I'm Baaaackkk

and have he pictures to prove it! This is kind of an image-laden post so I will start out with the punch in the face from my horror-scope this morning:

You know you're good, but you may not understand why it feels like you need to work so hard and yet get so little in return. It's true that you are probably worth more than you make, yet it's also possible to overestimate your market value today.

Well, duh. 'Possible' to overestimate my market value, eh? But I do know, and all of you who read this on a semi-regular basis KNOW that yes, indeedy, I am certainly worth more than I make!

OK, then. I have been in Chicago for the wedding of my bestest friend's daughter. TY and I have never been there so decided it was our vacation and went early so we could be there almost the whole week. Now, I admit I always thought Chicago would be a Buffalo-on-steroids so I wasn't particularly keen on this as vacation territory but because of a small altercation we had a few years back as we whizzed by the Chicago exit at my insistence, leaving me to feel guilty for not being spontaneous and carefree, I felt obligated to go along with the plan. Well, ohmigawd, Chicago was great! I am eating my words, we both had a wonderful time and will go back in a heartbeat. So, here in no particular order are a few images from the Art Institute. This museum was pretty much in a state of confusion with whole sections out on tour but we did manage to finally get to the 21st century Americans that both of can agree on.

Arthur Dove

A Georgia O'Keefe that was new to me.

A portrait done of a student by her fellow student when her grandfather sent her a typical costume from his Armenian village. The artist was Ralph Elmer Clarkson- or something like that. This would have been done just before the Armenian genocide.

John Singer Sargent- this one was the one I would have grabbed if someone would have started a distraction. My benchmark for favorite work I see in an exhibit- would I chace a theft! Well, in reality, probably not, but it sure passed my test.

We also went to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art where I swooned over Jeff Koons huge show for two days. Whenever TY would head for the air show on the beach, I would pop back in to see more since it was half a block from the hotel. Yup, I could take my sleeping bag and settle in happily. One thing I loved was the entry to the permanent collection where they had 8x10" thin black framed glossy pictures of all the artists included, all taken at about the time of their high school graduations! They were all so fresh faced and happy, no brooding anger, no piercings, tattooed necks, or spiked hair- it was I like they attended my school, some in my class! Very fun to see Cindy Sherman dressed as Cindy Sherman, the student and Jeff Koons as a handsome preppy kid. There is also a museum book shot to die for- I spent one entire afternoon there.

We were told by every person we mentioned the word 'Chicago' to that we had to take the architectural tour by boat so we did. yeah we passed a lot of buildings and the tour guide was wonderful giving us just enough information to keep us interested, 'soundbites' on skyscraper after skyscraper. But the most interesting part to me were the bridges over the river. The boat was crowded and we couldn't stand to line up shots so I just kept the camera in my hand and ler 'er rip whenever a bridge appeared. I might have overdone my bridge enthusiasm because I got 43 shots of the structures before TY told me to can it. Here are just four, including one drawbridge that stays up most of the time, but I would be HAPPY to post the other 39 if you just ask!








Like I started to say, we were there for a wedding and the morning of the ceremony TY and I walked 2 blocks down to the lake to see the three day air-show that was rattling windows and setting off car alarms all over the city. Right away this is what two stunt planes did and luckily I had the camera for this heart for Martha and Sam!
It could use a bit of PS to bring out the bottom of it, but I'll leave that for someone who wont' screw it up. As you cans ee it was a stupendous day.

Here they were starting another maneuver.


And the Raptor (at least I think that's what this one is- it was Big and it was Noisy and stealthy- the noise was so far behind it that it was hard to find in the sky over the lake.
Here was a parachute act- they all came out of the plane trailing red smoke so we could see them, then they would break away from each other and do formations to the ground where they all landed in the exact same place. How do it know???

Today the plumber reappeared and fixed- or semi-fixed, the faucet in the bathroom. He had to build part of the part that Kohler sent me, figured out how to get the cover off by calling Wisconsin, but it drips no more. I'll have to sell this place quickly before it starts up again.

Ms. Molly is beat from her week at the kennel- she comes back smelling great after a grooming, but she is exhausted from pacing all night and skinny from not eating. She is just not a kennel-kinda-gal. Tough, dog, suck it up.

And this is the second attempt on sock #1, but I think it will warrant a THIRD attempt because I don't like how the two neutrals crossed each other here. Maybe I don't care enough to rip it out but I stopped knitting until I decide. Good airplane project but I dropped one of the #2 dp needles on the floor and it was gone forever. Might have actually been a sign to hang it up.

When I got home, my copy of the Icons and Imagery catalog had arrived- nice job! I immediately looked through for work worse than mine and there were actually a few, but most were beautifully done compelling pieces of art. Nice company and I will stick it on the catalog pile. I need to clean that out one day, too many things in no order! Guess that what happens to us underpaid and over valued artists.

Right before I left I made a bowl from dress patterns and joss paper. The best part is that is is translucent so I am figuring out if I could use this as a lamp shade if it was far enough from the bulb...

Five more posts until I hit the 600 mark. Stick with me a few more days and maybe we can all retire then.