Last week, a friend and I took a little daycation to Chinatown. We met at Macy’s and decided to take the train there and the water taxi back.
The building on the left in the picture had some great architectural details, including a peacock that I just had to snap a picture of. It made me kind of sad that my peacock fans are not hanging up here in Chicago.
We ate at a restaurant on the other side of the street, so I took a picture of the peacock building from there. The peacock was on the side of one of the doorways.
After lunch and a few souvenir shop stops, we walked up to Ping Tom Memorial Park to take the water taxi up the river to the Wrigley Building.
Since it was a Daycation, I was glad to find the perfect souvenir.
I only expected there to be three dolls, but when I got down to the third doll, I could hear that there was another one inside. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it open, so I decided to put it in the freezer to try to shrink the wood a bit. Even after an hour or so, it didn’t open, so I put it back in. When my husband took it out and got it open a few hours later, he started laughing because he could hear that there was another one inside doll number four. He couldn’t get that one open either, and at first, we thought we’d put it back in the freezer but I did some googling and found out about the rolling method – putting both hands on top of the doll and gently rolling it. That worked, and I was pretty surprised when he brought me the fifth doll as it had no face – only a single flower. For now, they’re sitting in front of the other Matroyskas, so we can admire them for a while before they nest together again.
When we entered the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts from the landscaped end at Hawthorne Street, we decided to walk all the way down on the right and then back up. I wanted to divert from that plan almost immediately when I caught a glimpse of a robot with an alphabet block body. I had always wanted to be able to buy a robot made of recycled hardware parts by Easthampton artist Mark Brown, but I didn’t think I could afford one. My favorite Mark Brown robot’s body was made of an ice cube tray. I was intrigued by these new alphabet block body robots not only because they reminded me of the Mark Brown ones (and I hoped since they were smaller they might be less expensive) but also because they reminded me of our Alphabots by Hillbilly Healy.
When we finally got back to the booth, we found that the robots were attractively priced at $20.00 and were basically flying out of the booth. I was attracted to the yellow Q block for some reason, and he was quickly purchased and popped into a bag with a bonus robot.
Neither the robot nor the bag are signed, but I checked the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts website and found that the artist is Andrew Ozark from Livonia, Michigan.
Alphabots on both ends of the shelf!
I stopped by Inkling a gift store in my neighborhood that has some vintage items for sale and was immediately captivated by this rooster and his wonderful comb. He is standing on a blue base that says Portugal, so after I brought him home, I did a little research and found out that he is from the city of Barcelos but that he has come to symbolize Portugal as a whole and is sometimes referred to as a good luck rooster.
There is a legend about the Rooster of Barcelos and here from https://www.kinashi-san.com/post/the-legend-of-the-rooster-of-barcelos is the short version of the legend:
“The legend of this rooster dates back to the Middle Ages. It begins with a pilgrim on his way to Santiago de Compostela. He had the misfortune to stop off in Barcelos, when the town was hit by a series of robberies and burglaries. The pilgrim is accused of being a criminal and sentenced to hang. As a last request, the poor man asked to see the judge, who was about to enjoy a rooster. He promised that if he was innocent, the animal would come back to life and start crowing. And it did.”
It is considered good luck to place the rooster with its head facing the entrance door “to bring blessings and ward off negative energies from entering the home,” but I love the way he looks from the side so that is how he is positioned in our home.
I have a tendency to write notes on envelopes and other random pieces of paper when the need to remember something strikes me. The other day, I was organizing a pile of things (another tendency) that I wanted to save and file, and I came across this envelope and the quote, “Collecting begins with lust.” I remembered that I wrote this during one of the Intuit collector tours, and based on other evidence on the envelope, I concluded it was from last December and that Doug Bristol was the quoted collector.
Lust, I thought, really? But I looked it up, and after I got past all the sexual references, I found the definition “intense desire for something.” That made me think of a recent experience involving my newest collection of wooden mushrooms. Since I found one wooden mushroom at Marshall’s, I feel almost compelled to return again and again and look for more. On one trip, I found one from India, but it had what I thought was an enamel coat over the cap so that only the stem looked wooden and like it belonged with the rest of my mushrooms. So I reluctantly left without it. But I pined for it or dare I say lusted for it and when I realized the enamel was the same color as the inside of the bowl on the shelf above the mushrooms, I returned to Marshall’s the next day and was relieved that it was still there.
Lust satiated!
I have been visiting and writing about museum studio spaces, but I’ve also been reading about the concept of facilitating art experiences in museum galleries rather than in a separate art studio. At the Hyde Park Art Center, I recently had the opportunity to observe a small studio space and participate in a workshop right in the middle of the exhibition, “The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige.”
The Woodshed (from the title of a book by abstract painter Jack Whittier) is a structure in the center of the gallery which includes some drop in art materials for people visiting the exhibition and is also used for hands-on public art workshops once a week during the exhibition.
I was at the museum to take part in one of the hands-on workshops, which was a collaboration with Intuit: “Notes from The Woodshed Workshop: Materiality & Technique: How do materials shape the process?”
The workshop started with a tour of the gallery led by Hyde Park Art Center Community Engagement Fellow, Keny De La Peña who talked about Robert Earl Paige’s career and several of his techniques. We then went over to the tables that were set up in the gallery to learn more about Batik and the process we would be using. Robert Earl Paige joined us and showed us some more of his pieces as he told us a little more about his technique. (Unfortunately, I didn’t snap a picture of him, but here is one I found online.)
And then surrounded by his art, we began to explore the materials. After we sketched out our designs we went into The Woodshed to apply the wax, which was melting in an electric pot sold for salons – a big upgrade from the electric frying pan and tin can method I used many years ago when I did batik with melted crayons. Then, we returned to the tables for the dying process. The expectation was that we would apply the dye with foam brushes in a method similar to the ones Paige uses.
I had been thinking about what I wanted to make for days, which turned out to be a mistake. I envisioned an indigo design that I could make into a pillow that would complement the ones that I made from a piece of African fabric I had been given when I was high school (I had originally made it into a dress). Unfortunately, because the dye we were using was sold for tie dye, the blue was not indigo but turquoise, and because I was only using one color, we dunked it rather than using the applied brush method.
While I’m not going to be making a pillow, it was fun to try Batik again and to think about how ” materials shape the process.” It is always fun to make art with others, although this time it was a bit intimidating.
But as always, their designs sparked some ideas, and I think there will be more batik experimenting in my future!
I’ve written about free little libraries and free little art galleries, and now I’ve noticed the idea is growing. Probably to the consternation of one of Chicago’s Alderman who introduced an ordinance last summer to regulate them. Alderman Raymond Lopez thinks the little libraries should be subject to permits and should be run only by authorized nonprofit groups. “These bookcases have been popping up all throughout the city completely unregulated,” he complained to Block Club Chicago. A Chicago Tribune editorial on the ridiculousness of the proposed ordinance mentioned another take on the free little libraries – Spencer’s Garage where people can take or leave toy cars rather than books.
At the beginning of the pandemic, some little libraries started requesting food items rather than books, and I noticed recently that one in our neighborhood has been permanently converted into a little food pantry.
I haven’t seen one in person yet, but I saw on Instagram that there are now also Little Free Puzzle Libraries.
They don’t just have an Instagram presence. They have their own website that includes a map of locations.
There seems to be only one in Illinois so far, but I bet it won’t be long until I see one in person. Well, as long as the proposed ordinance, which was sent back to committee last October, doesn’t come back up for a vote and pass.
I didn’t just get the one water bottle for my birthday, I mentioned in my last post. I actually got two water bottles. The second one from my daughter was more about the image on the bottle than the bottle itself, which doesn’t have the right top for a water bottle as far as I’m concerned. It will make a good container for cranberry juice, though, and most importantly, sports a beautiful Starbucks two tailed mermaid.
I needed to compose a triptych to show both tails. My daughter said that this one wasn’t for stickers, but I did put on the mermaid gang one my granddaughters had given me from one of their sticker stashes.
Speaking of Starbucks mermaids, I found a new one at a rest area on our girl’s trip – a two tailed mermaid as a constellation!
Our girl’s trip included a “three girl” birthday celebration at my sister’s with my niece and youngest granddaughter, where I received my favorite birthday gift. My niece gave me a “vintage” rubber stamp set with celestial images from artwork in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Almost as soon as I got home, I unpacked it and made a little book for her.
Then, I made a birthday card for my husband using the sun stamps along with some other sun stamps I had been given in the past.
Additions to my collections are the best gifts!
I got a new water bottle for my birthday and while I really needed a new one since my old one was all wobbly, I was sad to say goodbye to it’s sticker collection so I took some photos to memorialize them.
One of the first stickers I put on when my water bottle was new was the Picasso sticker we got from our real estate agent. They actually send us two of everything, so this sticker is also the first sticker on my new water bottle!
The mermaid sticker came with a 2022 Christmas gift from my Missouri niece.
Turning the bottle reveals an octopus that Chicago Children’s Museum Liz gave me last Christmas. I stuck it over a sticker from Rosa’s Lounge that had almost completely disintegrated. At first, I liked the way it was weathering. I thought it looked like an old poster when I posted the picture below on Instagram right after I bought the guitar with flowers sticker from @beksstitches.
The sticker I was saddest to lose was the Support Live Music sticker, which I got on the first day of the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival.
I picked up the two blues stickers at the 2023 Chicago Blues Festival.
Since the water bottle was becoming a kind of catalog of things I like – art, music, mermaids – I thought it needed a book sticker, so I ordered one from @b.z.creations. That sticker below it from the Lakeview Festival of Arts held up extremely well. While I’m sad to let this water bottle go, I’m excited to see how my new one turns out!
They don’t just do owls in Coxsackie (last post) they also do cats in Catskill, so while we were in New York we were glad to find out that we were going out to dinner in Catskill. We saw lots of them as we drove down the street to the restaurant, and when we got there, they said they needed a minute to set the table, so we grabbed a brochure and my youngest granddaughter set out to see how many we could “get.”
There were two different styles of cats. Standing cats like “Painter Cat” above and sitting ones like “Liza Mewnelli.”
They were so many on Main Street that we “got” quite a lot. While my granddaughter was checking them off on her brochure, I took pictures of a few.
Christie Hicks & Karen Robinson
I had to take two shots of this one because it was so clever. “Honoring the Catskill Game Farm” was by Pamela Quick-Antonette.
We heard that in nearby Cairo, they did bears, but we decided we were happy with the owls and the cats we got!
Our girl’s trip this year included a visit to my sister’s Hudson, N.Y. home, but since the young girls require a pool, we stayed at a hotel in Coxsackie. As we left the restaurant on our first night, I glimpsed a painted owl. And when we drove across the street to the urgent care clinic to get my oldest granddaughter’s stitches removed (ice skating fall), we saw another one.
When I mentioned the owls to the receptionist at the clinic, she told us they were all around town and suggested that we drive down to the river to find more. So the next morning, we did, and we passed many more owls on the way there. There was a sign at the river park that explained why “in Coxsackie they do owls” – Coxsackie means Place of Owls.
We also found some more owls and a brochure that listed all 39 of them. My youngest granddaughter was excited to check out all the owls we “got.” Here are some of the ones we saw:
The two book ones were my favorites. Owl Moon was in front of the library, and Archimedes was featured on the brochure, so we made a special point of seeking him out. And speaking of the brochure…
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 