The Good: Although I wasn't anticipating finding anything at Artist and Display other than some Pearl-Ex dry pigments, I found the holy grail: SENNELIER OIL PASTELS INTERFERENCE COLORS! They looked like they had been there a long time, beating around, mingling with other pastels, getting dingy, tested, used up. They weren't the cleanest, newest looking pastels, but they were what I wanted, and I was desperate. I didn't exactly buy them out, but I bought at least three of the ones I could find, some 4 each, maybe even more of some colors. Let's just say if you plan on buying Blue and Green Interference Sennelier Oil Pastels at Milwaukee's Artist and Display, you're out of luck now. There might be some Reds left.

The Bad: Some store called Art Supply Products or something similar. Found it through a Google Search, complete with address, Google map put us in the middle of suburbia. Tried to call them. Got an answer phone. Guy probably runs it out of his basement. Oh well. Yet another miss: Sax Arts and Crafts used to be a good store when it was close to downtown in the lower level of an old building. Now they've moved out to suburbia in an office building, are closed Saturdays and of course Sundays with 8-4:30 hours during the week. Boo Hiss.

The Ugly: I thought when Boerner Gardens got a makeover earlier this milennium, it was a nice improvement...newer restrooms and a nice cafe/cafeteria where one could get a yummy bite before setting off to see the gardens. Since we'd driven all around the greater Milwaukee area in search of art supplies before going to the gardens today, I knew I would need that snack because we were both famished. But the girls at the front desk said it's been gone for two years. No, now if you want to eat at the gardens, you have to be part of a catered wedding party. I could go on about the benefits of Public Spaces and Services and Social Programs and the benefit to Humanity and the evils of privatization and the privatizing of once former Public areas and services and the evils of increasing user fees and lowering of taxes (that is only noticeable if you're wealthy anyway) that fund organizations and parks and recreation, but Stan's already heard my rant over a late lunch today, and, well, you probably get my drift and where I stand politically anyway.

We decided not to see the gardens. Their fee was high, there was no place to eat, so we went to a restaurant instead before heading back home. We almost ran over a wedding party on our way out. The outside gardens at Olbrich here in Madison are still free. The Arboretum is still free. The Rotary Gardens in Janesville is free. I don't want to pay large prices only to get sideswiped by a bunch of pompous giggling women in froofy wedding garb who think they have the right of way. I find it really cool that there's no room in the Tucson Botanical Gardens for wedding parties (and they had a wonderfully delicious little cafe there), although I do get a perverse pleasure of imagining someone's over-the-top wedding dress getting caught on cactus spines.

Labels: Art, This Boring Life