I had an amazing birthday weekend! I drove up to see Ben in CT, we had my birthday dinner in Providence at Nick’s on Broadway, and we went to MASS MoCA to see Petah Coyne (thought it turned out the best exhibit there was the Material World sculpture show). We also ate a lot of ice cream, went thrift-storing, and did some grilling for the 4th. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Birthday Dinner! Eyeball Soup! Well… it wasn’t really called that, but it should be. It was actually yummy tomato zucchini oregano basil soup at Nick’s. We had lavender black pepper panna cotta and malted milk chocolate custard for dessert. Nom nom.

Mmmm. Ice cream. This was our first ice cream of the weekend. We had Guinness Creme Brulee and Black and Tan ice cream from The Brewer’s Cow (the shop itself was not The Brewer’s Cow, it was just selling it). Delicious! And they had an awesome sign too.

On our drive to MASS MoCA, we saw Three Sisters Sanctuary on the side of the road and decided to stop and check it out. They have gardens, sculpture, random collected junk, and the guy who runs the place restores old stoves that you can see in progress. It’s definitely worth the stop if you’re passing by.

Here’s Ben in an installation at MASS MoCA. We had fun playing with exposures on the camera. It looks like we did a Photoshop filter but we did not. Ooooh! Aaaaah! Ben’s idea; I’ll give him credit.

Turns out Sol LeWitt drawings are really fun to take photos in front of. Who would have known? I’m on an animated gif kick today…

See what I mean? More Sol LeWitt. OK. I’ll stop with all the annoying animated gifs now. And this post altogether.

I thought I would take this opportunity of school being closed today to share some things. This is a painting I finished recently for a friend. An xmas gift. Belated xmas gift. Perhaps the start of a new series? We shall see…

And, of course, how could I resist sharing a snow picture? Wow, this was before it even stopped. We had some crazy thundersnow that night too. It woke me up at 5am it was so loud. I have to say I quite enjoyed myself this weekend. Got in some sledding, some hot toddies, long walks, hanging out with friends, and watched a lot of people use their feet instead of their wheels.

Wow. This movie is… well… I hate to say it… but… perfect? Maybe? Perhaps? I can think of nothing critical to say, anyway. How could you possibly not want to see the stealthy teenage fox sneaking around in such a lovely homemade bandit hat as pictured above? Just go see it. Now. As fast as your legs will get you to The Charles, or your local theatre wherever you may be.

I took a road trip with my friend Missy this weekend to Philadelphia. Thanks for asking me to join you and suggesting some great destinations, Missy! Every time I go to Philadelphia I have a great time and see super-duper (I used the thesaurus to get that word because I didn’t want to use great again and my brain wouldn’t come up with anything interesting - thanks thesaurus!) things and convince myself I want to move there. Are there any out Philadelphians out there? Is it as awesome as the awesomeness I am projecting onto it?

Part 1: Jason Hackenwerth Show
Missy introduced me to this artist (which I believe is what inspired her idea for this trip in the first place). We saw his large scale balloon sculptures at a gallery whose name I can’t remember but was an amazing restored warehouse style space and was in the same neighborhood as the restaurant we went to below. The fingery parts of the uninflated ends reminded me a lot of some of my more obsessive amoeba-like drawings.

Part 2: Lunch at Johnny Brenda’s
We met a friend of Missy’s for lunch here, thanks to her friend’s wonderful suggestion. At my insistence we began the foodfest with a whiskey donut. Delicious! And very whiskey-ish. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my grandmother’s super soaked rum balls that I love now but was disgusted by as a kid. Also at my insistence we sat at the dark table with pulsating lights (pictured above with the beloved donut). I proceeded to order ham and cheese grits which was covered in sunny side up eggs. Also very yummy! I finished it all off with some wonderful local beer - they had a lot of choices on tap. It looks like this place has it all: good food (both savory and sweet), good drink, interesting decor, and apparently live music as I see from their website.

Part 3: Eastern State Penitentiary
I have always wanted to go here but for one reason or another all my trips to Philadelphia have not allowed the time to squeeze it in. Until now. If you have not been there, it is worth checking it out! We happened to pick the perfect kind of day to go (dreary, overcast, and chilly) and the sun was setting toward the end which added to the creepy factor of the place. The detritus, textures, and gloomy atmosphere forced me to have to restrain myself from taking a photo every time I took a step. Artist installations appear here and there in some of the cells. I wouldn’t suggest going there if you are expecting something amazing installation wise. While some of the pieces were great (again that great, but too lazy for thesaurus this time), you aren’t going to run into one every time you turn a corner and a lot of the technologically dependent ones weren’t working. Oh, and if you decide to go, you have the pleasure of a walking recorded audio tour with Steve Buscemi to look forward to.

We had a few other interesting adventures but I think you’ve heard enough and those are some of my particularly favorite highlights.

Lots of traveling last weekend! A perfect time for it too. The leaves were beautiful. I drove up to see Ben and while there, we went to Boston for our anniversary dinner (because there aren’t too many - any, really - options out in the middle of nowhere CT) and to NYC for a day of gallerying in Chelsea.

Dinner was amazing. And I have two new favorite artists now. The first is Marina Zurkow (video from the show I saw above, taken from her site). We stumbled upon a great group media exhibit (Jim Campbell among them) where we saw her work. Make sure you take a look at her site! She is making quite a broad range of both visual and conceptual pieces. She is awesome!

My second new favorite is Thordis Adalsteinsdottir (I had to check that about ten times to get the spelling right), a painter from Iceland. The image above I took from her site, though not one I saw in the show. None of the images I could find even come close to doing her work justice, unfortunately. Her color changes are subtle and the detail in her imagery is very entertaining. I love the large mural she has posted on her site.

Lots of other good stuff too… enough to keep me inspired at least for a little while.

Why can’t I have an iPhone?! Oh yeah… I can’t afford it. And I don’t want AT&T. But, man, I would love to have a Friends With You app that lets a FWY character greet me on my phone every day. If you have an iPhone, go and get it. And tell me how wonderful it is.

This is what I labored on this labor day.

This weekend I had the rare opportunity to become a gnome. My friend Missy (aka Melissa Webb) currently has an exhibition at Gallery Imperato and I was costumed by her talented hand during the opening reception. Reverie, drinking, and gibberish were the highlights of my night in gnome form.

Today I get back to “normal” life. After several weeks in succession of visiting GA, helping Ben pack and move, and a visit from my brother and niece, things are quiet again and it is time to get down to work. New ideas and class preparation are in full swing. As Ben drives back northward, I must concentrate concentrate concentrate to avoid the lazy temptation of sadness calling my name to meaningless tasks.

OK, not to end on a sad note… I saw the new Miyazaki film Ponyo last night. It was very odd to say the least. It was certainly geared toward younger children which I don’t necessarily have a problem with, but some of the storylines trailed off with no explanation. While I am always entertained and visually stimulated by his work and odd creatures, this is definitely not one of my favorites. Maybe that is sad too. Oh well, I tried…

…because you love Bruno Munari.

Well, here is a hint: a robot? a tooth? a shadow? what do they all have in common? Go find out for sure at Natty Bumpercar’s new toon. This is an excellent tale we can all learn a little lesson from…? I also really like his Snowflake and Ants - don’t miss those!