2025 06 Hand of Protection With Michael deMeng at Shake Rag Alley and The Eye of the Bee-Holder

Hand of Protection

Michael deMeng

June 26-29, 2025

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

It is time for another visit to Wisconsin by my mentor and friend Michael deMeng of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Michael is coming to Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI, to teach a workshop called Hand of Protection.

My normal course of responsibility is to pick Michael up at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, IL, and drive him to Shake Rag Alley. This year the Wisconsin State Fair Amateur Photography Competition was on this Tuesday so I could not. No fear, Michael took the Coach USA bus from O’Hare to Madison, WI, where the kind staff of Shake Rag Alley picked him up and delivered him to his home until next week Monday.

Denice attended the Photography Competition and then she and I drove out to Mineral Point because Denice is taking Michael’s class too. We got there is time to take Michael to dinner at Commerce Street Brewery.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Michael, Denice and I ate an early breakfast at the Red Rooster this morning in order to get down to the Lind Pavilion and begin the set up for the class. Once the room was in good shape, we headed off to Dodgeville and the local Wal-Mart to stock up on food and supplies.

Back in Mineral Point, we dropped off Denice at Roland’s Loft where we are staying. Michael and I went to Cuba City to hunt for antiques. Let just say that some things were bought and a side trip to the Platteville Wal-Mart was necessary so that someone could get a second suitcase to carry their goodies home.

I spent some time along in the Lind and was able to start my first shrine of the weekend.

By dinnertime, it was off to Dodgeville again to eat at Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ. After dropping off both of my fellow travelers, I stayed in the Lynd until 10:00 p.m., making amazing progress considering the class has yet to start. 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Today is the first official day of class. Here is Michael's class description: "It began with the film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (filmed in Dyna-rama!), where a mysterious woman had an eye tattooed on her hand. I spent weeks drawing eyes on my hands with magic markers, and if I could’ve gotten a real tattoo, I would have! Known as the Eye of Fatima—or the Hand of Miriam or the Chamsah—is used to ward off the “evil eye.” We’ll make sure no bad mumbo jumbo crosses your path by crafting your very own DIY shield against shenanigans. Together, we’ll create a protective eye reliquary using found objects and assemblage and painting. Get ready for a bit of civil-eye-zation…maybe we should be building reliquaries to ward off my bad puns!"

Michael began the day imparting his knowledge about the Hamsa. He even had A HANDOUT!!!

Denice and I sat next to each other so we could share stuff

Denice working on one of her three projects

We worked all day on our projects. After we went out to dinner at Commerce Street Brewery, we were able to work into the evening hours in the Lind until 11:00 p.m. thanks to having a second key to the building. 

Friday, June 27, 2025

Day two found everyone well into the project(s) they had selected. For dinner, Denice, Michael, Diane and I went over to Cafe 43 for a folk night of music and some great jambalaya. Then a few dedicated artists headed back to the Lind to work until 11:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

After working all day in the Lind, Denice, Kelley, Cris and I went down the hill to the Shake Rag green for their annual fund raiser, the Gala on the Green. Denice bid in the auction for a work by Kate Church but missed out to Sandy from Longbranch Gallery. However, her silent bid on some vintage jewelry carried the day and she went how happy.

Some of us again worked in the Lind until 11:00 p.m.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

There is always a little tension on the last day of any workshop as everyone wants to get their projects as far along as possible. 

At 3:15 p.m., a special thing happens: we hear the song The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. This is the signal that it is time for Michael deMeng's critique, one of the highlights of being in a deMeng workshop. 

Denice finished three works this weekend. Here they are:

After the critique, everyone packs up and heads for home. Michael, Denice and I also worked hard to have all our stuff ready to load into the van. That meant we could go, with Mardy, to Platteville to have a Chinese buffet dinner.

Monday, June 30, 2025

We have a battle plan for today in order to get Michael on his way to Vancouver. First it is off to Madison in order to hit a bank and ship Michael's two crates at FedEx. For lunch the three of us had sushi.

Driving for a few hours, in this case to O'Hare Airport in Chicago, with Michael deMeng is never boring. We were fortunate to have a beautiful day and no traffic. Michael got to O'Hare in plenty of time to make his flight.

Denice and I were home by 5:00 p.m. We both agree that the workshop was great thanks to our friend Michael deMeng and the staff of Shake Rag Alley. We can't wait until next year.

THE EYE OF THE BEE-HOLDER

Although I brought three projects, worked on two, there was only one completed. Here is how that all came about. 

Here is the stuff I pre-selected at home including the giant cradled board I decided to work on. I have vowed not to work big but I also spent some money on this board so I decided either use it or give it away. 

I covered the board with pattern paper, something I like to do usually because it will be seen as the work progresses. This is not going to turn out to be true here.

I measured where the box is going to go. That did not happen either. 

Now comes the saga of the handmade papers. A few weeks earlier at Shake Rag I took a great workshop with Karen Robinson called Book and Paper Camp (see previous blog post) and the Collage Camp I held at my house this month. For this portion of the box, I used some of my rust dyed papers. 

Next it was time to paint the candle holder shrine

I used four different things simultaneously to make sure this table leg will never fall off

I knew I wanted a river to run through my piece so I used some blue handmade papers to form the water.

The cradled board was papered with some tea dyed papers I made. 

The shrine

The Hamsa based on an articulating artist's model

Attaching things

Eventually the project was taken as far as it could go at Shake Rag and was set aside so I could work on  another project. 

At home I added a frame and finished some of the detail work. Here is the final work. 

Thus we have The Eye of the Bee-Holder. It is 40"H X 24"W X 6"D. It consists of a Cradled Board, Wooden Box, Artist Model Hand, Wood Bee, Table Leg, Candle Holder, Tin Can, Watch Base, Blood Type Medallion, Wood Trim, Tea Dyed Papers, Rust Dyed Papers, Paint, Aves Clay, Glass Eye and Sari Ribbon.

2025 06 Wisconsin State Fair Amateur Photography Competition

Every year I love to enter the Wisconsin State Fair Amateur Photography Competition with my brother-in-law Bob Crocker and our friends Lynn and Chris Prober. We gather at breakfast to get all excited and then spend the day watching the judging of the photographs.

The State Fair has 97 adult level categories that photos can be entered. Ribbons are given out for fourth through first place. Each photographer is allowed to enter a maximum of 35 photos for judging. 

Let's look at the 35 photos I entered and how they place. First, the photos that failed to win any award in their category (or as we like to think about them, fifth place!)

DID NOT PLACE

1002 Shovel

1004 Wisconsin

1010 Alluring amber ale 

1011 Beautiful blue water

1012 Construction cone orange

1013 Cotton candy pink

1015 Gravel gray 

1016 Lovely lavender

1113 Antique

1124 Building architectural – urban 

1129 Circles 

1132 Corners

1135 Eyes

1138 Geometric shapes

1140 Glow

1151 Leaves

1154 Opaque

1158 Repetition in nature

1159 Rest and relaxation

1160 Rust 

1163 Shadows

1164 Signs, street, etc. 

1165 Stained glass

1168 Transportation, air, land 

1171 Water 

1172 Waterfalls

1176 Yield sign

THIRD PLACE

1126 Cameras, as still life or in use 

1134 Doors

SECOND PLACE

1204 Fences black and white

FIRST PLACE

1115 Beads 

1131 Construction cone

1156 Portrait, head shot only

1175 Windows

FIRST PLACE AND JUDGE'S FAVORITE

1157 Railroads 

The Judge's Favorite award is the next step down from Grand Champion. I was thrilled to receive this recognition this year (the only other time I received a JF was in 2011). 

Another special treat for me was I had a chance to discuss with the judge who selected my photo as his favorite and another judge about this photo. I told them that it reminded me of a WPA photo from the 30s and they agreed. One judge told me she argued for it to be the Grand Champion with references to Robert Frank and Dorothea Lange. 

Dorothea Lange

It was another fun day of photo judging at the Wisconsin State Fair. Now to shoot more photos for a year to get ready for 2026.