No pressure

It's kind of nice to be posting to my weblog without pressure. I really did enjoy the Blogathon and I hope to do it again next year. I almost made 400 bucks this year for the Humane Society of Canada, which is great, but I hope next year to do better. Maybe a different charity, too. I really would have liked to do it for the local shelter, but they have no online donation form, so that made it impossible according to the rules of Blogathon. Oh well.

We were interviewing today for the Internship position with the Gallery. We had thought (hoped?) that we'd have had a clear leader in the candidates, but following the interviews, we were kind of hard-pressed to decide. This is why we ask for references, I guess. Anyway, all the shortlisted candidates really have something going for them.

Anyway, I don't actually have a lot to say, but I thought I'd better post an entry or I might lose interest again, and I really don't want that to happen. I've been writing in the blog since October 2001. It seems so long ago; certainly it is a lifetime ago, based on where I was then, and what I was doing at the time.

So, what was I doing? I was attending Seneca's digital media school doing computer animation. I had hopes of a career in video games or film. I'm still in touch with one of the students, Brian, and he managed to score the job, working at Bioware. I was not, however, living at home and rent-free so I couldn't devote all my time to creating mods with him. I had to work and an apartment to pay for.

Today, after work, I went shopping and found wild pink salmon on the store shelves. Once in a while, living in Whitehorse has its perks. I barbecued the little pink steaks, made a white/wild rice base and salad and finished it all up with a fresh fruit salad that included the strawberries I'm growing on my porch. Yummy. And, sure, rent is still a struggle, but a lot less of one, and I own a new car and pay my bills myself, mostly without the help of my mother. Ya, I guess I've come a ways since 2001.

B:20 Mask making in the Yukon

Still here. At work. I was just touring some people through the building. The were looking for First Nations masks and I was explaining the confused history/tradition of mask making in the Yukon. The short answer is: Westerners arrived and messed up the First Nations traditional way of life and then the government and missionaries banned ceremonies such as potlatches and dances, where ceremonial objects such as masks were used. Also, masks were never meant as commodities, they were objects imbued with life and at the end of their cycle they were allowed to return to the earth.

So, take fifty years of Western mucking and that's about two generations right there. Ergo, mask making tradition was interrupted. The masks that are made now are influenced mainly by Coastal First Nations and historical motifs that had been preserved in photographs and museums. Many modern mask makers look to other aboriginal traditions and some have invented their own styles, divergent from the more coastally influenced norm. Anyway, that's the nutshell version. I suggest you look up the carving of Keith Wolf Smarch and Eugene Alfred to get a good idea of Yukon carving, mask or otherwise.

This entry may have to double for both 4:30 and 5pm, because shortly I'm going to leave and may well be in transit at the next appointed time.

B:18 Organising the Shelves

This is not quite the simple task we thought it would be. We've had to start sorting in more catagories than planned. Hahaha, wouldn't it be great to catalogue it all digitally, too? Ya, right.

YAC Gallery Library so far:

General Reference
Art & Culture Theory Reference
Museum & Gallery Administration/Policy
Northern Themes
Major Retrospective Catalogues
Artist Catalogues
Exhibition Catalogues
Photography
Architecture
Magazines
Miscellaneous

Yes, sometimes this is what it means to be a curator.