anne is an artist

Well, Milwaukee sure is grand. Not only is the snow up to my waist, but I think I have slipped on more ice this winter than I ever have. Especially since I have been riding the bus in lieu of car.

So I'm going to the bus yesterday. I had to stop at Metro Mart to get change. I have my change in my pocket, and whenever I walk, I inevitably put my hands in my pocket, which in turn, means I usually hold on to the contents. So as I'm walking down a hill, I slip and the quarters in my hand, in my pocket, fall into a five foot tall snow bank. They didn't make a noise, so I wasn't even sure I had dropped my quarters. So I spent several minutes finding the tiny quarter imprints, then digging a tunnel to my lost quarters, just so I could ride the bus. Such is life, I suppose.

This week has been slow in terms of knitting or crocheting. I'm doing pretty good on my new socks, but that's about it. Instead of crafting, I've been cooking a lot of weird stuff, such as perogies, bruchetta and cream cheese rangoon.

Also, does anyone know of a goodlawyer?

I need this.

No really, I do.

I realized the other day that March is next week! Of course, in Kansas City that always meant the return of spring. However, in Milwaukee, that means at least 6 more weeks of winter.

I do have some good news! I sold more than half of my pieces at the Mini Art Show. And a print! That has actually given me quite a confidence boost to create more work and perhaps start promoting myself a bit more. I have a new "series" forming in my mind. I am taking a Saturday open studio class at MIAD in the printmaking lab. Hopefully new work comes from that. It should be exciting. I need to do a bit of research, however and I need to re-familiarize myself with the lab. Last Saturday was hilarious because it was Kari and I stumbling through printing some of her plates. I think we got it.....eventually.

I have been working on a sweater that is very exciting for me. In that it may actually fit! I have been struggling a whole bunch with gauge. I'm not quite sure I get it. For this sweater I am working in the round and the pattern is not the easiest pattern to follow, so I am making up quite a bit as I go. So far so good! I will take some pictures as soon as I get a little farther. Right now I have maybe 3 inches, and it is hard to tell exactly what it looks like.

Every Thursday we attend Trivia Night at Tracks in Milwaukee. Yesterday felt like we were doing really well, but then it turned out not so much. Is there a good exercise to build trivia muscles?

Also! I just found out that the Craft Magazine Release Party is at the Fasten Collective in Bayview. Ding ding ding! I am there!

Also, I am going to knit sweaters this weekend! AND POST PICTURES! My blog is lifeless as of late. Needs more pictures. Of sweaters. And Cats.

p.s. car=dead. Hurrah.

So this winter has been pretty cold. Very cold. Yet I think it is also the first winter where I have actually gotten used to it. I didn't feel as absolutely depressed about winter as I have since moving to Milwaukee.

Now that it is March, I think this needs to change. It's March, for crying out loud! What is up with being in the 20s? When I get outside in ten minutes, I'd better be experiencing at least 40 degrees of wonderfulness. Nothing less. March it is time you shape up and start acting like that lamb I keep hearing about.

So on the new job! I took a tour of the building. Definitely photographic material. It is an old OLD building built probably in the early 1900s. It looks like it used to be an old hotel. Currently I live on the top floor but I'll be moving sometime in the next week to the second floor to a bigger apartment! Also! There is a studio space. As in, a studio space to make art work in. No excuses anymore, Anne. Oh Happy Week!

So if anyone has tickets to tomorrow's "tickets-sold-out-in-one-hour" Flight of the Conchord's show, and would like to give them to me, please do.

So this is going to be the look and feel of my new portfolio site. Eventually I will be getting some sweet flash animation up in there, but until then there ya go. I believe it has all of the essentials.

The parents are coming up next weekend! I'm going to try to paint my apartment in nice hues of orange and purple before they get here. Does anyone know of some cool goings on in Milwaukee?

Speaking of Milwaukee, here is a pretty nifty site by MIAD alum: MKEArt.com. There is a lot of potential here and it looks like they are off to a great start. It makes me wonder why hasn't anyone thought of it before?

Coming soon to a post near you: Felted illustrative portraits. Dig it.

So there has been a lot of talk about public art in Milwaukee. Especially with the "Bronze Fonz" and all of the of the outrage that has come with it. While I am not necessarily a fan of the Bronze Fonz, I also don't necessarily consider it art. Ultimately it doesn't bother me, I know I'm probably going to take my picture in front of it sooner or later, and I most certainly wouldn't close down my shop because of it.

There are other "atrocities" that are being planned for this city that are making some people question Milwaukee's tastes.

"What do we do about all of the bad art that is being installed in Milwaukee?"

So here is probably where Milwaukee artists will shoot me, possibly with good reason. I don't really care what in the world art you want to install. There, I said it. Every city has bad public art. I'm not sure that I've seen anything that I would consider that great. When people talk about the Bronze Fonz, I don't get upset about the eyesore that it will create.

HERE is what I am upset about:

Milwaukee's PRIORITIES. We are raising thousands of dollars to put up art work that we are all just going to argue about. THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. Yet, the Milwaukee Public School system has gotten rid of its art and music programs due to funding. Now then, raise money for whatever in the world you want. It is your money. But don't you see something incredibly wrong with this picture?!?! In my incredibly humble opinion, I think both Milwaukee artists and Milwaukee(as a city that raises money for bad public art) should be ashamed of itself and these pointless arguments they are having. Get your priorities straight!

Yikes. So I've been a little bit heavy on the "issues" in my posts as of late, so here is a totally light-hearted observation:

I watched Hannah Montana to see what the fuss was about.

I LIKED IT.

This is what I came home to yesterday. Yeesh. It had just happened too, as in he was still there while the cops roped off the area. Supposedly the guy jumped off the apartment building right across the street from my building. I used to live in the Yankee Hill Apartments too. They are tall, and you can't really get out the windows that well, so he must have gotten on the roof. Very creepy and humbling.

On a lighter note, however, we went to the Brewer's Game. And they won! It was a pretty exciting game, the weather was beautiful and I got a lot of knitting done. Now I know what I need to do when I need to get some knitting done--go to a baseball game!

Is it so wrong that I am actually looking forward to attending my court date so that I can knit?

So before you think I'm a hardened criminal: My car got towed. Because it did not have the appropriate sticker on the license plate. Not only did it used to have the appropriate sticker, my registration doesn't expire 'til Jan. 09! Someone took the sticker off my license plate and I got towed and ticketed for it. I'm going to court to contest that not only did I update my registration in January, I put my sticker on and that it was stolen recently. So. Wish me luck.

Hopefully, today I won't miss the Locust Street Days Festival. I have open house from 1-4pm and it has been raining cats and dogs-literally-all weekend. With all of these thunderstorms, it's almost like I'm back in Kansas City, with all the tornado warnings and lightening that have been happening. Minus the tornadoes of course.

But really, Locust Street Days is always very fun. We missed out on the beer run this morning because of the rain, but hopefully it will clear up by the evening. It is the kind of festival where you just put on some random hippie dress and walk around like you live on Locust Street. I'm not sure why, but it's fun!

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Instead, Mark and I bought Shrinky Dinks. We made these amino acid charms on the Z-Corps Machine at his work. While they are extremely cool, it's not like we can use the z-corp machine to actually make these charms because it is extremely expensive, we don't own it, and they are very fragile. I've already broken my "R" charm. We're hoping that the Shrinky Dinks are a little bit more resilient and productive.

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I have finished 2 projects this weekend! A crocheted bath mat and another gag tie for the office. Unfortunately I do not have my camera. It is at Mark's office. I feel bare without it. I've been holding off on posting because I have no pictures to go with it. I'm going to do a covert-op and sneak it from him one of these days. Then I'll have proof that I actually finished something!

And, like I promised myself, I am going to knit up some gauge swatches for some NEW projects. One month finishing and one month starting, I say.

So we finally have a nice layer of snow on the ground. Oh. Yay. Time for the count down to March.

Art vs. Craft was fun! I probably saw a million people I knew, as I was the one manning the clicker/counter at the door. I was able to wander around a bit afterwards and look at all of the wonderful booths full of good things. It seemed like it was smaller this year! I also ran into several vendors that I knew, yet weren't there last year. Pretty nice! I need to attend an arts and crafts fair every weekend, because it gets me all inspired to do things. I went home and immediately picked up some Shrinky Dinks and some dusty old earring kits I had bought a while ago, and made Day of the Dead Earrings. Pictures to arrive shortly!

I found a $99 plane ticket to Kansas City for Christmas. Unbelievable. I think instead of Christmas presents I'm just going to be giving out a bunch of random baked goods. Watch for it.

PS Go to IN SEQUENCE on Friday. It will be glorious.