FFWR

Another new show is being held in the region by a new collective of professional artists called Collective Identity. The show, being held at THEMUSEUM, is called Fast Forward Waterloo Region. It runs from September 17 – October 4. We didn’t really have a concrete theme to stick to when submitting pieces, although it it somewhat based on the future and the future of us as a creative community.

A while back I started toying around with some of my existing images and sort of turning them into digital kaleidoscopes. It started out as something I didn’t really do with a whole lot of serious attention, but still thought some of the results were intriguing. The main image I used was of the Quantum Nano Centre at the University of Waterloo. UW always seems to be on the cutting edge of technology (whatever goes on within those walls is far beyond anything I could ever comprehend, I’m sure) so using one of their buildings seemed like a good start for my submission.

The pattern of squares draws you in to a seemingly endless pattern of light and dark. At times it feels like it plays tricks on your mind because you really don’t know what you’re looking at.

My friends Terre Chartrand, Jennifer Gough, Amy Roger, and a host of others have worked their tails off to get this show off the ground. I’m hoping to at least stop in for a brief period on September 16—I have prior engagements that night that I can’t miss—which is the night of the opening. It starts at 6:00!


The Resurgent Blue Jays

Even if you’re not a baseball fan you’ve probably heard of how popular the Toronto Blue Jays have become. After years of mediocrity, they’re finally playing meaningful games in September and they have a legitimate chance at making the playoffs for the first time since 1993. It is currently the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports, so suffice it to say, Toronto Blue Jay fans—myself included—are pretty happy.

There’s been a lot of talk of bandwagon fans lately. There’s the very real fear that once they start playing poor baseball somewhat regularly, the popularity will fall off and the fans won’t be showing up in droves to the Rogers Centre like they have been lately. The fair weather fans don’t bother me as much as I thought they would. I follow the MLB season from spring training right to the final out in the World Series, but if the team doing well brings people out to the park, who am I to complain?

For the first time in a long time Blue Jays tickets are becoming a hot commodity. My wife and I went to the opening game of a weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. We bought the tickets over three weeks ago, but even then a good chunk of the better seats were already purchased. We sat a few sections into foul territory in right field in the second deck. It was one of the only parts of the stadium that still had the first row of seats available at the time. We both loved the view and would definitely get seats there again for future games. When we went to PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Wrigley Field in Chicago, I gladly paid a bit more for seats behind the dugout, but those are places we don’t visit often, and we can go to the Rogers Centre fairly easily since it’s just an hour drive away.

In terms of the actual game, I’m starting to think my wife and I are bad luck for the team; they lost 10-2. To be honest, I can’t recall the last time they won while we were in attendance. On Saturday they won 5-1 and on Sunday they won 10-4. Some friends in one of my fantasy baseball teams may look into getting playoff tickets if they make it into the postseason, but I’m worried I might be a bad omen.

As of this writing, each team has about 25 games left to go. It’s a long season, and teams can surge as easily as they can falter in September. Here’s hoping Toronto can pull off a division crown.


Reset: Satellite

I’m currently participating in a group show at Kitchener’s Walter Fedy office called Reset: Green. My friend Amy Roger is the curator for this show along with the art that hangs on the walls at Cafe Pyrus on Charles Street. To get us more exposure, Amy asked those of us in the show at Walter Fedy if we wanted to have more work on display at the cafe. There wasn’t any particular theme to this collection, just something from our portfolios that we wanted others to see.

Similar to the Cityscapes show that I entered, I had a few pieces at home that were framed and ready to hang so I sent them to Amy to see if she was okay with them. In typical Amy fashion, she was very enthusiastic with what I submitted and accepted all four pieces.

I have one larger image I shot years ago downtown during a snowstorm of a pedestrian crossing Gaukel Street. It’s always been a personal favourite, but I’m happy to loan it to the cafe for the time being. The other three are from a series I shot at the Breithaupt Block a few years ago. I converted a number of them to black and white and had them printed for the Resurrection show earlier this year. Sometimes having ready-to-hang artwork at home can get in the way, but other times it can prove very useful.

With all the construction going on around town right now and Charles Street being almost non-existent, Cafe Pyrus can be tricky to get to but would absolutely love your patronage. They’re at 16 Charles St W with parking available in the surrounding lots. It’s easy to get there; you just have to try a bit harder!

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