POOPSPLAT

Spotted this guy on the way home from work. First day of the year I got to walk outside without a coat on and was still hot!

GOONS WORLD

“Anything Is Possible. When the restrictions of this physical world are chipped away, all that remains is ‘Goons World’. A world which the imagination rules, and laws of man bend and crumble.” -Goons

The imaginative Chicago street artist GOONS had an opening for his show GOONS WORLD at Galerie F on Friday (April 26th). I was able to make it to the show and take some photos, and I’m really glad I did. The room was filled with familiar faces, both on wood and paper (created by Goons), and in the flesh walking through the gallery. Goons screened the release of an animated short he had created with James Nicky, and Nick Braatz under the same title (Goons World), which took the life of his characters and placed them into a very “Chicago” setting, referencing places and other street artists throughout, and was really funny, and super entertaining (Check out a making-of video here). The whole show and theme made me think of how he has created a huge cast of characters that have developed into their own little world that he has surrounded the city with – and the show was really just taking all of those characters and people that exist in “Goons World” and placing them into one concentrated area to reflect the world that already exists out in the city. It was a sick show, and I look forward to the next one.

Here are a handful of images from the opening:

Drawing some sleepy tangles on a late night train ride.

Shot today at Creative Mornings during Paul Octavious‘s talk (photos to follow).

Doodlin’ on the train this morning.

The other night I went over to my good buddy Kevin Budnik’s apartment to make some food and he made some pesto from scratch based on a recipe illustration in Lucy Knisley‘s new book RELISH – My Life in the Kitchen, and I really enjoyed it so I decided to try and make my own! So tonight I made my first batch of Vegan Pesto, and it turned out great! It’s super easy too, and despite what all of the recipes say, you don’t really need a food processor – a magic bullet, electronic chopper-thingy, or a blender will work just fine. Making it Vegan is easy too – just substitute Nutritional Yeast (which I got at Whole Foods) for the Parmesan Cheese.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 1/2 Cups of fresh Basil
• 1/4 Cups of Olive Oil
• 1 Cup of Pine (or other) Nuts
• 5-6 Cloves of Garlic
• 1/3 Cups of Nutritional Yeast
• Salt & Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Just blend until it’s fairly smooth!

Walking to the Blue Line tonight in the cold rain and stopped to shoot Alexander Calder’s “Flamingo.”

I am still trying to figure out this screen printing stuff – doing some late-night test-printing in my kitchen/studio. I finally got my exposure unit working properly, but it took me forever to figure out the right exposure time – which is only 3 minutes now (compared to the 45 min I was doing before)! So expect more to come, and in fact, expect a big print sale in the next month or so…need to raise some funds!

I am excited to be featured as the artist on showcase at Sip Coffee House for the month of April! Sip is a really nice cafe located on Grand Ave just east of Ogden (my neighborhood) and is a really great place. They’ve got good coffee, good soy chai lattes, plenty of space, and a super friendly staff. I’ve met clients there many times, and it always works out great. I’ve got 8 pieces hanging up throughout the cafe (and they’re all for sale), and they will be up for the whole month – so stop by and check it out, and let me know if you do ’cause I’m just a short walk away!

I spell bad often.