 Hello everyone, and good evening. My name is Taryn Urquhart, and I am the Arts and Special Events Programmer here at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. On behalf of the library and the West Vancouver Art Museum, I would like to welcome every run to tonight's art talk. While I recognize that we are all in different places this evening, I would like to acknowledge that the West Vancouver Memorial Library and Art Museum reside within the traditional ancestral and unceded territories of the Squamish Nation, Slava Tooth Nation, and Musqueam Nation. We recognize and respect them as nations in this territory, as well as their historic connection to the lands and waters around us since time immemorial. I am personally grateful to call the Pacific Northwest my home, and I'm thankful to the Coast Salish communities that continue to protect the natural beauty and animal diversity that surround me every day. It has been my great pleasure to work with Hilary Letwin and her guest tonight to bring tonight's event to your screens. A reminder that we will conclude tonight's conversation with a Q&A, so have your questions ready. And now I would like to pass things over to Hilary, who is waiting for us over the museum. Hilary. Karen, thank you so much for the introduction and thank you so much for all of your help in bringing this co-production between the Art Museum and the library to life at the library. We are so delighted to be working with the library on this project. And I'd like to thank Paul. Paul, go ahead and start your video now and join us so that we can talk about our project. Hi Paul. Thank you so much Paul also for helping us to bring this project to life. So Paul, you and I have been working on this exhibition for just over two years, which has gone by very quickly. And tonight is really an opportunity for us to reflect a little bit on the preparation of the exhibition. We just opened it on Friday. We've been open for a few days at the library and this is also a great chance for us to talk a little bit about the genesis of the project and your process in creating our Lego models in the exhibition and to consider the importance of West Coast Modernism in our community. So thank you Paul for joining us tonight and thank you to our viewers also for joining us. I'd like to really get the ball rolling with you just to talk a little bit about what inspired this project and as a little bit of an introduction to our viewers I should explain that Paul and I were introduced by Douglas Copeland, a resident in our community who has known Paul for a few years and of course saw your work Paul and said you have to get in touch with Hillary at the Art Museum and that's sort of how this whole project was born. So we owe our thanks really to Douglas for introducing us as well. So why don't you tell our viewers about the genesis of this project. Well hey everybody. So I grew up in West Vancouver. So I am officially a West Vancouverite and, you know, I've also a long time Lego builder. I've been building Lego for the last 30 years, just various models some pop culture stuff some, you know, trains and and I have done a fair amount of local buildings and over the last one years. So basically the project started during the pandemic. I had some some great downtime and I use my time wisely to create some new models. And I just got on the kind of mid century modern kick. And I made a piece called atomic ranch, which is, you know, a rancher style house, kind of loosely based on my favorite design magazine atomic ranch. And so I built this. And then just kind of when I built this little postcard version of the pink palace. Actually, which I have next to me just by plan to incidents. So I've talked about this a little bit, but here I can show it to you guys. So it's a little bit smaller. And it was just for fun, you know, I'm a fan of the pink palace and have been for a long time so during the end of the pandemic, I took these over to Doug's we hadn't seen him in a good year and a half or so and it was just nice to, you know, artists sharing our work and went over and he saw them and that was when I saw the light bulb go off in his head and he's like, this is the show. And I believe it was right around the time he was doing the rabbit lane project or was was planning it. So you were probably in his thoughts there Hillary and and he put two and two together and he connected us and, and that was really the genesis of how you and I met and and then after that we started planning the show together, but that's the not so brief history. Yeah, and for those of our audience members who don't know the pink palace is a building in the ambleside area of West Vancouver so it's it's adjacent to the water. And the official name of the building is the Villa Maurice. And it's a really iconic building on the West Vancouver skyline. It's highly visible from quite a distance away from Stanley Park you can see it. Sometimes on a clear day you can even see it. It's a lot of that's very distinct pink balls and, and to be fair that pink model that you held up for us call is pretty much the right color pink for the building. And it is the one example in our exhibition of work that is not technically West Coast modern but actually considered Miami modern. But it was, as you say the genesis of the project and we just couldn't resist not including it. Absolutely. And since building it I've learned that that sailors use the pink palace as a navigational tool, you know, maybe more so than lighthouse park I'm not sure. So there was quite a few concerned, you know, sailors who would, you know, we're worried when it was, they were talking about potentially knocking it down or, you know, redeveloping the site. But it seems like it's safe for the minute. And of course redevelopment and the knocking down of buildings is sort of one of the key reasons why the West Vancouver Museum, we are so focused on educating our community about the important role that West Vancouver played in the development of West Coast modernism. And, and that role is, is, is a very important one in that so many West Coast modern architects actually built their own family homes here in West Vancouver, starting in the 40s and 50s land here was relatively inexpensive, and our nice mountainous landscape, which of course runs down to meet the ocean is is a challenging environment for architects to build on so we had an incredible number of important residences that were built here in Vancouver and, and it's our hope here at the Art Museum that by educating people about the important role that our community had in this architectural development that, that we can essentially preserve these, these, these pieces of history that that are so vulnerable, especially as they get up to the point where they're 5060 70 years old and it's tempting to see them go. So, Paul I'd love to talk a little bit with you about how we selected the residences that we did. It was a little random at first, the pink palace model being one of the early ones the epic to I think house being another early one but it was much more intentional after that. Well, after my meeting with Doug, he emailed me in a couple days after and he's like, well if you're going to do West Coast modern homes. You need to do the epic, epic one and I think epic to it was probably the one he suggested but I was also familiar with epic one and I knew that both of them would be fantastic Lego models. So epic to was the first one I built. And that's the model that basically set the scale. The base measures about 20 inches by 20 inches and that it's not really micro scale but it's smaller than many figures scale for those of you familiar with Lego terms. So the doors ended up being three bricks high. And for the most part that is a scale I tried to stick with for most of the other homes that we ended up building. So that was the first one. Then shortly after that. I was introduced to the homeowner of epic one and I got to tour the house which was fantastic. And, you know, when when you walk in there it's such a stunning home. You know the indoors blend so seamlessly to the outdoors. It just has all all the trademarks of West Coast modern. So that I built that one. And then Smith House to was was on my radar too. So that was the third one. So we were, you know, definitely on Arthur Erickson themed theme show at that point. And I think that's where we, we put our heads together and tried to figure out, you know, what what other buildings we wanted to focus on. And as you say all three of those are designed were designed by Arthur Erickson, who is considered to be one of the sort of primary architectural fathers of West Coast modernism. And each of those three properties are extremely important in West Vancouver history they're all still standing still preserved. I think two house course was an interesting one to start with because it was primarily constructed the real house was constructed out of steel white steel, and I still find it absolutely staggering that you were able to replicate that in Lego because it's not. It's not really a standard post and beam house that that epic one and the Smith House to both could be considered. So can we talk a little bit about how how you sourced your, your Lego bricks I mean were these were these Lego bricks that you just had lying around in your studio or did you have to go to some effort to track this material down. Well, quite a few of the bricks were ones I have in my studio. You know, as I mentioned I've been building Lego for for about 30 years as an adult. So I have done a lot of garage selling a lot of buying and selling and buying collection so I have a fair amount of bricks on hand. The thing that appeals me about the epic to was that I, you know, with my my Lego vision that I've developed over these years, I could see the parts that I would need to make it and, you know, in certain cases, you can just look at a model or a house or prototype that you want to recreate and all you can just sort of go through all the different shapes and know that Lego makes them, you know in your internal catalog. And sometimes you look at a picture and you're like, Oh, no, Lego doesn't really make those parts it would just be more of a frustrating bill to try and replicate so the universe just happened to line up with epic to and they made all the parts the little curved white piece has been a very popular part since the 1996 I believe it first be its debut in a pirate ship of all things. So I repurposed, you know, into a an epic to model. It is really staggering and of course I think it's it's equally staggering that you did most of the residences interiors in addition to the exteriors. And, and that I think has been most exciting for me and for visitors to see that you can look inside the little windows and see the furniture and and and some of the art I mean it's just amazing. So let's talk. I know we, you and I have both had a lot of visitors ask about the technical making of the models and one of the first questions that we always seem to get is, do you modify the bricks at all. And of course, the extraordinary answer to that question is. Obviously, I don't modify any parts. That is part of the challenge. So within the Lego world, you know, if you're an a full which is an adult fan of Lego. There's the term purist and non purist purists tend to just use parts that Lego has released that have been available in sets. So purists may. Oh, I don't know use use non brand Lego parts or custom printing that kind of thing. I'm not strictly a purist but I tend to lean more that way. An example of a non purist would be a friend of mine in the Vancouver Lego club who wanted to make a roller coaster back in the day and took train track and put it in the oven and melted it to to form the, you know, the up and down curve. So definitely, I don't do anything like that. Pretty much all the parts were available in Lego sets. There is one of the, I call it the Star Wars kitchen in the Merrick house. There's a subtle clear canopy. And the mathematical name of the shape isn't coming to me right now but that part only came in one set in 2016 in a ninja, a ninja vehicle. And so I detract that part down and it cost me a fair amount of money between shipping from the US, none of them were available in Canada. So, you know, I've gone to quite a few extremes to to stay purist and use parts that are available. I mentioned the Merrick house and I'm happy you did because that is an absolutely extraordinary. I mean they're all extraordinary models but to me the Merrick house in a way is almost the most extraordinary. And I'd love to talk just a little bit about the making of that particular model because in my mind, it would be extremely challenging. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the Merrick house and how you made it as a model. Well, I've been aware of the Merrick house for quite a while. You know, I had the book in that little series of West Coast modern homes. And I remember when I was first looking back in the early days of the project, that was one of the ones in my mind it was no way, not going to do it. But, you know, you interest introduced me to the homeowners and we got to do a home tour which was fantastic. And let's just say there's a reason I saved that one for last, because of the complexity that one I didn't even contemplate doing an interior or a full interior. I did a partial interior, which is the living room which is kind of the most spectacular room in the house, and also the most visible from the outside. So that house has 17 levels. And really for my brain to comprehend it, I just had to start with the outside and just work at it sort of piece by piece and figure out, you know, took a few days to figure out how all the different sections related to each other. It's also famous for I think having one maybe one right angle in the entire house. So of course Lego is a very, you know, grid based system. So I had to change most of the angles to like either 45s or 90 degrees. But I found a way to make it work and to make all the three different sections of the house line up. But that was definitely the most challenging. But I'm also going to say it was one of the most fun to create. And yeah, it's everyone seems happy with the result. So I'm, you know, it's, you did it's an extraordinary replica of a very complex architectural structure. So let's just talk a little bit about about what I think makes your models, these models in particular very special. And in my mind, it's the fact that you've built the models within their landscape. And you've taken incredible care to replicate that landscape it's not just that you're, you know, sticking trees in wherever they fit. You've actually looked at the house on its site, or the building on its site and and figured out exactly where those very tall trees are on the Merrick plot or where that very important apple tree is on the binning plot, you've actually gone to each of the landscapes and really truly replicated them which I think is so remarkable. And the beauty of the inclusion of the landscape is that one can see how the house fits on its site on its on its actual natural site. It's not just, and one sees this with like, for example, the falling water model that the Lego model of falling water that has been created, where you see the house but you don't really see the landscape that it's on. In your models, you see the landscape. And I think that that works again as a sort of educational tool for people even like me who intimately know these buildings, and who may not look at them necessarily in the context of the landscape. And I think that that's really important because one of the very important tenants of West Coast water architecture is that, just like Richard Neutra, a style is to in his in his book on site, that a house needs to be situated nestled into its site, and you get that sense beautifully in in all of the models. Particularly in the case of the Merrick and the epic one and in in Smith to, for example, those are sort of the ones to stick out of my mind. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on and indeed the process in terms of including the landscape. Right. Yeah, well that was a conscious decision right off the bat, you know, starting with the epic to which was the first model. And I wanted to include just enough of the landscape so that you got, as you said, you get a sense of why the house was built the way it was, you know, the epic to kind of cascades down the hill in the three different levels. And yeah, you really need that, I think to tell the story of the house. The Smith house is quite famous for its floating living room, which is suspended between between two rocky outcrops. So of course, you can't build the Smith house without doing that. I definitely spend a lot of time cross referencing pictures and looking at Google Earth and trying to get as many, you know, different outlooks as possible on the site and. Each each rock is, is, you know, to the best of my ability place where it should be. But yeah, I mean the Merrick was the extreme case of that. The owners have told me that Pell Merrick only cut down one tree in order to make that home on a very slopey tree property. And in fact, when you look at the model, you can see the way that the shape of the house is it kind of works in between all the trees on the hill. And with the very spectacular tree that almost when you're inside the house, it almost looks as though the house is built around it but it's a very clever illusion that Paul Merrick came up with. So that's the one that's kind of off to the, the left side of the house, very close to a large picture window. Yeah, it's closed by the house I think or almost all sides. Yeah. It's a very clever illusion, you think it's enclosed by the house, but it actually isn't. So it's, it's really, it's one of my, my favorite parts of that particular house. Well and the pink palace of course has that beautiful inaccessible roof designed by the landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander. Can you speak a little bit about, about that particular roof design that you implemented? Oh sure. You know, as, as a fan of the pink palace but never having actually been in it up until recently, I was always curious I'd hear about this garden and I always assumed that the people that live in there had access to it. But it turns out it isn't, it's a garden that was made I believe 10 or 12 years ago and kind of added, apparently before that it was just a black flat roof, kind of over the apartments on the bottom and some of the parking garage. But they've, you know, Cornelia was asked to design the garden and it's got some logs on it and some grass and, you know, it looks, it looks like a path. But it's really mainly for birds and for the, the people in the apartments that really improves their, their view, you know, gives them a visual interest. Interestingly, I, I had to contact two different owners because you can't see it all from one particular balcony, because there's, it goes around the corner so you have to, I have people in two different units to take pictures, so that I can get it to get the information I needed to make it as close as possible. This is a good place to thank all of our homeowners for giving us access to the homes, because I think that was absolutely an essential part of the process. You know, some of these homes have plans that have been published in different places. Some of these homes have photographs that were taken maybe when the house was originally built. But there was, I think nothing like going into the homes for you and actually being able to see them up close and personally and being able to take photos of certain kind of very technical things that, that enabled you to make the models as accurately as you did, right? No, absolutely. I mean, that was so, I mean, Epic 2 is the only house I haven't actually been in. But, you know, there was some fairly really good real estate listings and there's a book published on it. So that one had the benefit of drawings and large amount of pictures. All the other houses, I took a lot of my own video footage and pictures and it really helped make the homes, you know, I was able to make them as detailed as possible. I think it would have been rather frustrating to try and build them without that. Because typically what I found is most homes get photographed from one, maybe two angles. And then of course, usually the backsides don't really get photographed. And that was one of the conscious decisions to do homes that still exist because there's a lot of really great homes that have been demolished, which look fantastic. But they only look fantastic from that one or two angles and they would be really hard to replicate because I just don't have the information or access to the information to build the rest of them, you know, accurately. And that kind of answers the question about how, you know, after we finished, after you finished the three Arthur Erickson properties, we became much more intentional, you and I about picking properties that we wanted to bring into the project. And yes, as you say, one of the stipulations was that they still be standing and that we could get in to see them so that you could gather that information you needed. But we were also looking to bring a little bit more variety to the project we wanted to sort of get away from all of the Arthur Erickson residences and so we, we also included the Merrick house as you've already mentioned the sky bungalow which of course was a house designed by Paulingsworth, the Benning house, as well as an example of a Lewis post and beam so we kind of, we got quite a few architects in there in the end. My regret is that we never did a Ron Tom house. The exhibition, for those of you who may not know the exhibition with the library now but it's actually going to the Harmony Arts Festival for the first two weeks in August and I'm wondering, Paula, between now and August we can get a Ron Tom model to add it to the canon of Lego West Coast residences, something to work on. Right. That would be cool, you know, I love making the homes. So yeah, hopefully we can make that happen. That's, it's not for lack of wanting to it just comes down to time and. But, you know, I agree, I mean, I would, I would love to love to keep going I mean, maybe there'll be a particular West Coast modern show part two. We'll circle back to that idea. So I we wanted something you mentioned just reminded me that we had a little bit of a decision to make with each of the homes because some of the homes have been renovated. And the most extreme example of course is the sky bungalow by Fred Hollingsworth. And we had to make a decision about whether or not to to show a home as it is today, or to show a home as it was when it was designed or at some point in its in its early life. So maybe you can talk a little bit about about sort of how you approached that problem with each of their residences. Sure. Yeah, it was pretty much on a residence by residence basis. I mean the first time that it really, you know, I put a lot of thought into it was with the Smith House to there have been several additions over the years and in fact a paint job. Originally it was it was wood. And now it's more of an olive green. And, you know, as a Lego builder, Lego makes both olive green and dark tan, which replicate the kind of the wood pattern. But in this case, the olive green elements, there wasn't enough of them to make the house sort of structurally sound in Lego. It was part of the decision. And then the second part was there had been extensive additions, including an extra studio building off to the back of the Smith House, which was Gordon Smith's new studio after the original studio in the house. So in that case, the footprint of the house would have just gotten too too big. So I decided to, you know, time travel back to the 1966 version. And, you know, I think that was kind of cool because it's, it's a, you know, a version of the home that no longer exists, except now in Lego form. Yeah, no, I would. And in the case of the sky bungalow, you took it back to the version that was down at the Hudson's Bay parking lot. When it was right by Fred Hollingsworth and put out by the developer for people to tour the original, the original tour. Yeah, yeah, that was really cool when I learned its history. Yeah, that one is built as the 1949 version. It's just remarkable to think that, you know, on Seymour Street on this ground level parking lot to this house on stills existed. Which of course now is a, I don't know, like a six or seven story parquet for the Bay. But yeah, that was a bit of a challenge because there was no color photos of that. Most of the better quality images are of the sky bungalow once it moved to its new location in North Van. And yeah, so I had a little bit of artistic license. And in fact, that's the only home that because it was slightly smaller in size actually scaled it up and made it what we call minifigure scale. So you get to use those little, little minifigures in that one. Whereas the pink palace was a different scale entirely that because it was a larger building I had to scale that one down and make the floors even smaller. So, yeah, there's definitely some decisions to make in regards to which periods build the homes, and then also some decisions as far as scaling. Well, I think that each of the models is is absolutely spectacular. They're extraordinary to see. So I think you made the right decisions. So let's talk a little bit about West Coast Modernism. As you say, at the beginning you grew up in West Vancouver. Did you grow up in a West Coast Modern home? And what, what was it about West Coast Modernism that appealed to you for this particular project? I grew up in mainly in 1930s style home. That home, you know, the rooms are all smaller. As far as I can tell, there really wasn't much consideration put into bringing the outdoors inside. You know, there was no open, everything's very closed off. And, you know, it's a great house if you have a large antique collection. They fit in great. But as far as, you know, being West Coast Modern, it was kind of polar opposite. So I mean, in general, I'm just a fan of architecture. You know, in my essay, I basically traced it back to having a train set when I was young. That was the first time I looked at or kind of had to look at buildings and make some decisions about, well, which kind of buildings do I like? And of course, that led to a long lifelong passion for for studying architecture. In many of my creations, you know, I built some local buildings, but I kind of hadn't really done West Coast Modern or mid-century modern that much. I'd always gravitated towards Art Deco or Art Nouveau just because they offered, you know, fairly challenging build, you know, build situations. You know, I was like, I'm always up for a challenge. I found, so I thought initially West Coast Modern, you know, that's probably not going to be that tricky. But of course, you know, we've mentioned the Merrick House and a few of the other homes where there definitely were design challenges. But, you know, growing up, we did a lot of garage sailing, so it's, like, it's possible we went to some of the, you know, I'm sure we went to put a few West Coast Modern homes. And I don't think we went to any of the, you know, the sort of super famous ones. I can't say some of the owners having garage sales, but you never know. I mean, I've been doing that since the 70s and 80s. Of course, I don't really do it anymore, but that was kind of my history. So every weekend, I would go with my parents and check out people's houses and yeah, just sort of biosmosis living on the West Coast and seeing all these homes and being close to the properties. I think that definitely had an influence on me. Absolutely. And, and we touched on this a little bit, but I would love to hear about about why Lego, what is it about Lego that that you love working with and and how does it lend itself to projects like this. Right. Well, you know, I had it when I was a child. I have a picture of me at age three building with Lego. So it was just part, I think it's just been part of my history. You know, as Doug mentions in his essay in the program, it, once you've played with it, it seems to hardwire a certain way of thinking or a system inside your brain. I think Doug really nailed it, you know, on the head there in his essay when he said that as, as people as adults kind of, you know, age up a bit and get into their 20s or 30s, 40s, and they have some income. When you tie that to a sense of nostalgia, a lot of people are drawn back to, to the Lego system. Because it's kind of like a jigsaw or it's something meditative to do, you know, especially if you're just building the sets, Lego makes a huge variety of sets, and they've been very successful in recent, you know, why really in the last 20 years that, that, you know, bringing in licenses that are going to bring pretty much, I think eventually everybody on the planet, it can be have at least a Lego set or two. So, I mean, to answer the question, for me, directly, I think we're seeing Lego Land pictures of Lego Land and these giant models, I always had it in my mind that when I got back into Lego in my 20s, initially it was nostalgia, but I also saw the potential to create these larger models and, and to do them in a fairly realistic way. And then the, the bonus is you don't have to be good at drawing, and you don't have to, and you don't have to paint it, which, you know, for model making, what's always a, you know, kind of that extra step, there's instant satisfaction with Lego. Absolutely. And, and you've mentioned the publication a few times we did of course create a publication which is available both at the Art Museum and at the library for $20. And that includes an excellent essay by Paul as well as by Douglas Copeland, there we go. And also by Nathan Sawalia. And Paul, maybe you can speak a little bit about about about Nathan's essay and because he, he is a well known North American Lego builder as well. So you've heard about, about his work and, and his essay. Oh, sure. Yeah, I mean Nathan is, he's kind of the, I would say the first, you know, first Lego artist to really go mainstream, you know, he, he, he started out about 10, maybe 10 or 15 years ago. And I mean, he is most well known for kind of a yellow, yellow body, which the body is opening its chest cavity and yellow bricks are falling out. I believe it's just called yellow. I think you did a series of like, another one called red and another one called blue and they're, they're very iconic, you know. I just thought he would be great to have on the program because he has been so successful at bridging the gap between, you know, being a little Lego fan, an A-fold, a Lego, but he's bridged into the art world. So I thought that it would be neat to get his perspective on, on how he did that and, and his thoughts. So, yeah, he's a fantastic addition to the program and he's a very talented guy. He continues to have shows that travel around and I definitely aspire to, to hopefully follow in his footsteps and have a traveling show at some point. Well, I mean, I think that it's great to, to demonstrate in fact that Lego is more than just following directions and, and building a kit. There's the potential really to explore so much of our world through it. And I know from my perspective, one of the objectives of this project is, is to use Lego as a way to get people to think about West Coast Modernism differently or to introduce them to it. Maybe there are people out there who aren't familiar with it and, and who look at the models and, and become interested in that history and want to learn more. So, from my perspective, this has been such an excellent partnership for us to undertake and, and I've just, I've enjoyed every step of it, watching you kind of process the residences as you've seen them in real life and then turn that into something truly remarkable. So we get a lot of people, I want to finish with one final question, which I know a lot of people ask, and, and that is how long does it take you to build each model. Right. The magical question everybody would seems to want to know. Each, each home takes probably about two and a half to three weeks to build, you know, initially in my mind, I thought, I can do that in a week or so but there's so much information, especially when you include the interior of the building. There's so much cross referencing that you have to do to make sure all the walls line up and, you know, the rocks and the trees are in the right place. So, I basically about two and a half three weeks. And then the number of bricks does vary based on the house but it's kind of in the probably 3000 to 5000 or just over range. And of course, everybody does also wants to know, you know, are they solid, or what, what kind of structures are inside. And, and I tend to use the, some of the extra bricks that I have, you know, maybe some of the ones I used to get a garage sales that are chewed or faded, or, you know, was pick a brick wall where you can buy random elements and sometimes if they have, you know, say an orange two by two brick on the wall I'll just buy, buy a bunch of those and use those as to fill in the insides. So it's pretty much whatever is at hand that I don't really need is what goes into the interiors. Well, they're absolutely extraordinary Paul. I think this is a great time probably to answer answer questions from our audience. But before I turn it over to Karen I just wanted to mention that this exhibition, the particular West Coast modern show is the first of many parts that make up West Coast modern week. The West Vancouver Museum act as a hub for all things West Coast modern over the course of one week in July, July 4 to July 9. And I just would like to encourage anybody watching this to check out our website to look for more details about West Coast modern week, and, and indeed more details about this exhibition. So thank you very much, Paul and Karen, I'll turn it over to you to moderate some of those questions. Yes. Well, well, thank you so much. I'm so excited to have the great pleasure to work in the building where this exhibit is obviously housed at the library. And I look forward to going around now that I've heard some of the tidbits that Paul has been talking about tonight to look at them in more detail. We do have a few questions from audience members and please out there if you have a question type it into the chat. The first question is what happens to the models after the exhibit. That's a good question. Well, they are going to the Harmony Arts Festival after the library show closes on July 31. So they'll be at the that's an apple side basically, they'll be there until mid mid August. And then a few of the homes have sold already. And so they are all for sale, so people can can purchase them. And they are all they are all one of a kind. But yeah, it's, it's, it remains to be seen. Hopefully, some of them will end up with homeowners and if there's any, you know, architectural fans out there or Lego fans that would like to own them. Contact me and we can make that happen. Excellent. And Paul that actually is a great question around around your work, you actually work on a commission basis right. Yes. Yeah, for the last five years or so I've been doing commissions I've done some some huge brick cities for a restaurant in Wisconsin and I do private commissions for people. And basically I'm always building and so far it's been working out essentially I'm a freelance artist. I have a question of my own for you because I'm a little Dr who fan and I see a little dollop behind you or your shoulder there. Do you enjoy making these kind of structures, primarily, or are you just all freelance, anything goes. Oh good question. Yeah, I pretty much make anything you know I'm. I don't really have one particular style with, which, you know, maybe for better for worse. I like too many things. So, the doctor who once were were built really for my own enjoyment during the pandemic that was one of the pandemic ones I think I did a Scooby Doo one. A real variety you know some summer pop culture and then the ones that I really get the satisfaction out of is, you know, coming up with things for my own imagination. I have one that's called unshade my heart which is a steampunk robot, which you can see on my website it's also on my business cards. So, I like, I like too much, you know, I love recreating the architecture but I like the fantasy stuff and it's, it's really sometimes it's just which way the wind blows and other times it's a specific commission. And so that's why I focused on whatever I am kind of offered at the time. And I think we'll finish with this question, what was your favorite one on when people come to visit at the library we are, we do have your pieces throughout three levels of the library, all tucked in little will not corners but you'll have to try and find them all. And which was your favorite to build because I know we have some more fictional pieces from your imagination like you were saying but also the West Coast modern pieces. Right. I have a few favorites, you know, the pink palace, but so iconic and just fun to make it's such somehow that that pink is just so satisfying. I don't know it's a strange color to do in a building but it really seems to work. My personal favorite is probably the parking garage of the pink palace. You might quite see it in the model you can see parts of it but there's four levels and every each level of the actual garage is accessed from a different roadway or a different platform or different, you know, it's really cool. You know, I'm kind of partial to the, the Googie one downstairs and atomic trans I mean, those were, were fun. And, you know, the Merrick house was so intimidating, but the way it turned out. I'm really quite pleased. So, I like them all. They're all my children. Yeah, Hillary do you have a favorite because I think the Merrick house is mine. Oh, that's a good question. I think epic one. Yeah, because it has the water features and fall you've even gone to the trouble to include the works of art by the third epic brother which are sprinkled around the site. For me, epic one was really cool. And actually I remember. I think it was Doug and his essay was talking about the models and I believe it applies to epic one where the owner said nice model does the roof leak. So I, for me and a personal favorite is a big one but I just marvel at them they're they're really extraordinary. And I love, I love how Paul has taken the roofs off several of them so we can see inside to see the detail. So, yeah, it's there. They're fantastic. Thank you. I had really had so much fun making them and, you know, to getting the chance to do the show has been a real pleasure. You know, just so many thank yous to everybody. Like I said in my speech on Friday night and yeah, it's great and now it's so fantastic to just sit back and be able to see the public's reaction. It's a great time that I've been in the library in the last last couple days. I always see people at the cases like you said Taryn with with their noses up to the glass, looking in trying to see the details and so that really makes me feel great and gives me a really wonderful sense of satisfaction. To take both Hillary and Paul mentioned, we have this absolutely stunning publication available for $21 at both the museum and the library. I invite you to come by the library and take a really close look at the exhibit. It's located at 1950 Marine Drive in West Vancouver. We are open Monday to Thursday, 10 to eight and Friday to Sunday from 10 to six. Also come on by and get one of our souvenir postcards. They're available also at our help desk. And I get the privilege to work with Paul again on July 13, we will be presenting mostly Paul will be presenting something we've called behind the bricks. Paul Heatherington's journey to Lego artist. Please register on our website that's on July 13 it will be in person at the library, not virtual like this so come on down to the library happening at six to seven. Again, thank you so much for everyone for joining us tonight and have a great evening. Bye for now.