More Musicians

Here are a couple of other guys who were great that night too. The first is Dave Bachelor, who is an amazing bass player, and if it weren't for his efforts, I never would have gotten the chance to sing the one song that really meant something to me. Thanks SO MUCH Dave!!!!!
Secondly, is Jan Carlee, who was also my supervisor, and the D.O.P. of layout. He's a great guy with a great sense of humour and phenomenal taste in films. He was our drummer on many of the tunes we did!
A couple of others whom I don't have photos of were Tim Deacon who was absolutely amazing on harmonica, and Jean Pilotte on guitar. That really was an excellent night, and if we never get to do it again, I'm just so damn thrilled we got to do it at all!!!

Regarding "Still Singing"

Here are some photos of Music Night II at DKP/IDT/Starz Animation. I guess it WAS officially "Starz" at the time...so I should continue to call it that. It was held March 29th, 2007.
To help boost morale while our project was being overhauled, the studio was kind enough to sponsor a fun night, allowing many of the musicians that make their livings as artists get up there and show off. It wasn't an "open mike" thing....we'd all rehearsed together many times and tried to make it as coherent as possible. Although we were constantly reminding each other that it was just for fun and there would be no talent scouts in the audience, there still was a bit of nervousness involved....on MY part anyway.This is Eric Murray on the far left. He was really great, playing keyboards and singing at the same time. I, for one, can barely manage singing and playing the tambourine at the same time!!! That's Avi Katz on the far right playing one of his many collectible guitars. We were doing "Mustang Sally", and he sang lead vocals. I was just there for back-up.
Avi played an absolutely KICK ASS version of "Cross-Eyed and Painless" with Eric. I wasn't on that one though.
The two songs I got to sing as lead vocalist were CCR's version of "I Heard it Through The Grapevine" and (my favorite) "Don't You Want Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane. People were calling me "Grace" for days afterwards!
Eric and I sang a few songs with him in the lead, and myself as back-up. "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies was one of them.
I really like this photo. It looks like I actually know what I'm doing.
Oh well, that's all the photos I was able to swipe...er...I mean ...have from that evening.

Another Hallowe'en Prop

Here's something that was cheap and easy to build. I took a Dollar Store Hallowe'en skull, repainted it, cut open the back, poked small holes in the eyes and wired up a couple of flashing LEDs. I mounted it on an old mop handle and stuck it in the ground. I added a braided deerskin headband with feathers, and now it looked like it was part of an ancient Indian burial ground.

The other skulls on the ground were more expensive....made from a thicker plastic, but I gave them a new paint job too. Here they are at night!

MORE Hallowe'en Stuff

So here is your typical "graveyard" with the styrofoam headstones and silly names. It looked great at night, and it freaked out my overly-Religious neighbour who thought I must have been some sort of Satanist. Because....you KNOW....that only EVIL people celebrate Hallowe'en......
I guess it didn't help that I placed a tea-light candle in front of every grave...........and fake calla lilies.

With the help of "The Monster List" of Halloween Props.... (yeah...they spell it without the apostrophe).....I learned how to make this nifty cemetary fence using only PVC pipe and spruce "strapping", and a whole lotta black spray paint!!!

Next is my masterpiece. My "Mahakala Jack' o' Lantern". I wanted to include some spiritualism in my celebration. Mahakala is "The Great Power of Time" in Tibetan Buddhism.

Now THIS one took quite a bit of effort. I cut the signs from an old fence, tried to carve out the letters with a cheap Dremel-tool wannabe, then just ended up painting the letters on instead. I traced them on in graphite first, copying them from an old Letraset catalogue. Remember that stuff? Letraset? If you don't, then you're too damn young!!!!!
Anyway, I was very pleased with the result, and I hope to use it during Hallowe'ens to come.

Hallowe'en Is Coming!!!

For the next little while, I'm going to be talking about Hallowe'en. Why? Because August is when I usually start making costumes and stuff. I have quite an elaborate costume planned for my boyfriend this year, and I've already bought the materials. One thing I had to buy was leather..........ah....but , I'm not going to give it away THAT easy.

Here are some photos from a couple of years ago after I went nuts checking out ideas on the internet on how to make certain Hallowe'en props. My kids helped design the above Jack'o'lanterns (but I did the carving for them). I loved the idea of a "13 hour clock", but I have to admit I rushed through the project and it could have turned out better....but it wasn't bad for a first try. I glued rubber bats and mice to the wood, after painting it black and aging the oval in the centre to look old.
I also wanted to try my hand at an "Axworthy Ghost"....one that flies along a clothes line.....but I only got the ghost part made. I wired it's eyes with LEDs and it looked pretty cool. But it was windy that night, and using no flash, I had to rely on a timed exposure, and the photo turned out blurry.

Kids!

Here are my kids. My son, doing his impression of the Amazing Spiderman, and

here's my little girl imitating her Mommy. I had my camera set up on a tripod, and I was trying to pose glamorously. She decided to do the same. Going through a divorce isn't easy on them......but I want them to know I love them immensely.
I know this post has nothing to do with art or animation.......it's just a personal thing.

Pazyryk Tattoo

This is a picture from National Geographic, October 1994. It was drawn from the mummified remains of a woman who died 2500 years ago. What was my first reaction when I saw this? I must have it! It has to live again!
I had to flop the design, because my left arm was already occupied by a Bee. And I felt the curve of the creature's body was too abrupt. So I drew a slightly different version for myself, and showed it off at work, (Nelvana) to get some other people's opinions.

Well, here are a couple of reactions I got. The drawing in the upper right corner was mine, and the other two are from these other layout artists I worked with. They were totally against the idea of people getting tattoos, and they thought I was crazy to want one. I actually had two already.....but they were small. It's funny in animation.....we're all artists, but we are a very diverse group.
Another guy I worked with WAS into tattoos, and he drew THIS for me on my birthday.
I thought it was really cute. That was back when we were working on "Eek The Cat", several years earlier. But I already had a dragonfly on my leg. So I guess I had crossed into the world of the "Tattoo People" back then.