Calumet Baking Powder and Symbolism of Native American Genocide In The Shining

One of the drawbacks of having the greatest artist in America, Jenny Mathews, as my partner, aside from taking a drink out of a glass containing paintwater occasionally, is that she makes dozens of paintings that I want. This one that she did for the Come and Go Motel Show blows me away. I love the colors and pop art sensibility, but there's something else going on here. The theme of the Come and Go Motel Show is several area artists are given a motel room to set up their wares. I'm sharing a room with Spooky Houston, Food Stamp Davis, and Folk Goblin. I will be showing in the bathroom as Zombie Logic. Jenny's paintings are from famous spooky motels and hotels in horror movies, including the Overlook from The Shining.  

Calumet by Spooky Houston

There are a couple of reasons this is my favorite, and why I think it's sheer brilliance. Most fans of The Shining are familiar with the documentary Room 237 and the numerous fan and conspiracy theories surrounding the movie. Kubrick supposedly hid clues about everything from the the moon landing to the Holocaust in the scenery, but my favorite, and what I consider the most cohesive theory is that the genocide against Native Americans is the true curse of the Overlook. 

In this still we see both Tang and Calumet baking powder on the shelf behind Jack Nicholson, and it is postulated that since Kubrick was so obsessive about the details of his movies that this is no accident. 

I'm not sure how much baking powder would be used in a season at a hotel like the Overlook, so I can't say that's a lot of baking powder, but that seems like a lot of baking powder. 

And now that baking powder has been immortalized in a painting by Spooky Houston, a painting that can be seen at the Come and Go Motel Art Show June 29th, but don't be surprised to see a sold sign on it. 

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"Venus 2000" By Rockford Artist Joe Tallman

Last weekend we went to Joe Tallman and Allison Wuest's show at J.R. Kortman here in Rockford, and I saw this piece that really knocked me out. Since my heart surgery I'm always drawn to works of art about the human heart, or in this case, the robot heart, which in my case has even more applicability. Jenny got me this piece for my birthday and had it framed by the resident genius at Mainfraim. Aside from it just being a wonderful piece, I like that three different local artists and gallery owners can share in the benefits. I think we should all make an effort to buy from people we know in our own neighborhoods. 

"Venus 2000" By Joe Tallman. See more from Rockford artist Joe Tallman here. 

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Moving On To the Next Thing, But Really Even the Next Thing After That

Hard to believe Bittersweet Observations is coming down Monday. It seems like just yesterday we were doing the installation. We'll have to lug those four heavy typewriters home, the 26 panels from the book that were in the exhibit, and seven huge paintings that Jenny did. I want a couple of the panels for my apartment. The truth is, as every artist knows, the second you finish something and it is displayed somewhere you move on to the next thing. Which we have. Our latest Zombie Logic Press book, Lonely Bird, will be released October 7th at a book release party at Luna Datura's Curious Gifts. 

Poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg at Bittersweet Observations exhibit at Rockford Art Museum

In fact, Jenny is at MainFraiM this afternoon staining the wooden cover for Lonely Bird. 

Jenny, Jeremy, and Carmen assembling Stephen Schreiner's book Lonely Bird at MainFraiM.

Our good friend Ryan Davis took these photographs of us Monday. 

My Smith and Corona. Can't wait to get it home and bang on it a while. 

It was an honor and a surprise to be selected an exhibiting artist at the Rockford Art Museum.  Pin It

The Journal of Outsider Poetry Talks About Our New Book

A new book of poetry is designed to help children deal with the stresses and anxieties particular to childhood.

Atrocious Poems A To Z is the second children's book from creative team Jenny Mathews of Rockford Illustrating, and Thomas L. Vaultonburg of Zombie Logic Press. According to Vaultonburg, the author, it is a book about "All the things that kids love to hate. Liver, sharing, immunizations, haircuts, and sibling rivalry are among the 26 "atrocities" children face on a daily basis dealt with in the book.

"We tend to take the stressors and anxieties of childhood lightly," says childhood developmental expert Henry Wolfsburg, Ph. D, of The Journal of Outsider Poetry, and professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, "and that's often a big mistake, because the issues children are dealing with, although they may seem trivial or inconsequential to us, make up the totality of their existence. As adults we tend to have amnesia concerning how stressful childhood is, and often lose our ability to relate to and show empathy for the trials and tribulations our children face on a daily basis."

The book will be included in an art exhibit titled Bittersweet Observations at The Rockford Art Museum debuting June 9th at 6:30 p.m. All twenty-six panels from the book, illustrated by Jenny Mathews, will be alongside the poems by Vaultonburg, written on the wall of the museum. 

Of course Z is for Zombies in the new children's book from Jenny Mathews and Thomas L. Vaultonburg at Zombie Logic Press

Z Is For Zombies

Military Intelligence says
The Living Dead are out tonight,
But me and my little sister
Are home alone together,
So they better be ready to fight.

They're clearly confused
Who they're dealing with, I say,
As one of them sneaks up 
Behind my sister,
But instead of eating her brain
It walked right up and kissed her.



An oxymoron is a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings. Can you find the four oxymorons in this poem?

In addition to helping children deal with anxiety-provoking situations, many of the poems contain lessons in literary form, themes, or literary terms such as  oxymoron in the poem "Z Is For Zombies."
-From The Journal of Outsider Poetry

Atrocious Poems A To Z can be pre-ordered at Kickstarter. Copies will also be available in the Rockford Art Museum on and after June 9th. 

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Greenwood Cemetery Rockford, Illinois

As a poet I'm the first person to admit words can be a damn troublesome nuisance. A lot of times they refuse to do what you want them to do. And sometimes they do exactly the opposite. As a poet I'm always looking at words. Maybe I'm hypersensative, but I don't think I see words the same way most other people do. This is another entry in my series of  Poem Photos, which is a collection of examples where words and images seem to evoke contrary, often opposite emotions from what might have been intended. 

Greenwood cemetery in Rockford, Illinois.

Greenwood Cemetery is one of Rockford's oldest and most beautiful historic cemeteries, established in the 1840s when Rockford itself was still a young community. Located along North Main Street, its monuments and family plots preserve the names of generations of people who helped build the city, including prominent industrialists, politicians, veterans, and ordinary Rockford families.

Like many nineteenth-century cemeteries, Greenwood was designed as more than simply a place to bury the dead. Its winding roads, mature trees, elaborate monuments, and landscaped grounds reflect the rural cemetery movement, when cemeteries were also intended to be quiet public spaces for walking and contemplation. Today it functions almost like an outdoor archive of Rockford history. Walk around long enough and you'll encounter names that also appear on streets, buildings, businesses, and in nearly every chapter of the city's past.

Which makes Greenwood an especially appropriate place to find words behaving strangely.

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