The unique events were a response to the then club scene that seemed to exclude those who didn’t fit into the then mainstream queer community. This poster is from the popular bear nights. The Chunk #3 poster is signed by Will Munro who was a visual artist and was well known for his pop art series of works featuring men’s underwear. Much loved in the Toronto queer community, Munro was a volunteer on the gay helpline and a champion of various community groups.

VALUE: $250.00, Unframed oil on Yupo, SIZE: 17.25 x 9 in, DESCRIPTION: Ottawa lesbian artist began painting in 1987, and explored the use of oil paint on a variety of mediums producing both figurative and abstract work. Ladder of Life uses the autumnal colours to draw the viewers into a narrative about the structure of life and both the many stages that are part of building and experiencing life. In her own words: “In a world where colours collide, where laughter runs with tears and contradictions abound, I reside. Driven by the desire to reconcile growth with patience, love with despair, and pain with experience, I paint. I paint for the world we have and the one I yearn for.“

VALUE: $450.00, Unframed Limited Edition Intaglio Print On Paper (3/5), SIZE: 22 x 31 in, DESCRIPTION: Albrecht Dürer, who never actually saw the animal, created his famous woodcut of a rhinoceros in 1515 based on a written description and an anonymous sketch of an Indian rhino. Quebec artist Wakeman laboriously scratched the numerous details of Dürer’s imposing beast into a metal plate before using acid to create the grooves that will hold the ink to be transferred to the paper. A small edition of just 5 prints were made from the plate.

VALUE: $500.00, Unframed Gouache On Paper, SIZE: 31 x 22 in, FULL TITLE: "This Wallpaper And I Are Fighting A Duel - Either It Goes Or I Do", DESCRIPTION: In this skillful watercolour, purchased from the artist, Daniel has imagined a scene inspired by Oscar Wilde’s alleged deathbed words. After languishing in bed, stricken by illness, master wordsmith Wilde was reputed to have uttered the famous quote. While the exact wording has been disputed, near penniless and dying, Wilde’s disdain for the William Morris wallpaper in his hotel sickroom was genuine.

VALUE: $500.00, Unframed Oil On Canvas, SIZE: 24 x 20 in, DESCRIPTION: Bought directly from the artist on the streets of New York City.