The Interdisciplinary & The Writer/ Reader

(From the recent self-portrait series "Woman with a Red Sweater".)

Dear friends: Thank you for your votes in my poll and thank you for your comments too. (There are still 10 days left if you haven't voted yet and even if you're visiting this blog for the first time, you are still invited to vote.) And because of the thoughtful comments by Jennifer, Cheryl, and Lisa, I was hoping to add another category to the poll currently running on my sidebar but it turns out I can't add a category once the voting has started. Aw, rats! This is all a very good exercise for me, I tell you. The new category would have read, "I'm all about the interdisciplinary, baby." But I wanted to say one more thing about the poll regardless of the nonexistent new category.

So one more thing: I decided to create that poll so that I could learn a little bit about YOU, my dear blog readers. Because like any creative project there is the creator and there is the witness (or the writer and the reader, or the artist and the viewer, or the performer and the audience) and I just want to be aware of that necessary relationship. And-- unlike a book where I might never have the chance to interact with my readers because it's limited by time and place and because it isn't an ongoing online conversation-- here in the blogosphere we can actually create a dialog and inform each other and even collaborate in that way. And I often struggle with ways in which I can create community out of this blog because that community seems so implicit in the medium. Doesn't it? So, as much as I deliberate about my own identity as an artist/ poet/ junker/ crafter/ maker-of-things, I also want to know what you, dear readers, are most excited to find here.

It's like we're sitting down over tea and scones (or beer and chips depending on the moment) and we're having a heart-to-heart about this here blog. And I'm saying, "My blog is just one part of my creative life and I struggle with how I should combine creative disciplines in my physical life so I'm finding that I'm struggling with that same question in my online life. Oh gosh, of course! And more so, I really want to know about the community of folks reading my blog. I mean, some of them have blogs of their own and I get to know them through their own blogs but some of them don't have blogs or don't leave comments or (like me) have various creative parts and I get the feeling that their blogs only capture a few parts of the bigger whole. Phew! So... do you think I could start to get at some of these questions with an anonymous 2-week reader's poll?" And then you say...

(And then I say, "THANK YOU for addressing these questions with me, they are oftentimes at the center of my creative work." xoxo, k.)

Please Vote in My Blog Poll!

Dear friends: I have a request. See that little poll over in my sidebar just under my profile? Well, I've decided that I need your help and more than that I need your feedback and your vote. Yes, your vote! So you can only choose one topic as your favorite (very favorite) topic on this blog but I suppose if you were really torn between two topics then you could vote more than once. Yes, that seems fair.

I'm in a heady place in my creative life. Which, perhaps, has been obvious to some of you loyal bloggers as I haven't started any new art projects lately and instead have been thinking, writing, documenting, and so on. This is a natural cycle for me but I'm also questioning the path of this here blog and I'd like your input, dear readers. See, I'm always swaying between creative disciplines and as much as I believe firmly in the power of interdisciplinary art and writing and creativity, sometimes I lose the stamina to keep up with so many loves at once.

I mean, not to get overly confessional on you but I can't tell you how many times I've dreamed I could just pick one creative medium and stick to it for life. Yup, for life. Ha! And yet the thought of that makes me laugh. OF COURSE, it's about the process and the willingness to experience our creativity and our authentic aesthetics and so on. Of course.

But, wouldn't it also be lovely to just love painting completely and to just paint and paint and only want to paint? Yeehaw! But, no. And truly without much self-loathing, I just like to create. I make things. I make-up things. I sew. I print. I write. I assemble. I collect. I explore. I sometimes paint. I sometimes draw. I sometimes knit. I oftentimes read. I oftentimes arrange and re-arrange. I sometimes work alone and I sometimes collaborate with others. I love to work with paper, fabric, and found objects, and also the writerly parts are here to stay, for certain. In short: I make things.

So. (Sew.) I would very much like some blogger feedback. Yes, please. And, oh no! I'm not asking you to help me determine which creative interests I should pursue. I will pursue them all in my own sweet time and I will keep experimenting with various techniques and various hybrids and that's certainly what I'll do. Yes, I pinky swear. But for the purposes of this here blog, I'd love to know more about YOU. Yes, you. And your interests. And what you best like to find here among my blog posts and rambles.

So, dear friends, please take 2 seconds to click one topic in the poll on that sidebar. I will leave it up for 2 weeks and then I'm sure to let you know what I think about your votes! It would mean so much to me to get your feedback. And for those of you who are shy and don't like to leave comments, this lets you stay anonymous and comment-free. And for those of you who are happy to comment and would like to say a bit more than just casting one vote, please do so! And THANK YOU for playing along.

Alameda Flea Market

(Alameda Flea Market moments from my Beloved Junk collection.)

Some of you have read my previous Alameda Flea Market rants and raves and true-love-forever declarations! But I just wanted to point to some other folks posting their own Alameda Flea loves this week in the blogosphere. Pop in on SFGirlByBay and her guest blog over at design*sponge for some great Alameda Flea Market moments.

And so, dear blog friends, the sun is shining, the winter purging is complete, and it seems high time for some summer junking adventures, road trips, and rambling ways. Flea markets and sidewalk junk shops and yard sales and auctions for some easy Sunday browsing. Just one more reason I'm happy for spring.

Mutanabbi Coalition

I just found out that this broadside is about to have another exhibition. Exciting news! I joined the Mutanabbi Coalition last summer when Beau Beausoleil founded the project as a series of poetry readings and then spread the news to book artist, Kathy Walkup, who organized a simultaneous broadside project. The exhibition "Mutanabbi Street Starts Here" included 40 different letterpress printers and I hopped on board with a few different sewing variations for this 3-color broadside. (Can you see the third shade of blue ink?)


Initially, the project had a reading at the San Francisco Public Library in August 2007 and then an exhibition at the San Francisco Center for the Book. There have been several readings as organized by Beau and Kathy but I just got news that the exhibition will soon be installed at Florida Atlantic University. Supposedly there is also an upcoming digital archive project at FAU to make the broadsides available online. AND they've raised $3,300 in broadside sales to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Wahoo!

My Upcoming Poetry Reading...

Dear blog friends, I'm giving a poetry reading next Thursday, May 15 at 7:30pm in Point Arena, CA. I'm the featured poet at the Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry Series at the CITYART Gallery hosted by Blake More. (Thank you, Blake.) I'll be reading from my nearly-finished manuscript tentatively titled, Shifting: Recordings on Relations.

Come visit if you're anywhere near Mendocino County. And if not, I have some poems forthcoming in an online journal so I'll be sure to post the links once they're published. Phew! It makes me remember that all that editing and writing and erasing and reading and typing and analyzing are sometimes worth it. Or, of course it's worth it, but it's nice to be reminded when editing my first manuscript that it's potentially interesting to someone other than me! And little steps help soften the blows of the editor's rejections. Yes, yes. And Happy Monday dear friends!

Tomatoes on the Back Porch

I love this book. It's another thing to add to the list of things that make me swoon. I found it very much by chance in a sweet little shop on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn just around the corner from my old apartment. (Ah, Brooklyn. Sigh.) Anyway, it's full of photography by Susan Paulsen and I know I have a tendency to over-use this word, but this book really deserves it: lovely. This book is lovely. Completely lovely. Enchanting even. It's the perfect balance of rustic and romantic. Of charm and decay. Of simple and layered with hints of complexity all at once. It's bittersweet. My goodness, it's just damn beautiful.


I've tried to find information about the photographer online but aside from a few tidbits here and there, I keep coming up short. Regardless, here's a great link to the book equip with additional photographs, should you want to take a browse. Also, I admit, this photograph of her hand in the mirror inspired me to take this shot and this one too (which I dedicated to her). You can tell by the water-stained cover and gently bruised corners of my copy that I've certainly poured over the images more than once. And each time I immerse myself in Susan Paulsen's world, I end up swooning in yet another new and evocative way.


I'm somewhat obsessed with concepts of subtlety in art, as of late. Finding myself drawn to the subtle well-crafted moments that I just can't completely explain or understand but that tug and compel and engage on both intellectual and emotional levels. When artists, writers, performers, designers create a fine tension between elements and I'm left simultaneously satisfied and wanting more. This book is full of subtlety and yet it's also stunning. In Paulsen's own words, "More like my heart than my eyes, the camera has enabled me to express what I feel rather than what I see." Well done, Ms. Paulsen, well done.

SPC: Fresh & Spring & Things!

(Self Portrait Challenge for May: Fresh!)

It's spring. It's true. It's official. It's obvious. It's wonderful and full of change and transition and realignment and with that comes new distractions and joys and inspirations too! I'm finding that my yarn and fabric and other indoor crafting activities are being traded for more portable mediums like photography and poems. My time in the printing studio is pushed back to evenings after the sun has set and I've had sewing projects on the back burner for a few weeks but I just can't seem to finish. And yet, I'm okay with this for now. It's just part of my seasonal inspiration cycle!

Instead, I want to hike and picnic and take long walks through the city documenting my fellow urban friends who are, like me, coming out of hibernation in all sorts of inspiring ways. So, for now, I'm letting the knitting needles and fabrics sit pretty in the studio as I forge ahead with photographs and poems. Knowing the printmaking and junking and other found objects will soon make their way into spring's repertoire of inspired mediums. But, for now, I'm happy to have some inspirations that are portable too. And you?

White Blooms Forced to Age

("White Blooms Forced to Age")

"Supa Fly" Fun at Point Reyes Station

("Supa Fly Monkeys" diptych from our trip to Point Reyes.)

These are, perhaps, two of my all-time favorite photos ever! This weekend, my dearest D and I took a day trip to Point Reyes Station (where I learned about Marin Organic), Point Reyes National Seashore, and the Tule Elk Trail at Pierce Point Ranch. It was a gorgeous day filled with blue skies, high winds, hot sun, and plenty of amazing wildlife including tule elk, acres of wildflowers, hawks, finches, and the most beautiful blue swallows .

But one of my favorite moments was our post-picnic photo shoot staring us as overgrown teenagers and this wonderfully weathered and fallen tree. There are a bunch of photos, which I will upload to Flickr throughout the week, but these are two of my absolute favorites. A good Monday morning antidote and reminder that sometimes the best work (creative or otherwise) can only happen after some serious play. I think that's another key to inspiration: vacation! Happy Monday to you.

Places to Go and People to See!

I'm not trying to be Bay Area-centric but there's a bunch of art happenings this weekend so I just had to spread a little news. (Forgive me, dear non-Bay Area blog friends, I promise you are not forgotten!)

1. The San Francisco International Film Festival opened last night and my sweetie did a video installation of clouds in the lobby so we were given two free tickets to the swanky opening event. As of last night, the Festival is now officially open and running for the next 2 weeks and it's certainly worth a peek.
   
2. ODC is presenting a dance festival over at the beloved Theater Artaud. (If you've never been to Theater Artaud, it's worth the ticket just to walk around that dreamy space and contemplate the huge wall of former-factory windows.) My sweetie's collaborator, Sara Shelton Mann, is being presented next weekend as part of this festival and her work is smart and surprising and subtle and I love it for all these reasons and more. (And, for those of you who know my dearest D personally, next weekend he's performing in Sara's piece, Inspirare, after many years behind the scenes as a designer/ producer/ director. So that's certainly an incentive for me to attend and maybe it's an incentive for you too.)
3. There's an Artifact poetry reading at the Oakland Art Gallery on Saturday night featuring Rae Armantrout, Alli Warren, and C.S. Giscombe and it promises to be good. Not to mention, with Artifact in this new reading space you simultaneously get to check out the art gallery while you're listening to poetry so that makes it doubly good.
   
4. My friend Elizabeth Andersen has an opening reception for her painting exhibit at Luka's on Grand Ave in Oakland on Sunday. (Liz was a poetry cohort of mine in grad school and it's always wonderful to watch someone move from one artistic discipline to another.)
   
5. There's also a new InkBoat show, c(H)ord, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and we have tickets for tonight so that's promising if you're at all interested in experimental dance or Butoh.
6. Lastly, on a slightly separate note, if you haven't been to the Grand Lake Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning then you should schedule that in for tomorrow, for certain. It's a great Oakland farmer's market with booth upon booth of local and organic produce, a strip of craft booths which are absolutely adorable, live music near the hot food tents, and there's even some fun blow-up structures for kids to play on. Last weekend there was also a mini petting zoo complete with rabbits, chickens, and miniature horses! Whatever you do this weekend, Happy Friday dear friends!