Favorite Artist From Chicago

I've never been to Chicago but I love this image of the city at night with the clock tower and the full moon.

Chicago is the stomping ground of Tony Fitzpatrick, one of my favorite contemporary collage artists. Formerly a tattoo artist and semi-professional boxer, self-instructed Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick is a renegade in the contemporary art scene. He includes lots of ephemera in his work which has been described as visual poetry exacto-bladed out of old matchbook covers.

Davidson Galleries offers some of his older work from 1992-2000, and this Poetry Foundation interview includes a nice slide show of thirteen of his more recent collages. I wrote about about him in an earlier blog post here.

"Art is a kind of rebirth. It is what elevates us above darkness, tragedy and furious loss. " (T. F.)

"Art is how we cheat death: We make that which outlasts us." (T. F.)

Happy Postcard Friendship Friday to you all!

Ritual Object, Perhaps

I've been playing with triangles and materials close to hand. That green feels like it should be something else.

Here's that quilt again with some red:

It's just so cool how easily colors can be changed in Photoshop!

I think I like this the best so far:

Something Cool

Many thanks to Grain Edit for introducing me to the art of Mark Weaver. Check out his portfolio and be sure not to miss Make Something Cool Every Day to see over 150 amazing works. I love Mark's mix of vintage color images, old engravings and sans serif type!

From Scott to Obock

I'm off on a triangle tangent. It started with the Hemingway cover I found. I'm making it into a collage that is so far limited to blue, yellow, black, white and gray. I couldn't find the right map of Spain so I started looking for postage stamps.

I love the type face on this dump find:

Flipping through I began to wonder if all triangle stamps have a camel on them. I adore these fantastic ones from Obock:

Looking Out the Window

Twice today I was amazed by what I saw from my shop window. This morning at 10:00 I saw two foxes in the back yard. They were just loping around, playing with each other and with the dead stalks from the cat-o-nine tails.

Now it is a little past 4:30 and the wonderful color of the sunset sky made me grab my camera to record it. Amazing!

I could paint this last one.

Friday the 13th - Perry's Nut House

Perry's Tropical Nut House on scenic U.S. Rte. 1, Belfast Maine was one of my favorite stops along the beautiful coastal route through New England. The back of the first card reads:

The Original Perry's Nut House. Perry's Nut House founded on May 27th, 1927 by I. L. Perry. Started in one room and grew to its present size thru the idea that "If a man sells better goods than his neighbor, the world will make a beaten path to his door." Over one hundred exhibits in our museum, admission Free. Most interesting place on Maine Coast. Visitors are always "WELCOME"

Here's the text from the second card:

World Famous Nut Exhibit. Over 150 different nuts in this exhibit from the four corners of the earth. Visited and exclaimed over by thousands. Just one of the many unusual exhibits at Perry's Nut House. Admission Free. The only Nut Exhibit of its kind. Photo by Win Sommerfeild.

As a kid I didn't take much notice of the nuts, but that huge crocodile skin certainly caught my attention.

According to RoadsideAmerica.com Perry's was closed in 1997 and the artifacts were auctioned. It is reported that some continue to be displayed in new public locations. For example, the owners of the Colonial Theater in Belfast purchased Hawthorne the elephant and Baby Hawthorne (seen in the first post card) for $1,600. Hawthorne, with his eleven-foot-tall trunk, has been placed atop their roof, while Baby Hawthorne is now in the theater's lobby.

Perry's Nut House re-opened in 1998, minus its historical artifacts. The new owners have a web site that documents its fascinating history. Their fudge looks pretty good!

Happy Postcard Friendship Friday to you all!

Little Scenic Views of N.H. - Part II.

Here's the second installment (check out the first installment here) of my little New Hampshire photos measuring 1.75 x 2.75 inches. Each one is numbered on the back in pencil.

No. 11 - Flume Cascade, White Mountains, N.H.

No. 12 - Ammonoosuc Upper Falls

No. 13 - Lower Ammonoosuc Falls, White Mountains, N.H.



No.14 - Echo Lake, Franconia Notch, N.H.



No. 15 - 42. The Flume, White Mountains, N.H.

No. 16 - Eagle Cliff, Franconia, N.H.

No. 17 - Indian Head Camping Ground, White Mountains

No. 18 -Glen Ellis Falls, White Mountains, N.H.

No. 19 - Mt. Willey, Crawford Notch, N.H.

I think my favorite from this group is the shot of the old Indian Head Camping Ground. Those tents behind the automobile remind me of the ones we used to sleep out in at Camp Paradise with the Girl Scouts. They leaked in the rain, blew down in the middle of the night, and make todays ultra-light improvements seem like nothing short of a miracle!

Another interesting detail is the appearance of the numerals 42. on what was marked No. 15. I guess this is a portion of a larger set of images. Happy to be part of this Postcard Friendship Friday!