It's Amazing...

Wild Geese

 

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

 

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

 Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver. Wild Geese. 

Harsh and Exciting

Perhaps this is interesting only to me, but I have ALWAYS found my detritus more interesting than my applied arts. That is to say, the scrap paper under my art projects without fail turns out to be more interesting to me visually, than the applied project I'm working on. Because it is entirely random. So at long last I wised up.

Traditionally I've used a pad of newsprint as a desk blotter and just thrown away each page as I've worked on each project. But I've always loved those newsprint pages. Alas, they are notorious for being riddled with acid. Not unlike my soul (not really).

So, 'lo at this advanced year of mine I finally wised up and bought a tablet of Strathmore Drawing Paper 14x17 inches and I put that underneath my laptop and my art projects. This time I saved
my sheet and was so happy with the ink remainders that I added just a few stencils and 'lo, it came to pass that I actually for once liked something I made.

Point of fact, I live in a dungeon without natural light, so all of my photos look a bit...palid.
But this paper came out so pink and blushing and lovely. And my Cosmo looked so pretty with it.
I shall post the lovely Mary Oliver poem next from whence this page was inspired.

Also, the bracelets. They are from Forever 21. I always feel like alarms are going to screech, "Middle-aged woman in the store! Middle-aged woman in the store!" but who would even know over the deafening shit-soundtrack the store plays ad nauseam. But at any rate, I buy a fair amount of jewelry from them because it's so fun and fresh and CHEAP!  Plus, huzzah huzzah, it actually comes in tiny wrist sizes, as the Lord saw fit to give me tiny wrists but a honkin' ass. Still...for the record. I wouldn't trade for huge wrists and a tiny ass because there's no disguising huge cankles and wrists. Poor dears.

What was my point? Oh...I can't stand bangles falling all over the place so I add just a tiny chain around them to hold them all together. I haven't actually done that in reality but I plan to with that pile of bangles you see pictured. Just in time for summer with my janky fingernails from all the art shit also picture here. What's a girl to do.

Behold!

When I'm making my art, I eventually end up with a pile of eyeglasses of varying diopters. I curse my middle-aged poor vision. It's really a nuisance. That said I do like my frames, purchased from
I.C.U Eyewear or Deb's Spec's.  I love Eyebobs too, but they are crazy expensive. And yes, those are Martha Stewart Paints you see but please, let us not give that woman any more PR than she already drums up for herself.

At least I can find some succor in the cocktail mentioned here.

Ransom me

A few days ago I saw this clever idea on Pinterest for organizing found letters; perhaps for composing a ransom note? The photo originated on Natalie Ratkovski's lovely Flickr photostream.


After discussing the project with my supremely talented sister "Calypso" on Pinterest, I'm prompted to share my own clever idea for organizing the alphabet.

Using plastic jewelry bags from Michaels, I used rub-on letters for each bag, punched a hole in the top (the bag opening facing down as you see here), and put the whole shebang on a binder ring.
Theoretically, as I make or find letters I just put them in their respective bag and then it's ready to go for a journal page or ransom note if needed.

I hang the ringed-set from a magnetic clip on the side of my file cabinet.

After all that work, I've collected maybe.... 8 total letters? And here's what my first and last ransom note will say...{click on image to make it a little larger and then click anywhere on the black space to return to this page}

The sublime into the mundane

I downloaded a neat little app called Visual Poet onto my iPhone. It's not without its bugs (like the inability to work with the type), but the app does allow one to make these nice little photobooth-esque strips of poetry, all from your little 'ol phone.

I think it would be cool to print them on photo paper and make nice bookmarks with them. Be sure and check out Visual Poet's own site and on Tumblr. Some clever designers have used the app quite effectively for promo materials.

And now let us welcome the new year....

full of things that have never been - Rilke

Well, the one constant in 'lo these many years of mine, is that there's nary been a new year I haven't been trying to get my act together. Why succeed now? Nevertheless... I do keep trying.

Besides just the usual reponsibility to be an upstanding citizen of the universe, I think I'll attempt to rock the coat/sweater-off-the-shoulders look this year. And by extension it sort of includes the cape/cloak look at well.

If you really stop and give it some thought, and seriously, several martini's do aid in that endeavor, it's a look that works for many people: superheroes, Liberace, nurses in the old days, Bobbies, boxers, Grace Kelly, Quentin Crisp, Harry Potter, The Three Musketeers, Little Red Riding Hood and so on.

Somehow, you just look more chic. Even if it's a just a Land's End sweater, somehow draped over your shoulders with some gloves and a handbag, you look like you must live an interesting life.

But, let's keep it real here. It's kind of a pain when you're also carrying a totebag full of work stuff, a bento box for lunch, and a stack of Netflix DVDs that should have been mailed 3 months-ago and "NO, I"m not streaming them because I don't know how to do that..".

And really, what the does the look say? "OH! I'm in such a hurry I can't put my arms through the sleeves!!!!", or "MY, the draft in this palatial abode is so chilly! Let me just wrap this not-fake cashmere coat around me..." But honestly, I really don't care what anyone else thinks about it. I"m gonna give it a whirl.

So that's that.

Regarding the subject of chalkboard lettering and developing one's own "hand"; I used a new fat, and "phat" chalk marker made by Wet Wipe for the broad tip "2013" and a Gelly Roll medium tip for the lettering.

I find that if I just stop worrying, a "hand" does develop with the right pen. That's just my everyday normal handwriting you see.  Though God knows it's a miracle to find a decent white pen that actually works well. I still haven't bought the elusive UniBall Signo.

Here's to a year ahead of fashion panache. Clink!