Busy, busy busy - that's the way I like it!
The film project I was working on with Fritz Muller wrapped up this past week with a small paddle down the Yukon River into town. I haven’t seen the footage they got of us, but I bet it's pretty funny (for information about the film project see the blog entitled, "My Latest Canoe.")
17 years ago some friends and I recreated Robert Campbell’s voyage. in a birch bark canoe I had built (with a lot of help from my friends.) I did a series of paintings depicting the event (all sold at a show in Whitehorse a couple of years ago.)
Here they are in order of appearance:
1) Embarking at Hoole Canyon
2) Encounter
3) Morning Mist
4) Fast Water Evening
The event 17 years ago was a lot bigger than it was this time. This time we had 5 people versus the 13 that took part years ago. All 5 of the people involved this time were part of the original trip and it was pretty surreal to re-do a small segment of that with some of the Yukon’s biggest personalities. I do feel as though that was a feat of coordination. One of the men who came down with us said it was like herding cats. He wasn’t wrong.
In addition to that, I’ve been working on a 12-foot Ferro-cement Mammoth in collaboration with Stuart Schmidt from Schmidt Mining. A Ferro-cement sculpture, is cement over a metal skeleton, and it’s been a challenge, and a thrill to take on.All the lessons I’ve picked up over the years in Argentina, and this past winter in Mexico as well, are what’s made this a possibility.
Even so, there’s so much to know and learn, and I’m really still learning and that’s a vital part of the process. So far the metal skeleton is complete, the skeleton is getting bulked up with chicken wire, and soon the cement part will start. I’ve never done anything quite like this, and it's fun. Plain and simple fun.
Stuart and I have a friendship that goes back many, many years, and he and I see eye to eye on many subjects. One of them being our enthusiasm for palaeontology. Through this project, he’s been able to put me in contact with mammoth experts. They're helping guide my vision for how I see this turning out and correcting the misconceptions I’ve had. It’s fascinating and I really hope with all my heart that I can do it justice.Of course, this is merely scratching the surface about everything this mammoth has entailed so far, and right now we still have more questions than answers.
I do promise as we have more clarity, I will share it with you.
