The Story

This exhibit is called Born in the Groove, and the title comes from one of my own songs.

It was always one of those songs that meant a lot to me, and I remember Paul Stanley really liked it as well. That made it even more special.

I wasn't trying to make a big statement about that. I simply wanted the title preserved somewhere that would remind me of that chapter every time I looked at it.

It's also a great title.

At the time we created this piece, autumn had arrived, and the colours of the season were everywhere.

Around the same time, I owned a small cafe at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. It wasn't a huge business venture. I picked it up because I thought it would be fun, and it gave me a chance to experiment with recipes and create things people couldn't get anywhere else.

One of our most popular creations was our own Pumpkin Spice Syrup.

Unlike many commercial versions, ours was made with real pumpkin.

No shortcuts.

No artificial flavours trying to imitate the real thing.

Just real ingredients and a recipe we developed ourselves.

I thought it would be fun to preserve that recipe the same way we had with the Christmas Rugelach, so I asked Anabela to work it into the artwork.

She turned the recipe into the autumn leaf you see on the left side of the piece.

It's one of those details people sometimes miss at first.

What looks like a simple fall leaf is actually a recipe you can make at home.

That's something I always appreciated about Anabela's work.

She didn't just decorate an idea.

She found creative ways to hide stories inside the artwork.

So this exhibit became a combination of several things that were important to me at the time.

A song I was proud of.

A season I always enjoyed.

And a recipe from a little cafe that made people smile.

Looking back, it's a reminder that inspiration doesn't always come from one place.

Sometimes music, food, business, and art all find a way to come together in a single picture.