Time for todays painting story: http://www.jenniferdsandquist.com/store/p113/Stardust_.html
The Stardust painting you see above is HUGE. Currently it hangs above the record player in my apartment. The one with a curled black and white photo of my grandmother inside . I did this painting a little over a year ago for an art show in Pine City. It's a little town about an hour north of Minneapolis. My mom and my sister came to that show. It was the same weekend as my birthday I believe... ok... that means it was 2 years ago... man time flies.... anyway... the memory of this painting has less to do with that and more to do with my childhood. when i was a little girl my folks would go to Vegas every year or two ... maybe a little less... but anyway. On those weekends we stayed with my grandparents. Which... was actually like one long kid fun party to be honest. My grandmother spoiled and indulged us whenever possible. I remember her often times chiming at the stroke of the hour... "only 46 more hours until mom and dad come home" ... the time that I am thinking of specifically ... she took us to get teddy bears. these were no normal teddy bears.... when you pressed their palms... they had hearts that would light up and they would play a song. we spent most of that weekend playing and shopping and going out to eat... always with dessert... even if we didn't finish our food. but the thing I recall most of all... was the night mom and dad were to come home. although we were staying with grandma and grandpa... I insisted they let us sleep at home. and not just that. i wanted to sleep in the living room so I could be there the moment they arrived. grandma thought it tragic for our tender little bodies to sleep on the floor... so grandpa was assigned the task of carrying the mattress from the basement so we could be more comfortable. jess and I spent hours fashioning streamers and signs from construction paper... and hanging it in the kitchen... there are pictures of that somewhere... but the part that takes the cake... literally... was the welcome home cake we made for them (grandma probably made it actually)... my parents were staying at the stardust hotel... so I took an empty toilet paper roll and wrote stardust on it... gobbed it in frosting and stuck it in the middle of the cake. that's my stardust memory. that beautiful sign is no longer there... but I think of all the signs I've ever seen (and trust me i've seen many many signs... I am sort of obsessed with them... ) the stardust is by far my favorite. the way it would illuminate in phases... and the stars that reach almost off the sign in every direction. a real beauty. I wonder where it is now? on a side note... I have long been interested in old neons of course... and i have a friend that is almost as crazy about them as I am. one time she and I went on a trip to las vegas... and bribed the grounds keeper of "the neon graveyard" which is actually just a junk yard for old signs... $50 to let us walk around for the afternoon and snoop and take photos. It was worth it. That whole trip was hysterical. but this is my favorite photo from that day.
The Stardust painting you see above is HUGE. Currently it hangs above the record player in my apartment. The one with a curled black and white photo of my grandmother inside . I did this painting a little over a year ago for an art show in Pine City. It's a little town about an hour north of Minneapolis. My mom and my sister came to that show. It was the same weekend as my birthday I believe... ok... that means it was 2 years ago... man time flies.... anyway... the memory of this painting has less to do with that and more to do with my childhood. when i was a little girl my folks would go to Vegas every year or two ... maybe a little less... but anyway. On those weekends we stayed with my grandparents. Which... was actually like one long kid fun party to be honest. My grandmother spoiled and indulged us whenever possible. I remember her often times chiming at the stroke of the hour... "only 46 more hours until mom and dad come home" ... the time that I am thinking of specifically ... she took us to get teddy bears. these were no normal teddy bears.... when you pressed their palms... they had hearts that would light up and they would play a song. we spent most of that weekend playing and shopping and going out to eat... always with dessert... even if we didn't finish our food. but the thing I recall most of all... was the night mom and dad were to come home. although we were staying with grandma and grandpa... I insisted they let us sleep at home. and not just that. i wanted to sleep in the living room so I could be there the moment they arrived. grandma thought it tragic for our tender little bodies to sleep on the floor... so grandpa was assigned the task of carrying the mattress from the basement so we could be more comfortable. jess and I spent hours fashioning streamers and signs from construction paper... and hanging it in the kitchen... there are pictures of that somewhere... but the part that takes the cake... literally... was the welcome home cake we made for them (grandma probably made it actually)... my parents were staying at the stardust hotel... so I took an empty toilet paper roll and wrote stardust on it... gobbed it in frosting and stuck it in the middle of the cake. that's my stardust memory. that beautiful sign is no longer there... but I think of all the signs I've ever seen (and trust me i've seen many many signs... I am sort of obsessed with them... ) the stardust is by far my favorite. the way it would illuminate in phases... and the stars that reach almost off the sign in every direction. a real beauty. I wonder where it is now? on a side note... I have long been interested in old neons of course... and i have a friend that is almost as crazy about them as I am. one time she and I went on a trip to las vegas... and bribed the grounds keeper of "the neon graveyard" which is actually just a junk yard for old signs... $50 to let us walk around for the afternoon and snoop and take photos. It was worth it. That whole trip was hysterical. but this is my favorite photo from that day.
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