I started a fiction writing workshop last week and that has me thinking about all of the things I normally do that lend themselves to both drawing and writing; i.e. easvesdropping, observing, researching, revising, and using my imagination. Spinning ridiculous narratives out of thin threads works for pictures and words. Every week for the rest of this semester, I will have the great pleasure of sitting around a table and talking through a couple of smart stories with a group of smart people.

The rest of the random chunks of my day off were spent thinking through the characters and situations of my own short stories, two right now, both of which involve objects, scenarios, and interactions that started in my sketchbook.

So I noticed with some interest that there is a symposium on storytelling in art or "Storytelling: Playful Interactions and Spaces of Imagination in Contemporary Visual Culture." See, that's how the academic visual studies world seems to work. A good idea with a lot of words thrown around it.

Wait, that's what I do, too. Oh well, we the accusers are the accused.

Also, my friend Genevieve told me about this call for materials for a local memorial by artist Heather Layton.
Maybe this is another project that might bring people together, might raise questions, might be more than the sum of it's parts.

take care,
Rachael

The image above is apparently an eavesdropping device, maybe I oughtta get one...

Dr. Steve Kurtz came to the University of Rochester last Thursday and on friday the Eastman house screened Lynne Hershman Leeson's Strange Culture, the film of his experience. I only caught the lecture, but I'm vey glad I did. Frankly, this is terrifying stuff for artists, Americans, anybodies. I'm still working through some thoughts about the whole surreal thing, mostly empathy for the man who clearly has been through a living hell. And the trial hasn't even happened yet.







For more information see

CAE defense fund
and some CAE projects:

including Halifax begs your pardon

And an interview between Steve Kurtz and Venessa Paech



The poli-sci professor who introduced Kurtz has posted his introduction on his own politics and photography blog



good night and good fight,
Rachael

Quiet and cold in the great northeast and I'm still working on my garden daydreams, my paintings and short stories, and filling my eye with as much information as I can. Movie theaters are generally well heated and visually satisfying. Juno was a sweet movie with a catchy soundtrack, Lawrence of Arabia was a four hour trek of a treat, and this weekend we have two more.

I am so excited to see this movie again because I have never been able to shake the visual influence of a red balloon.

The other night we went to see There Will be Blood and while it was a good movie, well acted and well done, I just wanted more glee than gloom, more light than dark, and the ending was just too disturbing for one who appreciates bowling without blood. My husband loved it though, and he's still doing his impersonation of Daniel Day Lewis' distinctive character. "We'll take the potatoes"

Both movies are worth seeing, and so I guess that's what I'm suggesting you see 'em both. Maybe not on the same day, though.

take care,
Rachael

Time to share the best page so far from my current sketchbook, anonymous man on the bus, a few haiku, and the orange cord.



And on a busy day at work, I had a chance to take a lunch break and walk to a playground in the neighborhood. I'd been thinking that I needed to slow down, calm down. When I sat down to eat my lunch I found some book pages from some stranger's abandoned and destroyed book on Zen Buddhism. I drew a tree. Just now I photoshopped the white core of the tree and marvelled at what we can notice in the world when we slow down...



take care,
Rachael

When green in January, we Upstate New Yorkers think it will snow and when it snows, we think about green. So says the New York Times , so says me. I've been daydreaming about my garden this year and filling page after page of sketchbook, notebook and seed catalog with ideas to cover the whole backyard with moons and stars , kaleidoscope carrots , and bright lights chard. I know I'll need to combine my daydreams with some solid research, planning, and careful thinking about how exactly two very busy people will plant, pay attention to, and harvest watermelons, lettuces, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, melons, squash, beans and eggplants in our city backyard. That said, I know right now that if all else fails I will be planting my mesclun mix which was a miracle last year; allowing me to cut my lunch everyday, eat well and get my hands in dirt.

think edible landscaping is my direction this year. Since the supermarket in my neighborhood is closing, I will aim to grow more of our summer meals.

This means being smarter about starting some seeds. but I love the poetry and wisdom of starting them in eggshells

I will be planning my plantingthis year. I will, I will, I will.

Cornell Cooperative Extension has great gardening resources


I'm back to daydreaming, it is my day off afterall. I'm allowed.
take care,
Rachael