Country Western Sign

This beauty is on Dickerson Pike. I drive this way to APSU sometimes just to see it even though there is a back way from my house.

How the trophy project got started

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show in October 2002 while I was a courier for Crye-Leike Realty in Memphis and I heard Carolyn See discussing strategies for writers. It was a wonderful mixture of suck it up and get a thicker skin and hand some of that rejection back to them. I started by making a stamp that said "I'm sorry I cannot accept your rejection at this time" which I stamped all of the rejection letters I'd kept and sent them back to the institutions I'd received them from including my home team University of Memphis where I was in graduate school at the time. I'd submitted a proposal for their wonderful Art Lab space. Though these stamps were fun to talk about I also felt a little too good(in a bad way) about sending them back(though I still do when I get rejection letters). I also remeber hearing Ms. See say you should tell someone whose work you admire thank you on a regular basis. So I began making trophies for different individuals I admire. I'm not sure why it took me so long but in 2010 I sent one to Carolyn See and she was delighted. Thanks again Carolyn See.

Kick-Flip

This is at the big pavilion in Daytona Beach Florida. Joey, Windy and I went down one day to see the Daytona 200 Motorcycle Race memorial plaza that's a few hundred yards south of here. He landed this trick by the way.

Pigs laugh for hay!

It was another great day working with Brian, Karen and Anne at Wedge Oak Farms. The pigs at the long barn laughed for joy when I brought them hay to keep warm (it was in the low 20's). Brian, the rooster and I worked on a shelter to ween Mama Mia's piglets next week. It took me 2 hours to make the 45 mile drive but our backyard was gorgeous when I finally got home.
Check out the farm's blog http://wedgeoakfarm.blogspot.com/

The Trophy Project

While at the University of Memphis I heard Carolyn See on the Dianne Rheam show. She said you should send someone whose work you like a note of encouragement every week! I haven't quite kept that pace but I have sent some folks whose work I love trophies over the years. Here's the trophy I sent Terri Gross from WHYY's "Fresh Air". She sent me an email a few weeks later and said it was on her desk!

Rise and Fall Video

This is me and other folks interacting with the sculptures in my exhibit at the Austin Peay State University Alumni Gallery.

Rise and Fall-A song for my grandpa

I set the video camera on the ledge of the window in the gallery on Friday morning after the opening of the show before the gallery was open for the day to take this video.

I wrote this song about my grandfather's funeral.

It felt right to play it in a gallery in Tennessee(the state he lived and died in) on a guitar that I painted Hank Williams Sr. on the back of.

Last Time I Saw You

the last time I saw you

you were all dressed up

for us to carry you down

your hair slicked back

your casket looked just like a cadillac

but you looked to old

you seemed to frail

even in your western cut suit

death was crampin' your style

but it all seemed wrong

it seemed so unfair

you used to be so strong

you looked weak lyin there

i said i wouldn't do it

i said i wouldn't walk right up

and take a good look at you

not with all that make-up

trying to hide what death had done to you

but i couldn't stay away

i guess i felt a pull

i felt weak for not resisting

until i saw your hands

your hands

they looked like a farmer's

your hands

they looked burley mean and rough

your hands

grandpa they still told your story

your hands

i could feel them steal my nose

written for my Grandpa Mitchell who died in 2005

lyrics copyright mikewindy 2005