‘The next station is Commercial Broadway. Optional transfer to the Millennium Line via the overhead walkway…’

I’ve heard that announcement more times than I can count since I moved to Vancouver. After a sleepy early morning snooze on the Skytrain as I head downtown I’m suddenly wide awake and paying attention as we roll into the busy downtown district of Vancouver.

I love arriving in the city on weekends. The masses of people who surge though the Skytrain stations and spill onto the bustling, Saturday morning high streets. The street vendors that line the sidewalks roasting chestnuts and baking doughnuts. The one crazy man who roller skates up and down the high street playing the guitar and singing Bob Marley. There is something enchanting about the contrast of sleek, glass-fronted skyscrapers against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains. I’m so lucky to live in this city.

I’ve actually come downtown to visit Vancouver Art Gallery. Their latest exhibition, ‘An Autobiography of Our Collection’, has caught my eye and I’m looking forward to wandering the galleries and learning more about the history of their art.

A quick stop at Café Crêpe for a toasted ham and cheese panini and a cup of tea to-go and I’m on my way to the gallery, pulling my coat around me against the chilly Vancouver breeze and willing summer to hurry up!

The exhibition was impressive. The museum had basically taken inspiration from the genre of autobiography to create an exhibition which narrates the history of their art collection. I saw Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints of Mao, a couple of Emily Carr’s paintings of abstract forests and lingered a long time to take in the whole of Carole Itter’s Grand Piano Rattle - a giant, suspended sculpture made entirely from recycled materials and everyday objects.

My favourite part of the morning was spent viewing the selection of Lawrence Weiner posters which the gallery had on display. As one of the first artists to combine typography in artwork New York-born Lawrence Weiner rose to fame in the late 1960s during the movement of conceptual art.

His posters are simplistic, abstract and minimalistic yet so visually engaging that I couldn’t tear myself away!

I had to leave the gallery at lunchtime in order to make it to university for an afternoon seminar. I spent the bus journey juggling books, headphones, and laptop cables after breaking the strap of my handbag (I wish I’d paid attention when my mum told me to buy something more practical!).

I got home in time to catch the end of the American Football and joined some friends on the university rooftop to get the best view of the game.

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