graphic art sketchy stores and west oakland photo project

From the work desk of jh:

Narrative Literary Magazine has a really cool arts section. Free to sign up online, you read poems, stories and see incredible digital and non digital graphic arts.

http://narrativemagazine.com/issues/winter-2009/horse-rider-part-one

Right now, I want to share for three reasons:
1. a amazing digitally crafted graphic comic that is set in the desert. while the story is wierd thus far, i love to mango-sugar dust colors and watercolor pen horses-trans-humans. ropey borders and incredible textures. called: "Horse and Rider"
2. a journey in paris in a limited color palette. makes me wanna draw my life in a notebook. "Paris Sketches"
3. "the West Oakland Project: a photo essay" i found it here by chance. it moved me with the simple black and whites of buildings, community celebrations and tragedies and that haunting east bay sky that drafts above many of us each day now. it reminded me of insider/outsiderness. how big and deep this city is.

LOVE.
ps. if you are in the Bay Area, come hike in Sausalito this weekend. i am dogsitting and the marin headlands are out my front door. then we will drink fizzy drinks and look at the city from the back deck**

JOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYTwmkvFuH4&eurl=http://dearada.typepad.com/&feature=player_embedded

hi. clare.
i recently got accepted to columbia's religious studies program.
so i will probably move to new york in the fall.
i'm excited.
i'm terrified.
i miss california and i'm still here.
i rub a certain buddha's belly for luck.
i rub for luck for all of you.

Movement

Hey friends

I am moving to the Bay Area! I am Lisa! I have my first job interview tomorrow and I love you.

godis

sometimes collaboration creates beauty. like when a book is found and it is full of poetry that is less than satisfactory to the readers, and so the readers collaborate with the writer and become reader-writers and subtract to create a new word life that has meaning for the beholders.

Here is the outcome of such a transformation:

unwrap the new scent
bathe in jungle flower water
an orchid in Your hair
paint Your nails lavender or tangerine
beckon
to a young clean sinless dance
in beauty's arms
and again
beckon
to another
or another and to one
the promise of love
all of a sudden burst
weeping
and weep for all the supple
sinuous death in the world
and for red blood
shattering green grass
and for all the shattered thorns

hello lovelies

It may be hard to tell, but look close and thats me inside Emily Affolter's sunglasses! 

I have made the move to Portland, Oregon. at least for the time being. my new address is 

4229 NE Skidmore. Portland, Oregon 97218. 

come visit. 

Lecture Series at SFAI

Graduate Lecture Series, Spheres of Interest at San Francisco Art Institute

Fridays, 5:00-7:00pm, Lecture Hall at 800 Chestnut St.

- January 30: Nora Alter, "Hearing the Essay"
- February 20: Julio César Morales, "Cover Version"
- March 13: Lydia Yee, " The Originality of the Chinese Avant-Garde”
- March 27: Ann Goldstein, " Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective”
- April 3: Tony Conrad and Activating the Medium, "Fantastic Glissando"
- April 4: Activating the Medium Festival, (the festival will start at 8:00pm, LH, 800 Chestnut)
- April 24: James Meyer, "From Nomadism to Cosmopolitism”
- May 1: Alexander Alberro, "New Forms of Spectatorship in Contemporary Art”

Art Openings at the SFAI Graduate Center, Tuesdays at 2565 Third Street from 7-9pm (Take the T to 20th, walk south a block and a half).
and most Tuesdays from 5:00-7:00 pm at Diego Gallery at 800 Chestnut Street

Poetry at SFMOMA

poetry at sfmoma this sunday:

http://www.sfmoma.org/events/1295

a note about the illustrations

"For illustrations, please look closely at real cities. While you are looking, you might as well also listen, linger and think about what you see."

http://www.zurdogo.com/attractions/mmurals.html
also www.precitaeyes.org

one observation: the wheatpasted art installations on 15th st. have been covered. although that building seems ripe for redevelopment, it makes a great canvas, if only temporarily.

Grateful

After being blessed with the chance to share space, 

 so many hearts in Beautiful Bay Area, the 

phone conversations condensing miles between us

I feel grateful. 

I am learning to let go while holding

on, 

learning to grow closer while growing apart

and tremendously grateful 

that so many memories, experiences, 

and hearts are sewn into the very fabric of who I am. 

thoughts

First of all, upheaval in oakland. Here's an article leah shared with me that i think is worth making available to all. the focus is community building, living now how we want to live in the future. Offers things to keep in mind when organizing. http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/01/update_on_fruitvale_bart_prote.html

Also. dance. theater. performance. recognizing how i want more of this in my life. culture. interested in seeing this piece in march. it's a long ways away, but you should come too, everyone.
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=5071

there is a unique feeling that comes with watching humans create. i want more

abby . and call anytime. 773-636-3990

Poem Joy

WAGE PEACE, by Mary Oliver

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, learn the words for "thank you" in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Don't wait another minute.

Joy Jumping

My dog has superpowers.
I wan to talk to you people.
206.818.1504
call me.
I am Ellie.

giving/receiving

this is freshly editted video of an installation I did in december. i was thinking about holding on and letting go, begging and communion, giving and receiving.

Hey Friends. Check it out...I am going to be an Auntie in March!!!...Mollie

What Would the World be without Mary Oliver?

This woman may bring back many shared memories: and new ones too...

Iraq

I want to sing a song

for a body I saw

crumpled

and without a name

But clearly someone young 

who had not yet lived his life

and never would.

How shall I do this?

What kind of song

would serve such a purpose?

This poem may never end,

for what answer does it have

for anyone, 

in this distant,

comfortable country,

simply looking on?

Clearly

he had a weapon in his hands.

I think

he could have been no more than twenty.

I think, whoever he was

of whatever country,

he might have been my brother,

were the world different.

I think, 

he would not have been lying there,

were the world different.

I think,

If i had known him,

on his birthday,

I would have made for him

a great celebration.

-The great imaginary friend of Emily's, Mary Oliver

Belmont Inspiration

Below is a trailer for a film that I worked on last summer. Some great people are working on the film. They're our age, super motivated and very talented. It is an inspiration to see this dream come alive.

Some folks that collected art fiendishly (friendryishly?)

this one time at band camp

they tell me i drink too much.
that i expect too much from life.
drunk pasta sings
as the turbo booster gas light burns away
years falling by the wayside
like rivers on some long forgotten bayou
as if we'd find anything we wanted in this rubble
once i saw this twilight zone episode where this family was escaping
a nuclear holocaust to a planet that was similar to theirs
it ends
they are on their way to earth.
why not be cast as the aliens?
music soars from one canal to another
time travelers we all roam these broad landscapes
painted watercolors
drip from my mind
to yours
will we find that hope we've been promised
this western paradise of what we could always be.
they said she was a good writer.
she was never convinced.
this is what you shall do.
you shall live your life
you shall be a diamond in the sun
shine on everyone
let my dribble drool from your drinking lips
and we will kiss the moonlight like savages
be free
if
nothing
else
be
...

check out Brianna Skellie and other artists engaging in social action, art, and life:

freedomofinformation2008.blogspot.com

anchored/buoyant

Much love to Mollie the dreamer, and to those who are sharing the moments here and there that have been making me feel so full lately. the words anchored and buoyant have been coming up in my days; I have been tasting the commitments and roots I have here, while celebrating the opportunities I have opened as well. they are layers of the same moment. and the moment is 2009!

Let's Converse!

Happy NEW Year!

There has been so much loving this year already. Party time in SF was a hit, lots of Scripps friends love and new friends too. to do list tattoos decorate many arms now. This is a shot right after west coast midnight. leah and i got some red light loving. abby