2021
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 1, 2021, 11:00 PM subject 18 – 343
Dear Justin,
Happy Monday. I was going to go to Vox but stayed home for the
morning, Jess and I “hung out” – I’m too tired at night for sex – and
then I dusted and cleaned and washed the floors in the kitchen and bathroom, the went to the studio for a few hours in the afternoon. Had
a telephone session with Yaël – I had forgotten about it. I mostly
discussed the kids, their anxiety and how well they are adapting to
the separation and Covid – my anxiety about the future, about how and when we can move to NB. Played some Stardew Valley tonight. Now that I finished the community centre and the 100 levels of the skull mines I
am working on finishing some smaller quests and building relationships with townsfolk, and upgrading my tools before diving into Ginger Island.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 3, 2021, 9:19 AM subject 19 – 536
Dear Justin,
Worked at Vox yesterday, and the workshop is almost finished. Built a hood for the chop saw to try to contain more sawdust. Waiting for Mohanad to come in and help me install the giant door in the new storage area as a desktop. Went to the studio for a couple hours in
the afternoon, I had a custom manhole cover to finish and varnished the first rooftop revision painting, and started another. Not sure of this but will keep pushing a bit more. Made a mushroom risotto for supper and started watching the final season of Dark, although I have forgotten who all the characters are and how they are related and now there is a whole alternate reality and characters have switched around even more, so it is even harder to follow. I am also finding it hard
to stay active politically. —
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 6, 2021, 10:09 PM subject 20 – 605
Dear Justin,
Well, as scheduled a bunch of things are opening up next week, the gallery on Thursday, it still seems cases are very high in Montreal
but I guess the curfew is working and so now it is safe to shop – and
go to museums, which were not hotspots anyway. It’s all workplaces man! Picked the kids up after school Thursday, it’s been a bit of Stardew Valley ever since, though today we went out and dug snow forts, and the kids have both been drawing lots. I made sushi for supper, Jes was trying her hand at Twitch but her computer doesn’t have the processing power and our Internet is not robust enough for streaming. I applied for EI yesterday, and am hoping to only go into Vox a day or two this week to make the rest of the Plexi clapper
panels for the mediation game and then sped most of my time in the studio making derivative paintings of my successful Rooftops series from over 20 years ago. Something that Judith can sell. I’ll try to
keep my politics separate – is that a cop-out? Surely no more than having a day-job… I guess it depends on what that day job is. If
you’re a cop… well then you work for a racist, corrupt institution
that causes more harm than help. If you’re a politician, all you seem
to be good at lately is passing the buck, and placing all your eggs in the vaccine basket. As the world burns, you’re all arguing with one another over vaccine details, when this is the perfect time to completely re-tool the economy in a sustainable way. How do you look at your kids in the eye, knowing that you have actual power to make things better and you refuse?
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 7, 2021, 9:05 PM subject 21 – 476
Dear Justin,
Had a great day at home, mostly cooking, playing Stardew Valley, drawing, making stop motion or time lapse videos. It was my Ex’s birthday, she called to talk to the kids. Is it mean or spiteful on my part to not acknowledge it to her in any way? It still angers me the way our relationship ended, that she was so deceitful to me, so unbelievably selfish, so uncaring, and so petty around the sale of my portion of the house. I am getting better at forgetting it all, and
part of that healing comes from forgetting, from ignoring. Maybe it won’t always be like this, who knows. We had a family zoom again today – did I mention to you that Aaron is going to be a papa? He and Karen are expecting, she is due in August. Hopefully I’ll be able to see
them in the fall, when I hope to visit Stacy and Caroline. Maybe we’ll
be vaccinated by then.
Am looking at property again in NB, just to keep an eye on what is available. No rush.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 10, 2021, 11:38 AM subject 22 – 499
Dear Justin,
Yesterday was a journée pédagogique for the kids, they stayed home and played video games and bickered with each other for the morning, then went out after an early lunch and played in the alleyway before we walked to the studio. I painted for a bit and then we caught a Flex
home, stopping for kitty litter on the way. Rose had her tutor from
6-7. Kids were in bed by 7:30, and we read The Story of Mr. Tod. We’ve been reading poems by Shel Silverstein, Grimm’s fairy tales and
Beatrix Potter lately for bedtime stories.
Been upset at you for CANDRIP – you know full-well that “the bill is not written to make UNDRIP a part of federal law, but instead identifies the declaration as a human rights instrument that governments and courts can use to guide the development and interpretation of Canadian law”. Basically means you can carry on with resource extraction, ignore nation-to-nation dialogue, and prioritize national interests over Indigenous sovereignty.
Also, adding the Proud Boys to the ever-growing list of terrorist organizations is pointless. You already have the tools to shut down hate groups like the Proud Boys; adding them to a list does nothing to stop the proliferation of right-wing white nationalism. That has to start at home, in all racist institutions.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 14, 2021, 9:54 PM subject 23 – 397
Dear Justin,
Happy Valentine’s Day. Neither Jessica nor I acknowledged it. I’ve put in some good days in the studio recently, and have pretty much finished 5 Revisionist Rooftop paintings. Hopefully Judith will like them and can sell them. I’ve been spending what other free time I have looking at real estate listings in NB. Last night Jess and I watched Sorry to bother you, a fantastic first film by Boots Riley, about race and class and capitalism, all told through the magic realism lens of telemarketing.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 15, 2021, 8:34 PM subject 24 – 316
Dear Justin,
I only realized later last night that Valentine’s Day is also the anniversary of the Indigenous people of Hawaii killing Colonialist, artographer and plunderer Captain James Cook. So there is sme reason to celebrate.
This morning I helped Pascal move a bunch of his and Sarah’s equipment from the studio to Tangente, where they begin a 3-week residency. I
was the driver. Returned to the studio after a quick stop at home to
eat and a swing by kama Pigments to get some paint I had ordered. Finished another painting, so I am up to 6 already. Scheduled a video call studio visit with Judith for tomorrow; I think she will like the
new Rooftops. I have been having fun painting them. —
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 18, 2021, 11:55 PM subject 25 – 416
Dear Justin,
I spent the day at Vox, working on the remaining 10 Plexi tablets for the educators. They are doing a whole “brigade” where they go into classrooms to discuss Juan’s show, and do the activities. In the end I didn’t have to make a table, as they will use the kitchen for family workshops.
I have been spending so much time in the studio lately – it is wonderful! I get working away on these Rooftop paintings and the time flies by. I had a video studio visit with Judith a couple days ago and she loves the new work – I’ve finished 7 now – and we’re aiming for a show of them at Tuck in the spring.
I decided to make a compilation of videos of Sol for his birthday,
with the first clue of a treasure hunt added to the end of the video, which I turned into a complicated Lego stop-motion animation which took a couple hours to make last night. Jessica bought a second-hand computer desktop last week to try to set up a Twitch streaming but there are problems getting the software to run and she is frustrated
and discouraged. We are meeting our landlord tomorrow morning to go over the terms of our new lease; we are wary as to what he deems a fair rent increase. I had to thaw the frozen water pipes again
yesterday.
Still listening to Nora and Sandy, also My Dad wrote a porno. Just Sayin’. —
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 21, 2021, 9:53 PM subject 26 – 330
Dear Justin,
Had a pretty fun and relaxing weekend with the kids. Today I made
sushi for supper and we watched Toy Story 4. I also baked cookies and have their lunches ready. Sol went outside twice to play in the snow
forts out back, Rose once but mostly it was chill, some video games, I read a bit – working on a couple novels and a couple non-fiction at
the moment – slow going on them all, as reading before bed mostly
helps me fall asleep. Oh, and of course Saturday we hosted a birthday party for Sol, just family invited and even then through Zoom. He
opened a couple gifts and then we watched a video compilation I had made, with a treasure hunt clue at the end, so he hunted down the
Secret Notes through the apartment until he found the giant lego under
the couch, and he was really happy with it. Only took him about 3
hours to build the whole thing. This week I am excited to get into the studio during the days and really get going on some of those new rooftops. My mom sent me pictures of the NB Reader clippings from 1995, the 2 paintings reproduced are quite good, and I’ll use them for
the next round of revisions. Jess is almost all set up and ready to
start streaming on Twitch. She had some tech glitches but after some updates everything is good to go now. I’m getting my EI payments already, and I think finally my child benefit payments from Quebec, so
I was actually able to pay myself back to my TFSA the $1000 I borrowed to carry me over the Xmas holidays. I hope I can keep my wild spending under control while I am on EI and continue to save a bit of money
each month, or basically keep up with my pre-paid loan payments. My spending can be so erratic and wild: On Friday I stopped for groceries
at Rachelle Béry and bought organic clementines for $10. Anyway, maybe with some of my studio time I can help with the land back, land
defenders and water protectors. I’m still making Defund Police
T-shirts and now starting to put it on masks. Much higher visibility!
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 22, 2021, 9:22 PM subject 27 – 416
Dear Justin,
Back to school for the kids today. I came back home and spontaneously re-wrote and put online my Patreon page that I had originally started back in 2016. Finally figured out how to successfully migrate my Google site webpages. Went to the studio for a bit, then picked the
kids up after school. Still haven’t posted to IG this whole year; I
don’t know what to do. There are so many intense things going on and being posted and shared, like those Indigenous Youth who were occupying that insurance office and who were forcibly ejected by Vancouver Police. What does my opinion matter, my retweets or adding to stories? Does the amplification help?
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 23, 2021, 10:25 PM subject 28 – 360
Dear Justin,
Had a nice long day in the studio today. I went right after dropping
the kids off at school. I finished the Defund Police T-shirts and
another mask, added a first layer of paint to a nighttime scene of
Down Canterbury St. – it actually looks pretty good. Started 6 much smaller pieces, too, each 6×6. Hey did I tell you we met our landlord last week, on Friday, to go over our new lease? He raised the rent,
but only to $750. He didn’t notice that we had painted the kitchen
floor. And he is coming tomorrow to take new measurements to install a new shower wall – a “bain magique”. TBH there are a lot of things he could do, but at this rate of rent we feel quite lucky. Although, I
realize that I won’t get new money until next week, after the 1st and
all sorts of bills are due, so I am back to my natural resting state
of borderline broke. Just until the next round of child support and EI payments come in. I have to pay my life insurance this month which is partly to blame. Judith is sending me back my silkscreen so I can make more of the SJ manhole covers, they sell fairly consistently. Jess
tried her first Twitch stream tonight, it looked and sounded great –
the kids were fascinated, we watched a bit on my phone from their room
– right across the hall from Jess’s studio, where she was streaming.
She was assembling a complex accordion book. Anyway both she and her friend Liz think that growing your hair out is a shameless act of
trying to be more down to earth, and a distraction from your empty promises and blatant disregard to “free and informed” consent. Oh, and today was Tuesday which means a new episode from Sandy and Nora!
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 24, 2021, 10:21 PM subject 29 – 410
Dear Justin,
Had an OK, short day in the studio today. Didn’t really finish
anything, but made progress on the small panels. I have finished
season 5 of My dad wrote a porno. When is season 6 dropping? What will happen to Belinda, and what to make of the BBB tattoo? Jess was streaming again today, she’s up to 25 followers, halfway to affiliate
status. She’s quite good at this format, she can work and talk about
what she is doing and also other things while working, a natural multitasking broadcaster. I am curious to see if there are ways to
organize politically through Twitch – the platform, and most users,
seem to spurn any political discussion. I wonder if having the richest
dick on earth owning it has anything to do with that stance. I
cancelled my Amazon Prime account last week; I got it by mistake when I ordered a few things from Amazon for Xmas last year. Oh, big news: my brother Aaron and his partner Karen bought a house! A newly-built 3-bdrm townhouse in Cumberland. It looks really nice, and they can move in well before the baby is due, so that will be a big relief for
them. I suppose it is on unceded territory, that has just been
swallowed up by … progress? Who really “owns” the land – does it all belong to the Queen? Can we get rid of the monarchy please?
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 25, 2021, 10:55 PM subject 30 – 384
Dear Justin,
Had another long, productive and enjoyable day at the studio, still working on the Rooftops. I walked up to get the kids in half the time
I projected. Caught up on the CanadaLand podcast as well as the Warrior Life podcast, namely an episode about the mine expansion project in Baffin Island, and how it is just another example of
colonial resource extraction at Inuit expense – expense of animal,
land and water. I feel a bit out of the loop and not knowing where everything stands at the moment with regards to all the land and water defenders. I get most of my news through IG, and I barely looked today. I open FB maybe once every 2 weeks now.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 27, 2021, 10:40 AM subject 31 – 414
Dear Justin,
Had a really long and productive day at the studio after dropping the kids off to school. Fixed up and finished the night scene down Canterbury street and started the big 2×4′ version. Came home, we ordered takeout from the good vegan thai place, and then did reverse karaoke on Jess,s Twitch channel. She has been working on her channel all week and is almost at affiliate status. I’m back to looking at properties in NB and found Darren’s old place in Brown’s Flat for 149K. He had offered it to me and my Ex 3 years ago for I think 100, it sold for 115, but he has also referred to it as a money pit. It
would be perfect for us though – I have always liked that place, it is so unique and has access to a stream. He had built a large outdoor kiln there, and there is a large studio space. Anyway, Judith is my voice of reason and is advising me to wait. Still…
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Feb 28, 2021, 10:47 PM subject 32 – 317
Dear Justin,
Had another good day at the studio, from noon until 6. Listened to the rest of Are prisons obsolete by angela davis, that I downloaded on audible, and started debt: the first 5,000 years, which I read a few
years ago but wanted to get a refresher. Fuck the IMF! I am working my way through the big painting, filling in chunks of colour, not
convinced yet that the yellow outlines will work, but it does seem to help with the nighttime effect. I was wondering, could I go live on Twitch and write the letters to you live on my channel? Might not be very entertaining, and the streams wouldn’t last very long, as these email don’t take much time to write. I could take suggestions as to
what to write from the chat, and the letters could become more of a shared or collaborative endeavour. I would need to update my OS on my mac mini at home and am not sure if it can handle it.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
DEAR PM 