randolph market festival

Hello All!
The Man and I were pretty productive this weekend.  We.... left the house!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Randolph Street Market Festival, which is an outdoor antique/vintage/handmade/art market with food and music held once a month from May to September.  I had never gone before, although I've been hearing about it for years now, so it was fun to finally check it out.

It was really similar to the Brooklyn Flea (remember when we went last year?).

We walked around for a bit but had to stop for a bite once we passed all the food vendors.  There were some amazing smells wafting around, but as soon as we saw the huge vat of Pulled Pork we knew what we had to do.

It was so delicious that The Man was in an eternal state of thumbs up!

(he wasn't doing it on purpose, but I thought it was hilarious)

After satisfying our stomachs we went searching for our friends.  First we ran into the lovely ladies of Lost Girls Vintage.

Out friend Sarah and her partner Kyla re-vamped this awesome camper van and travel around selling their vintage wares.  Their RV is named Winnie, and she's a lovely shade of orange with chevron stripes and inside they've fitted her with clothing racks, shoes shelves and even a dressing room!

Not to mention all the other merchandise they display on racks and tables outside of Winnie. (So many bags!!)

(Sarah, Kyla, Me!)

 We said our goodbyes to Sarah and Kyla and just a few steps later we found Brett!

Brett Whitacre is a fantastic artist.  I first saw his pieces 4 years ago when I was working with his wonderful wife Kate. He uses reclaimed objects like old windows and suitcases and spray paints images on them.  I love his window pieces.  I've seen people try to paint in this technique (painting on the back of the window so you're creating your image in reverse) but for most people the image always comes out flat and dull.  Brett's window paintings and have so much color and detail and humor, I want one!!! 

After we saw Brett we decided it was time to head back home to Geoffrey to cool down for the day.

highboy

I'm a little late in posting this but, while we were in New York, The Man was in an art show here in Chicago.  The show, "Dissecting Art, Intersecting Anatomy," was put together as "an homage to the medical illustrations of Pauline Lariviere."  The Man had been working every night and weekend for weeks on this walnut highboy that was commissioned to be in the show.  We were a little bummed that we were unable to make it for opening night, but the response to his piece has been amazing.

His was the only piece of furniture in the show.  I asked him to write a little blurb about it for the blog and this is what he had to say:

"The idea behind the 'exploded' highboy was to reveal it's anatomy. Each joint is opened to show the joinery within. All the exposed joinery was done using modern joinery techniques which gave the piece a post modern aesthetic when paired with the very traditional Queen Anne highboy form. The glass in the doors and on the sides of the cabinet are original master plates from Pauline Lariviere's anatomical prints. These plates were featured and available to all the artists in the show. Looking at these plates and the beauty found within the human body inspired me to reveal the beauty inside my craft."

The Man and his team rigged up stripes of LED lights so the highboy was lit from the inside to highlight the artist's plates.  I love the photos of the piece lit up without any other lighting around it. It gives off this feeling of ominous elegance.

Here's a link to more photos. I am still in awe of how beautiful it is and, if you can believe it, it's even more stunning in person.

As I'm writing this I'm realizing that this is the first piece of The Man's furniture that I've posted on the blog.  That needs to be fixed asap!!

the assignment

So last Tuesday I completed step-one of my assignment.  When The Man and I were talking about my misuse of internet inspiration, he decided to give me an assignment.  I was to create a list of 25 creative projects that I could possibly complete in 2 days (a.k.a. a weekend).  They didn't have to all be a piece of art, just as long as I was using the creative side of my brain and not just sitting on the couch all weekend long.

After the list was complete I was told to put it away and not look at it until the next day.

Wednesday's assignment:
Take the list back out and cross off 5 things, don't over think it, just 5 that you aren't as excited about as the others.  Put the list away again.

Thursday's assignment:
Take the list back out and cross off 10 things.  Seriously, try not to over think it, even though you over-analyze ev.er.y.thing. Put the list away.

Friday's assignment:
Take the list back out and cross off all but 1. By now you probably new which one you were going to choose, you've been thinking about it for the past 3 days, and you're actually excited.  After work go get any supplies you will need so there will be no excuses when you wake up on Saturday.

I love making lists, so this assignment was actually super fun, and what's great is now I have a whole slew of stuff to do... when I finish what I'm working on right now. 

how to draw a moose

Remember back when I talked to you about Oliver Jeffers?
Well, he came out with a new book called This Moose Belongs to Me, and as I was searching for it I found this charming video of Oliver Jeffers showing us how to draw a moose!!


Fantastic!! I love his accent.
This video makes me want to go find some old landscape paintings and draw animals into . . .
Maybe I will!