My gut pointed in the direction and some smart women like Alanna and Carolyn and Anna and Elise and Marja-Leena wrote to me to encourage me to continue what I'm doing. Each told a story of their own decisions of what to blog, how much to share, and some doubts about whether or not info they share would be deemed important to others. It strikes me as funny that I don't feel these doubts in some other art blogs, but I'll think that through and maybe say more later. All I know is that, the writing here is as real as I can be and if my posts mix my daily routine and the art I want to talk about, well, that's honest.

Honestly, I have been bracing the new chill in the air and drawing and waiting for some paints to come and thinking about the surface on some Romare Bearden collages.


On Friday, I listened to an interesting interview on the Tavis Smiley show with David Driskell and more here at this project .

But the other project, I've been up to is playing the google game and scoring a small person victory with the phrase clerstory tungsten . Clerestoryis about the only word I have retained from my brief love of medieval art (Meyer Shapiro at Moissac and Dorothy Glass at Buffalo were enough to get me fascinated. Here's a google game lite to play at work.

I'm off to volunteer at a community arts event, meet some kids that like to draw and try to remember to get some photos of the leaves that are keeping my eyes busy. Honestly, amazing crimson and cadmium yellows all over my street which such amazing contrast to the gray, rainy street...

more soon, troublemakers, take good care!
Rachael

Maybe a short history first: In 1996, I started a small personal zine of public trust that I called Trustworthy. I cobbled the contents together from my own experiences and observations, from the solicited ideas of people I admired and enjoyed, and from total strangers in the mail. My first foray into personal writing about issues artistic, political, and other was successful from my perspective. It lasted about 20 issues, gained a gaggle of readers and garnered a bunch of feedback, it grew my confidence as a writer and as an artist, and I liked to think that the folks that found a copy of Trustworthy had at least 20 minutes of enjoyment. I would get great letters and I know my little comics and stories made some strangers laugh, think, look around a little.

When I started painting with a frenzy it was because I needed to. I had something to learn from and say with color and form. I'm still figuring that out and I guess I'll always be able to paint the reasons I need to paint better than I can say them (or I could just get off my ass and write a coherent artist statement or spend more time painting).

Below is a sketch I made in New York a few years ago when I couldn't stop thinking

big city slow down big city slow down big city slow down...



I've been thinking a lot about the purpose of this blog, of the reasons why I tend to make my own soapboxes to stand on, of the things that can be learned and can be taught through vehicles like this. Like a lot of the other art bloggers I know (like Tyler and Anna for example) I was glad to see Todd's survey. I learned a thing or two (artists and art people read art blogs...well, ok). But you know, there's a great freedom in not knowing exactly what your reader wants to know. Maybe you out there don't give a crap about my mundane daily existance eeking out a living in a small museum in a midsized city in a sleepy part of the country or maybe you don't care at all about which emerging or emerged artists I think are rewarding to look at...I do care what you think but I'm simply going to continue to make what I want to make and write what I want to write.

Today I spent some good time trying to figure out why people seek out arts education for themselves or their children and how arts ed programs can find those people, and I spent time watching wet leaves curl, and some time drawing sculptures and watching college kids walk around a museum filling out forms. My whole life revolves around art and my whole art revolves around my life, so I'll just keep up here on this soapbox, tying to listen more and help more and make more and...

big city slow down big city slow down big city...

Now all that said, I will take care to add more blog and art links soon, but I'm going to bed now.

take care,
Rachael

I want to do some wandering. While I do not want to add to the misconception that "real art lives in big cities", I want to see stuff that isn't in my neighborhood. Two artists I've seen glimpses of, over several years, have shows in Connecticut and DC this autumn. Sikander's articulate and careful minaturesare rich in plays of meaning and powerful in form . Shahzia Sikander: Nemesis (September 19, 2004 - January 5, 2005 ) is on view at the The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum .

When I first saw Ciao Fonseca's paintings , I was impressed by his choice of colors and a sense of whimsyin the images. Now I'm drawn more to the layers and the rhythm built in. But there is more, too, to the tensions in the paintings, big but vunerable, toned down colors and bold patterns. So I'll look again. It just seems that there is meat on the bones of these paintings.

Ciao Fonseca's work is up at the Corcoran in DC.

I'm not sure what I will get to see but I did spend some considerable time staring at a loaf of bread recently, in wonder, not out of boredom.

Ok, so, that's it for now. I'm off to draw and muck around on my website redesign.

take care,
Rachael

My sister-in-law (is an advocate and activist) specializes in what she calls "johnny letters". Letters to the newspaper to raise conciousness about how people live with disabilities, letters to get some change happening, and help people.

My work is not so important. But this is what John and I read last weekend in our local paper...

Why New Yorker moved to Georgia
I gave up. I have relocated to the South like millions of other New Yorkers over the last decade.
I love New York and Rochester, but I could no longer afford to live there. I was tired of the irresponsible leaders and politicians of New York. I was tired of the high sales and property taxes, as high as six times that of property down South. I was tired of the high state income taxes. I was tired about hearing about the late state budget for the last 20 years. I was tired of the poor job opportunities and excuses from politicians about bringing jobs to upstate.
All taxpayers know that when their incomes go down, they have to reduce expenses in order to survive. This logic escapes our state and local politicians who simply keep raising taxes as revenue decreases, continuing the downward spiral.
I will be praying for New Yorkers, hoping that they see the impending calamity that has been building for decades and do something about it. I am looking forward to my new job, lower state, sales and property taxes, much lower gasoline prices and warmer weather, to boot. This New Yorker wishes his fellow New Yorkers good luck.

MR. BLOWHARD

MARIETTA, GA.
Blowhard moved from Webster to Georgia last month.


<i> And my Johnny letter will be in the D & C this week. I'll link to it when I see it. </i>

Yes, Atlanta we still love ya, but sometimes it's good to shout along with the blowhards. Make a little change. Speak from your gut. Send out the johnny letters and fight the good fight.

take care,
Rachael

Recently I was interviewed by Kurt Andersen at Studio 360 for their show on letters . I had heard they were looking for mail art and got myself inspired to create and send a little piece of joy. My work and our talk isn't in the show but the show is lovely and the ideas are prescient.

Why does it matter what we send through the mail? Why do some artists go to such extreme efforts to send fantastic art through the mail? Why is the process of sending something so scary?

Maybe:

your words, your art, your ideas go out in the world and they are either received or rejected.

because everyone on some level wants a valentine, a friend, a secret admirer.

because we need to connect to others.

because mail is a break in the mundane. When it is not a bill or a solicitation, it is (or can be) a treat.

These projects ( pinhole cameras through the mail , and graceful envelopes --like this one , and Jeremy Adolphson's 4 x 6 collection ) have me inspired to keep sending. Even if my days of making and mailing a 40 page zine four times a year to 100plus people are over, I am still trustworthy .
Ok, that's it. I'm off to read and draw.
take care,
Rachael