Thursday, February 26, 2026

Deaf Tempest




 Kevin joined us at the opening night of the Deaf Crows / Chrystene Ells production of the Tempest, re-designed for a deaf cast. Some really cool puppets, pantomime, and acrobatics. A very good event. 

Funeral

 

Joanne's father passed away a few days ago. We were at the funeral today. Good service. Church based, but accepting that many people there were not church folk. Michael B suggested that we move from middle pew to a front pew. More respectful. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Painting


 Background sketches in brown is starting to work better for me. Evokes sepia and memory. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Dennis Jackson in class



 This week Dennis Jackson came in from Prince Albert to talk to my class about his various animation television shows he has produced. He's also doing some promotion (see hat) on his "Chums" show. Great to catch up. I gave him the nickel tour of the department while he was here, as he's not been on campus much in this century. 

Monday, February 23, 2026

The Long Cleaning


 I think we have quite a few days of cleaning and rearranging coming as the insertion of new furniture has cause a ripple of changes around the house that won't be quickly reconciled. 

Saturday, February 21, 2026

Lori and Maureen see William's show


 Weather is really cold again, so making it downtown and looking at the Neutral Ground show from even the inside was a major challenge today. Maureen is heading home tomorrow so we bit the bullet and came down. Looked at it more from the inside than the outside though. Sun was still up but not direct. It seems like every time I see this show, the lighting is significantly different. 

Friday, February 20, 2026

New furnature



Moved mom's china cabinet and dining room table into our house today. 
 

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Painting



 Carrying on from last weeks' plans but shifted the background drawings to be colour other than the black and white image of the camera. 

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Condo getting emptied

My sisters have been working hard to get mom's condo emptied out. My duty today was to do stuff with mom. Eventually I brought mom back to the condo but my sisters has already left. We picked up a few things and took them to her new apartment. 
 

Monday, February 16, 2026

Old photos

Going through stacks of old photos with my sisters. This is a curious shot of my dad from the 50s, probably by a street photographer. 
 

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Student gala screening

We attended a fun annual event that the film students put on to screen and celebrate the films they made a few weeks ago under the "12 Hour Film Challenge" banner. Everyone dresses up and they give out awards. Dani (pictured above) has been at the past 5 and did well tonight, winning the top awards. 
 

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Relaxing day off?

No, it was not a relaxing day off. I sat down to start writing but only put six words down when I got a phone call and had to do some family stuff. Retirement inches very very slowly forward. 
 

Friday, February 13, 2026

Mom comes to see art





We took mom to see William's show this afternoon, around 3:30. One magical thing was that the sun, which is obviously to the south, was reflecting off a bank building north of the gallery and lighting the exhibition with direct northern light, making it look quite different than it usually does. 
 

Thursday, February 12, 2026

Game night

Margaret's only night off from both work and visiting her dad is Thursday. We had a game night. 


 

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

More painting



 Continuing the sketches as underpainting. This one might have worked better. 

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Arts Board talk


 Great presentation from SaskArts in class today. Slide show was wordy by decent and as the session went on, it became less formal and more artist to artist. 

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Feels like freezing rain

Everything is coated with ice as the frost falls like rain from the trees, hit by intense sunshine. 
 

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Neutral Ground



 William didn't get an opening reception for his Neutral Ground window show, but tonight there was a reception for the regular gallery show so he piggy backed on it and we invited people to come out and see his work at the same time. Good even overall. Lots of people and conversations. Paul came out, even though he's not allowed to drive for another week and it is too icy to walk anywhere. 

Friday, February 6, 2026

Painting continues


 I've been painting once per week. Not been posting on instagram. Not sure what the direction is with these new ones. I've been putting sketches in the background but it doesn't feel as useful as I thought it might be. 

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Anniversary



 Weather was fantastic today - highest temperature on this date since 1991 when Margaret had me over to her parent's house for bbq and then we walked through the puddles. I bought chocolates and we had steak and a game night. 

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

archives


 We went to an event at the CBC building and got a tour of the archives spaces that are there now. Amazingly tall shelves. This room has about a dozen rows like this and I think there are four similar rooms. 

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Cody on tv


 My student Cody was up north the other day on maneuvers where a news crew was covering their activities. He ended up on tv yesterday and brought up the clip in class. 

Monday, February 2, 2026

China cabinet


 Visiting mom's condo today and trying to figure out if we have room for her china cabinet. I'm beginning to think it would be really nice to have instead of our own lower end cabinet in our house. 

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Coffee with mom


 Lori and I had coffee with mom today. While the weather is quite nice, every parking lot is covered with the most slippery ice imaginable, resulting from daily melting and nightly re-freezing. Very treacherous. 

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Mike in town


Paul had a health thing yesterday so Mike came down for the weekend. We toured him the Neutral Ground show and went for Korean food across the street afterwards. 
 

Friday, January 30, 2026

AGR opening




 AGR opening. Was fascinated by the extremely small images printed onto woven plastic in one of the artists' work, showing photographs. 

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Sorting mom's stuff


 I took mom back to her condo to comb through a few things that she's left behind. Difficult. She likes her stuff and doesn't want to part with it, but doesn't have the space for it. 

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Cat photos


I don't recall what happened this day, but I did take pictures of my cat. 
 

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Garfield on 45rpm



 Recorded episode of William's show today. Based it around an old 7 inch record which condensed a half hour Garfiled tv special. We played it and talked over it cold. 

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Script meeting


 Geremy was over and he, William, and I talked story for a couple of hours. So many stories.