Happy Birthday Agent Pineapple!

She turned the big two-one today! We're going to dance to some live music and eat taco dip. My 2-layer heart shaped red velvet cake is on the cooling rack, begging to be slathered with fudge frosting and sprinkles.The cake in the picture is from one of her creepy old regulars that's in love with her. He lit it in the store and shelled out big bucks for a fancy perfume set. Creepy! But it's my perfume too so I'm not complaining because it smells delicious. Happy Birthday baby! xoxo♥

More Graffiti Inspiration

It's here! It's here! A HOPEful graffiti clutch by Alisa Burke! If anything could serve as inspiration This. Is. It.

Photoshoot on a beautiful blue vintage Volkswagon Beetle.
A little man with curly back hair and a bald spot on the crown of his head in corporate attire drove it into the parking lot at Agent Pineaple's work and then left for a prolonged period of time. He didn't patronize any of the businesses and disappeared down the alley, perhaps he is a traveling salesman.
I worked up my courage, looked for him walking down the drive, and then went to town taking pictures of the clutch all over his car wherever it would stay propped up. My adventure for the day, silly fun!**This just in: I posted one of the pictures while leaving feedback on etsy and Alisa loved it! She even posted them on her blog :)
Further inspiration: I have been eyeing this Montana spray paint at Blick for a long time. It comes in the most beautiful colors...bright, painty, messy, lusty. My list of personal imagery and visual fetishes is growing: stencil fodder.Art class starts tonight. We're supposed to bring ten feet of rope. When I inquired about the rope, JT told me that we were going to tie it around our necks and then to our drawing board in lieu of an easel. He also said that it would make sense when we did it. Hmmm.
Since I rarely have occasion to carry a purse and this beauty needs to see the light of day on the regular, it shall transport my charcoal set to class. Whoo hoo.
xo Lara

Taking Back the Night

We rang in June 1st with a northerly drive. Unfortunately we were sucked into a vortex of industrial parks which is all too easy to fall victim to living in the burbs. We chalked it up to a faulty quarter toss and went in search for a caffeine injection, it didn't take long though since Agent Pineapple works in a coffee shop: I can pick 'em! Coffees in hand we stepped out the door to discover that the wind had shifted and the sky had turned pink, an eerie pink. It was clear that the only way June 1st could be salvaged was to race home and grab the cameras for some night shots. Ms. Agent helped me set up the tripod and I went to town taking shots of this stone factory that I can't get anywhere near in the day. The passersby were very intrigued, perhaps they thought we were terrorists.

Surburbia is better in the dark, it gains a slight veneer of intrigue. My mother and I used to go for late-night drives down the side streets and count the number of houses that actually had their lights on. The results were very disappointing :) I encourage everyone to take pictures at night. Live dangerously. Take a walk on the wild side and all that jazz! Night is when the ideas fly in for a visit.

I am slowly digesting Taking Flight. I love this book, it's like a personal cheerleader that congratulates you every time you crack the spine! I'm on chapter 2, which prompts you to identify your fears. "If I wasn't afraid, I would": take art classes, lots of them! I have been terrified of taking art classes since it was drawing at the local park district in elementary school. Sometimes I wonder what happened to that girl, the one who danced on stage, talked in class with eyes on fire, and went to art camp. She has been neglected for some time but is jumping up and down for June 10th, the first day of my first grown up art class! First stop portraiture, next stop Stencilry in August! I'm so excited that I'm "stenciling" on the computer as you can see above. Sometimes I feel like I'm growing up, but not in a bad way. I cannot express how cathartic simply identifying that thing that slowly gnaws at the ankles of your being is.

xo Lara

Saturday Artist Date

Open flowers, open doors.
Welcoming us to our favorite cafe. The one owned by our favorite saucy Italian lady that we've set foot in only once before in search of authentic gelato.
It is such a dream inside. Cerulean, turquoise, rust, burnt sienna, bronze, and sunflower yellow adorning the textured walls and authentic tin ceiling. Adorned by delicate swag lamps and crepey curtains this cafe is truly a romantic's haven.
Ahhhhh my house will look like this.

Looking at the pictures again is both calming and invigorating, like remembering time spent in a far off place. We are thankful for a warm place that tickles and arouses our creativity, amps up that drive to make.

Discovering the bathroom was also a treat. The door looks is a magical portal, sky rimmed in gold. Another self-portrait in the bathroom: Rosie the Riveter came out to play coaxed by the promise of a starry night.

Agent Pineapple and I made lists, plotting future projects. I'm going to make the perfect journal that can both withstand mixed media artwork and transport detritus as well as cute little albums for our photo booth strips. The list became increasingly general from there: print-making, assemblage, collaborative projects. I have been waiting for a project to find me. Something to explore through multiple mediums and formats. Something to be consumed by. My eyes are peeled, I'm on a stakeout, and Saturday artists dates will become a weekly affair!
And maybe if we become regulars at the cafe, Saucy Italian Lady will let me take some real pictures with tripod and all, with models, and ponies!xo Lara

Incubation and Face Play.

I love faces. I love painting them. I love drawing them. I love collaging them. 
I need to get out more so that I can take pictures of them.
Talk to strangers, take their candy, and then their picture.Make new friends and make art with them.Walk on the cracks in the sidewalk.Before taking picturesand making rubbings
and stuffing artinside.Insidefinding the timeto reach withinscoop out the pulp and synthesize by feelthat which cannot be seen.Crouching in the dark with lightbulb sunsand incubating my dreams.  Birthing saturatedworks of self to set free: prayers. New forms, new mediums,new ways to set things free. Finding it hard to find my groove,to scoop out. But, an art class is forthcoming with a new face each week to draw.And it's free and very chill: paper bags are encouraged as an art surface and our friend who teaches it uses the scientific principles of DaVinci to make sense of the line and the eye-hand connection. I need to buy shellac today, you'll see what I mean. And last night I found my googly eyes. Whoo hoo.
 

Thank you Robin for posting about these digital canvas boxes. I can't get enough of them! 

Lily/Booger/Coo Coo Cachoo The Baby Raccoon

Agent Pineapple and I have become an animal rescue team in the past few months. First a feline escapee from the animal hospital and last week: this little hunk of burning love.  Little booger was standing in the middle of the opposing lane of traffic, bobbing her little head, not moving an inch. The next street to pull over on was a few blocks away. We sprinted through the grass on the side of the road dodging protruding pieces of rusted metal and hubcaps. When we got to her she was curled up in a ball and despite all of the cars that had passed, very much alive! Agent P. scooped her up and checked her for injuries before . She affixed herself with her barely-there claws to my bosom and stayed their for hours. She loves boobies, they're great for naps.We took her home and managed to coax her into drinking water from a tiny baby bottle (only four weeks old we estimated) and kept her warm while we waited for the Wildlife Guardians Network to find a rehabilitator for her. Baby raccoons need to be rehabilitated with other raccoons their own age in order to be reintroduced into the wild.

(Click and smile wide)
Booger and I napped, snuggled, and watched the Ellen Show and Gray's Anatomy. She preferred the Ellen Show of course, me being her mama and all.She made the cutest squeaky noises when I scratched her a certain way.
Baby slept in a Converse shoes box lined with t-shirts and awoke with a sqeak the next morning when I turned on the light. We passed her on to a woman with a raspy smokers voice who specializes in rehabilitating small woodland creatures. With a rustic carved sign on her door that read "Welcome to the Nut House," a door concealing squawking birds and barking dogs, it seemed like the right place. She was very sweet and even encouraged us to call about Booger in the future. We smiled the whole way home.It wasn't until a few hours later that it hit me, lots of tears and lots of hugs. I miss little Booger but I'm so happy that she's going to be able to return to the trees in a few months and play with other raccoons. I love what my mother wrote: "Though we would have loved to keep her--in this case loving meant letting her go. She came to give us all 24 hours of love and a reminder of the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Bye baby!"


Animal Rescue Update: Last night we found a little injured bunny, Josephina, in the front yard. Her arm was injured by another animal who we must have scared off. I think that the plastic bunny that sits on our front steps functioned as one of those Helping Hand signs that people used to post in their front windows. The post-scoop consisted of water, grass, and love. At first we tried to release her a few blocks away so that the predator couldn't finish what it started but Josephina wasn't up for walking with her injury. She scooted around the cage though and hung in there overnight for her Mama Pineapple until we could take her to the Wildlife Center. 

   

On the way back the universe high-fived us with free Starbucks (their computers were down).

And then their was magic. I went outside to take pictures of new collages but decided to go back inside in order to apply pants. A few minutes later I opened the door to find a plastic bag hanging on the knob filled with stuffed animal gifts, a precious blue bunny waiting to be scooped! I like to think it was a cosmic thank you from Josephina :)

At this rate, I wonder who will find us next week. We're official animal rescuers now!

♥ Lara and Agent Pineapple

Freedom!

It's good to be back friends! The spring term has officially ended and I have a week before summer term begins. I'm taking two online courses which means I can stay nice and pasty in the privacy of my own digs. Despite all of the hair pulling, a lot of good things happened during my blog break. In no particular order:

• Finished my research project in which I constructed Deborah Kampmeier's dramas as feminist horror films

• Kait and I rescued a baby raccoon, our little Booger

• Celebrated my 21st birthday with sushi and padthai and homemade taco dip, yum!

• One of my onion photographs was published in my college's literary arts magazine

• I was invited to contribute to a book in pictures and words

• Won an award at my job for the second semester in a row

• Saw the 1000 Journals film at the Talking Pictures Festival, check out the video and be inspired!

• Witnessed a prairie burn
  
• Watched the magnolia tree and lilac bush bloom
  

Whoo hooo! It's heART time and I can't wait to get dirty with those photostrips.xo Lara