697 Miles: solo road trip

It is 697 miles from Milwaukee, WI to Falkville, AL which I just drove in my recently acquired 1986 Toyota pickup. I made the drive very leisurely due to adverse weather conditions along the way. My route was Wisconsin --> Illinois --> Indiana --> Kentucky --> Tennessee --> Alabama. Basically I drove very short distances and did a lot of stopping along the way, that's the best part about traveling solo is you can do whatever you want when you want. 

Finally I made it to Tune Farm where I will be for the rest of December. I'm here as their first artist-in-resident. The loose plan over the next few weeks will include shooting a ton of photos, making some new art with the supplies I carted down from Milwaukee, exploring Alabama more and potentially playing some music since I brought along my saw.

If I can get the same road luck when I drive back home in January I'll be hyped. I also made a list of things to check out on the way back. Seeing Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is now on the top of my to do list after watching a very long PBS documentary about it's history in my hotel one night while there was a ice storm raging outside.

 

This is Little Mama + Shotgun the Tune Farm pups greeting me upon arrival.

Bread & Puppet: In Danger Is Help

Bread & Puppet has made 50 years of influential work and finally having the opportunity to see the museum where the history is archived was incredibly moving. It was a very very cold day in Vermont. Eilis, her 10 month old son Ned and I all took the hour drive from their farm to go explore the two level barn where years puppets and radical performance props are densely archived. Layers of history and stories are installed throughout the massive barn that is a self-help set up and open to the public. You unlock the doors, turn on the lights and remember to shut everything off when you leave.

Thank you Bread and Puppet for influencing me and so many other artists I love and respect around the world. Thank you for saving your history for generations to come and making it available to the public. If you are ever in Vermont, go here. And explore on the way (I highly recommend stopping at the Museum of Everyday Life!)

A Tarot Gathering

On October 30th the lovely Heather Wojner owner and curator behind Bonadrag.com held a small tarot gathering in her Milwaukee home. Not only did she put together an amazing spread with the help of her sister Sarah but she painstakingly crafted ten headdresses for her guests based on Kim Krans tarot deck. Kim herself was in town from California to give each guest a reading while the rest of us drank bubbling witches brew & listened to jams dj'ed by Kim's partner Johnny Ollsin. 

Really a girl can't complain when her friends rule this hard. Thank you Heather, Kim, Johnny & Sarah for making such a beautiful evening. And ladies (Jess, Cortney, Lauren, Ashley, Ella, MJ, Hannah, Traci & Gia) DAMN did you bring it with your loveliness. 

Fun side note: Last year I did the art direction for director Sam Macon on a video for Kim & Johnny's music project Family band. Watch it here.