phone love...

I know it is silly to love an inanimate object...but really, I do love my iPhone. (I really don't like talking on the phone all that much, which makes that a ridiculous statement.) The ability to customize it with apps (weather.com, shazam, vicinity, things, to name a few) has made it indispensable on roadtrips.  

But wouldn't it be great if I didn't have to bring a wallet and the phone when I am just running out to the gym? Sena  created the "Walletskin Case".  An ingenious case that, just like the name implies, is a wallet and case for the iPhone.  A little pricey, but so worth it. Lots of colors.  Only slight drawback is the camera isn't as accessible when you have a card in front of the lens, so you either need to take out the card, or camera.  But, seriously, that isn't that hard...c'mon.

New art in the house...ways to justify my addiction

Even though the Slotin auction is going on today, and I promised myself to stay away from the flame, art still found me. Susan, Tina, and Nancy, ( last names omitted to protect the innocent) members of the folk art group "The Art Tarts", came by my house for a tour. They left an ark in their wake. It was a great afternoon of art, wine, and stories of art adventures. Tina brought her Virgil Myers ark, complete with 70 pairs of animals, Mr. & Mrs. Noah, and the blue ribbon from Wayne City Bean Days, where this art/ark won first place.

Today, the ark docked here, and I won the prize. (ok, I bought it...)  

Which brings me to a brighter, shinier object...

Ways to justify my addiction to art...

1. I didn't have children - ergo, this is college tuition, braces, uniforms, etc...
   
2. So, it takes a bit of my time, I don't golf or garden...
   
3. It inspires me to make my own art...
   
4. I love meeting the artists, collectors and dealers to hear their stories...
   
5. I use the documentation piece of it to learn more about the internet, web design, blogging, virtual marketing...etc. 
6. A way to meet people from all walks of life, all over the world

...and most importantly...I love it.

contact paper - origins of an outsider art collection

(december 1968)

This photo made people laugh at my mother's funeral.

My friends had only heard the stories, which had become legend, so when this photo popped up in a tribute to her, first there was a murmur and whispers, then outright laughter as the realization of what significance this photo truly had.

My mom had a thing for contact paper.  For a period of my life, she liked to cover just about everything in the stuff.  The toilet, the wooden table, and the best...the stove and refrigerator.  Please note how it matches the wood grained paneling.  As the electric stove would heat up, it caused the contact paper to contract...leaving the white enameled appliance to show through the split in the seams.  So she logically took a black magic marker and added yet another paneling-matching stripe to her creation.  

There are a few other "tells" of childhood hidden in this photo - please note the bottles on top of the refrigerator (there was a party soon to be had. Always.) - and my particular favorite, the plastic flowers.  Mom loved flowers, but not gardening.  Plastic was just as good, and much, much easier.  And so "planted" in all of the flower pots outside were plastic geraniums.

Growing up, the sounds of spring included the returning birds, and the rattle of spray paint cans, as Mom would be outside "touching up" the faded geraniums from the previous year.  

Maybe this is a clue to why I fee so at home with the artists I meet on the road.  I get to visit a little bit of my mom's spirit.  Ingenuity, resourcefulness, and not really worrying about the "norm".  The concern of coloring outside the lines of the box doesn't matter if you don't notice the box.

snow...and weather in general

(1990, the main channel, lake of the ozarks, mo)

I am distracted by snow days, still.  Even though today we only had 3-4 inches of the powdery stuff - schools were closed and I want to go out and play. 

This goes hand in hand with my bigger distraction - weather in general.  As a kid living in the Ozarks, watching the weather (not the weather channel) was a big deal.  You only had to be 12 to drive a boat - and after a rigorous test, Dad set my brother and I free to roam about the lake in the boat, all day, just as long as we "watched the weather."

You began to notice details...flies are biting, it's going to rain. The leaves also curl up, showing their "white" sides just before a rain as well.  We could tell time by how many hand widths the sun was above the tree line. 

Once, when we were unruly teenagers, we didn't pay close enough attention to an incoming storm.  We were docked at Ozark BBQ, a waterfront restaurant, enjoying onion rings and pie...(hmm, I wonder why that sounded so good...ha) and looked out the window to see a big dark cloud rolling down the main channel, towards us.  To get home, we would have to head into the storm, so we opted for Plan B...going to our friends trailer on the lake, which was in the opposite direction.  

We flew in that boat, with the storm getting closer and closer.  (You can tell these things by the rain line on the water)  We made it to the trailer, tied up the boat and ran up for shelter...and promptly fell asleep...without calling home first to tell Dad that we were safe.  

Oops. Grounded.

Today , my obsession with weather continues...love the weather channel, got a weather band radio for my birthday...which I have used, mind you, in 2 different storms, (thunder and ice), in the last year, while on the road. It is good.

taking care of your teeth...a sad story

I got a call yesterday that Rick Jansen, a friend from college days, died on Saturday from a heart attack.

It turns out that this summer, Rick got a bad infection from a cracked tooth that he didn't take care of. The infection spread to his heart.  He went to the hospital where they debated on a heart transplant, and decided to replace 4 or 5 heart valves instead.  He was in and out of the hospital this winter.  His roommate came home on Saturday, to find Rick no longer here.

Go to the dentist.

Rick was an incredibly gentle soul, who lived his life on his own terms.  Always in a great mood, often seen where ever good music was playing. You would always know when he was there by hearing his trademark whoop (or trill....it is hard to describe the sound, but you would know it if you heard it.   He was one of the first we knew to have a cd player & a vertical turntable, as well as a pool table in his living room.  Yo couldn't help but love him. 

His birthday would have been on April 10.  There will be a party celebrating his life on Saturday April 12, near Pleasant Hill, complete with a big fireworks display.  Word has it that Rick's will be ashes will be included in a mortar shell and he will be a part of the show.  

As it should be.

(fred smith's wisconsin concrete park, 2007)

general musings

So, in one week I went from zero blogs to having 3. Do I suddenly think I am that interesting? Nah. I just have gone overboard in compartmentalizing my brain. A blog for art travels, one for geeking out, and this for things that I am distracted by...