Jennifer's 365 Project

Two fuzzy monsters just taking a break.

Chris is off this week, so he took advantage of free time and cleaned up the apartment.

When i got home after work, I promptly littered the living room with toys for the ferret.

I blogged for this blog today...

When I see grasshoppers, I think giant empty cans of Folger's coffee (the metal ones with a thin plastic lid) and the strange faint aroma of coffee.

Why, you ask?

My Grandparents loved coffee. Well,my grandfather did. At least it seemed that way as a kid. So there was always a steady supply of metal coffee tins to run about and collect critters in. Specifically, insects. (I learned later that while I had pet mice as a kid at home, to a man in the country they are no friend.)

As a kid my little brother and I would zig zag around in their backyard. They lived in the country and while they themselves were not farmers, they were always surrounded by their neighbor's crops which provided a healthy supply new things to investigate.

Among the tall grass and cornfields were grasshoppers. Tons of them. So every time we visited my little brother and I were out there scooping them up in the coffee tins and tossing in handfuls of grass and sticks, listening to the poor things bounce around trying to get free. I have no doubt the strange-smelling tin barrels were a frightening experience.

In a day or two, depending on how long we were staying, my little brother and I would release the grasshoppers and start anew the next visit.

And that is why grasshoppers make me think of coffee.

Warm fall weather, sunshine, and a beautiful park. Who wouldn't want to take an afternoon stroll?

...not including those other times that there's a fuzzy orange butt in my face....

Always a fun roller-coaster ride for your feet!

Because right now, it's looking like it should be Monday.

He thinks he's so sneaky.

More please!

My parents and little brother came out to spend the day in Grand Rapids, celebrate a bunch of our birthday's at once (September and October are busy birthday months) and check out Artprize.

Artprize was...disappointing. There are a lot more businesses getting in on the action, as well as charities and other non-profits peddling their respective causes.

I don't have a problem with commercial art or non-profits asking for donations. I do have a problem with them being given venue space in what is supposed to be a fine arts event. I'm at Artprize to enjoy the art, maybe catch a bite to eat, and enjoy downtown. I'm not at Artprize to choose your bank (since you're sponsoring a kitschy photo booth in the hopes that I'll switch from a competitor) or decide that I want to help all the orphans in the world.

Since the venue chooses what to display, I suspect a lot of venues are just happy to loan space to whoever will drive traffic into their establishment. And that's a problem. (At least for me. Maybe other people are fine with it.) They should have more rules in place to restrict the entries like WMU flying a giant banner of horses which happens to be their mascot. You can't tell me that's not an advertisement for the college.
There was a nice ustream critical discourse on the Top 10 entries that is worth watching at least part of. And there's an opinion piece in The Rapidian that has some suggestions on how to improve the event in the future.

This is not to say the entire event is a waste of time and chock-full of glorified lawn ornaments - no. There are some great pieces. One of my favorite so far has been Lady of the Dance, which is entirely sculpted. There is some awesome stitching detail up the side of the woman's shirt that you can't see in photos.

Since I work downtown I have plenty of time over the next week and a half to check out some of additional venues I did not see over the weekend. I'm sure there are other awesome entries just off the beaten path.

Chris has some pretty good thoughts on Artprize as well.