Saturday, April 30, 2016

Expressionist artist trading cards revealed


I created a similar but alternate story with images from the expressionist film I shot last month and used those images for a six card series that went on display today in the education/resource room at the MacKenzie Art Gallery today. It's not a curated show or anything, but it is nice to have work up for people to see.
This morning we had a lengthy meeting regarding the summer exhibition. There were lots or very interesting idea so I left (in a hurry as I was late) very excited. Anticipating that the balcony doors would be unlocked (as they always are in the week), I slammed into it with my prototype stereoscopic viewer in my hand and crushed it, breaking it in two. Urg. At least I got my taxes in. 

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Moose Jaw art gallery


Still lots happening. Yesterday George was over and we finally chopped up the Christmas tree. Today was Rania's review and then I printed photos (thanks Simon). Later I took William for a haircut and then we went to Moose Jaw for their gallery opening of exhibitions of Kent Tate and Zachary Logan. They were using the same essay/program for Logan that Margaret wrote for the AGR show, although there were a few different pieces on display. Kent Tate is a filmmaker I met at a Filmpool screening a few years ago. He's been travelling living sometimes on Vancouver Island, but is coming back to Saskatchewan. We chatted for quite a while about film and art and the weather (he was frustrated but a lack of lightning last summer, even though he situated himself in a peak zone).




Wednesday, April 27, 2016

David Stefanyshyn

David Stefanyshyn, 2005

David Stefanyshyn, 2002
I just learned that David Stefanyshyn died yesterday. I am shocked and very upset. I've not seen David much in the past five years. When we were recording Sockvile a few years ago I contacted him to ask if he'd do a voice. He had the strangest sense of humour and I knew he'd bring something special to the project. He declined as he was in the middle of moving back out to the farm. As far as I know, he's been out there since. I know I ran into him at least once or twice since then, probably at the street festival or something like that. I still share stories about his crazy antics when he was my student (and I'm not really sure I can call him a student as he always defied instruction). He finished in our program at the UofR in 2002 and was involved in numerous of other films, strange comedies such as "Shuya Show". I wish he did more, he was a natural. He was involved with the Filmpool for a while in 2005 and helped organize a festival and a visit by David Rimmer to Regina that fall. I don't know what to say or what to think. David was a unique and very special person and is certainly going to be missed.
David Rimmer and David Stefanyshyn, Regina, 2005

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Lots of work, lots of relaxing

I don't know where to start; today was a heck of a busy day for the first six hours, then I had some great sitting back time. I cut the remaining pieces for the new stereoscopic viewer prototype (pieces pictured above. I will try to assemble it tomorrow), I was in on Dianne's first review (went well), I microscope photographed some images from the new roll of super-8 that came in (the reshoot of one of the 25 short films), I did a recording session with Christina Stojanova for my expressionist film, and I held my weekly coffee session for grad students. Later, William and I watched "Er Ist Wieder Da (Look Who's Back)", a crazy comedy about Hitler on Netflix. We agreed to watch 5 minutes then turn it off when it proved to be too stupid. We were captivated for the entire two hours. This evening we went to Combat Improv, quite satisfying. Before the show we did a bit of a shared drawing:

Monday, April 25, 2016

New "stage" for old film

Franz is almost finished constructing the panorama stage I commissioned (above). By the end of the week the work will be mine again to translate and give new life to "Life is Like Lint". This is a great conclusion to a pretty good day which included three planned meetings, a couple of chance run ins with friends; not only Berny in his car but also Steve who completed the restoration on his damaged sculpture (below). I began to fashion the next generation of my stereoscopic viewers. If only I didn't have six more meetings this week, I might finish one thing or another. Juggling continues.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Romeo and Juliet at the Globe

We went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre this evening. William is currently studying it in school; his first time studying Shakespeare but certainly not the first of the plays he's seen. The performance was pretty solid. I particularly liked Nurse and Juliet's father; both with done in fresh, energetic ways.
They built a minimal but evocative swiveling stage which made playing to the round a bit more interesting. The lighting was good and I liked the addition of a dozen practicals hanging high above the stage. 

Friday, April 22, 2016

Jambalaya of a day

Friday was a bit of a catch up day. I did lots of work on my computer but didn't finish all the stuff on Thursday's list. William and I made Jambalaya again today. I didn't let him get out of the job of de-shelling the shrimp (not that bad of a job after you've done it a couple of times, but initially a bit weird). No photos. 

Thursday, April 21, 2016

John Ralston Saul at the UofR

Paul, William and I went to a lecture from John Ralston Saul (no relation) at the university this evening. It was quite interesting, focusing on ways that Canada is unlike European countries in migration policies and the problems with business schools and US private universities and how much more time we have die to longer life expectancy. The crowd was large; beyond capacity for the room with extras sitting in the aisles. I think the lecture was a misnamed as it didn't really focus in any convincing way on the value of humanities in the universities. Great talk though. 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

upgrades to my overhead projector

During one of the Caligari shoots, my bulb burned out on my overhead projector. I brought it to Wilf this week and not only was he able to replace the bulb, but he also had a spare part to fix the transparency roll and had a spare roll to load onto it. A few screws later and my machine is better than when I first got it. Yea for Wilf!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

ATC Talk at CCC




Margaret and I were two of the eight speakers at the Creative City Centre this evening, doing 6 minute artist talks as part of the Quick and Dirty series. Each participant presents 20 slides and each slide is played for exactly 20 seconds. Margaret was great; she has a far larger and more interesting body of work than most people know about. I talked about Star Wars, Sockvile, and Canister and handed out a new Canister card for people to colour on. Central to my discussion was the idea that the cards are less important than the drive to collect impossible sets. Time was short and I didn't drive this idea home. Oh well. Geremy and Saqib both came out. 

Monday, April 18, 2016

Numerous details accomplished

I wrote a long list of stuff I needed to do today and I completed it! That's not to say I am ahead on anything, the list was filled with many simple things and was realistic, but I'm still happy. I met with Kaitlyn and hired her to create some doll/puppet clothes for two of my projects. I met with Franz about the panorama stage and feel good about where it is going. I created a new artwork for tomorrow and my talk. I expect to be mostly in meetings and the evening speaking event tomorrow so will fall behind on the detail stuff again. Can't have it all.

The walking bridge near us is not quite finished but is open for people to cross. We had a rush of a day so I picked up William with the car, but he'll be back to walking soon enough. 

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Deferred Easter

Gerda, who usually hosts an amazing Easter dinner, took a trip this March but returned to put on an amazing soiree with an almost record setting 25 people crammed cozily into her house. An extra table was installed where the love seat usually goes. As with our own experiment in February, having a turkey outside of the major holidays gives everyone a great feeling. I had one too many gins and then realized that I had work to do when I got home.



Saturday, April 16, 2016

Sheri and Patrick wedding reception at Dr. Coffee


 Lovely party on Saturday night to celebrate Sheri and Patrick's wedding (they got hitched down in the USA last week). Their reception, naturally, was at the Dr. Coffee. Live music, brief, amusing, and non-embarrassing speeches, and mostly just coffee, cake, and bits of meat. We'd just come from the beef supper fundraiser at Gertrud's church where William had won a baby quilt in a raffle which he then went on to wear as a cape for the rest of the evening, so we were stuffed so just nibbled a bit and chatted with Lynal and Barbara.

Microscopic super-8

I spent most of my day working with Tanya's microscope, rephotographing portions of frames from super-8 film to print as photographs. I'd done some trial images earlier this winter but these didn't work well due to the nature of looking into the light and the images all containing foggy flares. This time I built a simple mask to limit the viewpoint and block undesired light. Worked well. 

Friday, April 15, 2016

Denise Smith MFA opening

Huge congratulations to Denise Smith who successfully defended her MFA thesis earlier this week (I blogged about it but figured it was really her news to spread first). The reception for the exhibition was this afternoon and we went so that I could tour the work to Margaret and William, being that I knew all the secrets about it all. Great sculptures. I think it is only up until Sunday so I urge everyone who is able to get to the MacKenzie Art Gallery this weekend to do so. 

Thursday, April 14, 2016

William appointment

We went down to Wascana rehab for an appointment today. The building is far larger and more interesting on the inside than I thought it would be. 

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Hectik Theatre "The Island"

We went to the opening night of The Island, a brand new play by Kenn McLeod and Jed Tomlinson with Hectik Theatre. It is about two clowns shipwrecked on a desert island. The performances were very fun, reminding me of Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton (I would not be surprised if this were part of the inspiration). Abstract and playful but also biting and thoughtful; we all thoroughly enjoyed it. The audience was small but I'm certain everyone had a good time. William even got to be a shark. It is on for another four nights and highly recommend taking it in.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

George Bessai

George and Paul came for supper; elk burgers with all the fixin's. Spent some time with George looking at photos I've recently scanned from the early 90s, in particularly some of the pictures of him and his family and farm. 

Monday, April 11, 2016

Denise Smith

Congratulations to Denise Smith for her very impressive MFA exhibition at the MacKenzie. I was the chair on the committee this morning and it went very well. She will be having a reception at the end of the week so I'll go back at that time and snap a few photos. I had enough stuff to remember to say and do and didn't pull out my camera through the process. 

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Starship Canister

Thanks Zaul for building this amazing set for us to shoot a new Canister the Robot on. For some scenes I had a four foot tall stand-in play the robot to make the sets look bigger. Great exercise in forced perspective.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Phone trouble


Exhausted. I did a mock-up of the Canister the Robot mystery novel (he is a 1950s detective) and the colouring book (he is a 1970s children's hero) and modified the stereoscopic viewer but the real glitch in my day was the telephone. The wires had been pulled loose and I couldn't get it to work again. Many switching of wires later I finally figured out that the fine little wires that make up earphone are too easily damaged when you start stripping them and this let to an hour of frustration. However, I have not soldered the first phone together and it works well. We took a couple of trips out this evening; an opening at the Hague and a garage sale at Chad's (I bought a lightening rod; it is currently protecting my fence).

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Crazy birthday

Had a crazier than usual birthday today. No sleeping in; in fact the opposite. I was at CBC at 7:25, showered and presentable. I finished a couple Canister projects to print but when I tried to get them to Staples, the file folder was full of dozens of strange files with names made up of boxes and other icons. This folder also won't delete. I lunched with William at A&W, thinking my parents would join us buy mom got caught up in other things and missed us. It was also at this time that William told me that his big social studies project that he wasn't working on through the break is due tomorrow. We cut lunch short and went home to start compiling graphics. After school was a frenzy of collaging his material but then we had to get to the expressionist film. Kevin was there and we had a great time except for the drunk behind me who mumbled a commentary track until the end of act two at which point he moved to behind Chrystene. After coffee we returned home to finish William's homework. I've also just finished scanning all of my negatives from the 80s. 

CBC interview for Caligari

I did a few minutes on Sheila Coles' radio show this morning on CBC, talking about The Caligari Project and promoting this evening's screening at the RPL. Shorter time than I expected (it was a 15 minute slot but it stared 3 minutes late and ended 4 minutes early, more or less) so I didn't even touch the long list of names I had in front of me. Nonetheless, I think it went well. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Mrs Stoattoadlich takes on Canister

Armed with a surplus of the dreaded "common sense", Mrs. Stoattoadlich banished Canister to the time vortex where he would not be able to get his hands on Frederick's plans for the unstacapacitor. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Testing rear screens

I borrowed a piece of Plexiglas with the darkest tone to it this week and put it to the test as a rear projection screen. The internet says I need an 80% grey and I can tell that this isn't that dark. Sure enough, it is not the effect I need but I also determined that this projector creates a very nice result onto paper. I'll do more tests. 

Monday, April 4, 2016

Election night in Saskatchewan

Carla elected

NDP trail by 39 seats
We voted first thing this morning then crossed our fingers. Our candidate was elected with a large lead but the NDP party took a beating again overall. Is this good news or bad? I'm quite worried.