New Orleans 2012: Valley Ridge Art Studio, Michael de Meng, and La Fantome Maison

For the second year in a row, I journeyed off to New Orleans, Louisiana, on an art retreat sponsored by Valley Ridge Art Studio.  Led by VR's lovely owner Katherine Engen, the attendees saw the sights of the city and took a workshop with Michael de Meng.  The workshop was called La Fantome Maison which translates to The Ghost House.  Our mission was to build a shrine to lost souls so that offerings can be left to appease the spirit world. 

On Monday, January 30th (Day One), I took off from Milwaukee midmorning to fly to the Crescent City.  I arrived at 4:00 p.m. and headed over to the Ramada Inn on Bourbon Hotel where we are sleeping and doing the workshop. Not sleeping in the workshop--you never nod off in a Michael de Meng workshop. 

The first official event of the trip began in the lobby at 6:00 p.m. where we all gathered to walk to the Voodoo Spiritual Temple located on North Rampart Street.  There we had a ceremony blessing our creative spirit by Priestess Miriam. The temple is filled with cool spirit shrines.

After the ceremony, we walked next door to the Bar Tonique where I drank a Pima Cup.  It appeared to contain every type of alcohol invented by man but it went down smooth.

I cannot remember where we ate that night but it is not because of the alcohol.  (Katherine Engen says we ate on Jackson Square which I don't remember but she also says I ate bacon wrapped oysters which I very much remember and they were great!!!!!)

I downloaded the first day's photos into my laptop and then my laptop crashed and was unusable the rest of the trip.  So that is why it has taken so long to do this blog and why there are no photos from Day One.   If you want to see the bazillion photos that did survive the trip, feel free to go over to flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gniebuhr/sets/72157629309192759/, otherwise enjoy the ones that follow. 

Day Two found the troops on the road in two vans for a city tour.  We hit the highlights of the French Quarter and then headed over to the Ninth District which is the area so famous for the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.  What we saw there was the efforts to rebuild including the rather strange efforts of the Brad Pitt Foundation.  These houses did not look like the kind of place desperate people would want build for them--instead they looked like the set of Woody Allen's Sleeper. 

St. Louis Cemetery #3 was next.  For a photographer, there is an enormous overload in walking through any cemetery in NOLA.  Here are some pictures from #3.

After the cemetery we refreshed at The New Orleans Botanical Garden (hit the bathrooms).  A dedicated photographer never lets a break interfere with a few snaps. 

The Garden District of New Orleans is gorgeous and it was our next stop on the route.  Our walking tour started with the Lafayette Cemetery.

As we walked through the Garden District we walked past the homes of Archie Manning (the boyhood home of Eli and Peyton) and Anne Rice's former home. 

One of the charms of this trip is that Katherine Engen tries real hard to find cool places to eat including today's lunch stop:  Eat on Toulouse Street.

Walking in the French Quarter is an equally eye-popping experience to a photographer as the cemetery visits.  Check out these cool doors: 

Fully fed, our intrepid band of assemblage artists were ready to go junkin' in the vintage shops around Decatur Street.  We love Gregg's and have visited it each year.  Last year's highlight was an old circus sideshow poster but this year I was strangely attracted to these abandoned Mardi Gras parade relics:

Windows and doorways are an open invitation to frame a photograph in NOLA. 

This night we went to Preservation Hall to hear drummer Shannon Powell and a great line up of jazz musicians.  I think we ate afterward but it is all a bit vague now (Katherine Engen says it was the Royal House which either had great food or food that makes you forget).  I need to take better notes next year. 

For the rest of the story, see the next blog post or visit all the photos from this trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gniebuhr/sets/72157629309192759/.

Cyclops's Mother Always Made Him Wear His Safety Glasses When He Rode His Unicycle

While I always seem to include some wit in most of my art, this one started with a joke.  I have a number of sets of safety glasses and I used one in a previous piece that I really don't like all that much.  So, on a mission to find a new reason to use the finds, I somehow came across the idea that it would be funny if

Cyclops's Mother Always Made Him Wear His Safety Glasses When He Rode His Bicycle

Then, it occurred to me that it would be obvious that a one-eyed kid would have to ride a Unicycle. 

First task, make a Cyclops.

Second task, make a Unicycle.

Third task, put them together.  It seems always, for me at least, the idea far outweighs my abilities.  However, I have done this before and this time it work like it should in terms of adding the body to the bike.  Also, a little wire later the unicycle was standing tall on an old cabinet door. 

Fourth task, paint them up.  A light layer of caulk, a layer of gesso, a layer of Titanium White and I was ready to add all the other colors. 

Fifth, fix what was missing.  Oddly, I did not add the something to the eyeball until after this baby was painted.  The something is an eyebrow or eyebone or something but it needed to be added.

Worse for me, the sculpture lacked balance.  Cyclops was centered right in the middle of the piece just like all the art made by a German, anal, librarian like me.  Right away I could tell that this was going to be an issue so I wondered what I could add to break up the structure. 

If a little boy was going to go for a ride on his unicycle, of course he would take his dog with him.  So, that led to the question: what kind of dog would Cyclops own? 

My answer was Flydo.

So after 16 hours and $50 worth of found objects, I have my piece Cyclops's Mother Always Made Him Wear His Safety Glasses When He Rode His Unicycle. 

The weirdest thing about this whole process is that after thinking this would be all about the joke for me the punch line is that I have fallen in love with that damn dog. 

The Devil To You, My Friend

This is what I posted on September 7th about this piece:

Full confession time: I recently attacked the piece called The Protector and Dremeled off the evil devil doll from the top of the piece...
Why did I hacked off the devil baby? My story for this piece is that the kachina-like figure is a protector of children but he has failed to save the baby in this piece. Sad, eh? The devil baby was the reason why the kachina failed. He was having a gay old time celebrated his victory as time ran out on the protector.


However, the more I looked at this piece, the more I thought the drama was stolen by there being too many stories being told at once. So, I hacked off the devil baby (which, trust me, was not as easy to do as it sounds).


Then I started to have second thoughts. Should I really mess around with a piece once it is done? I am still not sure what the answer should be on that one. Either way, here is the old version and if it does not sell (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) I will take a photo of it to show you when I get it back.

That was when the piece was headed for the front window of the Walker's Point Center for the Arts annual member's show exhibition.  It did not sell (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha).

So now this piece is headed off to the Cedarburg Cultural Center for a show called All Things Big and Small during January of 2012.  I thought it was time that I posted some new photos of the decapitated piece as it looks now. 

Is it just me or is the balance better on the new version?  I think it is more dramatic this way and I am pleased with it now.

A True Story of Christmas

In 1964, when I was ten, I was attending my third different grade school within two years.  That Christmas, at Manitoba Grade School, I made what I now call my first assemblage.  This simple construction, made from Elmer's glue, wire, fingernail polish and broken glass, was the culminating Christmas class project completed just before school let out for the Christmas holiday.  Although still drying, we were allowed to take it home that day, wrapped in waxed paper, to present to our families as our Christmas ornament gift. 

That afternoon, as I walked home through high snow banks on the tree curb (what little boy is going to walk home on the actual sidewalk during a snow storm?), somehow--I dropped my Christmas ornament out of the waxed paper.  When I got home and all I had was the waxed paper and I could not show my mother my gift.

I cried.

My mother had the solution, though.  She got bundled up and we retraced my footprints back through the neighborhood until we discovered the Christmas ornament laying in a snow bank, waiting to be recovered, taken home and presented to the family as a Christmas gift. 

This ornament, known in the family as THE GHOST, has hung in our Christmas trees for 47 years--first in the family tree, then my parent's, than Denice and mine. 

While my family was big on Christmas, I am not sure when my Christmas obsessions started.  Denice and I always put up our tree (fake!) the day or two after Thanksgiving (my wish) and it stays up well into January (her wish). 

Over the years, our eclectic tastes have added ornaments that represent things to us, especially family vacations but also community theater plays we were in and long gone family pets.  Our tree has many personalities including some rather famous ones. 

Yes, our tree has a plastic Elvis, a tin Elvis, and Eelvis.  Oh, yeah--and a jukebox that plays Elvis' I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You."

On our many trips, we find ourselves thanking the Spirit Ravens who guide our journeys.  I thought it would be fun to put a Spirit Raven in our tree but Denice refers to it as The Dead Bird. 

Disclaimer:  I have no idea what started my Santa collection.  At some point, I know that a lot of other people got involved so the collection consists of Santas I have purchased and Santas I have received as gifts.  Over the 32 years of marriage, I know Denice has given me multiple Santas for Christmas.  We now have a no Santa rule which only gets broken when we find a really unique one. 

We have so many Santa ornamnets that we have to have a second tree just for all the Santas.

We even get to mix religions with this Ganesha Santa ornament. 

People always ask me which Santa is my favorite.  It is the little two inch tall Hallmark ornament of one of my heroes.  So, I will let him say Merry Christmas to all who still say, "I Believe."

The Shield

I had a little scare the other day with a close relative (everything is fine now--thank you for asking).  It left me with an afternoon on my hands where all I could do was wait.  I did not feel like reading, writing or even viewing anything.

So, I went to the one solace that always generates some brain activity:  I rummaged my own basement.

I just need to make something so when I went downstairs I grabbed the first toy figure I could find:  a monster of some sort, not unlike the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Then it was into my box of small metals for some random pieces (a round piece on a pole for the head, a tin candle reflector, and drawer handle for the shield), grab the Apoxy Clay and some acrylic paint, and back upstairs to the worktable.

Three hours later I got the phone call I was waiting for and could calm down.  I was also half way through this piece.  Next day, after another three hours, after adding one bead and a chain, it was done.

I call it The Shield.  Despite the fact that it is about 8" tall and has some weight to it, I like to think of this as an amulet, or a necklace worn to protect the wearer from evil. 

I know it worked for me.