Me and guv’ner

So as soon as I heard that our very own Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was arrested this morning and was being held in a jail cell today, I thought of the card that I had made over the weekend.  Every time I make one of these cards, which is part of a deck that is grown to almost 50 (!), I share it with my card making group, and then I write a whole bunch about it the next day. Here are some kernels of wisdom this particular  card said to me…we always start with the “I am the one who…” phrase:

“I am the one who is inside a thick cushioned snowsuit-muting the outside world, paralyzing movement, getting fat and useless. I am the one who is a beat up car that’s most vital parts are rusting. I am the one whose parts are missing. I am the one who has painted over the same walls with 18 layers of old paint, glossing over history. I am the one who is a thick metal heavy door that hates to be opened and rarely ever does. I am grey matter that is quiet, muted, underground and with no new ideas.”

Man, this card’s a total drag. And it’s been overcast and sleeting all day. I’m sure it’s as sunny outside as it is in Rod Blagojevich’s jail cell today. Now is the Chicago winter of our discontent.

 

TV stills

I found an old drawing I did while rummaging through old piles of paper. I forgot all about it! I said to myself, like someone coming out of a long coma: “Oh, right, I draw cartoons!”

I used to sit in front of the television and draw the talk show hosts’ and newscasters’ caricatures. TV is not my favorite sport but it does make me doodle. Youtube has statistically not had the same effects on my doodling. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m busy clicking away with my mouse and I don’t have idle doodling hands. Can anyone figure out what faces these are? I don’t think the one in the upper left corner is a famous person.

 

Freedom of the Press

This past summer I made a homemade press using a car bottlejack, assembling some pieces of wood and metal–not without spending hours walking in circles in the black hole that can be Home Depot–and expending a little sawing sweat. I’m very proud of this DIY project (care of an article in the intermittantly useful magazine Readymade.) I’ve done a couple basic linoleum prints just trying it out but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and really start squishing things. I’ve contemplated all things around my home that could be pressed…a soda can, apples into cider!, grapes into wine!…well, that’s a stretch), handbound books pressed together,…or the mother of all printing adventures…old school letterpress.

I took a mini 2-day workshop in the Letterpress studio at Columbia College recently. Their presses are probably from the 1920’s and were manufactured by a company named Vandercook. I learned such cute terms as quoin and quoin keys and composing sticks and arranging furniture around your type. I knew I was in the right place when someone went to the trouble of making a rubbing of Vandercook’s grave in a nearyby cemetery and then displaying it on the studio wall. Letterpress and Gravestones: my passions collide!

This relatively new process (to me) was invented (at least in the West) by good ole Gutenburg in the 1500s using a wine press similar to the one I have. Long live the freedom of the press! Sweet sweet mass produced prints for the masses. So if you see some antique letterpress equipment in a local store or you’re trying to get it off your hands, let me help you! Calling all letterpress equipment!

I am slowly acquiring my own letterpress equipment in my own space and I’ll keep you updated on this crazy project!

 

The 2009 Calendar Debut is here!

The moment we all have been waiting for: The unveiling of the 2009 Calendar of Famous Chicago Graves! 

You can visit me and pick one up in person at the ArtWalkRavenswood: http://www.artwalkravenswood.org/ this weekend. (In addition to the calendars, I will have greeting cards, new paintings, and fine art prints for sale. It’s free to look! And did I mention you get to see live artists stand near their work?)

I am offering the calendars for $15 as a special ArtWalk discount this weekend only! They will be for sale on-line at my etsy store as well for $20 starting now and after the ArtWalk. 

This homegrown 2009 calendar, collaged lovingly by hand, features 12 gravesites “brought to life” in the Chicagoland area. ( January: Marshall Field, February; Victims of Al Capone’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, March: Oscar Mayer, April: Dick Tracy cartoonist, May: Emma Goldman, June: Circus Disaster Gravesite, July: Mrs. O’Leary-and her legendary cow, August: bicycle maker, Ignaz Schwinn, September: the legendary ghost and statue of Inez Clarke, October: Chicago’s famous ghost, Ressurection Mary, November: Enrico Fermi, December: Indian burial grounds.) Learn about rich history buried around Chicago and keep track of your days at the same time!

 

Calendar Round-Up

Are you counting down the days until you can get a Chicago Graves Calendar in your hands?

The Calendars will be available starting October 4th at the  Artwalk Ravenswood. The good folks who organize this artwalk have graced me with some wall space at the corner of Berteau and Ravenswood. Come find me and your calendar both Saturday, October 4th, and Sunday, October 5th, from 11am-6pm. (I will remind you all about this plenty!) I will be standing by some unrelated paintings of mine trying to explain why I dressed people up in costumes, drove them to a patch of grass in a graveyard and why there’s this polka dot car always in the background…and this will help you keep track of your days throughout the year, too. Makes sense to me! So what is to be expected in this calendar?… let’s see, you might recall sneak peaks of Resurrection Mary (vanishing hitchhiker), Frank and Peter Gusenberg (gangsters), the Clowns (clowns), Oscar Mayer (sausage maker), Enrico Fermi (father of atomic bomb.) Also expect great months of the year that will feature: the famous ghost of Inez Clarke, Ignaz Schwinn (bicycle maker), Mrs. O’Leary (whose cow did NOT start the Great Chicago Fire-the family has officially cleared her name,) Marshall Field (department store maker,) Emma Goldman (troublemaker,) Chester Gould (DIck Tracey cartoonist,) and the 12th mystery grave???? You will have to buy the calendar. If you can not make it to the art walk, you may find me crashing your holiday parties with calendars in my trench coat. If you don’t throw a party, I will have them for sale at my etsy store. So many options.

 

Science and Art Make Chemistry

An acid/base reaction in Oak Woods Cemetery  in Hyde Park! Thanks to my brother, Dan, for his high tech equipment. Thanks to my friend, Adam, for his willingness to participate in this science/art experiment. Thanks to Enrico for being buried so conveniently on my commute to work. (If you’ve been following the blog of late…yes, this, too, is to be a part of the 2009 Calendar!) I, of course, save the best pictures for the calendar.

I thought it was also fitting during these Olympic times that we give Jesse Owens, buried across the way, a little “cyberspace” here.

 

Tightlipped graves

What’s a Chicago Calendar without a few Gangsters? Well, here are a few hints of what’s to come for the month of February. (For those who know last year’s calendar…they were featured in front of the Green Mill for the month of February. Get it? Now they’re dead.)

Special thanks to Catherine and Ryan for helping bring these historical figures back into focus. The brothers Peter and Frankie “Tightlips” Gusenberg are buried in Irving Park Cemetery. They were 2 of the 7 North Side Mob gangsters killed by Al Capone’s gang at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929. Despite being riddled with bullets, Frank stayed alive for a few more hours and was sent to the hospital where he refused to squeal to the detectives.

His alleged famous last words are: “I ain’t no copper.” His legacy lives on perhaps with the character on The Simpsons:

Johnny Tightlips.

The cemetery markers for these two souls also remain tightlipped. I went into the cemetery office and inquired about the location of Frank and Peter Gusenberg. A woman, who was “filling in” that day, asked me if I was a relative and if I was sure they were buried there. I told her I was not related. (I did not mention this but findagrave.com has their grave pictured and recorded.) She had me follow her down the corridor to a row of card catalog-like drawers. Sure enough, two note cards appeared with their names in one of the dusty drawers. I wasn’t allowed to take a picture of them so I quickly wrote down the lot numbers. Interestingly, the card stated that Frank was removed from Rosehill Cemetery on July 2, 1929 and Peter was removed June 12, 1929 and buried at Irving Park Cemetery. I wonder if there was fear of more vandalism at Rosehill. Catherine, Ryan, and I began dutifully combing through the section. After no luck, I went back into the office again and got a map. We searched further and came to the conclusion that they must have unmarked graves or there was some error. Those gangsters got away from us. The show must go on though and we set up our scene where, according to the map, they are said to be buried.

Rest in Peace, Frank and Peter.

 

Clown car

Finally, it’s appropriate to call the polka dot car a clown car. It was full of clowns this weekend! I took some clowns to visit Showman’s Rest of Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, IL. Yes, this blog post, among many of late, are shameless attempts at promoting my forthcoming 2009 Chicago Cemetery Calendar. These are just sneak previews of what is to come. These clowns–this is not their day job– just looked so good I had to share some pics before the calendar debut! Meet the cemetery characters pictured below: (L-R: Vivian, Alan, Erin, Dave, and Scarlett.)

The whole crew got suited up at Alan and Erin’s place in the neighboring town of Berwyn. (They did not know me and my project until the day of the photo shoot; this speaks volumes of their character.)

You know you have good models when they come with sketchbooks of their own face paint designs!

We headed over to Woodlawn Cemetery to pay our respects to some circus performers. See the whole train wreck story of 1918 here. or at findagrave.com here.

There are so many amazing pictures of this photo shoot I am tempted to purchase a “Pro” account at Flickr and share them all. I’d like to think my 200 picture limit on my free Flickr account keeps my picture sharing to a finely crafted and curated venue of only my best. Otherwise, I fear my pictures would be interred in its own vast, unvisited cyber graveyard. These are the decisions of our generation, folks, to go “flickr pro” or not…

Amazingly enough, that same day, The Creature (himself!) from the Black Lagoon (remember him?), was signing autographs at “Horrorbles,” The Sci-Fi movie memorbilia store in town. “The craziest things happen in Berwyn.”-Scarlett. So clowns got in on that, too:

And what better way to end a perfect clown day then with a perfect Italian ice from Gina. I’m not sure Gina fully understood our clown agenda but that’s okay, she gave us free refills.

 

Resurrection Mary

As part of my calendar shots for 2009, I headed down with my friend, Mary, to Resurrection Cemetery on S. Archer Ave, a stretch of road that hosts Chicago’s most famous ghost: Resurrection Mary. This is the one shot that does not feature an exclusive grave as there is controversy over which grave claims the true Mary. Instead, we have featured this wandering spirit along the road where many a hitchhiker has spotted her. Here’s some hollywood-ized folklore about this ghost:

According to legend, Resurrection Mary has been sighted at Chet’s Melody Lounge, an old bar that boldly faces the cemetery from across the street. We went into the bar to freshen up from our drive down I-55. Mary walked in wearing her work clothes from the day, after a few minutes and a few sips of our drinks, Mary went to the restroom to get into costume. She returned to her bar stool wearing a long white wedding dress. Mike, (check out his myspace) he’s pictured here in his Ozzie sunglasses with Mary: was jamming it out on the keyboard in the back corner of the bar. He commented on her “nice dress” in mid-song. We looked for the Bloody Mary that is supposed to sit at the end of the bar for the famous ghost and we also looked for “The Ballad of Resurrection Mary” on the jukebox. (My Chicago Haunts book by Ursela Bielski promised these details.) Apparently only the bartender on Sunday has a Bloody Mary out for the ghost and the jukebox went digital and doesn’t have the song anymore. We got our fill of stories of ghost encounters from the locals in the bar. Gil, who bought two beers for us “two hippie chicks at the end of the bar,” told us of how he passed out outside the bar after claiming there was no such thing as ghosts. His cigarette went flying out of his hand. Rez Mary was not happy! Ray, Chet’s Melody Lounge webmaster, and an extra in the Resurrection Mary Movie made in 2004, recounted the time a beer “just flew off the bar– I swear, ask the bartender.” Ray says the movie’s horrible but he’s in the scene that they shoot at Chet’s Melody Lounge. Here is our rendition of Resurrection Mary at Chet’s with Ray seated in the background:

The real shots at the Cemetery gates will be fully revealed in the calendar but here’s a sneak preview:

The legendary steel bars where Mary is believed to have pulled the bars apart and imprinted her tiny lady-ghost hands have long since been replaced. (The cemetery claims that a truck backed into the gate. But believers insist that it mysteriously wouldn’t “take” to new coats of paint in that same spot.)

 

Polkie makes it to the press!

So, our road trip dreams came true! We got in the local paper at the end of our musical road trip through the mountains. The Franklin News-Post tucked us neatly in between the obituaries and the animal control report. I mean, the polka-dot car was meant to brighten up a newspaper page like that, no?

And, if you can read the fine print above, we committed no crime to achieve this fame in the “Moonshine Capital of the World.” (Our whiskey’s legal as far as we can tell, ladies and gentleman.) Our 3 copies were mailed to us from the great staff at the Blue Ridge Institute…who originally spotted us with our instruments outside their museum. The top picture is Stacie, Natasha, and I with “Polkie” in front of the Crooked Road Sign. So, if there is ever argument about where “Polkie” first went into official print, it was in Franklin County, Virginia. The band-aids painted on the car even got some coverage! Get it? Coverage.

The second picture is Natasha in the center, fiddling with the band. You may never know how good they sounded…but, wow-wee, they sure were good-lookin’! Many thanks goes to the Blue Ridge Institute staff for submitting our story and reminding us that our trip was, indeed, worth a bit of ink.

Now, fingers still crossed about next year’s brochure!!!