Following the Mississippi South of Here

It was a jam-packed week.

Meryl and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday,
we did dinner out and had a nice walk around the mill ruins.

I did tons of tattooing even though I had two sleeve cancellations.
I filled the time with mostly little things.
Flowers and words were the big players this week.




Today, Ryan and Rebecca picked us up, and we headed down to Red Wing,
an historic town famous for shoes and stoneware.
We did some MANtiquing, of course.
We also did some dangerous archaeological digging (Meryl got injured) in this area where the rejected pottery ended up. We found ceramic pieces, antique bricks, a crazy red layered rock, and deer teeth.
Later on, while hiking, we traded a discarded bubble maker to some kid for the scoop on this really long cave.
Ryan and I have decided that we need some caving gear, or at least flashlights, on us at all times from now on. It's hard to be professional explorers when we use cell phones and cameras to light the way.

Ryan picking up garbage and making pretty bubbles


The cave kept going and going.


My silhouette from inside the cave, no flash


A different (man-made) cave entrance on a different mountain, but we didn't enter this one.


After all that, we came home, grilled up some tofu, mushrooms, and corn, had a fire, and enjoyed the late May evening.


This week is going to be at least as busy, if not more so.

I pick up the surgically removed tattooed skin on Wednesday.
I bought Krowtann 2000 for the ordeal, and will obviously post photos of the entire process.
Meryl bought me a shadow box (as an anniversary gift, how dope is that?!) for it to be displayed in.

Adam from Queens arrives Thursday. He's been to MN 4 times (or more) so far in 2009 alone, so anyone else competing for "Most Visits" will have to aim for a Silver Medal.
He's also winning for "Most Postcards", and the slightly less sought after "Shamira's Favorite Person Award".

Casey has a going away party Friday night at Java J's, and then leaves MPLS on Saturday for CT before her train ride to LA. Come by and wish her luck on her bike trip.

Book topped houses are for the birds.

8 hours of Art-a-Whirl today!
I did two hours last night as well, then caught Dark, Dark, Dark's show over in Dinkytown.
I think that's 4 shows of theirs in 2 weeks I've seen.

As for my work,
here's some better photos of the finishes pieces:






The day went pretty well.
It consisted of a lot of question answering,
and small-talk making,
and wondering if I shouldn't have been at work instead.

But I did get to see lots of super hot artwork done by tons of different artists all in one building.
And Ryan and I did go exploring underneath the Northrup King building in some weird grain tunnels or something.





Armed with only a cell phone and a camera flash to light our way, we successfully avoided tons of people shocked by the fact that someone might use books for the roof of the birdhouses.
The antlers no one questioned.
At all.
But those were mostly referred to as "horns".

Also, if you ever do Art-a-Whirl, go armed with a credit card machine.
Really.

We met some interesting people,
bloggers and birders and borderline nutballs.

Some of the artists were pretty dope.
Kristen Arden does some serious metalwork,
like this antler piece.

There was letterpressed art,
paint, sculpture, motorized metal (that was awesome),
and of course plenty of not so awesome things.

It's going on again tomorrow from 12-5,
but I won't be there for the first part of the day.
Meryl and I have tickets to the Guthrie,
our Christmas present from her mom.
We've heard some whisperings about this play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures, and we're excited.

Thanks to everyone who's come by and said hello so far, I really do appreciate it.
Hope if you're in Minneapolis, you're enjoying all of the commotion this weekend.

Art-a-Whirl

Here's a preview of the stuff I did for the Art-a-Whirl that's taking over Minneapolis this weekend.


I'll be in the Northrup King Building, Studio number 451 (the Tulle and Dye studio).
I'll be there tonight from 8ish-10.
Saturday all day, and the later parts of Sunday.

All your favorite local artists and musicians will be out at different venues.
I'm sharing a space with Rebecca, who has screenprinted these awesome neckties.
Get one and join us for a Not Casual Friday at Identity Tattoo soon.
Also, friend Megan Moore is in studio #423 in the same building, so go check her out as well.

Dark Dark Dark is playing Kitty Kat Club tonight, they think they'll be going on around 10pm.
Tomorrow, Marshall LaCount from DDD is doing a live mural on the side of the 331 Club with Tynan Kerr.
It's planned to be up for the whole year, so you'll have lots of time to check it out.

I got tattooed by Tim Biedron, yesterday, and it was an awesome experience.
When you see me next, ask to check out my leg.

Have an action packed weekend!

more like WHINE-flu.

There's nothing I heart more than the bird flu.
Except MAYBE this whole avian/swine flu mix that's going around.
Pigs and birds, mutating influenza viruses?
Pig farmers crying about people eating less pigs, Minnesota being sold out of those paper masks, everyone blaming Mexico.
That's my flavor of absurdity.

I've done a bunch of drawings now in this theme,
and had a couple hanging up in my station.
This one got claimed last week, and today was my first availability.



Tomorrow I won't be at the shop, since I'll be getting tattooed by Tim Biedron all day long.
I won't tell you where, so you won't stop in and see the tears flowing.

It's also the last day I have to work on the final touches of the Art-a-Whirl stuff.
Lots of pictures of that coming tomorrow.

Big birthdays with boats, birds and Babani's

Li arrived in Minneapolis Saturday night on her way to Arizona.
She brought us some homemade bread loaves and stayed a few days, got this barn swallow tattoo, and helped celebrate Meryl's birthday (today!)

We spent the day mostly in St Paul, walking all over both sides of the Mississippi River. After hitting the the Science Museum of Minnesota, we walked across a bridge to check out houseboats lined up along the docks.
Some of them are yacht-y, some of them are literally floating trailers, but some are awesome little houses that are also boats.
We drooled over some of the more creative ones, dreamed of houseboat rooftop gardens and life sailing up and down the river.
There was a few huge birhouses placed on the big dock support posts, so lots of barn swallows were darting around us as we had beverages on some weird restaurant boat.
C'mon.
That's some Albie Rock coincidence creating style, for sure.

But, of course, we didn't bring a camera, so no pictures for my blog.
And no pictures for Meryl's blog either, which was just created yesterday.
It might be a smarty-pants blog, or it might be a way to fact check the tall tales and outright lies I tell on my blog.
We'll have to see.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to her.

A double doiley day.

I tattooed these negative space, shoulder cap doilies on Nona Marie from Dark Dark Dark today.
We took a small break in between when Marshall arrived with vegan Chinese food, but otherwise she sat perfectly through the entire thing.
I asked a lot of questions, and got to hear about rafting and traveling and art making and the difficulties of getting paid for music making.

They're playing at the Kitty Kat Club this Friday in Minneapolis,
and then they're off to Venice for a month to do more traveling on rafts.
You know you need to be there.
I might miss out, since it's in the middle of my Art-a-Whirl show weekend,
but it's ok.
We have a special date planned for when they return.

Music, art, and green things growing.

It's been busy here (still).

Last night I rode my bike to the Bedlam Theatre to see Dark, Dark, Dark again.
Out of the three shows of theirs I've been to this month,
last night's was the best.
So good.
Nona (of ddd) is planning on getting some tattoos from me this weekend,
which is pretty exciting.

Our friend, Li, will be at our house this weekend, visiting from RI and thereabouts.
I'll be doing some tattooing with her as well.

Meryl turns 28 years old on Monday.
We'll be in St Paul feasting on some Kurdish food.

It's really Spring now.
Everything is growing in the yard,
stuff that's been there for decades,
and things I planted last year.
The tulips in the backyard have gotten their tops bitten off right before they bloom,
but everything else seems to be healthy and critter-free.
It rained again today, so the rain barrel is full, the yard is green, and the winter dirt & sand is gone.

I'm finishing up the birdhouses, etc. for this show.
I'll have to be creative to find time to work on it this weekend.
(or just put all my friends to work)

Warning, this post is gross. (and awesome). You should skip it.

This post is going to get me in a world of trouble.
But for the ten people out there who get it, it'll be worth it.

Meryl and I are planning on going to Japan in the near(ish) future,
and one of the things we really want to see is the preserved full body tattooed skins at Tokyo University.
See one here.
All of the skins are from people who died, and donated their bodies to the collection.
I was thinking how there's always lots of skin that gets thrown away even while the person is still living, and how if the opportunity presented itself, I'd love to be able to preserve one of the tattoos I do and display it.
Sure, it's creepy, kinda, but also sooo dope.

So I have this friend who is getting a breast reduction surgery,
and I asked nicely if I might tattoo the spot that is going to be removed,
and then be able to keep it after the doctor does their stuff.
Somehow, both my friend and their doctor were ok with it.
So I did the tattoo tonight, and in three weeks, I'll get it back.
If all goes so well, it'll be preserved and displayed in a shadow box or something inside the shop.



Dear Kevin,
I turned it up as loud as it goes.
Love,
Shawn

Pit firing, part 2.

When I woke up this morning, the fire pit was still really hot.
After a few hours of being awake, I gloved up (with a gross old gardening glove I found) and stuck my hand in the ashes.


Casey woke up and we had ourselves a little archaeological dig.
It was an antler graveyard, full of broken little bits and pieces.


When everything had been dug out and accounted for,
there was 7 whole and in tact antlers.
There's so many variables in the pit firing process, so it's hard to guess what could have been done better.
Probably everything?
Casey thinks if we started with a smaller fire first,
the pieces would have had an easier temperature transition,
and that might have helped.
If you know what's up, email me.


The site of the dig in South Minneapolis.


I have 11 days left till the Art-a-Whirl.
And this isn't an Albie Rock fairy tale, where at the zero hour you find a whole 'nother month.
I have to have all of this done so soon.
There's a few extra pieces that I'm keeping under my hat for now,
but soon enough,
it'll all be done.
Ready or not.

Some serious day off happenings.

Damn.
Today was the perfect day.
The May Day Parade put on by the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater goes right down Bloomington Ave and takes a right into Powderhorn Park.
I happen to live on Bloomington Ave, and about 5 houses from where the parade changes course.
So, the party was naturally at my place.

While I was doing some yard work getting ready this morning,
a very nice family was checking out my house pretty hard.
Turns out, they lived in my house for 30+ years ending in the 1990's, and wanted a tour of what it looked like now.
I traded them a look around the house for all of their info on what used to be where.
I guess it was once a duplex, and had a shower in the basement.
It was fascinating, and a great start to the day.
I love my old weird house.

Then some people came over, and we hit the parade.
There was a lot of puppets and floats and dancing.
The street was packed, so Meryl went and got our benches to stand on.
Which is why it looks like we're towering over everyone in these photos.
We are.

A pedal powered punk gear float.


That pig is on stilts!


Empty seated bear guys.
So dope.


After the parade, we regrouped in our backyard.
We barbecued corn, veggie burgers, and portobello mushrooms,
had pasta and potato salads,
even vegan fudgsicles.

I've been waiting for a dry day off to pitfire those antlers I made from clay a few weeks ago.
Casey and I dug a hole,
filled the bottom with small twigs and things,
put down a metal grate,
placed the clay antlers on them, and then built up a pretty good fire.
It's supposed to burn pretty strong for a few hours,
and sometime tomorrow we'll dig out the (hopefully) finished pieces.
It's a pretty crude process.



Katie (who was riding a unicycle in the parade)and I had a balancing competition in the meantime.
Rakes, brooms.....



and folding chairs.
I'm not actually using my hand there.
It's just on my chin.
Some of the neighbors cheered us on.


By nightfall, the fire was winding down.
Just a hole of hot embers.
I'm going to dig them out tomorrow, and remember to use the camera more.
I wish I documented this better, in case it works out.



Tomorrow's another big day.
I have to be done with the art making soon,
I have a week and a half left.
That might be a lot of late nights, but it's going to come together somehow.
(It better.)

Get your May Day on.

Happy May!


Somehow May Day wasn't a working class holiday, and instead a work harder day.
But that's ok.
There's a May Day puppet parade that comes down my street tomorrow, so we'll get our party on then.
And if we have good weather, the big pitfiring fun to bake the clay antlers will be going on as well.
South Minneapolis is where it's at tomorrow, kids.

I've been slammed at work doing lots of tattoos lately, and haven't had much time for emails and drawings and whatnot.
(and a lot of people have noticed)
So big appointments that have to be drawn on with Sharpie have been very welcome.
Riley (twin sister to the Roman Struggler)sat for 4 hours on this dragon rib piece.
We're not done yet, we'll do some texturing and smoothing and blendy fun once she's healed, but I thought we were far enough to take a picture and post it.
Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the Sharpie mess I started with.
The dragon's tail goes around and up onto the shoulder blade.
Once it's done-done, I'll post the full wrap photos.