Swan Song

Well here we are at last.

Today is the very last day of my 2nd Co-op term. 16 weeks with change.

Now that we’ve reached the end of the road I find myself at a loss for things to say about it. In the grand scheme of things 4 months really isn’t that long, and I know that, but it still feels like I have been here for so much longer. In my first post I described myself as being “the new nervous-looking 20-something” and now I feel completely at home in this hotel. I can very easily get from one end to the other in a matter of minutes without getting turned around. I know the best times to go to the Bean (the staff canteen) when they’re guaranteed to have coffee or fries or Froot Loops. I know how to sweet talk Maintenance and the valet boys into helping me move stuff. I know the names of most of the people who work in the shops around me and they have become my friends. I’ll miss them when I leave. And I’ll miss my coworkers.

In the 4 months that I have been here, just one person has stayed put in the Banff location other than myself. We have seen 3 other people come and go, constantly leaving us with a standing army of 3. D left for greener pastures about a month ago, to be replaced by the lovely Em, who quickly became my new partner in crime. And just like that our sitcom cast changed from 3 wildly different characters to 2 mischievous (yet good-natured, of course) young women tolerated – and sometimes encouraged – by an older, laid back uncle type character. Needless to say, we have way too much fun for people working in a classy art gallery.

The result of my Art Lesson with soapstone carver Allan Waidman.

When I started here I was completely convinced I was never going to be able to learn the names of all the artists Mountain Galleries represents. And I probably haven’t. But I can look around the gallery from my perch behind the counter and tell you the difference between a Wilder and a Prouse. I can tell you what medium Keith Thomson prefers to work in and I even know the finer points of Allan Waidman’s carving process. I could tell you who is a total drama queen and who likes to call just to say hi. What I love about all of this is that these people are real to me. They aren’t just names in a book I’ve learned by reading about them, I’ve met them; talked with them. When I worked at UVic’s art gallery last semester most of the artists I studied were dead, and those who were still alive never came around the gallery. There was that classic disconnect historians have.

We cannot talk to that person because they haven’t spoken for 100 years.

I am presently having a hard time thinking of how this job has helped me develop as an academic within my history degree. I don’t think it has…

It has given me a far greater respect for Canadian artists, though. I have picked up a few tricks in regards to the fundamentals of how art is made, which I know is going to make me be one of those snobby people in art galleries explaining why the point of focus is over there and how the artist achieved such luminosity. I hate that future Kate already. I’ll just have to avoid galleries until it wears away. But it has also helped me in understanding some of my favourite historical painters. When you stand beside an artist as they explain how they paint the clouds just so, or the amount of time it took to get the layering just right on the water, it is somehow easier to stand in front of a J.E.H MacDonald and understand it.

I was about to say, “At the end of the day…” but seeing as this really is the end of the day I’ll just say it:

I’m happy to be leaving.

This lives on the mirror in our back room. This will be my legacy.

I’m sad to be leaving my people, and the day-to-day work was not hard, but there have been circumstances surrounding my work life that I will very much not be missing. I am grateful to have had this opportunity, and I feel that I have had an extremely enriching summer, but I’m looking forward to going back to my classrooms and my people long dead. It’s been interesting keeping a blog, and I’ve found the whole experience weirdly therapeutic and satisfying, even though my mom likes to poke fun at me for it.

So with that I will leave you all with a snippet from my favourite Allan Doyle song, Where I Belong. Allow him to play you out…

I’ll cast my leaving shadow, and I’ll be Canadian. But distance can’t decide what matters to the Hard Rock’s loving son. And when I’m thinking of St John’s I’ll bring ‘er closer with this song. I don’t know where I’m going, But I know where I belong.

You Don’t Have to Wear Your Best Fake Smile

I’m drawing close to the end of my Co-op term and I find myself once again torn between the factions of my life that exist inside and outside the gallery. As you’ve probably noticed, I have certain requirements I have to fill in regards to my actual Co-op program and now that this is winding down I’m trying to focus on and remember the things I’ve done and learned so that my final report rounds out nicely. On the other hand, I’m very much looking forward to the things I get to do once my time here is up. And that, let me tell you, is a very distracting thing.

Things like lying on the porch swing while the cat pretends to be a puma

This has been by far one of the weirdest summers I’ve ever had in Banff, and all at the same time that is exciting and interesting and maddening. It’s been a lot like many of the summers I’ve had since starting university in that I am at home and working full time, but it’s weird in the way that I still think of myself as being a student and the work I’ve done (and where I’ve done it) is so different.

My handful of working years since leaving high school have been spent very much entrenched in the more local side of Banff. When I graduated I spent a couple years working in a video rental shop (yes we still had one, no it’s not there anymore) and when that was pulled out from under me I landed at the Whyte Museum. Both of those places saw a lot of people through the doors on any given day, and since they were both right downtown many of them were people that I knew. But working inside the Fairmont has been a whole other ball of wax. People I know don’t come here unless I make them come see me, and even though this hotel is brimming with people now living here because of the job, I still don’t know them because I’m not quite part of their work world.

And aside from the couple of times a day in which I see familiar faces in the staff canteen or in the halls, the vast majority of the people I interact with I will never ever see again. In some cases, I am very much grateful for this fact. My relationship with tourists in this town is . . . strained at the best of times. It is a sad truth that a lot of the people who vacation here can be pushy, self-centered, bumbling idiots. But every now and again I get to experience a small ray of sunshine in the way of a genuinely good person and that does wonders to soften the awfulness of the others.

I know the main point of a commercial art gallery is to sell art, but I am very much of the opinion that one can’t actually sell art. Either people like something or they don’t. My job is basically to just confirm and reinforce their good taste until they hand me a credit card. And I know that’s really crude, but its the truth. Sometimes I get people who lap the gallery, come to me and say, “I want that one right there.” Done. That’s it. But sometimes I get to spend more time talking with someone who has fallen head over heels for a piece and just wants to know more about it before making a decision. Last week, this absolutely lovely lady came in twice in one day and had found a couple pieces she really liked, but she also just wanted to chat while she killed time. So we talked about her trip, and where she’s from, and of course we talked about the art. To be completely honest, I thought that would be the last I saw of her. But to my pleasant surprise she came back the next day and snapped up both of the pieces she had been looking at. And I have been lucky in that that kind of thing has happened a couple of times throughout the summer.

People like her make stupid questions like “Are these prices in Canadian?”

No, they’re in Japanese yen weirdly enough.

“Are all of these yours?”

They’re mine in that I look after them…

“This doesn’t have a price on it, does that mean it’s free?”

No. And I hate you as a human being.

My coworkers and I have made it a game to find the stupidest thing someone could say in an art gallery. At least it keeps us entertained.

Here’s a picture of Sir Van Horne wearing a cape

Do You Believe in Magic

This week I want to talk more about all of the really amazing artists I’ve learned about and met since starting here at Mountain Galleries. Last month I mentioned them here and there and how I am more often than not on the front lines when they arrive for their week of Artist in Residence, but I haven’t really gone into much more depth.

One of the comments I get a lot working here is if I’m in school to study art or art history, and even when I answer with, “No, just history,” people still like to tack “art” onto the front of it. Whatever. If keeps them happy and out of my way…. Anyway, just because my passion lies with facts and dates and people long dead, that doesn’t mean I am not captivated by paintings and sculptures and architectures of times gone by. When I think about my relationship with art I constantly revert back to a character in my favourite Stephen King novel Duma Key who said that her involvement with the art world was like the old saying “if you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.”

If you can’t be an artist, be an artistic supporter.

Unfortunately, given my current finances and my starving-student status, I can’t really afford to be an artistic supporter, but that doesn’t stop me from looking.

Here’s a doodle I did of the dancing bear that lived on my desk.

Over the course of my 3 and a half months here I have gotten to know this collection of artists quite well, even though I haven’t personally met many of them. I have gravitated towards my favourites and have enjoyed watching the trends of the public’s favourites, two groups that more often than not don’t quite overlap. But that’s okay. Beauty, as they so often say, is in the eye of the beholder.

There is a really great mix of talents here at Mountain Galleries; we’ve got everything from hyper-realism, to abstract-realism, to straight-up modernist. Yeah. Fancy art terms. I got em all.

Can you tell I’ve taken art history classes? Yeesh.

Personally, I like pretty much everything, with the exception of whatever you’d call what came out of the 1950’s. Things like Pollock and Van Doesburg just do not do it for me. Sorry. The whole Modernist, Avant-Garde stuff? No thanks, not for this chick. I don’t really think I’m that much of an art snob, but yeah, the old masters? I can get behind that. Michelangelo and Da Vinci, and at the other end of the spectrum Monet  and Van Gogh. But before I am an artistic fan, I am a Canadian and Canada has produced some really really great artists over the years. The creme de la creme of the Canadian art world are the Group of Seven, artists active mostly in the 1920s-1930s and who basically created the Canadian style. Meaning: landscapes. It is from these seven that most of the artists promoted by Mountain Galleries draws their influences from, even if they don’t admit it themselves.

My personal favourite top 3 here in the gallery that I have loved since before I knew their names are as follows:

1. Gail Johnson
2. Randy Hayashi
3. Charlie Easton

Gail Johnson tops my list because it really was love at first sight. Her works are dominated by bright, larger than life flowers in the most vibrant colours. Her’s is the most abstract of my top 3, but in a way that reminds me of my favourite classic painter, Vincent Van Gogh.

Van Gogh’s classic Sunflowers vs Johnson’s lively Come Springtime

Randy Hayashi is what I consider to be “abstract realist” in his styling. Basically what I mean by this is his works are dominated by colours and shapes that blend together in a way that makes it very obvious it isn’t a straight photograph, but they’re realistic enough to still be able to tell what you’re looking at.

Detail from Hayashi’s The Way to Andromeda

Charlie Easton is the happy middle between the other 2. All 3 use really bright colours in their works, but Charlie works without what I think of borders. He utilizes sweeping brushstrokes and random dabs of contrasting colours to make the most magnificent lake scenes I have ever seen. Not that those are the only things he does, but they are by far my favourites.

Detail from Easton’s In the Heart of Lake Louise

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting both Gail and Charlie through our artist in residence program this summer and they are responsible for some of the brightest spots of my work life. They are both supremely happy people who are an absolute joy to be around and I made a point of making up excuses to wander up and hang out with them. I am quite sad that I won’t get a chance to meet Randy, but apparently I have to go back to school the week he’s here. Who decided that?! So uncool.

Just like my previous Co-op job I have learned a huge amount about a very specific selection of Canadian art and artists, this time around though I’ve been brought up to the modern day and I am very much looking forward to seeking out the names I’ve come to love as I move around this fantastically odd country of mine.

Perhaps I’ll Become a Highwayman Again

Alrighty then! August. Introduced by the Roman Senate after Augustus Caesar, adopted grand-newphew of famous Julius Caesar, defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the year 30BC. Don’t ask me why I know that.

This week I’m not going to bore you with repeated details of my day-to-day work life, but rather opt for the shenanigans I’ve managed to get up to outside of my regularly scheduled programming. Over the past week and a half or so I got to do some of the things I’d been so looking forward to during July, namely: a WWI tavern night and mini road trips with my best friend!

Moraine Lake, Lake Louise

Banff in the summer is all well and good, but sometimes a girl’s just gotta get out of dodge for a little while. And I know it isn’t that far away, but taking the 1A highway to Lake Louise is a nice little getaway on a random Tuesday afternoon. The 1A is the scenic route out there and a good place to spot bears, not that we saw any this time, but hey! you can’t win em all. The only downside to going to Louise in the summer, regardless of its a Tuesday, is that there are millions of people. Have you ever been to Lake Louise? It isn’t much of a town. It’s got a ski hill, a strip of stores, like 3 parking lots, and lakes. That’s it. We tried going to the actual Lake Louise, on the shores of which sits the very strange yet very pretty Fairmont Chateau, but damned if we got anywhere near it! And since I was driving and have a general aversion to all things people, I decided we were actually going to go to Moraine Lake.

Moraine is prettier in my opinion, just saying.

There were still tons of people, but it wasn’t a long walk up the road to the water. It was freaking windy though! Good lord that glacier water is cruel. But it was worth it.

Hair plastered to our heads from the wind? Check. Bitchin shades? Double check.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember what I said about being a foodie? Well, friend, I have one word for you: Lagan’s. In case that doesn’t make sense, Lagan’s is a bakery in Lake Louise that makes one of the best Mac ‘n’ Cheese I have ever had. And I don’t throw that compliment around willy-nilly. No sir. Do I go to Lake Louise solely to have said Mac? Absolutely. They also have cookies the size of my face.

I brought it back to Banff for the end of July, when the Cave and Basin (a historic site in town run by Parks Canada) hosted a WWI tavern night. I realize this is kind of a weird thing to be excited about, but I’m a history nerd so I don’t really care. Basically, what happened was they set up long trestle tables in their main show hall, with a stage in the middle against the wall and a bar at the far end of the room. The fabulous Banff Avenue Brewing Company were in cahoots here and had made 2 specialty beers for the occasion. So people showed up, got a commemorative beer stein, a brew, and then cozied up to neighbors and strangers at the tables while a fabulous singer and her pianist regaled us with songs from the Great War. There were men and women in costumes who told us about the Canadian golden boys – the Royal Newfoundland Regiment – and taught us toasts and songs. It was awesome.

My brother, me, and our high school classmate.

Strapping lads in military garb. You can kinda see lyrics on the screens behind them.

Keeping in theme with The Past, just this past weekend that blonde kid up there and I set off on the open road again to our old summer stomping ground in Windermere, BC. Well actually, we went to the Radium Hot Springs, but then we decided to keep going to Windermere. Back in the day there was a campground with not-so-mobile homes called Coldstream that our families used to haunt. Blondie and I used to spend hours frolicking in the lake at the end of the way; the fam jam and I played lots of Clue and Van Morrison; I even learned how to ride my bike there. But now it’s a luxury gated waterfront community. It looked better with dirt roads.

Good times have been had. Just gotta keep rockin in the free world.

She Loves You

Ok, home skillets, here’s what’s going on.

Things have not improved much since my last post, but I am constantly fighting to keep my spirits up as I move into the last month of my Co-Op. What has sort of started to happen is that I am now living a double life. During any given day I am two different people: the Kate who goes to work and wears uncomfortable shoes and smiles at lost tourists and sells art; and the Kate who goes looking for adventures and entertainment and wears comic book tshirts and ruins her makeup by laughing too hard. It is the latter Kate that I try to be all day every day, but I sometimes find it hard to be her when I’m up to my eyes with people asking constant questions and there is no one around to alleviate some of that pressure.

Which reminds me: that 4th person I mentioned last week? Yeah, he’s not actually working here in Banff. He worked with us in the gallery for about 3 days before it was decided that he is actually going to be working out of the Jasper location, as well as being the new “go-getter.” So now we see him on Mondays when he comes to help move around the artists in residence, as well as every now and again when he has to drop something off or pick something up. He seems to be pretty ok with his new lot in life, but I find it frustrating because we need that extra pair of hands! Especially over the weekends.

So as all of that was happening it also came to pass that D will actually be leaving at the beginning of August instead of the beginning of October. The silver lining here is that we are expecting new person to join us and eventually step into the Management position out here, but now her arrival will just line up with D’s departure. And we shall remain a cast of 3 for the foreseeable future.

What else is going on? Hmm… My sales have gone up exponentially over the past few days! Over just this past weekend we made about $30,000. Which is pretty freaking exciting. It’s also something I’ve been thinking a lot about since it’s happened because it’s helped put me in a new mindset when it comes to making sales. Already I feel more confident in myself to handle these kinds of situations and this amount of money. I also have the feeling that this will be one of the positive attributes I’ll be able to carry with me into whatever shenanigans my future brings. It has also given me new life goals.

The total is $10,000? Yes, please charge that to my Visa thank you. -Kate, eventually.

This past weekend also saw me turn 22, which I find really exciting for some reason because I hated having to tell people I was 21. Every single time it kinda sounded like I was lying.

But, as always, I’m still living for the future. Looking forward to special events and road trips with my best friend and concerts and going back to the coast, which I apparently miss very much. I’m looking forward to my next big sale and sleeping in late and, above all else, living as a harmoniously inside my own head as I am capable.

Seriously. It’s hard living in here.

Pictured: Kate.

Wind’s From the East

Oh man, it feels like its been forever since I’ve done one of these! If I can say anything with absolute certainty it is that things have been complete chaos these past 10 days.

We had a super exciting weekend here at the gallery. We are now up to 4 pairs of hands on deck in Banff and the new guy started late last week. So along with having him here, we also had one person up from Whistler and another newbie from Jasper. Plus an art show for our Artist in Residence. Plus switching out the artists 2 days later. Plus the general hussle and bussle of a weekend in Banff. Honestly, I don’t remember most of it. Just one big blur. One thing does stand out while thinking back on the past week; a constant feeling of not jiving.

Does that make sense? Let’s see if I can make that clearer….

I really don’t know how to properly explain this until you know something about me; I’m a pretty happy person. Like, all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some bubbling-over, happy-go-lucky walking ray of blinding sunshine, but I do live my life in a more or less constant state cheerful. So when I fall into a funk it bothers me because 1) I don’t like feeling this way and 2) I hate the person I become around others. And what bothers me the most is that I can’t quite put my finger on why I’ve been feeling this way.

Is it my family? My friends? My job? The town? All of the above? I have no idea! I do have a sneaking suspicion that it might have something to do with the fact that we’re drawing close to my birthday, which means the summer is mostly over, but I still have to deal with August. I hate that. That cloying almost-over-but-not-quite thing that happens at the end of July. And November. And March. It’s the curse of the university semester. When you’ve been doing the same thing day in and day out for months and you just run out of steam. Of course, school has things like reading weeks and long weekends where students can get away for a while and recharge. When you’re working, especially when working a co-op, you don’t really get that. I have this restriction in my head telling me I can’t ask for time off because it has been previously agreed that I will work 40 hours every week for 4 months. It’s not like I can take a week off and go camping or something. Whether or not that’s the absolute truth remains to be seen. It’s just hard arguing with my brain.

One of my coworkers was really nice to give me one of his days off so that I could have a 3-day weekend (my first day off since I started) and you know what I did with it? I worked. This summer, on top of this full-time job, I’m also helping my dad sort and scan old records belonging to the Banff Golf Club and of late I’ve fallen a bit behind. So I spent my day off watching TLC and sorting through box after box of papers. My cat kept me company though, so it wasn’t all bad.

Anyway, I’ll just keep rambling on. Like I said, my birthday is coming up and I’m really looking forward to that.Plus, only 6 more weeks of summer. I’m sure the wind will change.

These Streets Are Yours, You Can Keep Them

It’s that time of year again, folks.

Tourist Season.

LIGHTNING FLASH AND DRAMATIC MUSIC!

This is a pretty big deal here in Banff and every year people react one of three ways, depending on how long they themselves have been here:

1. EXCITEMENT!! This reaction comes to us from those who own businesses in town and/or have something to gain from a sudden and huge influx of people. Also, usually the tourists too. They’re excited to be here. Because this town is awesome.
2. Terror. This sentiment usually sets in by about mid-June for people new to town. Remember, we get a lot of seasonal workers who come up for the winter and end up staying longer than they thought. It’s in these people where the shock of several million tourists really hits hardest. Yes, Banff can take on this tsunami and walk away the winner.
3. Irritation. Easily the most common of the three, those of us who have witnessed Banff in the summer before are more or less mildly to extremely TO’d consistently until September. We like the business and the new faces tourist season brings to town, but we loathe the traffic (both on and off the roads) and the never-ending barrage of stupid questions.

These guys count as locals. And they’re very moody.

Right now, the town of Banff is quietly beginning to brace itself for the sheer madness that is the start of July. If you find yourself wondering “what could possibly be so bad about July that these people react this way?” I urge you to look at map of Alberta and note the closest city to Banff. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Welcome back! And yes, the closest city is Calgary. Proud and annual host of the “world famous” Calgary Stampede; a week long affair of carnival rides, weird food, and all the rodeo events you could dream of. Take that, Texas.

I can tell you from personal experience that there are a lot of really great things about Stampede, and it can be a lot of fun! But it can also cause a huge amount of grief. Calgary is a big city, they have the room and the resources to handle all the visitors, but Banff doesn’t. This matters because a huge amount of those people – both those who come for Stampede and the Calgarians trying to get away from it – wind up in Banff at some point during the week. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

Let’s put this in perspective for a second:

Alright. Banff, as of it’s 2014 municipal census, has a permanent population of about 8500, plus a non-permanent population of about 1000. The town site (the space in which we are allowed to build within the National Park) is 4.85 square kilometers. That’s a population density of almost 1400 people per square kilometer. We learn to develop sharp elbows quickly, effective for shoving people out of the way! Now, on top of the people living and working here, we’ll get about 1-2 million visitors over the peak 4 months of summer. Maybe more. Turns out people really like coming here. It’s kind of hard to pin this number down because not everyone passing through will stop, and not all those who spend time here check in at the Park gates. Ya sneaky buggers.

This summer is the first one I’ll spend not working downtown. This is really exciting for me because I live on the same side of the bridge as the Banff Springs! So I don’t have to deal with that chaos. Yes, the span of one bridge makes for an easily happy Kate. What it doesn’t mean is that I’m completely cut off; as more people come to town, more people are staying in the hotel, which means there are more people spending their money in the shops here rather than braving the town’s crowds. It’s actually a really nice filter I’ve never experienced before. It’s a smaller amount of people than I’m accustomed to, so it’s really easy to keep up while also providing good service.

But like I said, this is the calm before the storm. If you don’t hear from me by mid-July send search parties to check the hills around Whistler, chances are good the crowds will have blasted me out that way. I have a friend out there. I may not come back to Banff until the tides recede. Until then I’ll get my water wings out of storage.

My sister and I lark about on empty ski hills when we hide from people

Life’s For the Living

Like Stephen King wrote – over and over and over – “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” I’m not Jack, but you get my meaning; there is so much more to this co-op than just working. Banff is a beautiful town. We’ve got towering mountains, dense forests, a veritable rainbow of plants, a zoo’s worth of wildlife, and all the wandering space a person could ask for. In spite of all of that great stuff, I dislike most activities that get you up close and personal with them, especially hiking. Mom used to drag my sister and I up This Mountain and to That Pass and to this day I can think of no crueler punishment. That’s not to say I dislike the outdoors flat out, because I don’t. I just like it from a lazy point of view. Down here. In the valley. Like, on a patio with a pint and a pal. A lot of the people who come to Banff are either mountain folk or party people. Me? I’m a foodie.

I know I’m not a visitor here, but for the sake of my point, just go with it.

And boy, does this town deliver. We’ve got the classic local’s haunts Melissa’s (best breakfast) and Tommy’s (best pub food); We’ve got foreign flavour joints like The Gate (Irish), Masala’s (East Indian), and Tooloulou’s (Cajan); And we’ve got hidden gems like The Mac Lab on Tunnel Mt and Barpa Bill’s on Bear St. Seriously. This place is the bomb. Realistically, summertime is best time to be in Banff for one very simple reason: The Farmers Market. Oh yes, we have one too. Why I mention this is because my schedule here at the gallery gave me Wednesdays off clear through the summer, which is when the Farmers Market sets up shop in town. And I love em for it. One of the really great things that I fully intend to exploit this summer is that I can drive down, grab a pulled pork sandwich and some fresh BC cherries, and head out to Johnson’s Lake, my favourite (actual) watering hole in the valley. It goes without saying that the water in this neck of the woods is cold. Very cold. But I’m going to say it anyway.

The water is cold here. Be careful.

Me in Two-Jack Lake. Not even 5 minutes and my toes went numb.

But Johnson’s isn’t that bad. It’s not a terribly big lake, and it’s not fed by a glacier (bonus!) so by mid-afternoon the top couple of feet are pretty warm and good for swimming. Plus the road out there is stunning. Rain or shine, summer or winter, the Minnewanka Loop – Minnewanka is a lake – is always beautiful. It’s a nice way to kill a couple hours with friends. Drive out there and BBQ some hotdogs and just hang out around the water. Or even just go for a post-dinner drive and watch the way the setting sun plays with the mountains. Banff in the summer is candyland for people who like being outside, even lazy bums like me.

I’m a good driver, but I’m a better passenger.