Flowerbot and the Friendly Greeter

Even though it hasn't felt much like spring around here, it was still recently time for The Milwaukee Art Museum's annual Art in Bloom show. For this event, floral designers interpret the museum's art collection through plants. You might remember last year's show: Spooky Blooms at The Milwaukee Art Museum

Last year, in keeping with my blog's theme, I searched through the displays for anything remotely dark and titled the post "Spooky Blooms". I'm always on the lookout for the dark or mysterious aspects of my everyday activities, so I can share those here. This year, not a whole lot was spooky. There was one piece, however, that really fit the bill. It was hands down my favorite floral interpretation, and a work of art in itself.

As you can see, there's a metal rib cage encompassing the floral organs. There was even a spinal cord on the back of the display. It looks like it's grabbing a person with its skeletal hand in the photo below!

The skeletal robot, or "Flowerbot" as I've decided to call him, had some very cool hands:

The floral display was representing a sculpture titled The Greeter, which is a friendly, waving robot.

A new character at the museum was this headless writer, busy at his desk. At first I was reminded of The Headless Horseman and countless Halloween props. The figure was wearing noticeably bright fabrics. If there was any information about him displayed, I couldn't find it. At least I managed to find out who the artist probably is. From a lot of similar pieces I found online, I'm going to assume the artist is Yinka Shonibare. It's worth looking at more of his work: http://www.yinkashonibarembe.com

As often happens in the process of writing my blog posts, I learned something new. This time I learned about Yinka Shonibare. There are many interviews with him on YouTube. This video about his work is one of my favorites:

I learned from the video above, that the headless figures signify The French Revolution, or probably any time power is taken from those who abuse it. From what I read on the artist's web site, a lot of his work is about colonialism and politics.

So, what I saw at our museum was a headless figure dressed in a fancy 1700s style. The fabric is obviously not what he would have had on; the artist uses a lot of African fabric. Still, this is a style of clothing worn by a rich French man of that time, and his head is cut off. He's surrounded by Rococo paintings. Rococo is one of the most excessive styles of French art, a style in which you mostly see rich people having a good time. If you take all these things into consideration, this room is a striking and somewhat eerie placement for the figure!

I'm going to transition from the talk of heads being chopped off to this ceremonial axe. I'm sure this axe was not actually used for any purpose like that. Still, it seemed funny that the next object I planned to share was an axe. The axe has probably been at the museum for some time, but I hadn't seen it before. Isn't it beautiful? I can't imagine what the object next to the axe is.

All I know about these objects is that they are African. From what I've read about similar objects online, they were probably used by someone of high standing in a society and during ceremonial rituals. If you know any more about these objects, I'd like to hear it!

Close your door, lock and latch it, cause here comes Lizzie with her hatchet!

You might not be familiar with the rhyme in this post's title, but I bet you'll recognize the poem it comes from:

Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty one.

If you're wondering why I have Lizzie on my brain (that just sounds wrong) it's because of the very exciting package that arrived a few days ago! This package contained a gift bag full of prizes I won from my blog buddy Holly. She has a spooky blog over at Holly's Horror Land: http://hollyshorrorland.blogspot.com/.

From the gifts I was sent, it's clear that Holly really knows me! Hands down, my absolute favorite gift was the pair of earrings Holly made! They're a set of dangling, silver axes:

I love the way these little axes swing from side to side as I move my head. Check out this happy little photo accident! 

I guess I was moving my head slightly as I took this one. The axe earrings came in this adorable coffin box:

 
You can see a bit of my new skull scarf beneath the coffin. I was in a Keith Richards/pirate type mood when I found a couple of those scarves on ebay. Anyway, here's a photo of me wearing the axe earrings as well as an eyeball ring Holly made!

The ring is an evil eye, that sits on a cute little bow, and I like that it matches the color of my actual eyes.

That pink flower doesn't have anything to do with anything. I was just having fun playing dress-up for this little photo shoot.

Holly also made me this cute little skull hair clip:

It's clipped to my shirt here so you can see it. I have a lot of hair and it overtook the little clip in the photos. She also made me a witch hat clip, which you can see alongside the other prizes:

As you can see, Holly also sent me a Lady Gaga mini book, some pumpkin lip gloss, and a trick-or-treat load of candy! This all came in an orange and black polka dot bag. Opening this bag made me feel like it was Halloween and Christmas!

I can't wait to delve into the Lady Gaga book and learn more about one of my favorite singers! Here are a few pages from the book:

Holly plans to sell her homemade fashion accessories on Etsy. Here's her Etsy profile:

http://www.etsy.com/people/HollyHorrorshow

You can join Holly's Etsy circle from this page, and be updated as she adds her creations to the shop!

Now here's a treat for you: The Lizzie Borden themed episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The Older Sister:

This twisted episode will stay on your mind for a while... Even if you don't have the time to watch the full episode, at least watch the intro. It's funny as usual!

I'd also like to share an episode of Ghost Adventures. This video shows a paranormal investigation at the Lizzie Borden House. There are some silly parts to this, but I wanted to share it because 1) The tour guide is wearing my little axe earrings! and 2) I learned a few things from this. For instance, I had no idea that Lizzie was acquitted of the murders and inherited a pretty hefty sum of money from her dead parents.

There's also some explanation about the first double murder that took place in the Borden house. No, not the murder of Lizzie's parents. This murder happened in the same house several generations earlier!

I know this is kind of a long video (at 45 minutes) but it's worth watching to the end. There are some potential bombshells revealed by one of the psychics. If what is heavily implied here is true, Lizzie would have had reasons to go nuts. This visit to the Borden house is far more entertaining than most ghost shows I've watched. Usually, there's some mumbled EVP I can't even understand, but these are pretty clear. Even if you're skeptical of the whole episode, it's interesting to watch.

Have any of you visited The Borden House? It's now a bed and breakfast! Not like you'd catch me wanting to stay there...

On a somewhat lighter, prize related note, this is my favorite Lady Gaga song: Paparazzi! I feel the need to issue some sort of warning before you watch this. Not that you haven't watched more explicit things in horror movies, and not that you don't already know what you're getting with Lady Gaga. Still, some people in this video look dead in a glittery sort of way. That and there's some sauciness between her and what appears to be an 80's hair band. I always wonder why Lady Gaga chooses the images she does for her videos. Probably these images are the type that the paparazzi would try to capture of her.

Oh whatever. It's fun to sing along to. "We're plastic but we still have fun!" Thanks again Holly!