Mythos & Marginalia

life notes; flaws and all

  • just what I needed

    I treated myself to lunch the other day at Cindy’s on Portage Avenue. It’s a ‘close enough to a greasy spoon’ that has been located close enough to downtown Winnipeg for decades.

    The location that was once one of the many Junior’s restaurants that dotted this city when I was a teenager. I had my first fresh-cut fries at Juniors and those memorable burgers kept me coming back to the local chain.

    Cindy’s Burgers & Subs does the same sort of thing, and it does it consistently. It’s a family restaurant in the sense that there is family behind the counter that greets and serves you, and family hovering over the grill. It’s the kind of place that exists less and less in these days of trendy foods and national and international fast-food chains.

    It is nothing fancy, but it’s clean and convenient.

    It’s the kind of place that needs to be supported; and Cindy’s is. Noticeable are the local patrons who frequent the place. You’ll see moms and dads with a couple of kids from nearby Wolseley or the West End out for a meal. Google reviews rave about the burgers and the souvlaki and list it as a “go-to place”. I keep telling myself I should try a sub, or the souvlaki, but I keep longing for burgers that are so close to home cooked.

    I ordered the Fat Boy Special (chilli and all) with those fries smothered in gravy; it was just what I needed.

    © 2026 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: just what I needed

  • open to interpretation

    Ambiguity counts when nothing is clear. Each element contains 

    a hint of the unknown, thoughts mainly rented and never owned.

    Frequently we live in this state, an indescribable location, where 

    all that becomes accomplished has no reason, probability, or space.

    Open to interpretation, abandoned by the muse or inspiration, a 

    hesitating reality too far gone. Accountability is obviously vacant.

    We do not talk about specifics. We speak more in generalities.

    Conceptually abstract, conceivably incomplete, yet bewildering.

    The art has a greater dimension than the canvas or its substance.

    © 2026 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: open to interpretation

  • part of our landscape

    Tiger Lilies in the lane: not wild, but uncared for. Growing; uninterrupted essentially. Surviving. Living and prospering through the winds, humiliating heat, and dreadful rains of this summer. Up until now.

       These are not the flowers you see along the crescent in well-tended garden beds full of iris, rudbeckia, snapdragons, or common daisies. These are the flowers that creep out under fences, or stand tall beside the bike racks, garbage bins, or garages alongside parking pads. They own the space they borrow. Pushing up from the soil through the spring, sharing pleasant greenery as the seasons arrived, the lilies continued to capriciously fill space in our lives. 

       Part of our landscape. Noticed, but not truly acknowledged, these flowers have spent past days withering in the heat, and still show off a genuine beauty. Even now they share a simple joy, if you take the time to notice. 

       Often, we don’t.

       The resplendent colours are difficult to ignore. There is a hint of fuchsia (is it purple or pink?) revealing itself through the amber or xanthous, a golden orange so otherworldly, yet entirely natural.

       Is there another colour, or another summer flower, that does what it does to the senses?

       Probably not, and not for long.

       It is only as the lilies in the lane begin to fade away that we take in how much a part of our lives they have casually come to be through the weeks. We simply walked or drove by.

       The month will change in a matter of days. 

       In maybe a week, the laneway lilies will be gone. There will be less beauty to sustain us.

       August seems to take away more than it offers. Summer will slowly lose its vigor, like the lilies, and we will have to wait, again, for next year.

    © 2026 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: part of our landscape

  • a day to get started

    My brushstrokes were tentative. A blank canvas, at first, can be intimidating.

    I had earlier tinkered around on a painting I began last summer, mostly touching up or reinforcing a work that is, or might be, almost complete. A few details were finalized and now I’ve got a day or two to figure out where it goes next.

    So, I moved on. I had to.

    Yesterday was the day I decided I was going to, again, paint. I hadn’t for months, choosing to occupy my mind with another artform. Yesterday seemed right.

    Composition was, vaguely, in my head. My colour story was planned, but likely will be altered in the days, or weeks, ahead. I fussed around with the tubes of oil paint, mixed and measured as I progressed, and then I just painted.

    I had to.

    The underpainting marked the placement of the work as I worked through what should be where and where it will go. It is a commitment to the art. For me, it always gets messy at this stage as I tend to alter my tact as I see how the paint responds to the canvas, and my intentions. This is where my mind engages as I determine future layers.

    Oil painting requires a patience I once didn’t possess. The nature of the medium requires time; it forces you to slow down as you wait between layers. Years ago, I always had a problem with the waiting.

    I tend to paint “fat”. While the initial layer seems thin and transparent, each subsequent application of paint takes on more oil as the layers begin to define themselves. Still too early in the process to consider textures, the tonal range starts to become obvious.

    The canvas, at first, is very one-dimensional. While it first seems big and threatening, after spending time with it I am no longer intimidated. This is art, and it has a level of comfort that begins to envelope me. 

    In the days and weeks ahead, I must enhance the depth of the work. Yesterday my vision came into play and further possibilities became present. More importantly, I was present. I had to be.

    Yesterday was a day to get started. Today will be easier as I have an idea where I am going.

    © 2026 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: a day to get started

  • imbalanced days


    We will always taste the days until August 
    comes calling. An even month with uneven days
    we trust will soothe impatient ways.

    July differs. We can stay up all night and rarely feel 
    the point where daylight closes in. For that is 
    what this month does; it deceives.

    It is much like believing Wednesday will make a 
    difference to someone, maybe you, maybe who 
    will see what is meant to be.

    But this is the forever month of imbalanced days.
    The humid heat, forceful rain, which seems to stay.
    It will all change up from here.

    There is nothing unstable about what you do
    when nothing matters like it does to you.
    August will make it easier.


    © 2026 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: imbalanced days
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