AGR member's show

Member's Show at the Art Gallery of  Regina reception today. William has a portrait of the king in a gold frame on display. I purchased a small Evelyn Lambart and a glass banana by Sandee Moore. 
 

Classes end, art gallery events

Last day of classes today. Next week will be busy still, but then the term winds down quickly. After class there was the BFA exhibition. about 80 people there for the talks - 7 students showing. Afterwards we headed to Moose Jaw and saw Gabriela Garcia-Lopez exhibition. Good crowd there, although we arrived pretty late. 

 

Thirsty cat

Our cat Sylvie is looking older this year. She's also perpetually thirsty and wants to be lifted up onto the sink to drink. 
 

Painting class re-starts

 

Birthday

Got a nice ice cream today as William and I headed to the theatre after supper and saw "Mickey 17" in an almost empty theatre. Movie was really great. 

Early birthday lunch

 Lori made me a cheesecake and we all converged on mom's this morning for a short lunch and snacks. This afternoon we went to The Day The Earth Exploded, which was good fun. 

Elaine Pain

Elaine Pain with Margaret Bessai in 2009

Elaine Pain passed away this afternoon. I first met her when I took an animation course around 1983 or 1984. I continued working along side her throughout the 80s and early 90s on the Board at the Filmpool. She was president of the Filmpool during the ill fated Brenda Owens period when the Board needed to do all the work of the organization for a year to keep it afloat. In 1999 when I was hired on at the university full time, we were colleagues and taught together until she retired in 2010. During her years of teaching, students could always find her at the loading bay having a smoke. Those years caught up to her with a vengeance as she was diagnosed a few weeks ago with stage 4 cancer. 

Elaine Pain in palliative care

I visited Elaine Pain this morning. Sandra had just arrived. Elaine was sleeping and apparently  had been medicated due to having a very bad night. I held her hand, spoke loudly, gave her an occasional shake of the arm, but she didn't wake up enough to talk, so I eventually went to work. Margaret had visited yesterday and had ordered flowers which arrived this morning. 

In class film 2

Other class shot their 3 pigs story today. Bigger class so I also had a sub group do a behind scenes mockumentary. Very different tone. They took much longer to get momentum, but they really got into the spirit of it. 
 

painted without auxiliary flash

Painted this one wrong. Had other things to do so I didn't really put the polish on it that I would/should have. 

 

In class film 1

 I cobbled together a line from each of the students' midterms (a 3 pigs story) into a surreal little skit and they shot it in class today. I went home and edited it afterwards. 

25 years at university

Received pin (and clock) for my 25 years service at the UofR, along with David Garneau, Kathryn Bracht, and Cathy Mearns, and thirty years with Ruth Chambers. 

 

Painting

Trying really hard to keep up the momentum. Doubting it though. Lots of grading coming up.
 

Amy's party

 Amy had us over for her birthday party. She hosted a series of short how-to, or workshops. Her husband, professor emeritus from English, did a poetry performance art thing with their son. 

Soricon

William did well making sales at Soricon. 
 

Book binding

William using his new book binder for the first time. He is preparing a dozen of so small volumes for the anime convention at the university tomorrow. I hung out and helped until about 2am. 
 

Grad photos

 William was running late so I drove him to his appointment with the photographer to get his grad photo taken. I liked his clock. 

Metals sparkle

 Other camera photo was from yesterday. This is from today. 

Painting

 Getting back into the swing of things. Noelle brought another five cameras over the other day. All point and shoot and black, but also all different and new to me.

Wordle at 300

 Winning streak hits 300, but I don't know if the percentage will ever round up to 100.

Erika on green screen

Helped Erika set up to shoot more green screen work today. Once the lighting was done, she didn't need me. I was so tired, I think I fell asleep at the edge of the set. 
 

Deer again

 This guy has been popping up all around the campus this week. 

Back to paynes grey

 I have much better results with paynes grey when working with metal than I do when trying to paint metals with other colours, including metalics. 

Animation film shoot

When I have animation classes with some spare time, I try to get them to make something that would be too complicated to do with only one or two people. Today we set up a camera pointed at glass which could have paper or other substances on it held upright, and behind the glass is a miniature wooden stage where claymation could be created. These areas are lit with dimmable lights, balanced to daylight, because they need to match both the colour and the intensity of the backdrop which isa large tv. Onto the screen of the tv is a live feed from a camera pointed towards black curtain and where another person is performing one frame at a time. 

Mini Comic production

 William spending great care creating the first of his mini-comics for the table he has rented at the anime convention  at the university next weekend. 

Lunch with mom

 Took mom to Access so they could help her straighten out her email on her tablet. Now she needs to face the backlog of over 500 messages she's not received. Went for lunch afterwards. 

Reviving older cameras

 As with yesterday's, this is a camera that I painted once about 4 or 5 years ago so am returning to it. I continue to have a bit of a feeling that I need to make something recognizable as a painting whenever someone goes out of their way to bring me a single treasured camera. In cases that it is my camera or one of a large collection (such as when Noelle or Richard lend me some), I can be less orthodox in my approach. 

Painting

 Every time I post a painting, I claim that I'm trying to ramp up the creation of these. Most of the time I mean it. Right now, I am just trying to survive the term. The exhibition is beginning to scare me, but a few more paintings is not going to solve my fear. 

Elaine Pain

 Elaine has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and doesn't have much time left. I've not seen much of her since she retired 15 years ago but it feels like we just started right back where we left off. She's weaker but otherwise the same Elaine. 

Pi Day

 Margaret (with some help from William) baked pies today. Paul and Allan came over, although at separate times so didn't cross paths. Great discussion with Allan about story/character construction that is helpful for William's film script. 

Big animation

 In class today, did some minor animation using this large armature I built a few years ago for Canister Versus the Red Death. 

Chess statue

 The chess players last week in William's class wanted to have a tournament so I picked up a three dollar bowling trophy from Value Village and William made it into a chess trophy. 

Big rut

 As the snow rapidly melts, the damage to the sidewalk and street in front of our house from November is revealed. 

Women's day at Slate

 A lot of amazing art on the walls at Slate today. Weather was nice so I was committed to running a number of errands, but had some short visits there (pictured: Heather Cline and Mike Jozsa) . 

Lowell Dean at student festival

 Great Living Skies Film Festival events today including a talk from Lowell Dean about making feature films. 

Living Skies Film Festival

 

William working

After a number of canceled shifts, William headed off to run a session with kids at the Family Corner play centre today. Not actually drawing - he's overseeing their chess club. 
 

Oh Deer

 Deer in the parking lot at work today. This was near noon, not early or late. It didn't get spooked when I approached it. Probably got about 10 feet away. 

Basement bed and cat

 Margaret has been sleeping in her dad's house about 2/3 of the past couple weeks, here in the basement. When she's not there, the cat takes over. George is back now, so at least this part of the round-the-clock duty can end. 

Grandparent time

 Lots of time with family today. William joined us for coffee with mom and Lori this morning. Later we got pizza with Fred and then hung out until midnight when George got home from Australia. 

Different angle on painting

 Painted the video camera Ian Rogers gave me again. It balances well on its bottom and that gave me the right light.