Thursday, March 11, 2010

airmail

letter with birds and airmail stickers

Girl of the future, I'm sending you a crown airmail...

If you are waiting for an email about your public transit tickets and your cameras, please wait a little more--it's coming. I've been working on this, haven't had time for much else. But I haven't forgotten. If you're still interested but haven't gotten in touch, please email ohbara at gmail dot com. The project will entail you receiving something in the post, taking a high-quality digital photograph (I'll specify what), then sending me back the photo (via email) and a public-transit ticket of any kind from the place it was taken.

Recently: Benoit P.'s photos. Kyoto Chirimen Museum. Magritte's house is a museum, too. A short video (not new, but still funny) about art school.

And more good mail. (Thanks, Gracia & Louise! Poems soon.)

mail from gracia

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Monday, January 11, 2010

no unified aesthetic here, I'm afraid


(I love having a camera that works. Thank you, Jonathan.)

I didn't realise Mieke Willems was two people, or that their shop is in Antwerp. Now I know. The second piece of information is more pertinent to me. Next time I'm in Belgium I'll go there and see the shop.

Drawing as both pushing away (pencil on paper) and pulling near, says WJT Mitchell. That's how I feel about very spare aesthetics (like MW above, or Fine Little Day, or, Martha, or Camilla Engman, or 88). I wish I could do it but somehow I always end up with a riot of pink, green, yellow, flowers everywhere, postcards balanced on pictures, a gingham tablecloth.

Sometimes I feel like I am not serious enough!

BEST PASTA EVER.
How could that possibly be.

Recent find--more of that spareness thing I want but can't: Dear Oly.

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

a list, and help required.

birdwoman, meet kabouter.

Forgeries, masks, games, double agents (triple agents), clementines in the winter, granny-smiths in the summer, some Borges and Neruda, lots of wandering around Paris by myself, pretend mushrooms and plastic goldfish, nasturtium leaves (like dollhouse plates), red notebook, trains, a photobooth.

The lovely Belgian gave me a new camera for Christmas. The one I had, I'd had since 2002 and then it cost me about $70. It's not bad--it's fine for documentation--but it's about 2 megapixels (my mobile's camera is more powerful) and it doesn't like to focus and it eats batteries like candy. It is such a luxury to be able to take clear photographs, of high quality, and at a large size.

I'm thinking of where my prints will go and I think photography (and the rest of the list above) will be a big part.

I need volunteers from other places in the world who will take a photograph (I'll send instructions) and send me a used train ticket. Any takers?

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

beautiful 2009 (4)

April:



I book a ticket to Bergen, Norway, to visit a friend. This turns out to be one of the best trips I go on--ever. Norway is beautiful, and there is so much light already (until 10 p.m.!). The houses are wooden and feel like home. No one bothers me. I walk around the very expensive grocery stores, touching produce. I learn to use a camera, and clear up the eternal mystery of the F-stop. Dave and I go out into the fjords, we walk around town, we talk about art, we make plans, we gossip, we take photos. The birdwoman comes, too.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

bird woman, a case history



She appeared in my drawings after I lived in Venice (2005). The Plague Doctor is a clear relation. One very rainy night during my first year in England I made the mask. And then, when I needed to sneak around, or startle birds, or be generally wilder than my normal situation allowed, she would come out.

She is very weird. She is fearless. She will come into your garden with a large pair of shears and steal your best rose. She has truck with Papa Lazarou. She has a camera. She disappears. She stares immoderately. Her umbrella is waterproof. Suddenly she is next to you.


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