Coffee with Kevin

Went for coffee with Kevin this evening. No one else around. Had a massive green tea that kept me up half the night. I need more mornings off so that I can rebound from one of these now and then.
While I was out, William and Margaret painted and detailed the mask I want to use for the film shoots this week.

Drawing a line ... in salt

We went to a dinner at Margaret's mom's church, which is important for family, especially considering it is the first time we've seen George and Simon since Christmas eve. We then went to the Neutral Ground performance (co-hosted by Dunlop) and entered during the closing statements. It was probably cool. William drew in the salt, which was a big part of the dance. 

Grad students shooting stereoscopic

I took three of the four grad students from my Friday class out to shoot a roll of stereoscopic images around campus. Seemed to have a good time. I suggested cutting the session short to get in from the cold (and that I'd finish the roll without them) but they opted to warm up and go back outside. 

William's art progress

The past two months have been so busy that William and I have not been meeting with Angie to talk about his AP Art progress. Today we finally came together again and she looked at the photographs of the artworks. She's happy so the conclusion of the process is near. Next is the artist statement. 

Class photo

Worried about the potential strike (which was averted in time) we scheduled the class photo for the senior film students for today (the day before strike action). 

Hagar the Horrible, war criminal

What the hell is happening in the funny papers?

Margaret's snowman drawings

Margaret's tiny snowman paintings for her ATCs began as charming pencil drawings three inches high.

Help with distracted driving

Wonderful new product to help you be a distracted driver: the wearable phone viewer.

drawing camera

Margaret was heading to an artist trading card event. I drew one small sketch that I wasn't happy with from the camera I just purchased. Didn't work for me. I think I wasn't paying any attention to the light. 

Moose Jaw

Managed to catch both an antique/collectables sale as well as the art gallery exhibition (Catherine Blackburn – New Age Warriors in which superhero-like costumes are created from beads). At the sale I got a small Brownie camera and a biblical vertical-rolling panorama device. Quite some amazing finds. William got a toy record player and we think we can compose new music records for using a 3D printer.

Last parent/teacher meeting

Even though there hasn't really been anything to be concerned about in years, we always keep our parent/teacher meetings every semester to chat and catch up. This should be the final one. William's home room teacher, Ms Moser, has been really nice and supportive and engaged with him since grade 9 and he's benefited from this very positive environment. 

Painting super-8

I think I have four, possibly five cameras like this. All different brands and models but similar gun shape and black/silver colouration. I'll paint them all but I think I'll spread them out a bit so I don't get bored. 

Glass at cheap theatre

As Margaret was at work and didn't want to see it, the opportunity to see "Glass" at the Rainbow theatre after Allan came for supper was perfect, made more perfect by it costing only $2 each. 

Successful decorations

Margaret and William did a great job detailing yesterday's snowman. 

Last snowman

Built a snowman on way to car, heading to Kevin's. Didn't take time for a face, but left that to the detailed hands of my family. Probably the last one of the year, following a late and unexpectedly sticky snowfall. 

Student Festival wraps up

The student film festival wrapped up with a screening of Lowell Dean's "Supergrid" and a Q&A with Lowell and Hugh Patterson as well other members of cast and crew.

Again, all the special guests at the festival have been really generous with their time and supportive of the students.
Local winners were Matt Ripplinger (best of Saskatchewan) and Scott Johnson (audience choice).

Student Film Festival

Day one of the festival (Thursday) launched the event with a great screening. The second day contained a very generous and inspiring talk by Zarqa Nawaz who showed her first film and answered a lot of questions from the students. 

Pi Day

Margaret made a great peach pie for today. We had it for desert. William had chicken pot pie for lunch, so he doubled his pie consumption. 

Paining without a net

Today was a painting day but without Deb instructing. The group simply booked the room for an open time. I was late owing to some computer glitches I needed to solve so that William could print off a paper that was due, so I brought my simplest camera to paint, a Brownie Six-16, which is not much more than a box. I still struggled with it. 

Knee hurts

Second day of Bolex shooting at the university has really killed my knee. The groups of students go into different areas of campus to shoot where there is good light and I give them my cell number so that I can come to them to help. This is usually an exciting day full of exercise, but it turned out to be an exciting day full of pain.  I'm not sure if it is arthritis or a side effect of some antibiotics, but my right knee is almost crippled. Thank goodness Maricarmen was there to help with some of the groups. 

Warming up

The weather is starting to change. Not quite spring but there has been melting. I wore black a couple of days ago and the sun heated up my legs faster than the wind could cool them down.
On the weekend I helped William set up some photos of his artwork. It was a multi-person job and took much longer than either of us anticipated. Results are strong though.

Memorial for Dominic

The memorial for Dominic Gregorio at the university was very well attended and was quite emotional. There were no open testimonials, just the planned musical events (his brother playing the guitar was the only item not on the schedule). The 50 person choir he took to Cuba performed "Stand By Me". The eulogy talked about our inability to really know people and not being able to understand the darkness that is in our hearts. Very emotional event. 

Processing 35mm

This week I took the grad students into the darkroom and we developed the 35mm that we shot the prior week. I prefer to do this in the summer when I can dry the film outside. I couldn't use the studio as our workshop with photographer Blake Little was in progress (I didn't actually have time to meet him) so I took the film home in a bucket and dried it on a line in my basement. Once I started scanning it, it looked like this: 

Art events begin piling up again

Dianne Ouellette curated a really interesting selection of First Nations short films that showed at the RPL. Her guest was ex-Saskatchewan filmmaker Danis Goulet. After the films William and I dashed to the MacKenzie for the tail end of their opening which featured Winnipeg printmakers and some rarely displayed glow in the dark prints. Trippy shit. 

Last surreal film in series

My promotion of this third and final of my surrealist-inspired films at the RPL was a bit last minute, resulting in a smaller crowd than usual. There were still 15-20 people and some good conversation about "City of Lost Children" and I was pleased the Kevin McKenzie came, even though he'd never heard of the film before. William took his picture.

Last painting class

Inspired by Richard shooting Polaroid the other day (fresh film stock on the market, I plan to get some this summer when the light and weather cooperate). The pull-apart film that this land camera takes was not re-introduced unfortunately.It's the last class for this painting round but the regulars have rented the space for the next three weeks so I've bought in and will paint without instruction during those sessions. I'll be Deb's guidance. 

Dominic Gregorio

It is with great sadness that I received news today that my colleague from the music department, Dominic Gregorio, passed away today. I didn't know him as well as I'd like to have. We met when he first arrived in Regina and was attending a faculty retreat in August 2012. He didn't know anyone yet and the two of us had more than a few chuckles, loitering at a back table like a couple of high school boys, being a bit sarcastic and having a pretty great afternoon. I was really impressed therefore to see the much more serious side of him when he was performing. Wow, he was so good.

Turkish gum wrappers from Romania

A while back I got an email from a gum wrapper/comic enthusiast from Romania wondering about Pud comics and how to complete a collection. I helped this person out with a small bundle of our huge surplus of doubles. This week I received a gift package in response containing bundles of the most inane waxed wrapper photos of cars that come inside Turbo gum. While I appreciate that this was a sweet gesture, mostly I was amazed by what companies believe someone would find valuable. I mean, who do they think chews bubble gum?

Meat day

Red Meat Wagon will open on the first Saturday of the month to sell some of their specialty items. I suppose this is until they sell the property. I got more elk burgers and a few steaks for the weekend.

Dinner with Wilf Perreault

Our dear friend Sharon Eisbrenner included us in a very exclusive dinner party catered by Crave in Wilf Perreault's painting studio. It was amazing on many levels. Among the countless highlights were the food, the music, the art anecdotes, Richard's Polaroid camera, and my opportunity to touch a damaged spot on one of the paintings (Wilf will be repainting most of the canvas, so this was allowed).

Shooting 35mm with grad students

I loaded up the Bell and Howell with 100 feet of black and white neg and ran around with the four grad students in my Friday class shooting it. Probably nothing too special about the content, but we had a good time. When I told them that I would be developing it myself, they all wanted to be a part of that so I'll change my plans for next week.