Photo/text mashup

I’ve done these off and on for a long time. This one is probably 20 years old. A friend of mine found a big bag of family photographs sitting out on the sidewalk one day. Some of them dated back to the 1930’s in eastern Europe. They showed women posing in bathing suits at a beach and men with fedoras looking straight at the camera.

This is one of those photos. I’ve wondered many times what would make someone throw out this extensive collection. The only story that makes sense is that whoever had them was the last of the family and no one was left to want them. Well, I did.

David Bowie, collaborator

Like everyone else I know, I’ve been listening to David Bowie all week and thinking about him a lot.

One thing I always admired him for is that he did so much work with other musicians and that the wholes they created were greater than the sum of the parts.

He didn’t just find “Bowie types” to work with and co-opt them. The collaborations were all clearly contributed to equally by both parties. Some of his partners: Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Freddie Mercury, Mick Ronson, Tony Visconti, Lou Reed, Robert Fripp, Trent Reznor and John Lennon (that one I didn’t know about! They wrote “Fame.”)

I want more collaboration in my life and especially in my art this year. David is my inspiration.

What I’m working on now

I’ve been making what I call dioramas (for lack of a better word) in small boxes recently. The first ones were in big boxes and were part of a piece called What I See When I Close My Eyes.

I have two currently on view at Art Thou Gallery in Berkeley. Here’s one of them.

Now I’m messing around with the miniature figures again, in even smaller scenes. I also painted them differently, just to see what it looks like. Painting them all black or all white gives them a more iconic presence. When I paint in clothing details, they seem more individual. That gives the scene a different flavor.

Here the backdrop is a photo I took in Central Park years ago with my old Palm Pilot. I like the watercolor effect. I’m thinking of finding public spots I can tuck my scenes into, so people will just come upon them. Now I’ll fiddle with what kind of container to put them in.

Poetry Assemblage

I created these poetry collage elements for a show. I set them out on a table and then provided a “canvas” of black velvet for people to create their own assemblages.

It can be an exercise in forced associations, or a dada type collage combining the randomness of the images and the text.

 

Little furniture

I’m working on a new diorama. I made these furniture mock-ups to experiment with the light.

I wanted to use white paper drinking straws for the legs but they are hard to find, as it turns out. So just ignore those weird blue stripes.

Photo deconstruction

Poem on Demand

On Friday night, Andy made me write this poem. I’d told him that I wanted to start writing poems on demand and he said, write one now. Um, okay. He gave me a topic and then went off to pick a lock while I wrote. Then he made me stand up in the living room and read it aloud. What a great boyfriend, no?

Lobsters Live Forever

Lobsters are black
or green
gliding on the bottom
of the ocean
What do they see in the murk?

As years go by they grow
longer and fatter and blacker
They cease to glide and instead
stomp slowly across the ocean
floor
they bang their claws, usually
one side harder than the other,
to create a rhythm
that gets louder every year, a rhythm
that affects tides
capsizes boats
destroys sandcastles

Even the ocean
only has room for a certain
number of giant
stomping lobsters

When they are large enough to reach the pole, north
or south, they converge and
the clashing of claws begins,
shakes the ice
cracks glaciers
causes fear and trembling in
the undersea world

In their battle they
surge upwards and finally, at last
for the first time,
break the surface
The glittering ice
surrounds them and cracks
the black shells into
beautiful shards to
checkerboard the snow.

Andy Goldsworthy

I love Andy Goldsworthy.

I was in San Francisco last week, near the Presidio, scouting around for something to see or do before heading home. I discovered that there are two Goldsworthy pieces in the Presidio. He’s made a third one that opened yesterday and I’m eager to see it. Here’s Tree Line:

Many of Goldsworthy’s pieces involve natural elements that are carefully fitted together. For this piece, he picked out logs that fit together well and created the curve he wanted. Since these logs aren’t easily shoved around, it must’ve taken awhile to get the right combination. But it creates such a graceful line.

 

Push comes to shove

AKA, the moment of truth.

Tonight I took a so-so photo and wrote a mediocre poem. I could delete them, but, no. I’m going to put them on the blog as part of my experiment to post something creative everyday. Or at least the results of my creative endeavors. Even if I never go back to this poem I have proof that I did something today.

Plus, I’m inspired by Chuck Close:

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

I’ve learned to say what I mean
to speak plainly
let the words be themselves

I’ve learned to say, dogs are wonderful
if it’s dogs i’m talking about
dogs can just be dogs
they don’t have to stand for something else

I don’t have to stand for something else

A morning of cool air and sun and light traffic
a wide sidewalk with sun coming through the trees,
shining on the houses opposite
the dog walks beside me
a car backs out of a driveway
the dog stops
she looks at me
we wait

Reversi

I made a bunch of these photo collages back in May when a friend gave me a shopping bag of photos she no longer wanted. I selected the ones I thought were interesting graphically or colorwise and laid them out on my studio table and started moving them around. I took photos of the results.

On Friday, I discovered that the call for submissions for PaperGirl SF was going to be today and I wanted to use that technique again. I didn’t save any of my combos, so I had to make new ones that I printed onto paper for the show.

The previous series had almost all the photos upside down. This time I paired one upside down one with a right side up one. The show opens October 19. Here’s what I submitted last year: http://www.papergirl-sf.com/gallery.html. Click on Artwork 2012 and look at the beginning of row 49.