Bill Fosdick can’t help but smile when speaking about his latest recreation.
“This is the time machine,” said the 65-year-old, sitting in his soapbox derby car.
It’s a relic from another time and place, a vehicle shrouded in mystery.
“The car disappeared for twenty-five years, where it went, we’re not sure,” said Fosdick, facetiously.
In the mid-’90s, the “time machine” was used in a Victoria soapbox derby. Fosdick vividly remembers building it with his son. After collecting dust for decades, Fosdick decided to give the “time machine” a tune-up.
“It’s a toy, it’s a piece of art and it’s a memento,” he said.
And also, part of his retirement plan.
“I do not want to be sitting, drinking coffee and talking about my pension plan and how my bones ache, I want to be doing something creative and so I’ve surrounded myself with creative people,” he said.
The creative people Fosdick refers to are friends like Shelly Fox. Together, Fox and Fosdick collaborated to create a giant, wearable cat puppet named Kit Kat.
“I think it was Bill who wanted to do the puppet, and we did some drawings and talked about it and it kind of came up that everyone loves cats and dogs, so let’s do something fun,” said Fox.
The 10-foot-tall (three metre) cat is operated by Fosdick, and, along with the “time machine,” was featured in the recent Quadra Village Out There Arts Festival.
“Ideas become reality,” said Fosdick. “Everyone says one day I’ll write a book, one day I’ll paint, one day I’ll create something and I say ‘no no I’m doing that now!'”
The retired human resources manager plans to create a friend for Kit Kat, one of the many art projects Fosdick has planned to keep him busy, and happy, in retirement.
“I think it’s when you see your art in a gallery you go, ‘I am an artist. This is it! This is what I do.'”
Kevin Charach
