Western Center Volunteering

I began volunteering at the Western Center Museum recently. My first day working with the public was last week when I shadowed a school field trip. It was a fairly easy day; fossil molding, video viewing, and soil sorting. Overall it seemed like the kids had a good time, and hopefully learned something. The photo above is of the group watching the video about where fossils come from. Bellow is a sloth that probably would have scared the hell out of me when I was little, if you look at it from this angle it looks like it's going to attack.
Bellow are Max and Xena, the resident Mastodon and Mammoth.
Hopefully I'll be able to put in some more time here because it's a really interesting museum. For some reason I tend to find myself volunteering at new museums like this instead of more established ones, but my goal is to actually do some good and learn a little more about museums at the same time.

Keeping Duchamp Alive

I recently found out about an interesting art project, the R. Mutt sticker project. It is an ongoing project meant to advance the question asked by Duchamp himself when he placed a fake signature upon a urinal and tried to submit it for an art show, "What is art?" Even after his death Duchamp's moniker can be added to every day items in order to turn them into "ready made" pieces of Dada art. I found this image on flickr, but found no purchasing information for the clear format. I did, however, find a site that will send you a similar sticker if you send them a picture of the toilet you stick it to. I like the concept.

Bezerkly

Actually, the Pixies show was in Oakland, but I spent most of my trip up north in Berkeley. It was a brief trip, but I drove up last weekend for a little get away and a chance to see my sister and some friends. The show was pretty amazing and I took lots of smoke filled pictures because the fog machine was on overload. I realize now that I took few pictures of anything else. I went out to lunch with a friend, shopped for records, walked down Telegraph for a bit until the football fans got too annoying and prompted us to go elsewhere. I saw the marina, checked out a couple galleries, looked around a used book store, and saw a movie with my sister. All in all it was a good trip.



Then I had to return to my little car and make the eight hour drive back home. As a snack my sister crafted me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that was cut into dinosaur jaws.

Wishing You an Inspired Halloween

I am a huge fan of Halloween; while many girls value it as the one holiday they can be super slutty and get away with it, I love it because it's a chance to be creative. It's the time of year that I look at photos on facebook of all my artistic friends and I gain a greater understanding of why we are friends, because I don't see a bunch of cop out store bought costumes and I admire their ingenuity. My childhood friend Molly has already posted some amazing photos of her costume; she is the game Operation. When she wears this there is also a pair of tongs attached to a red cord to remove the white items, as you would in the game. I love it.

I am also impressed by an idea by MAC Makeup to recreate a Roy Lichtenstein painting. If I didn't already have three or four costume ideas I might go with this one; though keeping the hair and makeup perfect all night seems a little too high maintenance for me.





Photo credit to Charmed.

I realize that I have posted a lot of videos lately, but today I found these two that made me smile; one with a link to the area I used to live in. So I have decided to share them with you. I hope they make you smile too. Happy Weekend!

The Carlsbad Temptress by Bryan Snyder

The Carlsbad Temptress by bryan snyder from Bryan Snyder on Vimeo.

The Fun Theory