J.L. Knox

The reasons I love Jennifer L. Knox are too many to list. But her ability of writing dark humored narratives within her poetry is something I admire and support in big way (you either identify or you don't - very little straddling the lines on this one). Her work isn't like what we were reading in AP English during high school - but maybe if we had I wouldn't have spent years saying I hated poetry (which ws probably due to a lack of understanding).

If My Love For You Were an Animal
Jennifer L. Knox

It would have three legs left, but only need two.
It would be easy to catch, but hard to kill.
It could hold its breath all winter and sleep upside down, anchored under the ice in kelp.
When wet, it would smell like clarinet reeds.
It would break every thing in the house—but purposely, silently, secretly, one item at
a time, over hundreds of years, so no one would notice.
Its cry, like an electrical tower wrestling a giant tinfoil dolphin in a meteor crater;

its purr, low enough to drive snakes from their dens.
It would be flightless, but you could always find it hiding up high.
Its name would mean magnet.

Ants would march towards it over mountains, and across the sea floor.
You could elbow it as hard as you wanted to right in the ribs.
It would be so loyal, if you fell asleep before you took the sleeping pill,

it would slip the sleeping pill under your tongue.

Check out her books Gringo Like Me and Drunk Before Noon if you really want to appreciate her.

-another reason I love her is that she looks like she is going to bake you cookies after school, but writes like that. Who knows, maybe she writes while the cookies are baking

Poetry. I think I've heard of that.

Currently am working on the computer to compile and edit all the text that I'm using....believe it or not, it's a bit faster (even though it's less aesthetically pleasing) than typewriters. This would be the text on the small pamphlet journals.

Some of it you may recognize from the stationery and other parts I haven't been able to use yet. In a way they've become poems...they're aren't resolved, but I think they seem less randomly connected.

_____________

An eighteen year-old spring chicken

– correction, rooster.

He had only seen five rainbows his entire life

He had the hands of someone who longs to play the piano

But never would

Smoke poured from his lips as innocence simultaneously poured from his eyes

His torso was a mile long of Nevada flatness

He smelt like he traveled somewhere

Experienced something most of us haven’t

He is the knot in the worms of my brain

He was the Q-tip I couldn’t resist jamming into my ear

I could hear the record static of his voice behind his words

Kissing him was licking a piece of bruschetta

His eyes were bouncing…I could never catch them

Just bounced away

He fucked my best friend

He left me a broken chair

I feel okay about it

I didn’t tell him that he was asshole

I also didn’t tell him that his pants were unzipped

I wanted to bite him

I wanted to marry him

(quotes by and/or inspired by twelve people)

_____________

A hit of homeless acid and dog’s blood in my mouth

Piss in the milk jug and sheep eyes in the cupboard

Two pancakes and a handful of ham in my purse

White stains on my shirt and smoke in my hair

Peanut butter fudge and a tarantula named Betty by the highway

Freedom in the fridge and bacon in my glass

(quotes by and/or inspired by five people)

______________

It’s hard to become unconscious

Whiskey masks sadness

Masks happiness

I woke up underneath my bed

The lights were all on and the floor shook

I look how I feel

I feel like shit

Look into the mirror

Old soul

Junky

Self-loathing

We are masochists

We crave self-destruction

Watching the beautiful rot

Comfortable in dead end roads

Making the same decisions I made last year

I want to light myself on fire and jump out the window

I’m going to cough up a testicle and kill myself

I can’t wait to I die alone

(quotes by and/or inspired by nine people)

__________

Staring out the window as if something would ever happen

Begging for stimulation

Her eyes shook, too excited to focus on anything

They ejaculate when she speaks

She had a mouth like a bulldog

Her teeth were always stained red

Blood, chianti, beets

Only pretty when she frowned

(quotes by and/or inspired by four people)

_____________

My sexual education program was taught be evangelical Christians

Some call it a penis

But really it’s just a large floppy clitoris

There’s not enough difference

If it was big I’d want to lick it

I don’t understand

Men that are straight

Men that are gay

Men that are women

Men that are men

No wonder everyone is pregnant

My body told me

Facts based on soft sciences

(quotes by and/or inspired by six people)

Bones, Books, and....BUNNIES!

Getting the clavicle "mended" (a nice euphemism for pins and plates) tomorrow. So the work over the weekend will be limited.

"satan is always behind us"

Blank journal

"she needs a man

she needs a woman

she needs a lot of things"

Blank journal

"thirteen people within twenty-eight square miles"

Descriptions of 13 different people

Prototype book

Still need to add  images - going to try image transfers

"fourteen people within four months"

14 quotes I overheard and arranged in an order to create relationships between the disconnected

Prototype book

has nothing to do with IP, but I can't stop staring at it.

Typewriter Conversations

Many people have asked me why I use a typewriter opposed to a computer.

"Am you one of those tragically hip kids that is just too cool for computers?"

Obviously not, as I write this blog. But I think typewriters are the next best thing to handwriting in terms of having a personality. Each typewriter is different as is the relationship of the typewriter with the writer. You see the mistakes, the movement, the hands that touched the machine.

After this statement I was immediately pointed in the direction of Naked Lunch. I watched the movie last night and have even more of an interest in the personality typewriters carry. However, if my Royal turns into a bug-like creature and begins speaking to me... I may start typing on my Mac.

Naked, Naked, Naked, Naked, Naked LUNCH.

Thank You Judith Henry

Overheard Series

"Amusing and quirky, the "Overheard series is a uniquely designed record of conversational snippets heard in public settings. "Overheard at the Museum, the first in the series, captures the spectrum of humor, the irreverence, and the appreciation for Fine Art that museum-goers display. Revealing quotes are paired with compelling black-and-white photographs that show onlokers engaged in their individual and universal museum experiences.
Soul-baring, intimate, sordid, chock full of wit and wisdom, it's ear candy for the eavesdropper. These books are sure to become icons of popular culture."

Overheard in the bookstore

Overheard in the museum.

Pumpkin Seeds, Research, Broken Clavicles, and Ed West

Last Wednesday was mildly epic both for the mind and the body.

Had a lovely chat with Ed West concerning IP and life in general.

Highlights from the conversation include, but are not limited to:

• me being in a mode of production when I have not played around enough with the different possibilities of creation
• "varnishing everything the same way doesn't make them related"
• What I am essentially doing is a system of edits - a million different variations of how I can edit and bring things together.
• perfecting the level of my craft - cleaner, tighter, straight lines when necessary
• Being an artist or the "clever girl at the party" - love this man.

We also discussed artists for me to look into. I am utterly embarrassed and in disbelief for not knowing Barbara Kruger's work immediately...or having her in mind while making my cards. Ed also pointed me in the direction of surrealist poets (making connections between the seemingly disconnected).

So I headed to the library and got books relating to these artists.

• Barbara Kruger
  
  "JAM LIFE INTO DEATH"
• Jenny Holzer - "Truisms"
• Andre Breton
• William Burroughs

After all this mental stimulation I decided to get myself into a little biking accident Wednesday night and broke my clavicle (Note to self: Don't try to eat sandwiches while biking. In the end Jimmy Johns just isn't worth it). This gave me a lot of down time over this weekend to read these books, but it also gave me little ability to actually create anything.

When I got back in the studio today...I felt liberated (not tied to the rules I created for myself), but also clueless of what I "should" be doing. I began making prototype books using the same text that I used for the cards...some are blank just with title text, others are pamphlet style and have one line of text on each folio (leaving room for image, if needed).

The three pamphlets

"fourteen people within four months"

Different things people said with the date.

"thirteen people within twenty-eight square miles"

descriptions of details of people that I've seen in ann arbor

"eighteen attempts with zero success"

one man's horrible attempt to hit on me while I was reading my book at a coffee shop. my dialogue wasn't even necessary to communicate the tone of the conversation.

Studio Time in the Sun

I've realized that recently I've been spending a copious amount time in my wonderful 9 x 9 with, what I feel is, little to show for it. Large quantities of time does not necessarily equate to large quantities of quality work...some students should be sent that memo during harsh critiques when all they have to say in defense of their work is the 100 hours the spent on it.

Anyways,

On this beautiful sunny fall day, I did what I do best and what most inspires me...walked about town.

I listened to people, watched people, chatted up strangers...the usual. I ended up at the library where I was introduced to the work of Beat Streuli, a street photographer.

Explaining his process.

I identified with this statement very strongly - Both with my photographs as well as my writing that documents who I'm seeing. This is the reason I walked from 84th St. to 25th St. while in NYC over fall break...you can see and hear so much that you didn't plan.

"People Actually Said These Things?"

"People Actually Said These Things?"

Someone asked me this recently.

I'm trying to think of a way to convey that the text is based on real situations and literal quotes opposed to Internet quotes or all my own text. 

I'm considering putting the dates of the quotes somewhere on the card to communicate when these things were said. 

But this may get confused with the date of creation.

Reconfiguring the images. Using more collage opposed to just one image.

Use of film for my image opposed to magazine cutouts.

Others with Stationary Success

Recently I've been looking at what other's cards and stationary that is very similar to what I want to be making. 

 While looking at these cards I've been focusing on 

• Packaging - thin plastic case with the front of card exposed and envelope behind it. 
• Envelope - Either related directly to the card in color or just plain white
• Labeling - Typically artist/company information and website were printed very small on the center back of the card. 
• Variety of products - Almost all that go from stationary and postcards to journals/notebooks. There were also coffee cups, t-shirts, wallets, bags posters, magnets. 
• Sizing of the cards - The ones that were a variety of sizes looked so similar in style that you knew they were related. 

In the small groups last Tuesday we talked about the typical Hallmark-like categories that cards fall into and how my work strays away from the "Get Well Soon" type of cards. At http://www.kissmekwik.co.uk/ I found a list of categories that closer captures my themes.

These cards are similar to mine because of the juxtaposition of the old images images with charged biting text. However, I think there could be more of a focus on design and craft because they just slapped these white text bubbles on the image.

Bluebarn House.

This company that uses more thought and technique in their creating. 

Printing. Letterpress. Recycled papers. 

" Wanting to steer away from the standard mass-produced fare so common to the publishing industry"

http://www.bluebarnhousestore.org/

Fashion Illustrators

Fashion illustrators...uuhhhhh
....that's as about as much as I can say. Some don't see the need for it or the value in it. However the  UK and France get it with Japan close behind (although more digital than I prefer)

David Remfry

Esdar Maren

Cecilia Carlstedt

5 + 1 ObSTructions

This week I looked at what I've made thus far. I noticed a clear pattern/formula for how I've been working. Thank you Lars Van Trier.

Neutral colors + old images (typically involving people) + matte mod podge + sewing details + text =

My obstruction was kind of like playing a game. Each card I made I had add something that I typically hadn't or subtract something. Some of the adjustments were small, probably unnoticeable to those besides myself and other adjustments were larger and made a clear difference in the aesthetic I've established so far.

*Used a new magazine

*Used a more abstract image

*Showed only the hand of a human instead of a full figure

*Used two images together

*Used new magazines

*Mixed machine stitches with gluing the string down

*No figure

*No mod podge

*No figure

*Correlation between "grow" and the image.

*"Friendly" card. There's not really any humor incorporated into this card

This card was probably the biggest jump from my work thus far and although it's not successful in my eyes. I think I'll be using some of the techniques again.

*New magazine

*Subtracting the image

*Glossy mod podge

*Glued down the string

*No machine stitching

*No text

Project Wants...Project Gets.

Scan's from the real "In Case of Loss, Please Return To:"

Suggestion of putting the "punch lines" on the inside of the card...creating more time/interaction between the initial viewing and full comprehension.

Blogs, Collages, and Roberto Benigni

Charles just exposed me to Maira Kalman's blog today and I really love her use of text, both the handwriting style and the details she chooses to note.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/

Currently I'm trying to develop a narrative/story-telling quality within the collection of my own work.

Interested in descriptions that explain to you rather than tell you.
Roberto Benigni's character Attilio de Giovanni in La tigre e le neve says this:

"I told myself: 'There must be people whose job it is to use the right words, put things in a way... who when their heart beats, can get other people's hearts to beat.' That day I decided to become a poet."

The movie wasn't so great, but that line was worth it. I don't plan on being a poet, or for that matter probably not even a professional artist. But if you're going to communicate anything, one should strive to get their viewer/listener to feel it or react to it, not just understand it.

Integrated Project Beginnings

Stationary and wallets using found imagery and text from journals I wrote this past summer.

Returned from Europe...Bought Some Mod Podge

When I got back from six months abroad I began to rework the postcards into something I could identify more with. I used photographs I took as well as actual postcards. I used a typewriter to write up parts of my writings from abroad. Currently I have about 50 cards total and am still going. This process and aesthetic is something I'm very attracted to.