Tuesday 8 April 2008

Let the second season begin!


Despite being a team that most commentators figured at the beginning of the year would have a hard time even making the playoffs, the Montréal Canadiens did not surprise me by finishing first in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.

And they couldn't ask for a better (well better, assuming you want the Habs to win) opponent than the Boston Bruins, who the Canadiens beat eight straight times this past regular season.

(If you're wondering what a hoi polloi, pugilistic sport like hockey is doing in this terribly cultural and high-brow blog, keep in mind that I wrote my Masters thesis on making National Hockey League arenas more accessible to people with visual and hearing impairments. I've been a serious Canadiens fan since reading Roch Carrier's Le chandail de hockey.)

With luck, that series will be over before I head off for a jam-packed weekend in New York City, followed by two weeks of bookbinding classes with Don Rash, and then a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

As up-and-down as the playoff run has been for Montréal, it's been a bit that way here as well. With 400+ applicants looking for $7.5M, when the Canada Council's Alberta Creative Development Initiative only had $1M -- later doubled -- to hand out, my pending grant fell into the majority that lost out. I'd feel better about not getting grants if there was some good, concrete reason (like it's a bad project or you write poor grants), but not simply too many people chasing very little money.

On top of that, the one project (The Zebra Book) that made the second jury cut for the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild won't be included in the national tour, although it will be included at the International Festival of Artists, held at Harbourfront in Toronto the end of October.

And last, but certainly not least, before I make like a hockey player and get the puck out of town, I am creating a fibre-based Artist Trading Card (ATC) to trade with Susan Lenz that will be included in her upcoming show Cyber Fiber, which will be on display at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC, USA from January 8 through 20, 2009.

1 comment:

  1. Hi!
    Thanks so very much for blogging about CYBER FYBER and especially for trading with me!
    Susan

    ReplyDelete

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