Happy Winter Solstice Everyone! This is the winter holiday I personally choose to celebrate. I love winter and I love Christmastime. This is the time of year where I start to feel like my old self again. I know how I feel about winter in Wisconsin is not popular around here at all, but we have four seasons so everyone gets to be happy at some point in time. Lots of advantages in winter: no bugs, no humidity, and it’s finally quiet and still outside. I grew up loving this time of year and it was really strange in 2018 and 2019 to feel nothing for it. As we all know, the flood claimed all of my Christmas decorations. I know they’re just things, but those things had a lot of good memories attached them and it's hard to want to start all over again. I'm working on it all.

Then in October of 2019, our beloved 15 year old black lab, LuLu, passed away and as a result of it all, I sort of shut all the way down.

In terms of enjoying this time of year, 2020 has been a lot better than the past two years for me for which I am very grateful for. I bring all this up as a little background for today’s Carolaoke Holiday offering. Last year, after Christmas was done and New Year's was yet to be, I peeked out for a tiny bit trying to find some, any, holiday spirit and stumbled upon Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton’s Christmas duet on YouTube, which I’ve included below. I can't get enough of Blake Shelton’s facial expressions and reactions in this video and their infectious joy while singing this song sort of snapped me out of my emotional coma for a few seconds. For a fleeting moment, I felt how I used to feel about this time of year. So really Gwen and Blake, Thank YOU!

A special note - this karaoke track had no backing vocals or harmonies in it so you get just me again, I'm afraid.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there are plans for Filet Mignon, Grilled Shrimp, Winter Solstice Latkes and a fire this evening that I need to get into. Please enjoy and I hope this finds you happy, healthy and in good cheer!

In Chicago a while back, I had an encounter with a successful woman artist who was in her 80’s while at a fancy rooftop party. I loved talking to her. She was living and working in a Chicago warehouse loft space and what she described of it to me, it seemed like my perfect dream of dreams. I had a great conversation with her until she started asking about my work and myself. At the time, I was doing realistic drawings and watercolors of birds and fruit because, honestly, that’s what sells. She seemed pleasantly surprised after seeing my work and then the question of who were my art influences came up. When I told her who my number one major influence has been, she gave me a stern look. I went on to tell her that Joseph Cornell has been THE main one since art school - art school where I was a Drawing Major. She didn’t say anything but just had this terrible look on her face so I continued because, well, she asked.

“...…Sandy Skoglund......Alexis Smith.…..”

And she stopped me and said “Why…that’s absurd! Those are Sculpture influences! Not Drawing Major influences.” She then got up and left to go mingle because she was done with my nonsense. I’m so glad I didn’t tell her I wanted to be an animator once upon a time. I can’t even imagine what her reaction would have been.

Joseph Cornell himself was a very interesting guy. He lived in NYC with his mother and brother his whole life and never traveled elsewhere. He was a hermit and extreme introvert but every day he’d go to the same Wolworth’s food counter and have a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Every. Day. Sadly, I must admit I admire that dedication and focus. At the same time however, I also could imagine myself doing the same exact thing just adding a vanilla malt and some fries.

The reason he started making those bizarre pieces was to entertain his mentally impaired brother and considered his art as “toys”. So when that artist lady disapproved of MY influences, I was truly hurt and bewildered at her reaction. Cornell’s design, composition and use of color in his pieces are impeccable not to mention the concepts and narratives of most of his pieces are often mind-blowing. And those things are important when one is making art so I was confused that if she was such and old sage of the art world, why she didn’t at least mention those factors about the people I was listing off as my influences? Art is art. You like what you like for your own personal reasons. If it inspires you, that’s the only thing that matters. Truly.

Today’s studio closeup is part of The Museum Series and unlike last week, I’m considering this piece finished. I made the diorama itself in 2016 and it’s always hard looking at “old” work without being brutal to yourself about its production, but I’m getting better at realizing this is all a learning process.

Title: The Museum Series - Bobolink
Year: 2020
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Diorama, Wood Panel
Total Dimension: 6” x 6”

Happy Music Monday everyone! Today calls for a holiday song. Kirsty MaCcoll is a major musical superhero of mine and has been for a very long time. The album she recorded before her abrupt and tragic death in December 2000 "Tropical Brainstorm" is a work of art. She writes snarky lyrics and that was the first time I really heard a woman speaking her mind in a song in a very honest and very funny way. Her voice is so sweet but the lyrics she wrote and is singing are anything but. Listen to the album "Tropical Brainstorm" by the late Kirsty MacColl. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

For today’s tune, I posted a music video reference of the original song because I might know the song - but you may not - so perhaps a reference will help. Special note: Kirsty’s hairstyle in this video was the exact same hairstyle I had in the late 80’s early 90’s; huge bow and all. Due to the amount of Aqua-Net I used back then, that hole in the ozone is probably my fault solely. It took me a long time to assemble that “hairstyle" - like building a house of cards every single day. It really was a terrible hairstyle. WAY too much upkeep and forget about swimming.

There were no vocals included in this karaoke track, so it’s all me. I've always loved the strong contrasty difference between Kirsty’s vocals and Shane MacGowan’s vocals but I think that's the point. It would have been nice to have Shane MacGowan on deck to help with the male vocal parts but I’m assuming he has much better things to do so you get me and the monotony of one singer doing all the parts. Please enjoy my version of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's “Fairytale of New York” - a Christmas favorite for the bitter and jaded.

Today’s studio closeup is from the continued museum series that is presentable but not completely finished. Unfortunately, having completely finished pieces every Wednesday is proving to be a bit impractical for me. As I've said before, even though I’m constantly working on a number of pieces at one time, creativity often doesn’t care about self imposed deadlines and expectations. So as I go along here, Wednesday's Studio Closeups will start including more "works in progress". Art takes as long as it takes and I’m trying very hard not to view that as some kind of failure. The important part is that at least I'm making something and I need to be ok with that. The old "progress not perfection" concept still remains a challenge for me. Please enjoy this week's closeup and some internal dialogue to go along with it.

Title: Museum Series: Bewick's Wren
Year: 2020
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Diorama and Wood Panel
Total Dimension: 8" x 8"

Wow. Let’s talk about today’s general energy and how metallic, loud and chaotic (shitty) it seems to be. I cannot be the only one experiencing this or noticing it. Last night was super bad. Today is more just angsty and annoying but still bubbling. They are doing VERY LOUD street work right outside my house and my parrot Toby has decided his screams sound better today than I do, so for today’s Music Monday, let’s have another look into the past.

Today we visit “Bathtub Mary”, a Sweet Jelly tune Mr. Lance Dobersek and I worked on together once upon a time. Lance is an amazing visual artist and guitarist; I love watching and listening to him play slide guitar especially. We had a lot of fun getting together for music weekends putting songs together on the Fostex machine. As for the lyrical content of this tune, I never understood why anyone would put a holy relic, let alone THE MOTHER OF GOD, inside of an old dirty bathtub. I’m sure there’s a reason. I’m sure google could tell me but I feel like living inside the unsolved mystery instead. Lawn ornaments in general are intriguing. I go back and forth on this issue personally. I have some, yes…but…let’s just say that there’s a plastic goose that lives in my neighborhood who’s dressed for every occasion and holiday. He’s never late with his special outfit. N-E-V-E-R. I admire that in a way but I also wonder about that. That means the plastic goose has its own wardrobe. That means you need a place to store the plastic goose’s wardrobe. And keeping track of when he needs a costume change.

That’s a lot to keep track of for a...

That’s all I’m saying.

Sadly, Bathtub Mary’s artwork perished in the 2018 flood but remains forever on slide film(!) White China Marker was used to outline the bathtub; I wanted that old dusty clawfoot bathtub feeling of a porcelain tub but I also didn’t want it to rub off by just using chalk. China marker is not as gooey as oil pastels or dusty and elusive as chalk, and depending on the surface you can still make it look like a rugged dusty chalkline. The consistency is right in the middle of those two materials. Remembering that this was the first time I started experimenting with flat panels instead of canvas panels and I remember really liking the way the brush and paint felt in comparison. More direct contact, I guess is the best way to put it. Please enjoy and keep well out there.