There are no accidents. Everything we do, make, and create — the good, bad, lovely, and ugly — is by design. Like good versus evil or right against wrong, beauty and ugly are in an epic, timeless battle. Beauty is always within reach, so it seems absurd there is even a contest. Yet every time I drive a big, bleak highway bounded by subdivisions of cheap, expensive, identical houses lacking trees or significance, absurdity abounds. I die a little. God may have created Earth, but we’re rapid...

It can be argued that every creation of art tells a story. If so, then what can be said about a collection of an artist’s work? Does it communicate the life story of the artist? Does it offer a glimpse into her past? In the case of Amanda Bittar, a young and talented Toronto artist, it would be difficult to argue that her upbringing and struggles early in life have not made a significant impact on her art and approach to developing her craft. Bittar recounts how, at the age of nine, her wor...