Come Visit Me at Shatter and Glue on Tumblr

Please visit me on my new Tumblr site.

Going forward, I will be using my Tumblr site exclusively.  I will no longer post updates in Blogger.  Please check out my Tumblr site at the link below. 

Thanks very much!  See you on Tumblr
Chris Miller

Shatter and Glue
shatterandglue.tumblr.com

Poppies in a Field and Love for the Saintly City

Poppies on a full sized window:

...and a little bit of love for what my dad used to refer to as "the saintly city"

It's a Wonder and a few other Things

Wonder Bread, how I dreamed of you as a kid (mostly because of the free football card that was included inside your packaging).  But mom saw through your tactics and due to your high price and poor nutritional makeup, placed you on a list in her mind of products we would not be taking home from the grocery store (Lucky Charms comes to mind as another on that dreaded list).

I don't know if they still offer free football cards, and I can't say for sure what happened, but now I can buy all the Wonder Bread and Lucky Charms I want, yet I have no interest in doing so.  Nothing, however, could stop the creation of Wonder Bread in glass on a 36 x31 inch window.

Enjoy!  It's good for you.

A few additional small pieces to boot

And a small Japanese flag created in my recent glass fusing class.  Eighth of an inch white 96 COE glass melted atop an eighth of an inch 96 COE clear glass blank.  Topped off by a 96 COE red circle to complete the flag.

Cherry Blossoms and Home is Where the Heart is

Below Freezing through at least next Monday (today is Tuesday), which has nothing to do with glass mosaic, but it is very much on my mind as I type this.

Anyhoo, a rather large (36 by 32 inch) old window gives birth to a very Spring like cherry blossoms design.  Ahhh... cherry blossoms...Spring...warm...[sigh] 

And sometimes I heart Minneapolis (though it is, I admit, testing my patience this winter)

More Wishful Thinking, Flowers

Flowers (sigh) will we ever see you again?  A large window mosaic reminder of spring (a time of year I struggle now to remember)

Weeds Will Grow Anywhere and a Little Tree Swing

Dandelions from bottles on a full sized old window, and a little tree swing on an 11 by 7 inch frame.

Hey! I made the St. Paul Newspaper

...well sort of.  I've been hanging/selling mosaics at a really cool vintage store in my neighborhood, Junket:Tossed and Found, since December of 2012.  Julie, the owner, regularly garners press for her store, and low and behold if one of my Dylan mosaics didn't make it into a picture attached to the latest article, along with about half of one of my other creations.

"Well, sometimes I might get drunk, walk like a duck and smell like a skunk."
-  Dylan

See the picture, read the article here http://www.twincities.com/life/ci_24883397/two-minneapolis-vintage-shops-opening-stores-within-stores

Big Sky

Big crazy sky over a little town church, on a  28 by 31 inch beat up old window.

Loads of Flowers and Wishful Thinking

It was minus eleven when I got out of bed this morning, so what better way to beg for mercy than to post a garden scene on a 25 by 20 inch window.  Oh please oh please Ms. mother nature, could you turn up the heat just a little back here in Minnesota?  Happy New Year!

Smith Tower, Seattle, Washington

The Smith Tower in Seattle is sort of that city's version of the Foshey Tower in Minneapolis.  Both buildings look a bit alike, but how they are most similar is both were the tallest building in their respective city back in the 1970's, and in both cases that is far from the case today.  Seattle has built up around the Smith and Minneapolis has built up around the Foshey.

Well anyway, now complete on a 9 by 20 inch frame, a glass mosaic of the Smith Tower, Seattle, Washington.  Merry Christmas everybody!

Flowers and Weeds on a Very Cold Day

Just completed this flower and dandelion design on an old basement window for a coworker.

Rooooooooow Houses and a Wee Town

I haven't had a lot of time to mosaic lately, but another Wee Town and a very large, 62 x 18 inch to be exact, row house is now done.  This thing is so large I had a lot of difficulty properly photographing it.

Jellyfish and Some Friends

Perhaps two years ago, I set a Patron tequila bottle upright on a kiln shelf curious to see the end result (normally bottles are laid on their side in a kiln).  Almost immediately upon retrieval, that Patron bottle looked to me to be a future jellyfish.

Though it would need to wait on a basement table for quite some time, that jellyfish has finally come to life on a large old window of 31x30 inches.

My Map of the World Hangs in the Roseville High School Library

This morning I received a picture of my Map of the World mosaic on an old storm window, as it now hangs in its new home.  It took me well over a month to finish this piece last summer, and it was purchased by Roseville High School soon after the LOLA art crawl.  The picture below is of the piece as it now hangs in their library.

It's a real honor to think of the future generations of high school students that will view my creation.  Thank you Roseville High School.

Bukowski on Love and Death and Glass-O-Lantern is Back in His Perch

Bukowski is quoted on an old double hung window

and it's October, Glass-O-Lantern again hangs in front of my house

The Uptown Bar, Minneapolis

Because the world must have another Apple store.

For decades, Minneapolis bands played the Uptown Bar's tiny stage on their way up.  Most played there hoping to one day graduate to playing the much larger (and legendary) stage at First Avenue.  But in the process, that little stage at the Uptown also became legendary.  The Replacements played there many times.  As did the Jayhawks, the Hoopsnakes, Run Westy Run, and a million or so other local bands.  Some good, and some not so much. 

National acts on their way to stardom played there too.  To name just a few, Jeff Buckly, Uncle Tupelo, The Flaming Lips, The Screaming Trees, UK Subs, and Nirvana.  I believe Nirvana actually played there more than once.

In an earlier blog post, I talked of a 1996 encounter my friend and I had with Charlie Harper of punk band, UK Subs, in a night club in Prague.  We arrived for their show early that night and found ourselves spending quite a bit of time chatting with the very friendly singer.  When he asked where I was from and I said "Minneapolis," he started telling a story of playing a show in Minneapolis, but he couldn't remember at which venue.  As I was about to say "probably First Avenue," but before I could finish my sentence, he said, "before the show they fed the band and me a fantastic meal at the bar."  To which I immediately corrected myself saying "then it most definitely was not First Avenue."  Anyway, as we ticked off the list of possibilities, I said "The Uptown Bar" and he said, "that's it!  It was the Uptown Bar!"

Personally, I saw a few shows there.  But I definitely missed the bar's musical hay day of the 1980's, being that I was just a bit too young.  I recall seeing local all female band, Zuzu's Petals, play there in the early 1990's.  Lead singer, Laurie Lindeen, went on to marry Replacements lead, Paul Westerberg.  And she obtained her MFA in writing from the University of Minnesota, before writing the book, Petal Pusher, detailing her days in the band.  I loved that book!  I also saw Chicago one-hit-wonder, Veruca Salt, play the Uptown just as they were preparing to rocket to super stardom.  Except it didn't work out that way, they fizzled and broke up not long after I saw them.

But times change, and The Uptown bar is no longer in existence.  Nor is the building that once housed it.  People do still line up in front the building that now stands in place of The Uptown, though now it is just for the privilege of owning the new iPhone.

Now in glass, on an old window of 49 by 38 inches, The Uptown Bar

Houses on the Street

Another LOLA is now in the rear view mirror and with that I took a few days away from my basement, glass, and old wooden windows. 
But I did get another piece going after a few days off, and it is now complete.  On an old window pulled from the bottom of a construction dumpster in St. Paul.  It's aproximatly 30 by 30 inches, and it is Houses on the Street.  Thanks for checking it out.

LOLA 2013 And I heart MPLS

Shots from LOLA 2013.  It was beyond hot, but the people still came.  Thanks to all who did, see you next year!

The Flag Has Been Raised, It Is Officially LOLA weekend!

The flag as it now proudly flies over my little library. It's LOLA weekend, 10 AM- 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday.  For all the details such as maps, directions, and the artists themselves, click the following link http://lolaartcrawl.com/

 A couple of new pieces in just under the wire.  On a charming little window delivered to my door, a maple with swing.  Approximately 24 by 24 inches.

Though difficult to discern color in this picture, a slightly larger window and a pink flower rebel.  See you tomorrow!

LOLA is Coming and a Whole bunch of New Pieces Finished

LOLA is this weekend (8/24 and 8/25, 10 AM to 5 PM)!  Yikes!  I have been working like a dog to finish a few new pieces before the big weekend.  And this year LOLA is huge, over 150 artists!  Please visit the LOLA website for all the details including maps, directions, and the artists themselves http://lolaartcrawl.com/

And now, pieces I finished this past weekend:

"Japan" on old window, 24 by 24 inches

It had been some time since I did any 4x6 inch pieces, but I completed four over the weekend.  I have about 20 of these for sale during LOLA, just $25 each.

My dad drops by with little frames for me from time to time.  He makes them out of scrap wood he or I have laying around, and they usually turn out to be quite charming.  Below is one such piece, flowers in the grass, 19x 22 inches.

 

And finally, my brother-in-law and I were unloading some construction scrap at the dump a couple of weeks ago when I spied this fantastic window.  It is quite large, 53 by 24 inches, and rather perfect for what I wanted to do.  Rescued from the dump, rock and roll people!

Kid Vicious

From the depths of a construction dumpster, a large weathered window.
And now, Kid Vicious!

Martin Mull on Writing and Dancing

I love this Martin Mull quote.  So much so that it is now in glass on a full-sized window

Bukowski, Houses on the Street, and the One Month Warning

Charles Bukowski offers his advice, 13 by 13 inches 

 

 

Houses on the street, 15 by 39 inches

 

 

And a little reminder that the LOLA art crawl is just one month away from this coming weekend.  The link to the website is here http://lolaartcrawl.com/

We are a couple of days away from the LOLA site being updated with all of this years information, but I wanted to mark the one-month-out point.  Something like 170 artists this year.  Wow! 

So check the LOLA link in the coming days for all the details of this years event.  And as the date draws more near, I will be posting updated LOLA information here as well.

 

Big Red Flowers

Flowers on a weathered window, 36 by 26 inches