On this hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War, let us not forget the many artists who served our country. With photography and cinematography in its infancy, artists covered the battlefront creating maps, diagrams, and sketches used to plan strategy. Moreover, their recruitment posters, military portraits, and depictions of battle fields and human suffering were used to publicize Canada’s significant contribution.

The thought of writing an art book, of any description, never really occurred to me until Julian Porter came along. I had known Julian for years, of course, as one does practising law in one community for any length of time. But when Dundurn published Porter’s 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe, I thought, what a great way to share one’s enthusiasm and knowledge. Still, I really didn’t think anything more of my own involvement.

Let's say you're going from one side of North America to the other. What are some places you'd want to stop along the way? If you're anything like us, those places would include art galleries.

Unless you’ve spent the past few weeks living in an internet-free cave in Afghanistan, you are probably aware of the “cultural appropriation prize” fiasco. In short, attempting to explain the expansive creativity of contemporary indigenous writers, Write magazine editor Hal Niedzviecki suggested a learned ability to appropriate. “Buffeted by history and circumstance,” he wrote, indigenous writers must borrow and engage with cultures not their own, and “so often must write from what they don’t know.” As a joke, he suggested a “cultural appropriation prize.”

“Over the course of a century… facts, errors, and myths regarding Thomson’s life and death have become jumbled into provocative, entertaining, but ultimately untrustworthy stories.”

                Introduction, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson

The renowned Canadian landscape painter Tom Thomson likely died on July 8, 1917. We don’t know for sure.

Just like we don’t exactly know how he died.