Halloween Preperations & Visiting Occupy Montreal

Custom made mask.

Today was a busy day for me. A client came by this morning to pick up the demon mask I have been working on for the past several months. It was custom fit to his face, and has taken many layers to get to the final results. Recycled paper bags & newspaper, wire artist's sculpting mesh, soft gel, artist paste, acrylic paints, pigments, copper leafing, and finally it was sealed with a flexible, non-yellowing, permanent varnish. My client was over joyed, the timing of completion seemed very appropriate, considering it's Samhain (Gaelic for Halloween).

Outdoor living room.

I visited Occupy Montreal for three hours today. Progress is both slow & fast, not always efficient, but persistence pays off none the less. The occupiers often surprise me with the speed by which they make up for lost time, that is, once they figure out what they are doing. Today they were working on building a tipi, the first of many to come. There is an unconfirmed rumour that Cirque Du Soleil is planning to sponsor the use of two giant circus tents if they can get the permits to go into a bigger park with enough space.



Door entering the yurt which serves as the Communications & Media Tent

 I do know they are hoping to get more yurts, but because their yurt contact is out of the country, at the moment they are focused on learning to build tipis. Though there is a major shortage of space, with a constant flow of new people arriving with the hopes of pitching a tent, which they soon discover is impossible. At the moment they are over capacity with approx. 250 tents. They hope that with enough tipis that people can survive the winter, and save on space by having more people in the tipis.

"Why are you here? Why Occupy?"

I was told that they raised $10,000. last weekend, but have spent $5,000. on supplies, equipment et cetera. Despite how triumphant they were, and rightly so, with the amount of money they raised, unfortunately they will need alot more before they will really be ready for winter. #OccupyMontreal is promoting on Kiji & Craigslist for plumbers & electricians. There are plans to do more events this weekend, I don't know all the details, but it should be posted on the main website.



 I was able to document a fair amount today, but no time to post everything or make another video journal, but I have alot of unused footage, so I definately will be posting more vlogs as I have time to. This evening I had Halloween make-up appointments; my first appointment was for a party organizer who wished to be a Zombie. Tomorrow is much more full, but I still have a few openings left for anyone wanting me to transform them for Halloween. I am really excited that it's Samhain, it's my favourite time of the year, there is nothing I love more then helping people get dressed up for parties & other fun adventures!