Ben Madeska

@benmadeska.bsky.social

185 Followers 359 Following

Artist, Writer, Educator

A square painting of a large pile of red cherries on a black background
Monarch butterfly on a purple blazing star flower
Google AI result for "What Chicago train stations have the letter Y?" that includes Chicago, O'Hare, and Dempster-Skokie in the results
Six paintings of Lake Michigan on an easel showing different conditions of the lake, including partially frozen, calm, and choppy
A Chicago hot dog with fries and a bottle of 2005 Chateau d'Yquem
Rectangular painting on an easel. The painting is of Lake Michigan, with half of the painting an overcast sky and the other half choppy water
Bumblebee on a group of small white flowers against tall, thin green stalks
Bumblebee on a Purple Blazing Star wildflower
Hawk gliding off the roof of a building
Four thin green stalks with purple buds against a cinder block wall
A large explosion above neighboring houses
Clusters of small white flowers blooming on green stalks with thin leaves
Tall spindly green stalks in front of a weather-beaten fence
Purple prairie clover blooming, purple-pink flowers with yellow dots on green stems
White flowers with a bumblebee halfway inside one
Rectangular painting of Lake Michigan on a easel. The horizon splits the painting about halfway, with a cloudy sky and dark blue, choppy water
Chicago skyline with a curving beach, Lake Michigan, and a blue sky
Photo of light chop on Lake Michigan with a mostly cloudy sky
View of Chicago from the Sears Tower looking north
Foxglove Beardtongue blooming against an evening sky
Two large geese standing on the corner of our roof
Prairie Smoke blooming, green leaves with red flower buds standing up and starting to open up
In honor of fellow Wisconsin fan Werner Herzog, whose films depict doomed dreamers courting violent injury and death in the search for ecstatic truth across bleak and indifferent landscapes. Go Badgers.
Police: Statue stolen from Swope Museum sold at downtown shop Lisa Trigg The Tribune-StarUpdated Aug 6, 2014 Being intoxicated and out of money might have given a Sullivan man the jailhouse blues after he was arrested
But I do have a trick that makes things easier for me. Since writing is very hard and rewriting is comparatively easy and rather fun, I always write my scripts all the way through as fast as I can, the first day, if possible, putting in crap jokes and pattern dialogue—“Homer, I don’t want you to do that.” “Then I won’t do it.” Then the next day, when I get up, the script’s been written. It’s lousy, but it’s a script. The hard part is done. It’s like a crappy little elf has snuck into my office and badly done all my work for me, and then left with a tip of his crappy hat. All I have to do from that point on is fix it. So I’ve taken a very hard job, writing, and turned it into an easy one, rewriting, overnight.
Oil painting of a stormy, winter Lake Michigan with a gray, cloudy sky and churning green-gray water
Orion, the moon, and the earth, with a caption that reads "We will see you on the other side."
Dogs are a big part of the "John Wick" universe, and starting with "Chapter 3," they began implementing dogs into the action. Well, for the latest entry, they learned that the dog they had enlisted for action scenes really enjoyed doing one specific piece of action, and that was about all it was going to do. Luckily, it was an effective maneuver: This particular dog was particularly keen on crotch bites.
A not particularly clear photo of the crescent moon
Newspaper from The Simpsons, with headline that reads "Local Man Loses Pants, Life"
Epitaph On A Tyrant Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
Swirls of pink and orange clouds against a twilight sky and silhouetted buildings
Street scene photo from the Damen Blue Line station
Rectangular oil painting on an easel. The painting is of Lake Michigan with a gray blue sky and greenish water, darker towards the horizon and a darker, more blue color towards the shore
A strongly pro-British tweet from the Bears showing the Chicago River dyed orange instead of green
Oil painting of two black dress shoes on a brown background
Photo of my hand holding a copy of the book "On an Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes" in front of the frozen expanse of Lake Michigan
A green bud on a Ginkgo tree branch
Box from Roeser's Bakery in Chicago
Oil painting of a powdered sugar paczki with red fruit filling on a white background
Rectangular oil painting of Lake Michigan partially frozen. The sky is light blue with gray and white clouds along the horizon. A thin line of deep, dark blue lake is visible at the horizon, white a large sheet of white ice and snow beneath this. Then there is a section of greenish water with more ice and snow at the bottom of the painting
Photo of mostly frozen and snow covered Lake Michigan
Chicago at night, with Millennium Park and skyline lit up. Some buildings are lit with blue and orange. One building says "Bear Down."
A symphony orchestra playing in Binny's
Photo of sunrise in Chicago with intense red and orange along the black horizon leading to pink, purple, and blue clouds
Chicago sunset with deep orange, red, and purple clouds above dark buildings
Oil painting of a ribeye steak, a rectangular canvas on an easel with a ribeye steak centered on a white background
Thumbnails of bonsai trees and Norm Macdonald
Duolingo teaching me how to ask if I can smoke here in French
Firey sunset with silhouettes of buildings against orange and yellow clouds
A square oil painting on an easel. The painting is of Lake Michigan, with the horizon line just above center. The sky is overcast and gray, and the water is a dull brown and choppy
Rectangular oil painting on a panel of windswept surface of Lake Michigan and a gray overcast sky
Oil painting of a bosc pear on it's side on a white table with a black background
director: okay so it's a Christmas Carol, but with muppets so. You know. Feel free to have fun with it. Be a little silly Michael Caine: I am going to play this entire thing as serious as a car accident
Onion headline from 1980 campaign with Carter saying "Let's talk better mileage" and Reagan saying "Kill the bastards"
Oil painting of a dozen oysters on a plate of crushed ice on a black background
Christkindlmarket at Wrigley Field with Fergie Jenkins statue next to an ice-skating rink and a large Christmas tree in the distance
Turkey in 6 lbs of duck fat
A plate with a variety of brown Thanksgiving foods
Oil painting of an uncooked turkey leg on a white background