Pictures from the Des Moines Art Fest

You might be surprised to hear it, but we have a really good Art Fest here in Des Moines. And it's not just my midwestern bias talking here - it's consistently rated in the top art shows in the U.S. In terms of sales, it was ranked 7th out of 300 shows, so artists probably like to come here too. Sure they do - with all of the companies headquartered here, some of them are bound to buy some big pieces for the corporate offices. I think my brother-in-law has pieces at Principal and at Pella Windows.

Us little people like to browse around too, though. I sadly couldn't afford most of the stuff I wanted, but we did buy a blockprint from Kreg Yinst. It was between Yellow Submarine and A Day in the Life but ultimately the sub won out because he made less of those. I *really* wanted the one you'll see in the pictures below - it was a compilation made of every song from Sgt. Pepper in a frame that he made himself. Alas, it was $750, and I do not have a spare $750 sitting around at the moment. Or ever. So I contented myself with this little guy and will dream about the day I can walk into art festivals and point at things I like without even asking the price and then have my assistant pay and ship it back to my house while I continue walking around the festival unencumbered by bags. Or something.

Here were some other pieces I enjoyed. I don't pretend to be an art critic; I can only tell you what I liked. And I'm very sorry that I didn't get this first artist's information.

Suzy Scarborough's stuff was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous... and HUGE. She's from South Carolina.

This is Tick Tock by Eric Ober from Houston.

I didn't see until after the fact that I wasn't supposed to take pictures of Rick Abrams' work, but it was so colorful and whimsical and quirky that I couldn't bring myself to delete the picture. And believe me, I couldn't replicate this if I tried. My pictures don't do it justice... and if you check out his website, his range is pretty impressive. You would think a guy who does such pop art-y stuff is limited in what he can do, but he's all over the place.

Can you tell I'm drawn to bright colors and things with a sense of humor? And sadly, I didn't get this artist's information either. I am a terrible person.

The one below is by Dennis Heimback of Middleton, Wisconsin.

I loved Tiffany Ownbey's work. It kind of made me think of stuff you would find in the background of a Marilyn Manson video. It's quietly creepy.

Viviana Bonanomi from San Francisco (below) was doing some really interesting things with crocheting long strips of paper.

The metal guy is by Chris Seeman from Cincinnati, who also had some very sophisticated pieces in his booth.

Keith Grace - Being a writer, I'm a total sucker for when artists use newsprint and typography.

The next two are both by Kina Crow, who had some hilarious stuff. The one below says something to the effect of, "even though we're far apart, i still smell it when you fart."

"She knew he was a bad boy... but she loved him anyway."

Joe DeCamillis had a lot of 3-D mixed media where he repurposed books into statements about traveling across America. I want to know how he got the edges of his books to stack so smoothly together... he had coated them with something. Plaster? But they retained some of the texture that a stack of pages has.

And here's the big Sgt. Pepper piece I wanted to buy from Kreg. Again, my photography sucks. But you get the idea. Awesomeness.

So that's my Art Fest Experience. Hopefully I'm rich by this time next year so I can experience that point-and-purchase thing I was talking about next year. Also, I'll need a bigger house for all of these things I'm going to buy. Because right now, those sculptures are totally going to overpower my yard. On the plus side, they will probably let more sun through than our tree does. Things to think about...

Crop Circles = High Wallabies? REALLY?

Apparently they eat poppies, get high, and wander around in circles repeatedly squishing down crops. If this was dated April 1, I would totally call it an April Fool's joke.

Fact: raccoons like marshmallows

Raccoons. Marshmallows. Battlestar Galactica.

I know, it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it? Anyway. We’ve had raccoons living in our roof since at least last summer. They peeled back the flashing and got in there somehow. Paul thought he had the problem fixed, but they’re back this year. When he took the dogs out Friday night, he looked up and saw those flashy animal eyes (you know what I’m talking about) peering down at him and said it was rather creepy.

We saw them in broad daylight on Sunday morning – it’s a mama and three babies. I don’t know if it had been the babies’ first night out hunting or if they fell off the roof or what, but there were two of them down on the ground and one of them up on the roof. The kits were too little to get back up on the roof themselves, so the mama was down on the ground trying to help them. The one up on the roof was freaking out because everyone else was down on the ground and he was trying really hard to get down to them – at one point he was hanging off of our gutter by one paw! It was amazing. And the whole time the babies were making these cooing noises; they kind of sounded like pigeons. The mama finally climbed our magnolia tree to get to the one on the roof and dragged him off back to their hidey-hole in our roof. Maybe I am anthropomorphizing too much, but I swear she had this attitude like, “Look, I told you to stay put. If you can’t follow instructions, I’m putting you back to bed.” It was a very no-nonsense kind of a thing. So she got him tucked away and went back to the ones on the ground. They managed to shinny their way up the fence and run along the top of it, but one of them didn’t quite have his balance so she picked him up too. They disappeared over into the neighbors’ yard and that’s the last we saw of them. Did I mention my dogs were going freaking nuts this entire time? We have windows along that whole side of the house and the fence happens to be about two feet in front of them.

Paul had been staying that if he saw the raccoon he was just going to go out there and kill it. Apparently he has no issues doing such a thing and once heroically fought off a rabid woodchuck as a kid. Or something. You’d have to ask him about it. Growing up out in the country must have been pretty interesting.Anyway, once he saw there were babies involved (they were SO CUTE), he was no longer so confident in his raccoon assassination abilities. We broke down and called a pest control place. For the BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE of $450 (UGH), they came and set humane traps at our house. Once the critters are caught, they will be released out at Saylorville Lake and the pest people will screen up the area the coons were living in to make sure nothing else gets back in there.



Which brings me to my fascinating fact of the day: apparently raccoons like marshmallows, because that is what the pest people are using as bait in each one. I did a little research and apparently they especially love wet marshmallows. They also adore sardines, but cats aren’t attracted to the scent of gelatinous blobs like they are attracted to the odor of oily fish, so it lessens the likelihood of catching the neighbor’s Persian.

We were really expecting to find raccoons in one of the traps this morning, but nothing yet. If we get one of the babies I might just sneak it into the house and see if Paul notices. We already have three four-legged creatures ruling our roost… surely one more won’t really make a difference :)

Hey guys, what do you say we try to get into the Attic tonight with our fake IDs?

And then we can film a workout-inspired music video and all freak out when we realize that one of us has been abusing caffeine pills and is so excited, so excited, so... scared.

Quote of the Day

“She's making a sacrifice because she loves her kids. Eating that tarantula like she had to is an act of love. It's a sign that this is a mother who loves her children.”

- Rod Blagojevich

The MONTH in Review: April 23-May 31

I suck, OK, I totally suck. In fact, I only had three posts for all of May. I chalk it up to the trips I took and the training I was doing (see my Dam run post below), but it's still a little sad.

Mental Floss

• 10 Billboard 200 Milestones. Dark Side of the Moon was on the top 200 selling albums list for, like, ever.
• 10 Famous Trains. I can't talk about Casey Jones without getting the Grateful Dead song stuck in my head.
• 10 Mean Moms. No, I didn't include you, mom.
• Rain, Rain, Go Away.
• Obscure Punctuation Mark Quiz.
• Ranking 10 Peppers on the Scoville Scale. My dad's idea.
• Pluto, We Never Knew Ye.
• 10 Flowers You Don't Want in Your May Day Basket. Or maybe you do, if you're suicidal.
• The Milwaukee Brewers. My second-favorite team now. Partly because they like beer so much and partly because of the sausage race. What, you guys like baseball teams based on their collective talent? Weirdos.
• 10 Things in the Skull and Bones Society's Tomb. I was surprised that this one didn't get very many comments. I think secret society stuff is so fascinating.
• 10 Nuggets About McDonald's. Including the tale of Uncle O'Grimacey and Captain Crook.
• 10 Animals Named After Celebrities. Mostly insects and such, but you gotta love the bunny named after Hef.
• The Oregon Trail Computer Game. Did I spend like three hours playing Oregon Trail in the name of "research"? ...Maybe.
• 10 Evil Destinations.
• 10 Amazing Actresses in 10 Awful Movies. Aww, poor Bette Davis.
• Happy Birthday, L. Frank Baum!
• 10 Statues of Liberty (other than the original).
• 10 Questionable Patents. I have not been so amused while writing a Quick 10 in a very long time. I kept sending Paul e-mails saying, "Look at THIS one." "THIS one is even better." "WHY would you need this?" You know I'm deeply feeling something when I break out the all-caps.
• 10 Deadly Landmarks and Monuments. Just because people jump off of these landmarks doesn't mean they die. Can you imagine jumping off of the Empire State Building only to be blown back on to the next floor? That's just what you need when you're so upset at life that you want to end it all. "Damn... I'm even a failure at suicide!!"
• 10 Facts About Grauman's Chinese Theater. This started L.A. Week at the Quick 10 - four posts (Monday was a holiday, so no posts) about places I visited while on a five-day weekend trip with my mom, aunt, family friend and BFF. I really need to blog about that here sometime... I have some great pictures and good stories.
• The Santa Monica Pier.
• 10 Things at the Warner Brothers Museum. Such a cool part of the WB tour, which I wasn't expecting to be so great. Good job, Warner Brothers! Are you hiring screenwriters? I know this girl...
• Dodger Stadium. Gorgeous stadium, but it's no Wrigley :)
  

Neatorama

Five Familiar Actresses in a Different Light. Jessica Tandy used to be a BABE! Actually, all of these ladies were. Angela Lansbury (pictured) was a hottie, too. I think it's good to remember that these actresses weren't always playing grandmotherly types, and the longevity of their careers is pretty inspiring.
Movie Trivia: Clue. Can someone tell me why I don't own this on DVD? As soon as it comes out on Blu-Ray, I'm on it.
The Real-Life Tenenbaums: Three Famous Families. I think I would like to be a member of the Day-Lewis clan. Do you think they take applications?
The Hindenberg: What Happened? We still don't know why it went kablooey, but there are a few theories.
Five New York City Riots. Written because it was the anniversary of one of the riots, not because I like to highlight violence in NYC. Promise.
Movie Trivia: Ocean's Eleven. Clooney, not Sinatra.
The Top Four Deadliest Volcanoes Ever. The picture of the girl caught in the rubble is probably one of the most heartbreaking things you'll ever see. I linked to it in the story instead of embedding it, because I know people don't go to Neatorama to get depressed. But I have goosebumps just THINKING about that picture.
The Many Sides of Shel Silverstein. Good writer, great illustrator, creative genius... not-so-great dad :( We can't all be everything.
Four Really Fast Runners. Because I had running on the brain.
Six Roller Coaster Records. And now I have the urge to go to an amusement park.
Five Other Remembrance Days Across the World. In honor of Memorial Day.
Four Celebs Who Belong to Mensa (and two who don't). I had James Woods on the list because of sources said he was. But a representative from Mensa actually wrote Alex and said that they have no record of Mr. Woods' membership. What say you, James Woods? And will James Woods High School change their name in light of Mensagate?
Movie Trivia: Mary Poppins. Aw, one of my favorites. I get warm fuzzies watching this movie. Enjoy the trivia!