The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada

Hill Office
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Constituency Office
7731 Newman Blvd
Lasalle, Quebec
H8N1X7

December 30, 2004,

Please accept this package as a proposal to paint a portrait of the Prime Minister. I have been making artwork based on media representations of the Prime Minister for the past number of years. I would like to be considered as the official Prime Ministerial painter.

I have included with this proposal slide images of previous work, a proposed budget and a current CV.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you require more information, and thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Chris Lloyd

another white juan?

driveway storm
Originally uploaded by Chris Lloyd.

I had to change my train ticket because the bus service between Saint John and Moncton has been shut down. The storm, which someone stupidly referred to as another "White Juan" on TV, (there really is no comparison, and the name "Juan" only makes sense because it was the name of the hurricane that devasted parts of Atlantic Canada last year, months before the massive dumping of snow), but it has actually managed to do the unthinkable: keep people away from the malls and Boxing Day sales.

The question is: how will people survive the extended and unexpected time cooped up in their houses in the suburbs with members of immediate and extended family??

From: chris lloyd
Date: Sun Dec 12, 2004 11:40:03 AM America/Montreal
To: pm@pm.gc.ca
Subject: http://www.canada.com not working, http://www.canada.com ne function pas

Dear Paul,

Went to the Souk @ SAT with Claudine yesterday afternoon … we wandered through the very calm and cool environment of super-trendy arts and crafts and design, mingling with what can only be described as the coolest people in Montréal. Later we walked up St. Laurent and stopped for supper at Thai Express. A lot of food, nice and spicy …

The party at SSM was smaller than I had expected it to be. An eclectic assortment of different groups of friends; soccer players mixed with artsy cultural types mixed with serious academic students. Drank a bit but not too much, we were trying out a new beer called Boris. Another indicator of any indications of revolution swallowed up in the great maw of capitalism.

Speaking of which, I'd best get out and shop some more. It's about the only day I have left to do so before heading to NB next week. I'd best call Vincent at Furnibois and tell him some whopper about why I'm not coming in to work this week, just in the off chance I can return to work there at some point in the future.
…

-chris

silence-stade

silence-stade
Originally uploaded by Chris Lloyd.

A view of the Stade Olympique as seen from the fifth floor biblioteque of the CEGEP Masionneuve, where I was installing cabinets and bookshelves for most of the afternooon. The word "silence" was placed around the entire library, I guess to remind kids to be quiet while reading and studying. Know anyone who wants to buy a sports stadium?

nooses

nooses
Originally uploaded by Chris Lloyd.

For those of you in the Saint John area, you might want to check out the "Kites, mobiles and things that hang from the ceiling" x-mas exhibition at the Peter Buckland Gallery. When my friend and bestest patron saw this little doozy she emailed me saying "now I know you've completely lost it". Perhaps, perhaps not. I think the noose is an icon loaded with meaning and worthy of artistic investigation. Nooses may convey lynching, suicide and the death penalty, but are also practical and functional knots, and look like poetry. I find it bizarre that after Ronald Turpin, 29, was convicted of shooting a Toronto police constable and Arthur Lucas, 54, was convicted of murdering an FBI agent, they were both hung in Toronto on December 11 1962. They would be the last people hung under the death penalty in Canada. Louis Riel is probably the most famous hanging case in Canada. I defended him in a mock trial in grade 7 and still couldn't convince the jury, and that was only 1989! Anyway, the rubbing of the individual noose turned out way cool.

last supper, paul?

last supper, paul?
Originally uploaded by Chris Lloyd.

Changes are afoot here at Dear PM.... I've decided to take a hiatus from "blogging" each and every letter to the PM. I plan to keep writing daily to the PM, have no fear! In fact, I've decided to write a little more forcefully, "straight from the heart", and will perhaps touch on darker or more personal matters than I have in the past. I realize that posting the letters in blog format has nuanced my writing for a potential broader audience. I want to return to the roots of the project, where it was more a perceived or hypothetical one-on-one dialogue with the PM. So for the next while my postings here will be more or less regular blogs, updating key events in the trajectory of the project, with the occassional abridged letter to the PM included.

-chris