WBLUMC exhibition #2

I had another gallery of photos on display at our church for a couple of months this fall. I treated it as a brighter but less-thematically cohesive supplement to my previous gallery that appeared for a limited time just prior to the pandemic. 

Omri snapped this one of me in front of a few of the 13 selections:

It was fun to share some of my work again and to hopefully spur some discussion in the hallways.

It doesn't appear in the captures above, but the centerpiece of my gallery was my rejected state fair submission.

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Cardboard racetrack 3.0

This is one of my very most favorite projects I have ever worked on. It's every bit as personal to me as the short film I made with Veronica. This is my and Omri's "cardboard racetrack."

 

It's really more of a parking ramp than a racetrack (the name was carried over from an earlier version that included a long spiraling track). Throwing that old one into the recycling bin was heartbreaking for me. We had had so much fun building it, that we made the decision to start over on a new one.

We spent many Saturday mornings and evenings after dinner having some "analog time," spinning records and putting this thing together. It is true that I did most of the cutting and gluing while Omri mostly played alongside me, but he was always willing to discuss the plans with me and hold things in place. He also built the part of the structure known as "Omri's apartment" by himself.

The sad part is that the structure is not complete. We sort of stopped working on it two years ago when Omri became less interested in playing with cars and when we realized it was inevitable that we wouldn't be able to keep this one forever either. As much as we enjoyed the construction process, we didn't want to put more time into something that was inevitably going to need to be dismantled or given away.

The whole thing sits over the Hot Wheels Criss-Cross Crash racetrack. We always meant to integrate the two pieces, so that you could drive from the ramp onto the track, but that section was going to take up even more space, so we never got around to it.

We were very proud of our real working elevator that could take a car from the top level to the bottom level in 4.5 turns of a crank:

Another angle:

More details:

Plenty of parking spaces:

Bird's eye view:

We are looking for a new home for this extremely fun playset. Let me know if anybody out there is interested. We can offer some recommendations for new enhancements/extensions too.

This is a video in which we take you on a tour:

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Veronica's babysitting service

V made these flyers and is distributing them to families with small kids in the neighborhood. I removed her number from this photo, so let me know if you are need of some babysitting at a very reasonable price!

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We made a boat

... a pirate ship, to be more specific.

This was a fun little project that Omri and I worked on together when he needed a boat for some battles between action figures.

I love having creative projects to work on with this kid.

By the way, we are looking for a home for the big "cardboard racetrack" we spent many hours building. It will be difficult for me to part with, so I'd like to give it to somebody who will love it as much as we do. I took some photos/video of it as well and will be posting sometime soon.

 

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Good-bye to Emilia

I decided to hold off on posting my Alaska outtakes until later. The choices are too overwhelming and I'm falling behind on other coverage.

Emilia was the kids' nanny this summer and last summer (on the weeks when they didn't have camps or family vacations planned). She was really great! Now she's off to college.

Below is a glimpse of the space scene masterpiece Emilia and Omri drew with chalk on our driveway:

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Bob Boberson, then and now

Buying myself some time until I can get around to some larger Memorial weekend posts. 

This is one of Omri's school projects. His name is Bob Boberson and he did not age well :-).

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Dollhouse in Despair

You may have already seen my post on Facebook about this, but I wanted to mention it here too. I had a photo accepted into the Minnesota State Fair this year for the first time since 2016 (despite having tried every year since). I'm honestly surprised it got in--I picked the photo to submit because I happened to have it already printed for my exhibition at our church last year. Also to my surprise, somebody appears to have purchased it?!? Don't get too excited; I wasn't asking for much.

Anyway, we attended the fair today, so I'll be posting some family photos from our visit soon. I also have a ton of photos from our latest trip to Camp Du Nord that I need to sort through.

Here's a closer look:

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Afternoon art project

The kids got these stencil/paint kits from their aunt and uncle for Christmas and they finally got around to putting them together:

Here's a look a the process:

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Yes, they can both be the best

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The Star Destroyer

Omri and I are just a little bit proud of our latest creation, a cardboard replica of a Star Destroyer from Star Wars.

This was not made from a kit. Rather, we just looked at pictures of the ship from the movies and crafted it out of cardboard and hot glue.

We tried not to worry about making things perfect (and it definitely is not). We had a lot of fun with the project.

Omri is providing a space backdrop with the design of his pajamas:

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Rachel, season 2

You may remember Rachel from last summer. She was the kids' nanny again this summer and her time with us has ended once again.

Here's the trio eating a favorite snack, nachos:

I'm impressed by the arts and crafts they did together. Here's a sample:

Toilet paper roll figures were a hit. That's the Rachel, Omri, and Veronica in the first row, respectively. Omri is holding the rocket ship from the previous picture. Harry Potter and somebody I'm not able to identify are in the back.

A collection of books:

Rachel drew herself and Omri drew himself. So cute!

A paper lantern:

We will miss you, Rachel!

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WBLUMC exhibition

I have a gallery of about 30 carefully selected photos on display at our church in White Bear Lake.

(Above photo taken by R.)

It was hard to narrow things down, but I stuck with some of my favorite shots from live music performances (for the music wing of the church) and, more prominently in the main hallway, a collection from my explorations in northern Minnesota.

A few of my Iron Range shots on the wall behind a bake sale:

The photos have been generating some good discussion and will be up for the next few months. I may try to add more documentation to this blog post as the exhibition goes on.

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