ALASKA: Anchorage + Fairbanks & Juneau

I did it, I've been to all 50 states.



This trip to Alaska was too much to sum up in the amount of time I have right now to post. I feel deeply moved after this journy. I really really loved it. In 6 days, I took 9 flights. I had the opportunity to visit Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau thanks to the Alaska Design Forum. They invited me to be a part of their guest lecture series that happens every year. As it so often goes when I visit a city, I have friends who live there. I was able to reconnect with an old buddy from high school who now works at the Anchorage Art Museum (synchronously, this is where my programing was held) and see old homies from Milwaukee and their beautiful kids. I learned more than I could absorb about Alaskan culture. I saw a titch of the survival and the extremities that those who choose to live there endure for the payoff of living in one of the most breath taking and beautiful places I've ever been. I saw so much in the short time that I was there, but my list has doubled since I've been home for when I go back.

The blue of Mendenhall Glacier will always be burned in my minds eye. The mouthwash locked behind the counter at the grocery store. Knowing that fiber from an arctic musk ox called Qiviut doesn't shrink and is the softest thing I've ever felt. We "down here" are referred to as living in "the lower 48". I saw craftsmanship that boiled my creative blood. Bead and leather work that made my mouth water. Amazing handmade traditional outer wear like boots made from fish and parkas sewn from seal gut. There were piles of facts that I want to know more about. Each city was vastly different and I can't wait to go back for more. Alaska, you got your icy hooks in me.





































I am almost done reading "Shadows on the Koyukuk" a book I picked up in Fairbanks & highly recommend it. As written about in this rambling review the book focuses on: outdoor survival, big game hunting, trapping, Alaskan Native Education in the 1920s, Athabaskan culture and history, the food chain biology of the Koyukuk region, economics of trapping, gold mining, and trading in Alaska.

Full Alaska photo set here. Coming up: Thailand in less than two days.

Temporary Murals + Polaroids + Landfill

Tomorrow (well today, it's late) I leave for Alaska, my very last state in America to visit. I'll be in Anchorage, Juneau & the unreal below freezing Fairbanks for 3 screenings of Handmade Nation (see sidebar for details). To prepare today I went to the "outdoor store" wandered around, got overwhelmed and ended up with a pair of $15 wool socks in hopes of staying warm. Go ahead, laugh.


Landfill (detail): Makeal Flammini and Ella Dwyer 2011

It's been 4 days since we got back from Mexico. It's looking like 2011 is going to be a lot like 2010, which was a lot like 2009. I think I see a pattern emerging and it looks like an organized chaos spiriling into a fantastic black hole of endless possibilities and lots of airplanes.

On Thursday in the freezing cold our new fantastic Temporary Mural by Colin Matthes was installed on Howell Ave. at Sky High, blogged here.





Yesterday, Gallery Night here in Milwaukee, we hosted the opening reception of "Polaroids" by Amanda Marsalis at Sky High Gallery, blogged here.





After all the hot toddy's were served and the cheese plate was empty Aaron and I hightailed it over to see Landfill. To be honest I don't know if the brand-spanking-new space in Walkers Point will be called Landfill or if it was just the name of their first exhibit, but maybe the name will stick (my votes in). I enjoyed the show much more than expected, not meant at all in a snotty way. I was pleased with the combination of the work shown, the collaboration aspect of the artists & the new space made me feel excited and tingly about good solid things happening here in Milwaukee.


















We bought this piece by Makeal

"Landfill is an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Milwaukee artists Makeal Flammini and Ella Dwyer. Makeal Flammini reflects on her fragmented and partial memories of childhood kicks to the head, greasy Los Angeles producers, bizarre friendships and first loves. Ella Dwyer creates fantastical animals in a bizarre world of pattern and color."

Full photo set here

Mexico: 2011 kick-off

Aaron & I took a trip to Mexico to meet up with my bff Andrea & her man Derek. We spent 2 nights in Playa del Carmen, then spent 3 luxury nights at our friends aunt's house called Casa Magna in Akumal.

Here are some vacay highlights that basically sum up our eating, swimming, relaxing & eating & more swimming schedule.









































Full Mexico vacation photo set here.
Under water on film vacation photo set here.