I Arted

I realized that I like to blog my art projects. Not to show off or impress my four readers (you are impressed though, aren't you four readers?), really I do it as documentation. I've said a hundred times that process attracts me to art. Even my own process I guess. But really, it's nice to have things all in one place complete with date and time stamp. Suddenly my one project's process becomes one 'previous' from the time before that and the time before that. And then .... well then you have a whole lot more....

So what happens when I can't blog my art, because the projects are for two of my four readers? Well, first I might post my pics on the places I know they will never find... twitter, instagram. Then I hold it in. And die. And hold it in. Until the secret is out.

Story goes - My sister is an indecisive art buyer. She's been looking to pay homage to her Wisconsin roots. Like all of us, the Wisconsin State Hearts floating around have been tempting her for a while. Well, shit. I can do that. But I can Mary that.

My color choices wavered, torn between oranges/browns and blues/silvers. I ended up making both. That's how my other sister ended up with one. Then I made a purple one. I'm not sure if that's for me or not. Who am I kidding? It will inevitably get hung up in my self-indulgent, own-art filled apartment... I just don't know what to do with any of it. Anyway. Here's a photo, or two, or three of me playing with stenciling and decoupage and hometown roots.

There you have it. Wisconsin Love.

Thankful for...

Mid afternoon and I'm sitting on my laptop, alone in my apartment facebooking and passing time.... like it was any other day. But behind my internet browsing, my heart is really sad to spending the time just like this. It's Thanksgiving - a day for thanks, for love, for friends, for family.

It's Thanksgiving and my heart longs to be home in Milwaukee with my family. It feels weird that I won't be able to tell my dad to turn the volumn down on the football game. I won't get the chance to plop the cranberry sauce out of the can and into a sparkling dish just to hear that sucking sound. I won't be eating the world's best Company Potatoes. But worst of all, I won't be bowling a perfect 76 at Pioneer Lanes on Friday with my mother's side of the family.

What I realize, as I sit and feel sad to not take part in the Phelps tradition, is that THAT is what I am thankful for this year. The sadness! I am so glad that I have a family that are also my best friends. I am grateful to be excited to spend any and every minute that I can with them. They are amazing people, and I'm thankful that I love them enough to miss them right now.

Mom, Dad, Erica and Bridget... I love the shit out of you guys.


Oops... I swore... sorry Mom.


I am also thankful that my dad's side of the family is here to take me in for a meal with loved ones tonight.

Be thankful.
Be loved.

Mary

Never Enough

We all do it
We try harder than we should
We stay longer than we ought
We give more than we've got

So...
When we become exhausted...
When we end up broken hearted...
When our dreams have died...

Why can't we walk away?

Instead we
Stay broken hearted
Stay chasing dreams
Stay where we never should be

We stay at the chance
of Hope
of Love Rekindled
of Passions Found
of Dreams Come True

Because... because... walking away... is giving up. Giving up on where it all began.

So I find
myself hanging on to possiblity
myself broken hearted longer than I ought to be
myself choosing pain for it's potential

Enough should probably be enough
But somehow ... it never is

The Blues

framed up and now I'm not sure if I'm done....

Experiments

I feel like I have done nothing and everything tonight...

Fish Belly

In the belly of the whale

I sit shamed like Jonah

Failure to do the teller’s told

In the belly of the whale

I wait,

To be swallowed

Consumed by shame

I wait,

To wait

I wait,

To be spewed

Violently released

I wait

The waiting kills me,

In the belly of the whale

There’s no way out,

Of this belly in the whale

I wait

To wait in the belly of the whale

I wait

Stenciled

Apparently, I am really inspired by unemployment... I'm starting to think TIME really is a crucial part of CREATIVITY.

Started cutting out some stencils today:

Two images:

Layered look like this:

Now it's time for paint!

Something and Nothing

Maybe I'm just looking for a reason to write or maybe an exhibit actually got me....

Beyond knowing that Charles Allis had a factory in Milwaukee and was an art collector, I don't know much.  The mansion, Charles' home for seven years turned library turned museum and historic site, housed a variety of displays - some his, some not. Though his life was brief within these walls, one exhibit trapped him in this time, this place.

His bedroom was dark. The shades drawn on an already cloudy day. Musty as old houses always are. 100 years of smell in one place. A simple, minimally furnished room. The bed. The fireplace. A few steps to the center of the room and I realize there isn't much to look at. In my periphery I catch a change in light within the attached bathroom behind me. I spin. All seems normal. Again, I take to the center of the room and look towards the mantel. It's hardly seconds before I sense movement again in the same place there was nothing. I can feel it behind me. This room is not about what's there, rather what's not. He's here. He never left.

Startled. A crashing tin sounds the empty room. Loud. The sound rings bigger than the room itself. It's behind me again. And I spin to nothing again. No matter where I am there is something and nothing behind me. The sounds bring me to a derelict factory. Perhaps, Charles own plant devastated by modernity. Run down and forgotten as most factories exist today. Between the echoes of clanging metal, in the silence I hear the machines waiting for life.

He's here and he's bothered by what has come of his livelihood. His ghost has seen today. His ghost has brought today to this room. It haunts him while he haunts me. There's a draw to the bathroom tub and I can't help but feel like he died there. I feel like I could die there. Swallowed by the past. My chest is a little tight and reality seems far away.

It doesn't take long to put the exhibit together. Built-in surround system with localized sound effects. The bathroom light mocked by a projector behind frosted glass creating subtle and sudden changes in the environment. Just enough to make you second guess your sanity. Even knowing that though - I had a moment of being caught in the whispers of the past and the promise of an afterlife, and it kinda creeped me out.

More info: Charles Allis Art Museum

Driving Palette

What about driving excuses your palette?

My usual road trip food is Combos. Nacho Cheese. Pretzel shell. I have never purchased Combos anywhere other than small town, highway exit gas stations. And I have never eaten Combos outside of my drivers seat. Call it vehicular comfort food.

I'm certain we all have them.

I deviated on my route to Milwaukee Thursday, strayed, but not far... from the norm of my poor driving palette.

I stuck with the cheese (maybe it's a Wisconsin soil thing? No... I've done Combos beyond our dairy borders...) and added coffee. Yeah, I added a Starbucks Vanilla Frappuchino to my Bucky Badger Triple Mix Popcorn.

Gross.

At the time it was perfect though. Comfort as I cruised through Fort Douglas.

Can I tell you something else? Wisconsin knows how to do cheese popcorn like no other. There's a "Chicago Mix" at the best Candyland store in Minneapolis, old fashion, been doing it right for years, but their cheese can't stand up to Bucky. Not a chance.

This cheese made the kernels almost feel wet with flavor. This cheese still sits in the beds of my fingernails, thumb and pointer on my left hand, still suggesting the blazing orange glory that was. The kind of cheese, that I actually considering what I would do with my mess of a hand if I were to get in an accident while driving.... I knew the cheese would be my last image before impact.

I could go on and on about this cheese.... but this is on TV:

And I'm finding it hard to concentrate. Too Cute! Animal Planet... dammit, you got me....

art feels good

My friend's engagement photo...

so... this is what her wedding present starts out as....

piecing it together....

waiting for it to dry....

finally wrap ready....