Avenue Edmonton: Style Q & A with Tyler Olafson

One of my favourite Avenue Edmonton covers.

Tyler Olafson is classic Alberta: bringing together Cows and Prada for a photo shoot that I really wish I'd been to. When I interviewed Tyler, it took me a half-minute to figure out that the guy sliding into the booth across from me (at Dadeo's) was there for an interview. On Style.  It wasn't that he didn't look nice enough, but his mustache was bushy and long.  And Avenue rarely seems to 'do' mustaches.

The 'stash cleaned up pretty good.  This is a Q & A with a guy a lot like the cowboys of old (not the new settled ones, but the Go West Young Man kind). He's an electrician and biker and rancher... he also wears Hugo Boss.

Edmonton Journal: Garden Art

Agile Lady by Ritchie Velthuis

For many years, I have passed, and paused at, and smelled this garden just three blocks from my home in the Alberta Avenue community.  While the plants are stunning, its vegetation isn't the main thing what makes me stop. Subtly scattered throughout is a menagerie of clay-fired and cement sculpture.

Homeowners, Ritchie Velthuis and his partner, Stuart Ballah, can often be found sculpting ice at our local winter festivals. In summer time, however, they turn their skillful, design eyes to their yard. Ritchie does mostly figurative art and he gracefully gave me a tour of their yard. See it here: A Yen for Yard Art

If his sculpture excites you, enroll in one of his classes at the City Arts Centre, and make one for yourself.

BEdition: U of A Education Faculty Alumnus

Kieran Block and I met at Transcend Coffee House in Edmonton for this profile. When he walked into the cafe, I'd never have guessed his journey of hospitalization to recovery. Only a year after the former Western Hockey Leaguer set his sights on an Education degree at the University of Alberta, a cliff jump went terribly wrong. He was told he may never play hockey again. He proved the docs wrong thanks to his determination and a different kind of game. Read his full profile here.