St. Patrick's grasshopper

I don't think I have ever cared enough about St. Patrick's day to go out and drink to celebrate it. This year the topic came up repeatedly on the radio due to it being on a Sunday and that being hungover on Monday would be a dead giveaway of your behaviour. I did like to see the shamrock on the grasshopper. Writing the word "shamrock" just now made me think about the shamrock shake that they used to sell at McDonalds. It was green and minty and probably the best thing they ever invented. 
 

William in his studio.

 Needs no words. 

Roger Ing show

 A studio at the university has been transformed into a pop up gallery called "The Corner Gallery" this semester to house assignments for Sherry's curation course. This week the student curator, Sophie Daschuk, presented a room full of borrowed Rogerisms. She'd contacted me at the beginning of the term but apparently got enough art and didn't need anything from me. Curiously, I think this is taking place in the very same room that I brought Roger to back in 1999 or 2000 when I had students in Film 200 videotape him as he worked. 

Pie Day

Margaret baked up four pies yesterday. My blood sugar has been settling down but isn't quite behaving itself yet. I consumed lots of pie anyway. 

Fog

I don't have much to say about the day. I was driving around. It was foggy. The fog stayed around most of the day. 

 

Cut the cards

 Helping William a bit today towards his exhibition. One small detail of his installation is a game table and he'd wanted to have a card game going. Wanting to minimize the number of unaltered readymade items, he will be creating his own deck of cards (having abandoned creating an entire new card game, which was in the works last term). I got him some paper and took it to Robert who trimmed the stack to all the same size (about 3x4"). I said I was going to clamp them together and sand the corners round but then Robert offered his new toy, a corner cutter. Very neat tool and perfect corner in a couple minutes. Fantastic help Rob. 

Texture show at Fifth Parallel

Saw some interesting pieces a the student gallery today. Was taken with Rozhin's work. Bold. I'm not certain if the theme of "texture" really speaks to me. I can tell that the work all have texture, that that is rather a simplistic theme. 
 

Drawn carpet

 I picked up a canvas drop cloth for William and he's got it painted and is drawing a carpet on it as part of his exhibition. Garage is nice and warm after working in there a while. 

Workshop for LOOK

Trevor contacted me yesterday to say that the LOOK workshop participants were interested in using some animation and asked if I could come in and talk. I spend an hour or two with them this morning, which is never really enough. There was a question about Gumby so is created a short demo using one and posted it for them to illustrate the things I was talking about. I'll see them again in a few weeks. 

Cumberland gallery at the legislature

 Margaret attended a gallery event exhibiting Deb Potter's work at the Cumberland in the legislature building for Women's Day. We saw this work in Saskatoon a year or two back, but it looks amazing in this space. 

More snow

 It's been a strange winter. So warm most of the time, but then spring doesn't quite come. We have warm weather but then winter days as harsh as the worst of January. I really want to be able to wash my car again. 

Groceries

 Both Margaret and I were busy all day so 10% off groceries had to wait until this evening. I was rather tired and cold and not hungry, which led me to being rather non-committal about food in general. I was curious about how to pronounce "Magic O'Mallows". I guess it isn't hard, unless there is a pun hidden in there somewhere that I cannot find. 

We ended up buying a small bad of oranges that cost 18 dollars and delivered them to Gertrud, so I don't even know if they were any good. 

Frost shadow

William noticed that the Sun, shining on the frosty window, left a frozen shadow the birdhouse hanging just beyond. 

Pie

Getting ready for Pie Day next week. Margaret made a couple delicious apple-rhubarbs. The one in the foreground has the bird king on the top. 
 

Wallpaper

 I assisted William today as he made his test/proof of concept sheets of wallpaper for his exhibition. He made 2 (probably only one usable) but seems it won't be difficult to make the 10 sheets he will need. 

Spy X Family

 Margaret brought home Blurays of an anime show called "SpyXFamily" and it is really good. The animation is  decent (much more motion that the average anime) and the writing is smart and funny. Cannot get enough. 

William rearranged studio

 The recliner (thinking chair) had been central in William's studio for the past couple of weeks, but he is getting down to serious business now. The relaxation is sidelined and the work table in central. 

water heater

Water heater, which is 20 years old, was making noises last year but when the repairman arrived, the noises had stopped. It was good the rest of the year but this week it started making noise again. Margaret called the plumbers to book an appointment to get is replaced (no rush) first thing this morning. I then went upstairs to shower and found the water tepid at first, but then increasingly cold. Margaret reports that the heater no longer makes noise. 

Replace the whole thing this afternoon. Great hot water now. 
 

More snow

 After such a mild winter, February has been cold and snowy (and sometimes warm, just to confuse us). 

Hot Dog!

 After excitedly having hot dogs at Costco in recent months but feeling profoundly disappointed in the experience, I vowed to serve great hot dogs for my family. I think I achieved it. Good meat. Good buns. Fried mushrooms and onions. Solid set of condiments. 

Late night snowman

Came home late to find Margaret and William shoveling snow and building snowmen at 11 pm. This loafer has attitude. 

Photos of new bird people

 William shot photos of Geremy and daughter in William's studio today. I had to run off for a few minutes and as I returned, I ran into Kathy and Kelly Toth and family and suggested that they also pose for photos. Everyone had fun. Developed the film today too. 

More time in studio

I helped William prepare for a photo shoot he's having tomorrow with Geremy and daughter. It's great he has a big space, but space is never big enough. 
 

Shopping at Gales

Gales warehouse will be closing this summer. William and I went and made more purchases (big sales haven't really started yet). Saw Donna, whom I knew from grade school. She's excited about retiring when the store closes. 
 

Family studio visit

Maureen is in town so, before we went for coffee with mom, we stopped in to see William's studio. I also brough the new roll of newsprint he ordered. Heavy stuff. Everyone is excited and impressed. 

 

Website woes

 For complicated reasons, the MAP webside had to migrate to a new design before it was ready. There was expectation that context would move cleanly from one to the other, but his has not been so. I'm deeply embarrassed by this. 

moving supplies

 Moving more materials for William to his studio. He'll need to spend more days there in the next month. Countdown to his BFA show is on. 

Slate opening

We walked down to the afternoon opening at Slate. Had an extended conversation with David Thauberger, which is unusual for me (Margaret knows him and has written about him, but I don't believe he knows my name). 

Rowan party

 Rowan's friends hosted a hip hop party in his honour at the Mercury tonight. William and I went for a short time, spoke with Faith's sister and Ed but didn't know anyone else. Good to see he had so many friends. 

Strange ice

 Student were shooting today around campus. I followed them around and noticed this set of icicles from the drips off the roof. Quite amazing. 

Writing at home

 I have been writing a book chapter for the past week. I'm nearly at the end of my first draft. Monday is usually a good day for this sort of thing, able to mostly stay home. Cat was particularly loud all day. William also has multiple deadlines this week so that proved to be a distraction to me. 

Paint can

 Painted the tin that contained a jigsaw puzzle that Margaret bought me for Christmas. 

Dunlop opening at Sherwood with Serena Lee

 Attended talk by Serena Lee at Sherwood. William had a studio visit with her yesterday but he had booked time with his friends this afternoon and didn't end up making it. Got William a new GPS this morning in hopes that he would make it here on his own but he got caught up and didn't make it after all. Talk was okay but I'm not sure I connected with it strongly. The most profound point was the underlying conceptual supposition that we should all be required to learn a second, randomly selected language. Visually, the work is made up of crude sculptures (made of salt clay) and equally crude 3D scanned or 3D generated images. 

Coffee with mom

Took mom to Cafe Francais on Victoria Avenue. Had really nice lemon cake. 
 

William's new "drawings"

 William is re-designing a tv for his forthcoming exhibition. 

Just a day

 I didn't take any photographs today. I didn't do much to blog about either. We watched "The Marvels" which dropped today onto Disney. Not great, but I really like the Ms Marvel actress and the set up with her family. Reminiscent of the newest live action fan-boy Spiderman. William had lots of homework. My foot was sore in the morning and my only on campus meeting was canceled shortly after I arrive there so I spent the day working at home and trying to be quiet so that William could also work. Oddly normal day. 

Studio with students

 

Did safety and procedure workshops in the studio today. There was a mishap when a student dropped a heavy object on their foot, which I'm really upset about. In the end, they did some great lighting and experimentation. All but one had a good time. 

Medical treatment

 Over the past day, the pain in my foot, which I'd been thinking must be arthritic, started moving around and swelling. Got in to my doctor today, which was great that she booked me in right away, but was a bit of a gong show since she had moved since I saw her four months ago and there was no phone number, and she diagnosed it as an infection of the soft tissue and prescribed antibiotics. No drinking for me this week. Also went for bloodwork twice because the first time the name on my form was wrong. This could have been terrible, but the doctor's office is only two blocks from the testing place and there was literally no wait to get in, even the second time I came. 

lots of cofffee and treats

Had coffee with my mom and Margaret's parents this morning. I think the pain in my foot had me really worn down as I could barely hold myself awake. This evening we gamed at my house and celebrated Allan's birthday. Two years until the big one. 

 

Right ankle pain

I woke up two days ago with a sore ankle. It was difficult at first to put weight on it, but I got through my day with just a bit of discomfort. The longer I walked around, the more it felt normal. I hadn't injured it, I just woke up that way. Yesterday, the pain persisted. I went out with Mom in the morning and walked a lot and even carried a bunch of her stuff. However, by the end of the afternoon it had become much worse. Furthermore, I slipped on the ice in my yard and had a minor fall (almost caught myself). No big deal, but it might have strained the ankle even more. By midnight I could barely stand on it. At 3 am I got up and it was still sore, but at 5 am it was much better. Improvements seem to be short lived though. Worried that it might be some form of arthritis. It is Saturday so I won't be able to connect with my doctor and don't want to go to emergency. I did phone my doctor's office which the internet say was open until 3 and I sat on hold from 2:30 until I hung up at 3. Will just suffer for the rest of the weekend and cross fingers. 

Jude Griebel in Moose Jaw

Drove through fog to get to Moose Jaw and the opening of their new exhibition. The only artist talk tonight was Jude Griebel. His work is quite magnetic, pulling your eye more deeply with every moment into the mysterious garbage strewn diorama's. I would have liked to hear a deeper conversation about the work, but it felt like he'd shaped it for the small town crowd. His first slide featured a snowman, which led to a conversation with Margaret (and Wilf, below). 

 

Art in hallway

 

William and I encountered an art installation/performance conducted by some Arts Ed students on the way out of the building. They were serving tea and having conversations. They were amazed that William seemed dressed and ready for them, not needing any of the props they brought along.