I love bad art.

I sent out an email to help ward off the creative block I was in a few weeks ago…

“here’s how it works:
i give you 3 abstract words and 3 concrete words and you make me a piece of art on a postcard size card and mail it to me. you interpret the words however you see fit and with me in mind. you do the same, send me 3 abstract words and 3 concrete words, and your snail mail address!!!, and i’ll mail YOU a postcard with my interpretation of your words and with you in mind.
you don’t have to be good at making art. in fact, i love bad art. yeah, send me bad art.”
…and so now the art is rolling in! and here’s what a sample of my postcards looked like before i sent them out.

 

Living in a Creative Block!

Quick, send ideas! I’m in a creative block! Just. Plain. Stuck. Help me get over the bridge.

If you read the title differently…I could also be living on a creative block in the city right now…but it’s getting cold and I think everyone walks their dog and then goes inside to watch TV. It’s just feeling like November in Chicago. Sigh. Nope, not in a city block of creativity. My brain is blank.

In the meantime, I will look at the pretty yellow leaves while they’re still there.

 

Calendars, Art Shows, and Graves, Oh my!

Yes, those calendars are going like hotcakes. Thank you to all who came out to the Artwalk Ravenwood this past weekend! At one point, I was graced with the presence of 3 of the 5 clowns (featured in June of the calendar) at the same time! (L-R Erin, Alan, Dave.) Some calendars are still available on-line at my etsy store: jeanfitz.etsy.com. Remember this is a Limited Edition (!!!) so snatch ‘em while you can. And, of course, we’re going into a rough patch for this here country of ours and you’ll need to look at nice, uplifting pictures…but who can afford such a thing as fine art in a “crisis moooohment?” You betchya, I understand. That’s why I have a neat-o little set of $8 greeting cards (with envelopes that still taste like basil when you lick them like last year!) and then I’m selling fine art prints of some of my paintings…yep, all for sale at my etsy store.

 Yippee! Affordable art! If you’d still like to see some real, live art, head on over to the Main St. Metra Station in Evanston. The Evanston Arts Depot has re-purposed the old train station into a theatre/cafe and arts space. My paintings are now hanging there during October for commuters and theatre-goers to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On my way home from hanging paintings in Evanston, I just happened to pass by another great Chicagoland cemetery. It’s not featured in my calendar, but it’s certainly worth a browse… Calvary Cemetery, beautifully located along Sheridan Road facing Lake Michigan and bordering between Evanston and Rogers Park. It is the eternal home of many of Chicago’s Irish, and many of whom, unsurprisingly, are of relation to me.

 

More pictures from this particular trip to the cemetery are at my flickr site.

 

Open for Business

My long awaited prints are now available on-line at my etsy shop: (jeanfitz.etsy.com.) I’m so excited that I can finally share my original paintings in a form that is nearly like the real thing…but at an affordable price. A $500 painting can be experienced for $40 now! They make you want to touch them and feel the textured paint strokes.  I know I sound like a brochure, but, seriously, I am currently amazed at technology. The level of detail is unbelievable. I think these prints give me the same awe and wonder that a recording of good music can do. You see the concert live and in person, but the magic happens in the CD you take home. Sometimes that little gap between the original and the imitation adds some intangible value to something. You know it’s not really there but it makes you activate your imagination even more. May I be so bold as to say that, perhaps, these prints are that visual equivalent?   I am able to make these digital prints at home now, using a fancy inkjet printer and sell them through another technological wonder, the Internet!

I could talk about how great etsy.com is all day. This on-line venue lets independent artisans sell their handmade wares easily to the world! Type in anything, like “yellow dangling earrings” or “turquoise ceramic bowls,” and hundreds of artists from all over pop up with their products. Support the local handmade artists around you. I mean, cheap plastic crap from China is always at your fingertips, too. I believe in your right to choose.

I’d also like to point out that I have made special strides to ensure that one particular painting was available in print. I call it my “doomed painting.” (Picture here at left.) It has been sought after by several potential buyers but for some reason or another, it’s never found a real home. This painting’s wandering spirit can now wander much more affordably and widespread. I hope those fond of this quintessential Chicago neighborhood scene learn of this most recent manifestation: The $40 digital print. Please note these pictures uploaded on this blog are very small files and if you tried to enlarge the picture on your screen, you would see big ugly pixels. Buy a print, and see uninterrupted strokes of paint and almost too-real-to-be-true texture. These prints are selling at 13″x19″. Other sizes will be offered soon and any requests for specific dimensions are welcomed!

Your local artist,

Jean “I did not major in Marketing” Fitzgerald

P.S I almost forgot. Save the cost of shipping the print. Come to the Artwalk Ravenswood and pick one up from me in person. (Yes, those graveyard calendars will be there, too!) I will be at the corner of Berteau and Ravenswood on October 4th and 5th from 11am-6pm!!!

 

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.

 

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!!!

 

Virgin Mary Appears to Me at Work

This might be old news to Chicago folks but…the Virgin Mary has been sighted at the Kennedy expressway underpass at Fullerton Ave. An altar of candles and flowers surrounds this holy image made up of salt and oil on concrete. Last week, I finally pulled my car over to visit this Mary Apparition. It has gotten a fair amount of local publicity and has been on my commute for months. For a long while I thought it was just a memorial to a fatal accident, but it has been a Marian apparition all along! I parked my car and went in for a nice close-up of Big M. With all respect, I suspect a little magic marker touch-up was done to bring out her features…we all need a little touch-up with age I suppose…

So it was interesting that another Mary manifestation entered my life a week later… I encounter lots of unexpected events, requests, projects every time I go to work (where my title is the Craft Cottage coordinator) but today was extra special.

While walking out to the parking lot today, I saw the facilities manager and maintenance worker extracting something heavy and large from the back of a truck. Behold! The Virgin Mary was being dropped at my doorstep. I suddenly recalled an email from the day before asking if I wanted to restore a statue. Whether I liked it or not, there she was. I may not be the best Catholic on earth to be called on for Mary renovations, but the responsibility now rests with Jean, Craft Cottage Coordinator.

Before leaving, the maintenance worker rummaged around in the truck and procured the Virgin Mary’s detached thumb…surely broken in transit.

I giggled in awe at the heavy stone/concrete thumb rolling around in my palm. After negotiating the proper location for Mary with the workers, I quickly ran into the main building to proclaim the arrival of Mary… with her thumb, of course, proudly raised in the air! To prove that the art lady was not a crazy prophet, I took a group out to visit her and prove her existence. All afternoon, the thumb safely stayed in the pocket of my apron like a little rabbit’s foot.

My task now is to return Mary to her proper state. She has obviously had a botched nose job.

Her missing index finger also indicates her current disqualification for the military.

I’d like to think Mary is in no hurry to acquire a prosthetic trigger finger. One fellow employee has advised me to get some epoxy for her thumb and that I can build a new finger for her. I’m also currently investigating ways to strip it of its chipping coat of paint. Are there any stone sculpture renovators out there? I’ve already been told it is NOT okay to paint her in polka dots. I would never do something so tacky-ahem- but I’m open to hearing other ideas. How can I best restore Our Lady of Crafts???

Since Mary has arrived the last day of work at the Craft Cottage before I depart on my little road trip, I think it’s only fair that Mary’s thumb sits shotgun on my trip to Virginia next week. With Mary’s thumb’s blessings, the polka-dot car will surely hold up well enough in Appalachia and we won’t need to “thumb” any rides.

 

For hire…Irish Grave Maestro

It just so happened that my Irish fiddle instructor, Jessica, and I were both working on the South side of Chicago Wednesday afternoon. There’s no better way to take a mid-week break than to stroll through your local graveyard. We decided to meet up in Mount Olivet Cemetery (111th St.) and pay homage to Chief O’Neill, for whom the bar on Elston is named after and for the tune that is still played today. You may know my other mortal expedition to Graceland Cemetery that produced Miss October that graced the 2008 Calendar. See those pics at my flickr page.

Francis O’Neill was an Irish immigrant who became Chief of Police in the early 1900’s and had a great influence on Irish music here in Chicago. I’m a little confused on the history so I hope we’re standing in front of the right monument…the apparently official story from Chief O’Neill’s Pub says he died in 1936. So maybe 1904 was a really big year for him? PBS also did a bit about him a while back…

We took a peak in the side window where glass had broken. Anyone care to shed more light on those urn-like things resting on the opposite windowsill?

While we were admiring this burial site, our new friend, Bob Carten, came walking along and started to chat. He, like Chief O’Neill, is a retired cop. He has an extensive history to share as his life story came literally spilling out of his wallet.

We even got the polka dot car to join in:

I took out my digital recorder for the playing of Chief O’Neill’s Favorite Hornpipe in front of Chief O’Neill’s grave…with Bob’s life stories floating in and out of earshot. When I got home that night, I played back the track and realized that it never stopped recording. I will spare you all five hours of it. I’ve narrowed it down to five fascinating minutes of mostly cemetery wind. You’ll also barely catch snippets of Bob’s stories, Irish fiddle playing, more wind, and at the end you hear me zip up the recorder inside my fiddle case while we’re still talking. Oops!

Bob requested we play some fiddle tunes in front of his father’s grave at some point. That would be an interesting niche market, no? Check your local listings soon…”Tombstone maestro for Hire.” Bob is also looking for a way to share or publish his stories. This blog is a start.

Because I only want to share the perfectly “enhanced podcast” through the best technology available to me, I will post the podcast of our cemetery visit in the next post. Translation: I’m not so tech saavy with zee audio file and still workin’ on it. So, check back soon.

 

Face Reflection

Stacie was kind enough to let Morgan pose in the portrait with her.

Just some old fashioned drawing this weekend:

 

Creativity+Menstruation=Mandala

During a few days of every month, there is this “zing” in my veins that says to make something, make it now, make it messy, just do it and ignore everything else. So I do. The result is always something I would never make any other time of the month.

I did a brief Google search on art and menstruation and came across several taboos. There were drawings made with menstrual blood, artists displaying stained underwear, and blood spots chronicling their cycle day by day.  The creative work I’m picturing here doesn’t connect to menstruation quite so literally–I used only paint pigment–but it still comes from a wilder creative source.

I think a woman’s brain can do amazing things (well, all month long) but can achieve an even more unique consciousness during menstruation.

I live in a culture that numbs out our cycles or tries to eliminate them entirely. Let me be clear that this “dark” time of the month is full of inconvenience and discomfort, but I still cherish them wholeheartedly, er, and whole-uterinely. Before and during my period, my dreams are more vivid. Strange shapes swoop in and leave just as quickly. The veil between consciousness and dreaming is thinner at this time. I believe in being spacey and menstruation ensures that I set aside time to dream.

Since this is a time to go into the mind’s deep interior, it can often translate into eating chocolate, not answering the phone, and watching embarassingly girly movies. Or it could mean making mandalas!  It was very timely that this week’s activity at work was making meditative mandalas…

Here’s to finding a centering and wholeness in our different cycles (of all sorts) and to talking openly and positively about menstruation.