Glass Wars

Glass Endeavors, a shop in my neighborhood, has their annual glass competition this week.  Viewing starts Tuesday, April 23rd, is open to the public, and runs through the final reception on Saturday, April, 27th.  I've entered two of my "dive bars" into this years show, Nye's and Bunker's (seen below).  If interested in checking out the show and voting for your favorite (which does not have to be mine), all the information you need is here http://www.glassendeavors.com/2013artshow.htm

If this week you find yourself in the vicinity of Lake Street and Minnehaha, South Minneapolis, stop in and have a look.

Tschida Bakery

              "I owe it all to little chocolate donuts."

                                             --John Belushi

Tschida Bakery existed over on Rice Street, St. Paul, Minnesota, for something like 70 years.  It closed its doors in 2012 when the present owners decided to retire.  More than a few people miss that place, and one such person asked me to recreate it in glass.  Now complete, 29x27 inches in size.

RIP Tschida Bakery

  
As it now sits in its new home

Show Me the Honey!

Honey and Syrup. 

And let me also say this, it is completely unacceptable that now end of March and I have to find Spring in my unfinished cellar (via the completion of Spring themed mosaic).

Come on Mother Nature, it's almost April for Pete's sake!  Spring by this point should be provided.  Lord knows we earned it.

Honey, approximately 25x23 inches

Syrup, 20x9 inch

Tree Limb/Greenery/Spring, What a Concept

To be installed over the front door of a co-worker's house.  A very large (66 x 22 inch, weighs 40 lbs.) tree limb with budding greenery.  Sort of looks like Spring. 

Spring.  A concept I assure you we know very little about here in Minnesota today.
End of March and we wake up to about 5 degrees.  So sick of that!

Hope and the Wee City Says Drink Your Milk

Give Us Wings is an organization dedicated to helping the people of Kenya and Uganda overcome issues related to poverty.  For their annual silent auction fundraiser this year, I am honored to be able to contribute the following window.  Here's to hoping someone swoops in, spends a lot of money for the piece, and goes home happy.  And hopeful.  You can have a look at the Give Us Wings website here http://new.giveuswings.org/

 

And another wee city, approximately 10 x 8 inches.  Drink your milk!

 

 

"Well Ain't This Place a Geographical Oddity. Two Weeks From Everywhere."

 A large old storm window, 47 by 34 inches.

Gin and Juice

A small window, 24 by 28 inches.  A Coke bottle, a gin bottle, and some long-stem flowers. 

Dylan on Money and Hamm's in the Wee Town

Money and Swearing, 15 by 22 inch

Hamm's in Wee Town, 7 by 17 inch

Little Red

A little red cabin by the lake for a coworker with a little red cabin by the lake.

Punk and a Red Flower Rebel

Punk, 27x24 inches

The Rebel, 34x28 inches

Drunk Bob Dylan, A Bottle of Dandelion, and The Wee City of Peace

Several pieces completed over the weekend.  First, Mr. Bob Dylan on a full sized window:

Next, an 11"x7" bottle of Dandelion

And finally, a couple wee cities, one, the wee city of Peace

Row Houses and another Wee City

Row houses on an old storm window, 28 by 47 inches.

And another wee city of 6 by 8 inches.  Happy New Year everybody!

Junket: Tossed and Found

Have you been to super cool new vintage store, Junket: Tossed and Found? 

Owner, Julie Kearns, is being so kind as to allow me to hang a few windows in her place.  She's open every other weekend.  She has lots of great stuff.  Here's to hoping all stop in and check them out.

Address:  4047 Minnehaha Ave S, Minneapolis-Longfellow

For hours and details visit her site here: http://www.facebook.com/junkettossedandfound

Some of my windows as they hang at Junket:





Leonard Cohen

In the very early 1990's, I worked as a bellman at the Whitney Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.  We were really the only upscale hotel in town at that time, so we got all the musicians, actors, and general celebrities.  My goodness, that was a fun place for a college kid to work.  Anyway, one early afternoon I was summoned to the room of Mr. Leonard Cohen.  He and his then girlfriend, actress Rebecca De Mornay, had laundry that would need to go out.


After arriving at their room, we spent a few minutes chatting as they sorted their clothes.  How cool it was to be there, just the three of us (I wonder if he and Ms. De Mornay remember it as fondly as I do).  Anyway, Leonard Cohen, one of the world's great songwriter/poets called me "man" perhaps 50 times, "hey man,"  "thanks man," "how you doin' man?"  After a few minutes I was handed five identical button-down gray, Dickies style "work" shirts , all monogrammed in script with  Leonard Cohen over the left pocket.

Leonard Cohen, nice guy, genius.   And I love this quote, now in glass on a beat up old window:

Bottles and Flowers

I've had this piece going in my basement, in some way, shape, or form, for approximately one year.  I'd started and stopped it over and over again.  Well it's finally done. And I am happy with the way in which it turned out. 

Wee City

I had wee bits of free time this weekend, just enough to complete a wee city skyline of 12x5 inches.

The Cabooze (and The Joint)

The Reverend Horton Heat was my favorite band (still love um, I'm just too old now for the gymnastics of a mosh pit).  They're from Dallas, Texas and combine, deliciously, the world of punk and rockabilly (now referred to as "Psychobilly").  The Rev introduced me to this entirely knew genre of music one winter night in 1989 or 1990, at Minneapolis music club, The Cabooze.  I know that show took place in the winter because the band arrived late having been slowed by a blizzard as they made way through the Dakotas.  Just a few riffs in and I was hooked, for life.  I have probably seen the Reverend play 30 times, in five cities, and two countries.  And it all started at the Cabooze. 

Similar happenings also occurred at The Cabooze with funk legend, George Clinton, and his 20 or so band members.  Saw them several times, but I saw them first in 1991 at the Cabooze.  I fell in love (so to speak, not literally) with surf music and surf guitar god, Dick Dale, at The Cabooze around the same time, I've seen him many times since.  I was there for Bo Diddley and his legendary square guitar, saw him shred the Cabooze stage in grand fashion.

In related lore, one day a couple years ago, a coworker and I made plans to see Gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello, play a bar, The Triple Rock Social Club, just down the street from The Cabooze.  When trying to decide when and where to meet up before the show, the conversation between the two of us went something like this:

me:  "Where should we meet up tonight?"
friend:  "Let's just meet at the joint"
me:  "The joint.  You mean the bar, The Joint?"
friend:  "Yeah, yeah, let's meet at the joint, 7 o'clock."
me:  "OK, so we'll meet at The Joint, 7 o'clock, and then we'll just walk down to the show from there?"
friend:  "yeah, sounds good."

Well, in classic Laurel and Hardy fashion, my friend is not originally from Minnesota, and he did not know then that a mere 3 blocks from The Triple Rock Social Club, and adjacent to The Cabooze, sits perhaps Minnesota's proudest biker bar, The Joint.  (See where this is going?)  I sat by myself at The Joint, swilling beer nervously from a can, wondering where my friend was.  He wasn't answering the repeated phone calls I placed, PROBABLY BECAUSE HE COULD NOT HEAR IT RING OVER THE LOUD PUNK BAND PERFORMING WHERE HE WAS, three blocks away at The Triple Rock Social Club (you know, "the joint." "We'll just meet at the joint").  I finished my beer and went home.

Now in glass, it took forever, done on a large old storm window (36"x54").  The Cabooze and The Joint, two Minneapolis classics, now included in The Dive Bar Series.

Cave Point, Wisconsin

I've never been to Cave Point in Door County Wisconsin, but my coworker, Mary, has.  So when Mary was moved from a small cube in the middle of the School of Education to a swanky office with four walls and a door (and in a corner), she requested I help fill a bare wall with some art.  She requested Cave Point.

So, as seen hanging in Mary's office, Cave Point,  Door County,Wisconsin, in glass.

The Spot Bar

The neighborhood "below the hill," the West 7th neighborhood in St. Paul, has, to me, always seemed straight out of Charlie Brown.  Small, charming, older homes, stacked close together with little parks.  And lots of neighborhood bars (also small, charming, and older).  And considering Charles Schultz is from St. Paul, perhaps this is not coincidence?

Anyway, when traveling down the hill on Randolph Avenue, a few blocks beyond 35E on the northeast corner of Victoria Street, you have arrived at The Spot.  And on this spot, since 1885, has stood a bar.  In the beginning called Wittmer's Saloon and Tobacco Shop, now, The Spot.

About 20 years ago, I knew an older retired man who hung out at The Spot.  He drank scotch and worked the New York Times Crossword puzzle at that bar with great regularity.  Probably still does. He once told me that one day while there, and having finished off a few rounds, he put money on the bar to pay his tab.  Only to be informed that his money was not necessary, "drinks are free this week," because the owner had won $5000 in the lottery.  That's The Spot.  One night while I was there with friends the bartender disappeared for about 10 minutes, then returning with a bucket of fried chicken from Roosters up the street.  He sent the bucket around the room allowing patrons to take what we wanted, it was complimentary.  That too is The Spot.  And as of the last time I was there, it's been a couple of years, it was not possible to order a drink that cost more than $3.00. That's just how it is down there.  And I Promise you this, if Charlie Brown had been allowed to age into adulthood, he too would drink at a place called The Spot.

Now complete, next in the Dive Bar Series, and the first trip into St. Paul.   It's The Spot, in glass, 32x19 inch. 

 

Glass-O-Lantern Returns

Glass-O-Lantern made his return to my front window this weekend, there to scare the kids through Halloween.  Yes, I know it's only September, but it feels like Fall, and hey! Menards now has Christmas junk on display in their stores, so I figure I've got the right.