At 2 today I will give a little talk about the artist Hugh Pearce Botts to anyone who'll listen, anyone who comes to the Memorial Art Gallery for the What's Up talk. I won't start it by saying, hey, what's up? But I will spill the story of the artist and inventor I am still actively researching. I recently wrote a blog entry for the MAG blog about Botts and that's here.

Usually when I talk in semi-formal situations I get nervous and prepare, prepare and then over-prepare. I make outlines and note cards and super-duper powerpoints. Sometimes i talk too fast. I decided to try to slow down. Instead of over writing and planning, I just looked. Thought. Looked again. Make a couple of sketches in my sketchbook and talked through the images to myself and my husband.

If nobody comes I'll still have fun-- but I really hope people come.

And then, I'll get in my car and drive to Batavia. One of my favorite people in the whole world lives in Buffalo, I live in Rochester and Batavia sits in the middle. They have diners there and turf farms. We'll eat in a diner.

So today, then, I'll go from a discussion of the working artist in 1939 to a discussion between two artists who work in 2009. We both juggle our day jobs and our lives but when we meet in diners it's usually rice pudding, idea sharing, and drawing.

Too bad Hugh and Myrtle can't join us.

Tomorrow, I begin to begin to round up the almost 100 paper dolls I'll bring to the Second Storie handcrafted show Thanksgiving weekend and the family I'll make special for Mark's cool show in North Carolina...

All gets done and I just have to remember not to talk too fast...
Rachael

There's a fascinating new and funny pamphlet about the way people interact in the artworld. I like your art.

I betcha global recessions do make people nicer about artwork.
Oh and all the rules fall away.
Maybe, except the rule that says you have to make art better and look at art longer. Those rules stay.

At this point, I have almost thirty of my paperdolls listed on Etsy. To do this I devoted a big chunck of my day off yesterday and my evening at home today. Sitting here on the computer, typing text into little boxes. It wasn't all loading dolls though, I found plenty of time to wander aimlessly over the squinternet and find ridiculous pleasures like the (new to me) love songs of Ben Kweller , particularly when his grandmother dances.
Or the joy that is Tavi the young fashion blogger. Her buzz is here and her style (fashion and writing) is contagious and fantastic.

Having a day job with some responsibility almost completely deprives me of random internet joy, particularly in the summer when it's better to wander walk after work than sit in front of a box. But even, so. There are limits to what is good for one's soul.

A few paper dolls (like these ones) are listed, but forty or so are still waiting to be put up.

Adonis (Oh Adonis knows his own beauty. He is followed around town day and night but loves only himself.)


or
Beverly (warning, she's nekkid)


And I don't know if I linked to the newspaper pictures that appeared yesterday and made me gush with pride. They're here.

Also, Anyway, Stefan Sagmeister is coming to Rochester in a few weeks.

Also, I am closing all boxes and turing off the world wide time-waster but thank you (as always) for listening.

Rachael

Smiling from 8 am to 4 pm can be grueling, you kow. But I truly loved being at the public market today. All day. My friends (Molly, Colleen, Katie Ruth, Erin, Meg and Heather) and my husand (John) helped with everything from putting a tent up to writing the last couple of stories. And the weather was wonderful (sunny and warm).

Colleen kindly made a little video of me in the booth and tomorrow I plan on putting some of the unsold dolls and their stories up on my etsy site. The video is here

and here are some pictures of the dolls as they hung in the sun.




and



Lots of friends came by and plenty of kids walked right up the dolls and smiled. I ended up winning an Honorable Mention in Mixed Media for my work. Prizes aren't everything but they do feel good.


Because I was showing work, I didn't get a chance to see everything, but I did love the following artists for reasons I think are clear...

humor and good craftsmanship
Martha Schemerhorn makes Icon-o-Paks full of collaged goodies in a very witty and wonderful package. I love 'em and this one really hit home.

Bags that Bite. These are great, toothy and funny, happily made bags by a woman who has sewing skills I envy.

Fascinating connections between art, gesture and the human body (and work that resonated with my dolls)

Pazione who makes art related to dance, movement and the human body.

Cheryl and Don Olney who make bright and wonderful wooden dolls that I have seen for years and loved.

For good paintings by talented painters
Judy Gohringer (who won best in the painting category today) but who I couldn't find online. Trust me, her abstract paintings are lovely (colorful and inventive).

Lorraine Bonohos who doesn't seem to have a web presence but she shows her work (figurative and evocative) around Rochester a lot.

Rachel, who paints as Chicken Bone , although she did not paint any actual chicken bones.

And
Ceramics and Fibers that I loved ...

So much so that I bought a bag from Turtlefly. This wasn't just any bag, either, but a bag made of fabric perfectly matching my couch and my taste. I am so excited to carry all my junk in it!

Two charming bowls by Vickie Hartman

and (almost) a salt & pepper shaker by Kala Stein
So then, another good show, another wonderful day in my life, and the joy of creating and connecting. That's also what kept me smiling all day.

take care,
Rachael

p.s. big thanks to the friends of the public market for doing this!

Tommorrow I will stand in the sun surrounded by good friends and 83 paper people. Each one has a story (well, save about 12 that I'm stumped on), and I have my clothespins, banner and tent all loaded up and ready. It's a little too early for sleep so to keep myself from getting into other trouble, I'll share a little of the idea mix of this weekend thus far.

Last night, we went to see Art & Copy. The first half was great- visually interesting and full of people we wanted to listen too. At some point, though, the movie just became an ad for ads. Rich succesful ad executives babbling about how they changed the world while a man who put up billboards was interspersed here and there. We left singing jingles and still glad we don't have a tv.

Today, in between spurts of getting my paper dolls ready for market, I went to a writers workshop by N.M. Kelby. We each got a copy of her new book (The Constant Art of Being a Writer). I don't know if I'll ever go to a 2-hour workshop again, though, because the time was simply too short. No time for anyone to connect or for us to even understand where she was coming from. Not that I didn't find it interesting, but several times I thought, I should have been writing these two hours.

Which is or was probably the point.

I went with a friend who also writes in the margins of her life and dayjob. She has a baby even. I have... a bad habit of accumulating millions of small projects so I can not put the work into the big thing I want to do. Ahem. That is. Craft a story that tells the truth by using make believe people.

If drawing comes naturally (and it does only after having done that for so many years and only on 'good days:), writing is the slow crawl and uncomfortable thing that I am drawn to but often avoid.

Kelby's kick in the pants was the straight-forward message that writers write, and read, read and read, that characters need to be believable, that emotional honesty is crucial, and that any ambitious goal is achievable. Word by word. Reminds me of the great Lorrie Moore story, How to be a Writer.

Tomorrow, then, I will bring my paper dolls into the world, and acknowledge that these are little stories in and of themselves, a crazy drive to create usable fictions.

Maybe the day after tomorrow I will post dolls and stories.

Tonight, though, I oughtta get to sleep now.

take care,
Rachael