Students in studio again

 Three really worthwhile weeks in the studio with Ian. 

three days of painting

 Did a few paints over the three last days of February. 

Coffee with mom, visit with dad

 

Had coffee with Lori and mom this morning, then went and visited dad for a while. He seemed to like seeing his image on the phone screen, but was otherwise in a very untalkative and low energy day. 

Mike visits

 

Mike in town for the day. He came by with cupcakes and recorded an hour with William and we chatted about stuff. Good energy in the episode. 

Broken cameras

 Continued diving into the bag of broken cameras I bought in the fall. 

Shopping

 I really don't know how to grocery shop anymore. I did buy cat food, picking up this brand that was on sale. Cat seems to go for it. I forgot to bring bags and missed things I are supposed to be default things we buy on every venture. 

Wordle

 71 days ago, Margaret had been consistently doing the Wordle every day for 74 days. It was 12:15 and we were watching a movie (around mid-December) when she realized she'd not done it yet and had broken her run. We work together on them most days and have almost caught back up. 

Painted

 Did some painting today. William is home (break week) and working on his website for his daily comics. 

Cat punishments

 There is no such thing as a good cat. They are all evil. On particularly bad days, we punish ours with scathing sarcasm. 

Went to Kevin's house this afternoon for first time since the pandemic. 

Winter day at home

Break began this weekend. WIlliam is drawing. I am painting. Cactus is blooming, and it is nice not to have to go outside. 

 

Lunch at the Mercury

 Took mom and William for lunch at the Mercury. Enjoyed it. It is good to know that three people can still have a diner lunch for under one hundred dollars. 

Mom's frig

Re-assembled mom's freezer handle. It is just pressure fit on  but came off when she fell onto it a while back. She got someone to put it back on, but then it came off again. It must not have gone on tight enough because now that I put it on, it is quite difficult (but not impossible) to remove it. Also visited dad today. He has not much to say these days. 
 

More studio work

 Great workshop with Ian and my students today in the studio. Created a fake alleyway. Not very realistic, but claustrophobic and visually interesting. 

Philippe's Batman drawing

Picked up a book from Philippe's office today. He has a drawing of Batman and Robin watching fireworks that William did when he was 4. 

 

Reflecting

 I was looking for a glass cutter to cut a circular hole in a mirror which I was going to use last year in my One Take super 8 film, but couldn't find one and decided to change directions. Have a cd sitting on my desk with no case and started looking at the reflection and realized it is a mirror with a hole in it. However, the reflection (mirror to mirror) is distorted and muddy and uninteresting. 

Police at the library

 I never found out what was going on the library today. I was on my way to pick up Margaret and passed a police car on Victoria (I'm often inclined not to pass police cars, but it was driving under 50 and I didn't want to be late). When I pulled up, there were 3 police cars in front of the library. The one I passed then pulled up as well. Margaret didn't know anything. 

Sheila Nourse

 

Drove to Regna Beach to attend opening of Sheila Nourse's solo exhibition. Really great work. I was at Sheila's house last year and saw and talked to her about materials but I did  not see what she was making. The finished pieces are graceful and bizarre and very pleasing on aesthetic and emotional levels. 

winter fireworks

Frostfest had a long set of fireworks at the stadium. We heard them and then we heard them some more, and then more. Finally we went out to the street to see the finale. 

 

William cardboard sculpture

 William's first assignment in his 3D art course (an intro course for sculpture). Each of them were to adapt one of the recommended 2D paintings into 3D using nothing but cardboard. Here is his result after about 2 weeks work: 

It can be worn as a mask, which is how he displayed it in class. It was based upon the Kay Sage Small Portrait, an oil painting from 1950. 

Quick and Dirty

 Quick and Dirty was held in a new room at the library this month. The theme was Frost Fest (which I've not attended) with four artists. I was impressed by Mackenzy Vida's talk, as a talk. She created a proper narrative, using the desire for community connection as goal/tension. Well structured. It's rumored that this will be the very last installment of the Dunlop's Quick and Dirty series. 

Glue car together

 William's minor accident the other day resulted in the plastic cover over his turn signal popped off (and cracked). The light still works. To keep moisture out of it, I moved him to the garage for the past few days until the weather changed. With the weather nice, I used an all-weather epoxy to put it back onto the car. 

Melting day

 The gazebo heated up in the sun this week and the snow on top all slid off and re-covered our path to the garage. The walkway around our house is extremely icy, more than I've ever experienced it before. At work, students continued working with Ian on his studio workshops. 

Maimouna Jallow talk

Our department's film studies public guest speaker this year was Maimouna Jallow, an African flmmaker who spoke to us from Spain. The stories about how her project evolved from a play into a low budget ($10K) covid based, zoom-simulating film was very interesting. 
 

32 year anniversary

32 years ago today Margaret and I started dating. Our day was filled with special moments. Coffee with my mom and sister led to us drawing each other on cups. Margaret made an amazing cake, which we put aside after supper and dashed out to "Puss in Boots" at the theatre (William wanted to see it big and I think he was right - the movie was far better than I'd expected it to be). Very nice day. 

 

William and Geremy

 Geremy was William's first guest on his radio show. One year later, beginning the second year of recordings (and still not having set foot in the CJTR radio station building) William and Geremy spoke again. This will be broadcast on Feb 12. 

straight on view

 I have done quite a few of these sorts of point and shoot cameras and they don't look like much from any angle other than the front. Even at an angle from the front, most of it is flat so there isn't much to add. Ultimately, some days I am bored of this angle but am not imaginative enough to choose something different. 

Students in studio

Ian worked with m second year students, teaching them how to use the studio. 
 

John McCullough

 Decade ago, John McCullough ran the equipment room in our Film department. It was the mid-80s, I was an undergrad, and John was like a magic spirit, popping up when least expected. He always had good advice and kind words (I recall him being replaced with a shadow version of him for my final year in the program). John wrote a reminder "Label Everything  U Do" on almost every wall surface in the department. Of course, these have all been painted over since then.... or so I thought. A recently emptied storage closet reveals some residual images for almost 40 years ago - painted over once but still bleeding through. A voice from the past. John teaches at York now and was a key advisor of mine during my MFA.