Making An Effort

Of late my blog may have appeared to be lacking in real effort. I have attended shows and been to galleries and museums and wish to write about all of them, but a new job has left me lacking vie at the end of the day. With that said, this evening I spent a good amount of time looking through scans to make a collage. The collage is a hot medium in the art world at present and highly appealing to someone who sees beauty in the found image. After selecting way more images than I needed, I had the daunting task of making them work together. Several cups of tea and some organic dark chocolate later I came to the conclusion that keeping things simple and using only a few images, makes the final result more effective. I started multiple collages, but the one below is the only one I felt was complete and made sense. I am going to attempt to create more assemblages on a regular basis and so comments and suggestions are welcome.

Found Treasure

So the screen on my beautiful little digital camera seems to have being impacted by some unknown force. And it is currently winging its way back to the supplier for a full refund...fingers crossed. In the mean time, the streets of Chicago are proving more than entertaining with other peoples memories. If you look closely, you can see this was taken on the Men In Black Alien Attack ride at Universal Studios Florida on 24th February 2007. Agent score not recorded!

New Years Day Found

More Christmas Cards

"Well, my family may be butt ugly, but look at the house I bought to hide them in..."

Christmas Past

Remember when a simple photo & a few choice words said it all. Here are a few Holiday Cards I found in numerous second hand & junk stores over Chicago. I thought it might help some people get in the Holiday Spirit.

A Vision of Beauty

When I left the studio this evening I felt an incredible tension in the air stabbing at me with blood dripping talons. A mass of people frantically attempting to beat one another to the biggest most expensive thing they simply must have, wrapped in smooth sparkly paper, finished with a big velvet bow to enunciate their love. Bah Humbug! I decided to join in and steaked my place at the North Avenue bus stop at the Wicker Park 6 corners. Didn't wait an unsually long time for the west bound bus to arrive & without fail it was full, but there were two more following close behind, so no need to jump the queue here. Of course I was going to one of the most middle class, white, 2.4 kids, Weimaraner in the back of the SUV shopping areas in Chicago. Sheffield and North Avenue. Now, I have never taken a single driving lesson and living in Chicago has shown me I don't need that kind of stress. I am fortunate enough to be able to walk to work & shops from my flat & if I need to go further a field, then I have no phobia inhibiting me from using the CTA. This one particular death trap that has reafirmed my prior decision is at Kingsbury & North Avenue. I have long questioned why the city did not have traffic lights. Voilà! We have lights in place...but no juice to put them into action. Don't panic, they went one further and got the best traffic management person (what are they called?) to work the insane on slaught of cars at this very junction. Watching this woman control the traffic was like magic. At no point did she make a wrong call, keep anyone waiting too long or pause for breath. If only I had remebered to put the battery in my camera when I grabbed it this morning, then you could have seen her. Instead, here is a polaroid I found at a bizarre little antique shop I came across on Belmont 2 years ago.