I love Flat Stanley!
Such a wonderful project for young school children… and the people who are chosen to participate. Flat Stanley comes from a book about a little kid who gets squished flat and then travels the world in a mailed envelope. So when the kids read the book in school, they get to color & cut-out their own Flat Stanley. They then mail their own Flat Stanley to a friend or family member – whose job is to take some pictures of Flat Stanley around town and mail it back to the kid. I got my Flat Stanley from my cousin’s youngest kid up in Minnesota. Christopher is in second grade and chose me to help with his project. Good choice… I’m kind of a classic over-achiever when it comes to projects like this. Surprise, huh?!

So here goes… a rather lengthy blog post about Flat Stanley’s incredible adventures!!!
Of course when he first arrived… he had to go with me for a sunrise bike ride.

That evening, Flat Stanley went in to my pottery studio to check things out. Including one of my tool boxes filled with stamps, and my wheel filled with trimmings!

Of course, while he was there.. he had to go for a ride!!! DIZZY!!!

After the spinning stopped, back at my place, Flat Stanley decided to pose with his favorite – a whimsical teapot by my friend Cory McCrory!!!

That weekend, Flat Stanley went down to Navy Pier for the Shamrock Shuffle Expo. And he got caught up in some vines… and posed with the monster while I signed up for the Monster Dash Half Marathon.

We had wonderful weather for the Shamrock Shuffle. And Stanley was up for the challenge of his first official run. Forty thousand runners converged upon the downtown streets… including my friend Megan who spotted me in the crowd. And what “shamrock event” would be complete without a Leprechaun?!

Lining up at the Starting Line… Stanley and mass of humanity awaiting the start…

Then it was through Downtown Chicago. Past landmarks and plenty of Gatorade!

At the finish, we celebrated with friends… unfortunately, Buckingham Fountain had not been turned on yet. Still a bit too chilly for the famous fountain.

Plenty of “facilities”…

After the run, we decided to go for a walking tour downtown. It’s been such a long, cold Winter. Ans Spring felt liek it was never going to arrive… so the beautiful weather today was a welcome surprise. And we had to take advantage of it.

While walking downtown with Flat Stanley, we stopped to take a photo at the El Stop… and we ran into another Flat friend… Flat Fred from Sweden. Yes, kids around the world are playing with the Flat Stanley Project!

Then it was off to the Art Institute…

And more downtown attractions – like Sears Tower off in the distance.
Yes, I said “Sears”… it will ALWAYS be Sears Tower to me… not Willis Tower.

Then we made it to Millennium Park and decided to hang out at “Cloud Gate” for awhile. Sure, most people refer to it as The Bean… a reflective landmark that is always a great photo op!!!

While at The Bean, we ran into yet another Flat friend.. this time it was Flat Stella from Denmark! Kinda crazy to run into two other Flat Stanley projects in the matter of a few blocks downtown?!

All that walking was making people thirsty… and in need of a little pick-me-up!

Finally home, Flat Stanley was excited to have finished his first 8K run… and exhausted from his walking tour of Downtown Chicago.

The next weekend, Flat Stanley set off with me and my bike to do a tour of Chicago’s museums.

Starting at the Field Museum of Natural History. Complete with a Chicago Blackhawks jersey on the dinosaur standing outside while they are in the play-offs.

Next at the Museum Campus is the John G. Shedd Aquarium…

And the Adler Planetarium…with a crazy cool silver sculpture out front!

Then it was further south down the bike path to the Museum of Science & Industry…

Then headed back north past Navy Pier…

Along the lakefront, there’s this really cool sculpture made of miles & miles of crocheted rope! So of course we had to stop & play.

One last shot of the Chicago Skyline from Olive Park before we pedaled home…

After his travels around Chicago, Flat Stanley was pretty sure that there were other wonderful places to go see. So he hopped on a plane (with my friend Tracy) for a trip through Eastern Europe and the Czech Republic. Admiring all of the wonderful architecture & cathedrals in Prague, Slovenia, Hungary and so many other cool places!

Then it was off to Budapest… and the Blue Danube…

Spending some time for “splashin’ wet fun” in the Turkish Baths!

After Flat Stanley’s whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe, he went back to the place his adventure first started… my pottery studio! He hopped right into the ovals in mid-production.

But then it was off to one more running race (again, with my friend Tracy) down in Champaign, Illinois. After his fun time at the Shamrock Shuffle, he was more than ready to go for another run! Through rural countryside and some crazy Midwest attractions & oddities! Commemorated with another medal at the Finish Line.

Back in Chicago, Flat Stanley decided to go for another bike ride – this time up north to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Traveling through Caldwell Woods & Skokie Lagoons.

On the ride home, we spotted a few deer along the path… Flat Stanley’s brush with wildlife!

To celebrate the end of his adventures with Uncle Gary… we split a wonderful hot fudge turtle sundae with EXTRA homemade hot fudge!!!

After Flat Stanley’s adventures, I created a booklet for Christopher with all of these photos and some captions & descriptions. I’m sure most “photo participants” return like one or two photos… but not me! Christopher sure picked the right person to help with his Flat Stanley project. I had a great time doing it. I think Flat Stanley had a wonderful adventure. And I hope you just had fun reading of his exploits!!!
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As a follow-up…
I received this wonderful feedback from Christopher’s teacher…

Christopher just shared his Flat Stanley booklet. It was absolutely amazing!
Please tell Uncle Gary he got an “A+” from the second graders! Thanks.

After a long weekend in Minnesota, I was kinda ready to be headed home. Sure the Pottery Tour was great… and my time with my cousins & kids was too much fun!!! But seriously, all good things must come to an end… and my wallet is pretty empty too. Luckily, the weather was great for my drive home. At least until I got back into Illinois when the clouds started to take over… as the big storm was heading in.

More clouds… with a nice sunrise squeaking in just under the wire.
Gotta love taking pictures out of a moving car while driving. Sure, not too safe, but…

I know I’ve posted a video about incredible murmurations of starlings before. But this one is pretty incredible! Nature photographer Dylan Winter captured these amazing images of a huge starling murmuration. And just what is a murmuration you may ask?…

murmuration |ËŒmÉ™rməˈrāSHÉ™n| – noun literary
1. the action of murmuring: the murmuration of a flock of warblers.
2. rare a flock of starlings.

In layman’s terms… they’re the really cool formations that float & blend through the sky when a HUGE flock of birds get together and throw a party!!!

Click here for Dylan Winter’s video on YouTube.

When I got into the studio this morning, I opened my stuff and pulled out my Netflix movie envelopes. Keep in mind that my queue has been long for a long amount of time. I’ve pretty much forgotten what I’ve put on the list. And I’m frequently surprised when I open the envelope. Well, today was one of those days.

After a couple days of really cool (and somewhat dangerous) ice formations on my back porch, I chuckled to myself when I saw the title of the first movie – “Chasing Ice.” It’s a documentary about how the glaciers are receding all around the world. And my thought was “Sure, and now they’re all covering Chicago!!!” Timing is everything!

The movie is a beautiful. Environmental photographer James Balog started by photographing the beauty & majesty of glaciers & frozen formations. As he continued over the years, he could see that the glaciers were slowly disappearing. And he set out to document the geological change. He deployed time-lapse cameras to capture a record of the world’s changing glaciers, compressing years into seconds to illustrate how these ice mountains are disappearing at a breathtaking rate. The videos are amazing, beautiful & sad. The comparisons between years are shocking.

The movie starts out with some breathtaking photography – which I’m sure is the reason I added it to my Netflix queue in the first place. Soon enough you become enthralled by his passion & adventure to capture the glacial changes with time-lapse photography. Regardless of which side you are on in the Global Warming debate, these images are hard to dispute. I’m just glad I rode my bike through Glacier National Park when there were still glaciers there!!!

Click here to see the official trailer for “Chasing Ice.”

And here are just a few of the stunning images from the documentary…

Another day down at Navy Pier.
And another beautiful skyline view.
Yep, it never gets old.

Okay, so I’ve been snowed in for two days with sub-zero temperatures in Chicago.
And I’ve now been on Pinterest for those same two days.

Now I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted or anything, but it’s only been two days
and I’ve already pinned over 800 pictures!!! I’ve even added two more boards.
One of my “biking sunrises” and another of “nature’s art.”
Sure, they’re all my own pictures so far… soon I’ll need to start pinning someone else’s
pictures when I run out of my own!!! Don’t let the addition take over!!!

So do a search for me on Pinterest and see what I’ve been up to.
Look for “Fire When Ready Pottery” and “Gary Jackson”… or “garyjackson1353“.
Click here for a quick link to my stuff on Pinterest.

With today’s predicted warm-up, I’m pretty sure this frozen lakefront won’t look like this by the end of the day!

Thin ice… melting fast… and “floating” off of the rocks?!

My parents have been keeping a secret from me.
So have my friends metalsmith Sarah Chapman & photographer Brad Pogatetz.
I’ve saw them both at the “One Of A Kind Show” and neither of them said anything.
I even asked my parents directly if they had bought anything at “One Of A Kind.”
I got a very non-committal & evasive answer… which should have been a clue!

When I got to my parents house late on Christmas Eve, I was ready to hit the bed. It had already been a long day, and a late night celebrating Christmas Eve with my parents & family friends. Not to mention the head cold I’ve been battling for a few days. I was done. Ready for bed. But my parents had another plan… and something they wanted me to see. Apparently, they had done “a little shopping” while they were at “One Of A Kind” and everyone was keeping the secret from me! Until now…

Yes, my parents have purchased an incredible photograph by Brad Pogatetz… one of “My Talented Friends.” There it is hanging… or “floating”… on their wall, in a white “art alcove” area on one of their walls. They even painted the surrounding wall in a beautiful brown color JUST for the photo!!!

We met Brad several years ago when he was my booth neighbor at “Art In The Barn.” I’ve loved his photography ever since. Two years ago, my parents surprised my with one of Brad’s photographs for a Christmas present. Imagine my surprise when I saw this huge, beautiful piece hanging in their house… a wonderful Christmas present for themselves!!!

Brad’s photographs are quite beautiful. The subject matter may be of deteriorating spaces and places long forgotten, but the composition and clarity if incredible. Every little detail is captured, drawing you right into the space. You can practically reach out and touch the paint peeling from the walls, scratch across the rusty metal, or splash in the stagnant pools of water. His printing process is brilliant, and many of the surfaces are gleaming & metallic. The rusty metal looks oh, so rusty. And you know I LOVE RUST!!! But one of the coolest things is how the photo seems to “move” as you look at it from side to side… as you can see from the photo below where I took it from an angle.

To see more photography by Brad Pogatetz, click here or the link in the right column.

And for the record… I call dibs!!!
Whenever my parents decide to “bequeath” anything – I GET THIS ONE!!!

So I’ve been busy this week setting up Winter WonderFest at Navy Pier.
It seemed slightly ironic that this showed up today on www.HuffingtonPost.com…

More than a few artists have proved that macrophotography has merits beyond simply magnifying very small things. It can also capture aesthetically beautiful images lurking beyond our usual visual perception, whether they’re hiding inside a meteorite or on the wing of a dragonfly… or inside falling snow.

Just in time for winter and the onslaught of December snowstorms, Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov has devised a clever way to bring the wonder of macrophotography to the minuscule world of snowflakes. Using a homemade rig comprised of a working camera lens, a wooden board, some screws and old camera parts, Kljatov captures the breathtaking intricacies of snow, six-sided symmetry and all.

The wide range of shapes Kljatov manages to document certainly support the claim that no two snowflakes are alike. And while the tiny crystalline sculptures appear too perfect to believe, the dedicated photographer is able provide detailed instructions in both English and Russian for artists who wish to replicate his process. In honor of the winter wonderlands to come, feast your eyes on the delicate artworks hiding inside each snow.

NOTE: If you’re wondering about the seemingly hairy backgrounds behind these snowflakes, another image on Kljatov’s website reveals that some photographs are taken just as the snowflakes fall onto a carpet.

Click here for more of Alexey Kljatov’s incredible photographs.

Today was another beautiful Fall day. Wonderful colors. Beautiful textures.
All of this beauty just in my back courtyard… as I was trudging through to do my laundry!
Sure, I live in the city. Sure, the courtyard is all cement. You can still have a garden
even if it is all in containers! And still plenty of natural beauty all around.
Too bad it’s all going to be gone in a few more weeks!