So this past week has been a very busy week here in Banff. There was a lot going on, with studio visits, artist talks, and injured knees…
Last weekend, the Banff Centre organized a little day trip to Lake Louise to see the Ice Festival. We were going to go see magical ice sculptures, an ice castle and go ice skating. Albeit these are subtle differences, what we got was ice sculptures based on the theme of magic, a wall of ice that was castle like and a bumpy lake rink.
I think I was expecting some impressive sculptures after seeing pictures of the huge ice festival in Harbin:
This is what I got instead…
The theme of the festival was magic…so there were ice sculptures from around the world based on their individual interpretations of magic. Unfortunately, this meant that there were a lot of dragons and large breasted women carved in ice. Just imagine a tacky tattoo brought to life through ice!
All in all, I would have to give the prize to this magical bunny for overall originality…
Now the highlight of the day was supposed to be ice skating. I’ve never skated on a lake before, so I guess I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t expecting it to be so bumpy and choppy…
I figured skated as a child, but well…I’m not a child anymore and I’m taller and heavier than I used to be, so when I fell…I fell hard onto my poor knee. So it was an ice skating FAIL for me. I ended up in the hospital back at Banff to get my knee checked out, just to be safe. After some x-rays, I found out I had sprained my knee and there were tiny tears in the ligament. So basically I have to take it easy for the next few weeks of my stay in Banff…
Now I have to thank my fellow resident artists who went out of their way to help me. I posted this last weekend on the Banff Love Tumblr blog, but I want to extend that thanks again as I was really moved by how kind and helpful my new friends were.
Much love and thanks to my Lovers Karin, Kirsten, & Sarah and to my honorary Lovers Simon & Wally. (Click on the links to check out their art! Not only are they super friends, they are extremely talented artists as well!)
Lucky me.
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New photos will be coming soon of work that I’m doing in the studio…