I Made a Ritual for You

So You Won't Have to Think About What To Do Next

roll the dice, swallow stone, light the candle, to not be alone

the statue is each other's you.

Saint Peter's Cross

did not begin as sacrilege

but was inverted to show St. Peter's better side

coptic bound,

altered book

It's Hardly Ever Fall, Here

No matter where I go to find the seasons I will hear of this place

Sounds will travel underground and curve moody tunnels

Avoiding a certain subterranean species of word eating beetle

To make it the distance of a neon future that is blindingly keeping the ending a secret

this time last year, I slept in a tent

Light and Shade: The Sun Shifted and We Are Staid

Dear Geography,

I traversed the places where I have no desire to spend any time

To find that the things I don't want are relics buried in our common ground

Yes, I am avoiding you.

This is a book on which I tried a new idea for binding. I kept the spine of the altered book in tact, along with its first and last pages. I treated the first and last pages as an accordion, and the valleys of the accordions as the spine of the "book blocks". The book blocks are just single pages or pages folded in half, then glued with Yasatomo Nori paste to the valleys of the accordion. The book is supposed to act as a collage/scrap book forum. The problem with the binding is that the accordion doesn't keep tension on the pages and they slide and don't stay in a tight order, the way coptic stitch naturally does. I don't think I will be using the binding method ever again, but I think the mood of the book is pleasant, nostalgic, and leaves room for addition in a positive way.

An Element Plus an Element

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Swamp Mallets

Acrylic medium transfer, of an ink jet print, on wood. A collection of useful, and novel small items. A gift for a friend. A trip to the hardware store, avoided.

Equal and Unequal (1939)

This is a piece by Josef Albers.

I find it interesting to look at, and

even more so because Anni Albers

found it so fascinating that she stared at it for hours.

We all need somewhere to stare for hours, peacefully, perhaps purposelessly. We all need someone whose art we respect enough to spend hours with it at a time.

I don't usually blog about the art of others. But when speaking of having respect for a person's art, I think it's important to set the bar high. Josef Albers' brilliance in technical rendering, color theory, teaching, and his artistic legacy make him a model with which to combat complacence. His relationship with a woman equally talented and driven serves as an enviable blueprint by which to map companionship. And these things are on my mind.