my family

carl Hollywood Filmmaker, Director, Artist, Screenwriter, Composer, Video Editor, Starstrom Productions

This is my husband, Carl, shoving a hotdog into his mouth. The picture was taken at Santa Monica Beach. It's again a "still" from one of our projects. I took this picture while we were shooting the end footage for the pilot episode of "Wednesday of my Real Life". When Carl married me 16 years ago, he was clueless about what fate had in store for him. Although he knew I was an artist, and that I had graduated from film school, he had no idea that one day we would be making videos together. Actually, when we shot the first episode of "Wednesday", it was meant to be a home movie for our family in Canada. We didn't own a camcorder yet, so we borrowed one from Century Cable where I was interning. The deal there was that in order to use their equipment, we had to "air" what we shot. Surprisingly, people enjoyed our little home movie so much that it was suggested we make more episodes. Soon, the second episode was in script form, and there was no turning back! "Wednesday of my Real Life", the series, took on a life of it's own.

All the pictures you've seen, and probably will see, are stills from various productions. I haven't figured out how to use my scanner properly yet. It's much easier creating pictures from frames in my Adobe Premiere. The picture above is a very typical view of Carl. He does love to eat! And since he's always busy working, I don't get to see him much. When I do see him, he's usually eating , working on his computer programming or sleeping. I also have a still of him sleeping, but I'll spare you that one. Carl is totally amazing. He's put up with my creativity and zany "Lucy" inspirations for sixteen, very eventful years. That's more than enough problems for anyone's lifetime! He's been supporting me as a cab driver (he's been the cab driver, not me) for the last couple of years, but just recently got hired by the owner of the largest taxi fleet in L.A. to help him reprogram the existing taxi computer system software. He's already started training. If you've ever had problems with getting a cab on time, or a driver that doesn't know where he's going, well, with Carl on the job, that'll soon be history all over the world!

merlin

And, here's Merlin, posing for the camera. Before Merlin came to live with us fourteen years ago, I'd had three other cats. They didn't last long. I guess they didn't like living with a crazy artist. Merlin, on the other hand, loves doing artwork. When he was a kitten, he used to sit on the edge of my drafting table and watch me work. Carl woke me up one morning on my birthday, and told me we were going shopping for a fur coat (this was in Canada, and my birthday is in November). Much to my surprise, we ended up at the Humane Society! I had been nagging Carl for a kitten for a long time! The place was swarming with squealing kittens...but, since all my other cats had been black, I had my heart set on a pure white one this time. No white ones. I reluctantly went to a cage full of cute black ones, and all the little ones scrambled against the cage, pleading noisily. Towards the back, was a quiet black and white. He watched me for awhile, then came forward and politely stuck his little paw through the cage to touch my hand. He just looked up at me with his big eyes. That was it! He had chosen me! Merlin , the talented, has co-starred in all of our "Wednesday" episodes, and more.

Actually, when I wrote the pilot, I didn't include Merlin in the script, but as soon as the camera started rolling, we couldn't keep him off the set. What a ham! He knows all the film "lingo" he needs to know: Action, Cut and FOOD! The picture above is a still from "Birthday!". I think he too has ADD...he forgets a lot of things. Or, maybe he's just getting old. He's fourteen but, still thinks he's a kitten. He's even forgotten how old he is! Besides eating, sleeping and acting, Merlin's favorite treat is to perch on Carl's shoulders. Not when Carl is in the shower, though! Ouch!

So, Merlin was the best birthday gift I ever got. I mistakenly thought he'd be a quiet companion, but I was wrong. The politeness was all an act to manipulate me. As innocent as he looks, he's still wild. He swats, scratches, bites, chases and always gets his own way. He only behaves like that in front of Carl and me, though, and it's impossible to tame him. Believe me, we've tried! With other people he puts on his "I'm a good cat" act, and everyone falls for it! Yes, he's very talented.

ricky

The "still" below is from my award winning student film "The Little Hunter". Ricky, then age six, made his acting debut in it. It's one of the scenes from the same movie clip as in "self portraits" on the director page. I shot the film in my third year at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada. It was shot on 16mm film, and, instead of writing a script, I drew the whole ten minute film in storyboards. I also designed and made the costumes, designed and built the three sets, and at the last minute, ended up playing the mother and a "tree" because my sister, Eva, chickened out.

My little sister, Melodie, played Ricky's photo double when Ricky played both the Hunter and the Artist. You can see a glimpse of the checkered artist smock at the top right hand corner of the picture. That's Melodie. To this day she's mad at me, because at the age of eight, she actually thought she was going to be in the movie as herself. When she saw the final cut featuring two Ricky's, she cried in disappointment. She's never forgiven me for "fooling" her. Sorry, Melodie. That's show biz!

rick

Ricky grew up and became the genius composer who now prefers to be called Rick or Eric. He's my inspiration, my student, my teacher and my son! I've passed on my AD/HD to him as well as my love of music. Of course, HE'S a musical genius, unlike me. A brilliant classical composer, Rick will soon be writing the scores for films, especially mine, I hope! The movie clip below (if you decide to view it), is a home movie, "rick in his music lab". I shot it while he was dubbing a tape for me, and edited it quickly just for this site. As soon as he gets his own "web thing" organized, (he's also got too many projects going at once), I'll link you to him. Right now he's busy working on his second CD, soon to be released!

As well as writing music, Rick loves computers: working with them, taking them apart, building new computers from old parts, and learning computer programming. His two computers are crammed full of software that he actually knows how to use. He's even tried his hand at editing and animation, although I haven't seen the results. He hasn't got around to sending copies of them to me yet. I should talk. I've got his last birthday and Christmas presents still sitting in a box in my studio that I need to cart off to the post office and mail. His birthday's in August! Maybe I'll get it there for his "next" birthday, or next...Oh, well. I've been busy editing and doing this "web page" thing. Rick also likes tinkering around with cars. One of my cutest memories of Ricky as a toddler, is of him and my papa underneath an old "bat mobile" type car, just two pairs of feet sticking out, one tiny pair wearing little sneakers and one large pair in work boots. If you want to see the music video of Rick, click here or on the eye below:

Naturally, I have more family. Sometime later, I might tell you more about them. I have a creative mother, a musical, but deceased AD/HD father, two artist sisters, Eva and Melodie, (Eva is married to Kip, a documentary filmmaker, Melodie, a Production Designer, also with AD/HD, is living with Brad, an accountant), a brother, Rudy, who used to work at some hush-hush job with the Canadian government (married to Riina, an ex-nurse) and Cathy, my beautiful daughter-in-law, married to, of course, Ricky. I also have dozens of in-laws and cousins all over the world, most of them also strange.

I think I've already mentioned my AD/HD? So, here's the next page: