The Forlorn Fir

In my childhood the saddest part of the holiday season for me was having to strip our live Christmas tree of its decorations and unceremoniously dumping it on the curb. While I like the smell and the texture of a real tree, now that I live in an apartment I keep my vintage Christmas decorations up yearround including a little white ceramic tree from the 1960s, so I never have to experience the 'death' of my holiday tree ever again. (Yes, I'm not even a vegetarian but get emotional over trees, odd). Anyways, saw this sad little potted Christmas tree near my apartment's dumpster today which was especially depressing as it was still very healthy and since it's in a pot will survive beyond the holidays. Would have rescued it but I'm horrible with plants (despite being the daughter of a horticulturist!) so had to leave it there in the alley. Hopefully someone else adopted it.

Also, it's so cold here that the water freezes coming out of the (outdoor) faucets! Ah, winter.

Art from the Underground

Had a very arty Friday... started off the day with dropping off one of my framed photographs at a gallery in Pilsen (I'm in a show opening next Friday). The pinatas were part of an upcoming exhibit in one of the new Pop Up Art spaces that have been all over the city lately-- the idea is that artists take over unused business spaces (with permission of the owners of the buildings) and can stay in the space until the owner rents/leases it to a tenant. So a pretty good idea in this economy when there are a lot of closed businesses/vacant buildings!

Went to the open studio night at the Flat Iron building in Wicker Park for the first time. I walk by this building on a near weekly basis but never went inside it. It's pretty bohemian inside-- the second two floors are all tiny galleries or private studio spaces that mainly house painters and photographers. Today they had a special event where resident artists painted one or more wall murals that would only be up for a 4-hour time span, they called the event "Now You See It, Now You Don't" as it was all going to be painted over at the end of the night! Above are some sections of the mural that interested me, I especially liked the paper airplane installation.

A Little Racy

An intriguing cover article in the Chicago Reader this week... an area woman has been collecting issues of Playboy magazine for decades and even manages a fan mailing list in her spare time. She has so many issues that she rents the apartment above her just to store her collection-- can you imagine?? Wish I had that luxury...