Chicken Cards Galore!

Chicken I made of my friend, Rick for his birthday.

Andy Warhol chicken.

-Of Montreal

Happy Pride!

-Portlandia

-Henry David Thoreau

-Lana Del Rey

-Phosphorescent

-Brooke Candy

Watermelon Chicken!

-Bjork

This is what it feels like to meet 17 year old, Ben Bon!

A chicken card taped to the tip jar at Delicious Cafe! 

Wedding Chickens and Cupcake Chickens

-John Soos

-Haim

Haim is my 2014 summer jam.

Kae and Eli got married!  Here is the card I made them. 

The happily married hen herself.

A cupcake chicken for my cousin, Erin!

 The cupcake chicken got a lot of attention.  I had a hard time trying to make a chicken just as good...

Chicken Card 28 and 26

Chicken Card 28

Chicken Card 26

(forgot to post her!)

Turkey the Chicken

Here is what I wrote for this weeks CSA newsletter.

Turkey the Chicken

As soon as I arrived at the Wormfarm I was confused about my existence.  Farmer Kim said my name was to be Turkey but I was almost positive I was a chicken.  It was a cold, rainy May day when I was placed in my new coop.  I was to stay in the small area dedicated to the baby chicks with heat lamps, food and water.  But I was no longer a chick.  I was 1 month old and a giant compared to the others.  So I made sure to stomp on the babies’ heads as much as possible to put them in their place.

After my first few weeks at the Wormfarm, Kim picked me up against my will and took me outside for the very first time.  I was “a big girl now,” Kim said.  I was amazed by the wonder of the world around me.  The tall greens that surrounded me were edible and tasty and there were tiny bugs for me to search and devour with a gulp.  I would watch the older chickens with amazement, exploring so far from the coop that they looked like specks in the distance.  I could go wherever I chose.

As I got older my legs turned a deep golden yellow and little white feathers were growing on them.  I now had black feathers around my neck and the ones that were white started to change to blonde.  My black tail feathers shimmered green in the sunlight.  My ruby comb was growing.  I was a beautiful Brahma according to Kim.  She called me, “Turkey Girl.”

I recently turned 6 months old.  I was perched on a tree stump when Kim was walking by.  I suddenly had the urge to crow for the first time.  I wanted to crow like the older rooster but my voice cracked and it was an awkward, screechy “cock-a-doodle-doo.”  Kim stopped cold in her tracks.  She turned and looked me in the eyes and said “Turkey Girl…You’re a Turkey Boy?” 

The Blue Jay Eats the Rooster's Meal

The Blue Jay Eats the Rooster's Meal, 13 x 15 inches, feathers, fabric, thread, 2013

Good Morning.

Squash and Cucumbers!  If you don't harvest squash often they will balloon (like the one in the middle) and become too big to saute but great for Zucchini bread (which Lauren and I made last night)!

Sewing a Miniature Me and Harvesting Chamomile!

I am almost near being finished with the first page of my book!  It has been a ton of fun working with my massive collection of fabric scraps.

Irises! So beautiful.

The Chamomile was not welcome in the hoop house so I harvested the flowers and tore out the plant. 

I am drying the flowers to make Chamomile Tea and Chamomile muffins!

We planted a whole bunch of peppers the other day.  We laid drip tape (irrigation) down the middle, then black plastic mulch on top to heat the soil for the peppers (they like it hot) and to cut down on the weeds.  We put cages on them so that they will grow upright.  18 inches apart, staggered, 2 rows.  Mmm mmm peppers!

The babes!  They have little feathers on their wings now.

And....the rooster.  I only post this image because so many wonder what he looks like.  He is a jerk and doesn't deserve to be named.

Rooster Poster!

Thanks to an awesome fellow American Academy of Art student who made this super rad poster for my speech tomorrow!  Can't wait to find you and thank you!

Revisiting Wormfarm

Last Friday I made my way back to the Wormfarm Institute where I had done an artist residency this past summer from May 20th to June 20th.  I took the Van Galder bus from Union Station to Madison, Wisconsin.  I spent 2 hours exploring a bit of Madison and then was picked up by Betsy, a past artist resident of Wormfarm who came to the Wormfarm sometime after me.  We drove to Reedsburg and went to the opening reception for the 2012 Wormfarm Institute Artist Residents Show where Betsy, myself and 4 other artists had work on display.

I spent the night at Wormfarm and woke up bright and early the next day to explore what had become my home just a few months ago.

My first stop was the chicken coop.  Jay had already fed the chickens and they were scattered around the field searching for bugs and greens to eat.  But I could tell my plump little Honey was not out there.  I went inside to find her and tempt her with my apple core.  She is the biggest, golden lady in the bunch.

A chicken bum in the doorway.  My favorite.

The new rooster.  He is not fully grown yet.  He is pretty but I am not too fond of him.  When a rooster comes along he takes control of the ladies...those ladies don't need a rooster.  No lady needs a rooster.  Hopefully he won't be too cruel to them for his own good.

Milkweed!  So incredible.

I started my adventure, walking around for two hours.  It was a gloomy, rainy day, but it was beautiful.

These were growing on the tree/bush branches alongside the rode.  I am sure soon I will know the names of many plants.  This summer I collected so much information already.

Trouser is the tiny black dot ahead of me on the path.  He led the way just like Cathi said he would when I came to Wormfarm for the first time.  I will be forever grateful to him for walking with me that day.

Everything looked as if it were on fire.

The path was so empty compared to the summer.  All the plants have died and dried up leaving much more open space.  It felt very different from June.  More quiet and still.

Jay said that back in July when the drought was bad, they had to send the cows back to their farmer because there wasn't much grass for them to eat.  Only five remain.

Wormfarm still feels like my home in Wisconsin.  I was worried that it wouldn't feel that way.  I have the opportunity to come back next summer and I am pretty sure that I will. 

Before I came to Wormfarm, I thought I had everything figured out.  When I left, I was confused about the person that I am and what my future looked like.  I thought that as I got older things started to make more sense.  Instead I have learned that I have to accept life as it comes to me and try less to understand everything at once.

After my walk, Jay drove me to see Farm/Art DTour, "a fifty-mile backroad tour of art installations, Roadside Culture Stands (artist-built mobile farm stands), pasture performances and rural culture education sites in Sauk County, Wisconsin."  I was so glad I got to see it.  Thanks, Jay.

I caught the Amtrak train from the Wisconsin Dells back to Union Station in Chicago.  I sat on the edge of my seat the entire time looking out the window in awe.