I fought back some fatigue to attend Wednesday’s night’s Eco Art Salon presented by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver. It’s admittedly difficult to leave the house again once one has returned from the work, eaten, and it is pouring outside. I’m glad I did, as I met a number of new artists and re-connected with an ex-student. Robin was “my” student for oh, an hour an a half back in October 2010 when I substitute-taught a seminar class at Emily Carr for a friend. I looked at her from across the room, trying to place where I recognized her from (it didn’t take too long). She came and sat by me later and I’d asked if she went to ECU and if she had taken Josh’s class - she did - and we caught up as if we’d known each other for much, much longer than the length of a class. What a passionate ( and sweet person.

Cut to Friday at work when I reconnected with another individual from my past, from when I’d just moved to Vancouver to pursue my MFA. My thesis advisor urged me to join Chris Lee’s fourth year English class that was to be led through a tour of Chinatown on a Saturday afternoon. Hayne gave the insightful tour, which culminated with a meal at Ho Ho’s. I never imagined this girl, who a month earlier was still living in good ol’ Southern Ontario, would be having lunch with a table full of strangers on the other side of the country. And so on Friday, I met Hayne again, nearly three and a half years later, and as was the case with Robin and I a few days earlier, our chat was short but relaxed and I left telling him that I hope our paths would cross again. On a related note, my current colleague, Allan, was also present for that tour those few years ago - something I mentioned to him when when I started working here again. It’s truly a small, small world.

Empty studio

Beacon Hill Park (in Victoria, on Vancouver Island) with the boys - what I would have affectionately called them then - almost two years ago. The terrain when we first entered was rocky, green, and lush. As we moved further into the park, towards the beach and the Salish Sea, we could see significant cloud cover and mountains in the distance (Washington state, I believe). It was pretty overwhelming, I recall. Now this time and place seem so distant - so much has happened in two years - and it is so cold right now! In February 2010 when these images were taken (during our escape away from Vancouver and the busy-ness of the Winter Olympics), it was deliciously warm outside. People were lazing on the beach and children were in long sleeved shirts. All just visions in my head now.

The night of our first full day in Havana. The streetlamp and shop across from where we stayed in Vedado. Over our two weeks, we visited this shop a lot for colas and orange drinks, water, cigarettes, and snacks - which included cookies and the famously bad bacon chips. On this night, we’d just come from a swim in the Atlantic, where we’d climbed down (and back up) a rickety, skinny metal ladder and were taught how to climb out of the water onto the rocks. It was trickier than it sounded. I remember you had to let the waves boost you up and onto the rock, where under the water, you’d have to try and feel for some footing. We gathered outside this shop after the walk back and sat in the glow of the stall, smoking and chatting. 

And another

Just one of who-knows-how-many photos in my archive that hadn’t been touched since being taken

In the words of one Tori Amos, it’s a pretty good year. Granted, we’re only seventeen days into it, but… so far so good. I have a number of art-related projects happening in the coming months! International Museum of Women launched Your Voices: On Motherhood in December, which my P. D. A. series is a part of. It’s a preview exhibition of MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe, IMOW’s flagship exhibition that will be launching online very soon.

Two of my photographs from Our Nature will be printed on 8′ x 2′ wooden panels and remain installed in Metro shelters for up to ten years in Seattle as part of City Panorama, through Photo Centre NW and King County Metro.

Lastly, my most exciting news is that I received my first public art commission! The good news came last week after being shortlisted and interviewed prior to the holidays. It is through the City of Richmond’s Public Art program and will be a collaboration with The Sharing Farm. Tonight’s meeting at City Hall set the wheels in motion. It will be at least the first half of this year in the making and I am looking forward to this amazing opportunity and challenge to broaden my art practice in so many ways.

Last year was also a pretty good year. I finished work at the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre in March (and have still been upkeeping my ties to the great group there), after which I travelled to Singapore and spent three weeks there (my first visit to my birthplace and childhood homeland in something like seven years). After a few months of unemployment and an interesting stint temporarily with the government, I finally found myself back at UBC in a permanent position in August, which I so greatly enjoy. To boot, I moved homes - again - leaving a cold, moldy place in pretty, tree-lined neighbourhood near the water for an apartment further East and a gadzillion times better. Things are swell. How are you??

[ Images from a late afternoon this past weekend during a cold walk along False Creek. Those twin birds just barely made it into the frame! Also, there is snow and ice all about. It’s officially winter. ]

Day before New Year’s Eve and the day after New Year’s Day

Visiting my sister for the first time this year (which also happened to be the last time, for the forseeable future)