Heaven is a Nice Place to Be In

Angels having a nice time in heaven.


Angels in the clouds with my mom and dad.

We had a nice time making these images today on the computer.

Have a nice day
Luke

Mural progress

Harold, Jennifer and I began work on the Mural panels this morning.





Harold's response is "Brand new world and homes and checking it. The person that lives for the rest of his life. Those are people that go places and do things. I don't blame them. I just hope that places to go, places to do have a better home.- Do it together. NO."

Number Works

Sunday was the reception for the show at the Bloomingdale Park District Museum, which we rather arbitrarily entitled 'Number Works'. It will only be up for a week, so it will be seen by few people outside of the reception, but it all went very well. The gallery looked great. The art was wonderful. A good time was had by all.

At least a dozen Little City artists were able to attend. John King and Joe Flasch were seen there, hobnobbing with the crowd. Jeff Burke was also in attendance, discussing art and fashion with other attendees. A salon-like atmosphere prevailed.





Conspicuous by their absences were noted critic Alan Artner, and artist Harold Jefferies. Rumor had it that Mr. Jefferies was busy collecting materials for an upcoming art project. There was no word on why Mr. Artner did not attend.

Chicago Artists' Month

I went to the Chicago Cultural Center on Thursday for a seminar on this year's Chicago Artists' Month. It seems that they have less staff this year, and a smaller budget, so there will be less advertising and no glossy catalog. They will be relying much more on having people look up events on various internet sites. The official Chicago Artists' Month site directs you to the Chicago Artists Resources site, where there is a calendar and whatnot.

Little City should have at least 2 events for Artists' Month (which is October in case you didn't know). The Hyde Park show at Rockefeller Chapel will likely be all or partially in October. We need to set the official dates soon. Also, we'll have an art display in Humbolt Park, in a small art venue/nightclub called Connect Four, all month long.


Not much happened at the seminar. I saw a couple of familiar faces. Also in attendance was the rakish Zaki, currently President of the AFA. I also saw talented fiber artist Kathy Weaver, though I didn't get a chance to say hi. Kathy was looking for a venue to hook up with in October, so if anyone needs some good art, give her a call. www.kweaverarts.com

Let's play it by ear

On Wednesday we had our first rehearsal/sound check for the new Little City "Live From the A-Frame Cafe" performance series. The shows will take place in the A-Frame building, which is flanked on both sides by the greenhouse and located right off Algonquin Road. It's a small, intimate space with a seating capacity of about 40


The series kicks off with the song stylings of Jerry Rose and Jean Schonta. Jerry will open the show with several Motown classics including "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", then Jean follows with the not to be missed story- song "I'm a Yo-Yo".

The show closes with Jean and Jerry doing a set of sing alongs that ends with Woody Guthrie's classic" This Land is Your Land". I'm guessing there will be an encore or two to finish off the evening.

The rehearsal went well considering this is the first time Jerry and Jean had performed together, but that should come as no surprise being the seasoned pros that they are. A special thanks to Brian who drove through rush hour traffic from the city to help out. For those of you who will miss the show (which will be all of you since this one is by invite only) we plan to videotape and post it here and YouTube. Certain to be another online cult classic. Look for it toward the end of May.

We Took the Body of Bach Outside

These photos show a coffin containing the body of Bach. He was a composer who wrote "Three Oratorials" and a lot of other kinds of music. Today Luke Tauber and I brought Bach's coffin and body outside and placed it below a tree. We still need to create clothing for the body as well as copy of his gravestone.

Rockefeller Chapel

Laura Piazza and I went to Rockefeller Chapel, on the campus of the University of Chicago, on Friday. We were checking out the space for an exhibition that Little City will be having there in the fall. The dates haven't been set yet.

We're thinking of having a theme of 'Circles' for the exhibit. There are so many levels of symbolism piled up on the 'circle', often with spiritual overtones, that we thought it would be appropriate for
such a beautiful, spiritual venue.

This morning, after we vieweda photo taken Friday of a large model of the chapel currently on display in the north transept, Brian Dortmund said that he thought it would be good if we could come up with our own model of the chapel for the exhibit. Since Harold is always coming up with models and blueprints for Heaven, he would be a natural to work on this project.

Sounds good to me.

Besides the space in the transept, there is also lots of wall space in the meeting areas downstairs that we can use.

mural progress

We are working on creating a mural that will be installed in the hallway that leads to our studio. We're starting with a design of Harold's that will be projected onto the panels that will become our mural. Eventually, it will be a collaboration of all of the artists. Today we scanned Harold's images for the mural project - Here's the butt end of the sequence.
Is the truck dragging this house (or is it a mausoleum) behind it?
You can see all 5 panel designs here.

Have a good weekend

Mike Lyons said . . .
"Tell every one to have a good weekend- and say Hello to your family for me."

Happy Spring

Bob Stopped in to see me in the Media Lab.
I was on my way home and I wanted to say hello. I was not here much because of Easter and Birthday. My birthday was last Wednesday.
Do you remember how we manipulated your image Happy Spring.
I don't remember all of it.
Don't worry Bob-I forget the steps sometime too.
A couple years ago I wrote a poem about Spring. I have to look for it in my bedroom drawers.
I wrote it a long time ago.
What did you have to say in that poem?
Uh well -I wrote it before I was here Here at Little City?
Where did you live before that?
At home with my parents in Niles.
I used to take the bus all the time to work.
I worked at McDonald's I used to cook the Fish and nuggets.

I haven't thought of it yet

That's my arm
Harold and I are drawing cigar planes for a film.
What occurs in our film?
Huuh Windows. Window Cigars and- Uh Door Window. Uh promise to keep the floor clean, and the Garbage can. Yeah em hm ummmm.
How are the Cigars like Airplanes Harold?
They are both, got a cigar that burns with matches from planes.
The Planes Burn? That sound like a plot for a 1970 disaster film.
Uh huh.
Did you ever watch any of those films?
NO.
What kind of movies do you like?
Scary Movies.
Do you have a favorite horror movie ?
Count Dracula.
Did you see Twilight ?
No not really.
Anything else on your mind today?
Not really.

Favorite show

P.T. and I talk about Television and Movies.

I like the shows on Channel Five.
Would you like to make something in the Media Lab to be shown on television ?
I'll try.
What channel would it be on?
I told you it's Five!
Ok. I like a cat, a dog, and dog U. What is dog U ?
Its a TV show on Friday and Saturday. What will your movie be about? My movie would be on AMC. Have you heard about Chris Brown?
He made me mad. He had too many girlfriends.
I saw him on channel Five.

Bug Bag Blog

So Lori where did you find this bug . On the rug in the front hallway. Was It dead? Tell me about the spider drawing?
I did it a long time ago I don't remember when. I just added stuff to it. Do you often work like that editing and adding things to your drawings? Yeah. Did you know the plastic bag is marked Tuna?
I don't like Tuna at all. NO not at all . I don't even like fish. For the Antarctica movie we are making did you draw any unlikeable fish, or just mammals? No- just Whales, Polar Bears, and Seals.
Do you want say anything about the movie?
I cant think too well my head is kinda fried today.
Is that because today is Friday-
That's funny Lori --Snort.
Would you like to say anything else?
I don't know yet. Can't think straight right now. Do you like kitties? Do You like spiders that meow? Do you like spiders that purr?

Luke's heaven in progress

Luke asked me to share the progress he made on his series of digital images inspired by Beethoven's heaven as described in his 9th symphony, opus number 125. Yesterday he created three drawings labeled M, JC, and Elijah (Moses, Jesus, and Elijah), scanned them in, and began to combine the drawings with to the clouds of heaven he created last week. Next week, he will continue to fit the pieces together, and he will keep you posted.

Walker Walking Movie

Mike Lyons and I are working on a short film where his Walker goes to Las Vegas titled Walker Walking.
Mike lets talk a little about the film. I know we got my walker in it. That's right. So I guess my walker is dancing. Why is It dancing? It's happy because its able to move. So movement is the key issue here? All happening with Fabulous Las Vegas as a back drop. Mike
do you know your watch running is two hours slow.
Do you want to change that?

That's because the stem of my watch came apart. Let me take a look at it Mike, take it off your wrist. The stem fell off right after I got it It's a Timex. It was part of my Christmas present. I did get some cologne too. uh huh. Maybe we should write Timex a letter. Its a nice watch, that's a shame. I need a really really small screw driver to open the case back, and adjust the time. Should we try to open it up? You mean take this part from back here off. I guess- I am sure my supervisor Rizik wont mind if we do that. Lets try Mike.
I will use this Swiss Army Knife to open the back and the tweezers to adjust the time. Well it worked. Mike now you have no excuse for being late for work, or coming back from your coffee break. So what are we talking about now? -Yeah- I know your talking about my wrist watch - I am happy you got my watch to the right time.

Identity issues with Luke Tauber and John King

John K: I made this today.
Jen: It looks like the paparazzi is stalking you.
John K: I don't know...

Luke replies that the Italian singer is dead.
(a Pavorati vs. paparazzi discussion begins...)

Jennifer thinks JK looks like a hiphop artist in this:
any ideas for a name?