Tree spread

 Got tree. Small this year, but once it was in water for few hours, it spread out nicely. Spent most of the evening debating the layout of the room and changing the positioning of the furniture. 

Letter tiles with Fred

Pulled out letter tiles with Fred after I brought him home. He got really engaged with them. George got in and I went to Rona for a tree. Fred continued to use the tiles to spell words using the entire bag while we were out. 
 

Berting glass

The other day Wilf Gayleard and I noticed that the work site in the food court, open but for a plastic ribbon, had everything disassembled and the commissioned glass displays created by Jacqueline Berting were removed. Wilf followed up and we've now been assured that they are safe but now there is debate about appropriate treatment of artworks and how they are being re-mounted. 
 

Computer upgrade

Picked up new fundraiser calendar today from Robert. This year's was by Holly Fay. My computer upgrade starts today. Chris came in and took my old one away while I was at the faculty meeting, which I went to in person (more and more of the Film department, all of whom used to attend these face to face religiously are now zooming in). Met with Erika afterwards and read through her draft of her thesis proposal. 

Classes over for William

 When William got home from his last visual art crit today, I made him a celebratory bacon and eggs lunch. Now just wait for the grades and the degree is done. William has finished his BFA. 

Sheila retirement party

Dozens of people gathered in the ShuBox this afternoon to celebrate Sheila as she retires after 35 years. I took my last film course from Sheila, back in 1992 when I'd come back to school to finish my degree. Afterwards she wrote me a reference letter for grad school, then hired me as a sessional when finished that. When I had doubts about myself, she didn't. She convinced me to apply for the tenure track job that became my career. She invited me to participate in by research projects such as the NMSL, and when she became dean, she asked me to be the Film Department head. She was always challenging me but always on things she knew I would rise to, knowing me better then I knew myself.  
 

Coffee with mom

 Went out for coffee with mom. Lori was busy so it was just the two of us. Got a berry scone at the new place on Albert St. They have fairly good snacks but under these new owners the service is slow. Not just slow, but mind-bogglingly slow. I think they have hired people who cook and bake and make coffee but have never worked in a restaurant before. 

Russ drives in

Weather was nice today. Russ Klitch drove in from Humbolt to pick up some 16mm prints from me. I've not seen him since 2000 so we had lots to catch up on. He left me a Kodak Pony 135 camera to paint as well as a rare Viewmaster projector. I'm excited to try it out. Margaret made some mini-snowpeople. 
 

St. Nicholas Day shoes

Shoes mysteriously filled again last night. I ended up with the pjs I wanted, and Margaret got Italian leather gloves. William got some mini-figs that haven't been on the market for 10 years. All in all a magical morning.

Class notes

 I've taught Film 200 quite a few times. I redesigned it in my second year teaching and have modified the core assignments a couple of times since. This week I started combing through my 8 inch thick stack of notes to compile teaching notes for Dianne to cover my other section next term (I'll teach two sections and she'll teach the third). Most of my notes are timeless - they  talk about f-stops or focal length or creativity or team building. However, some notes such as this one (a suggestion for a breaking of the ice discussion topic on week 4) don't hold up as well. 

Car repair

 Picked up the car from some repairs today. Started perfectly but when I started to drive it, it made an awful noise as if I was dragging something beneath it. Out of the parking lot, I pulled over and looked around. Everything looked fine. I pulled back out into traffic when suddenly all the alert lights went off in the dash all at once. I came back to the garage to show them. They thought at first that a belt might have broken, but that wasn't it. Then they surmised that, having washed the car for me on this very cold day, one of wheels had frozen in place and I'd actually dragged it across the icy ground out of the parking lot before it started to rotate. This caused it to trigger every alarm on the dash. Reset, they sent me on my way. 

Go big before you go home

 William's time at UofR is nearly over. Today was the last photography class and he unveiled his single print, a collaged image of a dozen or so "Saw-Boys" outside of the Centre of the Arts. 

Sunny days

 While the cat napped in the sunlight, Meanwhile, William did a bit of pinhole photography. 

Cat in the box

 Sylvie was complaining about a bunch of stuff so I carried out to the garage to spend time with me out there. She mostly waited at the door, but did explore a bit and mainly clawed things. 

Cyber-Toaster

 Our toaster, which we'd owned for a couple decades, decided to break down. It was very reliable and even died reliably ---- on the week of cyber Monday. We replaced it with this beauty later that same day. 

Theatre dysfunction

 Since Frederick passed, the Adult Theatre in SockVile has fallen on bad times. 

New sheep drawing

 While the first sheep drawing is not yet fully complete, William dove into the sequel drawing. He'd finally found a fair image of the original painting in a book and I'd taken it in and got it printed to the size of the paper. This time William is jumping straight to ink, not doing a pencil drawing first. It seems to be a more effective approach. 

More old cameras

 Another of the cameras from my basement shelf that I'd painted over five years ago. 

Drawing further along

 Getting ready to take drawing in to class to show work in progress. No crit today, but there is still a need to demonstrate progress. 

Drawing progresses

 

Family supper with Robby

Cousin Rob is town overnight from Winnipeg. He is passing through on his way to Alberta to visit some other family. 

Sheep drawing

 William re-started this drawing of sheep replacing fairies in a painting about A Midsummer Night's Dream. The pencil drawing he'd done on the first draft wasn't detailed enough so it was just causing him more work than help. 

Christina Stojanova lecture

Christina did her final public lecture (as a faculty member) today over zoom. She talked about her research project on Caroline Leaf, which was intellectually engaging. I do wish she'd done a more personal take on the whole thing, given that we might not see her speak in this way again. 
 

Photo class

William is making good use of Risa's photo lab with printing pictures and binding flip books using her new book binder. 

Nicole Banton MFA exhibition

 Nicole defended her MFA exhibition a few days ago. She is one of Robert's printmaking grads and was in my methodologies course last year and she went to Japan along with William. I am intrigued by the illusion of crumples in all of the images presented in the show. 

New fish

Fish died the other day. Hadn't named it, even though I'd had it at least a year. Bought a turquois guppy. Catfish seems okay with the new roomie. 
 

Ernie Dulanowsky memorial

 Ernie dies suddenly last week. I'd listened to his performances quite often but didn't know him well. A pillar of the sound art community. 

Tea at mom's church

 Had a "Don List" sighting today at mom's church where we had come to have tea and look at their sale. Bought a puzzle. Don and I talked about Filmpool for a few minutes. Seems the consensus is that the organization is gone for good, not just for six months. This might be the biggest part of the revival. 

The Weather

 Picked up Fred from his class today and sat around with him afterwards for a while. Margaret had found a library book about weather on the prairies with great pictures. If Fred wasn't so enthralled with it, I'd have been reading it myself. 

Students finish shooting

Bit cold but the light was nice on the last day of the in-class shooting with my students today. All went well and I think they work together fairly well (which is the point). 
 

More painting

 Getting back into my groove in class this week as the session comes to an end. The black and metal old cameras are really where I am most strongly grounded. Similarly, Lori is jumping back into her chickens and having fun too. 

Painting

I'm looking at my list of cameras that I painted as I was getting started: basically the first 100, and returning to them. I'd like to get up to 600 before my exhibition in May. It is wonderful to continue borrowing cameras and if anyone has more to lend me, I'd be very happy. However, with winter coming and the rest of life so nuts, it is comforting to have dozens of cameras that I've not looked at in OVER FIVE YEARS to pull from. 

William's letter to the editor

This morning Margaret says that it looks like William has a kindred soul as she reads me a letter to the editor in the Leader Post newspaper. She asks me to guess who wrote it. I was a bit stumped but throw a could guesses out there, people who care a bit about design and fonts. "No", she says, then shows me the newspaper. True enough, there is no one that similar to William, the only one who would have written this was William himself. Total surprise to us. 
 

New dogs coming

 George has emptied the garage (first time in about 15 years) so he can house his new dogs there. I slipped in and took this photo while he's on the road going to fetch them. 

Fred's birthday

George hosted his extended family for Fred's birthday dinner party this evening. We stopped in for a few minutes to get a slice of Safeway cake. Conversation seemed focused solely on Simon's barbeque skills. We will not discover until tomorrow that when we were not in the house, the conversation was about George's immanent adoption of two dogs who will live in the garage. 
 

Police cars

 This week I've been seeing police cars with sirens lit up more often than usual. Once a day I think. This one is in front of the library as I'm picking up Margaret. 

One Million Hits

This blog has not had over one million hits. I'm not sure why/how I get as many as I do these days. Probably a bot reading it and preparing to replace me. 

painting coincidence

 I painted this microscopic camera today. I've painted it once before, and that happened to be on this very day, in this same place, exactly five years ago. 

First snow

 This didn't fall for long and will be melting in a couple of days, but a clear reminder of what is coaming. I wore my new Docs even though I knew it would snow. I have new insoles as of a few days ago. Also learned the Ernie, who worked at the show place on 13th and who made my old insoles, retired a couple years ago. Hadn't heard. 

Pizza day

 Afternoon at work meeting with students and then with Erik to walk about Last Mountain Lake cultural centre exhibition for next summer. Very pumped about that and looking to ramp my painting output up again. Hungry day so made pizza. 

Tables and chairs

 This morning I met up with Lori and Shim and Tate for coffee at mom's to see her new table and chairs. She's talking about them being too high now, which is what she liked about them when she sat on them tor an hour and purchased them this summer. She'll love them soon enough (or cut the legs down). Later, our own outdoor chairs and tables got a second tarp and are ready for snow.