May, May, My.

🕊️🪑🌳🕶️👠🐊🦨🫒🍸🎲🎤🛍️🪠⚜️

Hello again, pen pal friends. Joy.

April’s been a hurricane, or what my new gym calls their chaotic, grueling heavyweight circuit training. What a month! My birthday art show, double wedding ring quilt blocks, fashionably late to EXPO Art Fair, celebrating my art-husband Sam’s spellbound triumphs as an art writer, squirt gun art shows, and resistance imagination workshops. Enjoy the ride. 🎢

~Catie

• My birthday art show, Stones of Folly, was a huge success! Omg though, I am still sorting through all 237 pics, but I did a massive photo dump. MORE TO COME. Feel free to copy/paste if you see yourself. Thank you to everyone who came, you’re dear to my heart, and I am honored to have you as a friend. It means the world to me. <3

Stones of Folly show with my dears!

• I was on the radio! I was interviewed by Stephanie Graham on NoseyAF Podcast on local Chicago radio 105.5 Lumpen Radio. It’s so much easier to do public speaking in a dark cozy room, way better than with an audience. I’d like to do more of these, hmu yappers. Let’s talk.

Stephanie Graham and I in Lumpen radio's showtime room and flyer promo for the episode! Cook some food and give it a listen.

• I helped my union (AICWU) with a fundraiser and sold Scabby the Rat babies. Personally, I hate rats and think we should move forward with heavy doses of rat birth control, but I cannot deny Chicago has a strong rat culture, so here I am, stitching rats for labor rights on May day.

  

  Scabby the Rat babies!!

• I’ve been busy in the studio, experimenting with memory-keeping using clear vinyl and speaking through traditional quilt blocks. I am really fascinated by quilt blocks as code language. The image below is a present I made for my brother’s wedding. The pattern is called the ‘Double Wedding Ring’ quilt block. It is given to couples on their wedding night for good luck, each item represents a memory and came with a map!

Double Wedding Ring Quilt block

First things first, it’s still a political sh*tshow out there, but I found some solace recently when I was reading about one of my favorite artist’s life, Caravaggio. Did you know he carried a sword without a permit, fled a city after killing a small-time gangster in a duel that broke out over a tennis match, and fled imprisonment and escaped by rappelling down a cliff to a waiting boat?? Honestly iconic. This is a painting he did with his head cut off. Lfg Caravaggio.

Carvaggio's head cut off -- same, inspirational, curious

A few other highlights I’ve been listening/watching/reminiscing:

Social media censorship

The case for making art when the world is on fire

Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money by Dolly Freed — A timeless book from the 1970s — still relevant!

My Monthly Art Critique is on this truck I saw recently for John’s Plumbing. My god the typography is delicious, the red is striking, and the cursive John is a Sunday spaghetti dinner chef’s kiss 🤌🏻. I just know that John has a swimming pool in his backyard with waterfall spouts — he’s a plumber after all. It’s giving poolside Coca Colas and underworld organized crime. Hats off Johns, you make plumbing cool. 🎩 🔧 🪠