Aardvark Art Glass

I forgot to tell you guys that I got a mammogram the other week and it came back normal. So, in a very profound way that was a load off my mind and the minds of others around me. Now my brain is free to worry about more important things.

Speaking of which, the tree project is morphing into something excellent that we are keeping for ourselves–The Ham Tree

It is like it sounds-a tree full of little glazed ham beads. At the base of the tree are a pair of creatures that lay green eggs:

It’s a solid theme, man. What’s particularly timely about the piece is that…this is going to be difficult to explain to anyone who was not listening to community radio station W.O.R.T in the late 90’s but I’m going to try. So there are these two radio personalities Mel and Mr. Smarty Pants. They have an extremely funny, difficult to describe radio show (Mel and Floyd) that airs on W.O.R.T. on Friday afternoons. Since their show is my favorite of any on the station, I give them premiums to give away during pledge drives. They mention the store often and I credit them with helping to build my once mighty customer base.

ANYWAY, ago, back in the day, on the show there was this long-running joke about potted meat (that’s SPAM, or any other canned meat product). This fellow, Russ (another person you don’t know) started sending Mel and Pants cans of potted meat accompanied by hilarious letters which were read on the show. Because potted meat is so goddamn funny, this went on and on. Eventually, there were enough cans of meat for a small museum for which someone built a nifty cabinet.

Flash forward to present day (about 12 years later) I hear on the show that the people at W.O.R.T. are weary of housing the meat museum and are looking to give it a new home. I told them I would take it and they gave it to me and I am the luckiest girl in the world! Here’s a picture:

Hence, the understandable pride over the meat-related artwork. So far I haven’t had anyone come in who remembers the hey-day of potted meat, but the important thing is I’m keeping myself amused.

My pal Erika (scrap metal welding gal) is trying to raise funds for a public art project here in Madison. If the project is funded, Erika will be commissioned to make a giant metal tree on a median where John Nolan Dr. and Williamson St. meet. For fundraising purposes, Erika started making these 24″ trees out of colorful electrical wire. Here is one:

They are quite detailed with little flower blossoms on the ends of the branches. The trunks are sturdy, composed of multiple strands of thick copper wire. I thought they needed some glass creatures living in them so I started making those:

The tree squids are my favorites because they build nests for their baby tree squids, which are super cute.

I made a bunch of slugs that crawl up the tree trunks:

There’s also frogs and spiders and flying clams. Dodo birds too.

Some things have yet to be wired together but they’re coming along. The goal is to sell two trees at a fundraising event in the near future. I’ll have more pictures later when we get them all together.