Category: poetry

Series, Coursework, Press, Mateo (Warming Hut)

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Working in Series, small format collage studies, each 4.5 x 4 inches

I’ve been enjoying a really good, fun class from Fibre Arts Take Two featuring multi media artist Eva Kalien. Her approach to art making is thoughtful, eccentric, and encouraging — and the concept of working on several pieces simultaneously, to iterate quickly and freely, is a game changer!

I’d Rather Learn From One Bird, study, 4.5 x 4 inches

Here’s a closeup of one of a series studies. Eva likes to use printed text in her process (for many reasons) and I chose to follow… with my high school copy of ee cummings’ poetry. (Yes, I tore up a beloved book I’ve been carrying around for many years.) Although the text may not be legible, I know it’s there, a foundational layer of meaning and message, and it’s strangely powerful. She also suggests to “stop before you’re done”, another concept of surprising benefit.

In other news, I’ve ordered an early birthday present — a special thing I’ve been considering for some time: a build it yourself printing press from Provisional Press. Check it out! So very exciting, and I’ll keep you apprised. (It also means I’m going to have to clean off (and defend!) a work bench in the garage for it to live on… no small task.)

Mateo Napping on the Warming Hut Porch

He also likes to rearrange the furniture, and crop the “living” roof :/

Y: Yikes

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Y_Yikes

Y is totally for Yikes! The answer to the previous X question: This is a model of the hip replacement gizmos that will be used in my upcoming procedure. Thank you for all your responses. I hope you’ve made a new friend in expression with haiku. Certificates of Distinctions available soonly.

There are three parts to the contraption: the long lower knife/cane/golf club grip that fits into my femur, a dense plastic faux cartilage, and the round pelvis-nested salad bowl.

(And yes, I was the only one at the surgery preparation class that was so awed as to take photos of these amazing devices.)

What I love the most is the coral reef/spaghetti-like parts to which my actual living bones will meld/grow into. I’ll pause here, and let you read that sentence again…
It’s all made of titanium, and yes, I will set off metal detectors.

So Y is also for Yes?

Yes, I’ll be needing to close down MMS+S for a few weeks while all the magic (and pain medication) happens, so if you’re thinking about ordering a kit or two, please do so in the next few days.

Albie_sunroom

Yes, I’ve not been getting out much, but reading a lot and appreciating the many comforts of home. This is a late-night surprise encounter of Albie (and his debris field), stretched out on the (unmade) single bed in the sun room.

the_light.jpg

And Yes, yes, wily Scarlett. As poet David Whyte suggests,

Turn sideways into the light as they say
the old ones did and disappear
into the originality of it all.

(From “Tobar Phadraic”, one of my many favorites from him.)

Yes. Yes. Yikes.

Nothing Beside Remains

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This month’s very tardy nancyland splash page pays homage to two of my favorite things: Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandius” and beach cleanups.

I recently became site captain for Esplanade Beach volunteer cleanups organized by Pacifica Beach Coalition, and my experience is heartfelt and mind-expanding. The image on the splash page is a fishing buoy, possibly debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, retrieved from the beach some sixty feet below:

esplanade_trail_051216

The part of the poem that most resonates with me:

“The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
…
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”