Have You Seen This?

Today's post for Qarrtsiluni just knocked me out.

Verklempt

Ashley drew my name for our Secret Santa exchange. She made me this gorgeous collage/painting piece based on one of my poems, "In Transit." I can't wait til after the holidays to get it framed and hanged. It was perfect: unexpected and lovely.

"In Transit"


"In Transit" detail a


"In Transit" detail b


"In Transit" detail c

Now With Active Cultures

The long weekend away was lovely. It was nice to have the luxury of sitting with my own work, some favorite books; plus I got to share favorite poems and my own poems with friends. Some revising got done and more thoughts and notes on poems-in-progress. All in all, a valuable trip.

~*~

Signage from along the way (this makes me wish I had a digital camera...of course, I was driving solo so getting the pic would have been tricky.) This was on one of those large illuminated signs you see in car lots etc, at the Rustic Inn and Cafe near Marlinton.

*VACANCY!*
*WATCH THE GAME!*
*MATTRESS SALE!*

~*~

Saturday we went to the WV Book Festival in Charleston. Our friend and former teacher Irene was reading and acting as part of a panel for the festival. She was fabu. She owned it. She has this habit of offering a seemingly tangential/effacing introduction to the poems that end up just being a gut-punch. The poem hits hard, her comment hits hard--it's really something. I've seen her in action numerous times over the years and I still have yet to figure out how she does it. She owned the room, hands down.

We ended up being locked in the conference room for about 10 minutes after the panel because the Secret Service was moving Bill and/or Hillary Clinton through to some Democratic hooh-hah being held on-site.

~*~

Another art opening tomorrow. I'm hope-hope-hope-hoping beyond hope that this one is better than last months. Later tomorrow night, I'm reading with Eric. I've got my set list, I'm ready to go...I'm only wondering just how much product it's gonna take to hold my mohawk for 6 hours.

$1500, Not For Sale

After the miserable gallery experience of a few weeks ago, the kids (Tommy, Ashley, Eric) and I sat at dinner and decided that we would get together and make our own assemblage art pieces. Ashley hosted and that weekend we got to it. There is, sadly, a lack of pubic hair on these pieces which I fear will limit their retail worth. I believe each piece is valued at $1500.00 American, but because they are now part of private collections, they're no longer available. We're also lacking individual artist statements regarding their works. Larger images available here.

"Untitled," Mixed Media Assemblage, by A. Lawson
part of the Schoffler Permanent Collection


"Do Not Kill the Animal," Mixed Media, Poster Paint, Mod Podge, by E. Waggoner
part of the Gibson Permanent Collection


inset of "Do Not Kill the Animal"


"Out Door and Camp Life for Women," Mixed Media, Acrycilic Paint, by R. Gibson
part of the Lawson Permanent Collection

How to Rob...Beaux Arts Edition

As Eric said to me last night: I'm in the wrong racket. There's no other way to explain it. I am ready to renounce poetry entirely and become a visual artist. I can certainly put together as good a show as the one I saw last night.

It was one of the worst shows I've seen in years. I've seen undergraduate thesis shows that were more interesting (and better executed) than this one was. Billed as a series of photocollage work, the show was nothing more than a series of photos (not all taken by the artist) juxtaposed with "found" "repurposed" items (any old junk she had lying around) "mounted" on 18" x 24" artist's paper (it's sad when paper size is the only thing you remember from the artist's statement...but there it is.)

It was obvious--a black and white picture of trees had a snarl of black thread coming down from the lowest margin of the photo; a black and white picture of a stone wall had little squares of tracing paper painted grey taped in a stack beneath the lowest margin of the photo. It was sloppy--tape was visible on several of these pieces and one of the framed works had a crisp short kinky hair trapped between the matte and the glass...yes...she hung a piece of art with a visible pube (and no it wasn't intentional..."pubic hair" wasn't mentioned in the list of mixed media.) Plus the frames were cheap. If you're asking that much money for "recycled" art, for fuck's sake, professionally frame that shit.

Look around your house...if you have a black and white photo and some black electrical tape, you can slap it on some paper and ask 1200.00 for it. Or maybe you have some old negatives and a spool of thread? That's also 1200.00. Tulle? Bubble wrap? Packing material? 900.00 and 1000.00!

I was glad Brian called me just a minute or so into her "lecture" (a series of obvious statements about fun, form (Do you know what I mean when I say formal qualities?) that lasted a scant 10 minutes. Had I stayed for the whole thing, I think I'd have had to cut the bitch.

More Baltimore Photoblogging

Across Howard Street from Brian's building is this sort of parkish area. When we were out walking around I saw this sculpture there and found it really striking. Usually sculpture doesn't do much for me--I seem to have a hard time relating to three-dimensional space and the way art pieces act within it and upon it...but I digress. I really liked this piece. The inset tile pieces are actually shards of ceramic plates and cups. Above the figure's head are an inset series of shells taken from a necklace. It never occured to me to get a closer picture to show them in situ.

From the WTF Case Files

I was out running errands this evening, listening to NPR's Weekend Edition. There was a segment discussing the Picassos stolen from his granddaughter's apartment. The guest being interviewed was Thomas McShane--apparently a former FBI agent working in their Art Fraud division. It was a painful few minutes of radio (audio can be found here.) I was startled to learn that it's entirely likely that the theft could be the work of terrorists! To raise money for weapons! Or just to have a piece of art to admire! He also told (what I assume were supposed to be) interesting anecdotes from his past cases. At some point during the interview (I refuse to relisten to pinpoint exactly where it comes) they give a plug for his book Stolen Masterpiece Tracker. Which was followed by the line: "The Dangerous Life of the FBI's Number One Art Sleuth." I thought this was some sort of bald self-promotional hyperbole, the work either of the man himself or some promo-copy flack until I went to Amazon and saw that it's actually on the book's cover. (I'd call it a subtitle, except for the fact that it runs like a marquee across the top of the book, above the title.) Who knew the FBI had Art Sleuths? Who knew they actually were called Sleuths? Who knew the Islamofascists liked art enough to trade it for weapons?