A banner day

So I wrestled with this banner for one of UMP's spring titles today, a Canadian reprint of a book about Louis Riel and Canadian identity formation. Like the L.B. Foote project, I'm excited about this book...

Part of my pleasure is being paid to look at photos of Louis Riel. Though it isn't a particularly good photo, I keep returning to this image of Monsieur Riel addressing the court at his trial.

This photo in particular was in the running for the cover - which was designed by David Drummond, who is a far better designer than I am - so I decided to re-use it here.

So it was the best kind of wrestling...and I got to look into Louis Riel's poor sad eyes all day.

Foote fetish

So I've been working on the project described by this article non-stop the past few weeks. And it's the first time that I've been so proud of / excited about a day-job project...

Now, don't get the wrong idea. I take pride in ONLY working-for-money for organizations whose work I believe in. And I've often felt a sense of accomplishment at work when a project is complete.

But this is different...

I think my zip-zippy-ness can be attributed to the fact that as someone interested in Winnipeg's history generally - and as a poet who worked specifically on a poetry/photography project focused on Winnipeg derelict buildings - I've spent a lot of time with L.B. Foote's photos over the years.

Since that time, my interest in photography has grown, though I have very little interest in anything NOT found in the woods.

And then there's the fact that M's a news photographer, that he shoots many of the same things that Foote would have shot.

On a day to day basis, I hear M's stories about the subjects who grumbled about having their pictures taken, about the flood waters he's waded through, the scrums he's wedged himself into. I've washed the smoke out of his clothes after he's spent the morning at a fire and tried to spot him on the sidelines of televised football games.

So let's just say I'm strangely aligned with Foote.

So the prospect of working not only on the book UMP is publishing of his pics but also on a side project to find/share new Foote photos...well, let's just say I'm over the moooon.

For those of you unaware of Foote's work, here's a bio:

Born in Newfoundland in 1873, Lewis Benjamin Foote arrived in Winnipeg in 1902, where he bought a house on Gertrude Avenue and began a career as a professional photographer. For more than 50 years, Foote’s photographs chronicled the development of the city. He was an active photographer until 1947 and died ten years later.

Bird boxing 2

Frozen rotten eggs. Duds. But: so beautiful, nestled in the down and straw.

Bird boxing

All photos Fort Whyte Alive, Winnipeg, MB. January 16, 2012.

* * *
Last year, we picked up snowshoeing. Or, more precisely, we picked up snowshoes at FortWhyte and tried them out. We liked it...and one of our 'projects' while snowshoeing is to hike on the little lakes, moving from bird box to bird box. We look for any leftovers from the growing season: duck eggs/shells, feathers, grasses.

We got our own snowshoes for Xmas this year, which was a lovely surprise. And they're not as wide as the ones we used at Fort Whyte, so we had to sort of adjust our stance. They also came with poles, which gave us occasion for endless fiddling.

And then there was the ten minute blizzard.

But I noticed these lichen clusters on the lid of one of the bird boxes and borrowed M's camera. And made everyone pause for a second under the falling snow.

What I've been doing...or not doing.

So I've been spending heaps of time lately, both at work and at home, riffling yellowed pages.

At work, we're preparing for the publication of a book of L.B. Foote photos, introduced and prepared by historian Esyllt Jones.

The pic on the left is from a quick visit we made to the Archives of Manitoba to look at Foote's notebooks, clippings and ledgers...in addition to the nearly 3,000 images they have in the Foote Collection.

Given that Foote documented Winnipeg and environs for nearly five decades, it's clear that the 3,000 images at the archives can only constitute a fraction of the photos he shot.

So we've issued a call to the public so that we might unearth some of the 'lost' Foote photos. And I've started a blog to document this process, which means that I've been thinking about photographs and ephemera and Winnipeg history on someone else's dime.

Which is really best-case scenario for me...of course, I'm tempted to start writing poems to some of the pics, but I need to get more work done on my solely-neglected manuscripts before I even think about taking on a new project.

Speaking of which, the pic on the right was taken at the end of a writing day, just before I reluctantly put everything away and started dinner. They're Edison biographies, the earliest of which is from 1929 and the latest 1989, and I've been rooting around, trying to build a timeline from the conflicting accounts of a minor character...

...who's a major character for me, of course. A main witness.

This is the most rudderless I've ever been, writing wise. Usually, I write poems and then I edit them. With this work, I've been reading and reading and scribbling, but nothing that resembles a poem.

But they might eventually resemble a poem or several poems. And for now, that's enough...

Artist mothers

So many moons ago Amy Karlinsky, arts writer extraordinaire, asked me to facilitate a visual art/literary workshop for artist mums with her.

The artist mums in question are a sub-group of MAWA (or Mentoring Artists for Women's Art), a nifty non-profit organization in town.

I agreed and we dubbed it Readings and Creative Writing for Artist Mothers Workshop. (Surprise, surprise, huh?)

We've had two sessions to date, which we crammed full of feminist art history, first-person accounts from artist mothers, and writing exercizes as well as slide shows of paintings, photographs, and sculptures. And poems. Always poems.

Today we did a writing exercize that focused on body parts. Ten minutes on the “mommy” parts - belly/breasts/uterus/vagina - and another ten on the “other” body parts – elbows, knees, calves, ankles, earlobes.

(Though I usually don't do my own exercizes, today I wrote on my belly and bony elbows.)

Next, we did a mixed media (or collage) exercize. People had the option of incorporating the text we'd just generated but mostly we just threw paints and chalk and oil pastels and markers at people and asked them to come up with SOMETHING.

Anyways, it was a lovely afternoon. And I have this pic to show for it in addition to a LARGE oil pastel drawing of my elbows.

A look back at the books of 2011

Free Press reviewers recall favourite reads this year
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

By now, all the awards have been handed out and the sales figures tabulated. The best books of 2011 have been chewed over endlessly in recent weeks, and so have the bestsellers.

This year, as a New Year’s Eve retrospective, we asked Free Press reviewers to choose a few favourites — titles they loved that might have been overlooked.

Here are their choices, with excerpts from their reviews, listed alphabetically.

Non-fiction

Cow: A Bovine Biography,
by Florian Werner
"Werner reminds us that bovines are inextricably linked to humans, and thinking more deeply about our relationship with them can show us a new perspective on our own humanity." — Julie Kentner

It’s So Easy,
by Duff McKagan
"The Guns N’ Roses co-founder and former bassist’s memoir is sobering stuff — and it makes for a compelling read." — David Jón Fuller

Poetry

Nobody Move,
by Susan Stenson
"The Victoria poet/publisher’s latest book is full of well-worn husbands, of sex and childhood and shaggy dogs." — Ariel Gordon

L’il Bastard,
by David McGimpsey
"McGimpsey takes a fun approach to a timeworn poetic form, with hilarious ‘chubby sonnets’ of 16 lines exploring a life filled to bursting with wit, wordplay, and tacos." — Jonathan Ball