Walkin’ Around Checkin’ Stuff Out. #48

Sep 08, 2024

I had the good fortune of having a bunch of drawings in this month’s issue of Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine. It was a very cool assignment and it’s always great to see the drawings in print, but they get a little small and some of the detail gets lost so here is a closer look at the drawings.

Walker Art Center, Sculpture Garden.

I dreaded having to draw any of the sculptures, but this one more than the others because it’s so popular and really doesn’t make for a great drawing…until I saw four family members taking a million photos of a little girl standing in front of the sculpture.

When MSP Magazine asked me to make drawings of sculptures at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden I dreaded it. Besides the fact that drawing other people’s art is kind of weird, most of the sculptures don’t make for good drawings…or at least I don’t see how I could make good drawings of them. So I hung out in the Sculpture Garden for an afternoon and it hit me…it’s about the people interacting with the sculptures that’s most interesting. Whether they were taking selfies, looking at the sculptures (sometimes confused), or playing on them…that made the sculptures themselves way more interesting and fun to draw.

Another sculpture turns into a playground once a kid shows up.

I can almost hear the guy from here: “Hmmm.”

He might have been an older dude, but I could tell he really wanted to jump on those things like they were monkey bars.

It’s cool to see so many people visiting from around the world checking out the sculptures. (I know he’s from somewhere else because he has a sweater tied around his neck.)

I don’t know the deeper meaning behind this piece, but I do know that would have been cool as hell to play on as a kid.

I mean, they do kinda look like brightly colored turds…right?

I like how kids look at everything like it’s a toy or a playground.

This guy was clearly dragged here by his girlfriend and had a look on his face like he couldn’t understand how a couple rocks with bright paint on them could be considered art.

With the Spoon and Cherry and Hahn/Cock close by, this one didn’t seem to get much attention.

Oh, the jokes people make as they take selfies in front of the giant blue…

First Avenue.

Is there a more iconic and important music venue? I doubt it. The history here is crazy and it’s the best sounding place I’ve ever seen a show.

Palace Theatre.

What makes a theater a “theatre” vs. a “theater”? I think “theatre” sounds fancier, like maybe they have opera or Shakespeare or something like that.

The Armory.

They did a killer job converting this place into a concert venue a few years ago. I saw the Dead Kennedy’s play a show here back in 1984 or so when it was just an empty building.