Monday, March 15, 2010

this joy+ride



Some poems have been taken by This Joy+Ride, and you can see them there from today (March 15th) til the end of the month. Thanks, Shari and Sheri, for picking me.

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Friday, February 26, 2010

paris, a very small tour.

paris from butte mmtr.

From Butte Montmartre. One of my favorite places because you can sit and watch all the people getting to the top, completely tired from all the steps, and then see them turn around and see Paris like this. I like to walk back down behind the basilica and then (if it is daytime and they are open) go into the many fabric shops. That's where I got the printed cotton with flying geese on it (with my mom when she came to see me).


confits

A small Jewish grocery in the Marais, selling glazed fruits in these bins. The walls are lined with every possible kind of alcohol you could imagine, all different bottles reflecting all different kinds of light. This is where I found a bottle of Izarra for my dad. Right down the street from many little shops, including Petit Pan and many shops selling Japanese goods.


The herbs and plants in my friend's kitchen. Her window looks out on the court but it is the 5th floor, so there is lots of light.


The view from her window. I loved the neighbors' geraniums and the zinc-colored pipes and drains. Even though I remember how miserable living in those old buildings could be, I recognise their beauty (and hope I did, then, too). And the grey sky, against which the buildings of Paris are particularly beautiful, although they are stunning against the bright blue, too.



See? They're just made for that. The colors are so elegant and understated, and then all of a sudden they're right in front of you and you realise how well-planned they are, how they are just made to go together. The shades and shadows the different angles make. That gold dome!



Speaking of exclamation marks, here's one in the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden founded in the 17th century. Those trees are so Parisian as to be a cliché, aren't they? But they exist. I sat in this garden many times drawing.



Drawing these bean-poles, specifically. And watching the people. And listening to them talk.



This is Mélodies Graphiques, also in the Marais, very near the Ile-St-Louis. I bought a tiny card (about 1.5" by 2") that had had a pattern burnt out of it: flowers and leaves in an arbor. He collects the beautiful mail his customers send him. I promised to send something, but haven't. Maybe this year.



And this is Austerlitz Station (Gare d'Austerlitz), to which I had a fond connection because of W.G. Sebald's book Austerlitz, which you can read about here. And here. And here. And here. The Métro trains going in are bright turquoise, which is brilliant against the gray stone and glass, and echoes the faded turquoise paint on the façade (you can see a hint of it in the mullions of the window in the lower left corner of the photograph).


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Friday, February 12, 2010

Peaks

to Buxton

to bakewell

One thing I love about the small scale of the UK is that these landscapes are just a couple of hours from me by bus. I'd like to go back to the Peaks alone and stay somewhere for a week. Seems like a place that could be really good for writing.

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Monday, February 8, 2010

interim

english light

In the interim, I have taught a lot of classes where I got to talk about surrealism, feminism, poetry, the semi-colon (also known as the king of punctuation marks), why women in the 18th century used lead to powder their faces, how to construct a thesis statement, why René Magritte is the most excellent painter of them all (this may be subjective).

I have thought about my thesis and had a very successful meeting with my supervisor. I've called home and called Z. and written emails and letters. I've written poems. I've written part of a film script. I've written some thesis. I've gone to a couple of workshops. I've made travel plans (Paris in May!).

I've gone to Bakewell and Buxton by bus, and watched the stunning beauty of the Peak District roll by the window. I've had tea with the Birdwoman. I've been so even-keel. I've enjoyed watching the light change now that it is late winter. I caught it just as I like it--light from the west, dark in the east, bright blue above, red-orange bricks that typify this city--the other day.

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Sunday, January 31, 2010

color to end the month

gate


bright.

After several weeks of grey it was finally bright this weekend. On Friday I taught in Leicester, then took a walk and went to the printshop. Beeston was also bright in the sun.

St. Verde.

Angela Liguori.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

on saturday

sherbet-colored houses

We went to Rugby (the town, not the sport, although that's where we get rugby). Fran thought I meant rugby when I meant Rugby so she was surprised about halfway there. Oh, that's why you wore those clothes! Ha. We went to the gallery where my work is and then walked around the town. I had been there before, this summer, to see the Museum of Everyday Life.

Earlier that morning, terrible but joyously noisy breakfast with entire Beeston contingent, charity-shop shopping (where I found a really beautiful blue midcentury ceramic pitcher for £3), and walking in the brief sunshine. I love mornings. And my life.

Best part of the day was telling some (12-year-old) kids who tried to harass us that we were from an (imaginary) republic where there were no cars, and confusing them when they tried to explain (or point cars out) by calling them 'cows'. And our names began with a letter that was unpronounceable in English. And that we'd walked to Rugby--but very quickly, on the motorway, so it only took 20 minutes. Also gleaned the valuable information from said lads that ASDA is indeed Rugby's best candy shop. Out of the mouths of babes, folks.

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

teaching

where are we going?

Tomorrow morning I start the first regular teaching I've had since I left France. This marks the end of the luxurious period of only-reading-only-writing-only-making of the PhD. Where are we going?

I am sure there will still be trains, also the ocean. Paris. Flowers in the spring. And poems, photobooths, the birdwoman, adventures, all the things I like. And things I don't know I like yet, like 18th-century British history, commuting, and grownup clothes. And and and. This is why I like teaching--my students remind me to think about how much there is to know and how exciting it is to start to know it.

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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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Friday, December 4, 2009

fuchsias



How differently would I see things if I kept in mind the possibility that I might not see them again after this year?

If I have to go back to the US next year, I am going to scrape the money together to travel for a few weeks within the UK and go places I have wanted to go but haven't. I'd like to go to Ely, York, and Lincoln to see the Cathedrals. And to Glasgow. I'd like to go to Wales and Devon, to Brighton, and to Cambridge. I'd like to go to the Lakes and the Peaks. And if I stay I think I will try to do the same trips, but over more time.

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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

dr. guislain


inmates' sinks

Last time I was in Belgium I spent my Friday afternoon searching for and then walking slowly through the Museum Dr. Guislain. If you are in Gent, take the #1 tram to Guislainstraat; the museum is just around the corner.

Jozef Guislain changed the way psychiatric patients were cared for, and, with the Brothers of Charity, began a new institution for their care. The hospital is now a museum and teaching facility. I think there is still a working psychiatric facility as well.

Besides the featured exhibition (while I was there, it was UIT HET GEHEUGEN: over weten en vergeten, or FROM MEMORY: on knowing and forgetting), there was a show of outsider art, a permanent collection of artifacts pertaining to psychiatric care from the 1700s to the present, and (tucked away in a trio of back rooms) a collection of curiosities: wax models of well and diseased bodies; a calf with two faces; babies in formaldehyde; skeletons; a photograph of a baby with two heads; a bearded lady. (I had seen some of this at the Wellcome Collection when I ws there for the Exquisite Bodies show in October, and that's what sparked my interest in the museum.) But while I was actually there I was really struck by the ways that humans have tried throughout the centuries to understand the mind and bring its essential incomprehensibility into some smaller scope...to fit it into the parameters we understand, whether those are chemical or religious or magical.


wax models of bodies and parts of bodies

* * *
And--just a reminder that if you're in Nottingham, you can stop by and see my kiosk today! It's on Pelham Street, across from Homemade Café, just up from Zara. You can see some things I've made here. We're open Tues-Weds-Thurs this week (1-2-3 December) from 10-6 T/W and 10-5 Th.

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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

re-arrange



Friday after Thanksgiving I came downstairs to find water running down the wall with the shelves that all my books were on. After a big panic and a lot of running back and forth shoving books against radiators, I got everything moved and now I have a new place for my books, in the living room. I can't work on the buffet that I'd been using as a desk anymore, so I got a table from freecycle and work in the living room now, too. We'll see how it goes.



Here are my dishes in their new home, and jars of art supplies above. I didn't like it plain, so I made an easy garland of some old Christmas ornaments I found in Leicester on Thursday morning. Just tie a pretty string through the tops, and voilà.



And my books. I like them much better in this bookcase than I liked the dishes in it. It used to stand in the dining room and always looked cluttered. I'm not much for the style, either (kind of shabby-chic). But with the books in it, it's nice. Not too tall, so it doesn't lean away from the wall. And because it's openwork, it feels airy. Rachel brought me the plant and it is a really pleasing addition to the room.

* * *

If you're in Nottingham, stop by and see my kiosk. It's on Pelham Street, across from Homemade Café, just up from Zara. You can see some things I've made here. We're open Tues-Weds-Thurs this week (1-2-3 December) from 10-6 T/W and 10-5 Th.


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Monday, November 30, 2009

* a * r * n * a * u * d *

arnaud

His name is Arnaud, and he is the last of les Champignons de Paris. (You can find them here, along with many other mushrooms I have made or found.) With the others, and with ornaments and prints and bobêches and necklaces and patchwork bags and pretty things, he will be at the KiosKiosk in Nottingham where I'll be part of a shop. We're just up the way from the main Christmas market, so get a mug of mulled wine and come say hi.

If you're in Nottingham, stop by and see me. The KiosKiosk is on Pelham Street, across from Homemade Café, just up from Zara. You can see some of the things I've made here. We're open Tues-Weds-Thurs this week (1-2-3 December) from 10-6 T/W and 10-5 Th. I'm with Amy Blackwell and Hollie Brown.

If you're not in Nottingham, some things will be up for sale on Monday, December 7. Check here for details.


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Monday, November 23, 2009

Ratae Coritanorum



This is the Leicester Market, recently voted 'Best Market in the UK'. It has existed here for 700 years. The hawkers shout prices and food names; there are tables selling scarves, underwear, socks, magazines, bread, fruit, vegetables, candy. At one point (in Rugby) I made a recording of the sound of hawkers in a market. If I can find it I'll post it. Sometimes I feel as if I could close my eyes and be in the Middle Ages here. The hawkers' voices dissolve into an older English. Buildings on the site of buildings. Roads that have been used for millennia. Leicester was a Roman city (that's its name up there in the title) before it was English, like many big cities here.

I found MetroCentric's photos and weblog and they are pleasing to see.

Today is Fibonacci day: 11/23.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

daguerrotype

daguerrotype

The first photograph to contain a human being?

Exposures were so long that movement wasn't captured. But he held still long enough and made it into this century. And surely beyond.

Tomorrow I'm going to Belgium via train. I really like that journey and it will be nice to do work on the way. I'm bringing my (film and digital) cameras. When I get back I expect I will have used up my first roll of film and I'll be able to have it printed and see what the exposures look like. For my birthday, two friends gave me a Kodak camera that's even older than the one I have been using (a Pentax ME) and I want to find film for that and try it out. Maybe very early in the morning, before people are on the street.

I tend to prefer spaces with no people in them.

grove

repetition/pattern


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Monday, November 16, 2009

floating world

mist and fog from the 4th floor.

Good art needs to trust the traces, and print both the thing and its erasure. That's what I want to do and what I struggle with.

I want to start making lithographs again. Read a book about lithography the other day in the library. Made some photocopies from a book: Paris streets in 1900. I really love Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg lately. I would like to loosen up and make more expressive marks.

How much would I love a yard and a half of this? I'd wear it as a scarf.

I need to be back in Paris. Soon. I miss that city.

two white spots.

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Saturday, November 14, 2009

train stations: a poetics

gare de dole
station
gare de lyon (lyon station)


I like the word 'train-shed'. I like these buildings' capaciousness and their ironwork. I like the shape of the poles that hold the wires up. I like all the light and the patterns of light and darkness. I think they are beautiful places, and they make me happy. I really feel good when I'm in a train station.

If you live where there is a train that uses a paper ticket system and you would be interested in being involved in a project I'm planning, I'd like to hear from you.

Bergen (Norway), Leicester (England), Dole (France); Strasbourg (France), Nottingham (England), Minneapolis 46th Street (US); Edinburgh (Scotland), Paris (Gare de Lyon), Bergen; Deinze (Belgium), Paris (Gare d'Austerlitz), Leicester.

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Sunday, November 8, 2009

flax




This is the traditional way of preparing flax--it has to rot before it can be used (see retting). We saw these and I wanted to stop and Jonathan said it's pretty rare to see flax this way at all now.

One thing I really like about him is that he always asks me what I think and what I want, but not in such a way that I feel like he's giving up his interests.

* * *

"The question to ask of pictures from the standpoint of poetics is not just what they mean or do, but what they want--what claim they make upon us, and how we are to respond. Obviously, this question also requires us to ask what it is that we want from pictures" (W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want? The lives and loves of images, p. xv).

* * *

No internet at work now; I'm more productive that way. But in recent evenings I've discovered Grijs and Debi VanZyl.

And that's all!


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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

muziekbos



I carried out a fairly thorough survey of all the mushrooms in the land on Sunday. And luckily we had brought a bag because there were chestnuts (kastanjes/châtaignes) all over! I brought home a lot and this weekend my friends and I will make crème de marrons with them.



Muziekbos. Unfortunately most of the information I could find was in Dutch. Here is the translated Wikipedia article. But you can get an idea with my photos, or these photos.

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