Archive for October, 2008

Road Trip 2008

Published
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robayre
on October 31, 2008
in General Update
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carhenge, originally uploaded by robayre.

Happy Halloween! Long time, no see, I’ve been on my road trip to Colorado with my best friend, since Wednesday. Right now I’m in a hotel room in Nebraska on the border of Colorado. Yesteday we drove to Carhenge. We took the scenic route there and basically drove 200 miles without ever hitting a street sign or an intersection, it was crazy. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to the real stonehenge before, but Erica has. Carhenge was really awesome and I took tons of pictures. I was taking pictures on 3 cameras, one of them being a polaroid and decided to create an impromptu Found Art piece.

click the picture to see more pictures from carhenge.

Ninjas vs Pirates Protestzorz 2008!

Published
by
robayre
on October 25, 2008
in General Update
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This summer my sister in law came up with a great idea.

There is a lot of activity each and every Friday evening at a major intersection, downtown DeKalb. Since 2003ish there have been two groups of people who stand in support of our country, waving an american flag, and on the opposite side a group of people protesting the war, holding signs.

My sister in law thought of a fun project to lighten the mood, make people laugh and have a good time. We would organize an event where the opposite two empty corners at this intersection would be occupied by Pirates and Ninjas. If you aren’t aware, pirates and ninjas hate each other.

With school out during the summer DeKalb can be quiet, so we decided to wait till school was back in session. With Halloween so close and holiday stores carrying costumes open all around we decided this was an excellent date. Our original plan was to place ads in the classifieds asking all pirates and ninas to show up. With concern for large crowds overwhelming these small and cramped corners we nixed that idea and just sent out emails.

 

As with the Chicago MP3 Experiment a few weeks ago, the rain dampened the event, but did not rule it out all together. About a third of the people who promised to show up actually made it, but we still had large enough groups on each side to draw attention.

An uninvolved spectator went around to all four corners and spoke with the supporters and protesters and assured us that they found it humorous and let us know which side (pirates or ninjas) they were in support of.

 

 (Pictured above Pirates Connie and Erin)

I was a pirate and I held a sign for drivers to honk twice for pirates. Let’s just say, I think pirates won this battle! We had so many driving by laughing, giving thumbs up, waving and honking. We even tried to fool ourselves into believing that people who were obviously honking for the supporters and protesters on the opposite corners were actually for pirates as well. I think some people deliberately drove by twice to get pictures. I was honestly surprised by how positive it was, and how many people driving by loved it. One car that stopped at the light honked but then rolled down their windows to ask where the ninjas were, lol, they didn’t see them on the opposite corner.

After everything was said and done we had a great time. A few of us (pirates AND ninjas) even decided to get past our differences and join together for a bite to eat afterward. We decided Pirates vs. Ninjas might be a fun event each year. Also, inspired by some of the Improv Everywhere missions we came up with some more fun possible projects for our future. Can anyone say Zombie Christmas Caroling and Huskie Bus Line Party?

Chicago MP3 Experiment update

Published
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robayre
on October 22, 2008
in General Update
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A couple people have notified me that the Chicago MP3 experiment video is out. Looks like they edited out some of our favorite parts (human twister and human tetris), oh well, it was still a GREAT time. They quickly viewed the umbrella canopy and really played up the EPIC BATTLE. You can see more here.

Trips and Tricks and Treats

Published
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robayre
on October 20, 2008
in General Update
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ghost story bonfire 2K8, originally uploaded by robayre.

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend.
Saturday my best friend Erica and I went to Ikea and spoke a lot of our upcoming road trip. Soon, we will be driving about 1,000 out to visit her sister and family. We will probably just be at her sister’s place for a couple days at the most, and the rest of the trip is saved for road tripping. Since we were 16 we’ve been talking about taking a long cross-country road trip and although we aren’t driving as much and as far as we’d like, we are finally getting our trip. We’ve been friends since kindgergarten and we have very similar tastes and ideas when it comes to road trips. We’ve actually already been to Alaska and England together and it has been a while since our last trip. We are up for exploring, adventures and projects along the way. Last night I found this excellent website that chronicles by map all of the odd, off the beaten path, type of places to visit. I’ve been searching for a website like this for years so I am glad to find it: http://www.rarevisionsroadtrip.com/aboutrv.shtml
Then Saturday night (with halloween approaching quickly) my brother hosted his second annual Ghost Story Telling Bonfire (picture above). It was a lot of fun and of course I got a little freaked out a few times.
Through my brother, I was introduced to a few new creepy things such as:
-Black Eyed Kids or (BEK)
-The Dyatlov Pass Incident
-A cool podcast devoted to people’s ghost encounters
Of course next weekend is the Pumpkinfest in the neighboring city. Erica and I go every year. I’ve heard that the parade is actually Illinois’ largest parade (longest, or most floats, I’m not sure?) She and I used to march in it when we were in band growing up and it’s perfect timing for all sorts of polititions to ride in old-timey cars, wave and kiss babies. There are usually plenty of cool floats as well.
Lastly, for now, Dacia’s Pirates vs. Ninja event is rapidly approaching. Should be lots of laughs.

That’s more like it

Published
by
robayre
on October 16, 2008
in General Update
. 2 Comments

10.16, originally uploaded by robayre.

The colors are finally in full glory. Everywhere I look, green and red, gold and blue.
It’s getting cold too. Today at work, I daydreamed about knitting mittens, scarves and socks, and spinning and spinning lots of fiber. In fact, that is what I did tonight - I spun and plied some yarn that has been on my wheel for a loooooong time.


Here is another handspun/knit pendant I made recently. The colors are wonderful and remind me so much of the season. It’s listed in the shop.

nothing much

Published
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robayre
on October 9, 2008
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shabbona park, originally uploaded by robayre.

-Earlier this week I decided to drive to Shabbona Park for a hike. I thought the colors would be nice, but they really haven’t changed much at all in the woods.
-This morning I was having a dream that was frustrating me so much I had to wake up. I was actually filling out a form as an application for a job to work at a famous magazine. The job: handwrite-r, meaning they would employ me to use my handwriting throughout their magazine. Sounds great eh? Yes, but for whatever reason it was just taking me so long to write and I kept making mistakes and having to start all over.
-Yesterday morning when I woke up and was getting ready for work I started up itunes and decided I should listen to Daniel Johnston’s True Love Will Find You in the End. When I left for work I just turned off the speakers rather than closing down itunes. This morning when I woke up to get ready for work I turned on my computer to see that itunes had been running since yesterday morning. It was playing Eddie Veddar’s You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away from the I Am Sam soundtrack. Songs were listed by artist. That means my itunes played continuously for 24 hours and only made it from D names to E names (itunes categorizes by first name). Yes 350 songs in between the two songs and that equaled 24 hours. That is crazy.

what a mess

Published
by
robayre
on October 7, 2008
in General Update
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The best advice I’ve received or I could ever give to any artist suffering from creative/productive blocks, is just to get to work, and work regularly. It doesn’t matter if what you are working on is what you NEED to be working on. Just get active and start producing anything and the ball will start rolling eventually. Stick with it even if you feel it’s just not working. As I’ve said dozens of times (I’m sure), I think it is the left brain/right brain struggle that often causes my blocks. My brain resists the switch and sometimes it can just be so frustrating and seem so laborious to work when I’m just not feeling the groove. I will have an idea or find inspiration and I want to sit down and just be able to pound something out in a flash, but it doesn’t work like that.

I’ve been working in my studio each evening. I find comfort in my rituals, working regularly, candle lit, pandora playing my favorite tunes on my laptop. These rituals help my brain realize “when I see these signals, it’s time to get in art-gear”. So far I have about 15 pieces of mailart in progress, 2 paintings on canvas in progress, and 3 mixed media paintings finished. The picture above is just a partial glimpse at my very messy work table. Instead of getting irritated at the disorder I’m taking the mess as a positive sign that at least work is being done. How is that for a positive attitude?

All this talk of blocks made me think of a book that every artist should own, Art & Fear. I just ran downstairs to grab my copy and see if something might pop out at me and the first page my book opened up to was pretty appropriate for this post: “Annihilation is an existential fear: the common-but sharply overdrawn- fear that some part of you dies when you stop making art. And it’s true. Non-artists may not understand that, but artists themselves (especially those who are stuck) understand it all too well. The depth of your need to make things establishes the level of risk in not making them.” The section also shares the example of “artists who avoid this self-imposed abyss by becoming stupendously productive”. Yeah, I wish I could become that artist.

Improv Everywhere MP3 Experiment Chicagostyle

Published
by
robayre
on October 6, 2008
in General Update
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Yesterday was the MP3 experiment in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. It was a rainy day, but fortunately one of the props we needed to bring was an umbrella. We were pretty nervous going into it. “what if my ipod dies?” “what if I’m ahead or behind everyone else?” “what if they make us do embarrassing things?”

Actually two or three times my ipod got disconnected from the headphones. I actually missed instructions for one of the games because of it and when this guy was following me around, right in my face, I didn’t know exactly what to do about it. When he wouldn’t leave I wondered if I was supposed to give him some sort of password to release him, but I found out later he was just protecting me. “Thanks guy in red shirt with headphones!” lol.

My favorite parts were the umbrella canopy, human tetris and human twister. I was actually moved during the human twister. See, when you grow up in, or live near BIG cities, people have a much further comfortable personal space distance. You are used to people scowling at you and scowling back. When friendly appearing strangers approach you, you wonder what their agenda is. But during the human twister we all had to be so close, and not just close, but touching each other, on the head, on the shoulders, on the elbows, etc. We all did it with smiles on our faces and it just made me a bit emotional that soo many strangers were all huddled together, happy, and working together.

Improv Everywhere asked us not to take pictures during the project, just to be in the moment. They actually had plenty of people documenting it, from cameras at distance, cameras in the crowd and even a hellicopter overhead. The picture above is from the chicagoist and is from right before the EPIC BATTLE! It must have been taken from the opposing teams battleside because I see all red and yellow. I was on the blue and green team and I have to admit, we destroyed the red and yellow. It was probably due to the fact that my sister and I had punching balloons as weapons, not just your average sized wimpy party balloons like everyone else.

I had a great time, and had so much fun, rain or not. Next up…pirates vs. ninjas…more coming about that later.

Inspirational Linkies

Published
by
robayre
on October 3, 2008
in General Update
. 2 Comments


oooh, it’s been a while. Ya know, sometimes I’m just not feeling the whole blogging thing and I don’t ever want to make this thing forced. There will be occasional blogpost dry-spells, ce la vie.

I guess I’ve just been hangin’ out and occasionally working on stuff for this winter’s upcoming solo art show. I went to my friend Gail’s wedding last weekend. I got to see and spend a bit of quality time with some of gal pals that I haven’t seen in a while.

I’m just stopping in to share some inspirational linkies:

It’s fall, but hey wait, don’t burn that waste pile just yet: A use for all the fallen branches, twigs, and sticks in your yard.
I was reminded about artist Patrick Dougherty recently from a post on modish. I was fortunate enough that he was a visiting artist during my time at NIU. He came in, gave lectures, met with classes and worked with students to build an installation that lasted long after his time on campus.
His work gives me inspiration to maybe build something on a much smaller scale in my own yard (when I have one) someday.

My flickr friend Rachael is starting up her own zine called Underground Art School. I love her work and I love the ideas she has shared about this publication’s concept. I can’t wait to read it, go check out more about it here.

Storycorps was in my city, DeKalb, this week. They came to talk and record interviews with students in relation to the September 14th NIU shooting. If you don’t know Storycorp, please check it out.

A few years ago I had the most kick ass costume for halloween. But check out this one, it takes the costume one step further to make it that much more awesom-er.

This week I discovered the Dainty Squid through a picture of this tattoo on Craft. She is too cute, with her pink hair and dimples. oh, and I bought this necklace from her etsy shop.

I saw this youtube video this week and have become smitten with this band that makes me think of the Amelie soundtrack.

Guess where I’ll be Sunday, shhhhhh!

Wait, you didn’t click the links. Don’t you trust me? Hey, ya know what? Remember that time I told you all about this great project/blog/podcast/artist/fill-in-the-blank? No, of course you don’t because you didn’t pay attention and then last week full of enthusiasum you told me all about it, as if I hadn’t already told you about that same thing 3 years ago. So do yourself a favor and click on this links, save yourself the embarrassment in three years, and make yourself a cool-kid in the meantime. Click the links, friends, it’s the right thing to do.

Have a great weekend, mwa!