Leslea and Leif Barbeque photos

  Great conversations at Leslea and Leif's backyard barbeque + their last one in Regina with their house now sold and the move to Winnipeg only a month away.

Photos from Stereobscura's Last Hurrah!

Jingyi and Ruben 

Brett Bell capturing Stereobscura image with super-8 Iphone App

Sheila Petty in Stereobscura

I'm expecting Geremy to come to the house later today and disassemble the camera obscuras built into the garage (as the YAAG gallery). We spoke with a number of people this week who regretted missing his performance with it last week so we decided to open it up this morning so that people could at least see it. We had a good turn out including Richard Gustin, Erik Sirke, Sheila Petty, Leslea and Leif and the girls, Brett Bell, Jingyi Zhang and Ruben, David Gane and son, and Sharon Eisbrenner.
Margaret and William added a new element by walking around outside with a large Canadian flag, the contrasting white and red, along with the movement, helped illustrate the live, upside down nature of the device. 

David Gane successful MFA defence

Today I was very pleased to be on the committee as David Gane (pictured in the middle) successfully defended his MFA thesis project. His supervisor (and my boss) Dean Sheila Petty took us out for a drink to celebrate. Lovely end to an intense day. 

Moose Jaw cafe and Gerda's artwork

Our friend Gerda has some artwork up in the Wandering Gypsy cafe in Moose Jaw. After some spa time where William discovered his fabulous ability to get zen and float and let me push him around like a toy boat, we stopped in to see her artwork. 

Mechaton with Allan and Chad

Played a game called Mechaton (Mobile Frame Zero) this evening. Allan had introduced us to it last year but I'd forgotten most of the rules (some of which had changed since then as the designers were working on it with Kickstarter money). It uses Lego as playing pieces and you modify the rules (within parameters) based on the build of your toy (or vice versa). Fun part after a battle, the parts of destroyed figures are strewn on the playing board to show the carnage. 

William's last day of school

At 2:30 today, William is off for the summer. His year had some ups and downs. He had a great teacher who had high expectations of him but was also very supportive and understanding of his seemingly endless and growing list of eccentricities. I'm worried that I have so much computer work to do in the next month that he will follow suit and waste his summer in front a screen alongside of me.  There are many adventures to be had. 

Canon Powershot "Communication Error" solved

For the past few days I've not been able to connect my Canon Powershot Elph 520 camera to my computer with its usb cable to extract my photos. When I tried, the computer would do nothing (no bing or anything) and the camera would momentarily blink "communication error". I discovered the problem to be TOO MANY IMAGES! The 32 Gb card I put into it was over half full, meaning it had thousands of images I'd taken since December on it. Once I deleted a few hundred of them, the camera works again. I was worried because they told me at Don't Photo that sending it out would have me without it for 4-6 weeks, which is most of the summer. 

Magic Lantern

William and magic lantern of unknown age or manufacture

I took William to the antique mall today. I have started looking for old optical and early/pre cinema devices and found this early 20th century lantern, somewhat in the spirit of a magic lantern. It comes with a handful of large hand painted glass slides. I could not find any brand name or trademark and cannot find any images of it on the internet. I'm wanting to purchase it, although I have no idea where I'd put it. Another factor, if I were to use it, I'd want to rewire it even though the existing wiring (which has to be close to a century old) still functions. Rewiring it would reduce its value as an antique but increase its value as a functioning device. Hmmm. 

Photos from Stereobscura one day only event by Geremy Lague and the YAAG creative space

The weather was perfect for Geremy's three hour performance/presentation of his duel lens camera obscura today. There was a constant trickle of people, which was good, although never a line up (not unexpected for a new space and a Monday morning). Some high points were seeing Geremy's mother, discussing the history of these devices with Patrick Close, watching Ned dance in orange overalls, and finally feeling the heat of summer, here at the YAAG Gallery. Here are some images:

Geremy and I finalize details of the Camera Obscura presentation tomorrow

While this photo seems to require a lot of explanation, I really can't offer any. Suffice to say, there remain sone untested conditions.  Regardless, the project is open to the public tomorrow morning at 11:00 so come to my house and see it (2261 Argyle Street in Regina). 

Draw By Night at the MacKenzie with Myron Campbell (over Skype)

William, Margaret and I went to the first local "Draw by Night" session to be held in Regina. These originated by Myron Campbell and some other Vancouver artists as an open session to do some communal drawing. Myron was going to attend but his wife is about to give birth so we had to content ourselves with a Skyped version of him. We had a great time. I didn't draw much but William drew a few robots and had a great conversation with Adam Lark (who arrived after I took this picture). Adam is an artist and had used our garage as a gallery space a few years ago, the first time this had ever happened. On that topic, Geremy will be presenting his camera obscura exhibition this Monday between 11 and 2 (when he gets the best sunlight) at our garage gallery YAAG (Yellow Argyle Art Garage) at 2261 Argyle St (Regina). It is a one time only event. 

Mike, Amber, and Cathedral Gothic

Amber Goodwyn and Mike Rollo came over today and we discussed "style" and issues around clothing, hair, and image. Mike took some photos which included me holding the broom I'd just been using to clean up the thousands of seeds on the patio. 

Filmpool Flooded, event canceled.

image from CJME site

This evening was supposed to be the 8th Poetry and Film night at the Filmpool. My puppet film "It's About Time" was programmed but the rainstorms seem to have caused flooding at the office, water came down through the ceiling around the bathrooms. The event will be rescheduled. This is the first time I've heard of roof problems at the Filmpool. Hopefully this will help ward off the threatened rent hike. 

Lego Allan Dotson

Allan dropped by tonight, somewhat by accident having got a date mixed up, but stayed for some coffee and Lego robot building. William and I have been building a huge tractor Lego set he got last year at the Cathedral Village garage sale; over 1100 pieces, mostly pins, a challenging technics set. Anyway, William took a break from that to build a mini-fig version of Allan (based on what he was wearing tonight). 

Camera Obscura exhibition scheduled for next Monday

I'll make more announcement later when exact times and conditions are finalized, but Geremy should be presenting his camera obscura exhibition next Monday morning (the light is best between 10 and 12 am). Ice tea will be served on the lower deck. The event is weather dependent. 

Steampunking William interviewed for Leader Post

As part of a steampunk story for next week's paper, William was interviewed and photographed for the newspaper today. I don't know if he had much to really say that the reporter didn't already know, but I think the paper likes to have photos of kids in it. He also shot video as the paper is putting up web content along the way. 

Angry about my refund.

A few weeks ago I bought this large metal cabinet. Paul and I assembled it a couple of Thursdays ago and I've since put most of our art supplies away in it. I'm pretty happy with it. So last night I am at Kevin's house. He was on the phone with his dad when I arrived (it being fathers day) so I hanging out an notice a brochure on the counter for this same cabinet line. I strike up a conversation with his wife about it and she tells me that she bought two of the same cabinet earlier in the day FOR HALF PRICE. I'm no miser, but this was a $400+ cabinet so that is a lot of dough. This evening I dug out the receipt and went back to the Lowes store to see if they could price match. They were all friendly until the moment of refund when they inform me that they can only give me today's 10% discount, not yesterday's 50%. So even though I walked away with $45 in my pocket, it is a very bitter refund. 

Cannibalistic Fish! Exclusive GIF video!

William and I went fish shopping to the very excellent A1 Aquarium store in Regina. You know that they have quality merchandise because if they didn't, their staff couldn't get away with being as rude and indifferent as they are. I've gone there a dozen times over the past four years and have become accustomed to the eye-rolling attitude which comes with expertise. William asked about this fish lying on the bottom being eaten by his tank-mate. The salesman offered him to us for half price. 

Fathers Day breakfast in bed

William got me a pair of artisan cuff-links with dragons on them, as well as a kick ass card and breakfast in bed. 

I can't believe I ate the whole thing: Father's Day Mercury burger!

This evening I had the Mercury burger when William took me out to eat. It is big. Very big. Perhaps even too big. I ate it anyway. 

Ian Campbell and Jeff Morton "PLAY" at Dunlop

 Tonight at the Dunlop Art Gallery, a number of performances took place within the exhibition called "Play" by Jeff Morton and Kathleen Irwin. William and I watched three of the five but that was the limit for him so we slipped away. Ian's remote control playing of the piano was cool, but we were both surprised and elated by Jeff's performance using an enhanced version of the very same toy piano I used in my video "Ready-Mades" last year.

Camera Obscura as a CAMERA

Geremy and I tried to use the garage camera obscura as a camera, putting pieces of photographic paper onto the wall for 35-40 seconds. It ends up this was too long and the paper turned very dark. This sheet was developed in diluted developer and pulled early (which accounts for some of the streaking). Other streaks are due to the movement of the trees, which is the subject mater. 

One Take Super-8 event a success

One Take Super 8 in Regina, 2013, photo by Christine Ramsay

Tonight's 11th One Take Super-8 Event, hosted by Alex Rogalski, was great. I would have to say that it was a good batch of films, both technically and aesthetically, with a nice mix of experimentation, comedy, camp, and thoughtfulness. One of the highlights was Geremy and Erik's film, recreating Tampopo as paper folding instead of soup, and subtitled. I'm told that their subtitling was better than mine (we both used my overhead projector). Their's was certainly funnier and garnered way more applause. Well done. 

New Coffee Machine!!!

Margaret managed to live over a week without a coffee machine, waiting for the one she researched and picked out to arrive via Amazon today. Crazy German engineering with pages of instructions on how to clean and maintain it. Hopefully this will reduce the chances of us burning the house down with the old dilapidated one. 

Pinhole photo using larger camera

This is a photo Geremy took of my today using the slide carousel carrying box that he'd previously used as a mini camera obscura (the "carousel obscura"). Today we did some tests with photographic paper, including colour paper, exposing it with this camera. Here is one black and white result. The colour result was rather mono-chromatic, partially because the paper was severely outdated and the chemistry mix was probably not optimal due to the mixing of a small portion. Some of you may surmise that the white halo which covers the middle of the image might be chemical stains or a light leak, but you would be denying the truth that this is proof that ghosts exist and are hanging out at the university. 

Clandestine meeting on Boot Hill with Erik Sirke

I had a meeting on what is called by some people, but not on any signs, "Boot Hill", the high point in Regina located south east of Candy Cane park (which IS called Candy Cane park on signs and has tell-tale giant candy canes as landmarks). We spoke about the future. 

WOLFCOP!!!

I am super pumped that local production concept "WOLFCOP" from the brave and adventurous group at Echolands including Lowel Dean. I send them out my sincere congratulations. I was rooting for them (and cast my votes for them) but have to admit I'm surprised. The nature of online voting would usually favour the groups in the denser population centres, but these guys put together a fun package that won everyone over. 

Arts Festival wrap party photos

Last night was the annual wrap up party for Cathedral Festival volunteers. The turn out was good. There was cake and free massages and enough door prizes for everyone. William picked out a painting. I didn't volunteer much time so I didn't put my name in the hat. Took a few pictures, but that is just what I do.