And I have seen a lot of slide shows. Go see the Trachtenburgs when they come to your town. Hard to explain, easy to enjoy.

Take care,
Rachael
more here

Everyday Matters entry today rings true . Go Danny. Be bold, be honest, keep talking, keep drawing. I plan turn my computer off now and remain resolved to do the same. Oh, yeah, and to get me a haircut.

see ya
Rachael

It feels like this in my neighborhood. There is tremendous light, color, and transparency. I'm pulled back to my paintbox. Here's hoping your direction is charted by joy today. Maybe I sound like an inspirational speaker but really I'm just a goofball.

take care goofballs,
Rachael

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