Odd Bits of a Creative Life (9/13)

Tags

#readNDN, A Little Book of Form, acrylic paintings, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Alicia Ostriker, An Exaltation of Forms, Brenda Hillman, Copper Canyon, Death Tractates, Duppy Conqueror, Fish Psalms, grant applications, Kwame Dawes, Lit Hub, Lyn Hejinian, Matthew Zapruder, Native Arts&Cultures, Oceania, poetry readings, Robert Hass, Robin Houghton, short stories, Terrance Hayes, The Rumpus, Vievee Francis, Why Poetry, Wind in a Box

BOOKS, Books, books

I was happy to discover Matthew Zapruder’s Why Poetry at my local library, and have spent several happy weeks with it. The chronicle of how he evolved as a poet was interesting, but mostly I appreciated how he was able to articulate so much of what I’ve been thinking about poetry, but didn’t quite know how communicate.  Wow, that sounds very self-centered, but maybe it is. It is what it is. Here are a few of my favorite passages from the book:

There really was no such thing as ‘poetic language.’ The words in poems are for the most part the same as those we find everywhere else. The energy of poetry comes primarily from the reanimation and reactivation of the language that we recognize and know.”  (p.9)

“I began to discover why poems look the way they do on the page…A poem, literally, makes a space to move through. To read a poem is to move through that constructed space of ideas and thinking…As we think along, we start to make connections, and have experiences and feelings we might not have otherwise had without the poem.” (p.57)

“One of the greatest pleasures of reading poetry is to feel words mean what they usually do in every day life, and also start to move into a more charged, activated, even symbolic realm.” (p. 164)

“In a poem, language remains itself yet is also made to feel different, even sacred, like a spell. How this happens is the mystery of each poem, and maybe its deepest meaning.” (p. 166)

That last quote really made me think of Terrance Hayes’ collection Wind In a Box, and more specifically the poem “The Blue Seuss”.  You can find text and audio here. But also please buy the book. It’s one of my favorites.

More than once, he mentions Brenda Hillman’s Death Tractates, (as does Hass–not surprisingly– in A Little Book on Form).  I remember reading some sort of mini-review from him about this book several years ago, and wanted to pick it up then.  [Here’s the 2014 Rumpus “Last Book of Poems I Loved” article if you’re interested]. I know I had it in my Amazon cart at some point, but somehow didn’t get to the actual purchase.  Remedying that soon.

I tackled Hass’ Form book alongside the Zapruder one.  They make a fantastic  pair. First of all, Hass’ “little book” is not ‘little’ in any sense, not in length and not in intellectual weight. It is less textbooky than say  An Exaltation of Forms (which incidentally I was introduced to by a youtube video featuring Terrance Hayes.)

Hass’ book has wonderful sections on sonnets and odes, but the last few chapters–“Collage, Abstraction, Oulipo and Procedural Poetics”; “Mixed Forms”:  and “Prose Poem” were worth the price of the book.  Before I die, I will have to audit at least one of his Berkeley classes.

When I go, I will also crash Lyn Hejinian’s “Slow Seeing/Slow Reading (English 190) class, which Lit Hub teased recently in their “Classes 25 Famous Writers Teach” piece.

Via that post, I also found out that Vievee Francis, one of my poetry heroes, teaches “Engaging in Hybridity: Race, Gender, Genre” at Dartmouth.  I am at this very moment scooping up much of her reading list, especially Kwame Dawes’ Duppy Conqueror,  which how have I not read that already?

Also, I am hoping the ARC gods at Copper Canyon, will bestow a copy of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s upcoming Oceania on me before I lose my mind waiting. Maybe if I send a muster of peacocks up to the author at Ole Miss, she will help smooth the way.

SCRIBBLINGS

This year, I am scheduling a few readings and really appreciated Robin Houghton’s timely post on Tackling Poetry Readings.

In other news, I applied for a Native Arts& Cultures grant. They were super helpful in the application process. Receiving the grant would help me launch a better funded #readNDN campaign, revive this blog and allow me to finish a WIP collection of poems that I’m calling Fish Psalms.

 

Why psalms?

Psalms as a form have always intrigued me. The Hebrew ones are essentially lyric poems set to music, in other words, a type of song language. The Tlingit word for ‘poetry’ is roughly translated “song language” (at shí yoo xh’atángi). Additionally, the Tlingit (other Native Americans, the Irish and Acadians) have much in common with the Hebrew people, down to the complicated clan system, a tight focus on landscape common to the displaced, and a reliance on the larger community in times of trial. These groups are all deeply spiritual, each in their own way, and are all groups that inform my work by heritage or adoption.

I am also drawn to psalms for another reason. Poet Alicia Ostriker put it best when she stated that “the emotions of Psalms surge and collapse like breaking waves”. I want FISH PSALMS to tap the full range of human emotion and to mimick natural cycles of water, evening to morning, creation to death, etc., as the Hebrew ones do.

By the end of the week, I hope to finish a short story that is on the surface about a lost dog, but underneath about the ever-present class struggles in the Deep South. I am 2 scenes away from being done. Currently calling it “Denny Albers’ Dog.

ART

Besides taking new photos for the blog, twitter and the grant application (see a few below),

I tried to translate the success of my oil pastel portraits to acrylics by trying out sheets of 10x 12 canvas paper and reinterpreting photos from the historic New Orleans collection.  This seems to be the right mix of materials and subjects. FINALLY.

 

 

A Little Gallery of PaperCuts

Tags

collage, my artwork, papercuts

Got into some construction paper.  Love this time of year! Have a look at what paper and scissors can do:

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Odd Bits from a Creative Life: March ’16

Tags

acrylic painting, Artists Galleries de Juneau, Beach Music, Chris Shook, Foothills Publishing, Geraldine Brooks, Japonism, Little Art Talks, Making a Mark blog, Mary Cassatt, Michael Czarnecki, oil pastel, Psalms, Sabotage Reviews, spontaneous poems, Studies in Biblical Poetry, swing dance, The Secret Chord, Twenty Days on Route 20, wild voices come when they will

For those new to the BoneSpark scene, the “Odd Bits” posts are meant to be glimpses of art/prose/poetry works-in-progress as well as tinder from things that strike my creative fancy: be it cereal boxes or books. So, like Forest says, you never know what you’re gonna get.

ART

Everything is set for the Arts Evening on April 2. Trolleys will shutter patrons around the historic Olde Towne Arts District. My work is being hosted by Hair-Port on Robert Street. Contact City of Slidell for maps and parking details.

Started a new oil pastel series in the studio.  Here’s two of the gals from that series:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the acrylic side, I have begun a large canvas based on a montage of 1940’s swing dance photos.  This is the start of a whole suite of swing dance scenes.

POETRY

This past Wednesday, I attended a poetry reading at the Artists’ Galleries de Juneau, another Olde Towne small business.  Poet Michael Czarnecki (who also founded and runs FootHills Publishing) read from several of his collections.  I was especially intrigued by his book Twenty Days on Route 20, which is reminiscent of Kerouac  and is being developed into a screenplay by a young woman whose name I did not quite catch.  I took home a hand-stitched copy of Twenty Days and was gifted his most recent collection wild voices come when they will, which is a compilation of selections from his daily poetry practice.  Check out his websites for both daily photos and poems.  And stay tuned (here on the blog) for a short interview and a full review of the collections at Sabotage Reviews.

MORE ART

Czarnecki’s Asian-influenced poems led me to contemplate the Japanese influence on my beloved Mary Cassatt, Van Gogh, Monet and other Impressionists.  The Making a Mark Blog has a great roundup of resources on both the fuller history of Japanese art and Japonism.

Little Art Talks also has some fab videos on both subjects free on Youtube.

BOOKS

I’m pouring through Robert Henri’s little gem, The Art Spirit.  Here are a few choice passages on beauty, art and the bonds it creates:

When the artist is alive in a any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature…He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Whereas those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible.The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him.

 

A work of art which inspires us comes from no quibbling or uncertain man. It is the manifest of a very positive nature in great enjoyment, and at the very moment the work was done.

It is not enough to have thought great things before doing the work. The brush stroke at the moment of contact carries inevitably the state of being of the artist at that exact moment into the work, and there it is, to be seen and read and by those who can read such signs, and to be read later by the artist himself, with perhaps some surprise as a revelation of himself … He who has contemplated has met with himself, is in a state to see the realities beyond the surfaces of his subject. …Through art mysterious bonds of understanding and of knowledge are established among men.

In other passages, he talks about “a song within us” evoked by beauty and the deep desire within every soul  “to express..this song from within, which motivates the master of all art.”

Such a song motivated Israel’s King David and drew him back to the author of beauty (Psalm 27: 4) I have been drawn to this author lately as well, slowly absorbing Chris Shook’s  Beauty Begins and Geraldine Brooks The Secret Chord,   as well as Charles Swindoll’s David:A Man of Passion and Destiny.

For those who haven’t already read it, poet Robert Pinsky’s The Life of David is also a good read.

 

And for those who would like to go deeper into the Psalms, download my free e-book Studies in Biblical Poetry.  [The link is at the end of that blog post.]

Odd Bits from a Creative Life: Upcoming ARTS EVENING Preview

Tags

acrylic paintings, Arts Evening, commissions, creative life, oil pastels, portraits, work for sale

Yes, I’ve been neglecting the blog. Apologies! But I have not been neglecting the creative life. Pardoning the bad lighting, here are two suites of work for an upcoming arts evening in April. The acrylic paintings (on canvas) are from my ever-expanding Circus series and the framed portraits are oil pastels on paper, titled Bettie Bangs& Crew.

Also, for a limited time, I am taking commissions for oil pastel portraits. Finished work is 11 x 14 inches framed, with an approximate one week turn-around. A reasonably-lit, head and shoulders photo (or an in-person sitting) and a non-refundable 20% “downpayment” are required. Full payment is due within 10 days of commencement or upon satisfactory completion of the portrait. Contact me via bonesparkblog@yahoo.com for more information, or to arrange purchase of any of the featured pieces.

Odd Bits from a Creative Life (Aug’15)

Tags

A Talent for Murder, Aidan Turner, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Morland Dynasty, odd bits from a creative life, paintings, poldark, Winston Graham

READING

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with the Poldark novels.  Yes, I was first hooked by the handsome, curly-haired Irishman (Aidan Turner of BEING HUMAN, THE HOBBIT and the Dante Gabriel Rossetti mini-series DESPERATE ROMANTICS) who stars in the latest television remake, but I quickly came to appreciate the quality of Winston Graham‘s writing.  I have just finished #7 in the novel series.  I had the old Fontana paperback versions (not the reprints pictured above), and all of these were gripping and dense with a refreshing, good-natured Cornishness and enough soap opera-ish drama to keep one’s pulse permanently elevated.  My copies also had some strange and yet charming messages tucked into the front matter about the 70’s gas crisis and some pencilled-in notes about grocery ads.

I am told that books #8-10 are not nearly as well done, but that #11& esp. #12 make it well worth the slog.  I’m sure that I will not find the details of French politics as off-putting as some who gave book #8 just disparaging marks.  I also quite like the idea of the introduction of a new bad boy who is after Ross’ cherished daughter.

I have also just picked up the Morland Dynasty series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, which is another set of novels known for its rich English history. I have started right in the middle of the arc with the French Revolution title.  This was recommended to me by another Poldark fan, so I expect to enjoy it as much as the W. Graham books.

WRITING

This has largely been confined to writing math problems for college texts the past few months, and an occasional foray into the historical novel I have been working on for quite some time.  I have also been up to some soft selling work in promotion of my mother’s new release, A TALENT FOR MURDER, a southern cozy mystery.  Nothing new in the poetry world, beyond submitting sporadically to a few journals that are reading in summer.

ART

Experimenting with the larger 20x24in canvas for portraits. Not too thrilled with the results so far.

 

Odd Bits from a Creative Life (MAY ’15 ed.)

Tags

#FairyTaleFriday, Amy Stewart, call for guest posts, Deep South Magazine, El Zarape Press, Flower Patch mystery, Grand Avenue, Greg Sarris, Louise Gluck, LSU Press, Meadowlands, Mouthfeel Press, Odd Bits of a Creative Life, paintings, paper-cuts, southern lit, The Washington Project, Watermelon Nights, Wicked Plants, works in progress

So, friends, it’s been awhile since I’ve done one these.  Let me just dive right on in:

READING

 

 

 

 

 

 

I happened across Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities while flipping channels between educational shows one weekend.  Even though I am not an avid gardener or especially interested in plants, I rushed to the library for a copy.  And I have to say that it has been a really exciting read. Caught my mother making notes from it for the next Flower Patch mystery.

Also came across Louise Gluck’s Meadowlands at a used bookstore. Reading the books back-to-back before writing has produced some interesting poems, including one about Peter Peter Pumpkin-Eater and another about cesium poisoning in the Arctic via contaminated lichen.

Won several of the Big Poetry Book giveways from last month as well as one from Deep South Magazine. Haven’t got to all of those titles just yet. By the way, Deep South has great Literary Friday round-ups  for those who are into Southern Lit.

WRITING

Besides the giveaway books, with review copies I am literally swimming in poetry. But since my philosophy is that you can never have too much poetry, I am all smiles.

If you are a fan of my Sabotage round-ups, you’ll see reviews soon for titles from El Zarape Press, Mouthfeel Press and LSU Press.  I won’t spoil the fun by revealing the specifics just yet.

On the submission front, tidy batches of poems have gone out to several journals, and I’m hoping to have some publication news on the chapbook(s) soon.  Since it is now Short Story Month, I have been busily revising some of my short stories, including a dark fairy tale set in Cajun country that required some extra care in keeping the patois authentic.

Before the end of the month, I plan to get to Greg Sarris’ Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories  which I hope is as good as Watermelon Nights.  I’ll try to post something on the blog when I’ve had time to digest.

On my other blog, I finally released the (Christian, character-focused) high school American history curriculum that I authored.  And despite my fiction writing group falling apart, I have managed to add some new scenes to my novel-in-progress. More on this later.

Have just discovered the #FairyTaleFriday challenge on Twitter.  This looks like it would be fun.  Too late to start on the ‘tremor’ theme for today, but I hope to contribute something next week if time allows.

ART

Despite all this writing, I have not given up on art. Below are a few of my newest paintings. Pardon the terrible lighting! I usually wrangle my little brother into taking the photos.  This is what you get when I do it myself.  The colors are much more vibrant in person, trust me.

I have also nearly completed my paper-cuts series. The latest bunch incorporates fairytale themes and uses a pastel palette.  Since most of the earlier works are out at journals and zines (and I hope to submit the latest round), you’ll have to wait for a sample.

 

 

 

 

Well, that pretty much does it for now.

If you’d like to contribute a GUEST POST on your creative life, please drop me a line at bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.

Odd Bits from a Creative Life #2

Tags

Alaskan Native memoir, Bad NDN, Blonde Indian, creative process, Erika Dreifus, Ernestine Hayes, faux embroidery art, Gaelic, Goodreads, graphic art, Imogen Robertson, Mud Woman, Nora Dauenhauer, Nora Naranjo Morse, pictures and frames, Poems from the Clay, Pueblo Indian, sketches, small town Mississippi, Sun Tracks, The Art of Slow Writing, the artful life, The Paris Winter, Tlingit Indian, translation, Women writers, work in progress

First off, let me just say how thrilling it is that my little notes on a creative life are inspiring others.  Check out what Erika Dreifus is doing with the concept. Also, I finally figured out where I “borrowed” the series title from…see the Toulouse: Odd BIts of a LIfe in New Orleans blog.

I enjoy these type of entries from the actively creating best, so let me get on with it!

DRAWING/GRAPHIC ART

Faux Embossed Blue Gray

Faux Embroidery Color

This week I’ve been experimenting with some kitschy cover designs that blend Lyra polycolor pencil with graphic layering techniques to create faux embroidery/faux embossing effects. Some small samples up above.  This has been immensely fun, and I am going to try to emulate carved Northwest Coast formline and quilling effects next.

READING

The Paris Winter by Imogen Robertson
My Goodreads review: {trying to make better use of Goodreads by the way}

5 of 5 stars

It is hard to top my love of the Westerman/Crowther historical mystery series, but Robertson has blown me away again. She has such a gift for vivid description that (I assume) comes from her TV/film directing days…her words actually transport you into a scene in a way that moves you along as if you are a character in a film yourself. The fact that this book features a struggling female artist and BRILLIANT catalogue notes (to this female painter’s exhibition) so beautifully dispersed into the narrative…it is…it is just like she has written it specifically for me.

Did I mention the main character’s interaction with Gertrude Stein in her famous salon with straight-up discussion on Picasso or the depth of Robertson’s research into the women’s ateliers of the time?

Then there is the dark twist of Part Two and the corresponding move of the tonal palette. I must dissect this some more to figure out how to replicate this setting of mood.

Also, I usually hate epi- and pro-logues, but in Robertson’s hands, they are like a shiny gold-frame and feel absolutely organic.

Have also felt compelled to make several sketches of the cover. A+ , Imogen, you’ve won me over again!

*****

Ah! She sent me a lovely note on twitter after it posted, which set my little fangirl heart all aflutter.  But ownward……………….

I also reread Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay (Sun Tracks) &

Blonde Indian: An Alaskan Native Memoir (Sun Tracks) this week and am about 2/5 through The Art of Slow Writing,

 

all of which have inspired me to slow down and enjoy the process of creating more.

I had forgotten how in Nora Naranjo-Morse’s preface notes (p. 15 in Mud Woman), she reveals that the Tewa (Pueblo) language has no word for ‘art’, but rather a phrase that in her words describes,  “the concept of an artful life, filled with inspiration and fueled by labor and thoughtful approach.”

The Tlingit language too, lacks a true word for the term, using verbs with complicated tenses that relate the act of painting or weaving or carving, etc..  It makes one question all over again the very place and function of art within culture.  But that is another debate.

I was also surprised to learn (from poet & Tlingit elder, Nora Dauenhauer) that ‘poetry’ too is missing in our tongue, coming across loosely in a phrase that roughly translated means “song language”.

I can not tell you how tickling this is for a friend of mine who works in music and on the side translates Scottish Gaelic ballads & poems. His exact phrasing was a bit more colorful than ‘tickling’, but it really rather lacks the merryiness in English, making my point. Maybe??

WRITING

Anyway, inspired by artsy covers and what I am calling Robertson’s “pictures & frames” style in The Paris Winter (mentioned above), I assigned myself a half dozen mood-setting sketches to be set in the murky part of Mississippi called Creole that my grandparents used to live in.  Here’s something from that endeavor:

 

At the end of a shell road, a rusted bridge rides low over an oily creek.  Wild chickens roost in vine-choked trees of indeterminate colors and an army of fiddler crabs marches to its own chorus. The bridge used to lead to somewhere, but it’s all crumbled brick and cracked cinder-block now, tangled in more vegetation, except for one gray house that leans over a freshly swept porch. Its faded gauze curtains part for a bare-legged, freckled-faced girl that would rather pinch roach wings from her toes than bother with shoes.

 

 

Link back your own Works-in-progress, realbies.   I know you active creators are out there ready, ready, ready to share!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odd Bits from a Creative Life

Tags

A Tree Born Crooked, Alaska, Cloud Pharmacy, colonized Tlingit women, Common Place, December Book Clubs, Erika Dreifus, Hannah Maynard, John T Biggs, language of the earth, Metzger, noir, Pandamoon, Pen-L Publishing, Popsicle Styx, Practicing Writing, Southern grit lit, Steph Post, Stuart Rojstaczer, surrealist photos, Susan Rich, symbolist painting, Teller poem, The Art of Slow Writing, The Mathematician's Shiva, The Next Best Book Club, Tlingit creation story, Tlingit raven, Walking on Air, Women's Poetry List-Serv, work in progress, Writing for Life

PAINTING

I’ve been working on some symbolist paintings about the Tlingit Raven.  Watch a versions of the Tlingit creation story here.

I’ll be trying out some interesting techniques with my new painting mentor beginning in January.  Very excited to embark in this new direction. Have also found some support for my collage work in a small studio in California that will allow access to more materials. Always nice.

READING

Enjoyed the math-flecked debut The Mathematician’s Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer over the holidays. A tale of family angst in the wake of “the greatest female mathematician in history[‘s]” death and the odd bunch of followers that descend on the family in search of her (possible) solution to the Navier-Stokes problem.  Recommended to me by Erika Dreifus of Practicing Writing and now a pick by BooksAMillion for its December Book Clubs, this is definitely worth a read even by mathphobes.

I also gave a glowing endorsement to John T. Biggs latest Popiscle Styx from PenL.  It’s an impressive sophomore novel that deserves its own category .  I”m going with noir/magical realism/Okie local color/crime for now. Good stocking stuffer!

You might also want to pick up Walking on Air if you are in the mood for some Mississippi small town life.   I’ll have more on this story collection soon and a review of Steph Post’s latest N. Florida noir/ Southern grit lit from Pandamoon with  a full review in  Small Press Book Reviews later this month.

 

 

 

 

POETRY

The Women’s Poetry List-serv has been having an interesting discussion on writing books.  I picked up two of their recommendations: The Art of Slow Writing, which I have yet to read and Metzger’s Writing For Your Life, which has this gorgeous passage:

A poem is a penetration into the essence of something. It begins in a moment, is the thing itself as well as the surrounding space. A poem is in the spaces between the words.

 

This draws me back to the work of poet Susan Rich, whose collection Cloud Pharmacy was gifted to me by The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC) and very enthusiastically discussed on Goodreads recently.

I fell in love with her suite of poems on the surrealist photographs of Hannah Maynard.  So very fascinated by her way of entering into the work, which she describes in detail in her  “Statement of Poetic Research,”  available with some of the work at Common-Place.

I’m thinking of trying something similar with the “colonialized” images of Tlingit women at the Univ. of Washington, The Alaska Digital Archives and Penn Museum.  This would slide in nicely with the suite of Tlingit legend poems I am already working on.

I’ve made a stab towards it with this Work in Progress piece:

 

Teller

I planted myself
in its heart

I grew inside
the story

marrow of history
backbone of myth

body of taboo, image, desire

what a fucking terrifying solid
being

of communal dream

almost too much oneness for one
mother

nevertheless, die to the fictive selves
so that the “real” voice emerges

 

But I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with the project yet.  I find myself (along with my very patient sponsor/mentor) wishing that I could write much, much faster.  This has been a project of long brewing and constant re-immersion in a culture I am somewhat isolated from both generationally and geographically.

Yet, I am finding it very rewarding.   I have hopes of making it to Alaska if Grandpa Kashka’s health improves.   At 87, he clings tenaciously to the Florida sunshine, but my uncles and cousins are still shucking a living from the rocks.

Thank God we all know how to speak the language of the earth.