So to add to the delightful aura of the Burrito Bar, they gave us a highlighter to sign our checks with...
I mean, why not?
When I was in Chicago Kirsten and Becky brought me to an under-the-radar gallery show. The artists had, ahem, helped themselves to the "FREE JOB LISTINGS" and "HOMES AND CARS" mailboxes that litter the city streets. While in the artists' studios, the mailboxes were able to express themselves in their truest form, as MONSTERS!
This was by one of my most favorite lady killers ever, 18andCounting.
TEWS set up the show, and dressed to match his mailbox monster.
Peter also came, and met up with his friend Peter. We were curious how this Dane knew the craziest person in all of Chicago...but didn't dwell on it for too long. For the record, crazy Peter had a bike with a fridge on the back.
KA-CAW!
Just for giggles, and because Halloween is mostly the best holiday, and who doesn't love dressing up with their best friend (?)- Kirsten and I declared the day before Halloween to be dress up Animal Print stylin'. Which thusly got us 5 dollars off at the Buffalo Exchange because we were "in costume" and led to getting a bit drunk at the Skylark.
Chicago has these wonderful parts that are still decaying in this really fantastic way. Unlike major cosmopolitan areas of NYC which are almost all kinda glossy and plastic, or the opposite, deep in neighborhoods in the boros where there is no, what I like to call fabulous economy, is alot of decay and old school feeling, Chicago has done a decent job of blending, although making me nervous with all the independently owned coffee shops turning into banks... and don't get me started on the Loop-uh, I mean shopping mall.
These signs are just from Milwuake between Damen and Division. I'm kinda in love with them, and I'm sorry to see it rapidly turned over for shiny. There is something to be said for a worn history in a city. There is an archaic beauty in it.
Most of the time BFA work impresses me less than MFA work. This was not the case in one of the BFA studios at Parson's.
Maybe it was the quality of the illustrations, the technique. Maybe its because I love using butcher paper for final work, the paper's quality I find sultry, alluring and non conformist. It whispers sweet nothings in my ear. Plus it always manipulates the medium in really interesting and textural ways.
Maybe its because the artist took something that isn't really that interesting (his/her friends) and tweaked it so I, too, care. Maybe that tweaking also made the fact that the work appears in a series not bother me.
Bad-da-da-da-da I'm lovin' it.
