July 2005 Archives
July 11, 2005
Nissen's 50th Anniversary
Pictures of us at the Nissen's 50th wedding anniversary in Austin, TX.
We flew down to Austin and camped the first night in the heat. It reminded me a great deal of camping during Michigan's summertime heat, with the humidity, but I had forgotten how loud the bugs can get at night. But once the heat overcame us, we fell right asleep. Yet the next night we spent in a hotel with the rest of the family, so we'd be closer to church in the morning. The family had a great time and it was great to celebrate such a wonderful occasion with Grandpa and Grandma Nissen.
July 15, 2005
I collaborated on this installation at the beginning of 2005 with Mike Evans and Marlene Dayley. Our artist statement follows:
The American currency system has developed a new feature of the western market--Big-Box corporate stores. A big-box corporate store is the mega-market store, where the corporation supplies thousands of different brands of goods underneath one single roof, usually in the form of an enormous warehouse. These mega-stores dot the American landscape, often more recognizable and familiar than a local store or a regional chain. More often than not, the term Big-Box directly correlates with the concept of a chain of stores, linked together, marketing to sizable groups and mass populations unheard of before. As citizens of this nation, we participate in Big-Box living. We grow up knowing specific store brands much better than others. We can spot them and wherever we go, we know we won't be far away from one of those trustable locations: trustable in what we'll find inside them. We used three objects that address different aspects of Big Box economics. The candle and flowers represent individuals and the receipts represent our individual experience. In a western economy, we make exchanges in currency. These receipts mark our experience within this currency economy. As artists, we have spent the past months saving these receipts and asking others to participate in collecting receipts of their purchases. Many of these purchases are necessity based: food stuffs, travel allotments and occasional "pleasure" transactions. But each of us has become wiser in knowing what our lives are like in Big-Box corporate America.
July 26, 2005
Anniversary and Star's graduation
We don't know when our cat was born, she was a stray. But since her birth month was probably July or August, and our Anniversary is July 26th, we figured we would tell Star that her birthday was on the same day.
Since this year was her first birthday, we also made her a graduation ceremony (we're geeks, I know). She wore a gown and walked down our long hallway for us. This video was filmed when we were in Seattle.
