Recently my artist/designer friend Ian Bateson went gallery hopping in the area now occupied by the new incarnation of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Bateson recounted how in one of the galleries the person behind the desk was on the phone and never acknowledged the presence of Bateson and friend. It seems she was talking to her boyfriend.

I rarely go gallery hopping anymore. We used to have a very pleasant string of galleries on South Granville. That scene is mostly disappeared.

Our fave gallery was around the corner from Granville. It was the Diane Farris Gallery. Farris was always pleasant and would interrupt her office work to chat and tell us about the artists displayed.

But we also had ulterior motives for visiting her gallery. The UM in question was Farris’s assistant Anne Macaulay. She was blonde, had a light sprinkling of freckles, a lovely body but most important, she had a smile from here to there. She was gracious and I have no doubt in my mind that in the height of the Farris Gallery popularity she was one of the reasons so much art on the wall obtained red dots.

It was Macaulay who introduced me to a friend, artist TikoKerr. When the gallery was to close one evening, Kerr and Macaulay invited us to go to a gathering.

I have a more personal reason to have fond memories of Macaualay as I took portraits of her with her then husband Gregory many years ago.

Macaulay posed for me at my Robson Street studio. Her younger sister Sarah did the honours with a beautiful makeup and styling.

I am looking forward to a visit by Macaulay to my Kits digs this New Year.