The Museum of Bad Art in the House

Michael Frank, the curator-in-chief of The Museum of Bad Art, spent the evening in our studio on First Thursday signing copies of their new book Masterworks and also giving two presentations on what makes bad art. Thanks to The Stranger for suggesting it:

Michael showed a slideshow of some pieces in MOBA's permanent collection and some submissions that have been rejected. For example, they don't do velvet, they don't do paint by numbers, they don't do 'kid art', but they do do this (ha -- do do):

Some folks brought items to submit to MOBA's permanent collection and one lucky lady, Marlow, from Unusual Life, had an item Michael thought was worthy. His pronouncement was met with her screams of, "It's going in the museum! It's going in the museum! It's going in the museum!"

Local artist and bARTer Sauce supporter, Kelly Lyles, stopped by for the second presentation and took studious notes.

After getting a piece into MOBA, Marlow invited Michael and I to check out their house full of art -- specifically their Paint By Numbers Room. It was breathtaking. They even have an Elvis-shaped topiary in on their patio!

All in all, it was a lovely evening.

Especially if you don't count the pat where I borrowed a projector from work for the slide show portion -- a projector that was stolen within minutes of me borrowing it -- which required that I procure a second projector within one hour of the event starting.

Yeah, it was totally awesome as long as you don't count that part.

Ahhhhhhhh, MOBA. You rule.

First Thursday Art Walk -- March

This First Thursday was lovely. As always.

Some special friends stopped by:

• My lovely husband, Doug, although, he kind of has to be there
• My father-in-law, Robert, who probably had other things he might have wanted to do in Seattle, but instead came to my art show. Nice.



• My ex-roomie, Val, (& her new boyfriend - teehee) who filled up on Shower Arts even though her birthday party is today and now I have no idea what to give her. Sigh.
• A past bARTer Sauce supporter, Kelly Lyles (possibly my favorite bARTer Sauce trader to date) who literally gave me the coat off her back after I told her I liked it
• Roxanne, who is 1/3 responsible for bARTer Sauce now having trading cards and who has agreed to design more of them for me until we have one for every trade and then we will rule the world
• A past bARTer Sauce trader -Josiah - came by with some friends and bought an entire bottle of sparkling apple cider
• Another past bARTer Sauce trader, Tim, who gave me an artist's sketch book that he found (which is still available and awesome!)
• Some new bARTer Sauce traders -- Staci and Stacy - weird, I didn't even realize they had the same name until just now
• EtsyRain folks: Kimberly (of course she's there -- we share a studio!) & Carrie & Marlo & Laura & Jill & Tarah & Halina & Trina....Did I get everyone? Yikes, there were lots!

This was the first show where I hung Parisite, possibly the best bARTer Sauce item ever (no offense everyone else, no offense). Everyone who came by commented on how awesome it was and then when I pointed out that Paris is actually PAINTED and not a magazine cutout, why then people pretty much just fell on the floor and fainted and we had to get smelling salts and stuff to revive them.

So, in short, I expect to get lots of trade offers for it.

Starting....NOW!

Staci traded me this fantastic box 'o stuffs with Mona Lisa on the back and drawers full of jewels. It's called "Mona didn't need bling". It's awesome. She got "Wood Face" for it.

Stacy traded me two paintings that I thought from the picture were going to be tiny, but they are actually quite large and even cooler than I thought. One has a tiny tomato that has fangs. FANGs people! I call it "Fangy Tomato." I'm sure the artists I trade with must love it when I re-name their work. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Now, Stacy's last name starts with an S too and these paintings are from when she was younger, more naive maybe, and she signed them SS but she swears she is in no way responsible for crimes against humanity, just naiveness.

Stacy, I love her, Stacy took the CREDIT CARD COSTUME!

oh man, I am not sorry to see that gigantic foamy thing leave my posession.

Go free young credit card. Ride into the night with Stacy and fill up her stupid closets with your credit card-ness!

That's pretty much all I have to report, except for one magical quick thing.

Ariane traded me a cardboard cutout of myself that she made. Well, she had the package in her car to mail to me....and her car got stolen. She emailed me last week to let me know and I mourned and got angry and went through the seven stages or something.

And then today, while I was writing this blog, there was a knock on the door.

And what was it?

A surprised mailman.

Yes, my hair is a mess and I'm wearing jammies.

It's 11am on a Friday. What do you expect?

And in the surprised mailman's hands....

A box from Ariane with a cardboard cutout of ME inside.

I wonder if that means she got her car back?

Or if the thief felt bad enough to mail it for her?

I'll never know....until I finish this stupid blog and email her.

Bye suckas!