A Productive Week

When you grow up in Calgary, as I did, going to Banff is pretty ho-hum: it's an hour and change west, the skiing and hiking are terrific, and the Upper Hot Springs are amazing on a -40 winter's day.

Tucked above the townsite is the Banff Centre, home to a well known management and leadership program, as well as some fabulously creative writing, arts, music, dance, and cutting-edge work.

So last Wednesday, I went up to deliver my application form for a two-month artist residency there. The application process is daunting: many forms to fill out, strict requirements on the number of words one must write for various sections, the usual finicky dictates for submitting pictures of work, and so on.

And all in the requisite typeface and size, specific order, of course -- much of what I was grumping about here, in fact -- and was a process that I spent the better part of the last two months working (and frequently obsessing) on.

Imagine how pleased I was to get an email (sent an hour after delivering the precious package up to the Registrar's Office, no less) to let me know that it was accepted, complete, and would be referred to the jurying committee. I figure my odds there are a crapshoot -- they always are with juries, I think -- but at least I did good on the forms.

What a relief to finally get it out and accepted in time to spend the weekend with our friends from out-of-town at the big dog show and only have to think about getting back to doing "art" again. Being mosquito season, we were sure glad to see a lot of dragonflies down at the site as well, which is where I snapped the big fellow who's at the top of this entry (full-sized version here).

One project I've had in the planning stages for some time has to do with insects, and I might just use this picture in it -- I think I'm starting to get more comfortable and competent with my camera.