Slowing down

Had the strangest day on Wednesday... Definitely a memorable day. I started the day by teaching my abstract landscape class which was great. It makes me feel so happy to be giving advice that I really feel helps students to further develop ideas and get excited about what they're creating. I can really see myself teaching for a long time to come.

After class, I came home to gather my things, feed the cats, and head off to yoga but as I was answering emails I started to hear what sounded like glasses breaking and thought the cats must've knocked something over. But I looked up and the cats were sitting in front of me just as surprised as I was. The crash continued and got louder and louder about probably lasted about ten seconds. I ran to the kitchen to where the noise was coming from and saw that my ENTIRE cupboard unit had come off the wall breaking everything inside.

My first thought was to get the cats into my room so they wouldn't step on the glass that was scattered everywhere and then I ran and grabbed my landlord. Turns out the old carpenter who put it together did a really shotty job and someone (including my cats) could have been crushed because of it. I'm just so glad my cats weren't in there or I would have flipped out. Anyways, there is now a new trustworthy carpenter working on a new set up cupboards so I'm happy about that!

On the same day I went to the Children of the World Art Auction Project launch, which is something I have been involved with for three years now and my friend Megan Driedger was also accepted and will also be a participating artist this year. The art auction is one part of a group of artist events that all happen on one night in June called Jazz for Humanity. The other arts event include culinary arts, dance, and music. The event raises money for Umbuntu which is an organization based out of Edmonton and Kimironko, a small village in Rwanda to help children and women still suffering through the after effects of the Rwandan genoocide in 1994. The night has really grown in the few years it has been happening. Rayannah, one of the main organizers of the project brought a speaker this year, Dan, who is from Sudan and grew up as a child soldier. His story of how he got out of that life and wound up here in Winnipeg studying engineering at the the University of Manitoba was so inspiring and I'm pretty sure almost everyone in the room was on the verge of tears by the end. His story was so inspiring that I think I will try and approach the theme of the auction "the world through a child's eyes" around him. It's hard to put into words how humbling Dan's talk was and it really put the 'crazy' day beforehand into perspective and made me realize how lucky I am.

So yesterday was spent dealing with kitchen stuff, working in the studio, yoga-ing and witnessing a performance by another thesis student, Jen Orr. I was quite taken by Jen's performance/installation. She had transformed one of the thesis spaces into this tranquil/mesmorizing space. She invited people into the room onto a floor covered in cds which mimicked the circular video projected on the wall. The combination of the music and this vortex video sucking you in made for a very meditative atmosphere so that's what Jen and Rachel (Schappert) began doing. 

Jen in her performance

Rachel Schappert at the performance

I started to loose track of time in the space and must've sat there staring at this thing for almost 45 minutes. I think another reason I was so taken by it is because of all the yoga I've been doing lately. I've come to really appreciate thinking about nothing and being still.

Speaking of being still - have you heard about Dominique Rey's Slowness project? 

Dominique Rey is a very inspiring Winnipeg performance artist, photographer, painter, and video artist who was just named Winnipeg's Arts Embassador for Visual Arts. To learn more about the slowness project, check out the blog here.

Darrin and I are also going to try the vegan food at the Lo Pub for the first time this weekend! 

Lo Pub
[Source]

We've been discovering more and more little places with vegan options in Winnipeg recently which is really exciting because we used to have 'our' restaurants to go to but we're slowly finding new gems that can be 'ours'. I'll be sure to keep you posted on our food reviews!