This Old Palette: April 2012

Better Than Health Insurance

The problem with health insurance is that, let's face it, eventually even the most expensive medical treatments are going to fail.

So over two years ago Tor Muehl began work on his final resting place, in the time honored tradition of the Pharaohs

.

His sarcophagus is covered with over a hundred images, taken from drawings that he made at Palette and Chisel workshops......

.....as well as drawings made at the Field Museum and the Brookfield Zoo.

While at its feet, sleep two magnificent dogs, modeled after "Petey", a canine companion that sometimes accompanied one of the Palette and Chisel models nearly 20 years ago.

Petey was well known for his ability to sleep unperturbed on the modeling stand for hours on end - a talent which has now been captured for eternity

Behind the sarcophagus, on the wall of the burial chamber -- oops, I mean apartment -- are panels of terracotta reliefs depicting more animals from the zoo.

But his favorite animal is Midnight the cat, depicted here beneath Tor's self portrait.

It's hard to tell, from this rear view, just exactly what this figure is doing.

But it may have something to do with the golden puddle that occasionally is found on the floor.

Election 2012

Val Yachik's campaign letter

Ed Wentz pre-campaign letter

The 2012 election is quite similar to the 2010 version , which was, itself, a scaled down version of the 2008 edition .

Incumbents are uncontested in all positions except president, for which Val and Ed are once again running.

Or... Ed is almost running.

It looks more like he's testing the waters to see whether anyone answers his "WAKE UP CALL".

And, once again there will be no public discussion except by those who shell out the $200 to send a mailing to the voting members.

Regarding the claims made in the two letters:

*It's good that, as Val notes, there's $120,000 in the building fund. But there would be more than twice that much if his board had not consistently misappropriated the building fund portion of the membership dues in order to cover operational expenses. And, of course, there might be less if any major improvements had been made over the first decade of his presidency.

*It's sad that, as Ed notes, the P&C has been acting like a "tight little group that doesn't reach out to the community. But it's also true that we have been consistently attracting some incredibly good artists to join and draw/paint/sculpt with us - as documented by many of the exhibits shown in this blog.

Closet Sale - 2012

Aaron Miller

Not to be too critical
of the work of our membership,
but I do think
that smaller is usually better
as far as we are concerned.

Aaron Miller

And not to root too hard
for the home team,
but I do think
that some of the best
contemporary outsider art
is to be found in this show.

(and what could "outsider artist" possibly mean
if it does not include all those
who paint compulsively,
enthusiastically,
and primarily for themselves,
regardless of their apparent
skill and knowledge)