piano getting painted and hanging art object in the works

hanging art object detail

Addair Kentucky's tomato cage mobile

the whole thing

[ from ashley ]

The experience has given me so much verve and enthusiasm toward strengthening and dancing in my post pregnancy body.  There was a strong temptation to coddle myself after delivery.  I felt worn out and misplaced, like a rubberband that had sat in the sun so that it might snap and crumble at the smallest tug.

i don't have any pictures of my tricks yet, so you'll just have to look at this darlin' baby instead.

I should have more faith in this trustworthy body that has served me so well for (almost!) 28 years, but I forgot and let myself believe that it had been all used up; learning aerial dance has given me renewed trust and gratefulness.

The first rehearsal was largely about conquering fear and learning to trust (it always seems to be about trust for me).  And now as we are begining to refine the skills we have acquired, I am able to build my strength and flexibility.

I want to express my appreciation for the opportunity of learning something new.  It feels good to use some of the wonderful potential for movement.  It feels good to be awkward and inept because it means I’m in new territory.  And it feels good to slowly get stronger and finally get that trick I’ve been practicing.

Thank you, Maria.  Thank you, Laura.  Thank you, skeleton and thank you, muscles.

[ from ashley ]

p.s.  Circle Modern is accepting donations for an auction in order to raise funds (they are a not-for-profit company).  If you have a service or product or such that you would like to donate, get in touch with me.  Thank you, reader.

Today we made up Chuck Norris roofing jokes.

“Chuck Norris chews a bar of copper and spit-drives galvanized nails.”

“Chuck Norris heaves bundles of shingles on the roof from the pallet.”

“Chuck Norris tears off an old roof by pounding on it with his fists.  He roundhouse kicks the bouncing shingles into the dumpster.”

“Chuck Norris can walk in the valleys.”

Chuck Norris can walk any pitch.  He can also roundhouse kick continuously like a helicopter, but he doesn’t have to.

“Everything about color has to do with relationships, and the questions you need to ask in order to understand color are all about relationships.”

–Betty Edwards, Color

I am able to devote only a small slice of daily time to paint, but I am finding other ways to consider color in this infant-rearing season.  For one thing, its fun to have another body to dress.  I’m also working on picking out wall color and fabrics for one of our neighbors (so fun) and I’m reading Color by Betty Edwards where I’m perusing interesting things like, “If subjective timbre is significant of a person’s inner being, then much of his mode of thought, feeling and action can be inferred from his color combinations” (Itten). Hmmmm.  Stimulating, isn’t it?

Which brings me to my next interesting, stimulating creative outlet:

creativity workshop on color
{ june 14 }:

thursday 6-8pm

creating space and opportunity for inventive play and art making

brainstorming ideas for workshop:

*exploring personal color preferences
*constructing color wheels in order to better understand color theory and pigment mixing
*color matching and altering color schemes
*understanding color harmony

I’ll tailor the evening depending on the number of attendees as well as the preferences and interests of the workshop members so let me know if you have any thoughts or objectives.The workshop will be process-oriented with a focus on art-making as a method of thinking. All skill levels welcome. All supplies will be included.

to register (and you must pre-register) call ⑧⑥⑤.⑦⑦③.④⑧①②, message me on facebook or email ashleydawnaddair@gmail.com

workshop fee: $40 includes all materials. just bring yourself.

connect. learn. express. paint. appreciate.
try. share. explore. make. enjoy.
and you get to take home an original piece of art.

feel free to share this invitation.

This is the latest innovation of Glen Addair and the Wired Ride Shop: the Gnarly Bar.  The Gnarly Bar is a tool that gives an action sport rider a key advantage to their development: the ability to measure.

Place it on the flats, or place it anywhere.

The advantage of the Gnarly Bar is specificity, safety, and maneuverability.  Describing a trick in terms such as “over the dumpster, trash can, or recycling bin” can have further accuracy.  And a dumpster hanging off the edge of a bowl is a concern for safety.

The Gnarly Bar can be planted firmly and securely.  The height can be adjusted easily by sliding the base of the arm up the pole.

The magnetized rubber arm will release upon impact.

The Gnarly Bar is for beginners or advanced.

The Gnarly Bar proves it.

The Gnarly Bar is available only from the Wired Ride Shop.

and brought to you by Glen Addair

For product information visit the Wired Ride Shop’s Facebook page or contact noroomforhipsters@gmail.com

The Gnarly Bar proves it

I talked to a man about a dishwasher on Craigslist this afternoon and made a dash out to Seymour to check it out, but that’s beside the point and maybe a different story altogether.

The Henley Bridge is out, as all Knoxvillians know, and going to South Knoxville is something you have to be intentional about.   That’s why it’s been awhile since I’ve dropped by Disc Exchange to get my hands on any cool music or namely to check on the sales in the “Levon Walker” isle.

I told the guy at the counter that it had been longer than I could accurately remember, but I needed to check my sales.  He pulled out the binder of such inventory records and sure enough found my name on a line from 5/7/10 having left 10 CDs.  That was two years from yesterday.  Then he scanned the barcode which indicated that I had exactly two sales.

“We owe you ten bucks,” he said.  ”Do you want that now?”

“Yeah, I’ll go ahead and take it.”  2014 is a ways away.

“Okay, we just need you sign here,” he said. He made a new line in the ledger with my name.  ”Are you Levon Walker?”

“[Why] yes I am.”

He wrote down a 1 for each CD and gave me a ten dollar bill from the register drawer.

I went to see the man about a dishwasher.  The dishwasher will be nice.  The ten bucks from a music store was like a million dollars and I said a blessing for whoever that supporter may be.  That ten dollars I’ll spend on teal blue paint for the lower half of my camper.  All the way down the Chapman HW I watched the shoulders of the road.  For campers.

The dishwasher is the first thing I’ve fixed around the house towards renting the place out.  The list isn’t too long, we got compliant with the codes last time.

We’re getting closer, still battling the questions, “Where are we going to go, and what are we going to do?”  But it’s looking a little less mystic.  For one thing, it’s clear to me that the time is near to obscurely release my next album which will be a Lo-fi Pop Country project that I’ll record in the basement of the Grace Acres Farm house (where I made “New York City Spanks Levon Walker” in 2009).

The new songs are about work, and dreams, having the right woman and having a kid who thinks I’m a rock star so far.  I like Country Music 60% of the time, for about 2.5 to 4 listens.  I identify with all of it, but they dumb it down until it’s hard to find.  Or you just come to peace with it because the radio’s gonna play it anyhow.  It could be better and I don’t think the likes of Cash, Willie or Prine have had a player in the game for a while.  It won’t be my freakin’ shy, timid squeak of a voice either, but that’s my soapbox and I feel better.

Grandma Holt

Feeding chickens and mucking stalls was my job at Grace Acres.  They may need us again while they go to Germany.  Frankie has really good ladders too, so I could maybe find a paint job or two in the area.  This is all unsettled and unforcertain but I mention it because our readers should like to know that we won’t talk about campers forever and post baby pictures.  Although they are sweet.

We’re getting closer to having some sort of plan, not a pipe dream which would resemble the foolhardy 2009-10 “walkabout” that was as adventurous as it was financially catastrophic.  Two artists cannot live on art alone, as it turns out.  But they can outrun things for a while.  As two artists raising a baby, and the baby having no serious artistic inclinations of his own as of yet, we should be wiser.  Wisdom never to be confused with practicality.

Now comes the plug.  Get ready.

Ryan and Ashley Walker

THE PLUG

There are still four copies of my first two records at Disc Exchange.  OR they are all for free on my bandcamp page or for any donation.  In blemished lo-fi glory, recorded in basements of everyone I know, with borrowed gear and pawn shop souvenirs:

No Room for Hipsters 2008

New York City Spanks Levon Walker 2009

Not Sure How I’ll Eat but I’m not Picking Peaches 2010

Hope of the Seen and Unseen 2011

“some of the most obscure music of all time.”

~anonymous

Addair Kentucky Walker

SECOND HALF of the PLUG

Ashley has an etsy gallery of paintings or even most recently we are giving an eBay auction a shot which features this painting until 5/17/2012:

mask of the female gender

Ashley’s studio is at the Mason Jar and if you have long been meaning to stop by, well please do.

A strawberry patch near Mayfield, KY

END OF PLUG 

(It would be shameless to show a photo of a hungry child, that’s why we show this “fatso” who has no qualms with boarding a pull behind camper until his parents can find whatever it is they are looking for)

We’re a year apart but I’m older and slightly more inclined to run “around” flames.  His name is Ryan and he lives in Murray, KY.

And next door to his agency there was once a tuxedo and limosine rental place.

Ryan and I used to be fierce Monopoly opponents, I mean fierce. He knew a good place to buy for fixing up when he saw one.

This is his wife, Ashley.  It makes it easy on my mom to remember their names.

I thought the original walls needed to have their story remembered.  I don’t know what the logic was here.

Ryan had the foyer and offices framed in, three of them.

Aside: these are the generations of my family.  Little Addair Kentucky is around the corner somewhere next to his great-Pappaw.

We spent a lot of time fixing walls before they could be painted.  My first trip in March was a lot of plaster repair and then three coats on the entire building.

My second trip was staining and polyurethaning the ceilings, painting an oil base gloss on the trim, and a final wall coat in the offices.  Plus a punch list of more repairs, mostly sheetrock issues where the new walls joined the old plaster. 8 tubes of caulk.

The poly and semi gloss trim make for a flashy hallway.

I’ve still gotta go back in two weeks.  The finish carpenters got hung up on some of the details.

And didn’t make it to the kitchen.

But they do a good job and Ryan is satisfied with the progress.  Here it is, as of when I left.

If we’re done by the end of May then that’s good.  Nobody is going to get hurt.

Mr. J’s is really 304 Main and is located downtown Murray, KY in the court square.  Contact State Farm agent Ryan Walker for more info.  The property is currently for rent.  270-753-9935

I really don’t see how anyone manages to be a new mama without my friends and family.  I still owe quite a few of you thank you cards, but here’s a little offering of thanksgiving dedicated to our village (as they say).

it takes a village (click it!)

I couldn’t begin to name specifics because the list would be mighty long and I’d surely forget someone but if you have been as grand as to bring us an oh so lovely rocking chair or as darling as to write a sweet comment on our blog, thank you (so very much).

This is looking down at my station here on this scaffold. I’m trying to get the crown done today and keep off my wood ceilings. Hopefully can post some pictures of the project soon.