We have this wall, surprising I know, where we post up little snippets of Cranky Yellow propaganda. Most of it came to us on packages sent in by various artists, but a few of them are strange little love (or hate) notes left around the shop by visitors who, obviously, have ulterior cranky motives. We love them all and they seem to be serving their purpose.

On multiple occasions I’ve noticed small children drawn to the wall, like little maggots to rotting flesh, with wide eyes that openly accept the “cranky” indoctrination… some call it brain-washing, I call it an easy way for kids to get free candy. Not that I would ever bribe simple-minded children to do my bidding… erm. No. Never. Ahem.

You can be indoctrinated too, just look below:

Did you know we accept donations of cold hard cash? Well we do. It takes a lot of hard work to keep the shop open! Unlike most publishing firms and consignment shops we only take a SUPER tiny percentage of sales!

For example: We only take 20% of consignment/gallery sales. That’s less than HALF what most shops and galleries take. So, if we sell something for $45.00 we only ACTUALLY profit $9.00.

We do this to help the artist get as much as possible. We’re not in this business to make ourselves wealthy. We’re here to change the way the art world works and thinks. An artist shouldn’t have to struggle to make ends meet while some fat-cat gallery owner sucks up all of their profits. Yuck.

I’m an artist too, so I understand how crappy that feels. That’s why I won’t do it at Cranky Yellow. When you make a purchase from our shop, you can feel awesome knowing that you’re putting that money directly into the artist’s pocket, and that’s a good feeling to have.

The very small amount that we do take has to be used on rent, bills, promotion, salary, city business fees, and all those small things that seem to regularly pop up. It’s a lot to spend money on, which is why we have a donation jar. We’re always ridiculously grateful when someone drops some money in. We are NOT a non-profit, which means your donation is NOT tax deductible. Honestly, though, it’s pretty sick to think that the only reason to donate is to get some relief on your taxes. Geez.

All the money received in the donation jar goes towards those things mentioned above and to help us continue to develop and host political, social and art projects. Sometimes we’ll use the coins to buy a piece of salt-water taffy that helps keep us unusually happy!

So next time, before you leave the shop, think about that pocket change that has been collecting gum residue in your purse/pocket/wallet for ages. We’ll be happy to clean off the crap and put it to good use.

My life has, recently, been filled with Lyndsey and the color green! Two of my favorite things; I’m a very lucky boy! I’ll tell you the whole story:

Our “Free Stuff” bin is happy to be holding the new Confluence Newspaper! I’ve already read it front to back! The cover is graced by a lovely illustration that Lyndsey drew (it’s also green. hah)! This baby is a beautiful self-loving issue: The DIY Heal Yourself Toolbox!

Confluence is a free, great, independent bi-monthly newspaper created cooperatively in Saint Louis. Inside this publication you’ll find a slew of topics that make me giddy: politics, environmental issues, labor, art, social justice, science, history, urban affairs and lots more! It gets brought to life down at the Community Arts and Media Project (C.A.M.P.) which is our neighbor on Cherokee Street.

If you’re interested: C.A.M.P. operates an open and accessible space that fosters art, media, education, and urban sustainability as tools to connect local and global struggles for social justice.

Finally, a few days ago, Lyndsey donated an amazing hand she created last year for the El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration on Cheroekee. She worked with the children at C.A.M.P. to create “Our Power Hands” which were utilized on a street-wide community celebration and project… wickedly-totally cool! The hand has found a happy home: blessing everyone who comes into Cranky Yellow with super love-vibes from outer-space!

I’ve re-emerged. I’ve been out of my mind for at least the last six months. The Crammed Organisms Plush Show had been kicking my ass… I think through the whole thing I lost nearly 10-20 pounds. I look anorexic now and I’m constantly pestered by my peers, so, if you’re reading this: STOP IT! I get the point. You’re all just jealous of how sexy my skeleton is. Period.

I’m forcing myself back into Cranky gear to resolve all of the things that have been sitting around for the past few months. Angelo, Alyce and Myself had a well needed (short) Cranky meeting while floating around in a pond. Our meetings are… well… business casual.

That’s all… I’m tired. I’ll go eat some fatty-cake-cream-o-grease-slop to make you happy.
Expect daily blogs from now on. Just like the good old days!

Spring just puts everyone in the mood for change.. no not a viral plug for Obama’s campaign! We just re-arranged the store to make more room for people to stand around and chat during shows! We moved out one big shelf and compacted everything into a small space… which means there is enough room to flail around and jump if you were into that sort of thing.

Side One Before:

Side One After:

 Side Two Before:

Side Two After:

So basically we have more stuff crammed into less space. We’re also working on FINALLY getting the back two rooms ready to open! The second room is open from time to time when we have a show hanging… but we’re really going to spice it up!

More blogs soon. So much has happened!

Fine. Fine. Fine. I know this post is a little out dated since this technically happened last week.

Angelo had the brilliant idea (haha. An oxymoron!) to paint our nasty old shelf blue! Normally I would have been pretty excited about such a project… but he suggested it the night before Denise Simon’s show, and I had lots of stuff to finish up in preparation.

So… Angelo tore into the project by himself. It’s pretty lucky some teenage girls came to the shop to help him out… otherwise he probably wouldn’t have finished. That thing sucked the paint up like a vacuum from hell!

I have to admit though… it does look much better now. Damn him for being right.

And here it is all finished up with some stuff back on it:

WHAT!Whoa!

Check out these dolls by Knot by Gran’ma! They are so stunning in real life! I can’t quit holding them and dancing around the store! Simply stunning! I show every person who comes in… they seriously rock!

Next… We found this old, ugly, broken staircase by the dumpster and resurrected it into this beautiful yellow display!

Re-using old crap really makes me happy! I’m so glad we could give that baby a new home! A bit of yellow paint and some love will go a long way!

Finally… Above all else… We are still Cranky.
Check out this super sexy photo featuring two very bitter Cranky Yellow staff members!

More soon my little lumplings… More soon!

James Kaufmann is now selling these whale shirts in the store. They are available in all sorts of colors! I’m not sure what type of whale it is, I’d guess a sperm whale with sweet tattoo’s, but I know I love it!

His shipment of shirts just pushed us overboard with shirts. So I fabricated this new clothing rack out of my scaffolding, some wire baskets and some metal pipe I found in the attic! Now all the shirts we get have a nice little world to live in. Hooray for shirt segregation!

The bare bones version is almost done people.
I swear I will send an email around to everyone soon.

Here are some new items we added into the NEW system to hold you off (Sorry… You can’t buy them yet!). The wonderful Cate created these yummy winter time accessories!

See: That picture aboves just goes to show the system is getting done.

You’d better be excited!

We opened or store for the first time today. I’ll be posting more photos today. But for now you can check out our sandwich board.

Look for more new photos in a few hours. Angelo and myself will be posting all day.