Art Abandonment Project – 9th Drop

The long winter is coming to a close…and so, I can spend a bit more time outside now, wandering about my little corner of the world, spreading influence and

ART.

I did mention I considered the angel pins I made part of the Art Abandonment project, even though I handed them out instead of spreading them to the fates.  This drop, I have once again followed our ‘official’ protocol, and left a little piece of something behind on Sunday, March 4th, for one lucky finder.

Not a great stretch, eh?  I’ve been obsessed with the rubber duck form, so it only seemed natural to drop a ducky to the winds…and, because the weather was cooperating this weekend, I got to pair it with a lively stroll around the downtown area.

My first camera-worthy event is one I’ve kinda drooled over for a year now, ever since I first saw the icons spray-painted on the pavement.

Wisconsin has 2 distinct seasons…winter, and road construction.  When you see the pavement getting all painted up, you know we’ve officially crossed into the ‘other’ season.

Road Construction Prep, or HUGE Tie-Fighter Battle Reenactment?

I know these markings are ‘officially’ to mark where water, sewer or utility lines are under the pavement, but I ALWAYS see them as tie fighters from Star Wars.

Perhaps I should hold this photo until May the Fourth?

I got this shot from the top of the parking structure, which gave me plenty of room to snag the shot, as my street level attempts throughout last year all failed rather spectacularly.
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This is one of my favorite buildings in the downtown area.  It’s the Waukesha County Museum.  An interesting couple of snippets here…the building was originally built in 1883, so it’s got an age tag of roughly 135 years, or well on it’s way to the second century.  It’s still standing tall and proud and majestic as hell.  It started out as the county courthouse, has gone through several expansions throughout the years, but ALWAYS housed the County museum.  The shots I’ve got here are both of the original building.

 

Of course, a walk for me wouldn’t be complete without stopping by to chirp a happy greeting to my favorite ribbon of water, so the Fox River once again grandstanded for my camera.  All I have to say is…we have some hella stubborn trees in this town, because this one refused to drop its leaves in the fall.

 

I didn’t forget to mention earlier that Waukesha hosts a veritable nest of art-lovers, did I?  This one may not depict our legendary ‘Guitar Town’ moniker, but it’s an awesome mural nonetheless.

And the dropped duck?  Well, I did call him the Fire Duck, because he’s got the red eye and a couple of red rings along his crest, and he mentioned he was thirsty, so I dropped him off in front of Bernie’s Tap to peruse the fire water menu.  I hope whomever was lucky enough to adopt him can handle his liquor consumption.

 

Art Abandonment Project – 7th Drop

 

The weekend of August 12, the kids and I took a little trip half-way across the state to Madison…the justification being a new bra.

Once we tried on all kinds of over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders and selected the ones we wanted – it was time for fun.

Not that bra shopping in an upscale boutique-y place isn’t fun when you get to embarrass the hell out of the lady assisting with the sizing, selection and trying-on of the things…but I digress.

I’ll admit, I’m a bit ‘coarse’ when discussing boobage.  ESPECIALLY my own.

We ended up on State Street.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Wisconsin’s Capital city – state street is the connecting street to the actual capital building and UWM’s campus.  It’s filled to the brim with an eclectic offering of tiny mom&pop shops:  eateries, bars, glasswares, clothing, artistic gifts, metaphysical stuff…etc.

It’s also interspersed with an amazing number of very well thought out urban ‘chill’ spaces – fountains, greenery, water amusements, seating areas, and the like.

Because Madison has taken such care in creating an attractive space around the actual Government building(s), State street is a magnet for a very interesting class of people.

To put it bluntly – you get the hippies.

I don’t mean this in a negative way – I LOVE the hippy vibe – these are people who, in any day and age the tag has been affixed, go against the standardized social ‘grain’ of the time.  These are the thinkers, the dreamers, the rebels, and the artisans.

In short – my kind of people.

With such an eccentric gathering, how could I NOT bring along a few little artworks to abandon?

I picked a total of 5 pieces for this little trip – an offering of some of my best…and some forms that hadn’t been chosen for abandonment before this.

We’ll start with this little teashop on State Street.  The kids wanted something kinda sweet to drink, and I badly needed a bathroom – Sencha Tea Bar served to fulfill both functions.  I laughed so hard at the signage in their restroom, I HAD to leave an offering…so the multi-colored fin whirly was perched on the sign.  Although my little twiddle isn’t as beautiful as Beyonce – I hope whoever found the piece treasures it as much as I loved making it.

We then wandered down State Street in the direction of the college quad.  One of my favorite things about State Street is the mix of old & new.  Here…some ancient storefront architecture bracketed with modern high-rises.  Perfect if you need some bohemian foodstuffs 😀

Once we emerged into the quad – we found a gathering of flow artists…doing their thing to the beat of a small drum-circle.  I don’t know if you can really call 2 drummers a ‘circle’…but I was willing to just go with it.  Besides – the beats they performed were infectious – I couldn’t keep my feet still throughout the entire performance.

I managed to drop the dude and the inverted whirly in the quad – the dude ended up between the railings behind the drum circle, and the inverted whirly on one of the concrete seating areas surrounding the quad.

 

The kids spun things along with the group…after all, they’re flow artists and knew some of these people…and I wandered about the quad with my cell phone camera.

 

 

 

Art comes in many forms – this storm grate isn’t your standard piece of cast iron.  This kind of detail is what makes the State Street area something special to visit.  And look…I took a selfie of my feet 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know I live in Wisconsin – we worship cows ALMOST as much as we worship beer.  I couldn’t help but snap up this little cutie.  She was quite intrigued by the flow artist spinning his hoop in the grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t need to go to Europe to see a castle…we have one of our very own!

 

 

 

 

 

The last piece to be abandoned in the quad was the full Persian keychain.  This wasn’t my standard abandonment, however.  One of the flow artists was having a birthday.  The group stopped in the middle of their performance, and offered impromptu birthday wishes and a pretty green present.

As green was her favorite color…the FP keychain was just the thing – it had green scales attached.  S duly presented my little twiddle to her…and she ran over to give me the biggest hug I’d had in quite some time.

We had 1 more stop to make.  Mimosa Books & Gifts on State Street is a familiar haunt for the kids – they offer a lot of metaphysical stuff, some Eastern-themed tchotchkes, and tumbled, carved and shaped mineral stones.

Lots of those.

I slipped my final whirly on a corner of the counter when we were checking out.

We then grabbed a bite at the Which-Wich.  I tell ya – their lettuce-wich’s are HUGE – and very keto friendly.

We then made our way back to the old cheap-jeep.

But first…

When a building demands a good goosing – who are we to disappoint?

And the last shot I’ve got from the Madison trip?  This little gem, spotted as we were getting into the car.

If there were ever any doubts about how Wisconsinites feel about their beer, their football team, and their major religion – I believe this photo has erased all of that – the only thing missing from the signage was an advertisement for bratwurst.  We worship hops, the Packers, grilled brats, and Christianity in this state (well, the majority do…I’m the weird one!) and in that order.

 

Art Abandonment Project – 5th Drop

Now that I’ve got my new cards for the Art Abandonment project – I like dropping stuff a lot more.  This time, I’m taking advantage of the kids going far and wide on their summer camping/festival runs, and I’ve sent a couple of things along with them to drop.

They have three:

These little pretties will be abandoned in Harmony Park, MN, as part of the Campfire Flow Fest going on the weekend of 7.28-7.30.17.  I don’t know where the kids are going to do the specific drops, but S has said she plans on doing the ‘deed’ early in the weekend, to allow plenty of time for my little pretties to be found.

Now…I can’t post pics of the actual drops yet, because they haven’t happened – but I’ll give you a little background on my pretties.

 

Yes, it’s another Byzantine Star pendant.  These are happy little charms – they’re some of the first forms I was able to make when I started chainmailling, and I just love to make ’em.  This is another 8 point star, in mixed copper & aluminum.

Whirlys also feature on my favorite things to make list.  This one has a reddish marble in it, from S’s big bag of antique marbles.  I added some red aluminum connector rings to accentuate the marble’s color.  These are my favorite little fiddle toys.  Because the cage is slightly loose around the marble (but not too loose to allow the marble to slip out) it can roll around in your hand or between your fingers.  The form is fluid and alive in your hand or wherever you play with it.

And lastly – the 4 point Celtic Star.  This little guy was an early experiment in Maille.  I don’t think I’ve ever made another.  I do remember looking over the piece as I dragged it out of the storage case, and saying “Man…that’s a bad closure.  Oooooh – there’s another one…”  So pliers were applied to fix my ‘student’ closures before tucking him in his bag.  I might have to revisit making these stars, as they do look nice, and were fairly easy to put together.

 

Wish the kids stealth as they drop these pieces for the festies to find and cherish.

Art Abandonment Project – 4th drop

It’s been a while since I did a bit of artwork dropping.  To be perfectly honest, I was not very satisfied with the tags I had (pulled from the Art Abandonment files, printed on plain white paper, and cut to size) and this restricted my ‘will’ to package things up.

But…my workbench is overflowing with whirlys, stars, and some sizable strips of European 4 in 1 left over from one of the dragon wing design attempts.  It was time to clear some of the chaos.

I did find some new tags.  On Vista Print (it’s on online print shop, they have a lot of different stock designs for business stationary) I found a business card background I was extremely pleased with…and I could add in whatever text I wanted.  You can see the results in the drop pictures below.

Once I got these in my hot little hands…I could barely wait to package stuff up.  YEA – clearing clutter AND getting back into freely distributing a little bit o beauty into the world.

 

Life is good.

All 4 of these were abandoned on July 16, 2017, in the Downtown Waukesha area – after 7pm, as I did a bit of walkabout.

The whirly bird was abandoned by my most favorite fountain.  This is the water feature I was first drawn to when I moved to Waukesha…it had a wonderful energy as it was situated right on top of the small dam.  And, although it still has a fantastic energy…it no longer pours that energy out to me.  I’ve moved further downstream.

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The 8 pointed Byzantine Star was abandoned at this point on the Fox River Walkway.  I found some old, rusty staples in this wood beam…one came out easily, was re-inserted equally easy, and allowed me to hang my little package for max visibility.

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The 6 pointed Byzantine star found it’s temporary abandonment resting place smack dab in the middle of our very artsy downtown area.  This is some kind of electrical or grid-service box.  The gallery which shares the sidewalk with this has painted it with a downtown scene to jazz it up.  This is one of the biggest reasons I love the downtown area.  After I did and photographed this drop, I waited for the crosswalk light to change, then passed a pair of uniformed officers heading the opposite way.  I can only hope this star was picked up by one of ’em.  I can’t think of anything more fitting than a star for a cop 😀

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And, finally, the European 4 in 1 key-chain.  I’ve been sitting on this (and a 2nd, which I haven’t converted yet) patch of chainmaille for a bit.  It was one of the failed wing attempts for the dragon project.  It consists of around 400 rings.  Up until this point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the patches…I just knew I didn’t want to unweave ’em.  So I stitched up one end and added a short length of chain to attach to a key ring.  And…because all this walking and abandoning is hard work…I stopped at the little sweets place downtown for some sugar free chocolate gelato.

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Hope my little twiddles brought a smile to the face of the lucky finders!

Art Abandonment Project – 3rd Drop

I have to admit – I dropped the ball…

It’s been a couple of weeks since I offered another chainmaille art piece to the winds of fate to brighten the day of some random individual slated by those fates to receive a gift.

Last night, I finally remembered to grab one of the packages I’ve had sitting, patiently, on my desk as we headed out to the theater.

So, not only did I pick up the aforementioned ball last night…I managed to place a very successful abandonment, get a picture, and walk away without any witnesses whatsoever.

So, if anyone out there is looking for the artist who left a whirly bird chainmaille at the Ridge Theater in New Berlin, WI on 4.18.17, a bit before 8pm….

 

 

And…the movie we watched last night?  It’s a Japanese Anime Chick-Flick being shown in the US on a VERY limited release called “Your Name.”  It’s a gorgeous film – the artwork in it is top-notch, the story was enough to move me to tears, and we left the theater feeling extremely good.   It’s got a good blend of mystical “what-in-hell is going ON here??” paired with teen-aged hope & dream, a dash of love thrown in, and, just to top it all off, a looming disaster from space.

I just love it when a film can multi-task.

The Art Abandonment Project – 2nd Drop

Soooo…there’s this group of people all around the world.  They’re artists, and their fervent wish is to spread a little beauty around this deeply troubled world.

I joined ’em.

My first drop was around two weeks ago – I went to one of the coffee shops in downtown Waukesha, and left a little dude behind.  I hope he’s brought a smile to the face of whomever adopted him.

 

 

This week, I packaged up 4 of my whirlys.  Two were dropped in Brookfield last Monday night, 3.20.17, due to an amazing coincidence with my recent post on hot dogs.

 

 

It’s pretty standard in the human mind, that once you bring a thing to mind, you mull over that recollection for days.  You might have dreams about it, you might want to re-live the entire scenario again in your head (selectively editing the situation in your imagination now that you know better…) or, if the recollection involves food – you’ll experience a fresh craving for it.

Well… I wrote my little ditty on hot dogs.  Mind you, I didn’t want the ketchup-flooded disaster of the past… I wanted some GOOD dogs.

Coarse grind, natural casings, a bit spicy, and a REALLY good grainy mustard to go with.

The kids came home from a trip to the grocery store that fateful Monday.  S announced she NEEDED hot dogs…but not the industrial sausages pumped out by the big food manufacturers…she needed the dogs they sell at our local Brennan’s.

Which just happen to be (yup…you guessed it…) the good dogs.

It was a good night.  Brennan’s always has a bunch of samples set up all over the store – various sauces, fresh veggies & fruits, and cheese.  It’s what they do.

 

So I got snacks at Brennan’s.  I got Mmmmmm-dogs.  Some spectacular grainy mustards…and an opportunity to stick a whirly on a tree lining the parking lot for the AA Project.

 

 

 

 

Because the Brennan’s is in the same strip mall as Kopp’s Custard, (oh…look at that…I’ve also mentioned them!) I also got a pint of frozen custard for the SQO, and stealthily slipped into the dining area to hide a second whirly amongst their planters.

 

 

 

I like spreading smiles about my area.

 

The Art Abandonment Project – First Drop

Last summer, I found a project/group/page buried under the political quagmire you find flooding a typical day’s feed on Facebook:

The Art Abandonment Project.

This group has a very focused, and blindingly simple mission:

Make a bit of art …

package that bit of art against the elements …

with a card that says:  FREEEEEEE! ….

abandon your creation in a public place…

That’s it.  No strings attached – No advertising come-on’s  –  No pressure.  Only the project’s name, that they’re on Facebook, and an email address if the findee’s want to let the group know where the orphan landed are included on the FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!! card.

In short – it’s pay it forward, with physical art.  I absolutely LOVE this idea, as it allows the fates to intervene as they will, and place a bit of beauty in the hands of someone who needs it.

The group love to share photos of their abandoned pieces, along with a little story of where they left it, in case those findee’s want to find it on the web.

 

I formally joined the group a bit ago…

 

And today – I’m ready – to drop my first piece.

I hope the fates put this little fella in the hands of someone who needs some sunshine.

Wish Me STEALTH!