Pizza day

 Afternoon at work meeting with students and then with Erik to walk about Last Mountain Lake cultural centre exhibition for next summer. Very pumped about that and looking to ramp my painting output up again. Hungry day so made pizza. 

Tables and chairs

 This morning I met up with Lori and Shim and Tate for coffee at mom's to see her new table and chairs. She's talking about them being too high now, which is what she liked about them when she sat on them tor an hour and purchased them this summer. She'll love them soon enough (or cut the legs down). Later, our own outdoor chairs and tables got a second tarp and are ready for snow. 

Roboting with William

William wanted new photos of the robot today. The remote tablet wasn't holding a charge so William, the only person who usually operates the robot, couldn't perform and shoot so I became the robot today. I did hand signals and gave gang signs. 

Ruth Cuthand retrospective

 I feel a bit guilty for not trying harder to stay awake during the talk between Ruth and Felicia Gay at the Ruth Cuthand retrospective at the MacKenzie. Only a bit, because I felt fantastically refreshed and had some savage conversations afterwards. 

Lunch with mom

 Mom dropped her phone (her land line, which was hooked to the wall - I didn't even ask how) so she needed a new one. We went to London Drugs with the broken one in hand, got an almost identical replacement, then went for lunch. It took longer to assemble it than it did to shop for it. 

Halloween

 Halloween came together mostly without me. William and I made a rotating skull films last night and he got the video running while I was at work. We got about 60 kids. Geremy and Rory were over and Rory rode the ghost horse. 

Carving pumpkins

 My role in all of this was mainly scooping out the innerds. The artistry was all Margaret and William. We had four in total this year. Roasted the seeds too. 

Preparing for Halloween

Margaret and William have been working hard to get the house ready this week. I managed to get some chairs and tables coraled into the gazebo, but the fine decorating had to fall on them. I'm feeling overwhelmed by work this last couple weeks. I seem to always be at least one, if not more, days behind with no likelihood of catching up any time soon. 
 

Erika's experiments in animation

Erika is doing some interesting experiments in the animation room with oils and liquids and extreme close ups. 
 

Didn't actually paint this today - it is painted tomorrow. This weekend I spent online as newly returning Filmpool Board member for a two day strategic planning session. It generally went well, although not all members attended. It is a necessary step for the Filmpool to go through towards re-establishing itself with the members and the funders. Closed without staff until April. 

Provincial elections

Voted at the advance poles. Margaret, William and I walked over. 

Sheila Petty lecture

 Sheila did her final faculty lecture before she retires at the end of this term. She does have three more books forthcoming, so we'll be seeing her again, but this is the end of an era for sure. 

Shooting film with students

 This is the first of four weeks of in class shooting with my second year students. They begin in their lab in the morning, that I otherwise wouldn't need to attend, then run through my class making these very long days for us all. Bee convinced Dianne to be a performer for a couple shots in his project. 

More painting

 I have a flaw or two on this re-painting of a Kodak "Holiday" camera from the 50s. I'd painted it before but now I'm going back to my early cameras and re-painting some that have only been painted once, especially those that were on canvas board (prior to painting on masonite). That accounts for the first 100 or so, but I've redone about 25.  

Painting non-camera

 Last object in the current back of cameras and related objects from Noelle/ This is really just a soft plastic case that zippers shut that you would put something like ear buds into. It looks like the back of a camera with a window that would reveal the iso of the loaded film. 

William drawing

With a crit tomorrow, William is getting a blue line version of his project onto paper. Sheep and Midsummer Night. Could be cool. 
 

Busy end to break week

During coffee this morning, great nephew Tate didn't cry as much when he saw me. 

William pushing hard to get drawing ready for crit in a couple of days, turning on some heat in the garage and doing his blue line stage of his large sheet of Midsummer Night. 

Walked around the lake with Angelos and Christine Hatzitolios and their kids, in town for a few days for a wedding. First time families have gotten together with everyone being adults. 

 

Saw Boy and sky

William wanted to shoot on a parkade today. We'd scouted the once behind city hall, assuming that it was city property. A few minutes after we parked and had taken a tripod out, we were approached by security who were generally unknowledgeable but, putting their three heads together, decided that we were trespassing and had to leave. No point arguing. There was one sign. 

We ended up on the top of the parkade on Lorne where we could look at much more of the downtown area. While it didn't entirely fit William's study of brutalism, it did give me some great views of the sky. Light was great today. 
 

Margaret's birthday, day 3

Happy cake day, spreading birthday events over the course of the week. 
 

Erik and Saw Boy

William and I took a break from him shooting his photo self portraits as adult Saw Boy to have coffee with Erik, in town for the week but also on a deadline and tied to his computer at his mom's almost every day. William needs to make best use of weather while he can. 
 

Birthday week begins

Margaret's birthday week begins with attending an annual UofR alumni event at the Royal Regina Golf Club, bringing Fred along. He was profiled for having the 50th anniversary of receiving his Phd. Don Hall spoke after the meal and gave a photo history of his life as a photographer, which was primarily based at the university. It was interesting to hear his give insight about John Warner and "the Warner Boys" phenomena from the 70s. 

 

Break week

No classes this week, but William and I are not able to slow down. So many deadlines. However, I did manage to do some painting and William and I moved his robot to the university so he could photograph it with his desk.  

Turkey stew

 Made a turkey stew. It included some of the same wine as the chicken marsala that I made last week, but of course I make the rue in the traditional way. 

Thanksgiving supper

We hosted Thanksgiving supper for my mom, Margaret's dad, Elaine (one of Fred's caregivers), and us. I made a turkey, which wasn't as big as I'd like it to have been but was certainly more than enough. The fireplace came in handy as a focal point when people arrived. 
 

Camera in original box

 Painted this a few days ago. Had fun. 

Art and shopping

Shopped with mom this morning - Costco and then London Drugs to replace her coffee maker. Later we went to David Garneau's exhibition/opening at McIntyre Street Gallery. Fabulous art and conversations. 
 

Northern lights

 Northern lights were amazing tonight. These are just shot with my phone. The top one was on the edge of the city, but the lower one is standing on my driveway. We were mighty cold by the time we got home at midnight Temperature was down to 1 degree. 

William photo shoot

 Helped William on his photo shoot. He's using a tablet (and sometimes the remote) to compose and take photos of himself with brutalist architecture. I am around to move gear and to guard it when he is posing far away. 

Production planning

Did an in class shoot  in Film 201 today. Here is the simple plan....
 

Cat

It's fall. Cat is very thirsty these days. She's also losing weight, which makes her a bit more active and even frisky (and deaf). 
 

Coffee and painting

I'm catching up on my blogging and noticing that I have pictures of my paintings and of family, which suggests that I have a life of leisure. Actually I'm more busy than usual, working almost every day on my online course, on a new search committee, and just a bunch of life. Regardless, I went for coffee with mom to Hill Avenue (Lori busy today) then painted. Probably did a couple hours of work too.