Granteeny wants you to know his mother is featured in Susnet Magazine's gift guide

Gift guide: EvelynKate wipeable banana bib

BananabibIt's hard to say whether we love this bib more for its funky banana print or its complete practicality.

This $15 find is made by EvelynKate, an Olympia, WA-based outfit run by stay-at-home moms Michelle Penrod and Amy Grimm.

As far as practicality goes: It has a wipeable vinyl surface (with a cotton back, so it's easy on baby's skin.) The built-in pocket for crumbs ease clean-up time, while the sturdy shirt-like fit keeps it securely on. And, the whole thing is machine washable.

And fun? You can order it in sizes that will fit little monkeys 6 to 24 months.

Info: EvelynKate sells only through their Etsy shop. Order by Dec. 18 for Christmas delivery. Bibs are $12 to $15, and their "Daddy Duty" mini-diaper bags are $22 to $25.

The Road Trip Series

Here we have a selection of photos from Granteeny's Road Trip Series. While these may look like Lomographs, they are actually digital. The artist used an old digital camera and iphoto to create these images documenting his recent trip down the Oregon coast. One would imagine the dramatic cliffs and crashing surf would catch the artist's attention, but his photos almost exclusively deal with life in and around the car.

Granteeny's decision to push these photos to near monochrome highlights the startling compositions and allows the viewer to approach the familiar subject matter with new eyes. The artist captures the claustrophobia and boredom that run as an undercurrent beneath the excitement of a road trip.

And we have a winner!

Well, someone finally guessed it. And I use the word "guessed" very loosely. But, since there were no official guidelines to violate, we can have no disqualifications. Todd managed to make written contact with the artist(through IM) and found out that Grant would like to be "a shf" if he wasn't able to be an artist. Though he did qualify that with- "but I will be an artist".

Grant enjoys cooking with his mother and often challenges himself to make a dish with a random assortment of ingredients. Eggs, pepper, flour, salt, sugar, and blue food coloring are staples. His last experiment included oats, flour, salt, milk and food coloring. He then put it in the freezer for 3 hours and asked me to taste it. I'm afraid my pallet was not quite refined enough to appreciate it. Though it was some comfort to me when the chef spitting and crying yelled- "why isn't it tasty?!" after sampling it himself.

So Todd, please feel free to tell Grant what you would like him to make for you. You can specify color, theme, materials; anything you would like.

To the rest of you, thanks for participating and I am sorry you aren't as devious as Todd.

Hmmm

Well, no one won. I will give it another day while I think of either clues or a new contest.

The Great Granteeny Giveaway

Grant says it is time for another contest. The winner will once again be able to commission a work by the artist. Last time Grant thought of a number between 1 and 100 and. Iggy Enigma was our winner with a correct guess of 43. She challenged the artist to capture the end of the world as described in the Vonnegut Novel Cat's Cradle and received the brilliant "the World is Changing".

This time the winner has to guess which career Grant would chose if he wasn't a successful artist. Submit your guesses and we will announce the winner on Monday the 7th at 6pm. The winner can choose everything from the medium (collage, marker, crayon, or all of them together) to the color pallet and subject matter.

Good luck!

(one entry per reader)

I can do it too

Here we have an homage to the artist's father. Grant has captured the shadow of a box of Kleenex on the dinning room floor of his home. He started with a fairly faithful representation of the shadow, but at some point seems to have grown bored and added a sort of arabesque.

Magic Carpet

A cast-off piece of red wrapping paper and a few pieces of scrounged tape create a surprisingly poetic work in the artists home. At 67 degrees the furnace comes alive and the paper begins to billow, lifted by the warm air from the vent. It flutters for a moment until the thermostat clicks and the hum of the heater fades, then the red paper slowly collapses against the wall and shrouds the vent.

Grant is fascinated by the democratic nature of the Italian Arte Povera movement and often incorporates very humble materials into his work (also, he is 4 and doesn't have a wallet so oil paint really isn't an option). The beauty of "Magic Carpet" is that there is no illusion in the work. We see the materials and method for what they are; cheap and obvious, yet arranged by Grant's hand they provide us with a sublime moment.