awesome alley

Last weekend, we got to visit the most awesome alley in Rapid City. One time, when we were in town for our anniversary in 2010, I took a picture from out on the street, but we didn't have time to go look at it more closely. I was very sad about it. But this time, we were taking the kids to a cheap movie in town, and got there a little early. And I noticed the alley was right across the street from the theater! So I led them all inside. YAY! And we got to walk all the way through too.



The kids enjoyed finding all the cartoons and pop culture icons scattered over the walls.



Roger and Jessica Rabbit




Homer Simpson!




Do you see Wacko?




Sylvester



Mario!

One of the first things we saw as we started heading down  the path was this wall with icons from one of our favorite tv shows, Doctor Who!

Exterminate Exterminate Exterminate

Notice the smart phone tag?

This picture was stuck on the wall like some kind
of wallpaper or something.

Yeah, I can't believe people are even using an alley for advertisements. Sadly, we don't have a smartphone, so I can't tell what this ad is for. Maybe tv times?

I like how they painted the key hole over an actual door knob

I'm not sure, but I think this alley is  some kind of city art project: there was no nudity or swearing, just paintings and philosophical words. At least, I know the art isn't illegal, because we saw one guy spraying a wall just as two police officers on bicycles pedaled right by him without saying a word; all the while he was helpfully explaining to Joseph that it was a wonderful hobby that anyone could pick up.
 It was strange to see the dichotomy of gangster-looking guys hanging out in a few spots, while tourists and old ladies meandering through the space just a few feet away.
"Look, Gladys, the artwork even goes around this corner!"
"My, would you look at that. Isn't it wonderful?"
(overheard right by this side ally)
























It was also strange to see several nice vehicles parked behind the graffitied buildings- this alley is on a block of touristy boutiques and coffee shops, so I assume the cars belonged to people who worked in these businesses- yet it was obvious that some of the second floor windows were looking out from ghetto-ish apartments.




This looks like an airbrush painting that'd be on a big truck.

And I wanted to live there.
Not me right now, with my kids and husband in tow, no way. But I've always liked to look at homes and apartments and picture what my daily routine would be if I lived there- generally I see myself single and college aged, which is long over now, but it's still fun to imagine. When I rode the bus in Seattle, it was my favorite pastime.



I think I like this wall the best

 I may have mentioned once that my sister and I used to say that someday I would live in an old brick apartment building in a big city, and I'd have a neighbor named Mrs. Rosini (or something) who would make spaghetti for me sometimes. Yeah, I know it's a stereotype. And I did live in a city one time, but it was in a house with four other girls, on a quiet side road near an arboretum- probably a much nicer place to live, but not nearly as exciting.
Anyway, I couldn't help but look at each of these residences and think about what it would be like if it was my home.
This one is probably the back entrance to a business, since it's street level. But what if there are stairs inside that go up to that apartment there? Would it be scary to come out at night?




















This next one looks okay. I like the color of the door, and how it's removed from the street a little. It's probably really somebody's office. You think?

Look! Someone painted over the private property sign. Haha.















THIS. I probably wouldn't really be out because of the tourist factor, but I can imagine myself sitting in this little courtyard with a journal, easel, or camera on sunny afternoons. But more so if it was actually closed in . <3 br="">


















I don't know why, but I was fascinated with this corner here. The wall was bumpy and strangely textured. At the top of the stairs was an empty flat space you would cross before reaching a door in the wall where someone might live. It looks like maybe they tore down a wall or two? I was really tempted to go up these stairs just to look, but you can see that the bottom is blocked off.



was this inside once?

However, these stairs right next to them were perfectly accessible!




















What if these were your bedroom windows? Was someone standing right outside painting this late at night while someone slept (how disturbing would that be?), or was it painted by the person who lives/works there? What if you could just climb out your window and paint the wall whenever you felt like it?





Have you heard of this new art movement, where people crochet or knit things, then decorate items in public places? (This is a real thing) I wonder if this little nook is part of that movement, or was a forerunner for it?

























There was a lot of weird stuff, silly stuff, and some strange messages along the way, but I thoroughly enjoyed our little walk down the art alley. Even the pictures that were a little bit scary:



I wonder if the artist and the scribe were the same person for this scene,
or if the writer came by later?



A lot of the written words expressed Eastern inspired philosophy
or ruminations on art, but there were some dark things too.

 





















                                                                                 






This big painting was at the very end of the alley, I took two pictures trying to capture it, but the alley was too narrow to back up sufficiently for my lens to see the whole thing. I'm not sure if that last one is "to pepsi" or maybe "to persue" which makes more sense with the other two phrases, "to have and to gain".

 

 

I was very happy I brought my camera.

Dakota Sky

Doesn't that sound like a cool name for a girl? Now that I think of it, I might have heard it before. Anyway, I recently attempted to do a collage type piece of art, using a variety of mediums from paint, to thread, to photocopy. I have been admiring a lot of this type of artwork online recently. As I've mentioned before, I often admire artwork that's different than mine, or difficult for me. One thing I love about collage work-at least the ones I've been seeing- is how it looks so spontaneous and creative. I also love the variety of textures and media in these works.
Sometimes I have a hard time with this, because I'm so worried about ruining an aspect of my artwork by covering it up or changing it...even though I've learned time and time again, that when things don't go according to plan, these are usually much better for the change! I tend to be more methodical and pedestrian, which I sometimes want to get away from.
The reason  I started this painting was because I had two photos that I really loved, but they probably weren't going to be printed in my photo album, and I wanted to preserve them somehow:



















This first photo, I loved because it was out of focus. I wouldn't want this in an album, but it would look really neat as a  painting or something.

The second, I loved Elora's hair blowing in her face. It was pretty in its own right, and it also obscured her identity just like the blurry photo. It wasn't ideal for a "family memory" :




















I hadn't decided how I wanted to use this picture, but thought it'd be neat to combine the two images somehow. I took Jonah out of the picture and printed it on cardstock, still undecided what I'd do with it.

After a few days of thinking, I started on the piece. First, I did a watercolor of the blurry drawing on a big piece of scrapbook paper. Then I stuck on the bigger picture of the blowing hair. Before you ooh and aah over the big figure, no I didn't draw that one (though I certainly could); it is the photocopy of the photo. I wished I had more supplies that I needed, like this clear gesso medium stuff that you can glue artwork with, and it won't mess it up. Against my better judgment I used a little Elmer's glue. It worked okay, but there were a few gaps- then I had the brilliant idea of sewing it together! I love the added texture it gave the piece.
I  left it for a few days, not wanting to ruin it. I thought about how I'd felt a need lately to do more artwork/ writing about where we live and the experiences we have here. Each summer, we attempt to get a job somewhere else, and while things always look promising, we have so far ended up staying another year. Each time that it seems imminent that we might move, I feel a panic that I haven't used this peaceful, uncluttered time wisely!
So that planted the idea of maybe doing several pieces about South Dakota. Next, I remembered that I've been thinking about trying something with painting water droplets on a window, or a blurry scene through a window on a rainy day. On the spur of the moment, I splattered water onto the photocopy. Whoa, I guess I better make sure this never gets wet, water and photocopies aren't a good combination, in general. However, the splashes did look pretty cool on my artwork.

Over the next couple of days, I had a few more ideas. I dug up some old poems I had about rain and clouds. One was actually about rain in a tree, so I dissected the poem, removing and rearranging lines until it felt like an accurate description of rain on the grasslands. I printed these out and jazzed them up with some marker, then figured out where I wanted them on the painting, but only gluing down the one on the bottom left. (Hmm, I think I did that before I sewed it.)
I decided to draw some realistic raindrops in colored pencil and arranged them over the picture for a  trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) affect.
One afternoon, Jonah and Eli were bringing me lots of flowers from outside, and I decided it'd be cool to have those in the drawing too. I pressed a few of them, and took a couple of fresh ones, then spent an afternoon drawing them. I had greater respect for artists who do paintings of fresh flowers; it was hard to capture the fully open one because it was wilting and closing even as I drew it. I arranged these over the picture along with the rain drops.
I needed a few more things to pull it together- really, I think I needed some bigger elements to make it a little more cohesive, but I was loathe to cover up the watercolor too much! I went through my stuff for the kids scrapbooks and found a few stickers I liked, as well as a quote I included to the right.
The last thing I did was add some drawing elements on top of the photocopy, to help incorporate it more into the artwork. Then I was done!
My favorite parts are the raindrops (both the real water splotches and the drawings), the flowers, and the stitching:



















My least favorite parts are some of the white lines in Elora's hair, and the fact that it feels like it needs more big things to hold it together.






















And here's a photo of the finished piece again:

the race is on!

"Hey, Grandma, you wanna race?"
"Oh, I guess so Elora, but you gotta be pretty quick to beat Grandma! I'm not sure it's possible."

"Ready, set, go!"
"Aw, Grandma, no fair! You're so quick and agile! Plus you started first!"


























"But, I think I might actually beat you! After all, I am young and spry. See you later, Grandma!"

























"I guess I can let you win, Elora. But only because I love you."
"Gee, thanks Grandma!" wink.

crafty new chair

At the end of the school year this May, a lot of our neighbors and fellow school employees were leaving permanently. This resulted in a lot of random things in and around the dumpster outside- things that were in perfectly good shape, but people didn't want to bother hauling them out of here.

 

One lady threw away a huge collection of unopened custom greeting cards; they were untarnished by the rest of the dumpsters contents, so I quickly snagged them, along with an armful of brand-new looking hangers. Hey, I'm not too proud to save useful stuff from a landfill!

 

One day I got a cute wooden little side table with shelves, and magazine holders on each side. It fit perfectly into the kids' room, especially since for some time now we'd been looking for something to hold all their extra books that would fit in the small space we had.

 

Another lady left a twin mattress and box springs, as well as a cute chair. She was still loading her truck when I spotted the items, so I asked her if the chair had any issues. It appeared to be a wood framed chair with brown non-descript cushions, and the mattresses were resting on top of it. She assured me that the chair was fine and was actually a rocking chair! In addition, she told me the mattresses were fine too, and I could take them if I wanted.

 

Jonah had been asking when he could get a big bed (he's still in the toddler bed) and these were in perfect condition. In fact, they'd been in plastic zip-up covers so they still looked brand new. Yay!

 

So the chair had the cushions upside down. When I turned them over, we (my mom was with me visiting, did I mention that?) discovered an unexpected pattern of colored patches that was sooo me. Yes, there was the hole too, but with mom there, we could make quick work of that!

 

 

 

I sewed a few patches on the sewing machine (there was something to repair on both sides) then my mom  hand-stitched the patch onto the cushion faster than I ever could. Because the pattern is patchwork anyway, it could pass as an accent.

 

Don't we all look so crafty and creative?
Okay, it was hot and humid, so we're a little disheveled.

 

 

And just like that, I got a cool new chair. I think Joseph likes it even more than I do, as it is quite wide and he can sit and rock comfortably- he has taken to dragging it over to the computer in the evenings when we watch shows together.
 

 

 

I'm glad we rescued these items just in time too, it started to rain right after we brought them in the house!

Oh, and if you were wondering what Elora was making in the photo above, she was making a new bracelet for grandma! It says "Love" and has a heart, though it's hard to see in the photo (purple on pink). She worked really hard on it...now grandma can be so fancy!