Welcome back to Artistic Inspiration News! Once a month, if we’re organized, this substack brings artistic opportunities, activism, events, ways to learn and develop as an artist, artists and artworks to watch, and whatever else catches our fancy, including, this month, toilet bowl cleaner. (It’s very kawaii toilet bowl cleaner!) All events in the Artistic Inspiration News are free unless noted. We are Twin Cities-centric, but we do report cool opportunities all over. Jackson Street Arts’ substack (including Artistic Inspiration News) remains free, at least for now. Thanks for reading!
Visual Arts:
(Everywhere). Usually, everything takes longer and is harder than you expect. Quadruple that for any home decorating or kid-friendly artistic home project that advertises itself as "easy to use!" However, Ursa Major Stencils has an exception. Add the winter or summer Northern hemisphere night sky to your ceiling, with exponentially less pain than you're picturing for any kit that involves you painting a secret ceiling mural like you're some sort of occult Michelangelo. $56.99 for the small size.
(Everywhere) The Field is offering a free workshop on website building website for artists. March 21st at 5 pm Central.
(Everywhere) It's January still, and so Jackson Street Arts is once again reminding you of The Power Of Ritual for intensifying and deepening your artistic practice. Ritual is powerful enough to kill a man; it's definitely a tool you can use to do more of what you want to do in 2024. Here in the studio, fairy lights, a cup of tea, and a scented candle (the ones from Ctoan smell amazing and will enhance your fat and trans body liberation, and they're on sale), are all we need for creative productivity.
(Twin Cities) The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is hosting -- while it lasts or until February 4 -- ice sculpture replicas of several famous works in their permanent collection. In their courtyard, free.
Immersive/Performance/Theater/Movement
(Twin Cities). Walking Shadow Theater Company is reprising their mythological dinner theater show, Feast. Middle-aged sea hags? Yes, please. Tickets are $25-80.
(Twin Cities). Need a laugh? Acme Comedy Company continues to offer free open mic comedy shows (and, in your birthday month, free tickets to most of their shows).
(Twin Cities). If you need a lift in another way, MSP Mag offered a whole bunch of other winter-happiness suggestions, including a sunset walk at Sailors and Soldiers Park.
(Twin Cities). Jamie Malone, Erik Anderson, and Jim Christiansen are hosting a dinner inspired by perfume. It’s pricey, and we wish we could afford it. February 23rd, $395 dollars.
Artists We're Watching
Kris the Rainbow's living room, singing-with-a-cold rendition of Adrienne Lenker's Ruined is quite a bit better than the original. Press play; get your heart broken.
Isobelle Ouzman makes stunning altered tunnel books in black and white. Fall into her fairy tale here. She also offers classes, $25 on demand, on her technique.
Domestic Affairs
This Week's Meal Plan:
We’ve heard if we’re meal planning, y’all want us to share the labor, so we’re trying a domestic affairs section in this newsletter, with a week’s worth of meal plans. Give us feedback in the comments if you want more content like this.
Breakfast this week is scrambled eggs with sauteed red peppers and diced avocado, a little garlic salt and pepper, some Shoyusco hot sauce.
We're snacking on blueberry chevre and grapes.
Dinners include:
Mac n cheese (we're making it this week with cauliflower rice in lieu of pasta, but it's also good with butternut squash zig zags from TJs, or chickpea, red lentil, whole wheat, or regular pasta).
Nat's Nourishments' Rosemary beans with puy lentil crisp and whole wheat toast
And her Roasted pepper Alfredo pasta, although we'll sub out the vegan portions of the sauce for jarred Alfredo sauce and Parmesan cheese.
Some version of spaghetti with meat sauce: We're making ours with TVP, ricotta, mozzarella, crushed tomatoes, and spices over roasted spaghetti squash halves, but obviously the options are endless here.
Vegan Bunny Chef's whole roasted cauliflower with whipped feta and crispy chickpeas, except we'll de-veganize it with real whipped feta (feta and Greek yogurt)
For Shabbat, we'll have the very best meatloaf (from this classic cookbook), with garlic mashed potatoes, and challah.
Housekeeping Diary: If you want the most kawaii and hilarious way to clean your toilet, squeezing the belly of these little bears applies a scented flower blossom to the inside of the bowl. It lasts about a month. These cost about 5 bucks for a three pack; each little bear has about 3 flowers inside him.
And, we couldn’t possibly get more inspiring than toilet cleaning teddy bear gardens, so that’s a wrap. What’s inspiring you in this scary winter? Tell us in the comments, and, as always, link, subscribe, share, and keep this content coming.
The Minnesota Institute of Art also has an interesting sounding exhibit coming up February 4 through end of March -- Dragons. It'll be in their Cargill Gallery.