Status Update

A collection of mini-narratives that have been posted on Facebook every day since 2009. This book will collect posts from the entire collection in one cohesive volume of work. Award-winning artist Cliff Eyland and famed writer George Toles combine their unique talents in a book like no other, tackling apropos issues related to climate change, politics, relationships, death, and sex with wry humour and deft tone.

George Toles is a Distinguished Professor of Film and Literature at the University of Manitoba.

He is the author of A House Made of Light: Essays on the Art of Film, Paul Thomas Anderson, and the forthcoming Curtains of Light: Essays on the Metaphysics of Theatrical Space on Film. He has been posting mini-narratives called Status Updates on Facebook every day since 2009. Two collections of these updates, with accompanying illustrations by artist collaborators, will be published in the next year.

George has written or co-written the screenplays for numerous feature films made by Canadian director, Guy Maddin. These include Archangel, Careful, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, The Saddest Music in the World, Brand Upon the Brain, My Winnipeg, and Keyhole. He also wrote the story and original screenplay for Canada’s first stop-motion animated feature film, Edison and Leo.

CLIFF EYLAND was a curator at the Technical University of Nova Scotia School of Architecture (Daltech) and freelanced for the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg. From 1995 to 2005, Eyland was vice-president of the board of Plug In. In 1998 he was hired as an associate professor of painting at the University of Manitoba School of Art and was also director of Gallery One One One, both positions he held until 2010.

Eyland was represented by Gurevich Fine Art in Winnipeg. His work is held at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections. In 2020, his alma mater, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, has set up the “Cliff Eyland Memorial Scholarship” for painting students and endowed by his family.