Sandee does a card reading

 We visited Sandee and Sean this evening in their back yard. Sandee brought out her custom (and non-traditional) tarot cards and did a reading for William. By her rules, he owes her a new card for her deck now. 

Geremy visit

 Geremy dropped in, being on vacation, and we talked cameras. He has a number of super-8 cameras and is preparing to shoot his one take project. 

History of Super-8

 

I did an online talk about the history, both objective and subjective, of super-8 film and filmmaking. I brought the topic quickly to the Saskatchewan activities. It was great to have the legendary John Porter tune in from Toronto. 

Second day in Saskatoon

After the very civilized breakfast at the James Hotel, we met up with Ian Preston and borrowed some really interesting cameras. Headed over the the Remai where we ran into a variety of old and new friends including Ron Mein but not including my sister who, unknown to us, had also driven up to visit the Remai and the Craft Council. 

Shakespeare in Saskatoon

 Drove up to Saskatoon, took at look at the work at the Craft Council, connected with Mike, and went to Macbeth (covid style with each of the five actors playing socially distanced and multiple rolls) in the re-built amphitheater that the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan group have now built. Stayed at the Jame's Hotel for the first time. Was friendly and nice. 

3D printer back

 A few months back I lent the 3D printer to Brett Stevens. He was very successful at getting it all working and today he returned it, as he needs to return to Ottawa. We now have all necessary instructions to use it. 

Tv shopping

 Mom's tv is having trouble. It is 7 years old but I don't know how to fix it. Went to Costco with her and helped her buy a new one. 

Camera thoughts

 Painted today. Also took film from Jacqui's camera to Don't Photo to be sent to Film Rescue. While at Don's, I looked at a "Polaroid Electric" which I've not painted before. I could buy it for about 50 but rent it for 20. Don't actually want to own it, but the rental price is 40 percent of cost so I'm not sure. I guess I'll think about it and decide when I have less cameras on hand. 

the Captains

 Painting today, getting into the wave patterns of the Ricoh camera and trying to work my way through my vinyl collection. I hit the Cs today and listed to the two captains: Beefheart and Tennilles. Weird pairing by all accounts. 

Rain comes

 

Bit of normal

 Life after symposium, and a day with no guests coming over, felt a bit more normal. Did some painting. Watched some tv. Ian Campbell lent me a box of 11 cameras and I'd like to return them in a reasonable amount of time, so I'm going after them almost every day. 

Continuing the symposium

 One of the (many) highlights of the symposium which concluded today was some sample workshop components from Katherine Ricketts. She has a large collection of objects to trigger thoughts and stories. She showed one of these polaroid one step cameras (above) but in her image, the button was green. Wow, that sent me to the moon. 

My talk about my cameras

I talked about my camera paintings for a symposium called "The Things We Think With" that was hosted by Kathryn Ricketts at the university. It was a 30 minute thing and I think it went well. Other presenters were really good. 
 

Jacqui Shumiatcher camera

 (With permission) I was able to borrow a tiny Lumiere ELJY camera from the estate of Jacqui Shumiatcher. It ends up having a roll of film inside (black and white on rolls that needed to be custom made for this camera type). I'm going to be sending it to Film Rescue with hopes that they find something cool on it for us. 

BBQ Pizza

 

I forgot to snap a shot of it on the grill, but we did successfully bar-be-que a pizza today. The new Weber bbq heats up fast. I kept it on a pan, not straight on the grill as I know some people have done. The results were excellent with a crispier crust and overall good eats. 

Gallery sitting

 The Art Gallery of Regina was in need of some volunteers to watch the space on the Saturday afternoon so Willian and I kicked around there for the day. Not many visitors unfortunately. The weather looked like a storm but just stayed muggy so I don't think people were out gallery hopping. 

First real party of the year

 It wasn't big, but it was probably big enough to be called a party. We have a gathering of eleven in our back yard in the 30+ heat of the Friday night. Lots of connections between people that I'd not known about, so overall I think it went well. 

Slate opening

 William and I attended the summer group show at Slate Gallery. They still asked that everyone wear masks (rules lifted earlier this week). Usually this is a huge opening with wall to wall people. This year was pleasant but only 15-20 people there when we go there near the start of the event. 

William was fascinated by figures in the windows of the David Thauberger paintings such as this on of the Courthouse. 

Gin Party

 Last night Richard and Gerda hosting their annual gin party in their backyard. I was late, arriving when most of the other guests were departing, but Margaret and William were there for the whole thing. I had one nice martini with some New Zealand gin. 

Diana Thorneycroft's Herd

 Zipped over to Moose Jaw to see the breathtaking exhibition of manipulated horses ("Herd") by Diana Thorneycroft. Also saw Cynthia Wells on the street. 

Narges and Filmpool

 I had my first proper face to face meeting with Narges in over a year and we spoke at length about her animation project. Felt good to break out of the zoom barriers. 

The Filmpool hosted its own face to face in person screening this evening with a selection of hand processed and (mostly) plant based processing or manipulation with the Harbour Collective Experimental Film Lab who are doing some workshops here this week. I have to admit disappointment that all the films were digitally projected, which felt contrary to this approach. 

Reading in hammock

 

Brett Bell visit

 Brett brought over this old video camera that has government salvage stickers on it. His son Ben found it for him at a garage sale somewhere. It's an AVC-3400 that would need to feed into a portapack to record video. I bet we used something like this to shoot sports in high school. 

Camera from Steve Wolfson

 When i borrowed this camera from Steve Wolfson a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that there was still film inside so, while in Steve's backyard, we shot the remainder of the roll. The film was old and a bit foggy, but Steve got some images off it (below). 

Very small camera

 Ian mentioned having one of these tiny cameras that would be used on a Arduino or Raspberrry Pi boards. I finally asked to borrow one and had a gas trying to paint it (reading glasses the whole time).

Painting

 I'm really excited to have so many cameras in the house again. My recent calls out have brought in over a dozen that I've never done before from filmmakers Jason Britski, Brett Bell, Ian Campbell, Geremy Lague and Darryl Kesslar. 

Dunlop exhibition

 William and I got our super-8 film rolls to create our new One Take projects. Library is handling them again this year. Popped into new Dunlop show while we were there. The huge Daphne Boyer photos which use seeds to simulate beads are intense optical spectacles. (William with "Hemoglobin" in photo above). 

New Liquor Store on 13th

 Richard says he got a 100 air miles for just going into the new 13th avenue liquor store the other day. Apparently that was the grand opening. We picked up a couple things. Nice store. Outside still in progress. 

Gerda's birthday bash

Although rules don't officially drop for another week, we had a "soft opening" to post pandemic times with a small gathering to celebrate Gerda's birthday. I couldn't resist Joanne's cake. 

Michelle in town

 My niece Michelle is passing through town, on her way moving from New Brunswick back to Calgary. Sean is also back in Regina, having taken a 3 month job here. Bottom image (left to right) is Sean's dog, Lori's dog, and Michelle's dog.