WinterCity in full tilt, beyond below zero temperatures. One day blurs to the next, with so many people streaming past the paintings.
Our docents are awesome! They spend so much time with everyone, and it's not easy - you can always see your breath in the tent. We set up in the info booth today, with those beautiful PBZ art books from the Turin installation. The whole day, I am so tired!

Last night, after ice skating on the square and over the rink painting, the winter show unfolded from the warmth & comfort my room at The Sheraton. Those are Kitonb acrobats making the puff on the left - from a giant crane!


We took some time off to have supper at a Winterlicious restaurant. Here's my maid of honor, 23 years later, and me, at Jump, where funny thing, we all remembered those years ago, just before Gord & I got married. Ain't she sweet, that Lisa?

Today Erik left for Montreal; we gathered for a coffee to say goodbye. I had tears in my eyes, 'cause we've been like family these past 2 months, and I'm gonna miss that kid.


Onwards and upwards, and not a moment's rest: Igor spent the day talking with Gord about Dubai, Moscow . . Aix en Provence? Gord was so fed up with the cold, he wouldn't even walk Igor through! So I did. Here he is, matching his yellow shirt with the paintings.
Emily surprised us, too, in the afternoon, looking everywhere for her 'Uncle Gord'. She's at the top there with her friend, Andrea.

And although we weren't set up to sell artwork here, a couple sought us out after seeing the prints in the rotunda - and bought Tui Tui.

Here's Hayley, back in California, missing us, but happy to be out of the cold. We're almost finished our work here. One more day!

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.

Last night we hosted The Legendary Mike Brisbin and two other co-horts from Toronto Special Events at an impromptu party in our upgraded suite at The Sheraton. Monika, who is legendary in her own right for her kind manner, voice and calm nature under duress (the Legendary reputation has spread to the entire department! Now it's The Legendary Special Events Office at City of Toronto) told us of her daughter's visit to the installation. "Mommy can I have some of this candy?" "Honey, it's not candy, it's ice." "No, Mommy, it's CANdy! You're just saying that because you don't like me to eat candy!" There were other stories. People argued with each other that it was really glass, jello, plastic. Mike watched one person reach, reach, reach and finally when she thought no one was looking -- touched! He gave her a thumbs-up. But the best one was an overheard story: "You know how the media hypes everything up - and when you get there it's not as great at they say it is? Well, this is even better than all the publicity!" Al Burns sent a bunch of photos, but I've got to space them out.

Last night we had our last meal together at Hal's Burgers - our Core Crew, 2nd crew and Cat Fawcett, our PR lady. Tim and JC had just returned from the strike at Niagara on the Lake, and already there was talk of future exhibits: Dubai, Moscow, Chicago.

Yesterday, Gord and Marielle revisited for a lesson on maintenance, but the weather has been holding at below zero, so the exhibit is pristine.

Here's the Shaw site in Niagara on the Lake just after strike. Paddy Parr got these photos, and here's what she said: "Hi Caitlin, Well, what took a couple of months to create, was gone in a day and a half!! Nothing left but the staging platform, the container and the garbage bin!! It was a quick strike! Tim, however, just couldn’t let it go and proceeded to create another display with pieces of ice found beneath the snow behind the Festival!!! He has left his mark!!

Today is Lori's birthday and Hayley has a cold back in California. I've got lots to do, ends to tie up, but here, I'd like to review some of the people we met but were too busy to acknowledge; some of the stories & photos I couldn't fit in earlier.



Here's Al Burns, who photographed both exhibits in Ontario. Back in Gord's studio before Italy, he and Gord worked together to find how to capture the movement in the ice. I've found some Al Burns treasures from this trip:

Here's the famous torch shot. Here's another:
Here's our tent exhibit Saturday before we opened, just four days to install all the ice we had made in December and January.
Right now Mark is driving the zamboni across the rink. Gord is amazed at his attention to the painting at centre ice. He understands exactly what he's doing and he loves the painting, so he cuts it back to the colour and builds it back up with the flooding. The following is not an Al Burns shot, but rather my impressionistic vision of the guy we love to envy on the ice.

There's little glory in clean up, and it's a loud thump when, post-adrenalin, you hit the ground after the high. So far, so good. It's Monday and we've had only 'incidents'. Here's Danna, in front of one of the pieces of permanent artwork from the Turin paintings (The Charm of Cardinal Pacca) at The Shaw, just before we left Sunday. She and Sandra talked until their tongues were fat about the artwork, the artist, the story of it all. And here's Gord, signing the backs of the artwork we sold, prior to leaving for Toronto. And here's The IceWine Festival quartet, plus Gord, Sunday afternoon at The Shaw.
This just prior to my posing with Irish Hockey Team player,Cian MacNeill.
Then, on the way home Sandra called: there was a couple who wanted to buy three prints. Great news, but Gord sort of mumbled, "I didn't sign them"!!! So, then we had a bit of an incident, because it's not the first time he's left artwork behind, unsigned. We solved it, after the expected disappointement, by resolving to return to Niagara on the Lake, and sign them, whether or not they had been wrapped and boxed.

Saturday night he signed quite a few art books (the story of the Turin installation) after an impassioned speech at the Inniskillin Classic Dinner at the winery. A lovely affair (where we were guests of honour) with six entrees and wine pairings - the wine especially was wonderful, (I think I had too much, i.e. all my photos were blurry); the glasses were not full, but they kept arriving.

Back in Toronto, we met with JC and crew, to hand off the car for the vital Take Down/Strike in Niagara on the Lake. Erik & Jaz stayed behind for some needed R & R (for those of you who are not military it means Rest & Relaxation) and today we slept in. On the way to breakfast I realized we had a request for an interview on the Weather Network - but hadn't heard back from Grant. We were just sorting through some of the blurred events of the past week.
1,000 people per hour were going through the exhibit on Nathan Phillips Square. Al Burns captured this in the first hour.

Others skated on the rink painting.

Paddy Parr sent more photos. She salvaged some pieces from the exhibit at The Shaw and put them in front of her house.

Our friend and photographer, Al Burns, emailed with Before and After shots. Tomorrow. It's dark already, Jaz and Erik will meet for dinner in a couple minute