Thursday, December 30, 2010

road trip 2k10! (part three/bluefield)

This is the last installment of the road trip 2k10 series! I thought Bluefield should have its own post because it is home to an intensely awesome painting that not many folks have seen. The painting is in a janitor's closet at Bluefield College, and it was done about 35 years ago by Earl Frankenfield, Sr. 
The story goes that Mr. Frankenfield, who worked in the maintenance department at the school, would work on the painting during his lunch break and whenever he had some down time. It illustrates and narrates the old testament of the bible in jewel toned images and hand-drawn text boxes.
At some point, the mural was partially destroyed when the school needed to do some construction, but the part that remains is really incredible!
Here it is...






Wednesday, December 29, 2010

road trip 2k10! (part two)

There are too many pictures! My last post went through Austin, TX. Here's the return trip!
Mermaids after the jump!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

road trip 2k10! (part one)

One nice thing about being a gardener is that you have a lot less work in the winter! One nice thing about having friends all over the country is that you get to visit them! Kristin, DeCarol and I organized a road trip that started December 8 and ended the 21st. The objectives: see lots of things, go lots of places, and get our friend Meg back east for the holidays. 

We ended up eating dinner by candlelight in the woods, talking hip hop with philosophers, staying with long lost high school friends, visiting a cathedral of junk, falling in love with New Orleans, being interviewed for a documentary about pie shops, breaking into my sister's house, spending a whole day at the Civil Rights Institute, seeing mermaids at the largest aquarium in the world, eating delicious food with friends and family, meeting a few farm animals, viewing an amazing painting in a janitor's closet, and arriving just in time to spend the holidays with family.

Here was our trip:
DEC 8:  Woodbridge VA --> Athens OH
DEC 9: Athens OH --> Nashville TN
DEC 10: Nashville TN --> Memphis TN --> Little Rock AR
DEC 11: Little Rock AR --> Austin TX
DEC 12: Austin TX
DEC 13: Austin TX --> New Orleans LA
DEC 14: New Orleans LA
DEC 15: New Orleans --> Greensboro AL --> Tuscaloosa AL
DEC 16: Tuscaloosa AL --> Birmingham AL --> Atlanta GA
DEC 17: Atlanta GA
DEC 18: Atlanta --> Charleston SC --> Darlington SC
DEC 19: Darlington SC --> Charlotte NC
DEC 20: Charlotte NC --> Bear Creek NC --> Chapel Hill NC --> Greensboro NC
DEC 21: Greensboro NC --> Bluefield WV --> Charlottesville VA --> Woodbridge VA

Monday, December 13, 2010

on the road!

Stay tuned for pictures and tales from WINTER TOUR 2K10!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

zine workshop!

A couple of days ago I taught a zine making workshop for the Charlottesville Trade School! It was great fun! The premise is that people bring things to barter in order to take a class.  The classes are held at a variety of beloved spaces around town (random row, the bridge, the garage, etc.), and you sign up ahead of time on the web. 

For my zine class, I made a little zine about zines (how meta!) and we all made our own zines during the workshop. We also looked at a wide variety of zines and talked about the myriad of things a zine could be. After sharing our creations, everyone presented their barter items and they were all so thoughtful and awesome! I highly recommend getting involved with the trade school crew and teaching/attending a class. So rad!

 the about zines zines

a couple of the great barters

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

apple butter! screenprints! done!

So, about a year ago I saw an awesome post on Theo Ellsworth's blog where he canned a whole bunch of enchilada sauce and screenprinted really great little images for the lids. I finally got around to doing my own version! As you may have seen in previous posts, I recently made a million billion quarts of applesauce, cooked them down into some tasty apple butter, and canned 26 half pints of it. Today I finished the 6 color screenprint for the lids. I am so excited about this project! Just in time for the holidays!