Friday, September 30, 2005




Finally today the pages of "Potter's Field" seem to be coming together. I have printed a variety of mock-ups and sent them off to poet/pal - David Martin to see what he thinks. Such a strange transition - holding an image in your hands after seeing it on screen in so many permutations.... now looking at it again on the blog-o-screen - where I don't think it really holds up it's end of the bargain (probably has much to do with my neophyte abilities with technology). This changing dynamic (physical object/ephemeral screen) is of great interest to me. It is always (of late) a underlying narrative of any studio work. This book (when finished) will be about 10-12 pages. The poem speaks to the "Potter's Field" that is on the county grounds outside of Milwaukee.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Mind Work


So much of working on any new project involves time for reflecting. These early fall days it involves getting the dog in the car and getting lost on the logging trails that go through the forest (Hiawatha National). We drive and drive and park and walk until I start worrying about where I parked and have to back-track.

These days the issue is how to bind a book that is in process. I have been trying to stay in relationship with the project - not letting it spin our of control - remembering that I have the tools (inner and outer) needed to complete it. Most times if I drive far enough, walk long enough - the solution is right there.

The other day I heard writer Louise Erdrich being interviewed on KCRW's BookWorm. She said (talking about her practice of writing) that anything that takes up your mind and heart is a life quest. Yes. This is something I know to be true.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Small World Stuff - Missing Home


The chief city of modern Wisconsin, Milwaukee, was once in Michigan Territory, although it was then but a small trading post. Wisconsin Territory was separated from Michigan in 1836. However the name Milwaukee survives in Michigan, on Milwaukee Lake in Marquette County, Milwaukee Creek, St. Clair County, Milwaukee Junction, a postal station in Detroit and , in corrupted form, Zilwaukee, Saginaw County. There was once a village of Milwaukie in St. Clair Couty (1837 – 1858), named for Milwaukie Creek (presently Milwaukee); it is now Lakeport.

About ten interpretations of this name are in print, although it is not a difficult one to analyze. There can be little doubt that the correct meaning is “good land.” From Potawatomi meno or mino, “good,” and aki, “land.” The l sound it now has is the result of misunderstanding by whites. [From Indian Names in Michigan by V. Vogel]

Saturday, September 24, 2005

superior


superior
Originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

Sweet Water

Susan Brind Morrow wrote a piece in the NYTimes on August 31 - a fine little essay about her childhood summers on Lake Ontario. She broadens her thinking to include all of the area around the Great Lakes, saying, "Beyond Chicago and Buffalo and Detroit, this territory of the great freshwater reserves of the world is for the most part unsettled, and unsought, like a secret treasure long ago forgotten."

Sitting in the Bayliss Public Library in Sault Ste. Marie, I wonder if the residents of these small towns and communities feel like their towns are unsettled and unsought? My guess is their answers would show different POV on the subject. Some people are here because the area is "unsought" and others see the ebb and flow of tourists and other seasonal residents as an important part of how the areas define themselves. Either way - the treasure part is absolutely right.

She goes on to write about the history of the lakes, finishes with a question and then poses an answer: "Why is it necessary - all this diversity - why do you need it at this point in the evolution of life on earth?"

How she answers the question is a a long sentence - but almost a prayer - and certainly something that I feel everyday that I spend in proximity to the Lakes - from the smallest hamlet to the largest metropolis.

"The lakes and everything affected by them, the heavy blanketing of winter snow, the following slow thaw and mild growing season in a pervasively moist atmosphere, seem integrally involved in what becomes now at the end of summer, the production of all of the delightful and delicious things of this world: from the fish and the fruit to the vast migrations of breeding water birds to the bees that pollinate the vineyards and the orchards - their eerily acute sense of geometry and time translating into sweetness as it insistently flows forth throughout nature in this familiar yet rare landscape formed not long ago by huge bodies of sudden deep blue water, freshwater, the one thing needed to sustain, in all its wildness and diversity, life on this earth."

Morrow is the author of "Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World." The entire article is linked through the post title - and well worth the time it will take you to sign up for the free NYTimes subscription.....

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Bay Mills Community College Home Page




Spent the day doing research at the wonderful little library at Bay Mills Community College on the Bay Mills Reservation in northern Michigan. Of particular interest - and once again proving the oppression of privilege (mine) - I learned that the college is a part of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Founded in 1972 by six tribally controlled community colleges to mobilize a concerted effort to deal with common challenges, AIHEC is now a cooperatively sponsored effort on the part of 36 member institutions in the United States and Canada. Today, tribal colleges and universities, also known as TCU's, serve over 30,000 students from more than 250 tribal nations.

The place was packed the entire time I was there. It is a large log building with confortable chairs and an interesting collection of native artifacts on the upper level. Beautiful bead and quill work, tools, and carvings. I was able to look at some contemporary work that is being done by young artists - If you are interested, check out the Institute for American Indian Arts.

Friday, September 16, 2005

star diaries entry 10 - tribute to Stanislaw Lem - see original size pls.


Star Diary - Tribute to Lem - a photoset on Flickr

There are a couple artists who are working in book arts and posting their images on flickr fairly consistantly. This is a really interesting link to a collaborations between two artists - Christina Bustos in Berlin and Paula C. in Portugal. Enjoy investigating the links. These nights - with a nearly full moon and the Milky Way fully visible - it is good to see that others are reflecting on the stars as well.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Pow wow on the Coast


CRW_8473
Originally uploaded by palden.
At Indian Summer tonight. Orange half moon hanging in the steamy night sky. After the Grand Entry, everyone was invited to join the dancers on the floor - to make a contribution -both spiritual and monetary - that would be sent on behalf of all to the people of the Gulf Coast struggling with the aftermath of Katrina.

Watching this teeming mass circle the floor - native and non-native peoples - swaying and stomping to the drumming and singing. The tick of time, the beating of hearts, the love of movement and color and sound. We all are one in this.


(photo from palden's stream on flickr...I brought kids, not cameras...)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005


fuzzy coffee
Originally uploaded by christopherfarrell.

we make money not art: Caffeinated anatomy

(Get to the image through the link in the title...)

I love these.....Not only are illy's coffee cups the cutest around, they are also very inspiring in terms of creativity.

Designed by Atelier Van Lieshout, the latest illy offering interprets the four systems of the human body involved in drinking coffee.

Now, those are cups I'd like to contemplate my coffee with!

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Helen R. Klebesadel





Helen had an opening of her new work at the Grace Chosey Gallery in Madison last night. It seems to me that her work is a beautful metaphor for what I would like to send to each person on the Gulf coast who is suffering. A beautiful, comforting wrapping made by human hands and healing touch. Quilts have an underlying strength in the thoughtful strategy that goes into their planning and fabrication. Traditionally, quilts have often been made by groups of women who came together in community to help others prepare for a life change - a wedding, a birth, a move across the country. Our government could take a hint from this seemingly commonplace gift from the everyday, composed of human kindness.

Friday, September 02, 2005

The American Race

[well worth reading the entire piece - link on the title to go to Leon Wynter's blog...]


There is this one, fat, black, woman who keeps wading across my TV screen. Or maybe there’s a hundred of her. She drags her belongings in a gym bag through chest- deep oily water. Her arms are as fat as thighs. Her THIGHS are churning all that’s foul beneath the surface.

And then there’s the brother. He’s a do-ragged, unshaven gangsta from central casting with a case of beer on his shoulder. Maybe he’s her nephew. He doesn’t have a record deal—yet— but he does have a nasty hard core rapin’ and robbin’ video out on cable news right now.

Auntie and nephew are the worst possible sterotypes of black America. America sees them playing on an endless loop on TV this week. We haven’t seen this many black folks acting out this much pain since the rebranded Rodney King uprising in L.A.

All I can see are metaphors, blowing in the wind from Katrina, the perfect storm.

Forget forest and trees. On TV we can’t see the class for the race.

All of US





We are not looters. We are thirsty, we are hungry, we are scared, we are alone.