Monday, July 30, 2012

TUNING OUT
















Tomorrow morning I fly to North Carolina where I will be living for the month of August. I will be staying off the grid deep in the Smokey Mountains where I will be shooting a friends land project. You may of seen some of my past photos of their place, but this round will be something wildly different all together. I'll share some highlights upon my return in September.

Enjoy the rest of your Summer!


Friday, July 27, 2012

FREE ADVICE

There are those types of summer days when your 11 friends arrive in 2 vehicles to perform under the name Dawn of the Universe.










......and then the night gets wild & the cops come to tell you to go home.


The story of some overalls

I felt it was necessary to post all these images together to tell the story of these overalls. The have somehow been in my life from the beginning and it's even documented. They had become too thin and soft to even wear but were too sentimental to toss. Luckily I had an idea.

Minneapolis circa 1978

Upstate NY circa 1982
Me in the garden: Milwaukee 2007

Our new quilt we commissioned from Cortney Heimerl: 2012

The overall's have found a new home. She even sewed the tag onto the back panel for extra sentimental value. The beautiful back fabric was found on a trip to Java and the tiny red squares in the center of each block were left over scraps from Aaron's grandmother fabric stash.

Over all, a happy ending & new beginning. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Minneapolis: OOooohhhhhhhh

My trips to Minneapolis are never frequent enough. This last trip was encouraged by a party invite from my good friend Nancy Jane. We were invited to her 35th birthday party on the Mississippi River. A floating party? There was no way I was going to miss it but Aaron had a photo assist job lined up so solo I went. Initially the plan was to take a week road trip and visit country living friends on the way back- but the calendar filled up and it became too much. Instead of the solo drive I looked into flights. It turned out that a flying was as affordable as driving alone and a fraction of the time, 2 hours opposed to 12 round trip.

Friday afternoon: I took the light rail from the airport into the city, only $1.75 to get downtown. My old roommate and hostess for the weekend Rana picked me up and the jam packed weekend began. We went to stop by our friends Rozina and Graham's house in Powderhorn Park only to find this amazingly beautiful parade happening. They said it's annual and hosted by the local church but we couldn't figure out  what it was for- traditional garb mixed with demon costumes, incense, music and dancing.



Graham was able to show me his new record lathe [in action below]. His new company 2208 Records offers custom lathe cut records of any type. Any vinyl nerds should check out his site, I was blown away with the custom work he has been doing. I was able to pick a song off my ipod and have a 7" made- it cuts in real time peeling the plexiglass away to make the groves.
 

Saturday: Rana and I took it slow arriving at the boat dock just in time to get on board the Minneapolis Queen. 



Skoal Kodiak [above] played their early evening set followed by the Birthday Suits.

Sunday: After 4 hours of sleep morning came really fast. I was scooped up by Nona Marie and Annika for a early brunch since their music project Anonymous Choir had an afternoon recording session scheduled. Instead of piling out for a few hours before my afternoon studio visit with Ina Grau I just ended up going along to shoot some stills. I am so so so very glad I did. If you are ever sleepy and a bit hung over I recommend a room full of ladies singing Leonard Cohen covers and piano music to lift your soul.



The recording session was conveniently close to my afternoon appointment. For the past year I've been following designers Crystal Quinn and Luisa Fernanda Garcia-Gomez [below left and right] the two women behind the soon to be launched shoe line Ina Grau. I've been (im)Patiently waiting to get my hands on a pair of their painstakingly beautiful shoes so to satiate my wants I thought it would be good to check out whats been unfolding in the studio. Their full story will be saved for another time, but their vision and commitment to quality is beyond impressive.






















































Monday: In the morning Rana and I had breakfast at Hard Times Cafe then she dropped me at the light rail station. I hightailed it back to Milwaukee on my speedy 1 hour flight to prepare for the 11 guests arriving the next day on tour with Dawn of the Universe. That story is for the next post.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sign Painters Book Cover

I'm going to keep this short & sweet. Today we finally shared the cover for the new book. Sign Painters, published by Princeton Architectural Press will be be available in October at your local book stores & online. Sam & I began shooting the documentary (to be released early 2013) over 3 years ago- HIGH KICKS all around!!

Cover designed and hand painted by my dear talented friend Ira Coyne






Thursday, July 5, 2012

Colored Smoke in Oostberg














 
P.S. A summer toast to celebrating 3 years with my man this week. Aaron Polansky, I love you.

P.S.S. Thanks Sam for making the fireworks continually bigger and better every year. Also for getting my sissy smoke bomb request vision fulfilled. 

P.S.S.S. Extra thanks for Jonah & even more so his mom for letting us invade her beautiful beach side house in Ootsberg, WI for the third year in a row to take a day off to kick it with our friends, swim, eat and blow up a ridiculous amount of fireworks.

full photo set here. 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

From Near & Far


It's been awhile since I've had time to make a flyer. Come to this show if you live in Milwaukee next week, it should be full of surprises and fun. Friends from the west & east touring together for a few months making performance/music/magic.