Children, color, books, chilling

[A book I made last summer at Velma's.] Upon Frank's recommendation, I watched "A State of Mind," a documentary film that follows two girls, 11 and 13, as they train for the North Korean Mass Games. It was unnerving because it was hard to marvel at the results of the intense training of tens of thousands of young people while considering the agenda behind such training. Beyond the choreographed gymnastics and dancing, though, I was struck by a fleeting glimpse, zoomed in, of the giant (something like two football fields in size), changing "picture" in the stands behind the performance's main floor. I knew they were people, but then I saw they were children, and they were not simply waving colored placards and turning them around, but opening and closing books that were pages of colors. The concept is so pure, and execution perfect, but I cringed to think about what it takes to synchronize 20,000 children with huge color books, and what the punishments are for error.

Books without words are very powerful.

Digging in

I am not as brave or experienced as Jami, but I am surprisingly happy about being back in the muck of my manuscript, making hard edits. For my entire life, I have resisted and despised revision. Really and truly. But now, I am able to to face the mess and attempt to organize it. It is not as painful as I feared. At least, it's a very different kind of pain. Sometimes, when I get to a place where I have to make huge structural changes that will definitely cause big pieces to topple off the shelves and some shelves themselves to slide to the floor, I stand up and walk away. But then I come back. It's amazing. I come back!

Again and again, starting over

None of the days in this month have been going according to plan. All broken up, gone awry, plans made and broken, unexpected surprises that pop up, being pulled this way and that. This morning, I rearranged all the drying, coated hanji, in keeping with regulations of this building, since hanging things on a line looks too much like laundry drying, and that is an eyesore to the neighbors, and so on for a million more characters in the contracts. Boring. But I am a big rule abider so I only let the sheets flap in the wind for a couple of days.

I realized that I ONLY feel okay not working if I am working. HA! So, if I want to watch TV or a movie, I feel anxious the entire time unless I have something in my hands to keep them busy. This is what I did on Sunday night. Last night, I got to have a long speed reading session and finished Vivian Gornick's Fierce Attachments. I liked what she said about work, while mentioning her ex-husband:

Stefan knew more about work than I did but not, I think, much more. He was tormented by the discrepancy between his painterly ideas and his ability to execute those ideas on the canvas, and he dramatized his torment endlessly. He would crash about in the studio, smoking, cursing, throwing paint on the canvas, but not, I suspect, thinking hard about the problem before him. The knowledge that work is patient, sustained labor--no more, no less--was not wisdom he had as yet taken in very much better than I had.

I get tangled up, too, with the "patient" and "sustained" parts, but every day is a chance to learn those things all over again.

Celebrate 2012 with comics!

[I bet that people who don't make books also feel this way sometimes.] If you'd like to get comics like this (they won't be on the back of a hotel notepad, I promise), reproduced on paper and sent in the mail to you, sign up for a new subscription series! To honor a new year that I insist will be better than last year, I will mail one new comic every month. You can choose to participate for a year, or just half a year. As for the content of these comics, I can't say until 2012 happens to me, but here's a look at some prior work.

Stinky Sunday

I was determined to use up the rest of my kakishibu. It's best to do when alone since people generally hate this stink. I like it in the way that I love any kind of alchemy, the magic of one thing turning into another. The messy and smell are inevitable.

I thought of Tatiana Ginsberg's paper bowls as I used up the last bit.

I like this method better than brushing, since I am impatient and don't mind getting my hands dirty.

Though they get so messy after that last step that I never manage to get the camera into them until I am all done. Hanging outside, waving at the snow. My body is crumpled and temporarily incapacitated by the floor work but I cooked to try and cover the smell. Now that I've eaten, I can get to the next scheme, a new subscription series of comix! More to come.

(Not excited about today's) snow day!

The good news: I booked tickets last night for a little vacation next month to Berlin and Amsterdam!

Calls and PR

1. To submit art in the effort to raise awareness of sex trafficking, go here.

2. Who likes mail art? I love mail art. Send some to Spain if you like:

The Library of the Educational Sciences Faculty (University of A Coruña), in collaboration with the Central Library of the Pontevedra Campus (University of Vigo), invites all artists, home or abroad, to take part in this Mail Art Call.

Topic: "The wounded memory: memory and oblivion"

Technical requirements:

Size: postal size 20x10 cm
Paper or any other bidimensional support
Free technique
Send by ordinary mail (no envelope required)
Maximum two proposals per artist

Deadline: April 30th 2012

Two exhibitions in 2012 at Library of the Educational Sciences Faculty (University of A Coruña) and Central Library, Campus of Pontevedra (Universidade de Vigo). Virtual exhibition included.

All participants will receive confirmation. Senders must include their e-mail.

Artistic proposals will not be returned. After exhibition, all works will be permanently exhibited in large-mural format in the Library of the Educational Sciences Faculty (Universidade de A Coruña).

Send your proposals to:

Biblioteca
Facultade de Ciencias da Educación
Universidade de A Coruña
Campus Elviña s/n
15071 ACoruña. Galicia. Spain.

Information and contact: memoriaeesquecemento@gmail.com

3. I got this far and then decided I don't feel like doing the PR. It's all the same stuff: I'm in a show, I'm teaching a workshop, blahblah. You can check updates here.