Old Habits Die Hard

Well, I'm up to my old tricks again.

ART of our PEOPLE

Here is a poster that I made recently for our church's biennial art show "Art of Our People."

The wooden structure in the photo is one of the church pews.

Art of Our People, 11 x 17

New Work

It's once again that time when I hop on this blog and say "wow, it's been a while."

Wow, it's been a while.

Rather than try to catch anyone up on my life, I'll just post this new work.

The Great Triduum

I made this poster at the request of the worship facilitator at our church. It's an outline of the worship schedule for Holy Week coming up in April.

I've become a tremendous fan of blackletter type. The way that the fine details in the letters can intertwine and interact with each other makes it a lot of fun to work with, especially at display sizes.

Given its history, blackletter is well-suited for work pertaining to religious ceremony. Mixed with Northern Renaissance engraving, it serves to create an unmistakably sacred mood. In this case, the title of the poster lends an air of arcane knowledge to the whole affair — almost cheeky. Almost.

Blackletter – also the only type that can evoke high religion and death metal with equal effect.

Well, enjoy the poster.

The Great Triduum Poster, 12 x 18
Image: Resurrection, Albrecht Dürer, 1512

Around the Neighbourhood: Laura Secord School, The Bellcrest, Wolseley-Lenore Park, Wolseley School

Laura Secord School, Wolseley Avenue and Lenore Street

The Bellcrest, Lenore Street and Wolseley Avenue

Wolseley-Lenore Park, Wolseley Avenue and Lenore Street

Wolseley School, Clifton Street

My Parents House

A few weeks back I was at my parents house with my camera and felt compelled to snap a few shots of things that, as I can recall, haven't really changed in any fundamental way for a long, long time. It was maybe in response to all of the changes I've seen in Winnipeg. It's sometimes nice when things actually do stay the same. 

Kildonan Christian Reformed Church (Once)

It's been a while since I've posted any photos . . . things have been very busy, but they're normalizing.

Window to sanctuary

Front stairs

Stairwell to balcony

Former Kildonan CRC This is the church that I spent the first 13 years of my life attending. It shares its grounds with Calvin Christian School. The building hasn't really changed since I can remember. When I was a kid we used to hide out under those stairs after the church service, finding things under there that we didn't yet understand. Now I believe a Baptist church rents the building.

Busy Times

My oh my but it's been a busy couple of weeks!

First off, congratulations to my good friends Ross and Lisa on their wedding last week. Good people, good wedding, good time. It was a pleaure to reconnect with some friends that I hadn't seen in a while and enjoy the beautiful landscape of Southwest Minnesota (yes, it is beautiful). It was also great to do my first wedding photography gig with the friendly help of my friend Matthew, who did a bang-up job of the wedding party photos while I posed for them.

While we were down in that part of the continent we thought that it would also be a good idea to grab all of our belongings and move to Winnipeg real quick a minute. So last Sinday we up and left Sioux Center and hauled it over to the Peg, to our new apartment. So this week we got acquainted with our new neighbourhood. I was saying to my wife earlier today that, the month of May notwithstanding, moving back to Winnipeg after five years of being away, into a neighbourhood that I've never lived in, is kind of like seeing a movie again that I was too young for the first time. It's better now.

So once we get more settled and can access the internets again watch for more Winnipeg photos, this time probably featuring more of our NEW neighbourhood: Wolseley/West Broadway.

Elmwood-Kildonan Pool, Concordia Hill, Kildonan-East Collegiate, MTS Station

Elmwood-Kildonan Pool, Concordia Avenue

Elmwood-Kildonan Pool, Concordia Avenue.

Concordia Hill, Kimberly Avenue and London Street

Kildonan-East Collegiate, Concordia Avenue

MTS Station, Gateway Road and Bronx Avenue

Elmwood-Kildonan Pool is where I took swimming lessons as a kid. It's also another good example of that "Northern Modernism" that I mentioned in an earlier post about the zoo. This is one of the those buildings that I just simply cannot shake, emotionally speaking. Every time I drive past it I feel wistful.

Concordia Hill. This is just a couple of blocks west and north from the pool. A popular tobogganing site, Concordia Hill is actually a big garbage heap. Indeed. It's beautiful in its way, though, I think. Once some friends and I almost got in a pretty nasty fight with a couple of neighbourhood toughs while drunkenly tobogganing down the hill late one winter night. I was yelling to my friends from the top of the hill and the toughs thought that I was yelling at them. Luckily we outnumbered them four to two.

Kildonan-East Collegiate. I turned 180 degrees from where I was facing for the last picture to take this one.  "KE" is a high-school and technical/vocational school. It's earned a reputation for being a bit rough and frequently students from KE and River East Collegiate (to be featured soon) get in fights with each other. At least that used to be the case.

MTS Station. This is just a random station for Manitoba Telecom Services. I thought that it was interesting so I stopped and snapped this shot while driving by. I have no story about this.

Update


Here are a few of my favourite shots from the Zoo post which I've retouched a bit.

St. Alphonsus Rectory, Kildonan Drive, Bronx Park & National Cash Advance

St. Alphonsus Rectory, Brazier Street and Donalda Ave.

View of Kildonan Drive from Hazel Dell Avenue

View of Bronx Park Community Center from the East Kildonan Lions Club Seniors Park

National Cash Advance, Henderson Highway and Sydney Avenue, formerly Video Stop

As long as I can remember I've liked the St. Alphonsus Rectory. Even though it was probably dated within a few years of its being built, the design is charming and it fits right in in East Kildonan.

A view of Kildonan Drive from the end of the street that I grew up on. If you were to continue down Kildonan Drive you'd soon arrive at Fraser's Grove Park, a fixture of any East Kildonan childhood (at least on the west side of Henderson Highway). The hacienda-style house on the right has always been a favourite of mine and is unique among the post-war style homes of most of EK.

The newly-built Bronx Park Community Center, finished just last spring. I played one season of soccer for the Bronx Park Bruins before I realized that I wasn't really any good at it. This building is a big step up from the former community center, which was built in yellow-painted cinder block and feature almost no amenities whatsoever. It's a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. Behind me in this picture is the Red River, which will be featured, I'm sure, at some point in this series.

National Cash Advance came into the neighbourhood a couple of years ago. Much to my disappointment it supplanted Video Stop, which was a great little video store that I frequented throughout junior high and high school. I still get a little bit angry every time I go past it. I also worked for one summer at that KFC/Taco Bell. I thought that it was gross.

Henderson Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Henderson Seventh-Day Adventist Church in North Kildonan

Being back in my old neighbourhood again has conjured up some strange emotions. Not bad, just strange. I love my city, and I love my neighbourhood, but, like they say, you can never go home. The Kildonans of my childhood are different because I am different. Part of my homecoming has been this experience of sadness over the realization that Winnipeg went ahead and kept growing and changing regardless of my presence or absence. She and I need to get to know each other again. 

Because busyness and change pushed the names project into the background and I'm having trouble scrounging up the will to keep it going, I've decided to start a new, less structured project about Winnipeg. I don't know how many pictures I'll do, or when exactly I'll post them, but I'll do my best to post at least a couple a week. Hopefully this will get some hits going on the old blog again. 

Here is the first picture: Henderson Seventh-Day Adventist Church, on Henderson Highway, near where I grew up. This church is right on the main drag through my neighbourhood, and only a few blocks away from my old elementary school. On the other side of the wall there is Henderson Highway. The church must have gotten itself a new sign in the last couple of years because you can see the old sign off to the right of the photograph.

A Day at the Zoo

It's been a while here hasn't it . . .

To update: I'm in Winnipeg now and have started my new job. A job-type job. I've also been hanging out with my family quite a bit, since I now can do so. One of my hangings out with family was spent this past Sunday at the Assiniboine Park Zoo here in Winnipeg. I went with my sister and her husband as well as their two kids. You'll notice that these pictures feature neither family nor exotic animals. I mean no offense to either, my sister's family are all lovely people, and the animals were nice too, but, like I said to my sister on Sunday when she asked why I was taking pictures of such odd things:

I have my obsessions.

One of many oddly modern structures at the Zoo.

Faux Asian.

Detail.

Birch outside of the the lion enclosure.

Camel enclosure.

More modern structures.

Detail.

I've noticed buildings in this style around Winnipeg; it seems to me
like a uniquely northern modern style of the 60s and 70s. It makes me
think of the National Film Board of Canada for some reason.

Day #48: Roger

Here is a second version of Roger, with more sensical lines. This design calls attention to the quasi-palindromic nature (at least in the letter shapes) of the name. 

In my comment below I cited Weingart as an influence, but I've second-guessed that. 

Check these out.

Sioux Center 1

Day #47: David

Day #46: Joel

Day #45: Kylie

Univer 59

There's something pleasingly old school about Univers 59, don't you think?
I like it.

Since I did Matthew's name yesterday, here's another native Minneapolitan.

Day #44: Matthew

Univers 59