“Ain't no money in poetry, that's what sets the poet free. I've had all the freedom I can stand.”
-- Guy Clark
anjanung.com
is a behind the scenes look at the work of artist, Anne Genung Madden, without the guise of professional intent; works in progress, sketchbooks, things that are adored, beautiful,and inspirational.
Unapologetically an unprofessional portfolio.
Anne Genung ('an-ja-nung') Madden is a trained fine artist, who lives and works in Austin. She spends her days covered in paint, rearranging the furniture & thinking about dinner. She has a gift for visual mimicry and is available for commission work of any size & specifications and studio visits may be arranged through e-mail or directly at 512.964.6627. Her work can also be seen online at annegenung.com and mrmaddensdinner.com.
e-mail : anja@anjanung.com
mail: 1601 E 5th Street, no 202
Austin TX 78702
tel: 512.964.6627
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WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 1 08.02
WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 2 08.02
WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 3 08.02
WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 4 08.02
SO MANY THINGS THAT I WANT TO SHARE 07.14
I HAVE NOW STOPPED FALLING OFF 06.14
I KNOW THAT I FELL OFF OF THE EARTH 03.09
EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER 12.13
GORGEOUS EAST 2010 CATALOG 11.09
LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN, ASSORTED BRILLIANCE 11.05
TARRYTOWN HAS CRAZIES TOO 10.26
FREE & CRAPPY, OMBRE HAIR 10.01
TERRORISM, FAT LEGS, VENA CAVA'S SHOES 09.11
I NEED ONE MILLION DOLLARS & A PARTNER IN ART CRIME 09.01
ATTEMPTING TO CATCH UP ON ALL 08.08
ESPANA, THE YANKEES, & ALMOST ALL IN THE MAIL 07.14
SAVE THE DATES OF MANY KINDS 06.15
CACTUS CHAIR/BEST TATTOOS 05.27
SAD MORNING WITH SO MUCH TO CONSIDER 11.22
E.A.S.T. & REAL LOVE
FOR AUSTIN 11.16
WINDOW COVERINGS, SOMEWHAT READY FOR E.A.S.T. 11.13
CMA's & HOMELESS McCRAZYFACE 11.11
HUMID WITH O.E, MOSQUITOES & SO MUCH TO DO 10.16
ACL, UPCOMING STUDIO TOUR &
WORKS IN PROGRESS 10.08
A BAKER'S DOZEN BLESSINGS &
OTHERWISE 09.25
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS TREE 08.12
1) It's Raining!
After all of the punishing heat of the last summer comes the insane rain for days and days and days. It's gorgeous and amazing and nourishing and it makes everything clean, slick and shiny. It makes living plants fat and green. If all of the plants have recently died then it makes quite a bit of mud.
Everything is more beautiful when wet. The wetness allows other colors come to the surface.
I used to suck pebbles on the playground as a small child. Things that were gray were suddenly aubergine. Things that were a neutral, flat brown would sometimes reveal stripes of quartz, other bits turning pink.
Water is magic.
And it brings rainbows. And silly little mushrooms.
2) Stolen Fur Coat
I didn't really steal a coat. I bought a vintage mink in exceptional condition. Exceptional as in brand new stupid perfect.
The people who sold it to us had no idea what they had. Not a darn clue. Not one. I was frightened that they would snatch it away from me, perhaps tell me at the old punch register that it had been mislabeled. My heart beat faster and faster until we were safe in the truck and then I had to talk about it for hours & hours...
I cannot wait for the seven or eight days & nights that will be cold enough for me to wear it.
I try it on at least once a day which is often enough to know that it looks ridiculous with pajamas.
Here I have showcased a small collection of images that are yours to steal thanks to Google Image Search. "Mink Jacket" is all of the info that you must provide.
3) Fresh Figs
My very favorite thing about the end of summer was the FIGS. I put them on everything and they made me feel really decadent and super spoiled. We ate them raw with goat cheese & awesome salami and then later roasted them on pizzas.
I miss them now and wish they were here.
Didn't we all used to believe that figs were born into Newtons?
PS I totally pilfered the image on the left. Completely stolen. I await the internet police.
4) Cap Metro
We live across the street from Saltillo Parque at the Saltillo stop of Austin's bazillion dollar light rail train that does not carry passengers. I believe that it is over 18 months late and that Capitol Metro now refuses to give any projected start dates. Its some amazing and incompetent stuff. The unaccountability is astronomical, the millions and millions of dollars flushed away in a city now mysteriously strapped for cash.
You can read about this train wreck here. Additionally, please send me any and all job leads in this field. I would very much like to go play on the telephone and nap somewhere other than my home for awhile and with some benefits.
I used to walk my dogs through Saltillo Park until the city sent a team of geniuses to dig up all of the landscaping and transfer it to a field perhaps 200 yards away (where it all lies to this day dead dead dead). The crazy rain began a day later and the park remains roped off, full off enormous muddy pits. We now bypass the park and head straight to the field in the mornings. They like to wee on the dead stuff.
The automated anonymous woman tells me the date and time, the ticket machines are lit up, a large red slash across the screen. And if one to not use just isn't enough, there is another one only six feet away. We are apparently expecting quite a few people to show up here to not ride the train.
Their uniformed few ride the trains day in and day out, testing things that lack cohesion. They wave to me and the dogs. I am working on my meanest not waving back.
I would additionally like to note that all of the above images were maliciously stolen from the Cap Metro website. I do not intend to give them any credit and I want Cap Metro know that I am picking a fight. You guys are the pits.
HOLY MOLY. And then THIS was in the newspaper yesterday. May the match throwing begin.
5) I Live With Three Funny Men
I live with three funny difficult needy impossible handsome men. They are all quite accomplished at pretending to pay attention to me, at taking being fussed at, all with the very same zero retention rate.
I am woken up to muffled funny crass songs and gentle snuggle attacks from labradors with bony elbows and terrible breath.
(Or perhaps woken up the the clang CLANG-ing of plates, and mixing bowls, Pyrex & all of the forks. The loud slushing of water and more glasses & knives clang CLANG-ing away. And you know, I get it. And I do know that I used every single dish to make your dinner and dessert maybe two whole days ago now. But I did roast a whole chicken and make carrot cake from scratch. And you never left a tip. And then I had other things to do.)
Cannot be beat, these three Madden men.
(Cannot be trained either.)
6) Progress Coffee E-Mail
Not only is it just the nicest place for coffee, but the owner, Joshua Bingamen, sends out just the loveliest e-mails. Made my morning the other day. Almost made my night upon review here.
Go here for the e-mail list. Here for a map. I will meet you there.
''...You know what I mean?
When every time it seems you're finished, you think you've arrived at your destination
or you have finally attained your goal it's only the beginning of your next journey.
Times like this is where real decisions are made.
Decisions that define us.
This is where you make progress.
Where you advance.
Continuing forward in times when you think that you are finished.
When you think you are done...
...May strength and willingness be yours today.
May you be blessed with perseverance...
To progress and make things better than they are for ourselves and those around us.
It is possible."
7) Amazing Bouquet with Tiger Lilies
I can't remember why I was given this bouquet. Perhaps I did something right or Slade did something wrong. I am mostly just thankful that Mr. Madden loves me in such a way that whatever the scenario he knew well enough to bring me something good.
It's the orange tiger lilies that kill me. I adore everything about them. I would like to have them everywhere, have an unlimited fresh flower budget.
8) Fashion Week & Solid Gold
I love fashion week. LOVE IT. And I love to follow it through the NYTimes because they always have super clean slideshows. The only drawback is that they don't carry the shows of any of the funkier labels like Vena Cava. Isn't Brooklyneese the desired effect for all that is hip??
Its all about these tiny little shorts this Spring. Teeny tiny. Everyone showed them. These with the pigtails are from Prada. Perhaps they forecast my banishment to a place where long, flowy clothes are forced.
The Spring shows indicate the beginning of Fall, the time for Fall fashion, in the same way that the opening of Christmas stores mean that summer has barely ended. Our townhouse lies directly on top of Solid Gold, a super cute boutique that taunts me each time I return home.
It no doubt lets me know how totally off target I am and has too easily provided an easy spot to spend extra cash. Fabulous stuff. I wish I had more money.
9) Winter Clothes/Forgetting How Fashionable We Are
I had quickly packed away as many of our winter clothes as I could into the biggest dumbest box that was too large to move by myself and far too deep to ever reach into and after a very long and dangerous re-organization process we now have a closet full of really gorgeous winter clothes. I had forgotten how fashionable we are and what beautiful things we own.
I want everything, but I need nothing else.
10) An Old Friend, the Four Seasons & a Slew of Thank You's
I have recently been re-connecting with all sorts of people lately and perhaps having a bit too much fun running around Austin. My friend Laura and I knew each other for a whole two weeks at Camp Mystic about one million years ago and I swear that she could be my family.
We had the loudest and most fun time ever ever and I would just like to say thank you to the Four Seasons for not totally booting us crazy broads, who were no doubt screaming at Lake Austin at some point. I would additionally like to thank my very patient and kind boyfriend for only expressing his anger through txt msg, and to all of our fine neighbors here at the Saltillo Lofts for not calling the police on us as we no doubt cackled away, acting like crazy borrachos.
I had a blast as I slept it off the next day (and perhaps a bit of the next as well). She of course got right back on that horse and went to the football game.
11) A Good Ego Ass Kicking
I think that its a good thing to get your ass kicked a bit every now and then. Just to let you know that you did the wrong thing and that you need to wake the hell up.
I painted a skateboard for a contest at the Scoot Inn and here's my first mistake: I didn't know a darn thing about the people throwing the party. My second mistake was to assume that the boards would be displayed on a wall, similar to a gallery, where you could get some distance on the work, etc and that there would be lots and lots of them.
I found it to be a very bizarre deal. There were only maybe eight decks and they were very detailed and fine and some painted with glitter. And they were arranged on a table, much lower than eye-level. I guess I should have crocheted a cover for it. Strange strange strange.
Needless to say, mine looked like crap. Serious crap. We left because I knew that even cocktails couldn't make it cool. I hope that they used it to build a fire.
12) The Path of a Magic Hat
This is a magic hat and in the beginning it was only Arden's.
Arden gave the hat to Anne and she thought that was that and she was OK with that. And Anne's took Arden's hat far away to Spain, where it made her the envy of all that she met.
Upon a later tearful good-bye the hat was left with Andres, the funniest, funest half-Spaniard around and Anne thought that that was the end of Arden's hat and she was OK with that.
The first day of a Fall semester, her final senior year, Anne saw Arden's hat approach from the parking lot on the head of a girl she had known her whole life, who had visited Spain not long after her own departure, who had met Andres and had discovered that he knew her Anne. And Andres gave this girl Arden's hat, who in turn gave it back to a sobbing, stunned Anne there in the hallway on the first day of school.
Now thirteen years later, the girl who returned the hat has long since died and Andres is a grown man with a serious job in New York City. Anne, once again having found Arden (because Facebook is both amazing & stupid), now returns the hat to her... Which makes a magic hat come full circle in a very small world.
13)
Bored to Death
I have very bad versions of the first couple of episodes of 'Bored to Death' on my iPod and I am in love, no matter what the condition of the video. I was still able to see the neighborhoods & bridges of Brooklyn underneath a huge HBO logo and my heart yearned for NYC. It stars the kid from Rushmore, who I fell in love with way back when. It's amazing and I love it. I resent it only being on air once a week. Have I mentioned that I love it?
I have much respect for HBO and do not want to fight and therefore am not lifting any of their images. But here is some divine funny dialogue:
"I feel like Suzanne started to think that I was a loser because I'm struggling to write.
I mean, this second novel..."
"Listen, just yesterday Leah was like 'why don't you teach art at a public school?'
I'm not going to teach art at a public school. I don't wake up until eleven am.
Go teach art..."
"But if you did teach it would be steady income."
"Don't be disgusting. Those women were into us because we were artists and then reality hits
and no money & no real future and then, you know, well pfft...
Leah's going to break up with me any minute now, I mean we haven't had sex in weeks."
"We are losers..."
"We're not losers, ok? Look you're going to be on my website next week.
I made you a therapist. Look at that..."
"I wish you'd made me someone more heroic."
"You are heroic. Therapists are heroic. They're the heroes of listening."
PS) We went to Boggy Creek Farms this morning and it was exceptional & magical and the arugula is the absolute best I have ever had in my entire life.
(I keep sneaking downstairs and grabbing leaves to much on. Super peppery)
It smells amazing there. Amazing. Made me want to be a farmer. Or a fat bunny rabbit.
Made me really want to be almost anything other than the very ethnic image of me that runs with my massage ad in the back of the Chronicle.
I cannot stop thinking about the cranes around town. I have even gone through older pictures only to find millions & millions of photos that Slade and I have taken of cranes in Austin. I had even blocked out the monster crane that had stood in front of our last apartment for months and months when we were downtown.
I feel like they will never leave the skyline here. Like Austin will build and build until there is no place left to build, until all of the green spots are filled up and no one can see to the water that we all know to be so nearby.
So here's a confession. All of these pics are of the same two cranes working the same two projects. Only the sky and my perspective change.
Isn't it pretty here in Austin? Please don't move here. We're full. We never photograph the overcast days or all of the dead grass or the shockingly low water levels in all of the lakes. No photo can describe the heat of August in the state of Texas. Especially not this August. See the drought map here.
The cranes are beautiful and I think that perhaps I can make great silhouettes and then stencils with them. Perhaps for my front door...
There's a long window on the front door to Comal Street that is too transparent for my liking as I do wander the halls at all hours and am alone with only big & mostly-friendly dogs most days. I have had thoughts of placing an intricate cut-out behind the pane in order to make it a bit less transparent. Perhaps two pieces to make a crane or two?
This is an amazing picture. Slade must have taken it.
My fingers would have been in the picture if it had been one of mine. And does anything beat a great storm?
I have picked up a blank skateboard deck to paint for a contest at the Scoot Inn. I sure would feel silly not entering in such a thing when I have been known to paint a skateboard or two and especially when the Scoot Inn is within crawling distance of the house.
It's kind of a scary thing to stare at a blank skateboard and wonder what the hell to turn it into. Besides a skateboard I mean. And I want $500. Or many things that have a cumulative value of $500. Especially if we just have to walk down the street and drink some beers to go pick them up, huh?
HORSE LOVE PT TWO + August 19, 2009
I continue to think about our horses. Or rather the horses around the house gently haunt me. It's an amazing thing to paint or draw horses. It's not an unjust gauge of just how competent a draftsman you are. Even small children know that a good artist should be able to whip out a very competent horse at the drop of a hat, which I myself witnessed over a year ago when one of Slade's nieces very quickly and confidently drew a perfect dappled horse.
Woo. Its quite a bit of work to get all of those pesky legs correct. Can you imagine if centipedes had defined muscles?
Every single morning around 7 or 8 am, light floods into our home and I can begin to hear the flutter of big velvet ears and the toenails of large dogs on hardwood floors. I dress in the clothes nearest to me: sometimes mine, sometimes those of the large man snoring in my bed. The dogs have always been waiting, have always been half awake for hours and they hop and race downstairs, wiggling with excitement for the FOOD! and the OUTSIDE! that is coming any moment now. Sometimes they have to wait for a few minutes as I stare blankly into the kitchen, fat face puffy from sleep, unable to figure out what the hell I am doing...
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