Park Sloper Buys Island On Craigslist For Artist Breeding

via Rabbit Island
Like the rest of you, we here at FIPS are working hard toward the day we can either a) buy our own island, or b) afford health insurance that covers our horrible, horrible psychological problems. One former Slope resident can check off the former as he's purchased an island in Michigan. That's right, MICHIGAN. Clearly he has not addressed the latter (Hey, I kid because I love. I'm a Midwest kid, too. Michigan is great).

Back in 2010, Rob Gorski purchased a patch of nature floating in Lake Superior from the same place he will likely get the secondhand Ikea bookshevles with which to furnish it: a Craigslist ad (I shit you not).

So what bizarre human-animal hybrids does Rob want to breed upon these Wolverine shores? The most dangerous prey of all, of course -- hipsters. More accurately to his mission statement: artists. Picture, if you will, a safe place for artists to live and work. Rob's artist colony will welcome creatives to live out residencies, drawing inspiration from the natural environs. The place is christened "Rabbit Island," presumably because artists confined together in such a small space will fuck like said mammals -- actually, there's a much more prosaic back story about Rob's grandfather calling it that, but we will stick with our premonition of artist fuckery.

The locale will not be...posh. We're talking virgin wilderness here: ninety acres of forest, rock, and smoke monsters (for those who were waiting, there it is. There is your dated Lost reference). Not once has the hand of man or woman or hyper-intelligent construction beast (incidentally, one of Aristotle's definitions for man) defiled this Eden with development. So, to finally defile it, Rob is raising funds to build an artists' living quarters and studio. Mostly kidding about the defilement. It's pretty Thoreau: a cabin in the woods built from the area's own trees and stone. Those who want to help make this Walden II happen (what? taken? How about Walden III? Whatever.) can pony up to Rob's kickstarter page. You'd also be helping to fund tools, a solar panel and transportation -- Rob plans a boat, but if enough people write in "jet pack" with their donation, maybe it could happen?

Naturally, so to speak, the project encourages ecologically minded art, research and revery. The first artist in residence will be Andrew Ranville, who is charged with designing and building the cabins. All present and future colleagues can expect to mine the artistic wells of off-the-grid existence. And you know what they say: absence makes the heart grow fonder. I expect ecstatic odes to the iPad and idealized charcoal renderings of late-night Chinese delivery service.