Getting Started: Picking Groups and Artists

This week our projects began to take shape. We had a shorter class than anticipated this week, but we chose our groups and artists for the project! Kelsey, Julia, Krystal and I are in a group together which I am looking forward to. Kelsey, Julia and I have worked together before and did very well as a team, and judging by our first few meetings as an entire group, I am looking forward to working with Krystal as well! Our group has chosen to do our film on Chris Paul who is an artist from the Saanich Nation, from the Tsartlip Reserve in Brentwood Bay. From our preliminary research our group has learned of his apprenticeships, his art education, his (in my opinion) adventurous and modern Coast Salish art style, and his creative mix of modern, traditional and technical aspects in his art work.    
 

Sea and Air

I am looking forward to working with Chris for a variety of reasons, including learning about his art and methods, inspiration and connections to his work, but not only that, I am also looking forward to learning about the Tsartlip Reserve and the Saanich Nation. It must be the history student in me.. Not being from Vancouver Island I know very little about the First Nations groups on the Island. Hopefully through our research for this project, as well as through discussion with Chris, we will learn a little bit about the Nation that he is a part of. 

The four of us ladies got together at my house tonight, sat on my bed and started to put together a research portfolio comprised of Chris’s websites, blogs written about him, pictures and descriptions of his work. We were able to find a few good resources, including a website where Chris has described his inspiration behind some of his artwork; stories, poems, family connections, etc. Reading through some of these descriptions, it was easy to see that his art work comes from the heart and is more than just a job for him. I am really looking forward to putting together our interview questions, and to finally meet Chris. I hear he makes a mean cup of coffee- maybe we will get experience the pleasure!  
The biggest thing that I am worried about in this course is using the cameras. I have very little experience with cameras; I’ve never even taken a camera with me while traveling! I tend to avoid the damn things, I find them too complicated for me! I’ve never even owned a digital camera, let alone used a camera with a fancy lens or a real filming camera! I am clueless about different kinds of shots, adjustments, lighting, sound, and any sort of editing, so this course really scares me for that reason, but I think the other ladies in my group have a better grasp of the technology than I do, so here is to hoping that they will be able to help guide me! ...If all else fails, they all have Macs, so they will at least know how to navigate the computers we edit on! Thank goodness for them! I think the plan for tomorrows class is to look at doc’s that have been made in the past and pick out certain shots, techniques and critiques from them that may be helpful for our film! Maybe I will feel a little less helpless after that class!