The right mystery will turn anyone into a detective.

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 18 2021:

I’m doing an artist residency on Toronto island and there is an abandoned boat washed up on the beach and we’re all obsessed with it. Here’s what we know : it’s been there 2 weeksish. It was way further out, but grounded and has slowly washed in. The owners belongings, until yesterday, were all inside. They included an Ursula Le Guin novel and a book called “Sailing on a Dime.” Some people on the beach thought the boat, so beautiful, was an art project. Apparently tho a 28 year old man named Jack sailed it from Montreal and then got it stuck here and couldn’t afford to get it out. Word is : Jack is handsome.

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 19 2021 :
So.. I plundered. I was drawing the boat yesterday when a swarthy Italian man pulled up in a dingy and began stripping the rope and sails. “It’s been weeks” he explained. We discussed the poetic nature of the boat, and he helped remove the books. It wasn’t called Sailing on a Dime, as we remembered. The books were inscribed, many from Jack to someone named Vince. Everything in the boat seemed new — showing either the naive ambition of a young man whose Pleasure Craft license was only issued in June, or the sharp eye of whatever set-dresser was hired for what feels increasingly more like a brand activation? I won’t reveal the name of the (beautiful, yes I looked her up) girlfriend whose name is on the $5000 boat deed, but I will say that I felt a bit duped when I looked up Jack Ward and saw he was the basis for .. Jack Sparrow?

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 20 2021: welp. She gone. Yesterday another artist came to tell me someone had come to take the boat. “Someone” was young and blonde and in a rowboat I thought for a second .. Jack? But his name was Jamie and he said he had been hired by the owner. Jamie tied a rope to her, rowed to a small motor boat named Sentimental Journey, which revved up and ripped the mast right off. We spent the day watching Jamie have full blown swearing tantrums “get the fuck away from the boat!!!” As the Sentimental Journey zigged, zagged and eventually got the abandoned boat off the sandbar. I never even knew her name. According to the deed of sale, she didn’t have one. I imagine though, that if things had worked out, Jack would have named her Cass. His notebooks are all full for a couple pages then blank. They reveal that he was trying to solve a lot of his own mysteries : how to lead a balanced life. How to use a secure, opensource operating system, what foods have a lot of protein, some kind of long term dental issue. One thing is clear : he really loved his girlfriend. For someone so concerned with online security, he abandoned his handwritten passwords. If you’re thinking about trying to steal his identity, he seems too young to have figured it out yet. I assume that’s what all these beautiful, unread books were for. And the boat. Plus, someone on the beach told me that Jack’s “mom or sister” had paid to get the boat towed so being Jack is probably a little hectic right now, no matter how handsome.

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 23 2021: PLEASE JOIN ME next weekend for an exploration of the abandoned boat that captured our hearts and minds these past weeks. I have transformed my studio into a museum, displaying the boat’s contents and my original art work around it. Saturday & Sunday 12-3, Artscape Gibraltar Point. Masks required to enter my well ventilated studio.

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 25 2021: Ssssssomebody stop me. Also should I text Jack and invite him to the opening? Or is that too Waiting for Guffman??

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 28 2021: thinking of coming to Toronto island this weekend? To see the Boat Museum? YOU SHOULD. Just take the ferry or tiki taxi to Hanlans then come to Artscape Gibraltar Point. You will see my studio it’s right on the road plus I made a sign. the island is amazing and the museum is like actually a museum in its way. PLEASE ENJOY THIS PHOTO OF ME PAINTING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ABANDONED BOAT. Jessie, Rollie and Mike took these pix

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG august 31 2021: three glorious weeks on Toronto island : DONE. a little rest then TIME TO TEACH

BOAT DETECTIVE LOG november 28 2021: Ok remember in the summer when I became obsessed with the mystery of the abandoned sailboat of Toronto Islands (see this video @mikpiv took of me painting from the perspective of the boat after it had been towed away) and its missing owner, Jack Ward? WELL SWIPE THROUGH IF YOU WANT TO SEE A PHOTO OF JACK. I finally got up the nerve to call him and we talked for a long time. As I had suspected, life on the sea had been difficult for the new sailor and his girlfriend broke up with him. Then the boat broke. Other boaters on Lake Ontario had been extremely helpful, as had the coast guard, but ultimately the boat was stuck. He was very grateful I had salvaged (pillaged?) his personal effects. I met him to return him his things. We were both weirdly nervous, like meeting a celebrity. He told me he had looked me up. He asked me if I had read his journals. I said yes. He asked if I had any questions. I asked what he had gone to court for. Assault with a deadly weapon but it was all a misunderstanding at a concert and the judge had dismissed the case. He seemed very young and much taller than I expected. We took a selfie together outside my building while his cab waited on the curb. I gave him his things and some Boat Museum posters and then I headed off to Newfoundland and realized just now that you PROBABLY REALLY NEED RESOLUTION ON ALL THIS.