Speaking of bears...

So here it is! My Halloween costume in its entirety. Look how serious I am. Now that Halloween is over, maybe I will refocus my creative energy on actually making art!

In an effort to post more often, I am going to start featuring some of those items in the sidebar under "What I am reading". Because there is a lot of good information on the internet. Like... such as... for example...

..what bears look like with no fur:

Taken from clusterflock who took it from this site.

The bear's name is Delores. Poor Delores.

Wild Things

Dear Internets*,

I am sorry I haven't been around much these past few months. You should know that I think of you well and often.

Since May, I have started a new job walking distance from my house (YAY!) - sometimes duties include wrapping coworkers in aluminum foil (YAY!) - and trying not to be too self aware as I work with a bunch of awesome, brilliant twenty-teen-year-olds (hmmmm...)

As Halloween is rapidly approaching, I have provided you with a sneak preview of my costume (pictured above). What is it, you ask? Here's a hint. I am not the best sew-maker, so I am super proud of myself for buying brown bear fur fabric and turning it into something that looks like a bear head hat! The fact that I look pasty and insane in the photo should not detract from my handiwork.

In related news, I saw Where the Wild Things Are yesterday, and I may be dragging Curt to see it again tonight. It was That Good. I don't care what anyone says about all the hand held cameras and running through the woods, and it not being for kids - it was great. Period.

Insert rant here about how children's stories too often provide glib postulates correlating suffering, dreams, expectations, happiness and love - see film version of Coraline. But Wild Dings don' do dat. There was some amazing line in the movie that I can't remember exactly but the gist was, "Happiness is not a good way to become happy." Which is true! Right? Hmmm.

After the movie, I went thriftin' with Nic S. We found lots of great stuff, thusly maintaining my habit of spending way too much time getting dressed in the morning. A habit which has worsened since my recent fascination with the coolest thirteen year old in the world.

Then, Nic and I have settled on a plan for some kind of strange collaborative creative whip cracking. Stay tuned for updates on this new project.

So that's that. I am not going to promise to write more often, or to be at all interesting or entertaining when I do write, because I know our tenuous relationship couldn't handle the disappointment. Just know that "I'll eat you up I love you so"

Love,

Bloppy Vernisabeth Crawtula

*By "internets" I mean all four of my readers: Nicole, Alicia, Curt, and that random person who left the hateful comment on the Teppei Kaneuji post (if we were still living in the nineties, I would make that cat sound that people used to make back then...)

Dorkbot Meeting Last Night

Now that I have finished teaching my Tuesday night classes, I am able to return to my regularly scheduled Dorkbot meetings!

Last night was pretty interesting. You can read all about it on the Dorkbot Site.

In case you're too lazy to click the link above, I will repost my favorite part:

Aaron Oldenburg's Sucky Game

Oldenburg shared some new games he's been creating using UNITY. Aaron's latest game was created in under 48 Hours and was inspired by the verb 'to suck'. The game doesn't suck, except that it does. A lot. (huh?) I'm sure my description of the game will clear things up: You are a white blob that moves, floating through space, by pumping a bellows at your side. As you move, you encounter other white blobs with giant puckered, sucking lips. The goal is to allow the sucking lips to suck something (?) out of you without letting it suck you up entirely. Eventually, the lips either suck so much sparkling ephemera out of you that they explode, or they suck you up and you die. Still confused? Play the game!

Teppei Kaneuji

I just came across this artist on Tokyo Art Beat.

Taken from a review of his exhibition at Yokohama Museum of Art which closes next week:

Kaneuji is known for his assemblages of commercially produced goods. Not exactly ‘found’ as in discarded refuse, but ‘found’ to have different possibilities of use. He states, “(t)hese objects originally existed with a different meaning. Using them was meaningful.” As we find out, beyond creating meaning simply through the act of ‘use,’ these works carry a strong ambiguity. These works dwell upon the interplay of relational forms rather than any nuance in the details.

The holy trinity: use, meaning and ambiguity.

Booksplosions! Art! Craft! and Musical Space Westerns!

Summer is coming! In one week from today, I will be wrapping up the semester, which means a break from my job as Professor Bloppy Crawtula.*

Time to celebrate! Here are my plans for the weekend:


MAP CRITIC'S RESIDENCY PUBLIC FORUM (More info at MAP's Website)

I am excited to be a participating artist this year, and WYPR's Aaron Henkin is moderating so come listen to us all talk about why it's important to talk about art.


MD FILM FEST (Click for Schedule)

I already have tickets for Stingray Sam (a musical space western from Cory McAbee - who did American Astronaut). I am going to see it on Sunday with my book club after our meeting re: Barry Gifford's Wild at Heart.


I am gonna try to make it to SQUIDFIRE'S SPRING ART MART (Complete list of vendors)
Featuring some of my favorite local crafters including Red Prairie Press, Cotton Monster and Hampden's Puffs and Pastries

*Responsibilities include:
- Listening to the sound of clicking eyelids following my attempts at wit (mostly Brad Neely and Noah Baumbach rip offs).
- Convincing myself that said clicking is a round of applause.

Upcoming Exhibition at Maryland Art Place

Here is the info for the next place you can check out my work:

23rd Annual Critics' Residency

April 28-June 20, 2009

Saturday, May 9: Public Forum 2pm / Reception 3:30pm

Maryland Art Place
Power Plant Live!
8 Market Place, Suite 100
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Hooray!

Congratulations to my pal, Kohli, who has just made her very first sale in her Etsy store!

In other news, Fly-post, the site I mentioned back in October is beginning to pick up speed, as more users post items. If you have an event coming up that has a beautiful flyer, please share it with us by posting it to fly-post.