Suddenly, pigeons! Thousands of them!

One of the things I remember about living up here is that 'round 1998-ish there weren't any pigeons. Like, at all.

Now it's like they've moved in an formed a tiny little bird mafia ala the Goodfeathers.

Seeing so many pigeons around it's interesting to note how many different feather variations there are on these birds. Bert's pigeon friends were always the gray stripped variety with the multicolored heads. Which, up until they came to Houghton County, were the only sorts I was familiar with.

Brown ones, white ones, black ones. Russian ones that coo gruffly at you as you walk past them. As exciting as discovering pigeons can swim, I wonder why there are pigeons in the Keweenaw now. And why do they like pink and teal houses?

In other news, I'm dismantling my computer tonight to move, and there is not internet at my new place yet. It will be awhile before I post again.

Steampunk

So, most of my friends know I'm into the Steampunk aesthetic and diy attitude. Its recently become trendy on the interwebs and fashion world, hitting its trend boom now and will soon probably be giving way to the next fashionable thing (which I totally think is going to be super-sleek sci-fi by the way).

It did seem a little strange to me though that I was so interested in a thing that should seem pretty alien to me, the steampunk aesthetic comes mostly out of the European enlightenment era with a heavy focus on Victorian England. (Deadwood is the official title for the American version of the same era in steampunk, which has more to do with the wild west and cowboys, the Will Smith film adaptation of the tv series Wild Wild West would be a good example of the Deadwood aesthetic, which only has some minor variances from the Steampunk aesthetic really)

When I got out of work on Monday, I went for a walk and realized that I had been raised in two areas that support more of a steampunk aesthetic than I ever gave them credit for. Durand with its railroads and Houghton/Hancock with mining. I took a bunch of pictures of the Quincy Smelter that totally prove my point, they're like background sets for a Miyazaki film. Seriously.

So I present to you, my Quincy Smelter photo essay after the jump. (I'd like to make it clear I didn't go into any areas that were marked keep out, I just get creative taking pictures around chain link. I like my body the way it is, puncture and tetanus free.)

A Funny Thing Happened on Monday

So Monday, Ansley and I are at work because, well, no one told us the gallery might be closed on Labor day. So we're sitting there talking to each other about the list of stuff we're hoping to accomplish that day when Ansley notices that Chuck hasn't picked up Stacey's envelope yet. THEN we start wondering if we're supposed to even be OPEN on Labor day, Saturday we had both gotten a call from Gloria asking us if we were open on Labor day.

So then Ansley's like "I wonder if Stacy's in the office."

"I bet she's not. I bet they figured we were to smart to come into work on Labor day."

"In that case, they have severely overestimated our intelligence. I'm going to call Stacey."

One phone call later, and Stacey's not in the office. Ansley informs me of this and I mention we could try her at home, we have like, four numbers for her so we might as well make use of them.

Turns out Stacey is in fact, at home. She asked us what we were doing there on a Sunday. (It was in fact, Monday, one of the many benefits of going to church is not loosing track of the weekend)

It turns out that the Vertin Gallery is not normally open on Labor Day. Even though we were, until about 2:30 when Ansley and I decided to call it quits when no one had come in for an hour.

My Workspace

I make 99.9% of my art sitting on this couch. The other 0.1% is too big for my lap. Today was a generally productive day, I got cleaning done, painting done and re-dyed my hair. No more green! Although I'm looking at getting green hair extension clips, I haven't decided if I want just wisps or if I should get clip in bangs yet.

I don't want to keep dying my hair green. Because of the nature of crayola-color dyes you have to either be on top of it and re-doing it constantly or be okay with the washed out color you get. The green section of my hair was in the back of my head and underneath all my other hair, which made it a pain in the back of the lap to dye every month or so. Clips wouldn't loose their color so I could save on not buying hair dye.

Right now I'm leaning towards this set of bangs in neon green and teal. I have a set of pink&purple hair extensions that I  wore out tonight. I actually got a lot of compliments on them, oddly enough. I didn't think they were that unusual.

Peg Sandin

Rocks and Water, Watercolor by Peg Sandin

I work at what is, imho, the best gallery in the county, the Vertin Gallery. Tonight was First Friday, which means that we had a show opening. This month we featured UP watercolor artist Peg Sandin. If you're in the area, I strongly recommend going, she has a huge collection of impossibly large watercolor paintings that deal with rocks and water.

This was also the first opening since the last gallery director, Kerri Corser, left to go to Northern. Kerri actually stopped by today to pick up some boxes because she is still moving from her old home in Calumet to Marquette. She is happy and healthy and loving the college life. She also had some wonderful things to say about how the gallery looks  since Ansley and I have been re-arranging a few things. I felt this was thoughtful of her, she is as vibrant and vivacious as ever. I will miss working with her!

Ansley spent at least a week planning the placement of the paintings in this show, the pieces are so large and there are so many that she wanted to make sure that when it came time to hang, everything went smoothly. The size and scale of the show actually worked for us, it turned out there were only a couple of ways everything would fit, which meant a lot less time was spent deliberating about what order the images looked better in.

I'm Moving!

The Old Kitchen

So remember how I was complaining about this tiny hallway-with-a-sink? It has no counter space, as previously stated. I have the world's wonkiest stove (one burner super-heats my pans TO THE FLASH POINT OF OIL, I am now the most calm person when confronted with a kitchen fire, one burner doesn't work and one burner will shock you continuously if you use a metal spoon, there is one normal burner luckily). The cupboards are so narrow that very few things fit in them, including my wok, serving platter and anything economy-sized. My brother would want me to mention the window that faces out into the hallway, he thinks it's creepy. On the bright side, mopping the kitchen is quick and easy.

The NEW Kitchen

Meet my new kitchen! That door goes to the back porch, which is also the access to the basement, where the laundry is! It even has a pantry and isn't so small that you could run into yourself. Plus hardwood flooring! Woo!

Tea For Two

This is Pamela Kotila, the artist and writer of pan*do*ra, a webcomic that will soon be debuting in dead tree version. She will also be having a show at the Reflection Gallery opening tomorrow! I'd tell you the times, but the only reliable information on that is on FB, and I'm not going back there. So tough cookies.

Pamela is one of the most ambitious artists I know, she currently is working to publish her comic, start a fashion line, co-ordinate fashion shows for herself and other artists and still managing to hold down a job as the most intriguingly dressed produce girl you will ever lay eyes on. She maintains 2 FB profiles, three web-sites, a myspace page and a very prolific deviantART profile. Somehow in between all that she's currently learning to play accordion.

In short, she is one of those people who will make you look lazy by comparison no matter what you do.

Also, she thinks she looks ugly in this picture. Tell her she's pretty, then yell at me for only taking one picture of anything ever. This is what I get for using film cameras for awhile before going back to my digital: film saving ways.

Pamela and I are high school friends AND college buddies. We graduated in the same Finlandia University class (woo! 2010!) and are both beginning our careers in art at the same time, so we hadn't seen each other all summer even though both of us still live in town! We decided to remedy that today and met for tea at the Four Seasons Tea Room.

I had their Lapsang Souchong, which has a smoky flavor to it (some might compare it to a fishy flavor). Since I'm trying to shed a pound or two that may have crept on over the summer, it was a perfect choice because it's best without cream or sugar, unlike English or European tea blends which are made for the addition of milk. I also indulged in their Chopped Vegetable Salad which has garbanzo beans/chick peas in it, très yum. You don't really want to mix sweets with a smoky tea, it definitely goes much better with savory items. Probably the best tea to accompany beef jerky ~_^