from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 1, 2007 10:35 AM
subject Montreal rent most affordable of major cities
Dear Stephen,
I had the fool-brained idea yesterday to dye my hair. I thought a change would be refreshing and might alleviate some of the tension that has been building between Clo and I. The results were predictable: the colour I chose was a little too light for my hair, and has the appearance of being a home dye job. Also Claudine prefers darker hair on men; how was I to know this?
The decision to buy dye was a spontaneous one. I was grocery shopping after spending hours waiting at the mechanic and then the SAAQ in order to register our car. Which is still not complete because one cannot pay for one’s registration with a credit card, which was the only method of payment I had with me yesterday. Oboro had paid me for the walls but I had given the cheque to Claudine as my bank conveniently holds the funds for five days (which really means 7 days since they don’t count weekends and no matter when I try to cash a cheque there is always a weekend in between 5 days). I know I’ve asked you this before but why on earth does it take them 5 days to verify funds? D-uh, don’t we live in an age of online banking and instant messaging? Or did I dream that one up?
Suffice to say, I’m going back today, with a big wad of twenties. How safe is that?
There is a presentation at UQAM today with the curator of the next show at Obooro, Susanne Jaschko. The title of her show is Travelling without moving, and her talk is about urban screens. I’ll do the car stuff afterwards.
So I’ve dyed my hair back to a darker brown. My scalp tingles from all the chemicals and my hair is chopped up because, of course, I decided to try cutting it as well. Can’t leave well enough alone. My cheque from Fusion arrived by mail yesterday so maybe I’ll treat myself to a proper cut.
Last night was Halloween. We didn’t have too many kids visit, we live in an older neighbourhood. That is to say, a neighbourhood comprised mostly of old people. I had carved a pumpkin and, as usual, cooked supper. Clo and I went to Café Esperanza afterwards to do some work. On the way home we stopped at Vice Versa for a quick beer and she confided in me that she finds our life, and more specifically me, boring. It freaks her out that I haven’t been hanging out with my Montréal friends. I guess I haven’t prioritized it, as I am a bit freaked about not having regular work. That and I’ve never been that good at fostering close friendships with people. I need to try harder, or risk becoming a lonely, grumpy old man.
Anyway, I’m cycling to UQAM so I’d best head out. Have a great day celebrating all those corporate tax cuts.
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 2, 2007 11:39 PM
subject Convicted police killer gets 25 years
Dear Stephen,
Spent the morning working on my CV and some writing, and on the phone getting the car insurance worked out. It’s all done now, many hundreds of not-yet-earned dollars later.
Claudine asked me to come in to Oboro this afternoon to help with vinyl lettering. There was a lot to install as the work of one of the artists in the exhibition consists solely of short texts, poems almost, printed on vinyl. Rickey-Lea, their technician, was quite busy with other aspects of the installation. By the end of the day I was taping down wired in another room.
We had planned to go see the National Parcs perform at the MAC but didn’t get out of the gallery until almost 7pm and by then we were too hungry. We ate at a moderately trendy and reasonably priced restaurant on Avenue Mont Royal. Biked bake home and picked up a couple movies. We started watching Belle Bête but Clo fell asleep and I finally grew tired of how bad it was 3/4 of the way through. Too weird and incestuous.
Last night I went downtown to meet Chris ‘Zeke’ for beers, and he gave me tickets to a piano recital on Sunday. He and his girlfriend have a block of passes but are going to be away this weekend, so I’m hoping to surprise Claudine. She’s exhausted from the long hours these past two weeks. She still has some long translation contracts as well. needless to say, our sex life is suffering. I guess I could blame my bad hair dye job as well. I could also blame my chronic unemployment and perpetual poverty, which are also things that I’m sure diminish my attractiveness. Washing dishes just doesn’t cut it.
How about I paint your portrait? You don’t even have to pose, I’ll work off random photos I find on the Internet. Just me the dimensions and I’ll give you a quote. I work fast, you could have it in time for Christmas.
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 6, 2007 11:18 AM
subject RCMP officer killed in Nunavut
Dear Stephen,
We had a busy weekend. I went with Claudine to Oboro Saturday but only needed to work a half hour or so, it was easier than I had initially thought adjusting the Heman Chong vinyl lettering (there were a couple spelling mistakes). Spent the afternoon at the Belgo, first a conversation between Tricia Middleton and Emi Honda at SKOL, then a quaint musical presentation by part of her band Elfin Saddle. I met up with the two Jacobs and we continued the gallery vernissage tour to Optica for a show of crisp, clean conceptual work by Brazilian artists Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, who also have a piece in the Oboro show Travelling without Moving. More on that later.
I have to admit that at first I was a little confused. The gallery space was sparse, with one long wall painted black and containing a floor-to-ceiling diagram in white vinyl in the shape of global time zones, but somewhat re-arranged and overlapping and confused. Stacks at differing heights of what appeared to be standard 8.5×11″ sheaves of paper in unmarked brown paper flanked one wall, ma video monitor played a video on another, and next to it was a grid of city names with a corner-facing video projection of a grid of clock hands. With a few clues and hints we figured out the systems behind the works and I appreciated them much more, the links of time and language and place. I won’t describe them more in case you get a chance to visit, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
The opening at Oboro went really well, my friend Karen came and we spent almost the whole evening scheming and planning. She has a show coming up in Victoria and one in NYC in January that she might need my help building walls. Unfortunately there won’t be much money involved but it would be a trip to NYC.
After the opening a largish crowd of us all piled into a nearby Greek restaurant and drank many bottles of wine. I spoke with Susanne Jaschko, the curator of the show, through most of the meal, by virtue of being seated directly across from her. I also met the artist Michel deBroin, this years winner of the Sobey Art Award, who flirted with Claudine most of the evening. Somehow he came up with an address on St. Hubert for a party, which a bunch of us crashed, quite obviously as it was a Halloween party. Despite the fact that none of us had costumes we stayed a while, it was fun. Took a cab home, had sex, woke up, had more sex; it is like catch-up, as Clo has been super occupied and stressed the past couple weeks.
Had brunch at le Petit Marche with Braden, Amy, their son, Sarah, her roommate and boyfriend, and Rudy, who had to come back to Montréal this past weekend to get her Visa for Spain, where she is studying for the year. It was fun but brief, loud and hard on the hangover. In the afternoon I had a surprise for Claudine: tickets to the Ladies Morning Musical Club concert by Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky. It was a great concert and, for once, a good surprise. I got the tickets from Chris ‘Zeke’, who has a subscription with his girlfriend but who were out of the city for the weekend.
Sunday night we made paté Chinois and rented movies. We watched most of Tout le monde en parle, then started watching La belle bête but it was terrible: Claudine fell asleep, and I couldn’t finish it. Apparently the book it is based on is quite good, but I couldn’t swallow the decor, cinematography, costumes, timeline, dialogue or characters.
Last night we watched Factory Girl, which wasn’t too bad. I spent the day working on my new website and trolling the Internet job sites. Applied to a couple things and uploaded my profile to a few independent worker sites, but by the end of the day didn’t feel like I had accomplished much.
Today I am going to register for french classes which will start tomorrow and run Monday-Friday from 8:30am -2pm or 4pm. My parents arrive for a visit on Friday and stay for the weekend so I am trying to finish organizing the house. I don’t think my parents are as exhibitionist as us, so curtains might come in handy.
Tonight we are off to the premier of Stephan’s film Continental, I am really excited to see it, and really happy for him; it has been getting good reviews and won the best first feature film at the TIFF.
Just in case you might be interested, here is the address of my new website:
http://www.dearpm.googlepages.com
-chris
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 9, 2007 12:50 AM
subject Girl, 14, sentenced in multiple murders
Dear Stephen,
I’ve survived two days of french classes and so far so good. We’re doing revisions of verb tenses, focusing on l’imparfait and plus-que-parfait. What are your favourite french verb tenses? I enjoy the passé-composé.
We went to the preview of Stéphane’s film Continental, un film sans fusil on Tuesday night. It is a really nice film, quiet, well-paced, great characters, very real, but not hyper-real, more real-real. Delicate, witty, intense, deliberate, intentional, poetic, powerful. It has been getting some great reviews, cover of le Voir this week.
Last night I met Clo at the galerie UQAM. Michel deBroin’s exhibit Machinations featured a sculpture built to the same dimensions of the type of engine that powered the aircraft that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. The whole exhibit actually deals with the uncertainty of that moment, the lack of identifiable debris, the official government position, the absurdity of it all. In the exhibition Michel also provides copies of the declassified “Operation Northwoods” documents, which outline ways in which the US could make a terrorist attack on itself as a pretext for invading Cuba in the ’60s. Many a 9/11 conspiracy theorist has used those documents to show that the Bush administration could have used Northwoods as a playbook of sorts. Regardless of who you choose to believe, it’s all a gong show.
We continued to the MAC for the big Vic Muniz retrospective. His work is so smart, and well-made, and just makes you want to smile. His drawings with wire were amongst my favourite, as were the sugar cane kids.
Today after class I attempted my own Tempo, or Abri-tempo, for the back porch. It is made from the 2 blue tarps we bought this summer for camping. The idea is that it will block some of the snow and ice from collecting on the back so we can store our bikes and summer tires there. I’m doubtful, however, that they will last the whole winter. I need more grommets. The Tempos are popping up everywhere, people have long hallway Tempos, patio Tempos, and of course driveway and garage Tempos.
I made a heart beef stew tonight and we rented movies, having time only to watch Breaking and Entering, which wasn’t so bad but way too long. It could have used a more ruthless editor.
Claudine is still sick, now the cold has moved to her nose so I am sleeping on the futon; it is impossible trying to sleep next to her, it sounds terrible.
My parents arrive tomorrow evening; I’ll be cleaning and organizing the apartment like a madman. I’ll even buy some groceries, since it has been 1 week since I deposited my cheque so the bank must be done doing whatever it is they do with it before they release the funds. Release the funds already!
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 11, 2007 10:57 PM
subject Pathologist inquiry takes broad scope
Dear Stephen,
We’ve had a long, full, satisfying yet somewhat stressed visit with my folks. They arrived earlier than expected on Friday, bought some groceries for us and I roasted a chicken, we stayed in Friday night. Saturday we made breakfast here, then headed out for a day of walking and shopping. Ate at that fun tapas bar and restaurant we ate at last year with Sarah and the gang. It was fun and delicious. Rented a movie after the bus ride home, Owning Mahowney, the film about the Canadian bank manager who defrauded his bank and clients over $10 million due to a massive gambling problem. And I thought I had money problems!
Today we did the Jean-Talon Market but the crêpe booth wasn’t open so we went to Deli Joe’s for breakfast, which was equally nice, and then another afternoon of shopping. My parents bought us a housewarming present, a stool that matches (in a way) our barber stool in the kitchen, from Structube, $40 off as it was a display model. Dad and I hung around the apartment and put plastic on the windows and changed the orientation of the fridge door; I hadn’t noticed that it was possible. Now it opens the right way, away from the wall and window. Much more aerodynamic. Better feng shui.
Claudine cooked a marvelous meal tonight of lamb chops in a pepper paste and Greek cucumber yogurt sauce with fresh made pasta in mint sauce with carrot salad. Delicious. We polished off a couple bottles of wine and Claudine helped Mom with her French homework. I ironed the painting for the upcoming Subterfuge show at Galerie Sans Nom and packed a suitcase full of art; my parents agreed to transport to Saint John and then send it by bus to Moncton.
Tomorrow we are back to work/school and afterwards I plan to network a bit at a big conference on the visual arts sponsored by the City of Montréal. I’ll try to print some new business cards on my way downtown.
Happy Remembrance Day, by the way.
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 12, 2007 10:55 PM
subject Mulroney demands public inquiry
Dear Stephen,
So Brian wants a public enquiry? Didn’t he get over a million bucks in compensation a while back? On top of the $300 grand he was paid and then “forgot”?
Must be nice to be able to forget that kind of money. I’m down to about $30 with no guarantee there will be any more. Now that is playing with fire!
My parents left this morning and accidentally took my school bag with them. They will mail my textbook back to me so i don’t have to buy another.
The biggest airliner in the world stopped in Montréal today. I didn’t see it.
I went down to the Palais du congrès this afternoon to take in some of the Rendevous ’07 culture trade show. The city is trying to become a cultural juggernaut but seems to want to do it without spending more money. Or by spending money on new, massive, state-of-the art permanent events pavilions, while existing infrastructure falls apart. I couldn’t handle more than an hour of the babbling, poor Claudine was stuck there all day until past 7pm at the oboro booth.
I made an interesting carrot and mushroom cake, a savoury cake, for supper, with whipped potatoes and artichokes.
I’ve been working on a mix of job-hunting, writing and proposals, plus now I’ve added the Scrabble application to my Facebook account so I have one more thing to procrastinate with. At least it should help my vocabulary.
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 18, 2007 11:49 PM
subject Video released of death by Taser
Cher Stephen,
Je t’ecrire en français aujourd’hui. C’est bon pour la practique.
Hier soir je suis allé à le librarie pour un lancement des livres. Mon ami Jacob Wren etait la parce que son livre etait traduit en français. J’ai fait le connaissance de le gar qui à gagné la poste que j’appliqueais la mois dérnier chez SKOL. Il est interressant, il travaille aussi comme commissaire d’art independent. Je pense qu’on va faire un peu de travaille ensemble, prochainement pour la conference avec Robyn Moody en janvier 2008. Il est sympa, intelligent, puis il est un commissaire indepenant aussi. On a beaucoup des choses de parler.
OK that’s it for the french for now; the above was written from class yesterday during a break. I’m enjoying my classes quite a bit and am making progress, albeit slowly.
Yesterday I was surprised at how alert I was, given the fact that we had gone out the night before, first to Plan B (I walked—too wet for the bike, too poor for the metro), then to a series of book launches, where I spent sometime talking to … oh right I already explained this part above.
Yesterday I met Claudine for lunch at Mousse Café while she was washing laundry‚ it is a shared café/bar/laundromat on Beaubien. Later after class we finally played a game of racquetball at a big sports centre not too far from our place. Claudine bought groceries on the way home and I cooked up a nice mushroom risotto, which we ate while watching too much TV. We finished the night by watching Seabiscuit.
Today we had a leisurely breakfast, worked on our wedding thank-you cards, and headed downtown to visit some galleries in the Belgo. A nice language-painting show at René Blouin, and that gallery across the hall from him that always has hard-edge abstract or neo-minimalist works had a good show, a large floor-to-ceiling large customized lattice-like forms that completely divided the space and even appeared to go through a gallery wall. PFOCA had a quirky show and weird videos, there were the other usual shows. I even picked up the work I had left at Joyce Yahouda’s two years ago when they were running The Store. I had sold another letter. I’ll add the commission cheque to the other I have framed; combined they almost add up to $5.
I made a great supper tonight, a pork roast with a succulent apple-maple syrup cream sauce, mashed potatoes and string beans. The leftovers were almost as good. Decided to stay in again, worked on the computer, read, watched The Compte of Monte Christo which was playing on Radio Canada. Had some nice sex afterwards, which was good because we haven’t been having much sex lately. I chalk it up to adapting to the new place, new job, stress over money, the usual culprits. I certainly hope it isn’t just a corollary to being married; you know how they say marriage can kill the sex in a partnership. We have talked about the swingers club idea and I’m sure that will help spice things up a bit.
Today (disregard the ‘today’ from above; that was written yesterday. Consider this three or four letters in one) we headed out to Isle Perrot for brunch with Phillippe and Jo and Nataniel. Nataniel has a couple more teeth, is almost starting to walk, and plays with his Big Block Lego and empty Tupperware. He is still super cute.
Traffic on the way home was almost intolerable; I don’t understand how the 40 can get so bogged down. We stopped at Canadian Tire to return the rear fender I had bought for my bike and promptly broke during installation, but it was a total traffic jam there as well. I dropped Claudine off for a walk o St. Hubert and came home to ‘winterize’ the bikes in my customized Abri-Tempo, which I made some adjustments to. It needed to be tied down in more places as the wind has been pulling it this way and that.
Anyway, I’m off to bed, watched a whole episode of Tout le monde en parle ce soir. C’est un emission longe. And I have some online scrabble to play. And my website to fiddle with.
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 22, 2007 11:43 PM
subject Schreiber will testify
Dear Stephen,
The money issue has come to a head; I have none, and need to earn some. Still waiting on the EI front, I have to file on Saturday but I don’t think they have received my ROE from Peter yet, so probably nothing new on that front. I did meet with Robin from SKOL last night at Café Esperanza and we talked about the Robin Moody exhibition which I have been asked to ‘guest coordinate’. And there is still the writing for C Mag, and the cachet from Galerie Sans Nom, which is all good but it is also all little amounts that will trickle in slowly. So the issue that came to a head was should I even be trying to be working in the arts. I can make more money in construction or painting, but it angers me to have to do that. I’m angry at myself and the situation and sometimes just everything.
I hate being poor, I resent my whole career choice as a result, and this is proving to add a whole lot of unnecessary tension between Clo and I.
Rose-Marie is here, visiting for a couple nights, she is going to a show tomorrow night. French class is going well. I have loads of little preparations to do before heading to Ottawa for the VAS. Parental visits do little to ease the tension.
I tried again to get our winter tires put on but due to the recent snowstorms there is now a 2 day wait, minimum, at Canadian Tire. Let’s hope the All Seasons hold up for a little while longer.
Tomorrow after class I’ll blitz out some more CVs, write a little more on the texts I have on the go, upload a few more things to the website, and maybe start tracking down painting gigs. Hard to do with a part-time schedule but every avenue needs to be explored. Well, almost every avenue: I think I’ll hold off for now on telemarketing, squeegying or fast-food.
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 25, 2007 9:38 AM
subject B.C. man dies days after Taser arrest
Dear Stephen,
Do you get nervous during public events? I find I am becoming more and more nervous when dealing with people, even people I know. There was a cinq à sept of Oboro staff a few nights ago and I just felt odd and out-of-place. I can chalk it up to being unemployed and stressed about money, but I’m sure there are deeper roots. Maybe it is just winter and the cold: it makes me want to hibernate.
Friday night I locked myself out of the apartment as I was leaving to drive to Articule to check out the David Armstrong Six exhibition, No Refunds. Which was just as well as I could use the exercise; it is a nice, long walk. I was meeting Claudine there who was having supper with her mom before a concert. The exhibition was great, one of the best of sculpture I have seen since coming back to Montréal. Very raw, yet well-placed. His work is like the dark side of David Diviney.
It was odd, at the opening I ran into Tim Dallett, whom I haven’t seen in years as he has been in Saskatoon with paved Art and New Media. And Peter and Donna, who invited us to a potluck last night. And I spoke with Caroline, who was on the SOFI jury with me and who runs Fonderie Darling, and Mathieu Beauséjour, who I hadn’t seen since TRAFIC. It’s nice to make contact again.
Yesterday I drove Rose-Marie and Claudine to the bus station, then spent most of the afternoon working on my website. It is finally starting to take form, you should visit it at http://chrislloydprojects.googlepages.com I know it is a long title, but what can I do? It’s a free site.
Yesterday I went to a talk at the SAT given by Iwona Blazwick, curator of the Whitechapel in London, UK, sponsored by the DHC-Foundation. She gave a literal A to Z of the London Art scene, from the early nineties to today. It felt a little like skimming the surface, but still, contextualized the way it was, and her natural way of speaking, made it enjoyable. I ran into Heather Anderson, who had come down from Ottawa for the talk, and Mark Clintberg, who lives not too far from us and is finishing his doctorate.
Sometimes it feels as if all my friends either have good jobs or are working on their PhDs. Or both.
Last night I went to the potluck after whipping up some squash-pumpkin-carrot-ginger soup. Donna and Peter are great people, very relaxed and open, their apartment warm and cozy. There was way more food than we could all eat. Stephen Horne, a former teacher from NSCAD was there, and his girlfriend took my card for a colleague of hers who is looking for a renovator. Who knows, I might be installing a kitchen and bathroom and laying floors in the new year.
I’m off to Ottawa now for the Visual Arts Summit. Maybe we’ll run into one another? It’s funny, I have permission from my wife to have an affair. She says it will cheer me up. Maybe it would help my confidence, which has been at a low eb lately. How can I not love that girl?
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://www.dearpm.blogspot.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 29, 2007 11:16 PM
subject No fault found in Ian Bush shooting
Dear Stephen,
Sorry for my absence; the summit took a lot of my time. In fact, I left my computer in the trunk of my car the whole time. I hope you forgive me; Claudine has. She wasn’t super pleased that I hadn’t contacted her for three days. I was looking at the whole summit time as a bit of a break, seeing as things hadn’t been super smooth between us. Please remind me next time not to rely on male logic in these cases. A couple phone calls and/or emails would have been appreciated.
That said, things seem good at the moment. I got a cheque from GSN for the Subterfuge show, which helps with rent and…well, OK, just rent. But it is a help, and I think that helps relieve a bit of pressure. Sex does that, too.
So I guess I could fill you in a bit on the Summit. By now you’ve probably heard about the agreement finally reached between CARFAC and the CMA which launched the Summit on Sunday. Apparently they had been in dispute for twenty years. The Summit was sold out, 450 delegates, and the discussions were lively and fruitful. I met old friends—these events are a bit like reunions—and met new ones. No, I did not have an affair, though at one point I tried flirting in French with a cute girl from the Gaspé. I realize now that my charm or seduction skills—if I ever even had any—have long since rusted away. What I need to do is work on them so that my wife will still find me attractive. What makes me think of this is that today on my way to school I passed a man wearing sweat pants. Purple sweat pants, and this guy was not into hip-hop. Aging wasps wearing purple sweatpants in public are basically announcing to the world that they have given up, at least on the attempts at attracting mates or companions. I fear this sort of thing can happen in couples, so therefore I try to clean myself up every now and then and have witty conversations so at least my wife will still find me attractive.
A highlight of the conference for me came on the last day, just after the last session (aptly titled something vague like “Towards the Future”) when I stood up to speak on behalf of my discussion group. The fifteen discussion groups were comprised of a completely random selection of delegates. I ended up chairing one of the meetings and that led Vera Frenkel to single me out as the one who would write our own separate report based on our own recommendations that will be emailed out to all other delegates. She also wanted me to speak about our concerns but I had really only written them down in point form and so a few minutes into my presentation she yanked the mike from me, thus saving me from too much embarrassment. But I learned something valuable which I think will stick: when speaking in public, even if it is only to 450 of your peers and potential future collaborators or employers, it is always good to have notes and practice a little. Practice, they say, makes perfect.
I completely forgot my own advice and had a ten minute interview with a reporter from Radio-Canada in Moncton about the Summit. In French, so not only was I unprepared with the information, I was rambling and babbling in my second language, where I am at an intermediate level at the best of times.
In other political activist news, I’ve been forwarding material about the current Khyber-HRM standoff, wherein the city has claimed control of most of the building in their drive to make the building a working Cultural Capital, to help beef up their application in the hopes of winning large amounts of money that will undoubtedly go towards tourism events. I doubt that their heavy-handed dealings with the Khyber and other grassroots community organizations will win them a Cultural Capital designation, but then again I’m sure stranger things have happened.
An interesting thing happened at the Summit: I had supper with 2 other former Khyber directors, Mathew Reichertz and Jodi McGlaughlin. Jodi came 2 directors after me, Mathew was just before. It was a lively discussion and probably a first. She told me that the city just blocked off the Closet Gallery and Skylight area without notifying the Khyber first, and in doing so they locked an exhibition up. It took Brian a week to get them to unlock the door so he could get the art out. Sounds like a beautiful relationship in the making.
I’ll send you the agenda that was drafted up at the end of the Summit and has become a petition that hopefully will circulate many times across the country. I hope that more awareness is created of the fact that Canadian Visual Artists are so unknown and so poor, and that this has to change. Some of that change can start with you, Stephen. You can:
• Reverse your knuckle-brained decision to cut ETS (Exhibition Transport Services), a public agency that has the expertise and skill to adequately ship works of art around this country, bringing art to the regions and not being a financial drain on already over-taxed institutions,
• Reverse funding cuts to DFAIT so Canada can promote its artists abroad through diplomacy channels, not always just soldiers,
• Reverse stupid decisions around the National Portrait Gallery, cancel the bone-headed decision to have private investors battle over tenders and pitching city against city, and continue with the renovations on Wellington Street in Ottawa. The word going around the Summit was that you intend to use this site as a private reception area for yourself. Excuse me, but a significant amount of public money has already been spent on renovations to make that building the home of the National Portrait Gallery.
Anyway, I’ll send you the complete agenda tomorrow. Right now I am tired and I need a shower. Tonight we went to a chorale performance that my friend Sarah was in, and we skipped supper, and we had some KD when we got home and now it is late and I still have some email to do.
-chris
—
Chris Lloyd Projects
http://chrislloydprojects.googlepages.com
A Division of ADD Painters:
“we’re here to swerve”
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca,
date Nov 30, 2007 11:19 PM
subject Pickton jury begins deliberations
Dear Stephen,
I promised you yesterday that I would pass along the Collective Agenda for the Visual Arts letter, so here it is:
A Collective Agenda for the Visual Arts
Art is the face of Canada. We, as artists, curators, collectors, dealers, educators and supporters, are united to enhance the opportunities for Canadian art to be created, seen, understood and enjoyed. We come together in the largest gathering of the visual arts in our history, to proclaim the critical role of the visual arts in an innovative and compassionate society in the 21st century. We know what is needed: we call on the governments, nations and peoples of Canada to join us in realizing our potential.
The visual arts community acts within an increasingly complex environment, with stagnant or shrinking resources. The growth in public engagement with the visual arts is no reflected in government policies or support. Canadian artists, galleries and museums have been starved for too long. Too many people work in the visual arts without an adequate livelihood or long-term security.
The lack of vigorous and consistent policy, particularly from the federal government, is unacceptable. The visual arts provide a high level of service while receiving an unjustly low level of support from most government agencies and departments. In a time of global challenges calling for dialogue and understanding, the Canadian government has cut support for our international cultural profile. The unique and diverse character of Canada is under threat. The visual arts offer the best opportunity to counter this threat. It is time to recognize the place of visual arts at the centre of society.
We commit ourselves to work together:
· To satisfy the public’s growing demand for participation in visual culture;
· To communicate the sector’s needs with a united voice;
· To provide a secure livelihood for artists;
· To acknowledge the varied cultures of the indigenous peoples of this land;
· To reflect the diversity of our society; and
· To strengthen the institutions that advance the visual arts.
With a united voice, we advocate:
1. To create a new alliance across the sector, to advance the position of the visual arts;
2. To engage public appreciation for, and connection with, visual arts in all their forms;
3. To provide stronger and stable support to artists and to the individuals and institutions that present, preserve and interpret the work they create;
4. To establish a dedicated fund for the payment of artists for the public exhibition of their works;
5. To increase investment in arts education for all ages and from all levels of government;
6. To provide dedicated support for Aboriginal arts; and
7. To recognize and support the leading role of visual arts in strengthening Canada’s international profile.
We envision a Canada that embraces creativity in all its dimensions. We believe in art that challenges us, deepens our understanding, and bridges our differences. Visual arts build a more tolerant, diverse and creative world.
-chris
DEAR PM 