I was actually really surprised with the turnout with less than a weeks notice. Ciclilosombra was fantastic as well.

Here’s a link to their site: http://cycle-poweredpuppetry.blogspot.com/

They played the music and acted with the puppets but the audience was welcomed to make the sounds. Boy did I ever take advantage of THAT! It was really fun. Their tour has ended but it’s possible they might do it again or at least have some video footage of it on You Tube.

Here’s my view of the event that night :)

Before the show

Here’s a little lighting I rigged up for the show out of my front bike light and a couple Gels. I was really surprised with how well it turned out.

I’ll be better about posting on time for people to come see.

“I gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing I ever do.” She sang to herself while scratching the inside walls of her shell. “It’s so warm, it’s so cozy, I can’t take this shit anymore!” She pushed and kicked and scratched and screamed but all she earned was a hiccup and a sneeze. “I need to explore, I know there’s so much more to this world than this. My mind is two steps ahead and my body two miles behind.”

This is Norta, a tiny chick growing in an egg that balances on the edge of a cliff…on a volcano. Every time she moves her body, a little more sediment crumbles away from beneath her. Norta has no idea but at this point, anything is better to her than what she has. There isn’t a soul around to tell her otherwise but somehow, she’s aware. She knows there is possibly the most dangerous something just on the other side. “What’s life without living!” She screams to herself.

One day Norta rocks her shell so hard it rolls clear off the cliff. It cracks on a rock below and she tumbles out onto an even smaller ledge. Her sticky body is covered in dirt and she’s inexplicably exhausted. She sleeps for one hour then opens her eyes to this world. More sure of her surroundings than she is of her own body, Norta rolls herself to the edge to have a look. When she looks down she sees an ocean of lava. With tears in her eyes Norta releases her loudest howl, she is the first to have hatched and she knows it. That lava has home written all over it.

Norta struggles to her feet, this is the first time she gets to really use them! She knows she can’t fly, somehow she knows. Then without a blink of an eye she tosses herself over the edge. She looses and regains sight of the blazing pool as she tumbles and turns in the air. She stretches and yawns, Norta’s so glad to be out of that ball. The lava is nearing and she sticks her head out to smell the heat. Before she even hits the surface her feathers (or at least what she has so far) turn to charcoal. She makes the smallest splash you’ve ever seen and it burns, oh good lord it burns. Though small, Norta sinks at lightning speed. She looses layer after layer of mortal flesh until she is nothing but bone hurdling towards the bottom of this lava ocean. When she makes it through to the other side, she is gathered by Mr. Collection who swims her through ‘The Atlantic Choice.’

Mr. C loves his job. He finds it rewarding and challenging. Enough so that everyday is a new equation that makes he himself feel alive. There is no rhyme or reason to his work and it all depends on a pattern that gets scorched onto the bone as it travels through ‘The Punchline.’ Mr. C puts the patterns together in a room according to what he finds aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.

‘The Atlantic Choice’ is a collection of buildings that sit on the bottom of an ocean that sits under an ocean of lava. Born with an unsatisfiable attraction heat, there are a few animals that end up here. Upon arriving, they are nothing but bone. The process can take days weeks or months depending on the original chemical makeup of their structure. Participants begin to grow a sort of moss algae plant that then shapes their potential bodies. If they are not near other structures, the moss algae wont grow. The Job of placing these creatures is left to the immortal Mr. Collector. What do these creatures do?

…they are thrill seekers.

Artist: Wengechi Mutu (One of my absolute favorite living artists)

On a cold evening I went walking with a man. Well, he had decided to officially become a woman years ago and was telling me the story a man she slept with once told her. I held one of her hands while she talked with the other. I watched her huge shiny lips smack together while she talked with envy. Such character, such confidence.

“He wore a dog backpack” she said. “That’s cute” I replied out of politeness. “No” she said, “A backpack made from a dog.” I kept staring at the sand, we were walking at the beach. She held a long pause because I wasn’t reacting the way she’d hoped but finally continued. “He wore a suit and a mother fuckin’ dog backpack and only laughed at puns. I walked with him right here, on this beach and talked about how much I like basketball. For hours I talked about basketball and he stared at the sand, just like you’re staring at the sand. It’s a type, you’re that type but you don’t have that crazy dog backpack. No one thought it was real so we were able to walk through town somehow without having PETA called on us.” I met her at a cafe while I was drawing the ceiling fan, she asked me to draw her and I said no. I thought it was funny she asked so I encouraged her to talk to me. She noticed my hands instantly and asked to hold them and I told her I despise people touching my hands. Then she grabbed them anyway and kept talking. I squirmed and calmly tried to pull away but she just held on tighter. To be more clear, I have 9 fingers. Their short, their different and covered in scars.

We have nothing in common and we refuse to tell each other our names. Our friendship is like a game that makes us feel like royalty.

“So he would reach into the backpack through the mouth. It always looked like he was choking it and it made me laugh. He kept a fountain pen and some fancy notebook in it that he would make scribbles in. Seriously…scribbles… they looked like nothing, really abstract, sometimes he’d add color but he made them constantly. I loved it. OH! This is going to sound weird but, he kind of moved like Hitler, if that makes any sense, and I was attracted to that.”

We came to the glass steps that lead into the sky and walked around them. We were on our way to the conveyer belt of eternal flatness. My favorite place to watch the world go by, literally (dog backpack guy might like that) :). Sometimes I’d sneak my bike on in the middle of the night when no one was there. It was smooth and exciting like rollerskating down the hall of the doctors office. It feels like I could coast forever.

When we got there, it was jammed. Sand had been pouring into the gears, like it always does and stopped it for about the millionth time. My friend went on, “He told me he liked to listen to my voice” I could agree. She still had a very deep voice for a woman, something about it was like hearing Mom and Dad talking to you at the same time…only she didn’t talk about things my parents would talk about. “He said my voice would pour out of my mouth in an invisible smoke kind of way and that he would mentally dance with it. Isn’t that the hottest thing you’ve ever heard? I mean, this guy was really something.”

“Did her ever tell you about the dog?” I blurted. I was kind of hung up on the backpack. Who wouldn’t be? I figured it had a story of it’s own. “Yeah,” she sighed “he found it on the side of the road with a ghost hovering over it. he said he got on his hands and knees and crawled over to it, so it wouldn’t get scared. The ghost watched him the whole time and it was crying. That part breaks my heart. He said it was crying without sound. heaving and tearing up like a human would cry. He got close enough to reach out and touch it and it disappeared! Well, actually, it had turned into a needle and thread and he was holding it in his hand. He felt a burning sensation on the top of his right foot and took off his shoe and found an inscription TATTOOED onto his foot!! It said ‘Don’t leave me alone.’ So he got the poor little guy taxidermied into the most useful thing he could think of. Pretty cute I think. He had a huge heart. When he took his shoes off I’d notice him rubbing his feet together like they didn’t have to be alone either.” “Where is he now?” I asked.

She opened up her purse and pulled out a small box with a picture of a rabbit on it. Under the rabbit it said “Do not open until April 8th 2048.” We walked for a while in silence, then she took off her high heels and threw them into the ocean and laughed.

It’s not much but I get a lot done in it. I love to surround myself with my favorite colors, artists, and references of all kinds. I’m almost nervous to imagine a larger space because of how big my pieces would become. I’m also looking forward to it.

All of these pancakes are vegan, no animals were hurt in this process.

I have this piece framed and it’s hanging right by my desk. Why? Because…

I helped fix a flat on THIS bike

This is Paolo in the middle, he’s also the one riding the flaming bike.

One day while I was working at Bicycle Habitat in Manhattan, an older gentleman came into the shop. He had a VERY thick accent and everyone was brushing him off because it was taking too long to figure out what he needed. I’m a sucker for old guys so I quickly tip toed around all the other customers to help him (the store was known to get freakishly busy around lunch time). It took us too long to figure out he just needed a tube. He didn’t know the size so I told him to bring the wheel, he said he would tomorrow.

The next day he came and had this bulky looking metal thing which happened to be his wheel. He came in during our busy time again so most of the employees said they weren’t able to do a specialty job. I was so intrigued I told him I’d change it on my lunch break. He bought his tube and sat outside with me while I ate my lunch and fixed him up. It was not easy and I ended up cutting myself on the metal plate covering the spokes. The whole time he was telling me about how he was going to light his bike on fire and ride it! By this time, I was getting the hang of his accent. I think he was becoming a little more confident around me as well. He was so grateful he invited me to his show and offered to give me a free print!

You can see a video of the performance on his website, it’s pretty epic. His other work was pretty phenomenal as well. He is such a little firecracker, I’m so glad I had the chance to meet him.

I was ask- ed   to ma- ke a pie- ce th- at an- sw- er- ed the question “To have no beginning middle or end”

This is what I made. On recycled card board I made a puzzle that is completely interchangeable.

A little pear I painted while I was traveling around in Florence. Haven’t shared it with anyone until now.

yup…there it is…

Some may find it gross, I find this BEAUTIFUL! And funny :)

When I started I had an urge to be blinded with light! I wanted to see how much glare I could get and make the photos as warm as possible. These are only a couple examples of what I took on my small (underwater!) digital camera.

The REAL photos are on a roll undeveloped in San Francisco. I LOVE forgetting a roll and what’s on it then developing it years later to be reminded of something you  almost forgot happened. I still have some rolls from around 2005 that have yet to be developed. I have no idea what’s on them, I find that extremely exciting!