Photo by Jenn Alexander at Burn Away

We met Patrick a couple years ago here at the Nest when we hosted a goblin-burlesque photo shoot. You know, typical house museum stuff.

Patrick’s work speaks for itself, but I will say this in the meantime — he is a super, super nice guy, which is an added bonus.  You need to see his show.

Some related items:

• The Hagedorn Foundation Gallery is a non-profit.  Their website may not be up right now, but no matter — they have a working phone and proceeds from artwork sales go to various charities, both local and national.
• The Wren’s Nest looks way better as shot by Patrick. The goblins definitely add something.
• The Hagedorn Foundation Gallery’s sales manager is Maggie Hagedorn, one of Lain’s high school friends.
• One of my own chums from high school in Illinois, whom I had not seen for about 10 years, has a collection showing in the bathroom of the gallery. That was an unexpected run-in, I tell you what.

The show runs through January 15th, with an artist’s talk on January 8th at 6 pm — you should totally go if you can.  Don’t believe us?  Check out the review at the really cool art blog Burn Away.

You know, I go to work so I can host a photography shoot in the backyard of the Wren’s Nest for a team of burlesque dancers dressed as goblins who have, incidentally, brought a keg of beer.

(Photo by Derek Jackson)

See?

Now, this warrants an explanation, but I don’t think it’ll make any more sense than it does now.

Here’s the deal. My buddy Erin helped out at the Wren’s Nest Fest, painting faces and being generally awesome.

(Hoola-hooping in cowboy boots. Like I said–awesome!)

Erin happens to be the captain of Black Sheep Burlesque. She also happens to produce photo shoots. Upon seeing our backyard, she said, “Lain! You know what this would be perfect for?”

And then I said, “Um, a house museum!”

“No! A photo shoot where Black Sheep Burlesque dresses up as goblins! I’ll produce it. We’ll have three highfalutin professional photographers host it, and then charge an entrance fee for other photographers to join us, and the call it Goblins in the Garden! Don’t let the burlesque part worry you–it’s all PG. Oh, and we’ll stay out of the house.”

This really resonated with me. At least the part about the burlesque troupe. I think I stopped listening after that. She’s real tricky, that Erin.

Anyway,you can find more Derek’s pictures here, more pictures by other photographers here, and I’ll be sure and let you know when the professionals let me see their work.