World Peace through Silkscreening

The very talented Jennie showed me her great way to make screenprinted t-shirts! We are giving them to our housewarming party guests (while supplies last) this weekend. hint hint.
I dug up some deals on t-shirts at the thrift store-local classic: The Village Discount-and Jennie prepared some screens and came up with a fun design, inspired by last week's bomb threat on our block. The design includes a teddy bear about to be blown up with the caption: "The Lakehouse 2010...it's dynamite!" Not kidding about the bomb threat, read the previous posts.
The screenprinting process includes a little work before the actual printing on t-shirts happens. In short, you prepare a special screen with photo emulsion- Jennie keeps her emulsion next to the ketchup. Then you print out your design onto a special acetate sheet. Or you can draw directly onto the sheet using a sharpie. The acetate film is placed on the silkscreen and a big light etches in the design. How's that for articulate?! That is about as detailed as you'll get on that end of the process from me.

Then we mixed up some fabric ink, placed a t-shirt (with protective board slipped inside to prevent ink bleeding through shirt) onto a table and inked up the screen! It also involves a really fun squeegie (who doesn't love the squeegie tool?) and, in this screenprinting session, it involved help from my friends, Bob and Georg, visiting from Austria. It was truly an international peace effort. Notice the ethnic tensions in this photo below.Silkscreening...keeping kids off the street and hipsters employed!

Book gets press(ed)

You might remember a post from last year showing my Computer Book in progress in North Carolina. It was an obsessive book I carried with me on my daily walks, slowly turning the text into Os and 1s.
I'm happy to report that this sculptural book work is currently being shown this summer in Oklahoma City along side some very accomplished artists for whom I have great respect!
The show, at Artspace at Untitled in Oklahoma City, was called Altered Books. Here's some press from the exhibit:
An article from a local paper: http://www.newsok.com/article/3475517?searched=altered%20books&custom_click=search
and then watch the beginning of this video carefully. The Computer Book gets a little cameo role for a few seconds!

No-Fail Kale

I know, I know, I'm more likely to make pigment for a painting with kale than actually eat it. But I keep hearing the nutritional wonders of this bitter leafy plant. Notice how I placed a complimentary color (my half-eaten carrot) in the picture above. Carrots are certainly not required to cook kale here but aesthetics count in my world. I would consider kale to probably be my most likely scapegoat vegetable. It needs all the compliments it can get. I actually think my worst nightmare might be being strapped to a chair for days being fed kale.
My friend, Natasha, has done amazing things with kale in the oven so I thought I'd try it out myself. While I think anything smothered in olive oil will usually improve, I was doubtful with even this vegetable. Thanks for some "no-fail kale", Natasha! Here it is:

Crisped Kale:

1. Wash kale and pat COMPLETELY dry.It's important to dry it or else it ends up steaming in the oven.
2. Toss with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Over-salting will cause shrinking. Hold back!
   
3. Broil until crisp. About 5 minutes. Watch it as it turns black quickly.
4. Eat your vegetables!
   

I'm also happy to report that I actually used the broil option on the oven dial. As for how much nutrition I just cooked out of it, that's another story.

Dynamite or Dynamite Art?

Inside this building (viewed from my window across the street) was possibly the setting for some bizarre art making. So bizarre that it became a bomb threat last night and the whole block was evacuated. I knew there were a lot of artists hiding in Rogers Park, but I had no idea their art was 'da bomb'.
Okay, bad joke, but I couldn't resist. The block was compared to a scene from the movie Outbreak with officials dressed in haz-mat suits:

Check out the full article, that describes wires sticking out of teddy bears, green liquid in buckets, and so on. This is better than the movies!:
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/police-responding-to-possible-bomb-threat.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChicagoBreakingNews+%28Chicago+Breaking+News%29
Thankfully they found no threat...so please, friends, still come and visit me, we're in the clear!