Wednesday, December 30, 2009

darkness before the dawn




    


  •    

one has to trust that  the darkness will end and the days will get longer
 

pots in various stages






getting back on the horse.going inward in winter, shutting down, reflecting on what I'm making why I'm making it does it need to be made. Stop... like pulling the cord on the bus or subway, going into the darkness sitting with it, and then reawakening with a fine tuned vision. I make these pots because I want to create a visual representation of peace, a place for the mind to rest. that Ahhh.., space where the mind is quieted.

Monday, December 28, 2009

czech circus (poem-a work in progress)



the czech circus entails
standing on the highway with bags of presents and a pie
waiting for a ride
people stop to see if you're o.k
if you need help
no, I'm just waiting for a ride
are we saving gas? the environment? adhering to someone's time schedule?
no one really knows, it's all part of the directors vision
the czech circus entails the juggling of cell phones, who's calling? oh it's for you
can I borrow your cell phone? Bob's garage is calling, I don't know anyone at Bob's garage, oh it's the circus calling for you
the czech circus always has a large harlequin great dane in it that takes the place of a person in the car,
and speaks a language that closely resembles English
the czech circus involves the juggling of languages. starting out in one language, switching to another and ending up in a third language
it also involves the creation of new hybrid languages, at times resulting in fits of laughter such as after statements of the following; I got a bee stink, move the mouth on your computer, I was chopping at the bit after chopping my wood
the circus involves viewing life through artistic and intellectual refrence points such as;
re-enacting Wyeths Christina's world at an old house only to find out later you brought the film camera with no film in it
not the digital camera, that's why there are no photos
the circus involves visiting guest members with their own particular talents, and creative skills and improvisational input
the Czech circus involves multiple chineese firedrills and improvisational art skits like;
putting your giant wooden art installation piece on the roof of your car, and then failing to secure it,
and wondering what that stuff is that's flying past you on the highway
the czech circus involves the mysterious playing of circus music anytime a member is nearby or in contact
the Czech circus is ongoing with new and repeat performances and coming soon to a theater near you
Anyone can join the Czech circus
you do not have to be Czech to be a member
you should, on the other hand, have a good grasp of the directors vision,
as improvisational skits are easier to perform that way

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

milkweed

we were like kids really
brother and sister
"you make a nice couple"
the old jewish woman said
at the Bronx Botanical gardens
friendship and creative collaboration
coming together easily
being scattered just as easily by the winds
Staten Island ferry ride
and you from Brooklyn
sharing the city together
from our own little cocoon
the harmony never really left our song
it was just played by different people
in other places

Friday, December 18, 2009

favorite places in the West

Pioche Nevada
Butte Montana
Tuscarora Nevada
Mountain City Nevada
Rock Springs Wyoming
Helper Utah
Eureka Nevada
Silver City New Mexico
Bisbee Arizona
Terlingua Texas
Silver City Idaho
Atlanta Idaho
Spokane Washington

I don't quite know why I love these raw, nitty gritty places so much. They are real, with rough edges, not bourgeois fantasy lands or tourist traps. The truck photo was taken in Mountain City Nevada next to the Duck Valley Indian Reservation near the Idaho state line. I met an Indian there at the gas station. He had two scurfy cute cow dogs in the back of his old pick up truck. I said" those are some cute dogs you got there" He starts chatting with me and explains that their names are; Kimo and Sabe," too funny" I said. I really like this tiny little, rough spot in the road with a twisty, climbing, road out and hard scrabble landscape , old buildings made from local rocks,and people with a fun sense of humor. I could live in this place, at least for a little while. My soul feels content there.

email dream

email from a friend to husband concerning a dream he had
"We were all in some cottage in some tiny medieval village and Lorena was yelling at me about the latest mark ups I did to her "Tails" narrative. You couldn't stand the argument and left the cottage wearing some strange fur vest to gather firewood for the goat we were slaughtering for dinner."

pots from my studio

strange things men have said to me (in chronological order)

1)"one of these days your going to have to get a job, and your going to hate it, and that's just the way it is"

2)"wake me up for Sadie Hawkins Day so you can tell em no"

3)" you are both wild and beautiful"

4)"where the hell are my socks? Why are you always losing my socks, you iniquitious woman"

life at the 45th parallel- psychological survival of the fittest


I love this truck, it says-weathered by the elements- prepared for anything-

I am currently living on double espressos with cod liver oil chasers (for the vitamin D, silly)
someone once told me" winter is a time to go inwards, for self reflection"
You mean like how a bear goes inwards, sleeping all the time?
this person no longer lives here

Monday, December 14, 2009

mestre (poem)


mixed bag
bare feet stomping on the wooden floor
tall black guy wearing his sweat jacket
with the hood up
drinking a beer from a paper bag
he kept on the windowsill
in the back of the room
some getting up
some coming down
drums pounding
berimbau, mysterious, haunting
playful porteuguese voice
flirting, taunting
legs flying higher
ginga, ginga.., ginga..,.
puerto rican girl with the pouty face
getting into it
spirit, floating in the air
grounded in a faraway recess
we all came for it
reconnecting to life
in the batizada
the chamada
this place called a dance class
spiritual initiation hall
to more than we could understand
(Loremil Machado 1954-1994 )

Thursday, December 10, 2009

poem for Vito


Vito was an old Italian portrait painter
who lived over our loft
on East 12th street
in n.y.c..
The one next to Physique Memorabilia,
a little hole in the wall vintage magazine shop.
He spent his days painting and listening to opera
which I could hear
penetrating the wooden floor boards that seperated the space between us
If we got too loud underneath him he would bang his pots and pans on the floor
and yell
"shud UUUUP"
I miss you Vito,
although I hardly even knew you
green party members coming in and out of our lives,
Roberto the Nuyorican poet
Ben the old vaudville actor sleeping on the trampoline we found abandoned in Jersey City
occasional sitings of Frank Stella on the street
and that trip to City Island,
Who were we?
then and now?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

landscape as contemporary painting




"nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness".
Erik Satie







Sunday, December 6, 2009

the law of competing enthusiasms

A friend of ours has a theory of his called "the law of competing enthusiams" which is based on only having enough energy to tackle a few interests at once. I have come up with my own version of this which I call my "law of competing anxieties" which goes like this- I have to get some clay work done, I don't want to glaze, it's messy, maybe I'll write for awhile, to work myself up to the courage to go and get messy, thus actually in a backhanded way getting writing done. When I get to the point where I'm blocked in my writing or I come to a standstill, and glazing seems easier than sending a manuscript off which touches off greater anxieties, then I get my glazing done. Get it? maybe it can work for you. So my advice is to have many irons in the fire and then you can hop skip and jump around according to your inner state, and get a lot accomplished despite your anxieties- or always have something else in the line-up that you want to do even less, like doing the dishes- Good Luck

I remember there was a quote about Jim Palmer the famous baseball pitcher that went something like this;" the guy's got complexes on top of his complexes"

favorite quote lately

quote from my friend Mike, an Idaho native " Ice belongs in a drink" I went to a party last winter and my friend didn't have any ice cubes in her freezer to put in our drinks, so she went outside and grabbed some icicles off the roof and we had cocktails with our own individual icicle twizzle sticks. They were the coolest, no pun intended, drinks I ever had, Tincture of Icicle Margherita, Idaho haute cuisine!


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Thursday, December 3, 2009

absurd contradictions



just because your head is in the clouds, doesn't mean your feet aren't on the ground

With Scenery like this who needs modern art?




places I have lived;
N.J, N.Y.C
California
Vermont
Washington state
Oregon
Idaho

places I would like to live in the future;
Chile
Argentina
Cuba
somewhere in Mexico
San Luis Potosi
the South of France




Favorite song lately

"Tiger by the Tail" by Buck Owens