Wrapping Up The Season

Terry Rathje once said I 'have a lot of carved frames....'.

I think he might be on to something.....

Farewell To 'A More Refined Mayhem'

A More Refined Mayhem recently closed at the Cortona Gallery at Ashford University.  Here are a few images from the show.

In the center of the space we installed Trojan Horse (and its surrounding debris field).

Other pieces in the show:

Epic Adventures In Public Relations.

The Transitive Property Of Yesterday.

Interloper.

Mr. Falcon Finds A Stranger In The Alps.

The Tower Of Janus (both views included for your viewing pleasure).

...and last, but not least, High Noon On The Streets Of Reason.

The show.

Thanks to Anna Pagnucci and her students, and also to everyone who came out to the closing reception and asked great questions!

Doin' It Right At Chocolate Manor

I had hoped to get this post up by Halloween/Day of the Dead, but that obviously didn't happen.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was in town and wanted to swing by Chocolate Manor and grab something special for her family during her visit.  You remember Chocolate Manor, right?  Allow me to refresh your memory.


Awesome handmade chocolates........including their Caribbean Night Creams, and Hawaiian Sea Salt Caramels.............and truffles..............

They also have gelato........

.....and chocolate dipped pretzels!

Anyway, while we were in the store, local artist/chocolate artist Randyl Mohr showed us some of her white chocolate skulls she was making for a lucky customer for Halloween.  I asked her if I could snap a few photos of her process to post on my blog.

She starts out with a pan of undecorated white chocolate skulls which have been removed from a mold.

Next she gently 'cleans' each chocolate with a small amount of vodka to remove any impurities which would prevent the next steps from adhering properly to the surface of the chocolate.

Then, with an itty-bitty pastry bag, she pipes on some colored white chocolate around the eyes.

If the colored chocolate around the eyes wasn't time-consuming enough, she then hand paints each eye socket with edible gold.

One by one she gives her attention to each skull.

The black arrow points to the shot glass with vodka used to 'clean' each skull of impurities.

Now, this next part blows my mind.  Randyl picks up a nonpareil (small candy bead) with tweezers, gently dips half of it in a bowl of liquid white chocolate.....

....and then places it next to the eye socket.  Once its in place, she picks up another one and repeats the process until she's place three or four by each eye.

Before I close out this post and show you the finished product, I should also point out that in order to keep the chocolate at its optimal temperature, they keep the store at 69 degrees year round (so customers get the best quality chocolate possible).  Just a little chilly for my delicate constitution......

Anyway, back to awesomeness in motion.  After the nonpareils are placed, the final touch is to add a gold tooth to each skull.

POW!

One at a time, -until the order is complete.

If I recall correctly these skulls were part of a batch of 250 chocolate treats Randyl was creating.

If you haven't made the pilgrimage to Chocolate Manor yet, they can be found at 110 East Second Street in Davenport.  They are open Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 10am-5pm.  Their phone number is (563)-355-6600.

Take Down At Water Street Studios

Mucho sadness.  On-som'-bel is over.  But it was a helluva show!  -and, I remembered to use my camera this time.

For those of you who are reading this post in order to postpone actually working while at work, enjoy reading Philip A. Hartigan's review of On-som'-bel at Hyperallergic.com and (shameless plug alert!) read Jorie Senses's take on my work HERE.

In my previous post about On-som'-bel (you can read the original post by clicking HERE), I mentioned several artists, but didn't present any examples of their work.  Not this time.  Check out the completely cool mixed media paintings by Jen Evans.

Memba this?

.....the cool, three-person dress by Eli Borrowman?

Here it is with all three dresses 'stuck' back together.

Memba this?

.....the awesome cut-out dress entitled 'Shibuya Crossing' by Claudia Canon and Katherine Kratzer?

Still blows my mind.

Tourist 1, a very cool piece by Dawn Tutt.

During the runway portion of On-Som'-bel, there were a series of four glass busts created by Jenna Walsh and Victoria Belz, that were walked down the catwalk, but my slow camera speed only captured blurs.  Here they are in all of their glory.

Tourist 2 by Dawn Tutt.

Memba this?

.......cool stuff from Patricia Davoust.

Some intriguing compositions from Lisa Limas.

At the opening reception, I didn't capture a single image of Kari Kraus' work -a big mistake on my part.  She had three walls in a separate room covered with her work.  One whole wall was this shape and shadow installation suspended on a whole row of strings.  A small fan in the corner provide a slight movement in the air which was translated into the piece as a gentle undulation of shadows.

On another wall, she had several hoops of stretched material, illustrating several scientific principles/equations.  Good thing I brought the Duggernaut with me so he could translate what I was seeing.

Memba this?

.....Danielle Dobies' wigs?

...and then some of my stuff to cleanse the palette before we slip into a Thunderdome reference.......

'Memba this?.......Tomorrow-morrow land!'

'Memba this?.........Sky Land!'

'Memba this?..........The River Of Lights!'

'Memba this?..........Captain Walker!'

'Memba this?............Mrs. Walker!'