#219

Hello art fans.
Here’s our art. . .


One of the places from my past that had a big influence on me was the Maitland Art Center in Florida. It was just a short walk from our house, but it looked more like something you’d stumble upon out in the jungle. . .the ruins of some confused tribe of people long since gone.


There is a series of gardens and outdoor passages all lined with walls depicting Christian, Mayan, and Aztec deities in sculpted concrete bas-reliefs. A heavenly angel could be just feet away from the terrifying scowl of a pagan god baring his teeth. When I was a kid, I knew every inch of the place. I knew which metal flower on the iron gate to turn and open it, and I knew which wall to jump when it was locked. I knew which bricks to remove to turn on the spigot and start the water flowing from the god’s mouth.
When I got older, Jo and I got married there at the outdoor chapel. Just a few days before the wedding, we showed up for the rehearsal to find the place locked. I jumped up on the wall and told the pastor I’d look inside for something for him to stand on so he could get in too.


Years later, I’d take my kids to the shuffleboard court in the shade of the oaks behind the art center to play. We didn’t play shuffleboard. I don’t remember ever seeing anyone play shuffleboard there. There were way too many acorns blanketing the court for that, so we made up our own games. The kids would run erratically around the court, and I’d try to bomb them by lobbing fists full of acorns at them. The chances of hitting them were slim, but it made them feel tricky to outmaneuver my missiles.
I’d like to go back and visit when I’m on that side of the continent again, but google maps and image searches will have to do for now.

-Dylan

#218

Hello, rebel fighters.
Here's the art. . .


It’s been so quiet around here today. Our kids are at a Star Wars marathon party. No one seems to be dressing up, but I did see one kid with a lightsaber. It reminded me of when our son was little and would run around with a plastic lightsaber tucked into his underwear. “This is my lightsaber. It says wong.”

I took advantage of the quiet house today and simplified our website some more. If any of you were having trouble seeing the art before because of the fancy Flash program we were using before, go back and have another look. It’s simpler now. We’ll just keep simplifying the site until it’s nothing but a white screen. Yoko Ono would be so proud.

-Dylan

#217

Hello, friends on aisle four!
Here’s what we’ve been working on. . .


I hope you all had a wonderful Martin Luther King day! I have a dream too. That my kids will someday go back to school. There’s no school here on Fridays anymore due to budget cuts, so this was a four day weekend for our two teenagers.
“Gawd, there’s nothing here to eat!” which of course means that the specific thing that they want isn’t in the refrigerator, or possibly it’s just too far back in the refrigerator and not worth the effort.
Jo and I went to Ace hardware together the other day to finds bits-n-bobs for our new robot doll. As the jingle suggests, Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man (and woman.) We were asked every 40 seconds if we needed help finding anything by a different employee with a red vest and a headset on. When you’re building something conventional and need a hammer or a hinge, I know this is truly helpful to be taken right to the item without having to read those pesky signs above the aisles. But when you’re a couple of artists combing every aisle for cool looking whats-its, you confuse their system. But I can’t badmouth their system. What other store that you know of has stayed fully staffed through the recession? Who else is that friendly. . .and doesn’t complain about the contents of the refrigerator?

-Dylan

#216

Hello, all.
Here’s the art…


I’ve been working on creating our first podcast for you this week, and I was hoping to have it finished by today, but alas. I have a bit of editing and rerecording to do. The actual interview with Jo went well. I cornered her with my microphone while she was painting, making it difficult for her to escape. But my introduction that I recorded later didn’t turn out quite as good. For some reason, I had a bad case of uptalk. . .which is when your voice goes up at the end of every sentence like a valley girl. I did notice it after I recorded it, but I thought “no one else will notice. I’m just being hard on myself.” I handed Jo the headphones to listen to it, and she started grinning right away. Then she turned to me and mimicked “da da da da DA! da da da da DA!”
Oh well. Like whatever. Gag me with a spoon.
Anyway, I should have this first one finished in the next few days and I’ll make a home for it on our website, so look for it there soon. I’m not sure if it will be an ongoing thing or not. We’ll just have to see.

-Dylan

#215

Hi, all.
Here’s the art. . .


We’re really proud of our new Alice in Wonderland set. One aspect of this new direction we’re taking is rethinking the mechanics of these dolls, as you can see if you lift Alice’s dress. (Cheeky monkey!)
I know some of you may have already seen this on Jo’s blog, but for those that haven’t, here’s a picture of almost all of the art that we made in 2009.


There are a few missing, I’m sure, but it’s still impressive to see them all in one place.
I was kind of hoping that all of them together would form a picture of something when you stand back far enough, but alas. Maybe I just haven’t stood back far enough, but the neighbors have asked me to stay on my side of the fence, so we may never know.
Jo and I watched a show recently that did a little bio on some artists, and filmed them in their homes doing an art tutorial. I told Jo that if we got on that show, I’d act like this crazy guy that I used to work with, who ended up stalking me. I can do a dead on impression of him, which I would have to keep up the entire time the camera crew would be at our house. Jo, of course, is not impressed with my impression, or my idea.

-Dylan