The Scar Swallower

The beginning of a really interesting time.

2011-06-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've been busy here--and while I strongly believe in the concept of blogging without obligation, I've missed this little corner of my life. I've had wonderstrange arts take over a healthy part of my free time, and that's a good thing, but I really love my own blog, too.

I'm taking this summer off--no teaching, no work obligations at all--to write poetry, to submit to publications, and to try to organize my recent work into a manuscript so that I can begin sending it to presses in the hopes of finding a home for my first collection. I'm also planning on doing some day traveling this summer . . . there is a wonderful residency available to Oregon writers and artists that does require some place-based writing. So, I'll be visiting some of the parks in Southern Oregon to work on some newer place-based pieces, too.

And, while I don't usually spend time on here wallowing about personal issues, I do think it's valid to state that I am also going through a bit of a transitional period in my personal life, which can prove time-consuming as well. While I'm unsure of what the future holds for my home life, I do know that my writing and my art--as well as the friends I have in both the writing and art communities to which I belong--will pull me through it all.

So, I'm looking forward to keeping up over here at the blog a bit more regularly--and writing might be a stronger focus over the journaling or art right now, but I plan to just use the summer as a cathartic thing. Rather than swallowing scars over the next few months, I'm going to do my best to purge them.

March Journal Prompts

2011-04-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

I've had a month of setbacks with journaling--a new school term + some personal issues have left little time for my journal, but over the last week I've finished pages for both March prompts at A Year in the Life of an Art Journal.
On March 15, the prompt included lyrics from an Adam Lambert song, and while I've not ever heard the song, I really loved the line "Let's take a Maybelline vacation." Combined with the prompt for "liquid courage," I journaled about my own liquid courage--the black liquid eyeliner I've worn since I was 16. The girl's head is from a makeup ad, and the window she's wearing as a cap is a photograph I took in India in 2006. Over that is an image of a vintage tin of rouge that came from a crappy sheet of scrapbooking images . . . the rubber-stamped lips are from Leavenworth Jackson in Berkeley, CA.

On March 30, a Goo Goo Dolls song, "Not Broken," was part of the prompt--and I ran with that. I had this wonderful magazine image of an orange-haired girl in leopard pants that took me straight back to when i was 19 or 20 and the boy that I thought was my one true love moved to Texas. I pulled some lyrics from the song that fit the whole nostalgic-for-boyfriends-past mood, and spent a little time celebrating that time in my life, when i thought my heart would tear itself free from my chest. sigh. This page from the 30th is my favorite of the two--I love that photo, and I really liked the idea of spending a little time on a relationship that was so long ago, but that shaped the person (and the wife) I am today. I think it's definitely cool that I miss that boy from time to time and hope he's happy--we had different paths to follow. I do remember thinking to myself at the time, selfishly, that if only things didn't work out for him, then I could get him to come back to West Virginia. Thank goodness for both of us that he stayed in Houston and built a life for himself there. I looked him up on the Internet a few years ago, and there is a photo of him out there--if I wasn't afraid of offending him, I'd post it. He still looks like the same sweet man; I like to think that he is the same sweet man, too. :)

Mixed Media Hands Swap

2011-03-09T15:32:00.001-08:00

Mixed Media Hands Swap
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

So, I've finished up the swap I mentioned in my last post--in which each of 21 artists sent in 5 to 10 hands. The only guidelines was that they should trace their own hands onto chipboard or cardboard and then use the theme "creativity" to create a mixed-media artwork on each hand.

I wanted to be able to link these hands to use as a garland in my studio, and a while back I'd missed out on a similar swap. I have to admit, though, that the resulting mass of hands was just beautiful--i didn't want to give them away!

I did get to keep 12 of them, so I'll post the garland when I have it put together! UPDATE: I put the garland together last night, and MKE helped me to hang it in the studio . . . gorgeous! I'll take photos later today.

Mixed-Media Creative Hands

2011-03-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

I'm hosting a swap at www.atcsforall.com for mixed-media hand tracings. These were supposed to be made on chipboard or 180 lb. watercolor paper as a substrate, so that once swapped, the new owner can make a garland of them if she chooses.

I really wanted a garland of hands for my studio space--so the swap's hands are all supposed to have "creativity" as a theme. The work everyone's sending in is just beautiful--I'm going to take a few snapshots of all the hands laid out together before I divvy them up tomorrow to send them to their new homes, so I'll be sure to upload one.

This scan is of two of my six pieces . . . the top one has a Diego Rivera quote with some loteria and Day of the Dead imagery, and the bottom one is a photo of the model Karen Elson, which is unrelated to the quote by painter Alice Neel. Acrylic paints, watercolor pastels, rubberstamping, several kinds of ink, stenciling, and repurposed price tags are some of the layers on here. There are dangles that will be added with a ball-chain at the eyelet--I'm attaching handmade paper beads and plastic letters (from a menu board) there.

A little art doll.

2011-02-28T12:12:00.001-08:00

I have a friend for whom I need to make a gift. I'm not the biggest fan of altered tins or little art dolls, but I like how this came out. (Don't even ask me what the difference is between an art doll and my assemblages with doll parts. i can't explain it--i just know the difference when i see it. lol!) This lady has a cellulose head, black mohair for hair (i had to recreate her wig--it was all gluey and moth-eaten), legs from a halloween skeleton, a rubber bat and the tin from a package of Altoid Minis. I found that if I hold the tin in front of a propane torch's flame, it burns off all the paint and leaves a fabulous charcoal-black patina. And, probably gives me a better chance of contracting mesothelioma, but that's another post for another time. I hope my friend likes this . . . I think it's a nifty little bit of mail art! Here are also views of the message and scene inside the tin.

I still have to make a few other components of a gift package for her, but this should be a nice little surprise. Her legs are wired to the rubber bat on the back of the tin, so they can be moved around, to look like she's jumping or flying or kicking--all good things. lol!

My 40th Birthday and my Art Journal

2011-02-26T07:46:00.000-08:00

So, I turn 40 tomorrow--I've dreaded this birthday for the last several years, but now that it's arrived, I'm really not bothered by it. I'm thinner than I've been in several years, I'm happier here in Oregon than I was in Pittsburgh, and I have a lot of wonderful friends that I hadn't even met yet at 30. Currently, my hubs and I both work within 8 miles of our house, we both have full-time jobs, and we've lived together since May of 1997 (proving to me that this might be my one example of where loving has won out over fighting.) My husband and I are a little house poor right now, which wasn't the case when I was employed in Ohio--but, frankly, who ISN'T a little house poor right now? Anyhow.

The prompt at A Year in the Life of an Art Journal for mid-February was "Fight," so as I worked on this latest page in my 2011 journal, I kept my birthday in mind. I've always been tickled by the saying, "I'm a lover, not a fighter," because I'm really a fighter more often than a lover. lol! So, this entry just seemed to grow from that . . . and I'm pleased with the blue-eyeshadowed crazy-woman in the lower right corner, too.

Art Journal: A Year in the Life

2011-02-22T07:43:00.000-08:00

I've not been keeping up extraordinarily well with the prompts at A Year in the Life of an Art Journal, but I figure that it's still good practice to keep myself journalling more often than I would without a twice-monthly prompt. The first prompt of the new year was to choose a word that would, in effect, be a touchstone for the new year. And, if we could, we should try to work feet into our page. :)

I thought it was too much at first, but I am tickled with how my page came out! My word for the year is "true," which I really loved in terms of trying to keep in mind that I need to be true to myself, but also remain true to my goals and my family. The feet are wearing shoes that I'd never personally purchase or attempt to wear, but there is something distinctly badass about them--so they were pulled from a fashion magazine and added to the page before i started writing.

WonderStrange Arts!

2011-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I've worked with four great friends to create a little web site, WonderStrange Arts, where we'll all be able to show some art and take turns blogging . . . we hope to see our little site grow into something pretty great over the next few months, but we're all pretty excited with how everything looks already.

Ann, Sarah, Cindy, Nanner and I met online at www.atcsforall.com initially, but we've since met in person at least once each (I've spent time with Nanner three times now, and Cindy & Ann see each other more often because they're only a few hours apart, but you get what I mean.) We all really value the collaboration we're able to take advantage of in person--and we decided that a web site was going to be the next best thing to dragging our families along with us to some sort of art commune in the Midwest. :) So, we launched wonderstrange at the end of January, and we've been fine-tuning the site ever since.

Just the other day, in the wonderstrange blog, I added a downloadable collage sheet of babies and children--please feel free to hop over there and grab it! I hope to find some time to add some collage sheets to my shop, but it's not happened yet. :) For now, though, a freebie seemed appropriate!

And, in my shop, I currently have a few art assemblages on the site, and in honor of St. Valentine, my saints and shrines are 15% off through the end of February. I should have a few more choices in place by February 7 . . . I have a few saints in the studio in various states of completion. :)

Cottage-Inspired Studio Shelving

2011-01-06T06:41:00.001-08:00

This began as a wall shelf that (I believe) was a school wood-shop project, as it was quality pine (no knots) with a shiny varnish on it . . . and the kind of varnish/stain job that looked like it took forever, but wasn't perfect.

Anyhow, I bought it in Pittsburgh for six dollars. It then sat in my cellar studio, holding assorted junk. When we moved here to Roseburg, it just got shuffled to where it sat in our shed for more than 18 months. I pulled it out in August, put flat cream-colored paint on it. It sits on top of a chest of drawers that I use in the studio, but I really hated that there was no "back" to the shelves. (Being that it began life as a hanging wall shelf, there would have been no reason for the teenaged carpenter to put a back on it.)

I remember reading an issue of some mail art/paper crafts magazine a few years back that showed a lovely-but-enormous cottage-inspired shelving unit that artist Kelly Rae Roberts's husband built for her studio space. I think I even kept a photo of it, thinking that I'd like to build something like it some day (I still would). He used repurposed lumber that still bore paint from its original, first life. It's shabby and unique and fabulous.

So, rather than paying too much money for a crappy slice of thin plywood for the back of this, I decided to visit our local building-materials recycler, HeartWood Resources.

I bought a bunch of pieces of painted mouldings, baseboards and trim in a variety of colors. (Keep in mind that I couldn't go with pieces of wood as wide as Roberts's husband used, because my shelf is on a smaller scale.) This moulding actually cost only 25 cents per foot--and I think they actually looked relieved when I came in and took it out of there. For under ten bucks, I left with a trunk full of different lengths and colors . . . score! I love the flat black moulding--I can't wait to find the perfect project so I can use the rest of it.

Anyway. I measured the height of the shelving unit and then cut the wood 2 to 5 inches longer at random, so I'd get a nice, primitive "picket fence" look. When pieces had mitered ends, then i left those in place and cut them to length at what would be placed down at the bottom of the shelf. This way, the "fresh" cuts are hidden, and the top of the shelf has a fairly uniform, weathered look, even though I just put it all together.

I measured the shelf placement onto each piece of moulding, then drilled pilot holes and used simple wood screws to attach each piece in a random order to the back of the shelf. (This wouldn't work as well with cheaply-made particle-board shelves, as they don't hold screws well.) An added bonus is that the shelving unit is now a lot heavier, too, so there is little chance that a rambunctious cat/studio assistant is going to knock it off its perch.

After finishing this, I have at least 50% of the moulding left for future projects, and I now have a shelf with a one-of-a-kind backing to it, thanks to a little seed of inspiration that was planted many moons ago. I was able to load the shelf up with some art supplies and I don't have to worry about the items slipping off the shelves to land behind the dresser. If you visit the photo on my flickr photostream, you can see what I keep in some of those containers. :) i added something like 18 or 19 notes to the photo.

So, about my writing . . .

2010-10-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

My darling husband came across my bound thesis while dusting a few weeks ago, and when I got home from work, he offered to do whatever he could to give me enough time to allow me to write regularly again. Note, he came to the decision to offer this while dusting the living room--he is wonderful. So, I need to get a bit caught up with grading and work, but I'm giving myself until November 1 to get myself into a position to write for at least three hours a week. I know it's not a lot, but it's a start. I figure that if I start now, then by winter break, I can up the hours per week while I'm not teaching for those three weeks. So, cross your fingers--I'm going to try re-dedicating myself to getting some new poetry flowing. I love this comic, btw, by Drew at Toothpaste for Dinner. I love his comics in general, but this one might be my very favorite. :)

Driving through Scottsburg, Oregon

2010-09-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Last week, Steve took a rare week-long vacation, and while we didn't have any one set place to go, we thought we'd make a few minor road trips. We've lived in Roseburg for two years now, and when we end up with a day together, we either run errands, garden, or drive to Bandon-by-the-Sea. And Bandon is beautiful, but we wanted to expand our realm a bit. I'll probably write a few of these, because I really loved having the time to explore the state a little.

Scottsburg's landing, circa 1900.

We drove west on 38, eventually ending up in the little fishing village Winchester Bay. It was nice--much more like Eastern beaches in that it is all flat, yellow sand and blue water and sky, no crags or rocks or anything. Plus, people are permitted to drive on the Oregon Dunes using their ATVs there, so the bulk of other tourists and visitors are people who've come to ride four-wheelers. The really lovely part of this trip was getting to the coast--the road follows the North Umpqua River through Elkton, then Scottsburg, then Reedsport. The drive is gorgeous, and the river is beautiful, and the towns are small and quaint--with a lot of history attached. Scottsburg, which is now VERY small, was once a growing "Gateway to Oregon" community, but after a horrendous flood in 1861, the town never fully recovered. The image here is from the Salem Public Library's archives, showing boat travel to the town. I've been scouring the Internet for info about Scottsburg--I'm intrigued.

Outside of Reedsport, which is an adorable town, there is an Elk viewing area that always has many elk hanging out--that was a treat, too. We'll definitely take this route again, though probably to cut up to Florence, Oregon, or to cut down a bit south.

Wardrobe Re-Fashion!

2010-08-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

This web site and blog, Wardrobe Re-Fashion, is a fabulous new find--the site urges one to take a pledge of 2-, 4-, or 6 months (or LIFE) during which time the person will not purchase any "new" items of clothing. Instead, the person will create her own clothes by "re-fashioning" clothes that were purchased secondhand OR she'll create/purchase handmade clothing.

I have a small-but-varied collection of fabrics in my studio and access to secondhand shops here and in Eugene. I have decided to take a 4-month pledge, which will take me clear through the fall and into winter--my pledge will be in effect from September 1st to December 31st.

Frankly, I have a LOT of clothes, and I think this will be fairly easy to manage. :) Plus, I refashion secondhand clothes fairly often, but this will be my first time of consciously choosing to avoid buying new clothes for any considerable length of time.

tattered dresser scarf + plain blue clearance-sale cardigan = love

2010-08-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

I found this dresser scarf yesterday at the Salvation Army as I was waiting to check out--their smaller, vintage linens hang on a rack that's near the cashiers. So, even though it's a bit threadbare and sporting several holes, I bought it--it was $1.75. I loved the bluebirds--they look a good deal like the swallows that many people get tattooed on their breastbones. (My husband has a pair of ravens in the same area.)

Regardless, I figured it would end up in my stash of linens that I'll use for something some day. I was thinking about looking for a cheap-ish black or white sweater to sew them onto . . . but didn't really want to spend much [I've been really rotten with spending a lot lately on clothes.]

Then it hit me--my mom bought me a blue cardigan sweater at Macy's--on clearance--for 13 dollars when I was visiting after school let out in June. I dug it out of my closet, and sure enough, the blues were almost exactly the same.
I just ironed some Wonder-Under onto the backside of the two birds, then cut them out, leaving about 1/8 of an inch of linen around each one. (Note: If you do something similar, always add Wonder-Under THEN cut out the design. The Wonder-Under keeps the fabric stiff, and keeps it from fraying after you cut it.)
I peeled the backing off the Wonder-Under, lined them up on my sweater, and ironed them into place. I then used a simple straight stitch to sew around the birds, using my sewing machine and white thread. I think it came out great--and it only took about 20 minutes to do, which is even better. My sweater still cost under 15.00, and it now looks like one for which I would've paid a lot more. I love that! Another fantastic bonus is that there is another pair of bluebirds from the other end of the scarf--so at some point in the future, I'll have a quick gift that I can whip up for a friend without a lot of fussing around, trying to find some kind of inspiration. :)

Roseburg Book and Stationery

2010-08-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

I love this store! It's in Roseburg's little downtown, and it's within a bike ride of my house--and trust me, I'm a chubby little thing, so I can't bike very far. The store actually opened in 1910, and for a good amount of time this winter, they had a window display built of old office supply goods that they still have in storage from the early 1900s. They may have frowned on the moderate amount of drooling I couldn't control as I inspected it all, nose pressed to the windows, eyes wild with covetous desire.

Roseburg Book & Stationery is now a Hallmark store + a scrapbooking store with a little rubber stamping corner, but they do still sell office supplies and office furniture, too. I love shopping here when I can--their prices are competitive, and I would rather buy the occasional ink pad or handful of coin envelopes or patterned paper or package of map pins here than at Staples or Michael's.

And frankly, who WOULDN'T love this sign--I want that large fountain pen in my house! :) http://www.roseburgbook.com/Aboutus.asp

Gray Gray Lady--Lost and then Found

2010-08-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

I like to feed stray cats--I'll admit it. However, our little Gray Gray Lady is a real sweetheart. I've given her liquid medications, I've towel-dried her after it's rained, and she continues to trust me and hang around. She loves my husband, Steve, and she leaves him birds and snakes and mice as gifts where he'll find them--at the door of the toolshed.

However, five days ago, I treated her with an over-the-counter, "all natural" flea product, kind of like FrontLine or Advantix, but supposedly made with herbs. She wasn't happy, but she stayed around to eat dinner at our place.

The next evening when we fed the outdoor cats, she was nowhere to be found. Usually, she comes running up onto the porch--so it was strange. August 5, 6, 7 and 8--no Gray Gray Lady. At the same time, my own outside cat, Jean-Paul, had a bad reaction to that same flea medication, and he scratched scabs all over his neck, trying to get it off. All I could think about was that poor little Gray Gray Lady had ran away from us, thinking that I was trying to hurt her with that medicine. I've been absolutely sick about it, and I was really worried. I've been keeping an eye open when I drive in and out of the neighborhood, hoping I'll see her and that she'll be all right. She's really small, and thin, and when she first started coming around, she had the hair on her tail burned off in a large section--so she was either abused or accidentally was burned on something. She was so timid, and it took me a long time to earn her trust. All I could think was that I'd ruined it with lousy flea medication.

Then today--August 9th--I was on my bed, contemplating the nap I was going to take. The house was quiet, and I thought I heard rustling. I didn't think much of it, but then it hit me--we never checked UNDER the house. And we used our grill on the 5th . . . Steve keeps the charcoal under the house, so the crawlspace door was open at least briefly on the fifth.

I went outside, opened the door to the crawlspace and just peered in . . . and there she was, up in the subflooring's insulation, looking back at me.

She was sooo happy to be outside and to eat food and to get lots of pets . . . but I feel just horrible that she was under there for four days! I don't know how she managed to survive, and I don't know why she didn't wail or meow or try scratching when she heard me out in the yard gardening. And during the day, I'm home alone, and it's really quiet--I am sure I would have heard her if she was crying.

Anyhow, she seems all right, and she's eating like a piglet. I took this picture of her tonight--thankfully, she didn't try chewing or clawing her way out, because she isn't bloody or scratched up. The poor thing was so patient . . . which makes me feel even worse. And don't even ask me how badly Steve feels about it. sigh.

At least all is well. I told Steve I would not have been able to handle it if we'd have found her dead under the house. He would have had to have me committed, I'm sure.

Women Writers Moleskine Spread

2010-08-09T09:31:00.001-07:00

Women Writers Moleskine Spread
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

I kept delaying the process of taking photographs of this wonderful little art journal that was completed by sending it out to seven mail artists all over the country [and one in Canada]. We all exchanged japanese moleskines, once per month, for about 8 months. My theme was "strong women writers," and some of the entries in the journal are just incredible works of art. I plan on keeping this close to my writing desk, so that it can inspire me often.

See more closeup photos of the individual spreads, and see who created which ones, at my flickr account.

Awesome score, and a total surprise to me!

2010-08-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

I bought this little vintage box of paper fasteners at Salvation Army for 75 cents . . . I didn't really need the fasteners, but it was so cheap that I thought I could use the little box. I shook the box, which rattled, so I knew something was in there--I figured that it was a few fasteners. Cool enough. I peeled off the price tag with just a small amount of scuffing to the box, which was a bonus. If I don't use this in a mixed-media piece, then it'll just sit with my vintage ink bottles for now on a bookcase.

When I got home from shopping, however, I opened the box and discovered that it was full of old fountain pen nibs . . . one of the few mixed-media supplies that I really don't have in any supply at all. I think I had three that I'd been hoarding for just the right project. I was completely tickled . . . and while I have no plans for them yet, I'm thinking about making some earrings with two of them that have cooler engraving on them. :) In this second photo you can also see a 1960s plastic fountain pen that I bought at the same time for 75 cents, too. It's little and cheap, but I'm sure it'll make a good arm for an art doll or something similar at some point in the future. the color is fantastic, and it was still in packaging. <3

I found a ViewMaster . . . and I know you're jealous!

2010-08-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

OMG! I've looked for a long time for a ViewMaster that wasn't going to cost me a fortune, but it seems that everyone knows that they're in short supply. At flea markets and antique shops, I've seen the discs regularly selling for 2.50 and 3.00 apiece, so I've just been expecting that I'd not be getting a contraption anytime soon . . . THEN I FOUND THIS AWESOME SPECIMEN!

I did not even know that they were manufactured in Portland, Oregon, but that is stamped on the bottom of the plastic body.

I paid 14.75 for the ViewMaster, which was seated next to its original box, both in really good shape. The tag said "Box included," but I realized after asking to see the box [which was behind the counter with all the valuables at the Salvation Army Thrift Shoppe, mind you], that the box was full of discs!

So, first I gasped--with my hand to my mouth, like a true drama queen--then I snatched it before anyone saw what incredible coolness I'd just discovered. Original paperwork for the ViewMaster and for some of the images was also in the bottom of the box--altogether, this was a really good day at "The Mall," as I like to call it. I came away with some other goodies, too, like a 1960s-era board game called "Careers," for 65 cents, and a huge bag of plastic letters and numbers [from a menu board] for 95 cents. Oh, glorious thrifting gods have smiled on me again. Obviously, Roseburg's fine secondhand establishments have missed me during my lengthy absence. :)

Upcycling a Liz Claiborne Cardigan (or, how I'm puttering away my time now that I'm home again.)

2010-08-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

While at my parents' house the first time around this summer, I found this cardigan at a Goodwill for 5.00. Besides needing a little ironing after the wash, it's in good shape, and it's 100% cotton. The shadows in the photos make the sweater look dingy, but it isn't. :)

However, while I liked the retro styling, it was a little stodgy. The original buttons were large, flat, plastic discs with anchors imprinted in them--the same color as the sweater, which is a pale periwinkle blue.

I decided to class up the little f*cker with some skull-print fabric-covered buttons. I bought a quarter-yard, which ran about 1.50, and three packages of covered buttons cost about 3.00 each, so at the end of the project, I'd put a total of about 16.00 into it. I used some of the leftover skull fabric to cover the interior back yoke. I simply hand-stitched that into place with a small, nearly invisible whip stitch.

Now, I have a fabulous new cardigan sweater to add to my rotation of dozens of "school clothes" cardigans this fall when the new school term begins!

RIP Thomas

2010-06-18T19:44:00.001-07:00

Thomas
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

I found this in my flickr photos . . . poor little thom. i miss him, and i'm glad that he had 14 years with me before he had to pass on. This photo is about a year old--he's lounging on our back walk here in Roseburg. :) He died on June 3rd while I was at work, teaching a literature class.

Steve drove from him to the vet after Thom has some sort of stroke or seizure, and he died on the way. Steve left Thom at the vet's office and drove out to campus to make sure I didn't need to say goodbye before the vet moved Thom's body out of the exam room.

The vet office was really sweet to us--and my husband is the best. :) I thought I kept it together at school, too, and finished the last few minutes of teaching and then left . . . but the next day I had a few students come to see me in the office to see if I was okay. They'd realized something was wrong. I also have the best students. :)

Thom was a royal pain in the ass sometimes, but in his last few months, we were pretty sure he had jaw or mouth cancer. I was watering down canned cat food with warm water so he could lap it up without chewing, and he was putting on a little weight and doing well.

I've had him since 1996, when I moved to Morgantown, WV to work on my MA in English. The little bastard. :)

I'm leaving for an adventure . . .

2010-06-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

sort of! For the second year in a row, I'm going to an mail artist's get-together. This year's event is in Rochester, NY, but instead of flying to Rochester, I'm flying to Chicago, IL. At Chicago, I'm going to meet up with two mail artist friends, Cindy Jo Blair and Ann D'Angelo. Cindy Jo is from the Chicago area, and Ann is from Indianapolis--we're going to pile into Ann's car and drive the rest of the way to Rochester together! They're meeting me at the airport, and we'll be off on our way!

We have never met in person before . . . so this should be really fun and I'm sure the time will fly by. We'll get a hotel room together somewhere in Ohio once we drive about halfway there, then on Wednesday morning we'll drive the rest of the way to NY. We'll be there until Sunday, when I'll drive back West with them as far as Erie, PA, where I'll rent a car at the airport and drive the short way down to Pittsburgh, where I'll return the rental car and meet up with my parents. :)

Cindy Jo has college-age daughters who think she's crazy for going on a road trip with "internet friends," but my own mother is also creeped out by the concept. LOL. Thankfully, I have a husband who lets me do my own thing, and who doesn't judge the fact that I'm completely crazy for my online friends. :)

I am VERY excited and anxious about seeing everyone in Rochester--many people I met last year, plus a lot of new people, Ann and Cindy Jo included. Also, my friend Katie Prins, who I met a few years back when I was in NYC for the AWP conference, is going to make the trip to Rochester, so I'll see her again, which I am thrilled about. Also, my good friend Juli Waller is coming from Stratford, Ontario . . . and I think that all of us are looking forward to getting to spend time with her, too. I don't know how much art we'll be making, but I am tickled about getting to spend four days with a whole slew of fabulous people from all over the U.S. and Canada. I'll see Nanner Galambos and Cheryl Ann, too, who I have seen both in Indianapolis last year and in Redding, CA this past fall.

I leave on Tuesday morning . . . just a week from now! I'm already packing & repacking my art supplies, getting everything pared down to absolute necessities. I have a little blog post to write up about my awesome new tackle box, too . . . Ann bought one, raved about it, and I went out this morning and bought one for myself. I'll post some pics later and some details!

Making Hobbit Furniture

2010-04-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

it's really a matter of creating upcycled storage, but my hubs calls it . . . hobbit furniture. :) i needed a little more storage space in my studio/office so that i could move in some fabric that i can use for small projects, rather than always trying to dig it out of boxes in the storage space above our bedroom. i looked around at secondhand stores for a cheap set of shelves that were older or painted, but nothing turned up.

so, i went to the local architectural salvage place, HeartWood Resources, to see what they had. Nothing in their cabinet & cupboard selection would work as-is, so i bought some assorted junk there to make my own piece at home.

i had a spare cupboard drawer at home that i was using for storage, so i bought two more--one was 2.00 and one was 3.00. i added four casters--three dollars for the set. once i got it all home, i added some old wooden children's blocks and an old, painted 1x6 that i'd bought last summer, and with a little power tool action and hobbit-style cobbling, i came up with this quirky little shelving unit. the shelves are trimmed with pieces of two antique measuring sticks [i think from old gas station tanks] that i've had propped in a corner for over a year. so, for a whopping total of 17.00--the supplies cost 8 bucks, and the measuring sticks were 9.00 when i bought them at a Salvation Army store--i made this awesome little one-of-a-kind piece of furniture. :)

the three drawers are stacked on their sides, and the top two drawers have an additional shelf added, made from planks cut from the 1x6. the shelf supports are children's blocks [yellow and red], and there are children's blocks on the bottom of the unit, too, where i drilled the holes to add the casters. i left on the drawers' handles, because i thought they were kind of cool, and none of them match. :)

Next time we drive to Eugene, we'll stop at Bring, which is a much larger, infinitely cooler architectural salvage place. It's just a bigger town, so they have more to sift through. I'll try getting enough drawers to make another one of these contraptions, I think.

Someone gets a free pass to Artfest 2010

2010-02-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

It's not me. :)

Teesha Moore, a wonderful artist/art journal goddess, holds ArtFest in Washington state, near Port Townsend. It's not exactly cheap to get there from the other side of the country; travel + registration and lodging was never anything I could do when we lived in PA.

This year, one of her registrants had to cancel at the last minute, and she decided to gift the registration instead of asking for a refund . . . Teesha threw in a shared dorm room, and a free trip [minus travel] was offered last week to followers of Teesha's blog. Since I'm about 6 hours away, I figured I could drive there if I won. Coincidentally, the four days of artistic awesomeness fall this year during my Spring Break at UCC, so for the first day or two, I was certain the trip would be mine. Sweet fate. :)

We had to write, in under 100 words, why we wanted to go. I sent my entry in and hoped for the best, but I didn't get the prize. However, I'm tickled for the winner--who hasn't been announced by name--because she is a lucky, lucky girl.

I, of course, am also lucky. I think about the 30-odd entries Teesha received, and I'm sure there at least 25 who were far more deserving than I am . . . there are enough people with chronic health problems, or raising children with autism, or taking care of their larger families on one smaller income in today's world that deserve that holiday . . . I'm just a lady who is always broke. lol.

So, long story short--I'm not going to ArtFest this year, but I'm still crazy happy with my little life right here. I'm blessed . . . it's true. Congratulations to the winner, whoever you are--enjoy the trip and let it inspire you!

2010 ArtFest Winner

valentine postcard

2010-02-13T20:05:00.001-08:00

inkas valentine
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

what a lovely surprise to receive on friday from my friend christina in indiana! :) this handmade collage/mixed-media postcard was the sweetest little surprise valentine! i love those little chickadee stamps with their "be mine" and "or else" hearts . . . too cute.

My friend Ann and her hubs are really quite motivated.

2010-02-13T18:46:00.000-08:00

They're reading the top 100 books of all time [or since 1923] as provided by Time magazine. I'm thinking about wandering aimlessly through the list and picking some books I should read during my summer this year, but I don't know if I can commit to the whole 100 yet.

I do, absolutely, know what she means about talking to others about literature and finding huge gaps in what I've read. Sometimes it's just awful.

http://pinkglasses.tumblr.com/

4 and 20 valentine

2010-02-11T16:14:00.001-08:00

4 and 20 valentines
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

My husband bought this for me the other day--i love crows and blackbirds, and this little valentine plays on the "Sing a Song of Sixpence" nursery rhyme.

There is a spinning wheel of blackbirds so that they appear to fly in and out of the pie. OMG, do I love this. I also love that Steve knows I'm fine with a "used" valentine, instead of a brand-new one from Hallmark that plays a recording of "Bad to the Bone" or something. :)

Rubber Winners!

2010-02-11T08:34:00.001-08:00

Rubber Winners!
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

*drumroll*

there were 60 [!] posts on atcsforall when i ended things, and 17 posts here = 77 posts. a random number generator spat out the numbers 40 and 68. 40 was ME over at AFA, so i re-drew a 22.

SOOOOO, the winners are malin [#8 on the blog] and KatzR2 [#22 on the AFA thread]. you will both get a package of unmounted rubber stamps!

Runners-Up are 17 and 46! That's corrie04 and WhisperedPrayer, who are eligible for a mailing of 1920s sheet music, courtesy of dvmac8 over at AFA! i have already emailed all of you for your addresses . . . thank you SO much everyone for playing along; this was SOOOO fun!

I still have to figure out a little giveaway to celebrate my 100th twitter follower, so look forward to that! Here are the packages . . . going out in Thursday's mail! I have a doctor's appointment at 9:30, so after that I'll stop at the post office and send these on their way. :)

A little giveaway of some gently used rubber stamps.

2010-02-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

Well, this past week I received an order I placed for some new unmounted stamps . . . and I decided to purge some old stamps from my collection. I have too many--but I was able to get rid of 11 ounces of unmounted rubber stamp images.

On www.atcsforall.com, I've offered to draw from names, sending a random package of 5.5 ounces of stamps to two random people. I thought I'd put the offer up here on my blog, too. these packages contain at least 15 stamp images--i didn't actually count them out, but i think it's lots more.

The stamps are a surprise--but include greeting card sentiments, borders, weird things and some arms and faces. There are very few of those one-dollar bargain stamps included, but there is a mix of clear stamps and red rubber stamps.

If you'd like your name entered in the drawing, leave a comment here that includes your email address. If you entered at atcsforall, you can enter here, too, for two chances! :)

Good luck . . . I hope someone can use these!

Art journaling . . . the first few steps of the first spread.

2010-01-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

So, the first prompt was "WHAT." Basically, "what keeps you silent?" So I had to write out those things that stop me from journaling and making art--from doing anything really--then paint and layer a journal page over, essentially "erasing" those thoughts that keep me still.

I have the first few steps completed . . . I'll work more on this later. First step, i gessoed over the vintage pages in my altered book after adding a few images.

Second step, I used a raspberry-colored paint pen to write out some things that keep me from my journal.

Third step, I used Ceramacoat acrylics [in "cricket" and "ocean"] to "gesso" over the paint pen. I like using this brand of paint in journals because it's still pretty loaded with pigments, but it is chalkier that artist-grade acrylics, so the pages are less likely to stick together when i close the journal.

Fourth step, I used a chisel-tip sharpie and a black pigment marker to write WHAT? across the spread. I have no idea what I'm doing next. lol.

Long Weekends.

2010-01-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

Things here have been damp a dreary for over a week . . . warm enough, mid 50s many days, but so wet. Tired of it. I don't teach on Tuesdays this term, so I have a four-day weekend this week, due to the holiday & my regular Tuesday at home.

My grandfather's left leg is being removed this week--above the knee is what they're hoping to do. He is already missing the toes and half of the foot on the right leg, so this will hopefully be the end of him losing parts of himself. He has diabetes, which he never really took care of [he took insulin and tested his blood, but still ate whatever he wanted, frankly].

He is a bit confused, very lethargic, so everyone's hoping that it's due to the apparently raging infection in his left leg, and that once it's gone, he'll rebound. However, he more than likely go to a nursing home, as my gram can't take care of him any more, even if he's lucid.

My mom's a wreck, and so is my gram, but I'm hopeful. At least there is a possibility of health at the end of this for my papu.

That is where my mind is most of the day . . . with my family in WV . . . but I've signed up for an art journal challenge, to make sure that i'm spending time on myself, with my own life. Rachel Whetzel is organizing this--and i'm excited to begin. Two prompts per month, and I already have an altered book ready to go.

The One-Year Art Journal Project

I'm going to hopefully make this a process that will help me with my writing as well as my feelings and art. I need to be writing more, but if I could blend my writing with some artistic expression, I'm thinking I might find it more satisfying and more of a way to escape my daily worries and concerns.

a crummy day.

2009-12-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

well, i'm supposed to be on holiday, but i'm just having an awful couple of days. my mom told me today that they're thinking about putting my grandfather in a nursing home--he had part of his foot removed [complications of his diabetes] about a month ago, and he just hasn't been the same. he's worrying my grandmother to death, and my mother just doesn't know what to do.

this is the worst i've felt about being so far away from all of them.

Novels I forgot! OMG!

2009-12-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

What about the following books . . . now I don't know what to do. I'll have to re-juggle that top 10, I know that.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Dogs of God by Pinckney Benedict
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Sigh. I don't know . . . I probably just love books too much to limit my list to ten. lol.

10 favorite novels of all time.

2009-12-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

So, on one of the mail art sites I belong to, we've been talking about Donna Tartt's The Secret History lately, because several of us just love the book. Her novel The Little Friend is great, too, but it's not as mesmerizing, IMO. In any case, I was trying to decide if The Secret History would be in my Top 10 or Top 5 favorite novels of all time. So, I thought I'd try to list them and figure it out. These are in no particular order, because I'm not sure I could do that.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Suspicious River by Laura Kasischke
The Stand by Stephen King
Break It Down by Lydia Davis
The End of Alice by A. M. Homes
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

I think that's the ten I'd put at the top--but I wonder if I'll think of any I've left off that will make it necessary for me to rework the list, now that it's on my mind. I'm sure I'll be revising. And, now that I'm thinking about this, I might do a list for books of poetry and a list for short story collections, too. :) I can list forever . . . I'm sure lots of us can.

Frannie-Cat's not going to make it as an indoor cat.

2009-12-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

So, we brought her in last night, and she was for the most part an angel. However, while she checked out the litter boxes, she was quite content to pee on our bathroom floor at least twice. Thank goodness for vinyl flooring, but after the cold night, we trundled her little box back out to the front porch. I just don't think we can handle an adult cat who isn't housebroken . . . especially because one of our cats, Jean-Paul, likes to occasionally mark in the house already [he IS fixed, he's just an asshole].

I'm so sad. I'll probably still bring her into the laundry room on cold nights [it rarely freezes here--last night, it did], but I think she'll be my little porch kittie. :(

Here's a photo of her from summer--before we knew she was a girl. She's a little chubbier now, as she's gotten comfortable hanging around with us all the time.

A new cat!

2009-12-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

So, we've been feeding and babying a little female cat we've named Frannie. She lives on our front porch in a box I fixed up for her with fleece blankets. Tonight, I finally talked Steve into letting Frannie come into the house. I think she's a little shell-shocked, with four boy cats trying to say hello, but I think she's glad to be warm. She's lovely--she looks like a long-haired Siamese . . . or a light-colored Himalayan. She takes really good care of herself, so though she's a stray, she's not matted, but she needs a good brushing. I'll have to give her a few days to get used to everyone, but then I can do that and get her shuttled off to the vet. :)

And a little more Christmas . . .

2009-12-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

The white tree's in the kitchen, on top of a pantry cabinet. I love the matte white . . . I bought the tree for seven dollars a few years ago at a Pittsburgh thrift shop. I thought I was going to have to leave it behind when we moved, but we ended up having a little bit of room on the top of our furniture and boxes in the moving truck, so we kicked our artificial trees up on top. :) It seems a shame to use fake trees when we live right in the middle of douglas fir country, but there's something fabulous about fake trees when they are REALLY fake. I love them. And, considering two of ours were second-hand, we figure we're keeping them from clogging up a landfill somewhere. And . . . here is the little pink number in my studio . . . this has some of my vintage glass ornaments. we only brought about half of what I used to have when we lived in Pennsylvania, but surprisingly, not one of them broke on the moving truck. I'm glad--the cats break enough of them.

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas.

2009-12-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here's our living room tree. Thom is sitting in the chair, watching the neighbor's dogs. You can see the squirt bottle there on the floor that we use to keep the cats out of the tree. In an amazing stroke of luck, I found some tree ornaments at Pier 1 Imports tonight that are leftovers from Halloween . . . glittered eyballs, about the size of golfballs. I added them to the tree this evening. I found that pink tinsel last year at Big Lots . . . I should have bought more; it looks vintage!
I made that tree skirt the first year Steve and I lived together--I was still in grad school at WVU. The tree-topper is a tinkerbell from the 1960s, I think . . . I was engaged to someone in the early 1990s, and it was his family's. lol. It might be the best thing about that year I spent with him.
I'm still working on putting some greenery and lights on the front porch, but otherwise, I think I'm done. whew.

Christmastime at the Sargent House

2009-12-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ah, the hubs and I decided to decorate for the holidays this week, because by some divine intervention, we both had Monday evening off, all of Tuesday off, and Wednesday off [until I had to give a final exam at a night class]. We rarely get so much time at home together, so we pulled out the decorations to get started.

Well, first setback was that we bought ourselves a Wii for Christmas . . . so, with the Wii, the Wii Fit crap, a few games and two extra controllers, our holiday spending was kaput. Then, we decided that having the dining room function as my art studio was silly when I could take the spare bedroom for the studio and we could make the dining room a den--for the Wii.

So we rearranged the whole damned house, rehung all of the artwork, and got everything put back together. This was Monday and Most of Tuesday morning. We washed the drapes and hung them back up, and decided to take a nap in the middle of Tuesday afternoon. Steve fell asleep first, and about five minutes into his nap, he had a seizure.

This is his second one ever--the first was last January. So, after making sure he didn't hurt himself during the seizure or during the weird, zombie state that follows, we went to the ER to have his blood levels checked. Turns out he's not taking his medication regularly enough for it to even show on the bloodwork. Nice.

We were in the ER for over three hours. Steve is so sore and stiff that he's not doing much of anything today--fortunately the chiropractor was able to squeeze him in this morning, so I took him there, and then he watched me decorate the Christmas trees from the couch. sigh.

I am a little angry with him for not taking the medication, but he is so crippled up now, that it's hard to be mad. :)

I'll post some photos of the trees . . . I have two little four-foot trees, one pink and one white, and they both have antique glass ornaments on them. The pink one is in my studio, on top of a tall cabinet. The white one's in the kitchen, on top of a pantry cabinet. In the living room, we have an artificial tree that's six feet tall, but we put it up on a little table to add some height. Our ceilings are really tall, so anything looks short. The living room tree has all unbreakable ornaments, since Bolivar is still a kitten technically [though he weighs 10 pounds not] and tears up everything.

Anyhow, I have to work this week on getting some Christmas cards sent out . . . and some presents sent to West Virginia for my nephew. I'm hoping Steve takes a sick day tomorrow to convalesce a little more before heading back to work.

This is a long blog post . . . but you know, I can't go shopping now that we've spent all our money on the Wii and on an emergency room visit, so what else is there?

Bolivar and Danny-Cat

2009-12-06T09:23:00.001-08:00

7. cat helpers
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

Helping me work on an altered book. The task light above the table has Bolivar looking like an angel when he is decidedly not an angel. Danny's in the background. This is in my dining-room-turned-studio.

How awesome is THIS?

2009-12-05T14:05:00.001-08:00

Amy Sargent's work investigates the nuances of pixels through the use of slow motion and close-ups which emphasize the Mechanical nature of digital media. Sargent explores abstract and vintage scenery as motifs to describe the idea of imaginary artifice. Using repurposed loops, non-linear narratives, and allegorical images as patterns, Sargent creates meditative environments which suggest the expansion of art.

What's even BETTER is that it came from a purpose-statement generator! LOL! I sound so important. :) Make your own . . . this might be the best thing I've come across by being Claudine Hellmuth's facebook/twitter friend in quite a while! :)

http://www.playdamage.org/market-o-matic/

Dog and Cat Playing

2009-12-03T08:54:00.001-08:00

Dog and Cat Playing
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

I love this photo. The cat's name is Baby, and she is playing with a dog named Tippy. Cute enough to find in a vintage photo, but I LOVE the ominous shadow creeping in on them from the lower right corner. Somewhere, I have a picture of Baby alone, with no dog or shadow. Someone loved their gray kitty, which makes me smile.

Awesome Quote

2009-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

Someday, I'd like to do something so horrible that it warrants my following up by saying something like this:

"It blew my new career out of the water and turned my pubic hair white overnight." -- Rupert Everett

I think i need to read his book. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins.

Feeding the New Baby

2009-11-29T08:39:00.001-08:00

Feeding the New Baby
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

I love this photo. It's not very good quality, but that makes it somehow better. It seems dreamlike. The back of the photo has no names, but it does say that it's the first photo of the baby, the day after they came home from the hospital. This is from my own collection--feel free to use the image if you like.

Poem.

2009-11-29T07:29:00.001-08:00

My good friend sarah keeps a dream blog, and her most recent entry is titled "in the crawlspace." i am focusing on making that a poem's title . . . i love it. :)

Facebook has me crazy.

2009-11-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

So, I joined Facebook in early 2007 and hated it. HATED it. just never went back . . . then i decided to see if i could remember my login yesterday, and it's amazing! so many people from my undergraduate, from my hometown . . . and some people i'd completely lost track of over a decade ago. And, so many art friends and authors! So, i'm giving it another chance. :) like i need another distraction!

Choosing a Book to Alter

2009-11-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of making a little tutorial on altering books. the first steps--choosing the book, pulling pages, doubling up pages--are walked through at my flickr account. The photos are in order, and numbered, and have directions attached. So . . . Alter a Book, Dammit!

New Vintage Photos.

2009-11-26T09:05:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've uploaded any vintage photos to share--this morning I added about two dozen new ones to my flickr account. As usual, they're free to use in collage and other artwork. Have a fabulous holiday!

two more poetry submissions.

2009-11-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm sending a chapbook manuscript to Finishing Line Press . . . their New Women's Voices contest is open until February, but I figured I'd get something--one thing, at least--out early to a contest. I also am sending a book-length manuscript to Fence Books, for their Motherwell Prize, which is for a first or second book by a woman. They only take submissions for four weeks--the month of November--so that, plus having to be a newer woman writer has to give me a bit more of a chance to be short-listed. I hope. Cross your fingers!

5 x 7 journal pages

2009-11-23T18:27:00.000-08:00

so, my art friend roc is hosting a swap for 5 x 7 journal pages, on which the art must feature numbers, at least three colors, and some sort of texture. i made the six required for the swap, plus an extra for roc and an extra for myself. the background is collaged from scrapbook papers, vintage pages from a fortune-telling book, and some vintage tape measure & foreign stamps. there is some other assorted ephemera in there, too. the green numbers are from old flash cards, and i've added acrylic paint, watercolor crayon, rubber stamping and some marker and colored pencil to them. each page has an image on it that i picked at random from my drawer of images [yes, i really have one]. because i had to add numbers, i decided to make up silly rules--each page features one that i made up. rule 15 is that dutch girls hide their cloven hooves with wooden shoes, and rule 8 is that if you're a tourist, people will excuse your posing with statues, but they won't excuse those shoes. anyhow, these are finished front and back, and i'm sending them out tomorrow to get them on their way before thanksgiving. it's the first swap i've done for a while . . . but it made me want to work on more journaling.

Poetry Contest

2009-11-15T20:17:00.000-08:00

So, I've been trying to find time to revise my manuscript and push it out to a few book contests--and this weekend, I finally have that project done, except for a table of contents and printing it all out.

Calyx Press has a book contest--this is the inaugural year--for Oregon women poets. Their deadline was extended, so I'm hoping that means they are just waiting for my manuscript to arrive. LOL. Their deadline is November 20, so I'm going to try to get this out in the mail on Monday or Tuesday.

I have been trying to decide on a title . . . should the manuscript be Girl Most Likely to Drown, or The Scar Swallower? I'm going with Girl Most Likely to Drown . . . mainly because I'm too lazy to change the name of my blog. LOL.

as mysterious as a cat.

2009-11-14T20:13:00.001-08:00

Poe PAT
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

I made this card for my art friend kristin. She collects ATCs of cats, and ATCs of Edgar Allan Poe--so I decided to combine them. :)

The black cat's body is from an antique halloween postcard, and I just cut Poe's head from one of his portraits. The saying, "I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat" is a quote attributed to Poe.

This is a collage of ledger paper, tax stamps and scrapbooking paper. Then, rubberstamping was added, as was the rubberstamped jar with a raven in it. The pencil is also stamped.

Over top, the card is edged in watercolor crayon and black marker, then layered with melted tulle and transparency with alcohol ink. It's all held together with a few purple staples. I really, really would like to keep this, now that he's finished . . . i just think it's so cute.

Mary Gaitskill on an ATC

2009-11-14T12:22:00.001-08:00

mary gaitskill
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

An art friend of mine requested a card that featured any writer--we're in a swap together in which we pick our themes.

I've chosen to make a Mary Gaitskill card for her--a great quote from her book Bad Behavior, and my favorite picture of her. If you've not heard of Gaitskill, you may be familiar with the film "Secretary," which was based on one of her short stories.

Gosh, this card & quote makes me want to reread the book.

I saw her read in Pittsburgh about three years ago in the dank basement of an art gallery, and she was amazing. She read from Veronica, but she also talked at some length in a Q & A session about her own involvement with JT LeRoy, the child author/literary scam that was the basis for Armistead Maupin's book "The Night Listener."

I have my copy of Bad Behavior signed by her--from that reading. She was shocked to see a first-edition hardback of the book, which was cool, and gave us a reason to talk for a second or two.

two milk caps

2009-11-14T12:01:00.001-08:00

two milk caps
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

here is a little shot of two milk caps from my vintage ephemera drawer--you're welcome to use the image in your collage work if you like. it's been a long time since i've posted anything!

An Excellent Thing.

2009-11-13T18:33:00.000-08:00

So, my friend Katxena has blogged a few times about items in her life that make her short list of "Excellent Things." I haven't been blogging much lately, so I thought I'd give this a try, in an attempt to get back into the swing of things over here--to get myself writing regularly again.

My first Excellent Thing is the hair powder made by
LuLu Organics.

First of all, I'd heard tales of dry shampoo from my mom, who was a beautician in the mid to late 1960s, when women wore wash-and-sets and didn't wash their hair every day. I had thought it was such a great concept, but no one sold it four or five years ago. Then, about two years ago, I came across LuLu Organics' hair powder. I bought this online after reading a little review of it in Bust magazine a while back . . . and it's a little pricey at 40 bux for 4 ounces, but I gave it a whirl when I had a little extra dough.

It is awesome. I have the "lavender and clary sage" scent, and it smells SOO nice! I usually skip a day between hair washings, because a.) I'm lazy, and b.) my haircolor lasts longer and my hair stays shinier.

A little hair powder in the palm of my hands then raked through the hair at my temples and through my bangs is all I do . . . and it adds great texture.

There are more hair powders/dry shampoos on the market right now, but I wouldn't want to try one and be disappointed. :)

Found Poetry

2009-09-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

so i'm hosting a swap at www.atcsforall.com that requires players to come up with found poetry to include on their ATCs. i haven't made any of these in a while, and now i'm on quite a roll . . . maybe i just needed to find a way to meld some writing exercises with some artwork, so that i can get back into the groove of writing [or at least thinking about writing] more regularly. this card uses an image of an eyelid stitched shut that i've had in my box of images forever . . . it finally seemed like a place it fit quite well. i love how each stitch seems to underline the words.

Wednesday Poetry Prompts

2009-09-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

So, this week's prompt is to write a poem that deals with some sort of mislabeling or calling someone/something by the wrong name.

Wednesday Poetry Prompts at Writer's Digest Blogs

I'm going to see what I can do!

hiss.

2009-08-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

the nap, and a day's distance, didn't help. i ordered 8 copic sketch markers last night . . . woot! that made me feel better, as new art supplies always do. lol.

Ranting and Raving about Collage Art

2009-08-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm sick and tired of receiving mail art in arranged swaps that relies almost 90% on purchased collage sheets. I love swapping ATCs and chunky-book pages, but frankly, they are supposed to be little pieces of art, not the same kind of collage we might've thrown together for a grade-school nutrition project by cutting up our mom's copies of Family Circle and Good Housekeeping.

I can't take it. I spend a lot of time on my collages--both in painting and distressing vintage book pages and paper towels for background elements, to locating just the right colors and papers to use, to having the best possible quotes or words or handwriting on my work, to using photographs that I own myself or that I spent at least some amount of time locating for myself. I worry about composition, layering, originality and whether or not the work has an overall statement to make. I create my own collage sheets to save on paper/color photocopying costs, but I don't go on etsy and buy someone else's sheets of crappy, overused, colorized vintage images of little girls in butterfly wings to make my art "easier."

Creating collage is not supposed to be about shortcuts and time-savers . . . it's still supposed to be art. I don't really know if there is any great amount of art involved in cutting images out of a three-dollar collage sheet and glue-sticking them onto a playing card.

I think this may be why I'm hand-drawing more stuff, because I am becoming a collage snob. And I don't like my collages lumped into the same category with collages that look like they came right off a production line.

ugh. Perhaps I just need a nap.

I wrote something!

2009-08-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

So I'm not saying it's fantastic, but it's using the prompt of "writing a poem of return." Here it is.

Home

This town lies
eight wide states away from you.

The smell of this house—
jars of Moroccan lemons, fresh towels,
wild fennel from the yard
my husband's sweat on my skin—
doesn't include you.

You have never sat on this couch,
one ankle crossing the other knee,
staring through my blouse
during a small dinner party.

But I keep opening the front door,
I continue to let you in.

___________

note:

what i like here is how the first line and the last line work alone . . . "This town lies . . . I continue to let you in." I don't even remember where i read about that as a "hidden" technique for adding meaning. i also like that first line break, that makes the mini-sentence "This town lies." it's funny, to me, how quickly those kind of choices become important to me in a little breezy exercise. lol.

Wednesday Poetry Prompts

2009-08-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

So, Writers Digest gives a poetry prompt every Wednesday, and I think I'm going to start trying to do this. Of course, this week's twitter post didn't have a link, so I'm going to start with last week's prompt, which is to write a poem of return.

Wednesday Poetry Prompt

I'll post again today when I have something drafted. :)

Painted Paper Towels: A Tutorial

2009-08-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have been tossing about the idea of making a few tutorials that cover how I make the components of my mixed-media art . . . and this is the first.

In collage projects, I use painted-and-dried paper towels for texture as well as a way to add saturated color to a work. Through my flickr account, I created a little photo walk-through of the process. You can find it here.

Painted Paper Towels

I am going to go out on a technological limb this week and try to do something with a video camera and see if I am capable of creating a YouTube tutorial, too. I'm not promising anything, as I'm pretty easily frustrated with such nonsense.

Back from the Land of the Relatives!

2009-08-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

OMG, it took me far too long to recuperate from my visit to my parents' home. ugh. but, i'm going to try to blog a bit more in the coming weeks. i'm caught up on mail art trades, and while i'm working on a painting for my own living room, i'm pretty freed up, despite finishing up the teaching of a few summer-school classes.

i've missed this!

deconstructing a pattern.

2009-06-14T20:30:00.001-07:00

I decided today to make a pair of cropped pants. And, armed with a Jo-Ann Fabrics 50% off coupon, I went and bought some cotton batik in a brown/gray/purple color. I had an idea in mind of what I wanted to do, but there weren't any patterns for it. A few years ago, I saw a tourist in India wearing a pair of pants that also wrapped like a sarong. It took me a while to find out what they were, because they weren't Indian, and I'd never seen anything like them. I came to learn that they were Thai fishermen's pants, and proceeded to try to order a pair. Now, they're getting a little more common online, because people wear them for yoga.

Here's where things went south. I am a chunky little thing, and these pants come in one size. They don't fit largely enough for me to be able to wrap them around the right way. So, I thought I'd try to alter a pattern and fudge my own pair. What I got isn't quite the same as the Thai pants, but I really like them! Don't look at my chub . . . just at the pants.

This is the pattern I used--Simplicity 2611. Instead of adding the little "drop waist" panel, I just used the FRONT and BACK pieces of the pattern. Rather than cutting the pattern in my regular size, I added three inches to each outer side of the front, and two inches to the outer side of each back panel. This added 10 inches to the circumference of the pants. I also added four inches to the top of the pattern pieces, since I was leaving off the separate panel. I cut the pattern to make the cropped version of the pants [in blue stripes, or View B, on the pattern envelope]. I sewed all four pieces together as usual, then hemmed the waist edge and the legs. I tucked over the front of the pants and pulled them to one side, marked the places where I'd need to add fasteners or ties, and then did that. The front received a tie, as did the right side seam. In the front of the pants, I added two velcro squares just to keep the pants tucked securely. I think they came out great . . . like I said, not quite the Thai pants, but cool and comfy and very easy to pack for my upcoming trip!

A Work in Progress.

2009-06-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

So, my Mother's Day gift is REALLY late. I kept thinking I was going to cross-stitch something to go with a few items I'd picked up, but it didn't happen. I thought about having a Claudine Hellmuth done of my mom, but the custom canvas pieces are too pricey for me right now. Then, I realized, I could totally do something similar myself! So, this is about halfway through . . . I still have a bit of detail and a beeswax coating to put on it.

To explain, my mom's name is Shine. And, she's a very positive person--never hateful, always optimistic, always expecting people to do the right thing. So, over the years, my dad and brother and I have taken to saying she "lives in Shinesville," meaning it in the same way that someone would say another person "sees the world through rose-colored glasses." So, I thought that she might like a little artwork that has her holding a banner that reads "Welcome to Shinesville" to hang in her new home office.* The photo of her head comes from a photo from 1965 or 1966, when she was in beauty school.*

I love her, and I think this is going to be very cute when it's done! Hopefully, my beeswax will be melted by morning, and I'll then be able to start sealing it up. I want to be able to take it with me when I leave town on the 18th. Late Mother's Day presents have to suck . . . so I'm hoping she'll forgive me a little bit.

*She went on to become a nurse, then a case manager, and now she works for an insurance company as a hospital liaison. She'll start working from home in late July . . . a perk of her job.

A free image.

2009-06-13T15:38:00.001-07:00

here's a baby . . . i just picked this cabinet card up this morning for 50 cents at an antique shop in downtown roseburg! apparently, this is what mouth-breathers look like as infants. For a bigger version of this image, and for more free images, visit my flickr page--the link is in my blog's left-side column!

Dude Craft

2009-06-13T15:30:00.001-07:00

So, I found this awesome blog . . . it's really neat, and I love that it's also from a guy in Durham, NC. I have a friend from grad school that lives there, so I can imagine that HE is dude craft. LOL. Dude Craft

My New Art Banner!

2009-06-12T22:13:00.001-07:00

Art Banner Closeup
Originally uploaded by amyfaerie

My friend roc hosted a little private swap, and each of us sent in pennants with A, with R, and with T on them. We received one of each in return, each by a different artist. These are artists I've never traded with [deb, melinda & shelley] so that was fantastic--AND i love how the three pennants look together! I tacked them here on my studio counter, but i need to find them a more permanent home.

OMG!

2009-06-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm done grading and posting my grades to the campus database! WOO HOO! I'm here for another 90 minutes or so, to pass back assignments to students who drop by, but I'm done for a while!

I'm teaching an online literature course that runs for 10 weeks of the summer starting on June 22, and I'll be teaching an on-campus writing course in August, but overall, I don't have to be back here on campus until July 27.

I have commencement ceremonies tonight, a meeting in Eugene on Tuesday, then I'm leaving for Indiana/Pennsylvania/Virginia on Thursday of next week. So, I have a little time between now and then--five days or so--to cuddle my cats, hug my hubbie, and enjoy my little house & its garden. :)

I'm only taking colored pencils, a little travel watercolor kit, and some bristol board with me on my travels, so that I can also take my writing journals and laptop with me and actually FOCUS on my writing. I need to write more, and revise older work, and get manuscripts out in circulation this summer. Many chapbooks and first books contests are opened in summer, so I have to do something!

2009-06-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

Art Trader
So, I was asked to step in and serve as an assistant editor for Art Trader magazine for a while, as one of their current editors takes a break from the job. I am thrilled--I think it will be great fun, as I've not edited anything besides student work in ages, and because it combines writing/editing with art, which is something that doesn't happen all that often for me, outside of my journals.

A friend graduates!

2009-06-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

My mail-artist friend Dana just graduated from Purdue University with a PhD in Composition & Rhetoric. A few months back, her mum put out a call for some of her mail art friends to make 4x4 chunky-book pages for Dana so they could be compiled in an art book celebrating the occasion. Dana is looking at the page I made her in this photo, posted at www.atcsforall.com by her mom. My page includes the Louisa May Alcott quote, "She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." I would die a happy person if someone were to make that statement about me. Congrats, Dana!

Be Kind.

2009-06-07T06:03:00.001-07:00

so this is new at Vintagraph, and i think i may need to order a print of it for my office. i love their restorations of vintage posters, but usually because they're to circumvent syphilis outbreaks and to advertise milk . . . this one, like all book- and reading-based crap in the universe, has been filed in my very exclusive mental folder--"Bluestocking Stuff." I must own it, or spend a lifetime coveting it. Vintagraph's prices are really reasonable, too, so I think that later in the summer, once I'm back from my travels, I'll order it and have it framed.

Almost at the end. And the beginning!

2009-06-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a hectic two weeks here, between home issues and school work . . . but I'm almost at the end of the term. Two more days of classes, then final exam week. So, a firestorm of grading this coming weekend, then a small break.

On June 18, I'm flying to indianapolis for three days of meeting friends and creating art with a group of 40 to 50 mail art friends from a few online communities. It's a small gathering at a hotel--not so much a formal conference like the ones I go to for teaching. I'm really excited--almost all of these people are friends that I've not met IRL, so I'm sure I'll take hundreds of photographs. I'm also giving a little workshop on how to make resin-coated rolled paper beads. There are about 8 of us giving workshops, I think. :)

Last April, I went to an art weekend at Shelley's house at the NJ shore, and there I met several artists--both Shel [shoreart] and Dar [artedar] are coming to this Indy weekend. And, Shirley [lilbad], who lives in Eugene, OR, is also going, and I met her when I first moved here. So, other than that these will all be first-time meetings!

I'm sharing a hotel room with Heidi, who is coming from Canada, and with Katie V., who is from Indiana. Heidi's a new addition to our room, as of tonight, but I'm excited! She trades her art using the Artist ID "Siena" at atcsforall.com, and her artwork is lovely.

I fly into Indy at 9:30 pm on Thursday, and two other artists I've not met, Mary [malicea10] and Debra [goatgoddess], are picking me up at the airport. That should be very cool, too. I'm trying to decide how much of my art-supply stash I can jam into one carry-on and one checked bag. LOL!

One of my favorite writing quotes.

2009-06-01T06:56:00.001-07:00

This is attributed to Anne Sexton, the late American confessional poet.

"Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard."

I use it in my artwork often, too . . . it's much more than a "writing quote," in my opinion--for anyone seeking a muse, trying to find a voice, looking for the "right" way to express oneself, these are words to live by. [Or, as the English teacher in me would like to say, words by which to live.]

By the way, this is my favorite photo of Sexton . . . she was a glamorous woman, almost always photographed with a cigarette in her hand.

2009-05-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

here's a photo taken from a 1940s yearbook i bought a year or two ago . . . great fodder for scratching faces out, calling names, and adding moustaches.

I never claimed to be graceful.

2009-05-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what comes over me sometimes. The college is having sidewalks replaced, and on Tuesday of this past week, both sidewalks leading from the parking lot to my building were torn up. I thought, "I think I can straddle and step over that stone wall" as to avoid walking about 10 yards out of my way. I failed miserably. This was taken about an hour ago. So 4-5 days later, I look like someone beat the back of my leg with a 2x4. I was wearing a dress that day, to top things off, and I have little stubby fat legs, too . . . I should have known better!

A Wrinkle.

2009-05-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

Steve, my DH, is not happy with our living in Roseburg. I love my job, the area of the country, my coworkers, the students . . . and this little town and our adorable little rental house have grown on me. However, I think that something's going to give--whether it's that he ends up renting a room in Portland or Seattle and visiting Roseburg a few times a month, or whether he decides he can suck it up and deal with living here and cooking at the casino in Canyonville.

He works as the head line cook under the sous chef that runs the Camas Room, which is the fine-dining restaurant at the casino. This is a great job, considering the area we live in, the current economy, and the fact that he didn't have any local references. However, he was the head chef at a French bistro in Pittsburgh, where he created menus and had a great deal of control over the quality and freshness of the ingredients. The owner of the bistro was a French transplant who had a great love of food, and he and Steve worked well together.

Regardless. I got the job here, which we discussed for MONTHS, and now suddenly the agreement to move here seems to have been well thought-out by me, but perhaps not by Steve, who is now filled with huge regrets, I believe. Sigh.

Do you draw? Could you draw a monster?

2009-05-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

An artist friend of mine in the UK named Paul [artist ID: Coop] is collecting ATC-sized portraits of the Frankenstein monster. His blog is here A Patchwork of Flesh and you can browse around there and see what he's already received. I had to sit down and do something for him! As long as it's 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, if you send him an art card, it's gonna count! I drew this with a Copic multiliner and colored it with sharpies in clover and chartreuse and green, plus the charcoal one from the new "cafe colors" set. The black on the shirt and yellow background were done with marvy pigment markers.

Friday's free image.

2009-05-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

I love that this photo of these two brothers is already distressed . . . i think it will add a great detail to an altered art piece.

A trophy, of sorts.

2009-05-28T07:18:00.001-07:00

so i'm not usually the kind of person who laughs at roadkill, but this is bizarre. and weirdly funny.

More photos.

2009-05-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Amy's Flickr
You know, I have not quite a hundred vintage photos available for free download/printing on my flickr account! Sift through them anytime, and use what you can! This weekend, I should be adding more. I'm going to try over the summer to get my entire stash of vintage photos scanned and uploaded to share them. I want to make this baby's doll into something creepy . . . I love the idea of altering the baby AND the doll.

Outstanding Instructor? OMG!

2009-05-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

So, the nominees for "Outstanding Full Time Instructor" were posted at UCC, and I think there are five or six names. I am shocked to learn that I am one of them! I was tickled . . . considering it's my first year at the college, I would have never expected it. I don't know anything about the details of when the students vote, but I don't even care about the outcome. I just love that someone thought to nominate me. :)

UPDATE:
There is actually a rule that states that probationary faculty members are not allowed to be nominated, so my name will not be on the final ballot. However, I think it's really cool that it happened. :)

Writers & Artists

2009-05-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

OMG, I love this quote!

"The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal."
--Elia Kazan

Angry Baby.

2009-05-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

I love the expression on this baby's face! Print him out and use him in your art! He could become a zombie baby really easily, too. I think that may be what I do with him!

A free image.

2009-05-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo from my collection . . . I've not used it in any art yet, but anyone's welcome to download it and use it in their own work, as long as she isn't selling the image. They are begging to become witches this halloween.

Blast from the Past.

2009-05-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't thought about the band Ween in ages . . . I love that they are my wake-up laugh today. It's just a bonus that it's at Yanni's expense. I love the Fail blog.

Charles Simic: Quote and Poem.

2009-05-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

“Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.”

--Charles Simic

I think I'm going to try to start adding a quote once a week at least, that deals with writing or poetry. Maybe a poem, too. Charles Simic is credited with this one . . . and while I've never been an enormous fan of his poetry, I have heard him speak and read his work twice, and that makes me love him--he's kind of an old curmudgeon, and I love that he doesn't try to hide in when making appearances. I do love the following poem, though. It's available, with others of Simic's, at www.poets.org, too.

Eyes Fastened With Pins

How much death works,
No one knows what a long
Day he puts in. The little
Wife always alone
Ironing death's laundry.
The beautiful daughters
Setting death's supper table.
The neighbors playing
Pinochle in the backyard
Or just sitting on the steps
Drinking beer. Death,
Meanwhile, in a strange
Part of town looking for
Someone with a bad cough,
But the address somehow wrong,
Even death can't figure it out
Among all the locked doors...
And the rain beginning to fall.
Long windy night ahead.
Death with not even a newspaper
To cover his head, not even
A dime to call the one pining away,
Undressing slowly, sleepily,
And stretching naked
On death's side of the bed.

I love my librarian.

2009-05-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, the reference librarian at UCC and I met for a drink at a local pub. It was great fun, and I think that we have more in common than we both thought . . . a very cool evening spent out, being a social human being. I feel a bit weird, but no grading, no writing, and no mail art tonight! I've had a crappy headache all day, so it was nice to try to ignore it for a while. I have got to get to the doctor's . . . I think that every Spring day in Oregon unearths another pollen to which I'm allergic.

I did watch The Grudge III this afternoon, though. Guess what? It was abysmal.

A Recent ATC.

2009-05-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

So I LOVE taking pictures of people I don't know, preferably vintage photos of children and girls, and adding insults to them. These girls are from a late-1940s yearbook . . . and I've decided one is "loose" and one is a bitch. together, they're loose bitches, which delights me to no end. this is an atc for a swap at www.illustrated atcs.com. i don't make as many atcs as i used to, but they're fun to do for a change. keep in mind, too, that i teach writing/english to college students, so my fascination with insults and swearing is probably a little unhealthy. LOL! i like to blame it on the two years i spent in a sorority during my undergraduate at West Liberty State College--no one I've met since knows how to string together vulgarities like those Delta Zetas.

Hunter S. Thompson

2009-05-20T19:42:00.001-07:00

so, this is kinda literary, right? this is actually the first lolcat i'd ever seen, and it's still a favorite.

A Recent Work.

2009-05-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is a chunky book page, 4 inches square, for a swap in which I'm participating at www.iatcs.com. This is for Judithann, and it's her cat. We all picked a particular photo to share, and the other six artists in the swap have to make a page using that photo. So, we'll each have a 6-page book ultimately, with 6 different artists' takes on the same snapshot.

I colored the cat--the photo made her look black, but she's brown IRL. I then added vintage text and printed papers, handwriting, watercolor crayon, alcohol inks on transparency, melted tulle and colored staples. There is a charm that will be attached to the page before I send it--but 3D embellishments scan so poorly that I leave them off until I'm done scanning.

Really, Smith Family Bookstore? Really?

2009-05-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

So, last week I called the Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene. I was looking for a copy of The Safety of Objects by A. M. Homes. Apparently, somehow, my copies of that title and of her Music for Torching were mis-sorted into a "sell" pile when I was packing to move to Oregon last summer.

So, both locations--downtown and near campus--told me that they didn't have it. The campus location told me that they had none of her books. I spelled her name, saying "H-O-M-E-S, not H-O-L-M-E-S."

Still, no dice. Now, Eugene's about 75 minutes from here, so I don't go there all the time. I didn't want to drive up there only to find out they didn't have the book.

So yesterday, the hubs and i decided to take a drive up there to go to the farmer's market, to buy an extremely belated mother's day gift for my mama, and to fart around. I stopped in the campus-area Smith Family Bookstore to just double-check on their lack of A. M. Homes books.

I'd like to say I was surprised, but I'm not. They probably had 20 copies of assorted books by her, including two copies of The Safety of Objects. I doubt two people sold that book to them in the last week--and I know it's impossible that they had a sudden influx of 20 copies of various Homes books. Ugh. Of course, I bought the two books that I needed--I even got Music for Torching in hardback. But I was really angry, and squinted my eyes menacingly as I gave them my money.

An interesting development.

2009-05-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

I'm completely stressed out over these writing papers, but somehow listening to The Flaming Lips in my office is making me a little happier. I use my iPod as a mood-altering drug far too infrequently.

Reading Term Papers.

2009-05-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm weighed down, emotionally and physically, with the research papers that my WR123 students have been working on for their whole term. The assignment was to write an argumentative research-backed paper with at least 12 sources [8 of which should be scholarly journal articles] and12-15 pages of writing. APA format.

For some reason, as soon as students read "12-15 pages of writing" and "research-backed," most of them interpret the assignment as finding as many sources as possible, then proceeding to write a paper that is little more than a patchwork-quilt of source information. oh my.

I find myself writing over and over again--"Where are YOU in this paper?" "How do these sources work to support your own claim on the topic?" "Where are you connecting these sources to the original argumentative claim, and allowing that claim to function as the thread that holds the paper together with one focus?"

I am certain I covered this in class in great detail, but somehow it's not translating once students leave the classroom to work independently on the project. I'm not sure what I can do in future terms to help with this--I'm sure it's frustrating for them, not just for me.

And, if that wasn't enough stress and worry, I also had eight students out of 35 choose to NOT turn in this draft. It's worth 30% of the course grade. If I had a camera phone, I might take a photo of myself pulling out my own hair in rage, then send that to the class.

Gothic Arches.

2009-05-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

I have recently been accepted at a juried mail-art site, and this is a sample from one of the first art swaps I've joined there. it's for 4x6-inch gothic arches that had to include a vocabulary flash card. Mine are little French/English ones from the 1960s or 1970s.
I've made seven of them, six for the swap and one for the host, Annie, as a gift. "Doigt" means "finger," by the way, which I thought was amusing. And I love picking on photos of little kids, by calling them devils or brats in my assemblages.
This is made with printed papers, vintage book text, a photocopy of a vintage photo, melted tulle, caran d'ache, alcohol inks on acetate, colored staples, graphite pencil, permopaque marker, a paint sample chip, metallic sharpie, acrylic paints, and more. The cardboard from a box of granola bars is the substrate.

Are YOU an English Nerd?

2009-05-16T03:57:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's true. I am one. This made me smile.
English Nerd anecdote.

Cultural Sensitivity? Maybe Not.

2009-05-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Redneck Haiku
This made me laugh out loud, even though I know better. I think that being born and raised in West Virginia affords me a certain amount of "allowed" mirth at the expense of the redneck stereotype. My great-grandfather was a redneck--officially. He worked in the coal mines in Brooke County, West Virginia. So there you have it. The first haiku is my favorite.

Macbeth, in Ashland, Oregon

2009-05-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

So I went to see Macbeth at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon yesterday. The college pays for students in my ENG105 [intro to literature, focusing on drama] and in Pete Anderson's Shakespeare courses to attend a matinee. Only about 12 students from each class went, but I think those students really enjoyed it overall.

I was impressed with a lot of the play . . . the stage direction and set design was fabulous, and the costumes were great. they wore WWII-era soldiers uniforms, for the most part, and Lady Macbeth wore a deep ruby color in all scenes except her final scene, when she wore a tattered white nightgown.

Lovely stuff. I was surprised, though, by the casting. The cast was multiracial, which is fantastic, but the choice of race for some characters was a bit odd. Macbeth was played by an African-American actor, and I thought that his portrayal of Macbeth had unintentional racial implications . . . here was a big, power-hungry, strong Black man who wanted to please his greedy shrew of a wife [who was white, btw]. I thought that it just seemed awkward, and McDuff's wife was portrayed by an Asian woman, and the character was reduced to a silent china-doll stereotype through most of her appearance.

I know it wasn't a thing that was intended, but I thought it was a little sloppy.

However, the play used three little girls, kind of like a gothic version of those famous Diane Arbus twins, to represent insanity, and that was genius. And, the three visions that the witches show Macbeth at one point are represented by these little deformed people that scurry off stage after popping out of the cauldron. Very cool.

Anyhow, some of the students had never seen a major production of a stage play, so it was a great opportunity. And, Ashland's only two hours south of here, so I may be tempted to go back this summer and see something else. :) Both Don Quixote and Shakespeare's Henry VIII are being put on this summer . . . i'm thinking that if we can afford it, Steve and I might go down and spend two nights . . . see both plays, one on Sunday & one on Tuesday.

Bees!

2009-05-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I have bees on the brain today--it's a beautiful afternoon, and I'm smelling flowers and listening to the kids across the alley play basketball. it is SO nice to have the house opened up!
i am trading art with a few friends, each of us is making a 3.5 x 5 inch piece of art, inspired by bees. this is my piece. it's got an overlay of acetate with alcohol-ink staining and bees stamped on it. it is watercolor paper and vintage text, painted with acrylics on a brayer. then, the letter B was stenciled on with PITT pen and prismacolors in yellows. then, a few asian bee images were added, then a rubber-stamped beehive became the body of a girl; i used a vintage image for the head and drew on wings and hair. there's a stamped bee in her hair, too. i added the letter B rubber-stamped around, and a caran d'ache edging in hot pink over a black permopaque edge. green staples hold on the acetate. oh, and there are images of wooden bee hives in the background, too. whew!

i outlined some things with charcoal pencil, and added a chinese fortune that had a bee stamped on it. that's my friday art. loL!

okay, so tomorrow is catturday, so here's a lolcat.

2009-05-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

this one almost made me spit up. i love lolcats, but i try to stay away, as i can get caught up in just looking through the archives forever . . . i do love them. and, who doesn't love a little Blind Melon reference now and then?

Outstanding Students . . . I have more than one, but . . .

2009-05-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Next Wednesday, UCC has their annual Outstanding Student Reception. I was able to nominate the outstanding writing student for the year--my student KL.

He's a nontraditional student, and he's a fantastic writer. He's lived a ridiculously full, crazy, enviable life, and his journal writing last term was hysterical, incisive and peerless. Additionally, his academic writing is accomplished, stylistically unique and always interesting. Regardless, I have to write up a little paragraph about him and present him with a certificate. :)

I'm excited--and I was certain that KL would roll his eyes in his head when I told him about it, but he seemed excited, too.

So it should be a nice little afternoon thing. I'll post a picture if I have one taken! :)