Lake Affectation

Before THE COVIDS hit, I got to create a really fun installation with fellow kitsch-lover Haley Himiko Morris aka Himikoland aka Himikogogo. We were in the “living room” building at Brite Winter festival and we made the kitchen, which is, in fact, not part of a living room. But, whatever. The stove has been in my basement for about 50 years and this was a good excuse to haul it up and out. We used a lot of leftover fun fur from another artist (@shopcoolcritters) and stuck it all over the sink and inside the microwave. I had a lot of fur in my mouth. GOOD TIMES.  

I guess I never posted anything during my prop-making days. I love making theater props. Unfortunately, it can be a lot of work for not a lot of money. Such is life. These pics are not props that I made. The first one is an owl I rented from Cleveland Playhouse for The Addams Family and the other 2 are reference images for props. There were a lot of dead animals in this particular version of The Addams Family. I’m not sure why. They always come up with random ideas while staging and sometimes they are great and sometimes I’m like, “why all the dead animals, guys?” I think the most fun and the hardest play was Mary Poppins. 

Art from the DayGlo art show that never happened this year. Well, we did have an online opening but it’s not the same. I made while reading “The Girls” by Emma Cline. It’s like a fictional account of Helter Skelter but from the perspective of one of the girls. 

Did I have a website before? It is www.susieunderwood.com. It needs updated. 

Picking back up on my Martha Paints the Sunset series in an attempt to draw more!

PPS - Yes, that is a yeti lawn ornament.

Got some of the miniatures back from the S.Dot Gallery show and I made them into magnets!!! Slowly getting them up in my Etsy shop which I am kind of bad at doing... https://www.etsy.com/shop/SusiesJunkShop

Oh, did I mention that I Skype’d with Mark Mothersbaugh? Yeah, we’re besties. Okay, it wasn’t just me. We had an adult maker night at MOCA as part of Myopia by Mark Mothersbaugh, MOCA’s summer exhibition. It’s REALLY good. We made “rubber stamps” and puppets to use in a stop motion video. We also made postcard drawings to send to MM, which I neglected to do because I have a hard time participating when I’m working. The weird creature print was by my coworker Ryan, loosely based on his cat… (PS- I don’t work at MOCA anymore, exciting stuff coming up!)

OH, and my friend Cat Lynch gave me a deck of her custom designed tarot cards!!!

Currently on view at Transformer Station is Jon Pestoni: Some Years. I’m not a painter so I don’t tend to freak out about painting shows but these did have some delicious colors and graphic qualities reminiscent of Sean Foley (Sean's stuff is the proverbial shit) but more...painterly? However, what I’m even more interested in are the RNC projects that will be taking place at Transformer Station this week. STAY TUNED.

I also HAD a photo up in the Peer Show at the Cleveland Print Room but it’s already down! We had to take them down a little early thanks to the Republican National Convention coming to town, AAAAH.

And on to the next thang. I currently have a photo in the “Ohio New Photography” exhibition at the Coburn Gallery at Ashland University in Ashland, OH. I don’t have an installation pic yet because I haven’t actually seen the show yet… I’ve been busy! I will add it later because it looks great in the red frame.

Oh, hello. What else did I do in June? I went to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island! My dear friend Emily was hosting her bachelorette experience in NYC and she is a woman of exceptional taste and class, so of course she wanted to experience half naked people in sea shell brassieres as a proper send-off into the land of marriagedom. I wore my vagina dress, we ate hot dogs, and afterwards we got tiki drinks at the Shrunken Head (low quality, great shrunken head mug souvenir), and ate some French food served by actual French dudes. I like French food but isn’t it kind of cheating to just add a ton of butter and duck fat to make something taste good?

The last month has been a f#$%ing blur so I’m gonna do a little catching up. These pics are from my one year anniversary with the hubs. We discovered some local attractions, such as Swensons, a beloved NE Ohio Burger drive-in where they bring the food out on trays and attach it to your car window. We also did a bit of hiking about in the Cuyahoga National Park and in Chagrin Falls, where we saw “Squaw Rock”, which is some sweet folk art carving by a dude long dead in the side of a rock. I mean, the dude isn’t in the rock, the carvings are…whatever. Mermaids and skeletons? Yes, please. I like folk art so much more than “real” art, if I’m being honest. We also saw some waterfalls and shit but I apparently didn’t take pictures. Pretty sweet, tho.

I hosted an Altered Thrift Store Paintings workshop at BAYarts last night and it ruled. I would love to do more of these date night workshops. It's like wine and canvas but not horrible!

Miniature 80s Deco art at yer service!