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!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look Like You Know Your $hit 2014 Poetry as Gifts Guide

Tags

2014 Poetry Collections, a note passed to superman, A Whole New World, Ahsahta Press, Aladdin, Alaska, Alice James Books, Anne Ferry, Apiology with Stigma, Bad NDN, Black Ocean, Carrie Olivia Adams, Claudia Emerson, Clay Matthews, Commonplace Invasions, contraband of hoopoe, Copper Canyon, Dan Vera, Dancing Girl Press, Debt to the Bone-Eating Snotflower, Ewa Chrusciel, Figure Studies, Forty One Jane Doe's, Graywolf Press, Hanging Loose Press, Happenstance, Helena Nelson, holiday gift giving guide, HOT TOPIC, How a Poem Happens, Jo Pitkin, Julie Funderburk, Kelly Andrews, Lavender Ink/Dialogos, Letras Latinas, Look Like You know Your Shit, Louisiana small press, LSU Press, Mad Honey Symposium, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, Mule-Skinner, NOLA poetry, Omnidawn, Plot and CounterPlot, Poem for Plutocrats, poetheads, Rachel Piercey, Red Hen, Rivers Wanted, Sabotage Reviews, Sally Wen Mao, Salmon Poetry, Sarah Lindsay, Scandlous, sexy christmas elf, Sherman Alexie, southern lit, Southern Messenger Poets, Speaking Wiri Wiri, Split This Rock, Starlight on Water, Steven Scafidi, supernatural, The Cabinetmaker's Window, The Emma Press, The Leviathan of Parsonstown, The Light That Shines Inside Us, The Overhaul, The Title of the Poem, Thoughts to Fold Into Birds, To Whoever Set My Truck on Fire, Unicorn Press, What I've Stolen What I've Earned, women poets

Yes, it is that time of year again, friends….the time of ‘best of’ lists and holiday buying hives. Ok, maybe that’s not you, but you really, really want to impress that super hot poet that lives down the hall or maybe deigns to talk to you in the Starbucks line you happen to keep timing just right so as to consistently run into him/her.

Or maybe, you are married to one of these poethead monsters.  Or gasp! You are one of those word-flingers.

 

Sexy-Christmas-Elf-me can practically guarantee to get you a good snog under the mistletoe, if you will wrap up  a few of these (mostly) 2014 collections.

From AHSAHTA PRESS

Forty-One Jane Doe’s

This is actually a Spring 2013 release that made it into my basket early this year, but boy am I glad that it did.  Combining a print book with a DVD of short films, this combo from  Carrie Olivia Adams (better known as poetry editor for Black Ocean) is definitely a keeper.

Love this tagline:  “A woman knows her body . . . until it is exploded into a multitude of Janes.”

 

from ALICE JAMES

Mad Honey Symposium

Sally Wen Mao‘s May-released debut stunner. Feast your eyes on lines from “Apiology, with Stigma” HERE

I Know! Your eyes are totally blown out of your head.

 

Moving on to 2 Titles from COPPER CANYON  

Debt to the Bone-Eating Snotflower

Sarah Lindsay delves into skeleton-eating worms, sweet potato and squid with brief jaunts to Iraq

Read “The Leviathan of Parsonstown” here

 

 

Sun-Bear  also from Copper Canyon

Matthew Zapruder‘s 4th collection, another zinger from one of Cali’s hottest poets

Check out “Poem for Plutocrats”

 

 

and don’t forget my go-to press DANCING GIRL bringing us…

 

Mule-Skinner by

Kelly Andrews, coeditor of Pretty Owl Poetry/economic journalist, delivering a kick-ass first chapbook plus she loves cats. What’s not to like?

Read a sample poem at the purchase link above.

 

And from (The) EMMA PRESS, one of the cooolest small presses in the UK…

Rivers Wanted

Rachel Piercey’s 2nd pub with EP, but her first full-length pamphlet, bringing every bit of her gobsmacking wit and charm to a head.

Check out the great write-up from Sabotage Reviews here.

from GRAYWOLF PRESS

The Overhaul

Ok, a bit of a cheat.  This is forthcoming Feb. 2015, but I just love the Scottish hell out of Kathleen Jamie and couldn’t help but put this up even without a pre-order button. Why is there no pre-order button?

Oh well, buy this as soon as it’s out.

 

then there is this ball-buster from HANGING LOOSE PRESS

What I’ve Stolen, What I’ve Earned

Sherman Alexie is hands-down the baddest NDN around with multi-genre superpowers, and I basically want to be him when I grow up, only better-looking in a dress, which should be red with imitation feathers.

 

from HAPPENSTANCE  (another small press from across the pond)

Starlight on Water and Plot and Counter-Plot

These pamphlets are actually from 2003 and 2010, but I’ve only just discovered Helena Nelson through performance circles, so bear with me.

Both of these babies rock the cover art and feature marvellous poems.

from LAVENDER INK/DIALOGOS 

The Light That Shines Inside Us

Marguerite Guzman Bouvard‘s poems so good they should have their own shrine. And I am I totally not just saying that because this is like my favorite NOLA based press. Who Dat, Y’all!!

 

from LSU PRESS  (Purple and Gold, Baby)

The Cabinetmaker’s Window from the sexy poet-carpenter who is all over the Southern lit magazines. Love me some Steven Scafidi.

Read “To Whoever Set My Truck on Fire” at How a Poem Happens and see.  See!

Now buy the book and

also snap up

Figure Studies by

Claudia Emerson

which pairs really well with Forty-One Jane Doe’s  from above [top of the list]

 

then again, you can’t really go wrong with most of the Southern Messenger Poets series 

 

 same goes for Ewa Chrusciel, whose latest from OMNIDAWN 

 

contraband of hoopoe has just the right mix of art and ritual to make you want to do research and never stop traveling even if it’s all just in your mind

 

well, that doesn’t really do her justice.  just pick up the book and work your way into her genius.

 

RED HEN also has a stunner with its 2013 Winner of the inaugural Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

Speaking Wiri Wiri by Dan Vera

is good, good, good stuff

Hear him read here. Funny, charming. Brave experimenter with language.

[Dude, I know it was on Split This Rock’s recommended list from last year, but I just got it…so now I’m telling you it’s good. LOL]

 

from SALMON POETRY

Commonplace Invasions by

Jo Pitkin, is a must-have.  She has been accused of “bewitching” her readers, but in the best possible way. 🙂

Everything out of Salmon Poetry is top-notch.

 

and from UNICORN PRESS

Thoughts to Fold Into Birds by

Julie Funderburk

“grounded in the coastal carolina’s wind, sun, and sea”

ahhhhhhhhhhhh. small press goodness from NC.

 

Also, you’ll look really, really smart if you buy and then read….

 

The Title of the Poem by

Anne Ferry

Seriously, though, this will open up a whole new world. Trust me!!!!

Cowboys& Indians (Longmire Rant/2sDay Poems)

Tags

2sDay Poems, aboriginal studies, Bad Indians, Bad NDN, Cowboy crime drama, Craig Johnson, David Midthunder, Deborah A Miranda, Gary Farmer, I Am Not a Witness, Indian Cartography, Irene Bedard, June Jourdan, Kimberley Guerrero, LongLiveLongmire, Longmire, Marcus Red Thunder, Nathaniel Arcand, Native American actors, Native Americans in television, Ryan Red Corn, Zahn McClarnon

Ever since A&E announced that it was dropping its cowboy crime drama (the audience was too skewed towards older folks, bad for advertisers, they said) Longmire fans have been lighting up twitter with the #LongLiveLongmire campaign in hopes of attracting a new home for the program.

Based on Craig Johnson’s popular mystery novels, the show is one of few on television that not only features Native American faces, but gives the actors juicy roles. And with the advice of consultant Marcus Red Thunder, close friend of Johnson’s and the inspiration for the fictional Henry Standing Bear character, the program has plowed forward with some hot-button Native American issues, and done so in style.

Besides its regular Native talent ( I see you drooling over Zahn McClarnon’s long, gorgeous hair) there is a host of smaller roles that have seen the likes of Native Americans David Midthunder, Irene Bedard, Nathaniel Arcand, Gary Farmer and Kimberley Guerrero, for starters.

With networks clamoring for diversity, why hasn’t this perfect storm been picked up already?? I mean, this is the total package, people!!  Great writing, a whole crop of Bad NDN’s, and a stellar group of non-Native actors (one of which is a SciFy phenom). Not to mention 6 million fans captured and held in the SUMMER, when viewing drops in the face of other distractions.

We need more stories and poems and shows that bring us all the beauty of our many tribal nations, not less.

And speaking of poetry, I first wanted to share this quote from activist/poet/social commentator June Jordan, in which she urges us to understand that:

Poetry means taking control of the language of your life

and exploring it without bounds to its very limits.

And so, in that vein, let’s explore some of the voices from Indian Country, who are doing just that. Here is Ryan Red Corn‘s ” Bad Indians“:

For more on the text and its many allusions, see this writeup on the poem as part of an aboriginal studies curriculum.

 

Next up is Deborah Miranda‘s moving “I Am Not a Witness”, which begins:

I found Coyote, Eagle, and Momoy
in a book, but cannot read
the Chumash words. I found
photographs of bedrock slabs pocked by
hundreds of acorn-grinding holes,
but the holes are empty, the stone
pestles that would curve to my grip
lie dead behind museum glass.
Mountains and rivers and oaks rise
in Spanish accents: San Gabriel,
Santa Ynez, Robles.
These are not real names.

Some of our bones rest in 4000 graves
out back behind the Mission.
Some of our bones are mixed into…

FULL TEXT HERE

From Indian Cartography (Greenfield Review Press)