This week’s auction I nicknamed the Mod Table auction. It was at a stretch limousine factory — which means metal, metal-working tools, sewing machines, bundles of leather, big bolts of vinyl and foam, velcro, spray adhesive, seat belts….. The company is moving all their operations to Ohio (without offering any of their local employees jobs which seems pretty crummy, I might add) and liquidating the entire factory.

Sometimes there’s a bonus at industrial auctions. If there happens to be some retro furniture, it usually sells a whole lot cheaper than it would at an antique auction, because industrial bidders aren’t interested in that sort of thing.

The contents of the lunch room in the factory were on the list to sell. I thought these chairs were sort of cool-looking — maybe from the 70′s? They are really strong, waterproof, and stack. I thought if they went cheap enough, they might be good for a party at the studio, or maybe I could donate them to the Creamery Arts Center because I thought they’d be good for kids’ art workshops.

The tables seemed sort of ugly and odd though. But the wooden tops would be great work surfaces or could be recycled.

Bidding started. The auctioneer offered them at $50 per table. No bites. $25 per table. Not a nibble. $10 per table. Nothing.

There was a lot of more important stuff to auction, so he decided to offer the whole set of 5 tables and 40 chairs for one price and move on.

But no bidders at $100, $50, or $25. So the whole Lunch Table Set sold for $5.

When it was time move everything to an already stuffed trailer and truck, there was a little surprise.

The tables we had bought were not the tables that we thought we had bought.

We had actually bought 12 tables, 40 chairs and a whole lot of wood for $5.

And guess what, the tables stack too!

Surprisingly I found big sewing machines in the back, behind the flowers, and then realized that there is an upholstery shop in the same place, run by the same woman.

There are so many flowers blooming in our yard right now, but it’s nice to be able to stop at the flower shop and pick out a few things to add into arrangements.

Here’s a few other odd things sitting in the front lobby of the studio today. The little wooden man is a working maquette for the 23′ tall Kinetic Man by Russ, and I made the ceramic pots a long time ago.  It’s nice being surrounded by art, but there also something wonderful about fresh flowers.

I know for my online Japan Journal, I should probably first show you the pretty photos of snow-covered ancient pine trees in Nikko, but I have to start with the funky stuff first – because it’s my nature, and also I have a project deadline approaching, lol.

Always ready to have a project in pocket, I was happy to have something for my brain to gnaw on during this recent trip to Japan and decided to revisit my Wish You Were Hair series. What could it be I wondered? What hairstyle would express how I felt about visiting Japan this time?

At first blush, this is the scenic view of a drive-by in Japan. Some traditional house, farm fields, etc.

But on closer look, I started to notice antennas on the top of each and every house. As I took more photos of electrical poles, wire and cell towers, I reminded myself how our personal visual editing system is constantly removing things right in front of our eyes, but the camera can show us of what is really there.

There is this:

this…

and this…

Thinking about all these antennae and electrical lines, it makes me think how dependent we are today on the internet, phones, and at the most basic level, on electricity. But having survived a week-long city-wide ice storm and electrical outage a few years ago, I’m always reminding myself how fragile this lifestyle can also be.

Closer to Tokyo, I started to get more photos of all kinds of unique cell and radio towers, and wired buildings crammed together.

These were all shot out of a moving van on a rainy day, so excuse the blurriness. But maybe it sets a mood also?

Tokyo Disneyland and neighboring cell tower:

Tokyo Tower:

How do you get from Point A to Point B on an art project? I’m not sure of the best answer, but in this case, I took an overwhelming 242 photos (and Russ even more!) of electrical lines and cell towers in Japan , then didn’t look at a single one while I was drawing sketches like this on the plane home.

Now to just fit in some more stuff I feel sentimental about — like those 540 stone statues of Buddhist monks I drew near a temple in Kewagoe!

Either I’ve been reluctant to post lately because of a lack of images or because I’ve just been plain lazy (more likely). To make up here are a few tidbits from my neighborhood. There’s a new pet store in town, and they have dog cookies that look better than people cookies! This is also the place where Mochi got her new pink-polka-dot collar and leash, so that will probably be appearing in a drawing soon!

One of my favorite landmarks on the drive to our studio has closed, and I’m regretting that I never got up the courage to go inside, although I was sure it would make excellent material for some art. Don’t let the “open” sign fool you, there’s no one there anymore. As Russ says, you’d think they would have seen this coming?

I did however stop to take photos for future reference, and maybe if the building doesn’t sell soon and it gets warmer outside, I can do some drawings through the windows.

And best of all, we had a lovely snowfall this week — which was a nice reprieve from all the ice storms lately. We even got home early enough to build a snow man next to the sculpture in the front yard.

Mochi helped by biting off the carrot buttons. Now there’s a dog who loves her veggies!