sylvia

sylvia plath

today is the 50th death anniversary of sylvia plath.

i can see why she picked february.

i hate that she was left alone, sick and depressed, with two babies and no support.

"morning poem" has been a go-to poem for me for so many years.  i love its metric beauty, that "fat, gold watch" and the way she beautifully and hauntingly describes maternal alienation.

i'd call her a pioneer for this, and maybe she'd have outlasted the hard parts if someone had described how hard and confusing and devastating it can be:

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

Morning Song


Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival.  New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety.  We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses.  I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's.  The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars.  And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

r.i.p., ms. plath------------>>>

making crazy*** work for you

john fleuvog's.  hand made.  half price.

my friend andi told me about  the maria bamford series.  maybe you already know about it?

when i watched the first episode, i was all

YES.

because this is what it's about, people.

to make good art, you have to embrace the mental, but not let it destroy you.  a very, very fine line.  i've been walking both sides of it for as long as i can remember.

so have a lot of other cool people i know.

while i don't want to make generalizations that are too sweeping or unsubstantiated

(YES I DO.)

it just seems like

to make art,

you have to know how to work the continuum of normal to freaky really hard and well.

does that make a modicum of sense?????

(NEW NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION:  LEARN TO WORK THE CRAZY REALLY HARD AND WELL.)

so, here's your saturday goal:

watch an episode of the maria bamford show.

totally attainable goal.

you're welcome.

*** i know "crazy" can be an offensive.  i've searched for an alternative, but haven't come up with a good one:  "mad" is too hipster, "insane" is too crazy, "kooky" too frivolous & perky, & c.  what's the word that means: fun, stupid, sad, manic, depressed, staying in bed all day and staying out all night, crashing and soaring all at the same time?

finishing the manuscript

from the holiday card we never sent.  i love the colors, and these two finished manuscripts.

i started this project the gentian weaves & her fringes, a collection of poems using material from emily dickinson, in 2008.  it seems to take five years for me to finish a larger project--and not because i'm not spending enough time on it daily, but i need that much time for conscious and unconscious forces to do their work.

like other projects i've finished of this same scale, i thought it was finished after two years, but it really, really wasn't.

i need a lot of time away from things to figure out what they need to do.  it really doesn't seem like it's up to me. it really doesn't seem that, if i had worked on nothing but this project for a year,  crammed all five years of work into a single year, it would have had the same outcome.  at all.

so, so, so   ::::    i think i'm really done!  i'm sure i'll do a few more tweaks.  but for now, i'm gonna do as my dear husband recommends and freeze the design.

finding a publisher for a work like this is at least another year's worth of work. 

now i can move on to something new.

yay!

as (one of) my (many) therapist(s) said: you love beginnings.  you need to learn to make middles more fun.  it's true!  what i just did was a middle of sort.  it won't really be done until the book is published, and i feel proud for getting through the stills.

i need to celebrate.  this is the first completed new year's resolution of 2013.

what should i do?

here's the table of contents.  i think it  looks pretty cool, and will look even cooler in a real book:

 

a sudden (((bright coin)))........ 8

ambuscade of clover........ 9

angels babble........ 10

beetle’s ordination........ 13

buttercups rannunculae........ 15

chartered (((from my otter’s window)))........ 17

(((daffodils))) :: (((my blondines)))::........ 19

declined day—phantom’s bare & groping feet........ 20

((dim)) & unsuspected tenderness........ 21

eyes—little trees—........ 24

& favorite tints........ 26

gaunt swimmers ransomed........ 29

globe—bashful—humming........ 30

(((green cartiers)))—........ 31

*(((hoard of gems)))........ 33

(((   i died)))........ 35

i gather idle (((bumble-bees)))........ 36

jointed—........ 38

king’s fork........ 40

lost—the stolid bee........ 42

my tree........ 44

(((moth-star dropt))) last night &........ 45

night hid her throes:........ 47

(((o))) heart-sodden &........ 49

our antiquary ransacks august........ 50

pare this apple........ 52

& pauper’s slit &........ 53

(((parceled))) in yellow tulle—........ 54

peeps onto that sleeping egg........ 55

quivering—........ 57

ragged phoebes (((tremor)))........ 59

rapt: morning::........ 60

:: rouge november—........ 61

september’s escutcheon........ 63

snow falls april (across the altar)........ 64

the child is a small ear........ 67

the (((timbral))) flickers—........ 69

this (((broily))) day........ 70

***throng of acorns........ 71

unfrequented & august........ 73

vane turns in zephyret........ 75

we have slendered ourselves........ 77

window’s anodyne does not fail—........ 78

extacy &&&&&........ 80

yclept........ 82

zinnia?........ 84

feelings

allison janney, the only celeb i really cared about.  photo by lorri vodi rupard.

coming down from 10 days of crazy juggling--between the kids & house, teaching & school, film screenings, press events, & review writing,  i let my little blog go.

& i'm feeling a bit blue.

& i missed you.

i had many thoughts, feelings (or "feeleens" as it's pronounced in utah), and epiphanies.  but i've grown wary of my epiphanies.  because when the epiphanic moment wears off, it's a huge, huge bummer, and i feel like a fool for having believed it.

i think i'll share any way.  because really, dear readers, sometimes i can't distinguish between true inspiration, too much caffeine, or my daily bipolaresque roller coaster ride of emotions.  maybe you can help me sort it out.  maybe writing it here, for the little portion of the world that visits me in cyberspace to examine, will help me know when to

as kenny rogers so eloquently put it:

know when to hold 'em

know when to fold 'em

know when to walk away

& know when to run.

so here are the Most Important thoughts and feelings i had as a result of attending sundance:

1)  writers need to learn how to create characters, need to do better at fleshing out rather than creating types or making corrective statements to the world with their so-called characters.  also, the absence of smiling or happiness does not = profundity.

2)  filmmakers need better writers.  i saw really superb acting, cinematography and even better editing skillz in practice, but without a good writer, you're screwed.

3) (here's the part you need to help me with--am i just totally delusional and manic right now?)  10 films in 20 years.  i have a plan.  woody allenesque.  come up with a modest budget that i can sustain and fund every two years, a style of filmmaking that looks great even without $$$, and a guerilla film company that is locavore in nature, but maxivore in impact.

4)  filmmaking for social change.  something different from redford's approach, not that his isn't great and super important, but a new angle on it.  something to do with open source, something to do with positive and real work by women.

5) will the high adrenaline, complex multi-tasking and hat wearing, and mix of visual, aural, language, and action of film making, if i am lucky and smart enough to do it, be enough to keep me happy for 20 years?

Unusual Routes: Christmas on Earth

Barbara, with her hand in Dylan's hair

I discovered a new girl artist tonight.

This was because instead of biking home along my usual route, I went along Canal, which sucks to travel along.  It's all Robert Moses-ey and alienating and dangerous, especially in the dark.  But I needed to be on Canal to go to Boo-Hooray where they were having an exhibit/screening of Barbara Rubin's Christmas on Earth, and related Rubin ephemera.  Xmas on Earth is an experimental film that was once shown over a Velvet Underground performance in 1965.  Barbara Rubin, a precocious young New Yorker, made it when she was 17.  To say the film was erotic, would be an understatement.  But that's all blurred by its super artiness.

(To interject, curatorial cards in the exhibit reminded us viewers that the Rubin was working in an era in which a "money shot" in porn could get you arrested.  The audaciousness of this 17-year-old young woman is stunning.)

Barbara Rubin seems bold beyond her years.  Look at her above, tousling Bob Dylan's hair on the back of his record.  Supposedly, she introduced Ginsberg to Dylan--two boys who became far more famous than she, but who were far less brave in their art.  Even Ginsberg--can I just say it?

Rubin died at age 35 in childbirth in France.  She had become an orthodox Jew and wanted Christmas on Earth destroyed.  Anthology Film Archives hero and experimental filmmakerJonas Mekas, who had retrieved and kept the film, refused to do so.

This kind of thing, this kind of pain-in-the-ass detour from my usual route, is I want to keep doing into next year, Lara.

Here are Rubin's words:

so i spent 3 months chopping the hours of film up
into a basket
and then toss and toss
flip and toss
and one by one
Absently enchantedly Destined to splice it together
and separate on to two different reels
and then project one reel half the size
inside the other reel full screen size
and then i showed it
and someone tells me, 'my what a good editing job that is indeed!

          - Barbara Rubin, from "A P.S. to Christmas On Earth" (1966)

Still from Christmas on Earth

"I Hope I Don't Intrude"--the front door of Boo-Hooray

Meet Painter Extraordinaire Darryl LaVare

I first noticed Darryl in the East Village years ago.  At the time, I only knew of her as a popular afterschool babysitter and a gal who always looked fabulous:  punk rock tee, leather biker jacket, tiny pleated mini, and pointy boots.   When I finally did formally meet her, I was touched by her warmth and openness.  As is so often the case with my fellow mother friends, I didn't realize until later that Darryl was not just a well-loved caregiver, but also a fabulous artist, trained at the Rhode Island School of Design, which she left her hometown of Memphis to attend in 1986.  After graduation, she moved to New York City and right into the lower east side:  "177 Ludlow St."  Says Darryl, "I was in NY so much throughout college that people just assumed I lived there."  While in New York working on her own career, Darryl met many artists and musicians who would go onto be famous, if they weren't already:  the dashing experimental filmmaker Nick Zedd (who she dated!), Rockets Redglare, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, Richard Kern, and respective members of Bad Brains, the Butthole Services, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stone Temple Pilots, to name a few. 

Currently, Darryl is bringing up two lovely daughters and is on a roll with her art.  Check out many of her paintings whose images are featured here.  "Like" Darryl's artwork here!

Are you in a tight place?  If so, what are you trying to do about it?
What comes to mind for me is that I feel like I’m trying to face my fears.  There was a time that I was afraid to paint.  For many different reasons, I’ve been taking action and trying to face my fear of failure.  In the past, perfectionism prevented me from making art:  I didn't want to start something if it wasn't going to be brilliant.  I’m trying to let go of some of that.  I’m trying to have faith and have the courage to face my demons and just do it.  I’m trying to be led by unknown forces.  Do the footwork and be led by the universe or a higher power.  I pray—for lack of a better word—to have the insight and the courage and the wisdom to see where I should be going.  I’ve been feeling good about that.  I’m not religious, but more spiritual.  And I find the more that I do it, the more it works.  It could be a side of me or an intuition I’m tapping into, I don't know, but if I put it out there, people seem to have ideas for me.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by other friends going through their creative processes.  And I’m trying to inspire other friends.  It’s basically a group of artists who are supporting each other.  For my art, I'm definitely inspired by people, human nature.  Right now, I'm doing a series of Tompkins Square Park riots, punks, police, homeless people, and right now, protestors.  I really think that the Tompkin Square Park riots of '88 came about as a result of class war like the Occupy Wall Street movement.  The paintings I’ve been making look new, but they're about these riots that are now a part of history.  Usually, for my work, I choose a theme and I do a series.  I work from photographs.  I try to take the photographs, but for this current series, Clayton Patterson let me choose from some photos.   He was there during the riots and took lots of photos, so I’ve been working from those.  My latest paintings are from photos I took from the Williamsburg Bridge.   In these have included my daughters.  I like the combination of the graffiti, the sky, and the bridge together.

What do you want to get done this year?  (Or next?)
I’d love to have gallery representation.  That's my big dream.  That would make it possible for me to spend more time painting and showing.  This year and next, I plan on continuing to paint.  I also hope to again teach the art and mural classes at my kids' school.  And I should have my website done soon!

What's your favorite legwear?

I always, always wear black leggings.  Last year, I bought so many different colors and textures of stockings--and sometimes I layered the lace and the leggings--but usually I just wear the black leggings. 

Monday Guest Blogger: Do You Know About the Artist Ms. Shelley Turley? You Should

Full disclosure:  Shelley Turley is my sister!  Yes, that is how I know her (although I'm certain our paths would have crossed even if we did not share the same dna), but that's not the reason she's on this blog.  Point blank:  Shelley Turley is one of my favorite contemporary artists.  Shelley Turley is the artist you don't know about, but should.  Over the years, she's explored in her work the mythology of nurses, hippies, new agers, seekers, healers, pastoralists, spirituralists, and naturalists in American culture. She's been making art steadily for decades and showing in numerous galleries in the west and New York, during which she was a Brooklyn resident for ten years.  I'm gonna say it:   Shelley Turley should be famous.  Perpetually humble and self-effacing, when I asked Shelley what she'd like our readers to know about her, she answered:  "I always strive to do my best.  Even when my best has not been very good, I keep trying." Check out her art here.  Do it!   


Here's fellow artist Jesse Wiedel's excellent blog post about Shelley from 2009.  

An old one--but one of my all time favorite paintings of Shelley's.

Shelley answers our four questions, June 2012:

1.  Are you in a tight place?  If so, what are you trying to do about it? Yes.  I've been in a tight place since 1979.  When I'm feeling especially "tight", I always turn to one of my favorite teacher's, Adyashanti.   It's so easy in this age of technology; I just go to his website and listen to one of his talks.  I know that sounds super corny, and I actually don't consider myself to be a particularly spiritual person, but listening to him always seems to do the trick with cutting through the high anxiety.  I also keep meaning to get that daily meditation practice going . . . I know that would help a lot.  2. What do you want to get done this year? I would LOVE to have a big beautiful new body of work finished this year, with a updated website to match. Cut paper and watercolor on paper 3.  What inspires you? Oh, geniuses inspire me.  I've been going to Arizona a lot the last couple of years and my brother and I finally got it together to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's  Taliesin West.  Being in that amazing space in the Arizona desert, which I love, and seeing the physical manifestation of FLW's brain changed me somehow.  I also love the art of Nicole Eisenman, Jules de Ballencourt, Dennis Reynolds, Charles Burchfield, and Agnes Martin to name a few.  Also, good music, saguaro cacti, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona, the writer Sherman Alexie (who I consider a national treasure--and thanks to former Monday blogger, Marnie Campbell, for turning me onto his blog), Oprah, Neil Young, and liberal radio talk show host Randi Rhodes.    Shelley in some of her favorite legwear. 4.  What's your favorite legwear? Pants:  both wide legged and skinny.

GITP Monday Guest Blogger Ingrid, aka Bing, Bingle, Ingy, or Bingie

the fabulous ingrid

editor's note:  so, yeah, ingrid is my daughter, but also a (s) hero of mine.  she's such an inspiring person, and i can safely say that at least once a day somebody tells me that ingrid is also their hero.  she has dealt with many difficulties and obstacles in her life, always with so much grace, style, and wisdom.   i can brag about her since all of this is despite, not because of, the fact that she has me for a mother.  she's way hardcore, and she got that entirely from her father.  so i should only get credit for having good taste in choosing a partner.  

ingy and mama

1.  Are you in a tight place?  If so, what are you trying to do about it? 

     As a college student, I feel that it is my duty to be on a tight budget and a tight schedule. I don't really have a lot of say in the matter, but I try to think of it as a necessary part of the college experience so I don't get too bummed out about it. To illustrate, it is five thirty in the morning and I am working on a lab report that I wanted to send in at midnight. I am not great at chemistry, but I still can't get used to budgeting five-ish times as much time to get my work done for my General Chemistry class than it takes other students. I'm sitting in a nest of papers, books, my computer, and rose petals (long story) on the floor of my hall. When I finish this lab report, I have to write a take-home exam to turn in in class tomorrow (er, today) which means that I probably won't be sleeping at all tonight. I also try to embrace the "poor college student" archetype-- I'm wearing a thrift store skirt and a free box sweater and my midnight snack (perhaps "breakfast" would be more appropriate) was straight peanut butter from a jar I've been refilling at the dining hall's jumbo peanut butter canister. I even made a label for my beloved jar that reads "Hunger Trumps Dignity".

ingy's hallway study nest

In terms of what I'm trying to do about my tight budget and tight schedule, my favorite method is to try to keep a good sense of humor about the whole thing, mostly because I know that I'm just a kid and that not having enough time or money doesn't really matter because nobody else is depending on me to feed or take care of them. There's not a lot I can do about my tight budget, so I try to make peace with that, especially because I am currently receiving the best education money can buy and making a fuss about scooping dining hall peanut butter into a jar I've been refilling since August seems in poor taste considering the Fancypants University for Refined Ladies I'm attending. 

I could certainly do something to make my schedule less tight: I could quit one of my jobs, give up my pre-medical dreams, drop one of my dance classes, step down from the leadership of one of the clubs I'm in, give up one of my TV shows, or learn how to say no, but as Captain von Trapp tells us, "Activity suggests a life filled with meaning." I love being busy with places to be, and I am very open to the possibility that I'm addicted to meetings, but whatever the case may be, I'm at a point in my life where I can pull an all-nighter with relatively few consequences and nobody gets neglected if I'm out of my room all day, and it feels really good to be a part of a variety of engaging and exciting groups. This is all a very long way of saying that the only thing I'm doing about my tight schedule right now is trying to have a sense of humor about it. Also, let's be honest: I probably spend as many hours daily on Facebook and NetFlix and talking about nothing with my hallmates as I do asleep, so it's not as if there's absolutely no way I could get more sleep if I really wanted to. 

ingrid at her school for young ladies

2.  What do you want to get done this year?

      Thinking about one year in a holistic way is hard for me, since my calendar years tend to take the form of a weird triptych-- the last semester of one year, summer break, and the first semester of the next year. The one thing that I will be working on all year long is earning money to pay tuition, which is a little bit boring. This year I hope to completely finish my two semesters of General Chemistry so that I can move on to Organic Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus (which I will probably stumble through with as many tears and all-nighters as I need for Gen Chem), make more things (I am majorly inspired by Rozsika Parker's The Subversive Stitch), risk arrest as part of a Non-Violent Direct Action with the Earth Quaker Action Team, and develop my aesthetic values. 

3.  What inspires you? 

     I try to keep a running roster of (s)heroes, including professors, parents, classmates, carved owls that decorate the exterior of my dormitory, and people I haven't ever met, and today I am particularly inspired by agatha olek for her audacity, her reappropriation of traditional femininity in a guerilla setting, her dedication to her craft, and her playfulness. 

4.  What is your favorite legwear? 

      Wearing clothes is always a tiny bit uncomfortable for me, so as much as I love tights, going bare-legged is always my first choice. I don't especially enjoy shaving my legs, but I do like having bare skin through which I can feel the sun and the wind, and I love feeling skirts and dresses swirl around my legs. Also, I don't think this counts as legwear, but I absolutely love wearing boots.

ms. behaving--ode to guerrilla grrls

who are they?  only the raddest ladies around.

super-heroines the guerrilla girls have been around for 25 years.  they have presented the facts, like vida and woman stats, that no one wanted to believe:  namely,  the fact that female artists and artists of color are facing gross discrimination.  


still.

it's 25 years later.  and maybe some stuff has gotten better.  like the fact that there's a major retrospective at the moma by a female artist.  (see julie's post about the cindy sherman show and some other female artists at the moma.)  but there's still a long way to go.  i've posted a portion of a speech from the chicago art institute's 2010 commencement, delivered by an anonymous artist in a gorilla mask.  some of the problems that still exist are outlined below.

guerrilla girls are so good at making the tight place of women in the art world (and their movement has had implications for women writers, filmmakers, etc.) into a totally rad place.  i'm inspired by some of their ideas for taking little daily actions (see ideas below)  to raise awareness, as they say with "facts, humor, and a little fake fur."

let me quickly point out my favorite of their bigger ideas:  make cheaper art, make art that is more inclusive, collaborative, and less about winners and losers.  i think this is the thing women need to bring to the table in art, culture, politics, religion, business, etc.  collaboration and inclusion. 

i hate the notion that we need competition to make the world better, and that it's just human nature to have rich and poor, powerful and weak, success and failure.  it's probably partly because of my religious upbringing, but on this point, you won't move me. 

we can have a more just, inclusive world with less killing, sickness, hunger, violence, rape, and oppression.  and as an artist, that's where i'll start with my little idealistic manifesto.

so go to the g.g. website.  buy some posters and bumperstickers and books.  or make your own.  spread the facts, make are support artists in collaboration & your on your way to utopia.

xo

amen

The Guerrilla Girls’ Guide to Behaving Badly (Which You Have to Do Most
of the Time in the World as We Know It)

Be a loser. The world of art and design doesn’t have to be an Olympics where a
few win and everyone else is forgotten. Even though the art market and celebrity
culture is set up to support the idea of hyper-competition and to make everyone
but the stars feel like failures, there’s also a world out there of artistic cooperation
and collaboration that’s not about raging egos. That’s the one we joined, and the
one you can join, too. Get beyond the outdated assumption that only a handful of
you will "make it." Don’t all waste your time running after the same few carrots.
Be impatient. Don't wait for a stamp of approval from the system. Don’t wait
around to be asked to dance. Claim your place. Put on your own shows, create
your own companies, develop your own projects. To steal a phrase from the Dali
Lama, “Be the change you want to see in the world." In other words, Be the
artworld you want to take part in.

Be crazy. Political art that just points to something and says “this is bad” is like
preaching to the choir. Try to change people's minds about issues. Do it in an
outrageous, unforgettable way. A lot of people in the art and film world didn’t
believe things were as bad as we said they were and we brought them
around....with facts, humor and a little fake fur. Here’s a trick we learned: If you
can get someone who disagrees with you to you to laugh at an issue, you have a
hook into their brain. Once inside you have a better chance of changing their
minds.

Be anonymous. You’d be surprised what comes out of your mouth when you’re
wearing a gorilla mask. We started wearing them to protect our careers, but soon
realized it was one of the secrets of our success. Anonymous free speech is
protected by the First Amendment. So join that long line of anonymous masked
avengers, like Robin Hood, Batman, and of course, Wonder Woman.

Be an outsider. Maybe having a secret identity isn’t for you. But even if you end
up working inside the system, act like an outsider. Look for the understory, the
subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair, then expose it. We’ve
empowered lots of people inside museums, universities and film studios to jam
their culture and dis their institutions.

Lead a double life. Be a split personality. Be two, three, four, five artists in one
body, like me. I’m an artist / activist / writer / graphic designer. Be a hybrid.
Hybrids are so green.

Just do one thing. If it works, do another. If it doesn’t, try it another way. Over
time, we promise you it will all add up to something effective and great. Don't be
paralyzed because you can't do it all right away. Just keep on chipping away.
Don't make only FINE art. Make some cheap art that can be owned by
everyone, like books and movies can.

Sell out. If people start paying attention to you, don’t waste time wondering if
you’ve lost your edge. Take your critique right inside the galleries and institutions
to a larger audience. When our work appears at venerable venues like the
Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern, or The National Gallery in DC, we get
hundreds of letters from people saying they were blown away by our analysis of
art and culture.

Give collectors, curators, and museum directors tough love: (Bear with me,
this is a long rant.) It’s a pity that public art museums have to compete with
billionaire art investors to own significant artworks. And then depend on those
investors to donate the works! It's outrageous that art by women and artists of
color sold at auction bring 10-20% of the price of art by white males. It's unethical
that wealthy art collectors who put lots of money in the art market can then
become museum trustees, overseeing museums that in turn validate their
investments. What a lousy way to write and preserve our history! If things
continue like they’re going, a hundred years from now, many museums will be
showing only the white male version of art history, with a few tokens thrown in.
You need to keep that from happening. Make sure that museums cast a wider
net and collect the real story of our culture.

How can you deliver tough love to the art world? Demand ethical standards
inside museums. No more insider trading. No more conflicts of interest! No more
cookie cutter collections of Art That Costs The Most (Eli Broad, do you hear us?)
While you’re at it, give some tough love to design and architecture, where women
and people of color face a crushing glass ceiling. And finally, educators out there,
don't teach a history constructed by corrupt institutions. Write your own!
Complain, complain, complain. But be creative about it. Sure we've done 45
feet high banners and billboards all over the world. But here's some simpler
things we've done: Put anti-film industry stickers in movie theatre bathrooms,
insert fliers with facts about art world discrimination into books in museum stores,
send anonymous postcards to museum directors. Want more ideas? How about
attaching political hangtags to items in clothing stores, putting up street art or
billboards across from your office, slapping stickers on fashion magazine covers.
You can probably think up a million better ideas than we can.

Use the F word. Be a feminist. For decades the majority of art school graduates
have been women. Your class is no exception. But after school, when you find a
too-small number of women and people of color in your field, especially at the
top, then you know there's got to be discrimination, conscious or unconscious,
going on. Don't just put up with it, say something. We think its ridiculous that so
many people who believe in the tenets of feminism have been brainwashed by
negative stereotypes in the media and society and refuse to call themselves
feminists. And guys, that means you, too. Time to man up, whether you're
female, male, trans, etc. and speak up for women. Women's rights, civil rights,
and gay, lesbian and trans rights are the great human rights movements of our
time. There's still a long way to go.

And last, but not least, be a great ape.
In 1917, Franz Kafka wrote a short story titled A Report to An Academy, in which
an ape spoke about what it was like to be taken into captivity by a bunch of
educated, intellectual types. The published story ends with the ape tamed and
broken by the stultified academics. But in an earlier draft, Kafka tells a different
story. The ape ends his report by instructing other apes NOT to allow themselves
to be tamed. He says instead: "break the bars of your cages, bite a hole through
them, squeeze through an opening…and ask yourself where do YOU want to
go?”

Make that YOUR ending, not the tamed and broken one.
Oh...And don't forget to have some serious fun along the way!!!!

legwear:  ripped jeans under a nightgown (yikes. it's a day to do s.o.l.e.)


inspiration:  facts, humor and a little fake fur


looking forward:  bookclub tonight

Becoming More Dandy

Patrick McDonald with Jimmy Webb from Trash and Vaudeville

I'm trying to write this while really hungry.  Trying to get the kids to go to a new veg place with me--a donation-only cafe embedded within a new yoga studio I have yet to try.  (We actually did go and those lovely hippie kids actually opened the cafe for us AFTER they had closed--don't spread this around.  And it was extremely delish.)

But yesterday, I took S to see the exhibit "The Dandy's New York" at Dorian Grey Gallery.  The entire exhibit is a photographer's tribute to her muse Patrick McDonald, who is featured in Bill Cunningham's doc we recently watched together.

He's a famous New York dandy in grand tradition of Beau Brummel.  Patrick is immaculate, hyper-stylized (especially his brows), and is always in a hat.  He has many.  The exhibit description is here:

Molua Muldown and multi‐media artist Lisa Pan reveal the authentic man behind New York’s celebrated and enigmatic dandy, Patrick McDonald. A series of environmental portrait photographs, mixed media collages and Patrick’s own poetry illustrate the East Village life and ethos of this unconventional artist. In this series, we look through the eyes of a man who has been described as a New York City living landmark and a walking work of art. Historically, New York City has been a haven for unique artists such as W. H. Auden, Quentin Crisp and Klaus Nomi. For over two decades, Patrick has been a muse and model for some of our most celebrated painters, photographers and illustrators. In our rapidly changing city, with it’s ever increasingly endangered environment for artists, Patrick’s uncompromising life simply inspires.

What was cool was on the day we visited, the photographer Molua Muldown was there, as well as Lisa Pan.  (Pan photographed S.'s tights while S. and I stood there.)

The artists, Lisa and Molua

Molua was patient and generous, especially given the fact I had so many questions, but I can't remember what I asked now--and I don't think any of my questions were very good.  But I do know she moved to NY from CA in 1982, about the time I moved to Provo.  The truth was, I was nervous to be facing the artists!  And didn't want to be buggy.

Lisa Pan wore a very cool Amelia Earhart vintage aviator cap.  Wish I had gotten a better pic!  The big takeaway--it was refreshing for once to encounter a male muse and a female artist(s).  Are there any other combos like this?

Another takeaway--I want to dress more interestingly this spring.  We'll see.