Keep those Art 101 ideas coming!

Hello! You're reading the CBC Arts newsletter, and if you like what you see, stick around! Sign up here, and every Sunday we'll send you a fresh email packed with art, culture and a metric truckload of eye candy, hand-picked by our small and mighty team. Here's what we've been talking about this week.

Hi, art lovers!

What are we reading?

I'll admit that I had no clue about this spectacular York Wilson mural that's inside a Toronto liquor store. (An Instagram post from artist Jay Isaac is what tipped me off.) So finding this T Magazine feature, "What Happens When Site-Specific Art Outlasts its Surroundings?" felt like the best (and nerdiest) kind of synchronicity.

You can look, but don't touch! And yet, gallery visitors keep getting their adult jam-hands over everything. There's a reason for that, as this article explains, and it's not (just) poor breeding. As for an example of art you can touch (and play with), a collective called The Art Department stuffed a Los Angeles "wish factory" with dandelion fluff last weekend, which might be an elaborate way of saying the world's seriously allergic to whimsy.

This (among other things) is what happened when artist Lauren McCarthy spent a day living like Amazon's Alexa. Here are a bunch of happy little pep talks lifted from old Bob Ross episodes. And I already know what I'll be reading next week: our own Amanda Parris is a published playwright! Other Side of the Game comes out through Playwrights Canada Press on May 21, and if the cover art looks familiar, the artist, Alexis Eke, popped up on CBC Arts: Exhibitionists around this time last year.

What are we watching?

For those interested in bleak visions of the future (and/or Miley Cyrus), there's a trailer for the new season of Black Mirror. Also, this item landed in my inbox via something like a half dozen people around the building. Over at Radio-Canada, they run an annual program called Révélations where four musicians from different genres (Pop! Classical! World! Jazz!) are championed by Ici Musique for the year — and to announce their picks for 2019–2020, they've rolled out a bunch of performance videos. (To give you an idea of who comes through the program, alumni include Canadian household-ish names like Cœur de pirate and Jan Lisiecki.)

And because we promised you eye candy

Stock up on Pedialyte, because Anna Park's artwork will give you a hangover. Like the best Saturday nights, though, it'll be worth it. (If you're curious about her story, Juxtapoz tracked the New York Academy of Art student down for a Q&A after KAWS gave her a high-profile shoutout on Instagram.)

Happiness is a room full of feather boa polar bears (which is my very reductive way of describing Paola Pivi's latest installation).

If you know a kid who's desperate for a bounce house at their birthday, do not show them this.

But if you know a kid who loves playing with cardboard boxes, definitely show them this.

You've got to see this

So that's what happens at an artist residency - Professor Lise explains it all in this episode of Art 101 (which more or less doubles as a supercut of every story we've done about Canadians on artist residencies).

All this time, Toronto had its own superhero - And just when the city could use one more than ever, the guy's signing off duty. We check in with comics artist Jason Loo, creator of The Pitiful Human-Lizard. The series recently wrapped a five-year run.

CBC Arts road trip! - That all-Banff episode of CBC Arts: Exhibitionists is now online, months after we emailed you all about it. Come along for the trip as we check in with folks at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Follow this artist 

Five Eight (@five8art) - Neon paintings, neon murals...actual neon. We spent some time in the workshop with Montreal's Five Eight, a street artist who's now working in the old-fashioned craft of neon signage. Watch!

Got questions? Typo catches? Story ideas?

We're just an email away. Send us a note, and we'll do our best to get back to you.

And if someone forwarded you this message and you like what you've read, here's where to subscribe for more.

Special thanks to Geoffrey in Ottawa, Airesse in Vancouver, Perri in Toronto and all the readers who emailed last week with their ideas for Art 101. We'd love to hear more of your suggestions, so if there's a topic you think Professor Lise should investigate in a future episode, you know how to get in touch.

I'm Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next week!

XOXO, CBC Arts