If one or two of something is fun, a dozen is even more fun.
If a dozen is more fun, thousands of dozens is just downright CRAZY COOL!!!
And when that object turns out to be coffee stirrer sticks… even better!!!

Found this online and just had to share…

Most people don’t think twice about their coffee stirrers once they’ve fulfilled their mixing
duties, but artist Jonathan Brilliant has found another purpose for the common wooden
sticks. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based artist has constructed numerous spatial art
installations over the years that incorporate the coffee stir sticks, perhaps the most eye-
fetching of them being “The Sumter Piece.”

The site-specific structure, installed in 2007 in Sumter, South Carolina, included 60,000
wooden stirring sticks expertly woven together. Brilliant produced a meticulously crafted
sculptural piece that expanded across two floors. It reached over a second floor balcony
and suspended from the ceiling of the first floor, artistically wrapping around an
illuminated chandelier.

The abstract creation took 14 days to weave together and install on site. It’s hard to believe,
but there were no additional tools on hand. Brilliant says, “No adhesive was used and the
entire structure holds itself in place because of the tensile strength of 7” rounded end
wooden coffee stirrers. After nearly six months the piece eventually separated and the
materials were donated to a local school.”

C’mon now… No armature. No super-structure. NO GLUE!!! Really?!
And wouldn’t have loved to see it when it “eventually separated” and came crashing down?!
Now THAT’s the video I want to see!!!

And let me just say… Did anyone else see “America’s Got Talent” when “The Kinetic King”
made these incredible contraptions out of tongue depressors?! he interwove them kinda
like this… but when he knocked one stick, it started a huge chain reaction where every
stick flipped out and fell down like racing dominoes. Click here for the video.

Imagine what would happen if these two stick artists collaborated?!!!
Even crazier. Even cooler!!! But I digress…

Okay, one more thing… one more tangent…
Doesn’t this somehow have future Summer Camp project written all over it?! I’m just sayin’…

For more about the artist Jonathan Brilliant, his incredible installations and projects,
click here for his website. He’s crazy… crazy cool!!!

It’s February… and it finally SNOWED in Chicago!!!
Sure, we’ve had flurries & dustings of snow. But today I woke up to a couple
inches of snow. Which looked especially fun on this great “bike-frame-fence”
I found along my way home from Step Class.

Generally I’m not a fan of graffiti.
I think if you feel like you need to paint something, find a canvas, a board, a piece of paper.
Don’t deface the side of a building or public space that other people enjoy as it is.

But then sometimes you’ll see something really cool & unexpected. Not just some random
spray paint on the side of the wall. Not just some crazy block letters tagging a building.
But actually some incredible graphics. Beautiful designs in unexpected places. In this
case, it was on Grand Avenue beneath Lake Shore Drive near Chicago’s Navy Pier.
Propaganda posters slapped onto the concrete walls along Grand Avenue. Love ’em!
Sadly, like most graffiti… it might not last for long…

So I realize that these images are all part of a marketing campaign. Shameless propaganda.
Yet I LOVE the bold graphic design, the stark black & white contrast, and the dynamic
flourishes, patterns & crisp sense of whimsy. And while the above “segments” are great,
the entire posters were even better. So here they are as they were designed…
although some of them are showing signs of deterioration already.

But then sometimes, the reality of the structure gets in the way of a great art installation.
Couldn’t quite move around the pipes, so they had to be where they were… right in front!!!

Yes, each poster is pretty great.
But the entire “under bridge wall” plastered with these posters was quite a dramatic sight.
So similar in style, yet each one of them a beauty on its own!

Oh, the things you’ll see while playing on your bike…

With a freezing rain today in Chicago, looks like my sunrise bike rides may be
on hold for a bit!? But after watching this video, suddenly I’m feeling like my own
morning rides are a bit anti-climactic. This is a beautiful video with some
incredibly crazy riding… that I won’t be trying any time soon!!!

Maybe it’s just me… but wouldn’t you think there must have been a smooth &
obstacle-free paved road around there somewhere?!

Here’s a link to the video… click on “Danny MacAskill.”

So watch the video. It’s beautifully filmed & edited with a great soundtrack.
Love his sense of adventure & whimsy. And I hope he has a good helmet…
or even better, he should be shopping around for a good helmet sponsor!!!

While in Dover, Delaware recently for the “glitter gig” meeting, I had the chance to
tour the Dogfish Head Brewery. They’re one of the sponsors for another large event
we’re working on for this summer. I love factory tour. Love seeing how things are
made. And this time was no exception!

Dogfish Head Brewery is located in Milton, Delaware. Somewhere between Dover
and Rehoboth Beach. And when you pull up to their headquarters, the first impression
is a great one. Not only to they have an incredible treehouse in the front yard, but it’s
all made out of RUSTY METAL!!!… which you know it’s my favorite!!!

Once inside, you’re quickly greeted by a very friendly receptionist… and a lot of whimsical
artwork all over the place. And one pair of chatty blue jeans!!!

Your tour typically starts in the “Tasting Room” where you’re also surrounded by a lot
of Dogfish Head paraphernalia. Including these really great beer barrel tables – with
really great tops made from broken & recycled beer bottles!

And then the factory tour begins. You get to see where the beer is made!
I was amazed at how shiny & clean the entire place was. Now I know that it has to be
for health & safety reasons. But seriously…. shiny silver piping & vats everywhere!!!

Even the “hot-water-pressure-steaming-sanitizing” contraption is shiny…
and has a wonderfully whimsical name! Things are sure getting steamy in there!

Around every corner, there’s artwork, creativity & whimsy everywhere you look!
Including this incredible wall plastered with their own “branded” oval coasters…
creating their own Dogfish Head logo!

So not only to they have great “energy”… but it’s also refreshing to see how they value
artists and their artwork. All around the building, the walls are covered with artwork
created & submitted by local artisans who have sent them to Dogfish Head. Plus, every
year the folks at Dogfish Head commission an artist to create original posters for their
different branded beer flavors. Here are just four of them…

So there’s my quick visual tour. While the whole “beer thing” is completely lost on me…
I do still enjoy a good factory tour. But even more importantly, you know how I LOVE
creativity, whimsy and people who admire, appreciate and encourage the arts!!!

Here’s a fun game of color-matching. It’s addictive. Be careful.
Just click your cursor on the small circle on the big color ring. Then move it around
to “match” the center color before time runs out. You get a lot of chances…
matching hue, saturation, complementary, analagous, triadic and tetradic.
Who knew there could be so many colors to match?! Have fun!!!

Click here for the game… COLOR.

And for those “Les Miserables” fans who can’t quite make it to the theater today…
here’s a great video where one guy sings all the parts, in all of the voices, of the best songs
from the best musical ever. It’s kinda long, but well worth it.

For some reason, I just kept thinking it’s the “Brady Bunch” meets “Les Miz.”

Click here for the video – “One Man “Les Miserable” Medley.”

I found this online and had to share…
Looks like entire cities are getting more and more excited about DIY Christmas trees.
Last year Kaunas in Lithuania had one made from 32.000 recycled bottles and this year
a Belgian town called Hasselt put up a 30-foot high Christmas tree, made from 5,000
porcelain plates. The plates were brought by around 3,000 residents of the town,
which symbolically titles itself as the Capital of Taste.

The idea was presented and implemented by Inge Vanluyd and Stefan Vanbergen from
Belgian company mooz. “At home we all have odd plates and cups which just don’t go
with anything and as a consequence never find their way out of the cupboard. We
noticed that friends and family also had ‘spare’ plates hanging around the house. This
was enough to get us thinking about a creative destination for these everyday objects,”
explain the creators.
Kinda want to make one of my own now…

This year, at ART DETOUR, we all decided it would be funny of we all did a challenge.
If we all made something with a theme. Something to push us to think outside the box.
So we all decided to “Put A Bird On It.” So each of decided to make a piece with a bird on it.
Pretty obvious, huh?! But why a bird?… click here to watch the video clip!

So I made three different pieces, each with a bird on it. I just wanted to make sure that
I would end up with at least one good one to take with for the challenge. And I took the
challenge quite literally. I made a piece as I normally would… then I put a bird on it!!!

This one “flew the coop” to one of Amy’s Northwoods friends…

This one came home with me… but will “migrate” to the Holiday Home Show!!!

This third one was part of the ART DETOUR Silent Auction. Each of the artists put their
challenge piece in a special tent for customers to bid on them. A portion of the proceeds
went to the Northwoods Wildlife Center. This piece “flew” all the way to Morton, Illinois
to the lucky high bidder!!!

Apparently there’s something new out there that I need to try?!
My cousin Kim knows of my addiction… and saw this at the Wisconsin State Fair!
Everything’s better when it’s deep-fried, right?! And on a stick too!!!