today we were very tired last year.

a year goes by quick these days.
love to my guy.

If I had all the gold doubloons in the world

Today I spent some money I didn't really have on a beautiful painting for a good cause from the Gulf Restoration Art Sale Fundraiser hosted by My Love For You. This painting "The Guide" by Stacey Rozich is now a part of my collection & I couldn't be happier.






















I am working on scheduling Stacey for a show at Sky High in 2011, so I can see more of her work coming my way in the future. Until then I will visit her blog, sigh and drool.

Gaze with me on these two other beautiful things I coveted today that I can not justify in any way, shape or form. In a few months I would love to wrap this around me....























"Shield Of Wings" blanket

And dangle these beauties from my ears....





















Pyramid Bauhaus Textile Pattern Earrings

Dream on Leviney..... in another life with another profession.

Good Things: food & art

One of my favorite things about being home is getting to make my own lunch. You may not realize it but traveling all the time is exhausting and finding truly healthy food is much harder than it should be. Today I'm having tuna salad with greens from nationally recognized Sweet Water Organics (located just down the street from us) and a cold curried garbanzo bean cabbage salad I whipped up last night. YUM.



Also there is only 4 days until the art sale fundraiser for the gulf hosted by Meighan from My Love For You begins. I am drooling over a few of the previews Meighan posted already. Sales like this stress me out because you never know if you are going to get the piece first.....

To explain clearly about the sale, from the desk of Meighan herself:























Julianna Swaney.

My Love for You and 87 artists (at last count) and print shops have joined together to donate their work to help raise money for The Gulf Restoration Network. Original artwork, limited edition prints and more will be available for purchase on Monday, June 28th at 12 pm PST (3 pm EST) through the ML4U Big Cartel Shop. 100% of the proceeds will go to help support The Gulf Restoration Network's efforts. Many of the items are free shipping to boot! The Shop will be open for one week. This is a great opportunity to acquire amazing art, while helping a just cause.

Those involved:

Alex Lukas, Alex McLeod, Alexis Amann, Allison Sommers, Allyson Mellberg Taylor, Andrea Daquino, Amanda Michelle Smith, Amy Casey, Amy Sol, Amy Ruppel, Andrea D’Aquino, Annie Koelle, Ashley Anna Brown, Ashley Lande, Audrey Erickson, Ben Venom, Bill Dunlap, Breanne Trammell, Casey Jex Smith, Catherine Campbell, Catherine Ryan,Chad Chesko, Chris Koelle, Chris Piascik, Christian Rex Van Minnen, Corey Corcoran, Crystal Morey, Dan Gluibizzi, Danna Ray, David Galletly, Derek Weisberg, Dolan Geiman, Ehren Reed, Elbow-Toe, Elisabeth Timpone, Emily Barletta, Esther Pearl Watson, Hannah Stouffer, Happy Owl Glassworks, Hilary Pecis, Irana Douer, Jason Brammer, Jenny Hart, Jennifer Renninger, Jesse Draxler, Jessica Cannon, Jill Bliss, John Casey, Josie Morway, Julianna Swaney, Justin B. Nelson, Justin Richel, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Kate Miss, Kenn Goodall, Kevin Earl Taylor, Know Hope, Kyle Ranson, Lane Collins, Lena Wolff, Lindsey Carr, Lisa Congdon, Lisa Hanawalt, Lisa Romero, Little Paper Planes, Lizzy Stewart, Luke Ramsey , Mark Todd, Martha Rich, Mary Kate McDevitt, Melinda Josie, Michael McConnell, Mike Maxwell, Mon Petit Fantome, Other, Porous Walker, Raul Gonzalez, Remi Thornton, Roll and Tumble Press, Shannon Rankin, Stacey Rozich, Sub-Studio Design Store, Tara Lisa Foley, Tristram Lansdowne, WAFA, Wendy McNaughton, Will Bryant.

Here is the first post about the fundraiser with a small peek at what's in store.
http://myloveforyou.typepad.com/my_love_for_you/2010/06/gulf-fundraiser.html

I'll be posting more every day this week. (Meighan will, not me).

David Byrne

"A song is not better because it has more chords, and it certainly isn’t better because I labored over it longer — odds are, that extra labor might mean it’s simply overworked." -David Byrne

David Byrne has influenced me throughout my life. He is just one of those iconic artists that does amazing work, but I don't really follow him much (I don't really "follow" many people much). Once my band Wooden Robot was invited to play in the lobby of the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee before his show. Between sets saw him ride by on his fold up bicycle. Once I saw him play a show in Seattle wearing a full suit made of hot pink fun fur that his wife reportedly designed. Many times I have danced to his songs and I have even quoted his lyrics in articles I have wrote.

Yesterday it was not that big of a surprise when I saw a post on facebook from Lacey Jane Roberts about David Byrne's blog post discussing his option on craft, art and creating. Since so much of my work has come to revolve around this subject, I was glad to see he is on my team. Read it here.

Thanks Lacy Jane for posting that. Thanks David Byrne for keeping it real.

Sky High: zine + Alyssa Schulte show

My mom's visit last week came and went quickly & I still haven't unpacked from Scotland. BUT, I did finally upload the work from Alyssa Schulte's art show along with some images from the zine I made with the summer schedule of events at Sky High.


I am so excited about the new gallery space! Alyssa's show is tucked back in that small room on the left.


(check out this Wisconsin stamp that Amy O'Neill made for me on the fly!)


The zine has the schedule & random photos I took. Here is Ira Coyne painting the door at the shop from the inside looking out.

Keep in mind that Alyssa's show will be in the gallery through July 19th and her amazing mural she painted will be up through August.



"Wild Hearts" by Alyssa Schulte


Temporary Mural Project, (detail) located on South Howell Ave, Milwaukee WI

Check out the blog post from Alyssa about the process of the mural. I love a process post.

Daddy's Girl

I used to have a knit baby blue sweater that said "Daddy's Girl" when I was a kid. Wish I could find a photo of it for today. Here I am with Rick Levine in 1976. My dad fucking rules. Just sayin' Happy Father's Day to all you guys who do a good job.

MOM TIME!

My mom who travels only by train if she can help it just arrived yesterday afternoon for a two day visit. Her trip from Seattle to Milwaukee took over 40 hours. When we hang out we usually just cook and go to thrift stores. Sounds perfect to me right now.

Here she is in 1976 on her wedding day. My parents married after knowing each other for 3 months & made it 13 years. Pretty wild.

Scotland: part two

Well I'm back on my side of the pond. It took a 7 hour flight from Edinburgh to Newark with a flippin' 5 hour layover until my 2 hour flight back to Milwaukee. I was a full on zombie upon arrival on Monday night. My last few days in Scotland were magic, all the trip photos are here. I will just say that one week is never enough while traveling in another country but one day in a city like Edinburgh is almost torture. Thanks to everyone who came to the workshops & screenings. It was so lovely to meet you all. I can't wait until I am able to come back and explore more.

Saturday:


Train from Dundee ---> Aberdeen for my screening & workshop


Workshop at Peacock Visual Arts


The print studios at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen


Drank with the locals at Fittie Bar before catching my train to Edinburgh

Sunday:


Woke up & walked about 15 minutes to Dovecot Studios to meet with Amanda Game of Innovative Craft who houses their office there. It was amazing and I recommend reading up on the space which used to be a Victorian Bathhouse & new employs master weavers.


Stairwell Weave-In, a site specific installation by Shane Waltener at Dovecot


Victoria Street in Edinburgh


On Victoria St. I found the Red Door Gallery that sells work by Scottish & UK independent designers & picked up some goodies to take home


Demijohn is my favorite thing I've stumbled across in a long long time. A self proclaimed "Liquid Deli" (how cool is that?!) filled with hand made British liquors, wines, spirits, whisky, oils and vinegars that they pour at your request into Italian glass vessels. Don't miss this spot, and you can order online, but going there is so cool.


I brought back 4 100ml bottles of amazing liquor including a spiced rum for Aaron and a organic elderflower vodka for me. There are more photos of Demijohn on my flickr.


Walking around Edinburgh


My bff Sarah says Breakie, this is for her x


Ended my trip with a solo evening walk in Hollyrood Park

SO, now that I'm home for over a month straight I am ready to focus on the new gallery, get ready for Art vs. Craft and just kick it summer style in Milwaukee. So excited. Before any of that happens my mom is coming from Seattle via train & will be here tomorrow. Good times.

3 days down, 2 to go.

For some reason this measly 6 hour time difference is kicking my ass on this trip. I've been staying up too late, napping during the day and running on fumes. Not to say that my time I've spent here in Scotland hasn't been fantastic. I've seen a ton, met amazing people and you know this is a work trip so there is that element to top it off.

I'll give a quick recap of the past few days then I'm off to catch my train to Aberdeen where I have a workshop to teach and a screening this afternoon. Then it's back on-board to Edinburgh. Everyone has said that the train ride from Aberdeen to Edinburgh is going to be beautiful since it's a long the water, lucky for me it has been staying light out until almost 11pm so I'll actually be able to see during the ride. I decided to just spend the day in Aberdeen so I could wake up in Edinburgh and have a full day of wandering. I even have an afternoon date with Amanda who runs Dovecot Studios that houses weaving facilities in a refurbished Victorian bathhouse. So before my time is up.....

Wednesday:


my workshop at Dundee Contemporary Arts


"Tea" before the screening with the ladies of DCA & visitors who came all the way from Leeds to see the movie.




Tickets for the show & view from the screening room at DCA

Thursday:

Part of my visit to Scotland was co-sponsored by an international Symposium happening in Dundee called "Prototype: Craft in the Future Tense". The line-up of speakers was diverse and top-notch, I felt honored to be included in the programing and enjoyed it much more than I expected. I should also admit I didn't make it through two full days of lectures due to my jet lag . However, the two highlights for me (besides finally getting to meet Glenn Adamson after a few years of corrsoponding online) were meeting and listening to Constance Adams speak and hearing Simon Sterling talk about his work.


Here Constance is taking the scrimshaw & relating it to craft that came out of having time at sea in relation to the question of what crafts will come out of the downtime during space travel. Constance is an architect that works with NASA & mother of two daughters. She sorta kinda blew my mind.


Dundee


Photo of the Chicks On Speed film at the DCA

Friday:
I went to some morning lectures at the Symposium then Sarah from DCA dropped me off in St. Andrew and I wandered the small magical city with a hangover and my camera. Saw some beautiful things.


North Sea


St. Andrew


St. Andrews Cathedral

Got to catch my train! All the Scotland photos are here.

many hours later, still awake but in...DUNDEE!

I am here in Scotland with one wicked case of jet lag. After a quick 6 hour flight from Newerk I spent a few hours at the Dundee Contemporary Arts listening to the gallery talk with Melissa from Chicks on Speed. I then wandered around the city center for a bit, found a grocery store and picked up some fixins for hotel sammies & morning yogurt (I do this to save money but also so I don't go wild eating out since I'm on the road so much). I'm gonna try to catch a bit of sleep before my workshop & screening tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to a week of meeting new people and exploring. Some photos are up here.


Soup & egg on toast snack at DCA


Melissa (on left) giving her gallery talk at DCA


Dundee streets


Inside the Apex hotel, rainy grey outside in Dundee

Great weekend!! Now, on to Scotland!

Like a lot of my life this weekend was a quick awesome blur. We got everything "done" just in time for the party at Sky High. There was an amazing turnout and the agreed upon overall vibe was awesome. There was skateboarding galore, BBQ for all & a ton of peeps came out to check out Alyssa Schulte's show & mural. I just uploaded some photos here (Michael Sidel uploaded some great shots of the gallery here) but am planning on adding Alyssa's art show images later this week.


The boys helping Aaron hang the first installment of the Temporary Mural Project right before the party started!


Dustin taking care of lunch


The gas company has left this gap in front of the store for over a month, peeps were hyped to do tricks over it-- Alyssa's mural is in the background. We still have to prime that wood, but at least it was hanging up in time!


Bottom half of Alyssa's mural

Today I'm off to Scotland for a week where I'm doing two screenings of Handmade Nation.



June 9th at Dundee Contemporary Arts & June 12th in Abderdeen at Peacock Visual Arts Centre for Contemporary Art. I get to hang out with my friends Chicks on Speed who also happen to be doing programing in Dundee at the same time. I have a few "off days" so I am looking forward to exploring a bit while there too. EXCITED!

I'll try to upload trip photos as I go, but not sure what the internet situation will be. Hope you all have a great week!

tickles my fancy

It's already 5pm. I am going to make a fresh blueberry pie. Then go paint the gallery walls. Then assemble 100 zines. Then then then go here.....





























Check out some more of The UFO-inspired works of Uruguayan artist Alexandro Garcia here.

Alabama

Last week Aaron & I took a poorly timed vacation to Alabama (poorly timed only due to the gallery opening this week and the amount of things to finish). I was lured there for a number of reasons, but the main objective was to hang out with my friend Merrliee Challiss who I met through the art community a number of years back (Merrliee also happens to own this fantastic bar/cafe/venue in Birmingham called the Bottletree that you should check out if you find yourself in that area).

Anyhow, Merrliee was recently in a show I curated at Craftland. We both flew to the opening in Providence which is when she told me about this mysterious place called "Dismals Canyon" where you can see glow worms. I was sold. Tickets were bought & an amazing trip occurred. Not only did we hang out at her bar, we drove to Ave Marie Grotto on the way to the Dismals and then got to explore Birmingham a bit, including a trip to meet Joe Minter the "outside artist" (read the 2009 Raw Vision article) who created the African Village in America.

Needless to say, I took a TON of photos and broke them down into four categories for you to check out. It's back to work for me. Trying to finish the layout for the limited edition zine for the gallery launch this Saturday at Sky High.


{Ave Marie Grotto photset here}




{Dismals Canyon photoset here}





{Joe Minter's Africa Village in America photoset here}


{Random Birmingham photoset here}

P.S. this is a pretty sweet southern blog