If you'll be in Rochester on that day, please join us to draw...

Rachael

Last week like half of the country I had a lovely string of days off from work. Days to spend listening, eating, painting, car-hunting (bought one), re-friending (letter sending), and spending time with my favorite people. Sure, sure, I like my job but the best part of working is time off. I slept late and piddled away long stretches of time. What we do to feed our bodies is one thing, what we do to feed our selves is another.
And the break was just the right size, I think, because somewhere in the middle of all that time off I started to miss my regular routine. A nine to five with great people and a mission I believe in is good for me, keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. I would not change working everyday to help others make art in a hybrid amateur and professional context.

I've been staring at nasturtiums, the irises in bloom at the corner garden, and just about everything I can find to draw.
I brought some 6 x 6's down to ROCO the other day, especially since I really like the video they've put up of the For Drawing Sake show they had last fall (one of the best shows I've seen in a while but I am as partisan as they come).
The Alison Saar show was a nice treat, floating moths inside sculptures rewarded careful looking and the maternal themes, I think it's still up for a few more minutes so if you are in Rochester, get to see it. And if you're not, well, I can't tell you what to see or not see then.

Back to work, then, for there oughtta be pleasures and rewards in work and work in play. take care, Rachael

Last Monday, Lynda Barry came to town to spread the gospel of the creative process as is writ in her new book, What it is. Get a sense of it here in her Tin House graphic essay which is wrapped into the book. I got a chance to spend the morning in her writing workshop, the afternoon sitting in the sun drawing strangers, and the evening listening to her talk. She's an authentically gifted writer/artist, and very very very funny.

I was exhausted by the end (but she wasn't!) so I skipped the book signing but apparently she spent hours talking to everyone who wanted to talk to her. The messages she shared sounded to me like true truths. She is enormously productive as a creative being and the stuff she makes has a real power. The idea that anyone can write, sing, dance, and paint is one I'm already signed on to (by the nature of my work, my mission, and my daily mantras) but man did it feel good to listen to her sing it.


And then after trying to 'splain it to everyone last week, the New York Times published a page on the book, the workshops, the magic potion and I was able to clip it out and show it around.

I am still writing in my notebook. Still thinking about the ways I can keep incorporating these elements (the extra page to doodle as I write, the "don't read it for a week" rule, telling myself it's good, good, good at least at first) and I think I can.
Alright then, I'm gonna go draw and write and otherwise keep the stuff spilling out. Daily, freshly, honestly, and vividly. At least daily.

Rachael

thank you Lynda!

All the famous people keep parading around my neighborhood but they are not rubbing it in. They are sharing their ideas. It's cool.

Yesterday I had to work (it's OK I like to work on Saturdays, that's when the kids come and get creative) but Alison Saar was going to give a lecture in the afternoon and so magic Amy held down the fort and I spent an hour listening to the sculptor talk and show slides. It was really dark in the auditorium, so I didn't get the drawings and notes I usually get because I couldn't see the page. I still noted a number of things and drew a couple others. Her bio is well-known enough (and on her gallery's website here) but what was strongly felt from my corner of the room, was a consistent interest in hanging figures, making surfaces richly marked with roof tins, and considering dualities. There's a show at ROCO right now, she is not a hard artist to find with the frequency she shows in bigger cities but it is good that a small army of supporters have brought her work to town. She sometimes told us the dimensions, sometimes shared the backstory, often referred to her own family as a source for the sculptures (I thought her brief emotional moment as she talked about her daughter growing up was particularly poignant).
And now, there's Maryls' mama coming around...
I'm about as geeked out excited as a girl can be to go to the Writing the Unthinkable or (thinking the unwritable?)workshop tomorrow with Lynda Barry and then to see her talk. I promise to try to share the take-a-way from that.

And then, after that, I tell ya, I'm done with the big names and back to taking more walks around my very humble block and enjoying my generally anonymous life. There is some mulching to be done and more story-telling to spill out and I have been a very poor correspondant. Plus, I used to paint pictures.
See ya,
Rachael