Vancouver Weather (Updated a day later)

It's wonderful. This was in the yard today, a couple of hours after I got home:

That's a pile of hail that collected off a spot in the roof where things come together.

It's cold enough that it had not all melted after quite a few hours. Mostly, though, it's just a bit rainy and cool. Quite nice, really. My kind of weather.

I know other places have it rough, but so far I am quite happy with Vancouver weather.

Update: about 12 hours later, here's what that pile of hail looked like:

Yes, it's a bit smaller, but it was still there. It survived overnight.

So, yeah... it's been pretty cool here.

Another week gone

I didn't really mean to do these updates weekly, but it seems that is about the frequency at which I can manage them. And given that schedule, this one is a day late.

But, it's Canadian Thanksgiving today, that happy day when all the good Canadian children wake up early to see what presents were left under the Maple Tree by Hoppy the Moose, and then they all go eat waffles and ice cream for breakfast and go sit on a frozen lake and watch fireworks all day. (Note that in a recent update, the government changed the story, and now all the bad Canadian children are sent to America to work in call centres belonging to telephone companies instead of being given a lump of fossilized seal blubber. Apparently you really don't want to be a bad Canadian child.) At least, I think those are the traditions for most Canadians, but I might have it a bit off, still being new here and all.

As a result of this grand holiday - whatever the celebrations really are for most Canadians - we are getting together with friends for a vegetarian feast. It was almost a vegan feast, actually, but then down/up (depending on your POV) graded to just vegetarian for complicated reasons involving that fact that the vegans decided they were otherwise occupied today. (Hopefully not working for Verizon.)

But as it happens, the holiday isn't of much good to me in terms of giving me a break from the rigour of classes. That's because I have no classes on Monday. (Regular readers knew that already, and you can have an extra bite of ice cream this morning for being aware of it, and also because of the holiday.)

And yet, I have this pile of homework to do, so I have to work on it today, in addition to attending the vegetarian feast. So it's really not a day of rest for me.

Anyway, without further ado, let's do the week in review, shall we?

The attentive reader might recall that in ceramics we're doing a slab building project (called "Neo-Geo" for some reason). On Tuesday I rolled out my slabs and put them away for safe keeping. They need to be "leather hard" before you work them in this way, so you wrap them in plastic to keep them from drying out too fast. Well, I figured "Bad Things" (TM) would happen, so I checked them on Wednesday and some were already approaching too hard. I spritzed them with water and added damp newspaper to the mix, re-wrapped them, and crossed my fingers. Then on Thursday morning we got an email from the instructor saying her own slabs had been a bit too firm when she worked them in the demo, and it would be OK if we worked the project in advance, rather than waiting for this coming Tuesday (tomorrow). I took her up on that offer and stayed late on Thursday to create this:

We were told that our structure has to have a lid, so I made two:

It's kind of silly, I know, and it still needs some cleanup, but the only other guidance we were given was that it needs to be at least 12 inches in one dimension. And for some reason - probably having to do with US politics, which I still cannot avoid - I was thinking about rockets to Mars when I designed this. I have some slab left over, and if it isn't too dry I'll do something else with it in class. Maybe another one of these things, or one with a square cross section, rather than triangular.

Wednesday brought art history, where all we did was review and provide feedback on each other's draft papers for the class. My reviewers caught a couple of minor things in mine - and I thank them! - so I updated it at home on Wednesday night, finalized it on Friday, and emailed it to the instructor. We have no Art History class this week, as the instructor is off at a conference. And that turns out to be good because painting...

Painting class on Wednesday afternoon saw us doing life painting. In my case it saw me doing it very poorly. I am not happy with the results, and there are no pictures here as a result. For some reason I just wasn't feeling it much, and could not make the brush do what I wanted. This week's homework is a copy & enlargement project. The instructor gave us black & white copies of paintings and told us to grid them and then draw a similar grid on our canvas. Then we're to paint each little section separately to create a copy of the original. But, since the source is black & white, we're not worried about colour, just value. And he's hoping we learn about new ways to make marks on canvas with this. There weren't a lot of choices when I got to pick the painting I would copy, and what I have is incredibly complicated. I'm 7/16ths done with it now, and need to finish it by Wednesday afternoon. (That's more of my morning and evening, before and after the feast.) I'll probably share pictures of that in the next update. Maybe.

Design class on Thursday was interesting. This time around our assignment is to create a thing - we can loosely call it a sculpture - from wire that shows how an animal moves, but without showing the animal itself. We're given a supply of wire (used to tie rebar together in concrete structures) and a bit of MDF as a base, along with access to pliers and glue guns, and the shop to do a couple of things. Oh, we can use some bits of paper if desired, but he wants this to be an exercise in lines, not planes. Queue hand wringing on my part. Eventually I settled on something - a landing bird - and started working on it. I have no idea if I have done what he wants, but it is something. Oh, did I mention he also wants us to create and print an 11" by 17" idea sheet showing the images we used for inspiration in the creation of our work? In color? And that there are no printers I can find on campus capable of printing at that size without going to the print shop? And that I have never created anything like that before? Yeah. Well, Friday saw me finish the sculpture thing in the afternoon, and yesterday I spent all day at the computer, learning new tricks in The Gimp. Now I have a PDF of something that I hope will satisfy him, and I will ask the guy in the print shop to print it for me tomorrow, and we'll see what happens. Still no grades or pictures to share from this class. Maybe next week.

Finally there is drawing. Another session of life drawing this week (at which I was also bad) and a new homework assignment. This time we're drawing a mandala pattern (radially symmetric) of kitchen utensils on black paper, using chalk, but we're drawing the negative space, not the objects themselves. Despite my being unhappy with the ginger root drawing, I got another perfect score on it. (Alas I haven't photographed it yet. Maybe next week's update will include that.)

So, the homework this weekend includes (or included):

• The copy painting - now 7/16ths done, and requiring something like 5-7 more hours at the current rate.
• The design class idea sheet. Now done, and it took me about 8 hours. The sculpture was already done.
• The kitchen utensil, negative space, drawing homework, which if it gets complicated could take 8 hours easily.

Yup. No shortage of things to do.

Oh, and I ran some errands and tried to get my haircut, but apparently another part of the Canadian Thanksgiving tradition is for all the men & boys to get their hair cut on the weekend before the actual holiday, so there was no room to even sit down at any of the barber shops I visited. I gave up and will suffer with the shaggy look at our feast today. I'm not all that worried, though. Hoppy already knows I am a bad child - the long hair just adds to my failures - so my future call centre job is assured.

I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving. Go enjoy your ice cream and fireworks!

Another week at school

Just a quick update about school this week.

In ceramics, we're planning our next project, and the first one goes into the kiln this coming Tuesday (tomorrow) I think. I spent hours building a couple of cardboard maquettes of possible next projects. We're doing slab building (as opposed to coil building) and I am going to try pushing the edges a bit harder this time. We'll see how that goes.

In art history, I've written my first college paper in well over 30 years. The first draft is due on Wednesday, and final version a week later. It's short and simple, but kind of fun. I might share it later, once I've done more editing passes at it, and seen what the instructor thinks.

In painting, we continue to paint. Last week we were told to "paint anything" but use a limited palate of mixed colors. I had no clue what to paint, so I went around the house and gathered some interesting objects, put them on a table, and viola... Still Life in the House of Jeff:

If you're really curious, here's a photo of the still life setup:

In there we have:

• A light up Flamingo (Thanks to Gretchen for that!)
• A bunch of bananas
• A bottle of scotch (Talisker Storm, for those who care)
• A Ryobi leaf blower
• A dead Harmon Kardon A/V amplifer and remote (and yes, I am researching replacements for it... grumble)

My life is weird. Note that I didn't worry about the junk in the background at all. Just made it disappear. Poof.

We have homework this week too, and I have to finish that painting today. That one is a mash-up of things found in images and real life. I'm about half done with mine and really dislike it. Still, it's a thing, and there is possibly some interesting learning going on with this one that I might talk about later, if it sticks.

In design, we started sketching a random "thing" that we then built out of cardboard and hot glue. The point here - I think - was not the cardboard and hot glue, but to get these kids to think about sketches and drawings as a vehicle for showing what something will actually look like when it is made. I've done that before - a fair bit, actually - so for me it was just play time. Some of these folks, though, had clearly never thought about these issues in any significant way. One of these days I'll have pictures of stuff I've turned in from this class. Someday.

And finally, drawing class was canceled. The instructor was sick, and her email said she would send out the drawing homework on Saturday, but it's now Monday morning and I still have nothing on that. No clue when that will show up, or how much time I'll have to do that homework. Time will tell. And also no idea how my ginger root cross contour drawing will be graded either. Again, time will tell.

No other school news. I continue to have fun, which is great, but more importantly the ceramics maquette really started some interesting thought processes. I have ideas for new art I want to create when I have time, in stone and metal and clay. Some pieces are just in one of those media, while others are a mixture of two or even all three. No clue when I'll have time to work on them, but it's good to have new, really different ideas to work with.

Amusing photos

Here are a few pictures I've collected. I find them amusing.

This is the line at the Tim Horton's at Langara College early in the morning, around 8 am. This isn't even a "real" Tim Horton's, since they don't sell any hot food, just coffee related beverages and pastries clearly baked in some other location. It is pretty much always jammed, and what you can't see is the cattle pen inside the cafeteria there on the right where the line continues.

While I am happy to support Tim Horton's, I can't bring myself to stand in that line, so I skip coffee in the mornings at school.

Also, for the curious, there is a Starbucks in another building. It, too, has a line, but it is a fair bit more expensive and it's line is generally a bit shorter.

And, oddly, there is a Subway on campus too, but despite signage saying they sell breakfast sandwiches, they don't open until 10 am. What is the point of that? When I want eggs and bread in the morning, I'll want it well before then, thank you.

Next up:

That's a display in the 'A' building on campus at something before 8 am. I find it interesting that we're touting our "green thinking" and "energy management" by leaving a giant computer monitor on all night. I'm not sure if the lights in the display case are on all night too, but it's a good bet that monitor never gets turned off. Someone didn't get the memo.

And then:

That's a sign in a drugstore, somewhere in California. Somehow all three of those things seem related to me.

And finally:

That's a barricade put up by Santa Cruz County sometime in the winter of 2015/16, after a tree had fallen across our road and then been cleared. They dumped the big chunks into the ditch and put up that barricade to keep cars from hitting them. And then they forgot about it. For a year.

As the winter (and rainy season) of 2016/17 was approaching and nothing had been done about that mess, some local wag put up the sign reading "When Hell Freezes Over!!" and left it that way. I honestly have no clue who did that, and I laughed about it for a while. Then I emailed a copy of that photo to the county and suggested nicely that they might clean up last year's mess before there was a new mess this year. And, amazingly, they did so. But I still appreciate the sense of humor of whoever put up that sign.

Fraser River Tides

In our nightly dog walks along the dyke that separates Richmond from the flooding by the Fraser River, we've noted a particular marker that helps us figure out just how low or high the tide is. Here's High tide, looking vaguely northwest from a particular point on the dyke:

And here is a photo taken from nearby, but looking northeast at a low tide:

That stump goes from almost submerged to full exposed, and if you look closely you can see the water's edge way out beyond.

This is a closeup of that stump:

I think it's somewhere between 4 and 6 feet tall (I haven't clambered down there to get a better estimate) and as you can see the tide goes well out beyond it at times. A particular tide tracking website tells me that the maximum tidal swing here is 5.06 meters (or 16.6 feet), and it's pretty impressive. Those photos are not taken at those absolute maximum swings, though, just a couple of times when we've noted it's been particularly high and low.

When the big one hits at high tide, Much of Richmond will have a foot or two of water in their homes, including the house we are renting. That's assuming the ground doesn't liquefy and all the houses come down, which is what I actually expect to happen.

Wasp... again...

Yup. I got stung. Again. Some of you might remember this little adventure just before we moved: When Moving Preparation Goes Wrong.

Well, this morning at exactly 7:00 am (I checked my phone when it happened) another of the buggers stung me on the outside of my left hand, near base of my thumb. Ouch!

We were walking the dogs, and it was pretty cool. I noted a vibration in the cuff of the outer shirt I was wearing and wondered what it was. I reached down to move it when suddenly it hurt, and then something - a wasp, probably, but perhaps a yellow jacket - flew off.

Thankfully I am not particularly allergic to these things (yet) and all I have is some minor swelling and a tiny bit of pain. Not a big deal.

Except...

What is it about me that get me into these situations? I've seen plenty of wasps flying around our area, and never noted a nest. I've been careful as a result. But at 7 am when the temperature was perhaps 9 degrees (Celsius, for my American readers... it's not that cold) any self respecting wasp should have been asleep or catatonic, not flying into the cuff of my shirt and stinging me for trying to let it out.

Sigh.

Just my luck, I guess.

School Update

Hello All. I've been quite busy over the last week, but I'm caught up, for the moment. (It's Saturday morning now, and the homework for next week stretches out before me, alas.) Also, I fear my entire ceramics class is a week behind (which is the instructor's problem, not mine, at least until she changes the schedule and it bites us all, hard) and I know there are some killer assignments coming in the not too distant future. There's a short paper in Art History as well, and the painting instructor just added a new homework assignment that wasn't on the syllabus, so things are... complex.

But let's review, in course order:

In Ceramics (Tuesday mornings), I have a coil built pot ready to be covered in some combination of white & black slip:

It's nearly 12 inches tall, and while I'd planned on a smoother texture and originally intended a smooth (not fluted) top, I am happy with it. I have no idea if it will survive the kiln or not, of course.

In Art History (Wednesday mornings) I have two possible topics for the paper I have to write. One is this sculpture in Richmond:

It's a lovely stainless steel water droplet, or so says the artist. The other is a famous Monet I saw last weekend at the Vancouver Art Gallery. But with my interest in sculpture I prefer to write a formal description of the sculpture for the paper.

That said the paper comes in two parts, and the formal description is the easy part. The rest involves putting the artwork in context, somehow. The artist is Chinese and this is one of two sculptures installed in the west by him in 2009. They also appear to be the only things he's installed in the west so far, and he's young enough that I can't find anything written about him in particular except the documentation that goes with the Vancouver Bienalle 2009 - 2011. I will be talking with the instructor shortly about the task at hand, and see what she has to suggest. [Addendum: I talked with my instructor, and I have lots of options for how to write about the work for part two. She was even interested in the fact that I'd done research already and come up empty handed, and I could simply write that up. So I think I'll use the sculpture as the subject of my paper, and see how it goes.]

Painting class (Wednesday afternoons) seems to be going well. I am a bit hesitant to include photos of my work here, but what the heck. Overall we paint one or more quick things in class, and we have homework assignments as well. The first homework was a monochrome interior. Here's mine:

There are so many issues with that painting... argh.

Some of you probably know I do not consider myself a painter. In fact. two and a half years of painting classes some decades ago left me done with the medium. But at least one painting class is required by the program here at Langara, and there has been a lot of water under the bridge. It's a good idea that I try it again and keep an open mind.

Here's the other painting homework I am willing to share:

Yes, that is a self portrait, supposedly. We were told to paint them with just two or three colours and white, and I chose blue & yellow. It makes me look way too much like Steve Jobs, but whatever. We actually had to paint two self portraits. The other was to be something more fun, but I hate the results. I will gesso it over sooner rather than later, I think. We have turned in these paintings but I have no clue how things are being graded, so I might have an A for participation and effort, or I might have an F because I stink. I need to ask the instructor about that someday. Also, for the curious, we're painting with acrylics. Apparently there isn't enough ventilation in the painting room to let us use oils. Not sure how (or if) the advanced painting classes solve that. Maybe they only use acrylics too.

Design (Thursday mornings) is going well. I have nothing back with a grade yet but given my interactions with the instructor so far, I think all is fine. We've turned in two drawings: a set of orthogonal views of a particular object, and a paraline drawing of the same object. Now we're designing our own object that we will construct out of cardboard and hot glue (I think). I've got my design done, and we start construction next week.

And finally there is drawing on Friday mornings. In that class I have 2 assignments graded and have received perfect marks on both, though I honestly am not sure why. The first was a still life, and we had two versions of it. Here's the better (in my opinion) of the two:

Sorry about the lousy photo. Need to fix that. The second assignment was a series of contour drawings of a houseplant. I don't have that photographed yet, but my drawings of that weren't all that great either. And yet, as I say, I got a perfect score again. Today saw us start life drawing (with some excellent instruction on how to actually do that) and our next homework assignment is a diptych of a ginger root drawn in cross contour. That might allow for more visual interest than the fruit and cup still life above, though cross contour isn't a great thing for artistic expression, in my opinion, unless you're creating covers for science fiction novels.

This weekend I have the following homework to do:

• Ceramics: none. I am as caught up as I can be at this point.
• Art History: read chapter three of the book (on different media) and start writing the paper.
• Painting: paint "something from life" using three mixed colours, white, and a chromatic black. This assignment is to get us to mix three interesting colours from the selection of paints we were given, rather that the subject matter itself.
• Design: quickly recheck my object design so it is ready to turn in on Thursday.
• Drawing: ginger root diptych. I've bought the ginger root, at least.

And in addition to that I have a few things I have to do on Monday that have nothing to do with school. And local friends want to get together. And the A/V receiver we have just died a horrible death, so it needs replacing. And if there is time I should mow, again. And there is always laundry to do. And the dogs need regular walking. And and and. Yeah. No shortage of things to keep me busy.

Final notes:

• While writing this I forced Chrome to use a Canadian-English dictionary for spell check, rather than the US-English one. I need to get used to those spellings. For those following along from the states: sorry.
• The weather here is lovely: cool with occasional light rain. Very nice. The late summer heat is one thing about the bay area that I don't miss.
• I wish you all well. Feel free to email me with updates on your life. School has kept me off Facebook most days, so if there are interesting things going on with you that you've shared there, I've probably missed them. Again, my apologies.

So many piercings...

Bonus post. If you find this, it wasn't announced in any of the usual places.

People watching is always fun, and I do it on occasion. There are the elderly Chinese gentlemen who think they can just cut into the line to get on the bus, and no one tells them they can't.

There are all the people with tattoos, most of which are totally forgettable to me.

There are the hair colors, which I am generally jealous of, and wish I had the guts to do myself. Bright pink hair on the Jeff, anyone?

There are so many smokers. What is it with people and smoking? Shudder.

But mostly, it's piercings. Lots and lots of piercings. Ears aren't really all that odd, even when there are lots of piercings in them. I get that, even if I don't want to do it myself. But lips, nose, eyebrows, and who knows where else? Really? Many of them look uncomfortable, unsanitary, or both. I really don't get it.

But life is full of things I don't get, and living in a city, and going to college with a particular cohort of people - roughly 31 to 33 years younger than I am - is showing me that for that generation, piercings are the thing.

OK.

Art School: Week 1

Today is the Saturday after my first week at art school. I've promised to share what I can about this experience, so here goes:

My schedule is fairly busy by modern college standards, I guess. Three courses is called a full load in a given semester. I am taking five, and started out thinking I would take six. I worried a bit about the load initially, but now I think I'll be OK.

As announced at the various orientations (which I am discovering lots of students didn't attend), each class gave us a detailed syllabus, listing just about all the dates you could want. There is one exception: final exam dates aren't yet set, so I don't know when my Art History final will be. None of my other classes have exams, just projects of various kinds due throughout the semester.

Overall the classes seem good, though just one session of each isn't a lot to go on. Overall the students I've talked with seem to think these instructors are good (I agree) and I think all of my studio instructors have taught (or currently teach) at Emily Carr University (or some other major school) in addition to teaching at Langara College. Emily Carr is a big art & design school, with some prestige, so if they're associated with Emily Carr in some way, they have recognition, if I understand the world properly.

My schedule has no classes on Monday, which is nice. It gives me an extra day each weekend to do homework, and I am already pretty sure I will need that.

Thoughts on individual classes:

• Ceramics: We have a substitute instructor here: Gailan Ngan. The usual instructor is off taking a class herself, so they've brought in Gailin. She's quite good, very nice, and interesting, with lots of relevant background. Her website is http://gailanngan.com/. Our first assignment is to create a coil built work of some kind. We're going to glaze the greenware, before it is fired. There are two other projects in this course: a work done in clay slabs, and a simple set of pots thrown on a wheel. And of course there is all kinds of other stuff to go along with all of that, the technical side of kiln loading, firing, glazing, etc. We haven't even started in on the first pot, though. That happens this coming Tuesday.
  
  
• Visual Culture I (Art History): This is a thematic overview of art, rather than one organized chronologically. The instructor is Dr. Ivana Horacek, who has taught at quite a number of schools, including UBC, and most recently at the University of Minnesota. So far I think she will be an excellent instructor, and I have hope of learning a lot in her class. I don't delude myself into thinking I will be the best student there, but I hope to do well, and her teaching style seems suited to me. I'll know more with additional class time, but it seems good.
  
  
• Painting: Taught be Steven Hubert (whose website I cannot be certain of; there are a few that might be his, but I am unable to confirm that given what I know, and they lack pictures of him, so... I can't give a link I know is right) who is an instructor at Langara, Emily Carr, Simon Fraser University (I think), and probably others. His approach is direct and to the point: paint a lot. He's got exercises for us, and is starting us off with a limited palette (monochromatic at first). We did some painting the first day, mostly to loosen up and get the idea, I think. Next week we start getting formal assignments to do during class and afterwards. All painting in this class is with acrylics, no oils or water colors. I'm OK with that. My oil experience is that they turn muddy brown when I look at them, and I know nothing about using water colors after about grade 3. Assuming I take more painting classes, I'm sure I'll learn more about those options. To be honest, this class probably worries more than any other, simply because my previous painting experiences gave me so much frustration. Time will tell how I react to the media, but this instructor seems like a good one to me, and I hope to enjoy it and learn a lot.
  
  
• Design: This is an introductory Industrial Design class taught by Philip Robbins (yet another instructor who's taught in many places). Our first assignment involved drawing an orthographic projection of a simple object. Eventually we'll be creating ideas for things and figuring out how to draw or document them, and even some computer (CAD) work. Given my background I expect a lot of this to be pretty simple, but I have to work at it not to make stupid mistakes, and my technique will probably never be perfect. This is another class I think I'll enjoy, but I do wonder a bit about organization. I expect we'll be doing some group work, rather than all individual projects, and working in groups - despite being part of reality - is an odd thing in school. If everyone works hard and well, it can be fine. If not, things can go sideways in a hurry. In the real world you're always working in groups, but there isn't a grade coming, per se, and your manager should know what you've done and how much effort you put in. So even if a project tanks (and a lot do) it's not held against you personally unless you deserve it. That grade on a project in school is always kind of worrisome, and there may be nothing you can do about the level of effort on the part of another person in your group. We'll see how it goes, obviously, and I expect it won't be an issue, but I still worry about these things.
  
  
• Drawing: Taught by Sarita Baker, who has also taught at a bunch of schools, played in a band, and written music for a cartoon TV show. Her class is an introduction to drawing, and gets us going with exercises and assignments. I don't have a sense of how well I will do at this - I get uptight about my own work pretty easily - but it seems she isn't worried about such things, and will help us succeed. Again I was unable to find a website specifically hers, so I have no good link to share.

Thus far I have no pictures to share of anything I have done. We did some drawings in the first drawing class, but I recycled them all. We did a couple of quick paintings on paper in the painting class, and those are still in the classroom, but are definitely not worth sharing. The first homework in the design class is done and sitting in a drawer at school waiting to be turned in. And (as stated above) no clay has been worked yet. So don't expect pictures for another week or two, I think.

There. Now you are as up to date as I am on my first week of school. Now I need to publish this and get started on some ceramics homework.

PS: It's cool and rainy today. Totally overcast. Absolutely lovely weather for me. I am happy with it!

Back to school

Today is Labour (Labor) Day, in celebration of which I do not labo(u)r.

Tomorrow is the first day of school. Tomorrow, I labo(u)r. Possibly a lot. Tomorrow, I begin a new chapter in life, and start to figure out what some of the decisions we made over the last six months really mean.

For the curious, I am taking five classes this semester:

• Ceramics Studio
• Design Studio
• Drawing Studio
• Painting Studio
• Visual Culture I

The first four are art classes. Each meets once a week for four hours, and I am told to expect four hours of homework from each per week (which will have to be done in the studio rooms themselves in most cases) except for ceramics, where I should expect eight hours of homework per week, all in the studio.

The last class is from the Art History department. I chose it as this sequence (Visual Culture I & II) looks more interesting to me than the traditional, chronological art history presentation, but I could be wrong. Additionally, the class has a new instructor, just hired into Langara College. It will - no doubt - involve extensive reading and writing papers, and thus add to the homework commitment.

It is my goal to post about art here, as well as other aspects of life. As I have previously mentioned, though, I don't yet know how much time I will have for anything other than course work, so time will tell. Please be patient as I adjust to the new schedule and get my life in order, again.

Thanks all!