Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April, 2011

not a palace, not a crown

not a palace, not a crown ; mixed media on cradled wood panel, 18 x 24 x 1.5 inches, the string series continues. Painting surface is made of a natural birch hardwood. Surface is mounted to a dry pine or basswood frame. O god I came downstairs this morning o god and found C sitting there watching the royal o god wedding. In the crowds outside the church o god there were people singing hymns and waxing ecstatic o god and C said what a bunch of nerds and I said o god . O god is there no escape? How exactly does one become an American? I hear they'll take anyone in Oklahoma.

poor girl

poor girl ; mixed media on cradled wood panel, 24 x 24 x 1.5 inches, the string series continues. For a show at Studio 330 in May. * * * * * I got rain in my ear today, going over the causeway. By the time I reached the other side, my umbrella was a dead stick man in a raggedy black suit.

sports is cruelty

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Björn Borg. * * * * * I hadn't watched a hockey game in months. Lately we've seen bits of the playoffs here and there, before my wife turns it over to TVO, and she always asks me questions like, How many rounds are there? How many games are there left? How long does this go on? God, that's a long time. Why does it take so long? But Sunday night, after a full-press visit from her sister's family (in fairness, there was no cooking -- we ordered Thai -- so there wasn't that much work, and my wife did most of it), I started watching Game Six of the Vancouver-Chicago series, towards the middle of the first period, and while I did occasionally flip it over to a show about baroque painting (the strangely coiffed British host kept pronouncing it "ba-rock"), I more or less stayed with it until it the end. Roberto Luongo was not in goal. This is because, after winning the first three games of the series for Vancouver (it's a best o

cigar-tin stories

Cigar-tin stories #92 to #96. All sold. I have some new ones on the go, and will be posting them (and a few other things) in an Etsy shop at the end of the week.

spring

the rest of us starving ; india ink on math paper, 9.25 x 6.25 inches. * * * * * Spring is here so there are many magical things about, trenches of mud steeped in rotting garbage and a forecast for snow tonight. Other signs of spring I've seen of late ... + A fellow strolling home around suppertime, in work boots and construction coveralls, playing the guitar as he went. Just walking along, playing that guitar, like some kind of Maritime hipster. + An oversized black 4x4 with the words "Night Rider" emblazoned across the tail gate. In a serif typeface, no less. + A woman who -- I swear to God -- could have been Dog the Bounty Hunter's twin sister. Too tanned, too oily, too wrapped in her sunglasses. She peeled away in a PT Cruiser with squeaking brakes. + A bison skull mounted on the front of an SUV. + A man lecturing his mother about "getting too loaded" at night. She looked over at Oona and I as we passed by. "I don't mind if you get a little

a good woman

We watched A Good Woman Saturday night. A Good Woman stars Scarlett Johansson and – even *more* unfortunately – Helen Hunt. O god it was awful. It was one of those precious period movies about witty (read: quite stupid), rich British people on annual/permanent holiday in Italy. It was all Lord-this, Lady-that. Lots of sunshine and mawkish horn music in the background. Dialogue all charming quips shared around the table, like everyone saying their lines. In fact, everyone *did* sound like they were reading lines. Helen Hunt, looking shrunken and dunked in baby powder, like someone you'd find photocopying her ass at the office Christmas party, sounded like dinner theatre in rural Nova Scotia. I was stunned by the idea that she is still getting work. Especially *this* kind of work, which is supposed to be all refined and clever and has all the dramatic weight of day-old popcorn. I kept waiting for Poirot to show up. And Scarlett Johansson did her usual thing, walking around with he

bird is the (magnificent) word

Wandering from strange places again, wherein something you've created takes off ... ... and is then transformed ... ... into something else, and comes back to you ... ... as something infinitely better. Remember: Superdark Can Happen to Anyone .

seen / scene

neck ; india ink on math paper, 6.25 x 9.25 inches. * * * * * Some scenes I've seen lately ... • A guy in full construction worker gear – hard hat, boots, tool belt, heavy jeans, quilted vest – running, full out, down the sidewalk. • About a thousand people, everywhere, all the time, walking along with their cell phone held out in front of them like a wand, madly thumbing little buttons. Meanwhile, I can't even talk on my home phone while the radio is on. • Grey jeans. A girl in grey jeans. I have not seen grey jeans in twenty years, I'm sure. I was *shocked*. * Sweat pants with piano keys printed up the side of one leg. This is the return of a decidely *less* awesome idea. • Two boys in suits, going into a comic store. Despite the white sneakers, I thought they looked rather sharp. • Guy in motorcycle jacket who does not own a motorcycle. Obviously . In fact, we're pretty sure you don't even have a job. • A woman so bow-legged that I saw the space between her k

rejections

crowned ; india ink on (math) paper, 8.5 x 5.25 inches. * * * * * Well, the rejections have been coming in rather steadily over the last week or so, and they're the standard slips of unsigned nothingness ("... we regret that various constraints prevent our responding more fully at this time"). Again (as in: here *I* go again), the trouble with this is that it leaves you blind. The only thing I can infer – and you can either call this experience or cynicism – is that the change of season (and even more so with spring) inspires sudden attention for the editor's inbox, followed by some ruthless housecleaning. Still, is it really so time consuming to sign one's name? Well: this is the business and this is the game. Usually I don't care. But sometimes these things tend to pile up on you. * * * * * Mom: I've put some more Oona videos up for you. You can find them here .

masters of the universe

C defended her Master's thesis (Education) this morning, so I took the day off to provide chauffeuring, company, bag carrying, moral support, lunch, etc. She made a great presentation and gave the committee's questions just the right amount of thoughtful air. And they gave her a clean pass, no revisions necessary. So job well done. Her thesis was about possible selves: the future selves that students imagine when they embark on a course of study, and the way informational interviews with established members of their desired community can develop and animate their plans. Is there a dream or a strategy or even an idea? Often: no. As she was talking I thought about my own ambitions from that time, at the end of high school and my early twenties, and just how barren my imagination was, how I saw nothing, and could see nothing ahead, like standing at the edge of an empty field. All I can remember thinking is that I needed to find some way not to be exposed and desperate forever, and

Oona, lately

I have not shared any Oona pictures for awhile. I will correct this now. One of the best places to get her is in the red rocking chair, which is where she has her bottle when we get home from daycare. Of course, "best" is still not "optimal", as she is always moving (here she is taking off her socks, probably even as I tell her *not* to take off her socks), and unless you resort to the flash there is almost always some degree of blur. Exhibit A. Run run grab run throw down grab run put on hat put on boots run grab run. Is she wearing swimming trunks on her head? She is wearing swimming trunks on her head. Here I am distracting her before supper with my camera case. I'd put it on the edge of her tray, without looking at her, so that she thinks she has something that she's not supposed to have. Such a delicate and fastidious eater. Which is why I often have to vacuum her chair after meals. If you'd like to see two Oona movies, click here and here .