Friday, May 31, 2019

Moose Jaw group show






Huge group show at Moose Jaw museum and art gallery. About 70 artists with prairie themes, many being somewhat folk artist like. Also met the curator from Medicine Hat who coincidentally programmed Wheat Soup back in the late 80s in Kingston. 

Lifelong learning with a white suit

I began my four film course with Lifelong Learning with Alec Guiness's "The Man in the White Suit". The talks are not very long. I gave some basic bio of him and the director (whom I discovered later became the dean in the film department at Calarts where I believe Szymon studied). The critical parts I presented was a bit about the boffin and issues of changing masculinity after the war. The group are friendly and I like presenting to them. I got there early to learn my way around the newly renovated space. Very nice. 

Thursday, May 30, 2019

President's Art Collection reception

I attended the reception for the new installation of art at the UofR president's residence of the art collection today as Margaret's "plus one". Margaret has been on the art collection board this year, meeting to discuss which new donations (or older items) to keep and which to possibly part with. This year there have been significant new additions of work by Ken Lochhead from his family as well as from the Shumiatcher collection, so his work is featured heavily throughout the house. Wonderful event. Talked with Tim, Rae, Vic Cicansky, and Wilf Perreault.



Wednesday, May 29, 2019

priming up for super-8

The weather is now warm. I'm thinking about shooting my super-8 film soon. This is likely the camera I'll use. 

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Looking for spools

Looking for 35mm daylight spools. I've been writing to labs and people but they are much more rare than I'd thought. I lost two at the lab (they are looking for them and will be sending me some) but I'll certainly be more careful from now on. Here is what they look like:
Similar to the 16mm ones, which are common. 

Monday, May 27, 2019

sink hole

At work today I stopped by to see progress on the sink hole outside of our room 113. It apparently goes down to the bottom of the basement and is causing many problems including possibly mold. 

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Antique fair

Drove just out of town to Mclain or some such village to an antique fair going on. I bought a Bolex projector but passed on the camera. The projector proved to work very well but my doubts about the camera rooted in the melted viewfinder cup (due to being left in the sun last year) and corrosion on the battery holder. Other crazy stuff included an antler-legged table with deer carved on top. We didn't buy it. Did buy some very lousy hamburgers.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Street festival

Cathedral street festival was today. I spent the morning working with Trevor's students and then the  half of the afternoon helping William assemble his mini-comic, so our time on the street was more limited than usual. Saw Angie and David selling their books, talked with Ed about Ed stuff, and hung with Helen and Charlie at the Drone Day at the Artesian. We'd have spent more time but rain came and the vendors who don't understand how rain in Regina comes and then goes, and also who do not understand that vehicles are not allowed on the blocked off road, no matter if it is raining or not and the claim that "the other guy is doing it" doesn't make it legal, closed early. In the evening, we returned and dropped off a hundred copies of the Swampy mini-comic to the Swampfest event.



Friday, May 24, 2019

box camera film

Took the Agfa box camera in to Don's Photo. Roger helped unload it. We discovered that the roll is colour, which is bad because there is a red window in the back to allow one to see the footage but this needs to be covered if the film isn't black and white. Something might still be there. It will take a week. 

Thursday, May 23, 2019

William in the YAAG


William presented the set of images which constituted his primary "depth" component of his AP Art project publically in the Yellow Argyle Art Garage today as part of the Cathedral Festival pop up gallery tour. Over the three hours, he stayed mute and just drew on an overhead, sometimes doing portraits, sometimes just drawing. Lots of people came. Great to see Berny Hi, Chrystene Ells, Sean Whalley, Doug Townsend, Gail Chin, Steve Wolfson, Penny Ward and grandkids, Rania Al Harthi, Allan Dotson, Matt Ripplinger, Barbara Tomporowski, Jeannie and Ed, Gerri Ann Siwek, Paul Grzesina, Ian Campbell, a Bjerke collective, Lara Quinton and entourage, Sunny Adams and entourage,  my parents, Margaret's mom, and many others.  Thanks to everyone who came by and made this such a worthwhile event for William


Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Sight on Sound

 Holophon hosted a very well attended and cool event as part of the Cathedral Arts Festival tonight. They commissioned four films to be made to go with four audio art works. This was a world premiere for all four of them with even the audio artists not being previewed. Amalie Atkins was unable to attend but I was one of the other three, them being self proclaimed "light artist" Lindsey Rewuski and recent film graduate Jacob Farrell.. QandA went well. About 50 people in the audience and lots of discussion before and after the event.
 I pulled some "fresh" film out of the fridge for this camera (expired in 1999) and results are poor but partial. Painted it today (Polaroid I-Zone).

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Allan directs school play

Allan's students performed the Lorax to an over-capacity crowd tonight. We were lucky to just be sitting down as the parents, friends, and extended families of the 60 performing children had the Artesian bursting at the seams.

William, compelled to hold doors open, was stuck doing so for about 15 minutes after the show. That is some sort of lesson. 

Monday, May 20, 2019

Festival parade and comic jam

William went all out in prep for the parade today, wearing the thinking hat he made for himself and his friend and using the rocket from Richard since he's dressing as a camera this year.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Thinking hat

I subscribed to Amazon prime today, mostly for Good Omens and The Tick, but we watched Rozencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead instead. William worked most of the day making "thinking hats" with light bulbs on the tops.Only one of the two will actually light up. 

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Making mud art



Went to workshop at the science centre connected with last night's Dunlop show with Nicole Clouston helping people make test tubes of microbes of lake mud, paper (cellulose), and raw egg. It is now on our windowsill. 

Friday, May 17, 2019

Digging in the earth



The new display of the bones of Scotty, the largest TRex ever found from Eastend opened in a renovated two floor space at the museum. It's quite impressive, although the roar button was a bit overused (opening day coupled with it being a school holiday). 
 Dunlop opened an exhibition called "Experiment" and had a talk by Nicole Clouston regarding her collections of local lake mud which will be growing colourful microbes over the next few weeks.
We walked from there to a print show at Creative City with Michelle Brownridge and Edith Skeard. Battery in phone died so I didn't get any images of the glow in the dark ink that was used, but not apparent until after 9.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Slate Gallery with Gabriela Garcia-Luna

Gabriela Garcia-Luna and Heather Cline at Slate
Gabriela had a second gallery exhibition in two days, this time as a featured artist at Slate.
Saw Geremy and Rory. briefly. Happy birthday Geremy. 

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Art all day long

I had a meeting (video conference) at 9 am so ended up at painting late, so brought my second of the old Brownies to paint as they are relativity minimal. I got a bit "painterly" with it, leaving in more strokes and signs of the brush. Had fun. 
After the faculty meeting, I went for a drink with the department. A few people are away already, but we still had a fine group and talked about movies and Hamlet and old cameras. I had noticed that the Brownie from earlier still had a roll of film in it and I thought it might be a fun addition to my sabbatical to try to use more of the cameras that I have in my collection that I've never used before. 
They gave me an amazing Vic Chicansky sculpture. I've totally flummoxed by it. 


The Art Gallery of Regina had its AGM and its first opening in the partially renovated space. Gabriela Garcia-Luna's solo show is quite beautiful and she spoke eloquently about the environment and how the images came to be.