5 month alligator pictures

I’m not too in love with any of this months pictures.. but here are the best ones! We really need to start taking these pictures when there is more light… And it would be nice if he didn’t feel the need to spit at the camera the whole time! :)

Just for fun I made a little growth chart for us (but you’ll need to click on it if you actually want to see it!)

It’s crazy to see how much he’s really grown. He still just seems like my little baby…

5k 2k9

It sounded like a good idea in May when the highs were in the 80s.But on the morning when I woke up to find this in my front yard:running 3.2 miles did not sound like a good idea anymore.Unfortunately, I’m a big girl and big girls don’t cry back out on their friends when the weather gets crappy, so I bundled up and exited my house at 8:30am Saturday morning, leaving OBaby in DanO’s care.The race itself was the Alexandra House Walk for Hope (but I swear we did the 5k run). It is domestic violence awareness month and the Alexandra House provides 24-hour emergency shelter, support services, and advocacy to victims of domestic and sexual violence across the state of Minnesota [information from their website]. It was incredible to see people wearing ‘In Memory Of’ shirts and to hear some of the talks before the race about what we can do in our community to help the cause of ending domestic violence.What can I do? I can freeze my butt off for 5 kilometers, that’s what I can do. So freeze we did for miles while avoiding ice patches (I’m not kidding, they were everywhere), reading statistics signs that were along the course (did you know that 1 in 4 women will experience sexual abuse in their lifetime?), and walkslashjogging our way to the finish line. It was a pretty great experience.Not to mention the greeting party waiting for us on the other side of the balloon-arch.DanO had successfully packed up the whole O My Fam and brought them out to cheer on mommy and Aunt Cindy as we crossed the finish line. The man is incredible! Packed the diaper bag, ate breakfast, dressed OBaby, heated up a bottle, got both OBaby and Pearl into the car, and then got them from the car to the race.What. A. Man.My little Minnesotan baby bear with his very first pink cheeks and nose.The impressive strap-the-dog-to-the-stroller solution DanO came up with to get the whole brood out of the house.So, after all that walkslashjogging, I’m not sure which is more impressive:That I can move my 12 weeks postpartum bum for 3.2 miles in the snoworthat DanO can juggle being Mr. Mom for a morning and still come out smiling.Winners all around.

will bryant..

will bryant rules. let's just get that out in the open. but too late! it's already out in the open, because anyone who knows will's stuff, knows this to be true. his work is vibrant, bright and full of life. a florescent, magnificent wonder-ocity. (new word, pls give credit whenyou wiki that. k. thanks.) the boy is a walking burst of typography,design and color. his hand lettering is awesome. his hand drawn t-shirts are like nothing else. here are just some of the spots you can get will's stuff:needles & pens, rare device, good records, w00t and his etsy store. if his visual work isn't enough for you, and you need more as you do in these days and times, check out his music: the hooded deer.

daniel szymanowski..

i'm really excited about daniel szymanowski's work. his broad range of paintings and illustrations have a wide depth with a beautifully soft palette. what initially drew me to daniel's work is his line work, color choices and symmetry that whisper a south asian influence. i really dug the subtley to his paintings. i'm also smugly delighted about daniel because he lives and works in boston. yay! please take a look at daniel's website...i honestly gleaned probably like eleven images to post, but then realized that not only is that way too much it's slightly insane. but hell, i get happy sometimes about art i love. so here is an edited version of what i took from daniel's website.

ryan crowley.

To be honest, I cannot wrap my head around what it would take to make a sculpture.  Not only are there two dimensional issues to address, artists must also then grapple with gravity and the tricky disconnect between the materials used and the larger representation in space.  An artist who is way too successful at meeting these challenges is my buddy Ryan Crowley.  His sculptures are like pop culture regurgitations.  Cartoon clichés, corny logos, and American food products are processed into perverse ideological hybrids.  I like Ryan’s work because it’s like encountering an inside joke you didn’t realize you were part of.  They’re nostalgic, critical, and a bit loony all at once.

 

Ryan’s in the process of cooking up a website, but he can be reached at ryan.crowley@massart.edu.  His sculpture, Boot, can also be found in the Tower Lobby at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  Check it out!

 

 

Bill Dunlap the Students of West Nottingham Academy..

Bill Dunlap recently finished up a residency at West Nottingham Academy where he worked on a few murals, one of his own and one with the high school kids from the academy. In his own mural, Bill incorporates Walt Whitman's Song of Myself (1855):

The kids murals, are above and below.

Make Me Babies

I have soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much to do today, and I’m currently right in the middle of a slight melt down.. (Yes, screaming at the top of your lungs at your boss about how sick you are of him flip flopping all the time, and you wish he’d just make up his freakin‘ mind… and then bursting into tears moments before running and locking yourself in the bathroom… only constitutes as a slight melt down in my book!)ANYWAY….I saw this on my baby board forum that I read and had to try it…. Here is baby boy Eaton… This honestly freaks me out a little.. he looks a little too much like me.. and I don’t think he’s very cute…… HOWEVER… he is better than the alternative… Baby Girl E….

Why is she cross eyed?????? And you may keep that comment to your self Ryan!!! I still don’t know if I’ve forgiven you guys yet for never telling me that I have a weird eye…. That’s all for now… I will commence the melt down…..

as life and time progess

Coming to you from the great green northwest which, as these last few days have testified, is nothing like the great white north.It is always such a hoot to come back to your old stomping grounds after a long period away. (Speaking of being ‘from’ Minnesota: hoot? Did I really just use hoot as conventional language?) Sure there are new strip malls around every bend, your favorite lunch place has moved to a new building up the street, and suddenly your home town has it’s own commuter train station, but there’s more than that.There’s the feeling of unexpected shock at how things look around here. There’s that notion that this is all strangely familiar, yet strangely strange at the same time. I’m not as surprised by what is new since I left as I am by what is old yet feels new, feels different.My mental maps are fading of this place. When I needed to get across town, I had to struggle to draw the roads toward each other in my mind until I could see where they met and how I would get there. I’m still not sure I took the most efficient route, but hey. At least I took a route.But those moments of recollection are so great, aren’t they? Despite the duration, faded memories, changes, I could still find my best friend’s house with my eyes closed. The owner of the Teryaki lunch place still remembers me (and thinks my dad’s name is Robby, which it’s not). The cheapest gas is still right outside of town. That street in my old neighborhood still does the Christmas lights on their trees identically.It’s a weird awareness of time and space to come back somewhere being so different from who you were last time you were there. I was not a mom last time I drove these streets, sat at this coffee shop, saw these friends. Much like my old city, a lot has changed for me lately too.

Mon Petit Fantome..

I received a lovely package in the mail the other day from Chad Merritt of Mon Petit Fantome. There was so much care and thought put into the package, I almost didn't want to open it. You know that lasted for about  a minute! But seriously as I tore through the packaging (jooooke, I did open it nice and sweetly as I was raised to do, so...back to the package) in it were beautifully hand cut paper cuts. One of a bear, and in his eyes were silhouettes of a woman, super nice touch. The next was of intricately cut spider webs, my favorite. You can check out prints of these originals here. I can't wait to get some nice frames for them.

He also included a few other jointed shadow puppets, a disc of his music, awesome promotional pics and the way to a girls heart: a doily. I love mail. Thanks Chad!

cassandra smith..

Faythe Levine recently brought my forever wandering attention to Milwaukee based artist Cassandra Smith. As you can see form these images, I stopped in my tracks. Cassandra uses Taxidermy and snack cakes in a decidedly unexpected way. Over email Cassandra explained her thoughts on her work and the ideas behind it:

"The taxidermy is sourced from e-bayor from people who were looking to get rid of it.  I try to get it"used" for moral reasons, it makes it easier on my conscience. Thefish, however, are plastic because I wanted uniform repetition, butit's sort of the same concept because they are plastic fish meant to bedisplayed on your wall in place of actual taxidermy. With the animalpieces I was thinking about the combination of masculine and feminineversions of craft, and how they might be represented together.  I alsorealized that traditional craft, taxidermy and art are all just waysfor us to display our accomplishments and talents to other people. Ona simple level, these pieces are also about pattern and form and theway that organic and geometric shapes and patterns play off of oneanother. For the snack pieces Idecided to ignore their edibility and amplify their attractiveness bycovering them in sequins and turning them into wall patterns. This waythey are no longer disposable or forgettable. I wanted to make themsimultaneously more attractive and less obtainable."Besides keeping herself busy with her work, Cassandra is also co owner of The Armoury Gallery.

Giveaway from Chronicle Books Whip Up Mini Quilts..

As I mentioned below, there would be a giveaway today of Kathreen Ricketson's new book Whip Up Mini Quilts. I am huge fan of quilts and quilting and looking at those teeny quilts below have me jonesing to get my hands on some serious fat quarters of calico! Leave a comment and three winners will be chosen in 24 hrs. Have fun!

im your buckaroo

Yes. Country music songs are cheesy. and predictable. and repetitive. and usually twangy. But they have such good stories! Seriously you guys, this song makes me want to cry. Or maybe that’s the excessive levels of estrogen and progesterone circulating in my system.Either way, you should watch this video.Ok so, be honest. Are my eyes the only ones watering? ::sniffle::

Sneak Peek Cole Gerst..

Cole Gerst's new group of work Turf Wars focuses on the continued chaos we inflict upon wildlife and the world around us. The heavy portrayal of power lines in his work is deliberate, as Cole was shocked as a child and in his words "continues his obsession with electricity". I'd like to say "oh that's neat", but uhhh, that would come off pretty callous and we all know that's gotta suck as a child, but what is neat is that Cole was and still is able to turn a painful experience into something creative. Right on. Turf Wars opens April 3rd at Ghetto Gloss Gallery.

loyalty blood..

first we had birds, then deer, then horses, then owls...all as the latest animal de rigueur. well, i'm calling it now. wolves. yep, wolves are next. i'm just saying. i may be wrong...but i for one, want to kick off the craze w/ this rad tote bag by loyalty & blood. but, i don't really want to stop there either i want to add some hawks in the picture w/ L&B's olive hoodie. perhaps i need some layering, how about the spiral tee? oh, and don't get me started on the osprey mirrored earrings they've got. seriously, i'm dying for payday over here. well, regardless of my fashion quandry check out loyalty & blood's etsy shop. they've got a little chicness of everything for all animal lovers.

Salon Mark Warren Jacques..

Jillian MackIntosh and Mark Warren Jacques hosted a lovely Sunday Salon over the weekend. Mark opened his Dogpatch studio to the general public to showcase his latest group of paintings. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. The warehouse where Mark has been painting has incredible light and it set an awesome atmosphere for people to relax and dance to Kool and The Gang.

More images after the jump and pics on the flickr page.

Mark is easily one of my favorite painters today, not just because he names his paintings "You're Easy To Be Around Because You Belong To Yourself", but it's the start.

Mark.

A collaboration between Mark and Kevin Earl Taylor.

Saw these monsters outside the studio. One of the many things I love about California, all the incredible, industrial giants to look at.