What do you he(art) about your hometown?

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!

High five to anyone who opened this week's email after sleeping in for a million extra hours. The Canada Day weekend just wrapped, so here's hoping you had a chill long weekend, wherever you spent it.

But for the more proactive weekend warriors out there, the folks who are itching to squeeze every last second out of these summer days, you'll want to check this out before making any more plans. 

The team recently launched a new series of Canadian travel guides called "I He(art) My City," and the basic gist is that we've been tapping artists from a bunch of places to reveal the hidden treasures of their hometowns. So far, we've visited Saskatoon with Zachari Logan, Winnipeg with theatre artist Frances Koncan and Victoria with curator Michelle Jacques (whose thrifting recos are, from personal experience, totally spot on). Don't plan your weekend road trip without them. Same goes for staycations.

The plan is to feature a new city every week. (The latest stop: St. John's!) But even at that pace, we know we won't cover every under-the-radar destination by the time summer's over, so we're really wondering what you'd include on a guide of your own.

For starters...

• What's the most magical spot in your hometown?
• Who's your favourite local artist?
• What's the best place to see art?

Have some thoughts? Hit reply, and send them on!

If there's enough interest out there, we'd like to round up everyone's answers and start sharing your "I He(art) My City" picks here.

Cool? Cool.

On to the eye candy!

Here's some blooming awesome news: we debuted a new design from Winnie Truong this week, and the Toronto artist is the latest contributor to our monthly logo series. We're still swooning over this recent work of hers, Perennials. Calgary's Viviane Art Gallery was showing these delicate drawings of wild women and wild flowers last month. 

Remember those dancing flower toys from the '90s? Yeah, this video isn't about those. You've got to watch this timelapse film by Swedish photographer Carl Kleiner. Who knew that capturing the life cycle of a tulip could be so poetic?

And because we're apparently obsessed with flowers this week, immerse yourself in Yayoi Kusama's "Flower Obsession!" Australia's National Gallery of Victoria was home to this floral Obliteration Room earlier this year. Plenty of pics and even a timelapse video or two. 

You've got to see this

It could happen today. These photos imagine Japanese internment in 2018 - Vancouver's Kayla Isomura interviewed 80+ Japanese Canadians and Americans for this powerful photo series. Check out images and stories from The Suitcase Project.

Graduating high school isn't the only thing this artist has to celebrate - Fresh from her first solo show at Toronto's General Hardware, Grade 12 student Rachel Burns shared the story behind her work — abstract images that pull from her family history.

Choose happy! - They're a "poppy as hell" band from Halifax that sings in Chinese and English. Meet Century Egg on the new episode of Art is My Country.

Follow this artist

Benny Bing (@bennybing) - He started painting three years ago. Now, The Weeknd owns his artwork. Follow the Toronto artist for more, and check out this recent Q&A to get some insight into his pop art portraits.

Got questions? Story tips? Typo catches? Leftover candy from the Canada Day parade that you're dying to share?

Hit us up over email whenever. We're here all week, and we'll do our best to respond.

Until next time!

XOXO, CBC Arts

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