Bowtie #5

Okay, this one was the first that I wore from this project to really have some fun. Strawberries are a good look, Star Wars is always on my person in some way, but the fabric stores I found in the area had a couple lines of fabric that were really bright, colorful, and were the perfect scale for bowtie cuts.

This rainbow hex hit a good medium for me of being "bowtie" appropriate, but expressive and more exciting than the "colorful" bowtie you'd find at a Johnston and Murphy. I also like having a rainbow on me whenever I can, in (at times) subtle solidarity. #LoveIsLove

When I worked in Chicago I was the in-house magician for a little toy store called Uncle Fun. It was a great job, definitely in my top 5. The store was a place in which anyone could just be themselves and would be welcomed as such. The owner had seen strife earlier in his life, but he was a kind, considering, and caring man. When I suffered my crazy bike/car accident in 2009, he covered my pay for a month of recovery. Keep in mind, this was a tiny store with only three employees, so he also had to hire the occasional additional help, but he told me to take the time to recover.

The impact that had on me could not be understated. I was able to continue to pay my rent, I didn't have to find a pre-gig-economy side gig I could do from home, and the recession was kicking off, so it was not likely I would have found something anyway. Because he paid me for a month of work I didn't do, I was able to stay on my feet (so to speak, I was in bed for a lot of that month).

That is insane to me. I want to reiterate that this man was not running a chain of a dozen or so stores and could pull people from many locations to fill the gap. He wasn't making millions of dollars. He was running a store selling the remaining inventory he bought from toy companies that went out of business and clearance books from publishers liquidating back stock (both of which were fine and entertaining products that were 100% worth selling and absolutely hitting the vibe of the store). So when I break nearly every bone in my face, he did not hesitate for a moment to help me out. I am forever grateful to him for that.

Anyway, he also ran a store in Baltimore at the American Visionary Art Museum, which I had frequented and loved when I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art. I bring up Uncle Fun and Ted because the other side of this bowtie reminds me of both a lenticular eyeball we sold at Uncle Fun and the logo for AVAM. I love this eyeball side of this bowtie, perhaps more than any other I've made to date, for this reason, which no one how hasn't read this post would understand.

Oh, and if you are ever in Baltimore, go to AVAM and say hi to Ted in the gift shop. It's as close as you can get to going to Uncle Fun these days (his stores in Chicago were all shut down by the mid-2010's) and the museum itself is a really cool outsider art space. It's also where the Post Secrets cards have been displayed.

And here is a little documentary of the store, Uncle Fun, made by one of our regulars. My cousin is even it!

I wore these sides on January 20th and 21st.