Hard to believe it could be February lst already, a Thursday afternoon, temperature going down, traffic picking up, lights flashing on Nathan Phillips Square, lots of skaters out and twenty minutes to go until our exhibit opens at 5. Everyone went to the free opera concert at noon, except me. Instead, I gathered recent press and photocopied for three different presentations -- next gigs in exotic places, made appointments, answered emails and other miscellaneous activities which make me feel useless. Still, on my mind is a tribute to some of the many people who have been working behind the scenes with us, who make our lives and our experience here interesting and rich.

Here's Rosie, who has worked at The Sheraton for 27 years, on this floor, in this section. She's from Domenica, a small island near Martinique, where the sun shines and the air is soft. She speaks Creole, and is here because of true love. She didn't really say 'true love' when I asked, but did admit it is because of her husband that she braves Toronto cold winters and humid summers to work for The Sheraton's lucky customers. She's been wonderful, and we miss her on weekends when she's off.

And here are the guards, on duty at the big white tent, whom our crew has gotten to know quite well in the past few weeks, left to right: Jim Koenig, Gord, Marek Kutrowski, Marielle and Rob Koenig - the Koenigs are brothers, all are artists/musicians in their own right. Missing from the picture is Larry Gross.

Then, there's Sandra Cunningham, who wouldn't let me take her picture. She accompanied me to the big fancy buffet at The Sheraton on The Falls for the IceWine Festival's opening gala. She held down the fort at Niagara on the Lake the busy week we prepped for our opening in Toronto. She and Danna McDonough greeted individually the hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who visited our installation and prints exhibit, explaining Gord's work, his process, the history and lore of Paintings Below Zero in the hall at The Shaw. Here's Gord, with a couple at the exhibit. Sandra was one of the people back home who helped out during the exciting times of the Turin exhibit, and has been our voice to the outside world to attract future exhibits since then. This time, she wrapped and packed prints for storage as JC and Tim did their swift take down at the Shaw venue. She's good natured and goes with the flow, so when we realized that we now needed her back home to produce and send sales materials for the new gigs, she didn't miss a beat - and now she's on a plane headed for British Columbia. Thank you, Sandra!

Here's Natasha Emery, who was our liason with Special Events when the contract with the City was arranged. A tough negotiator, she also has a heart of gold, and we were disappointed when she announced she was taking a leave of absence and wouldn't be able to work with us for WinterCity! We were just as happy at the reason though: she adopted a baby girl and took time off to give her a good start at her child's young life. She surprised us on site a few days before opening; here she is with Gord.