The Whole Wide World

It’s nice and frigid out, as it always is, but sometimes it’s just that little bit extra. Yesterday morning it was -38F and with the wind chill it was -65F. WE hit -80Brr. As expected, I woke up to a couple emails from my boss back in the States. He sent a QuickBooks update over that only took a few minutes, rather than a few days, to run and the store opened as anticipated. Apparently recounts and questions are coming over next week, so all is well. I’m moved into my new room, had my day off, inventory is pretty much done…everything worked out. Another reminder to take it a day at a time and to stop worrying about things so much. Anxiety is a bish.

I noticed one of the dorm room doors in my new hallway has one of my poems hanging on it from my Bad Poetry booth earlier in the season and that made me smile. A nice reminder of a fun evening this winter season. Speaking of fun evenings, last night was one of them. If you’ve seen my social media already, some of this will be a bit repetitive, but I wanted to share here as well…I’ve added to what was originally posted on the socials, so there is more below.

I’m feeling extra grateful this evening. Grateful to have spent this austral winter in the dark with such a creative bunch of lovely humans. I’ve been thinking a lot about the word community recently, too. That’s what we are, a community. We all have our paid roles and it collectively takes us all to keep this dusty little frozen town running. But so much of what happens here runs off of volunteers and that’s the stuff that brings us together, makes us a community and keeps us warm.

Tonight I sucked up the -80F and walked up to building 140 to the winter edition of the McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery (MAAG). I didn’t really want to go, but the pull to support my friends was strong. Boy am I glad I went. It filled my cup and warmed me up-quite literally, one of the art installations was a homemade sauna. Other art instillations included;

The sauna by Evan & Megan, a plywood box with space heaters and humidifiers, essential oils and all the finishing touches of a real sauna. I sat in it for about five minutes and it was toasty. I told them it brought me joy and sadness. Joy because it was pure luxury sitting in there. Sadness because there used to be working saunas on station and those aren’t in service anymore, so it felt like a taste of what could have been.

Tiny intricate art by the one and only Katie Kerpel and her amazing edition of McMurdite Guess Who? Someone gave her a wig that is just like her hair and throughout the season she has put it on many of us and took our photo. The end result, all of us on the Guess Who board, looking just like Katie. Katie is a really talented artist. She paints, creates silk screens, and she even published a full set of McMurdo Home & Gardens, where she took photos of peoples rooms and interviewed them along the way.

Caricatures by Toni Traub some of which she even signed ‘I’m So Sorry’. This was similar to my Bad Poetry Booth in a small way. There were caricatures that resembled the subject and ones that didn’t, but it engaged the audience and was an absolute smash.

Plans for a McMurdo subway system as cross-stitched by Marty. An insane network of cross-stitched lines for a subway system that could never actually exist here. Marty has held a weekly cross-stitching class over the course of winter and he is really talented at it. He’s cross-stitched peoples pets from photos and he is really skilled at what he does.

‘Shithead’ a self portrait by Stefan, our Wastewater Treatment Plant tech, actually painted with our poop. This was a highlight for me, haha. It was all-encompassing, the title to what it was, the fact that he used our poop to paint it. Just brilliant.

There was more creativity, too much to name it all, but if you hop on over to my Instagram and take a look at the snaps, you will get a glimpse of the creativity down here.