I’ve joined Saskatoon’s Mendel Art Gallery as Communications Assistant

If anyone has been wondering what happened to my online presence, a full-time day job found me and has taken over a large proportion of the time I would otherwise spend in the studio. Any scraps of free time have gotten parceled out between family, a prior commitment for me to repaint the exterior of the house we’re renting, and daily necessities. Studio time ranks fairly low on the list of priorities, and blogging time is even lower.

But you’re wondering about the job. As of August 8, 2007 I am the Communications Assistant at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. This means that I work on such things as maintaining the web site and blog at www.mendel.ca, doing print design for invitations, posters, Folio magazine, and other stuff. I also do assorted proofreading, editing, and copywriting, interface with the media, and work on press releases.

It’s fun, but to say that it’s been extremely busy would be an understatement. The position is full-time, and I’ve been working that and more. My position had been vacant for almost 3 months so there was a backlog of work. Add to that the fact that August is one of the busiest times of year. I’ve been in the thick of preparations for our fall exhibitions which opened on September 7 combined with the push to get all of our promotional material for school and other public programs out for the new season. Plus there have been a number of technical wrinkles and staffing changes at the Mendel which have had an impact on my workload.

If for any reason you want to contact me at the Mendel, take the last four letters of the name of the legendary Ethiopian hog-headed buffalo (Hint: catoblepas, picture here), add the “at” sign, and put it in front of mendel.ca.

And for those of you who enjoyed my critiques and/or rants earlier this year about the Mendel and its ongoing wrangling with the City of Saskatoon about admission fees and suchlike, prepare yourself for disappointment. I’m unlikely to start publicly biting the hand that feeds me any time soon.