Family

I took some odd pictures of my cousins, while in Florida for Christmas.

In & Out of Buffalo & St. Petersburg

This was a long, weird week, particularly in terms of experiencing weather. I spent last Sunday riding my bike in near blizzard conditions, and shovelling snow, then Monday night I flew to St. Petersburg, Florida where my relatives gather for Christmas. The weather in St. Pete was in the 70s all week. When I returned to Buffalo last night (at Midnight) it was 60 degrees and almost all the snow was gone. This morning I was awakened by the house shaking from high winds. I always find this unnerving, I imagine the house moving and pulling away from the chimney. But then I remind my self that this structure has withstood this kind of treatment for 118 years, and that it's unlikely that this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. The high winds also caused a seiche event, I haven't checked but it looks like the lake level was up by about seven feet. I went to photograph the lake around 11 am and it was violently frothing, images below.

Our car after the driveway dig out Monday, December 22

Peace River, Florida, December 26

Grapefruits from my Grandparents' backyard tree, the enormous one weighs 2.5 pounds!

View of the lake from LaSalle Park. The lake was up by about six feet when this photo was taken.

Wave spray in a restaurant parking lot on Lakeshore Road, Hamburg.

Wind blown powerlines

View of Buffalo and Lackawanna from Hamburg Town Park

Hamburg Town Park

I've been Interviewed

There is an interview with me on the website Trap Door Sun. It's mostly about the Stray Shopping Cart Project.

Snow Ride

I went for a bike ride in the snowstorm yesterday. While not the worst conditions I've ridden in, it was pretty close. The strong winds created white out conditions and a lot of drifting.

Ice & Snow

I recently needed to find a map of Lake Erie for something I was designing and I came across this incredible satellite photo of lake Erie partially covered in ice. For a closer view of the lake ice, check out my Flickr album, Seiche Damage.

Unlike many people, I can't get enough of the ice and snow, it's a big part of why I live in the north. Today we are experiencing our second storm in three days and I love it. It's getting windy and nearing white out conditions. After I shovel, I'm going to see how far I can get on my bike.

The view from my studio window this morning.

Snow covered spider web

The Zoo at Night & The Kitchen Window

My former employer had the office Holiday party at the Buffalo Zoo last week. As part of the evening's events we were given a tour of the newly constructed rain forest exhibit. It was strange because the exhibit is normally lit by natural light, and at night there was only minimal illumination. We ended up peering into dark enclosures hoping to spot something. I was told that the lights that are there are to help the Scarlet Ibises, which fly free in the building, to avoid getting eaten by the small caimens. I took the above iPhone photo of a Basiliscus lizard, it captures the weird (and wonderful) fakeness of zoo environments.

Speaking of fake environments, I created one of my own a few days ago. We have a window box over our kitchen sink that during the warmer seasons we fill with plants. Unfortunately, in the winter it becomes a plant killing point of major heat loss. In the past we have done a half assed job of tacking plastic over it, which creates an ugly and depressing scene to look at while doing dishes. This time around I decided to do it right with the plastic that you tape up and then blow dry to tighten. I had the idea that I could replace the plants with a diorama of branches and $2. craft store birds. I also threw in a real bird's nest, rocks, bones and rubber animals. I'm pretty happy with the effect, it's considerably better than nothing.

Goodbye to Great Keychain

My Au Tibet Avec Tintin keychain has finally broken. It was a minor, and entirely expected event. I bought the keychain at The Tintin Shop near Covent Garden in London in the Fall of 1996. I was there for 6 months on a student work permit (I spent another 7 months in Dublin). I remember thinking it was too expensive when I bought it, but that feeling faded as I went on to carry it in my pocket almost everyday for 12 years. I commend the people managing Herge's estate for putting out a quality product.

Stray Carts in Gastronomica

I have a small article in the fantastic magazine Gastronomica: The Journal of Food & Culture, it's basically a short summary of the Stray Shopping Cart Project (written by me), and a two page spread of images (cropped a bit). I can't recommend the magazine highly enough, it's really cool.

The Fairs

We got back from Miami yesterday afternoon. We had a good time and saw a tremendous amount of art. I skipped the Miami/Basel convention center (A.J. went), but we both attended NADA, both Aqua Fairs, Art Miami, Photo Miami, Scope, Art Asia and the Art Positions Containers on the beach. It all gets a bit repetitive after a while. Most people seem to feel the need to judge fairs as a whole, this one was good, that one was bad, yadda yadda. I have a hard time looking at the fairs that way, I basically just try to to remember individual artists that I like. I will, however, say that the containers were awful. The one exception was Martha Friedman's huge rubber bands in Wallspace's container (and I'm not just saying that because we are both in the Armand Bartos show, the giant rubber bands were cool). The whole thing seemed more low key than last year (Recessionista!), although I heard that Jay-Z and Shakira were among the celebrities spotted at the big fair, and that has to qualify as encouraging.

Some of the ephemera collected over the course of three days of intense art tourism

This is the dreamiest, weirdest iPhone photo I have taken so far, a cloud and its reflection on the Gulf of Mexico.

Low Rollers

View of Miami from the art shuttle as it crosses the MacArthur Causeway

The Aqua Hotel, home of the Aqua Art Fair. I had work here with Black & White Gallery. I've only been in the hotel during the art fair (each room is taken over by a gallery), but I'd really like to stay there under normal conditions sometime.

A.J.and a new friend at Aqua Wynwood.

me

This lucky guy snagged a hammock outside the NADA fair. It was a very pleasant scene in the NADA garden. While we were sitting there drinking beer, Brian Eno's Here He Comes from Before and After Science drifted out of the sound system.

The Sweet Smell of Fresh Ink and Pixels

I finally put together a proper (though imperfect) set of pages for To Know the Spiders at Montagueprojects.com, here.

I've also just produced a double sided folding poster for the Spiders. I used a similar format in 2004 with a poster for the Stray Shopping Cart Project. Hopefully this will be something that people would want to hang on their wall or pass on or whatever. It will be out of my hands and that's the point. If you want one let me know.

Off to Miami

I'm going to Miami tomorrow for the art fairs. Black & White Gallery (which represents me) will be at the Aqua Fair with a couple of my spider pieces. This will be my fifth trip to the Miami Fairs, it's always fun, exciting, and a little appalling. In terms of weather and economics, the contrast between Buffalo in December and Miami Beach is almost surreal, I like the strangeness of travelling from one to the other. Unfortunately the mood is going to be less exuberant this year due to all of the economic problems. Colette can't go this time so I'm going with my friend and fellow B-lo artist, A.J. Fries. I won't be posting again until Monday or Tuesday.

Flying over Miami Beach, heading home (2005)

Flying over Coney Island, which seems like Hoth in comparison

Brunch at the Sagamore Hotel, the two identically dressed people are a strange art couple (man and woman) who are always dress the same. I don't know their names.

This is the trunk of a car, wholesome Miami style

Some Countries Have All the Luck

While indulging my curiosity about Greenland the other day I discovered that they have the best coat of arms ever! Background here.