Foiled by Slush: An Attempted Journey to the Art Shanty Projects

After a week of anticipation, Sunday arrived with our plans for brunch at the 501 Club and then of course, the exciting adventure on ice: Art Shanty Projects. If you've lived through cold winters near a body of water, you know exactly what a shanty is. That or you've watched Grumpy Old Men. Anyway, Art Shanty Projects is a four-weekend exhibition of performance, architecture, science, art, video, literature, survivalism, karaoke and dancing! It's part sculpture park, part artist residency and part social experiment, inspired by traditional ice fishing houses that dot the state’s lakes in winter.

It's pretty quirky and cool (super mid-western and cheeky). I mean, really...what else are we supposed to do in this frozen tundra? Curl up inside a cabin and get feverish? No no no people!! We get creative that's what! With our spirits high and our bellies full of food, we head to Medicine Lake hoping to dance at the Dance Shanty, sit in the Black Bania (a sauna on ice enclosed in a teepee) and make our own postcards and drop them off at the world's only post office on ice.

These past couple of days, it's been steadily raining -- not a down-pour, but a consistent spray of light rain. Luckily, the temperatures sat above 30 degrees so it wasn't freezing rain. Slick, but not freezing. This mixture of warmer temp's and rain makes for dirty snow and lots of slush. Do you think we factored this into our trip? Of course not. Gee...you'd think it'd occur to us that:

A) Rain equals slush, wear rubber boots!
B) We're headed to a frozen lake, wear a hat & bring gloves (not fingerless ones that I was wearing)
C) It's Winter! Hello!!

So, as we begin our disgruntled trek across the ice (we were anticipating a ride in an ArtCar Taxi, an option described on their website), we see the entire lake has turned into Slush City. At least 3-6 inches of pure, cold, wet slush. As you'll see in the video -- hilarity ensued. My feet were completely soaked -- clearly I wasn't wearing waterproof boots. Party OVER. We were bummed. So, we trekked back to the car and went back to Rick's apartment so I could throw my boots and socks into the dryer.

Our attempt may have been foiled by our being so ill-prepared, but we will not be defeated by you, Weather! Yes, you are wacky and wild in your mercurial winter ways...but we shall try again next Sunday! I will not let you get in my way of dancing in an art shanty!! So stay tuned for Part Deux!!