Benefits of Membership, Update

This morning I received this email:

Hello Mel,
An internet search brought your recent post regarding your Art Institute of Chicago Member Card to my attention. I want to apologize for the error in the way your name appears on the card, and for the clearly incorrect assumptions made by whomever entered your information into our database.
If you would kindly provide me with an alternate salutation (Miss, Ms., Mrs. etc.), I would be happy to reissue a corrected card. Please feel free to contact me directly at (312)499-4128 or the Email provided.
Best Regards,
Lorien Steere
Member Relations Representative

I think that is just the greatest! A quick restoration of my faith in my fellow man person!

Benefits of membership

It would seem that one of the benefits of membership at the Art Institute of Chicago is...

gender reassignment!  The unfortunate part is I filled out the application in person.  Anyone care to bet that the person who took it listed "attention to detail" as one of their job qualifications?

Family pictures

A family member asked if I would make copies of a few 105 year old pictures of his grandmother and her sisters.  Taking apart the frames that had held them for a very long time, if not since they were made, was a delicate process.  The nails used to secure the pieces and backing in their frames, the old wire. When I'm done I will put them back in their frames with new materials but wanted to document the artifacts to serve as a place marker.  These materials spoke to me of time as much as the musty smell given off when the frame, like a crypt, was opened.  The hand that drove the nails and wound the wire was present.

Hello

I just want to say Sain Bain uu (hello) to my Mongolian visitor. The internet is an amazing thing.

Sunday comics

Your moment of Richard Prince Valiant...

Priceless

Train fare to Chicago to hear Zoe Strauss lecture at the Art Institute...$42

Cab fare from train station to Art Institute due to 1 1/2 hour late arrival caused by sitting stopped on the tracks in Northern Illinois waiting for an inspector to approve our passage following a truck hitting the bridge...$12

Hotel room required after having been told by Amtrak conductor that due to our late arrival the last train would also be delayed and thus leave at 9:00-9:30, only to return to the station at 8:45 and be told that the last train left at 8:15 after all...$284 

The opportunity to listen to Zoe speak about her work, politics, art, sports and deliver on her Facebook promise to "lecture her ass off"...priceless

 

Not Niigata

The mail arrived with my long awaited copy of Not Niigata.  Andrew Phelps has made another beautiful book of images concerning place and time which succeed in their ability to defy both.  Kehrer has produced (as with Higley) stunning reproductions and a design which is generous with the space and cadence allowed for the work and viewer.

According to Andrew's blog Buffet a few of the limited editions offered with choice of print are still available.  They won't be for long. 

Trio with beer

Here is another view of Big Chicks from yesterday, this time with the G10 rather than iPhone.  I think of it as a group portrait.

Context

Out the door at 8:00 AM yesterday for a full day in Chicago with members of MAM's Photography Council.  First stop was the Art Institute to see On the Scene, Playing with Pictures, and attend a discussion on perception, context, and reproducibility with Gaylen Gerber and Liz Deschenes.

Next stop was Big Chicks for Mimosas and Bloody Mary's and a jaw dropping photograph collection.  Arbus to Weegee...

 

 

Last stop was a visit to Brian Ulrich's studio for insight and information and new work.

 

An outstanding day!  Context became the recurring theme.