Friday, July 03, 2009

Phil Alain and His Calgary Stampede Blog With Mural Mosaic Day 2 and 3

The first few days have been rather hectic as we get into our groove. The mural has once again been a highlight thus far as it always seems to be at the venue's that showcase it. The big kick off was on Wednesday night with the VIP gala. We worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday to get things set up and it all went off without a hitch. Throughout the dayon Wednesday the documentary about the mura mosaic's continued to be filmed as Sylvie Peltier from Red Letter Film's lead her crew around filming Lewis and the mural's around Calgary. For some that don't know- The Military museum in Clagry houses the beautiful mural "Heroes" and the Town of Cochran mural "Trust" is only 20 minutes out of Calgary.
We ran into one of our new good friend's Michelle Grant who painted in the mural and also has her artwork featured in the incredible art showcase alongside the mural called "The Western Showcase". This is a stunning exhibition of amazing artwork. Also represented in the Western Showcase from the mural were artists like Denis Weber, Kim Penner, Andrew Kiss and Judie Popplewell. Great talent pool within the mural!
Michelle stopped by the mural at one point to start a heated debate with me over -which is better - the ShamWow dude or the guy that sells toilet seats that have fluorescent lights so you can see your bowl clearly when you get home after a late night of "socializing". I stuck with my ShamWow guy and even threw in a few "Snuggy" blanket references so in the end I felt I was the clear debate winner.
Then on Thursday things officially kicked off in the evening for the general public with the sneak peak event. It was a good start and in the end we realized that a lot of people go to the Stampede. We had a good day and its been a while where all three of us have been able to do the shows together. So it was great to have Lewis along. It was also great that Lewis could partake in all the fun that Paul and I regularly experienced in other cities.Like riding crazy train's with hoards of people after events. Not quite the limo service we always dreamed of. I think Lewis still enjoyed it. Or at least we enjoyed watching Lewis in the Stampede Squeeze. See him in the back of the train holding on for dear life?? If you can Zoom in you'll see him mouthing "Help Me!"More tomorrow...