Work bench

 I was working on constructing my tool room workbench today but it was hot and muggy and I didn't finish. Margaret was out and I didn't want to cook so we took a nice break A&W, then home to read out a bunch of our stories. 

Lunch with mom

 I've not seen mom in a week. Picked her up for lunch and then to get the nose part on her glasses fixed. Realized the the tech person at the radio station is going on vacation so I needed to get two extra episodes edited this week. Fortunately the Victoria recording from Saskatoon was solid. 

Big green screen shoot

Shot for a few hours today with characters played by me, Geremy, Rory, and William. All in 4k with a total of over 300 Gb of footage. 
 

Costumes

 Focus today on gathering costumes pieces for a Nuit Blanche shoot. Needed to comb through old photos to see what the various characters were wearing. Time travel can be tiring. 

Last day of Saskatoon

Checked out of the hotel and headed to the Remai Modern gallery for a short visit. The high point was a retrospective of Shelley Niro's work, a mixture of paintings, photographs, and videos. I like her videos but they are sort of "non-event" sorts of things which are best suited for shorter viewings over a span of tiems. The total of the video collection was over an hour so we didn't see them all. We wanted to get on the road early enough to catch the tail end of the Lego show in Moose Jaw. In the parking lot below the Remai we ran into an old friends Carrie and Sandia. 

 

More art in Saskatoon

 We attended the second of the two Shakespeare plays, this one was Richard II, which I've never seen before (it is not often performed). It was decent. We swung past the Craft Council and were happy to find that the opening of their "Dimensions" group exhibition was still on and we had some great conversations with a bunch of artists including Linda Duvall and Courtney Pederson. We also saw Gabriela Garcia-Luna who currently has work up at the Art Placement gallery but we've unfortunately missed that (not open tomorrow). 

Saskatoon with lots of art events

Vacation today. First stop was Regina Beach to see the exhibition at the LMLCC. Arriving in Saskatoon at 1:00, we went to Paved where we got a tour and William took out a membership. Then to a cafe where Gerri Ann and other Saskatchewan illustrators/cartoonists are being exhibited for their work which is thematically connected as works of cryptozoology. We then met up with Victoria and attended the very interesting and extensive (albiet expensive) exhibition of Banksy art in a mall downtown. After supper we went to A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. The plan was tremendous. Very fun and lively. You could tell the actors were enjoying performing as much as we enjoyed watching. Kenn McLeod was spot on as Bottom. The actress doing Puck was also amazing. William and Victoria capped off the day with a lengthy recording for his radio show. 
 

William painting a gift

 William used a book of movie star couples (in this case, Louis Jourdan and Jennifer Jones from Madame Bovary) reimagined as bird people as a painting using graphite black and titanium white paint only. Gift for Victoria. 

Tate and lettuce

 Stopped past Lori's to drop off small Star Wars board book for Tate's upcoming birthday. We be in Saskatoon so will miss the event. 

More Nuit Blanche planning

 Loving Nuit Blanche. It gives us lots of reasons to go out for lunch to "plan". 

Super 8 film to lab

 Shipped film to lab. Two rolls from Bird People for process and scan, along with the rolls from One Take Super 8 that William and I shot. 

Margaret still sick

While William and I still cough a bit, Margaret continues to have many large scale symptoms of this cold. She went to the clinic today and they gave her some antibiotics which should cut in after a couple of days. 

 

Bird People, live on stage

 For the first time ever, William's "Bird People" were performed by human beings (dancers in fact) on stage at New Dance Horizons. The theatre, while small, was very full. Mom and Lori came, as did Emma, Kristy White, Victor Lam, and others. 

Sick at home

 

My cold, which seemed to have gone away, came back today with a vengeance. My eyes had infections in them and I was really miserable all day. I copied and backed up videos and photos, and communicated with Matt about some possible gazebo roof approaches,  but otherwise sat in front of the tv. 

Rehearsal and film shoot

 Today William was scheduled to have the dancers for two hours to rehearse and shoot his film. The first two hours were taken up preparing costumes and masks. Fortunately the dancers who had other commitments managed to shift their schedules enough to allow a third hour of filming on the set. William shot 4K and I shot super 8 (I'd intended to be an assistant only, just passing him cameras between takes so that he would shoot both, but time was too tight and we wouldn't get very much repetition. 

Preparations, double time

William split his time between preparing for the dance project (creating a mock newspaper as prop in image above) and location scouting with Victor for a fall film shoot. 

 

Garage studio activities

 While William was putting some final touches on his set for the NDH project (to shoot in two days) I finally sorted and re-boxed my camera paintings, making the studio a bit more navigable. The three panel piece in the top picture is a cabinet front/sides that the characters will rest the tea upon in the kitchen. He is working on the side panels to the door which will be stapled to the wood. The box of paintings on the blue table is approximately 125 panels. There are four of these completely full, plus the stack beside it, plus a handful in the kitchen and another handful given away. 

Sidewalk repair, finally

 Truck arrived today to start the repair process for our sidewalk, which was dug up back in November. 

Last night I sprayed the wasps that are living, yet again, in our front brick flower beds. 

Coffee with mom

 Other than William's project with NDH, summer is calming down a bit so I finally found time for coffee with mom again. Lori was up in Saskatoon so didn't join us this week. We went to Creme. Chatted about William's project and I showed her pictures. Afterwards I met briefly with Matt R about the gazebo roof. 

Sleeping Beauty?

 Geremy's back yard contains thistles that remind me of the sort that would strangle Sleeping Beauty's castle. They have been professionally sprayed but they stand defiant. 

Stage (mostly) set

 We dress rehearsal and filming next Thursday and the public performance will be Sunday July 20. 

One Take Super 8

 This afternoon we painted the tin cups I bought. I broke the nozzle off the spray can so it was quite a mess. I blame William because he left me alone with the cans for three minutes. 

I got a temporary crown put in at 5:30 and then it was off to One Take. There was a great crowd with perhaps only a handful of open seats. My film, "Hoe", turned out quite well, as did William's new bird people animated film. 

Backgrounds nearly done

While William paints the backdrops, I've been using a rubber mallet to knock the hangers off of my paintings so that I can fit them into boxes again. 

I went to Value Village and found a number of tin/metal cups, serving pieces, and a tray to use for the performance. At the meeting at NDH earlier, we planned a moment when everything is tipped onto the floor and it should be very loud to be effective. 

Gin

 First gin party of the season at Richard and Gerda's. We arrived at 6:30 and there was not a spare chair for the next hour. I drank much more than I'm currently accustomed to.

One take titles

Matt and I shot the titles for the One Take Super 8 Event screening. He'll develop them later, after he gets the huge open wall in his dark room filled. Meanwhile William has been going hard on his backgrounds. Each 10x10 foot section is divided by 9 and traced from projections of the original drawing. 

 

Tyvak clothing

 Robin proposes that the bird characters be dressed in some tyvek outsits that she's already made. An advantage is that they make some wonderful and subtle sounds aa someone moves in them. William was sick today so I met with them without him. It seemed like a good idea. He prefers that they have new white outfits that he can then draw on top of, but it sounds like this won't happen. Robin needs these outfits for a future project and she cannot get new white tyvek in time. 

Door delivery

Charles (Samantha's son) borrowed George's truck to help us deliver the door to NDH. We went to La Macaron afterwards. The door itself is quite heavy, and the frame is made from four 2x4s. 

 

Backdrops begin

William and I hung the first tarp to be used for his bird people dance performance. There are quite a number of steps in this project which will be good practice. However, there is never a day off. The trip to Calgary has left us with deadlines piling up. 
 

Painting on tarps

I went shopping for canvas tarps. Robin had offered some yellow canvas to William but end up she wants to also repurpose it so the drawings would need to be impermanent (probably chalk). That might be cool, but we wanted to consider options that allowed him to be the one to repurpose things. Home Depot was supposed to have canvas drop cloths the size he needed and a decent price, but we I finally found them at the store, the cost was quite a bit higher. I did find this white material, very much like tyvek, for cheap so William is testing it with paint. It dries quickly and doesn't crack. 
 

Fireworks

I mostly stayed home and worked today, helping William as well as catching up on some of my own stuff. Never getting ahead of the curve, but we can see it on the horizon. Took a fireworks break but stayed close to home. Connected on the walking path with Kathleen Irwin and her husband and watched with them, talked about tv and funerals and convocation.