Thursday, May 31, 2007

Summer Trips: London and Prague - London (Part 1)

I just got back from a 7-day trip to London and Prague. The trip was amazing. Over the next few posts, I will be posting stories and photos from my trip.

I got into London early on the morning of May 24th.
Clearing Customs took about 90 minutes and then I was off to meet my friend Matt at Paddington Station.
I was a little jet-lagged.
While in London, I was staying at a flat that Matt's parents will be moving into in the coming weeks. The flat is in Hampstead, which is north of London. Matt found a pub online called the Spaniard, which, on the map, looked walkable. Four miles later, I was eating a cheddar and ale chutney sandwich. What is ale chutney? I asked the very same question and nobody seemed to be able to give me a clear answer. Finally, the waitress gave up and just brought me a sample of the chutney. Simply put: it's a chutney with ale in it. So after all of that, I had no choice but to order the sandwich.

It wasn't very good.
Later in the week, we went to the Tate Modern. We went on a bank holiday and so the museum was quite crowded. It was an interesting mixture of tourists, foreigners, and British people. There were a lot of families and I noticed, on more than one occasion, moms or dads pointing to and explaining aspects of particular paintings (texture, color, composition, etc) to their 10-year old children. Now, I've been to the Art Institute of Chicago many times, and while I've seen 10-year olds in the museum, I've never once witnessed one critically engaged with a painting (I'm not even going to discuss what most of the parents are like).

It was nice to see.

Stay tuned for more!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Kent's Signs II





More gems.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Ascots!



I've always thought that more men should wear ascots. It's a hard look to pull off without looking like a jerk-face, but here's how if you're interested:


http://www.bensilver.com/style04/knots_ascot.htm


I was hoping that Brick would have gotten a few from his grandfather when he inherited all those fancy hats.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Clever tourists




Tourists in Japan put their camera on the conveyor belt of a sushi restaurant. Enjoy your vacation, Brick.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Kent's signs





The manager didn't like any of these.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Venus and the Moon

Much more impressive in person.

Tomorrow I leave for Europe. I'm going in search of adventure with my friend Matt.
I fly into London on Thursday morning and Prague on Friday.

I'm very excited!

Unfortunately I will not be posting again until May 31st.
Stay tuned for pictures and stories!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Monday, May 14, 2007

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Installation art update


I was walking home from work the other day. It turns out it's an eight year-old who sets up these figurines in this yard. I asked him if he was making art. He thought about it and said that he was. I told him he was better than the artists in the Art Institute graduate show. He liked that.

Lot's o' crazy crap at the SAIC Graduate Show...




...None of it was very good. It was also a really bad year for painting. There were less than ten painters in the whole thing.

What have you been doing lately?

"I made that gallon in Photoshop." Actually no. It's made out of foam board, but it looks like it's been Photoshopped into this picture.




That's Kent behind that orange bird. He looks especially creepy hiding behind it.



I'm serious about beer here.




Here's a painting I'm working on. I just won a CAAP grant to make it! It's huge (five feet by eight feet) and it's in oils. It is so not done yet, don't judge me. The clouds look way better in person, really they do. I just love that mini-van. Mini-vans have no place in oil paintings. It's very ominous and pretty in person. There'll be more pictures soon.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Botanic Gardens: Part 2

Here are some of the pictures we took while at the Botanic Gardens. The tiny Siberian/Arctic flowers are my favorite. Enjoy the photos.















Friday, May 04, 2007

Summer Trips: Trip to the Grand Canyon


I'm planning a trip to the Grand Canyon. It will be a week long trip in mid-June. There will be three main stops: Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, and Arches National Park. We'll be camping two nights at the Grand Canyon.

Total: 3430 miles

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Spring in Chicago


Nothing better than eating lunch outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon:



Moved my grandmother into her new place.

Here's the view: