WHAT IS A WEEKEND? 3

Spent this weekend getting ready for September First Friday at the UT Downtown Gallery. I will be showing work with my School of Art colleagues. I got everything ironed out and will be installing later this week. 

Some previews of my first attempts at sculpture. It felt more like making 3D collages though. 

I took some glamour shots of Miss Mamie and walked around Knoxville on Saturday enjoying some local festivals and getting back into the swing of going to the farmers market. I had missed it for a few weeks from being out of town. (The mountains! The beach! Woe is me.) Didn't end up getting anything. Late birds apparently do not get the corn. 

Oh! And since the last time I posted I moved studios. I've doubled my space, and it's been great. Here's a little before and after shot. 

WHAT IS A WEEK END? 2

I've been wanting to play around with sculpture and have been making these recently. They are made of fake flowers and egg cartons.

Another new work.

I had Friday morning off. (Federal Holiday, y'all) and we drove down to our friend's farm to pick up a pork shoulder to smoke for the 4th of July and to meet the new pigs. I also met some interestingly shaped tomatoes. It's amazing what's out there once you stop getting the perfect, round, grocery store ones.

I ran into this unfortunate fellow later at the UGO. I would love to cook a pig head someday.

Later that evening was First Friday, and my studio had an exhibition at the Emporium on Gay Street.

My work sandwiched between work by Ashley Addair.

I'm not entirely sure this is finished. I may keep working on it after July.

So much food on the 4th.

A recent shot of Miss Mamie

TONIGHT

Tonight is the unveiling of my work I created for Bliss Home and the International Biscuit Festival.
Also, today is the day before the first Market Square Farmers' Market, so it's practically Christmas around here. After a 12 hour day, I will collapse into a heap of exhaustion and rise in the morning like the Phoenix (or a biscuit) and go to the farmers' market to drink upppity coffee and buy greens.

Self Rising: A Celebration of Flour

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cotton sacks replaced barrels as containers for dry goods such as flour, sugar, rice, chicken feed, and seed. These bags were usually white with the company’s logo printed directly onto the cotton. Thrifty wives and mothers would repurpose these sacks into fabric for sewing  -- making pillow cases, quilts, hand towels, and even clothing. Imagine the embarrassment of your dress or underwear having the Pillsbury or White Lily logo on it. A great effort was made to remove the printed logo – sometimes with lye soap, bleach, or even kerosene, but sometimes they remained. Companies producing these dry goods realized that their bags were going on to have a second life. In an effort to ease some of the hardships of the Great Depression and to entice more customers, they began printing sacks with colorful patterns and paper labels that could be easily removed.* It was their hope that the home consumer would buy their brand of flour or feed not because they were faithful customers, but because the print on the bag was desirable for a new dress or quilt. This body of work is a celebration of some of the more interesting flour logos of the past and the wonderful tradition of printed, patterned flour sacks.

*One of these companies was the Bemis Brothers Bag Company founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1858. It was one of the first companies to produce machine-sewn bags for dry goods. By the 1920s, The Bemis Brothers Bag Co. had opened 5 more plants across the United States. In the 1930s, the Bemis Company began to produce printed dress sacks, and would continue to do so up until the 1960s. Their cat logo was designed in 1881, and the cat was named Biddy after the best mouse hunter in the Bemis factory. According to company history, owner Judson Moss Bemis wanted to emphasize that in “letting the cat out of the bag” he had nothing to hide and dealt fairly with his customers. This small logo can be seen on many older flour bags.

All these and more will be on display and for sale at Bliss Home for the month of May.

HANGING OUT

My paintings have flown west for the new year. On display all January at Tomato Head in Bearden.

TOMATO HEAD

I'll be hanging my work at Tomato Head this evening. You can see these newbies at the Market Square location through the month of December, and then at the Bearden location during January. Last time I hung work at Tomato Head was July of 2012. My work's changed a lot since then. Check it out if you're in the area!

TRUSTPASSING

 I write here frequently about my love of signs. These pictures were taken in Memphis and Knoxville over the course of a few years. I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting ones.

The old location of Jimbo's Flowers on North Central Street in Knoxville.

Painted on the side of a dance lounge on Elvis Presley Boulevard -- just a few doors down from Payne's Bar-B-Q.

Opposite "NO TRUSTPASSING" in the same parking lot. This is painted on the side of a tax building next door to a barber shop. They really discourage hanging out here.

On the side of a convenience store in Knoxville. I love the look of the graphic masking tape letters.

You can see my first iteration here of the masking tape "NO LOITERING" sign. I was so excited to try it out, that I picked up the first thing in my apartment to use as a background -- an Andy Warhol show card.

I have a growing collection of  NO LOITERING and NO TRESPASSING signs. I seem drawn toward handpainted signs telling me what (and what not) to do.

I found NO TRUSTPASSING this Christmas. I had gone to Graceland with some friends earlier in the week and returned to Bellevue and Elvis Presley Boulevard with my camera to capture some of the signs. (And also to hit up the huge AMVETS thrift store.)  I passed the sign once and was pretty sure it said "trustpassing" but couldn't believe it. I believed it enough to dive into the neighborhood and go around the block to have a second look. There it was, plain as day. It was strange, and it made a lot of sense. I googled the phrase. Not much comes up. I was beginning to think that it was a one-off until I was looking through a William Christenberry photography book. I admire his work -- he is another Southerner, chronicler, and lover of signs. (I've had the pleasure of meeting him, but that's a story for another time.) On the right-hand page was a picture of a rusty 5-bar farm gate in Alabama with hand painted signs of warnings and bible verses. NO TRUSTPASSING jumped out at me. Still not the explanation I was looking for, but it was out there another time.

 I spent this weekend working on some of my own signs using found paper and spray paint. I'll post them here soon.

DOLLY AND THE NEWS

My design for the WUOT mug context this year. It didn't get chosen to be on the pledge drive mugs, but if you love Dolly, East TN, Knoxville, and public radio as much as I do, consider donating to their pledge drive that kicks off this week. We've just lost one wonderful news source in town, so support what we've got!

SATURDAY PLAYTIME

IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME AGAIN

THANK GOD FOR AWAY GAMES

Finished this one yesterday evening. I've been playing with more muted colors lately. It's a beautiful Saturday, and I'm off to the Market Square Farmers' Market for my weekly dose of produce and people watching. The Vols are playing out of town this weekend, so Knoxville will be a little less busy, a little less crowded, and a little less orange today.

Last Saturday, something flipped the Fall switch on, and mornings have been much cooler. But the cicadas are still singing. It's a nice balance.

HOW I IMAGINE THIS ALL PLAYS OUT

MORE PANDA

One of my favorite things to do when driving around town is looking for PANDA tags. It's like a giant, illegal Easter egg hunt.