Featured Artist: Paul Mantrop, Painter

As stated on his website www.paulmantrop.com, "Paul was born in 1968. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and then went to Florence, Italy, to continue his studies. Upon returning from Europe, Paul became a founding member of the painting group DRAWNONWARD. This group's active mandate is to explore Canada's landscape through painting. What started as a two-week canoe trip along the Montreal River has led the group to cover more than 100,000 kilometres of Canada's wilds. Travelling by retrofitted school bus, converted milk truck, train, fishing boat, ship, canoe, kayak, snowshoe and ski, drawnonward has journeyed between both shores of Canada. Touring the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia; hiking the northern stretches the Yukon; traversing down the icy slopes of the Gaspe peninsula; cruising on a Russian exploration ship through the waters of Newfoundland and the Arctic - the group has strapped on paint boxes, carted supplies and put all of their journeys down on panels, paper and canvas."

The Vertical Garden

Let's leave the old fashioned horizontal gardens behind for a moment... and think about the future... a world of concrete jungles and hardscaping and city heat and grey highrise nauseum. But wait there is a new kind of garden making an appearance. The vertical garden offers a solution to break up the average concrete wall, provide green vistas within the city walls - on the city walls. These living walls help to clean the air, dampen noise, and even cool the urban environment. They are an interesting substitution for gardens that require lots of square footage that just doesnt exist.
Check out these pics...

Free Spirit Spheres

Free spirit spheres represent a new way of thinking about our environment. The tree house-like incarnation of the hotel/bed and breakfast getaway channels childlike emotion and excitement. It demands that the user set aside their pre-established expectations and comforts - in favour of a return to fun and play and literally nature. Forget about that overpriced and outdated hotel in the city and return to something simple and perhaps spiritual. A return to nature.

These spheres are located within the west coast rain forest of Vancouver Island, Canada - and are available for use 12 months of the year.

Check out the website for more info.

http://www.freespiritspheres.com/