Wednesday, December 31, 2025

2025 Year in Review

Happy new year, everyone!
What a ride 2025 has been, eh? 
Looking at my past year's photos, a person might think I was into politics. In fact, I'd prefer not to think about politics.

But with the inauguration of DT's second term,
this year was not a year for that, 
so I'll start with . . . my favorite image of 2025:

Strategic Silliness

Above:  Frog faces agents of ICE [Immigration & Customs Enforcement] in Portland, OR
photo by Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle
_______________

One year ago: January 2025

They pulled their knee ligaments
Just like me (at work, L to R: David, Mary and Big Boss behind me). 
We hobbled around for MONTHS...

MARCH 2025
 bink ; me & Em hang my "You Are Made of Stars" prints
 on the fence enclosing the mini-park by the thrift store

BELOW: Target's mascot (stuffed bull terriers) protesting Target for caving to Trump, outside corporate headquarters––
"Cone of Shame 4 Target"
 
April 2025

 "No Kings" rally at the State Capitol. (My sign was inspired by having read Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, with its black demon cat.)

JUNE

June 14
, with friends/family (far left) at the third Pro-Democracy rally. We're smiling but it was somber:
Hours earlier, an assassin had murdered MN State Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark, and their dog, Gilbert.

BELOW
Left:
"Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are." --Accidental Czar: Vladimir Putin, by Andrew S. Weiss
and, Right > 
My print "No tengas miedo/Don't be afraid" on Denise's door
_________________

Summer Doll Camp
 involved stick-raft and God's Eye making

 

And––Toys Recreate Paintings 
The Raft of the Medusa
, by
Théodore Géricault
("It's just pretend."--Penny Cooper)


AUGUST

Making God's eyes by the Mississippi River
 (trip to Winona w/ bink)

 
BELOW: Some of my best work at the thrift store
"Do-it-Yourself Proustian Moment! Madeleine TINS"
Right: "Peek at Your Own Risk!"—under the electrical tape, one wrestler is gripping the other’s penis 

SEPTEMBER 2025

At the Source of the Mississippi
, Itasca, MN, (trip w bink)

On the day of the nearby Annunciation School shooting, a young man hands me carnations as I sit making God's eyes in the backyard
. . . inspiring me to invite people to a bonfire:


BELOW: 125 God's eyes got hung on the fence by work, with a little help from my friends. 
(And I got my hair buzz-cut for free in the thrift store parking lot.)

OCTOBER (This blog turns 18 years old, 2007–2025…)

My 2-sided sign for the biggest  NO KINGS rally yet—a mash-up of Kermit the Frog (for the Portland frogs) and Hamilton/George III

BELOW
bink: "
I will send a plague of frogs into your palace" --Exodus
and
 & KG: "Queens Trump Kings"

NOVEMBER

Marz on break from UM-Duluth came down for Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

Jester, AM, me, Em, and the Girlettes light the Hanukkah menorah in the thrift store's parking lot

 ABOVE:  The sideways yellow heart (on the board to the left) was the O in 'HOPE
in the 'Faith Hope Love' that I'd painted on the plywood over on the broken windows during the George Floyd uprisings, 2020. 
Now it covers a hole in the chain-link fence.

BELOW
Top row:
coworkers; my PINE CONE print card at my kitchen table
Bottom row: Alice, Annette, & Chomm at Christmastime


Mending…

And on we go, into the NEW YEAR...

Chazak ve'ematz/ Be strong and of good courage!
_____________________

Previous Year-End Reviews  (2013–)

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