Title: The Museum Series: Arctic Sea Ducks
Year: 2021
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Diorama and Collage on Wood Panel
Total Dimension: 6” x 12” (1.5" Cradle)

Regarding The Museum Series, I cannot remember if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but the “white borders” on all the pieces are representative of the walls and halls of an actual museum. For this piece, I’m keeping both top and bottom borders gesso white to also suggest the snow and ice of the arctic. The line that goes through the bottom border represents a history timeline and the button for the diorama lights is the placement on said line. I’ve been listening to a lot of what I call “Wind Music” lately (Kelvin Mockingbird Radio on Pandora for the curious) because it reminds me of the music/background sound effects they play to add ambiance to the museum exhibits. The Japanese Teahouse exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum is one of my favorite exhibits. They pipe in relaxing Japanese flute music overhead to add to the stillness and tranquility to the exhibit and it’s totally awesome. The igloo you can sit inside of is probably my most favorite exhibit there. They pipe in wicked winter howling winds overhead and there’s a glowing fire inside the igloo that is quite convincing.

After taking a couple weeks off recently from posting music and art here on carolkroll.com, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to take more time off from my self imposed deadlines right now to slow down, focus and take my time with the things that I’m currently working on and in the middle of. Haste makes waste, garbage in garbage out and so forth.

Like the internet, summer is loud, busy and distracting so back down inside the quiet dark rabbit hole I must go. I’m planning on resurfacing Wednesday, September 1, 2021 with more art, music and whimsy. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you all in the fall with new concoctions and nonsense. Until then, please keep well everyone. The world is still quite a mess.

This is a piece I did right after I decided to go freelance in 2006 and leave the corporate world. I hadn’t watercolored or properly “drawn” in years, and I remember it being foreign to me which was not a good feeling. It took a long time to readjust to civilian life and be in a place where I could really focus and center. I came across it last week when I found the Bluebird vs Blackbird piece and I'm happy to report, was not a flood casualty. It’s postcard size and there is a front and a back which I’ve posted here. This was the result of a gorgeous spring day on the patio drawing the flowers in the planter and finally, I was able to be “in the moment”. Please enjoy and thank you for stopping by today!

I’ve been listening to a lot of Cuban music on Pandora lately because trumpets. You cannot be in a bad mood when you listen to trumpets. I am a sucker for horn sections in songs so I chose Ring of Fire for today’s Carolaoke track. I added harmonies/backing vocals to this one and if you listen real closely (not that close), you’ll hear that Toby added his vocals (screams and shrieks) here and there. It’s Summer Solstice and if ever there is NEVER a time to record music in your house as a bird owner, this would be it. My birds have been off the hook crazed by the 24 hours of daylight lately. If there never was night, I’m convinced that birds would never sleep. Ever. Darkness is their Kryptonite and the only thing that makes them quiet. They are seriously like Gremlins and turn into monsters when the sun is involved. Like a child that was fed too much candy and caffeine all day. So today they had impromptu covered cage naps so that they would calm down the F down and I could finish recording. While listening to this ditty today, consider pretending that I’m singing live from a zoo festival.

Carolaoke Track: Ring of Fire

I’ve been immersed in watercolor these days and it took quite a bit to get back to that quiet place. While going through more of my artifacts upstairs, I came across this painting I did as a follow-up to the original “Bluebird of Happiness Verses Blackbird of Depression”. I forgot I added a second chapter to that painting and found it this week hiding upstairs in a portfolio I thought had been downstairs during flood times. This watercolor painting was done in 2008; my ongoing personal comment about the battle with happiness and depression. A busy airport with moods and thoughts coming from all directions and you’re the one directing it all into one place. Kind of like John de Lancie in Breaking Bad.