My wonderfully talented husband Chris designed this book cover for our friend John Goldbach. This is John's first published book and we are thrilled for him. He will be having a reading from the book in Montreal this Sunday at Blizzarts (3956 St Laurent). Doors open at 8:30, reading starts at 9. Perhaps I'll see you there!

The bottom image is my sister practicing her newly acquired doctor skills on my mother, and the top image is my father showing my sister how it is done.

I have something exciting I want to share with you. Next Thursday evening (May 7th) I am going to be the guest artist at a workshop about how to start an art collection (the workshop is called Building a Collection: Where to Begin?). Lisa Hunter (the author of The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginner's Guide to Finding, Buying, and Appreciating Art on a Budget) is going to be the guest speaker, and she is a wealth of knowledge so it should be great. The event will be hosted my Matiere Grise at a beautiful loft and wine will be served! I am going to show prints from three different bodies of work. So if you are interested register now before it fills up (if it's not already full).

I bought Chris Lego for his birthday this year (as per his request). He started making these Lego robots and I decided to photograph them around the house. This is the first one he made. So this is a fun new series just for the blog.

Officially this would be our third collaboration. In thinking about it I realize that there are different ways in which we work together. First there was Why am I Marrying him? (which I'm still making even though we're now married) and that was really a symbiotic collaboration. Symbiotic in that it lived peacefully alongside and didn't disturb our lives. Part shooting in the moment and part recreating things that Chris had already done, it came easily and painlessly. Then there was Model Husband. Now that was a different story. That was really more of a dictatorship, with me being the dictator. For this series I had very specific ideas about the images that I wanted to make. Asking your husband to lie down on the cold, and possibly dirty floor, just as soon as he gets home from work (because the light is fading), does not go over well. That is somewhat of a small series as a result! At present we are mending and going back to simple and childish ways. And so now the robots, which really I would call a coalition. A joining of forces with designated roles and equal opportunity for all. He makes the robots without any input or suggestions and I photograph them later and without direction.

Some friends on the porch at the cottage in the first spring sunshine of the year.

Some more cottage stills for you. I'm just finishing off this semester's work right now. I'll have time to give you more of my thoughts in a week or so!

Another still from the cottage.

Conor working on getting more channels on the satellite.

Conor's Room

Images from The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.

For those of you who live in NYC and are Chris Mottalini fans he has an show opening this week! Here is the info: opening from 7 to 11pm this Thursday (tomorrow) at Oulu in Williamsburg (170 North 4th Street, btw Bedford and Driggs). I'm not sure how long the show is up for but it should be good. I would love to see images from "After you left, they took it apart" in person.

Some animal tracks from a few weeks ago. I believe they are of grouse, grouse and hare, and then the last two of fox and mouse. I apologize for the poor quality of the second image, but I couldn't leave it out because it had the hare tracks. 

This week I've been reading "Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste" by Carl Wilson. Sara was reading it at the cottage last weekend and since I had heard of it through Joerg I picked it up. Well it's a great read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. An interesting look at why we like the things we like and all the possible reasons for those tastes, with some Quebecois culture tips, Aesthetic theory, and history of schmaltz thrown in. 

As many of you Canadians will know our beloved CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is facing massive cuts unless the government steps in to support them. And with our government it is highly unlikely that they will do so, unless there is an overwhelming outcry from the public. So take two seconds and do your bit. You can sign a petition here (already over 100 000 signatures) or write a letter to Stephen Harper here.

As most of you will know I have been working with the red counter in my kitchen for some time now. Well with the wonderful addition of a cottage to our lives I have started photographing things that happen upon its table top. Some results above.