This week's newsletter will get you through the dog days

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!

The dog days of summer are upon us. Here at the office, that means we turned our logo into a doggo. At Vancouver's Polygon Gallery, they curated a whole show on the subject. (So many very good boys.)

Can't stand the heat? For those of you not devoting the next eight hours to Stranger Things, stay inside and become the next Grimes. (This site will at least make you feel like that's possible.) Learn the basics of making electronic music.

Or celebrate couch potato pride all day every day with this font made out of Ikea couches. Maybe use it to write a thinkpiece on whether people are still fluent in Simpsons quotes, etc. (Apparently, those days are gone.) And so, it seems, are the days of "socking it to that Spiro Agnew guy." Mad Magazine leaves newsstands in August. Incredibly, Al Jaffee was still doing their fold-ins — same as he has since 1964 — so that's what I'm linking to here. Way, way back in 2010, the New York Times gave a few fold-ins the "interactive" treatment. (Still fun, even though it's in Flash.) As a bonus, here's an interview where he talks about their origins. Then maybe browse through seven decades of covers and learn the convoluted origins of Alfred E. Neuman.

If watching paint dry is more your thing, on Monday, the Rijksmuseum is turning the restoration of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" into an international live-streamed event. This week, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced that Cindy Sherman's first major Canadian exhibition in 20 years will arrive there in October. (The show's on right now at the National Portrait Gallery, London. For an encyclopedic primer on Sherman's career, here's a recent profile. As for why so many of her works are untitled, click here.)

And because we promised you eye candy

That's not cardboard. (Ceramics by Scott Duncan.)

But this is. (Biodegradable dirigible by Daniel Agdag.)

Dutch street artist Eelco "Virus" van den Berg is back in Moncton this summer for Festival Inspire. He's left his mark on the city a few times over the years. (See above for the photographic evidence.)

You've got to see this

Traditional Chinese paintings of...the Bay of Fundy - Dan Xu's passion for art is infectious, and we got to follow the artist to the New Brunswick beaches where she paints scenes like that one. Xu moved to Saint John, N.B. from Shenzhen, China 19 years ago, and she told us what it was like to arrive in Canada. "The first time I landed in New Brunswick, I told my husband: I need to paint what I'm feeling. I'm feeling like I just walked in a painting. It's a big, big painting!"

Seriously, people. They're art - Here's one you might have missed — or maybe not. (This story about the Art Gallery of Hamilton's celebration of Canadian comics was shared pretty widely on our Facebook page last week.) The show's on for months (it runs to Jan. 5 next year), but whether or not you're planning a trip through the Hammer, the article runs through what you'll find inside: a thoughtful survey of the country's indie comics scene. Featured artists include Kate Beaton, Julie Doucet, Seth, Fiona Smyth and Jillian Tamaki.

The family that slays together, stays together - Thomas Leblanc and Tranna Wintour are the hosts of Chosen Family. Now that their acclaimed podcast about pop culture, identity and sexuality is on CBC, get the story of how the duo created the show. (Then maybe listen to their latest episode.)

Follow this artist

Jenny Hsieh (@j.enh) - Jenny designed our July profile pic, and her feed's a virtual basket of puppies.

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Until next week!

XOXO, CBC Arts