Endless Knots

Eliza dot com

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave

ink on paper
4.5" X 5"
2009

New website from Daughter #2. New work. New projects. New band. New cookbook-in-the-works. Etc.

Design-a-rupee

Sharpen your pixels, designers. There's a contest to come up with a symbol for the Indian Rupee like $ or € or £ or ¥, all of which amazingly are on my iPhone keyboard. Having said that, I have to also say that I have no idea how to find the link to the Washington Post article I'm reading at the moment using only my iPhone. Title = "for India's Rupee, a New Identity," by Rama Lakshmi, Wash Post, May 16, 2009.

"Tiles for America"

In New York recently on a rainy, dreary day, I walked past the corner of Greenwich and Seventh Avenues (close to where I once lived), and noticed thousands of small ceramic tiles hanging on a chain link fence along an abandoned lot.

One reads, "Tiles for America," all of them together a fitting 9/11 Memorial. Here's a 2005 article by Brad Hoylman from The Villager, explaining how this tribute evolved--and how it stands in a most remarkable location, the very spot where Edward Hopper's diner, the setting for his painting, "The Nighthawks," once was situated. 

Thinking of Dorothy

Two years ago today.

Neelon Crawford: "Looking and Seeing"

Cathedral Berg At Night, Neelon Crawford, 1994

Anywhere near Lander, Wyoming? Lucky you. Neelon Crawford's extraordinary photography is on display at Lander Art Center March 30–May 15, 2009, with the opening reception and talk by the artist on April 3 from 6-8 p.m. I could do a very long bio about Neelon since we went to high school and college together and have maintained a strong friendship. About ten years ago, I went to visit Neelon and his wife, Susan Hill, another college friend, then in Baltimore, where he'd converted a former branch library into his studio and home. I was so inspired by the space that he'd created--with its paintings, films, sketches, monitors, drawing boards, pegboards, tools, and even snake skins waiting for a later project--that I kept a large photo of it over my desk.

Morning Moon, Neelon Crawford, 2007

Among his other expeditions, Neelon has wintered over in Antarctica five times, photographed steam engines in China, Buddhas throughout Asia, and, well, here's the brief bio from his website, Polar Fine Arts, where you can also see some of Ralston Crawford's, (his father--the painter, lithographer, and photographer) work.

Hawker Sea Fury, Neelon Crawford, 1984

Neelon Crawford (b. 1946) has produced a series of diverse bodies of work since his graduation from the Antioch College art department in 1969. As a son of Ralston Crawford, Neelon was exposed to the combination of travel and picture-making from childhood. His work has taken him to all 7 continents. His large format photography, photogravure etchings, and oil paintings include portfolios titled: Icons of Spirit, Vintage Machines, Reconnaissance, Antarctica, Tools of Vision, and Wyoming. His work has been acquired by major institutions, corporations, and collectors. In addition, since the death of his father in 1978, Neelon has been involved with managing the affairs of the Ralston Crawford Estate. He currently lives in Wyoming with his wife Susan Hill.

Yunkang Buddha, Neelon Crawford, 1984

Anderbo by Rofihe - a literary trophy

Periodically, so to speak, I inspect my favorite writing mag, Poets & Writers, for contests, circling those that seem like a fit, which means I’m actually holding the publication in my hands along with that most old-fashioned of writing implements, a pencil, the technology that allowed Thoreau to draw even a modest income (trivia for those interested in Transcendentalists: his family manufactured pencils).

So it was that I discovered Rick Rofihe and his RRofihe Trophy fiction contest which, need I mention, I did not win, but which served the purpose of bringing Rick to my attention. So when his name came up on Facebook, I friended him (Web 2.0-alert: in case you think otherwise, it's still not a verb to many) and discovered that Rick has launched Anderbo, an online literary journal. (What’s an Anderbo? It’s a Rick Rofihe literary journal.)

Rick’s story is an inspiration, writer-friends. He is completely uncertified, unlicensed, non-degreed, and, yet, he eventually, after years at his typewriter – even though he can’t type - has had nine stories in The New Yorker. Now he’s doing the choosing, running contests, and publishing very good stuff. I love his story, “Me. You. Love.” Enjoy.

Boston as literary mecca

I was about to put up a post prompted by an article in one of my fave magazines, Poets & Writers, when I happened upon this in its Daily News column: "Boston Among Top Three Cities for Literary Tourism." According to Condé Nast Traveler, our fine city ranks right up there with Berlin and Dublin:

A hub for Victorian era writers such as Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Boston is home to the first public library in the United States and historic Beacon Hill, where many writers lived and worked. Henry David Thoreau's retreat at Walden Pond, open year-round to the public, is a twenty-mile jaunt from the city. Boston visitors can browse through literature old and new at the Old Corner Bookstore, once the headquarters of Walden publisher Ticknor and Fields, the Trident Booksellers Café, and the antiquarian bookseller Brattle Book Shop, which opened its doors in 1825.

My edits:

1. Although Queen Victoria did ascend to the throne in 1837 (thank you, once again, Wikipedia), her influence on this lot of Transcendentalists is unknown, at least to me. I think of these writers as purely American, writing about American issues (even if most of them did travel to England).

2. Where in this list is Margaret Fuller, the most widely published, Cambridge, Mass-born, writer of the 1840s?

3. If you've been to Walden Pond, you know that Thoreau's retreat is not really there - just the markers for where it was. So don't be disappointed if you go. But do take a stone with you to add to the cairn next to the spot. I've placed many a pebble there.

4. We have so many great writers living here now.

Quibble, quibble.

Beeps and Chirps in Boston

Beeps and Chirps is "following" me on Twitter and I am so glad. Every day, Jonathan, "a Massachusetts resident, beekeeper, and photoblogger, posts a photo. They're stunning. It's taking quite a bit of self-control not to clip one and put it here. Feel free, Jonathan.

This little piggy went to market

 

Wait long enough in these interwebbed times and you'll find everyone you've ever known, including those people you really liked but fell out of touch with. Facebook brought back such a one this past week, the cartographer/artist/photographer/college-classmate Louis Jaffe. Louis was a phenome at Antioch--and remains such if his recent work is any indication. I love this image that he made for the charcuterie booth at the Slow Food 2008 extravaganza in San Francisco, 4X10 feet in the original. Wish I could see the real thing. Thanks, Louis, for allowing me to publish it here. Any time you're looking for a venue for your work, this "gallery" is open.

Building Steam curated by Mike Homer

For those close to Lafayette College in Easton, Penna., don't miss "Building Steam," an exhibition of "emerging New York artists," curated by Mike Homer, a 2000 art graduate of the college. A reception takes place Sunday, Sept 28 from 3-5 PM at the Grossman Gallery of the Williams Visual Arts Building. The show runs through Oct 18.

From the press release:

“Participating artists investigate ideas of urbanization, social or scientific systems, repetition, and accumulation,” says Homer. “Although the work may vary drastically in its appearance, the binding thread is an interest in how a seemingly random system can have order and how that order evolves from the complex process of art making.”

Homer has worked as a gallery assistant at Howard Scott Gallery in New York City; assistant to the director at Peter Blum Gallery Chelsea in New York City; and is currently dealer’s assistant to the president at PaceWildenstein gallery in New York City. In 2006, he curated Real Property, at Gallery on Dean, Brooklyn, N.Y., and in 2005, Hey Moxie at the 210 Gallery in New York City.

Homer was also part of the 2000 Men's Basketball team, which won the Patriot League Championship and was the first Lafayette team in more than 40 years to receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Disclosure: One of the fine artists in this show is Eliza Stamps, known here as Daughter #2, whose work also appeared in Homer's show Real Property in 2006. Mike Homer, a fine artist himself (we're lucky to have one of his portraits), is a close friend of our family.

Other artists in the exhibit: Benjamin Butler, Jose Luis Cortes, Peter Garfield, Anna Von Mertens, Ryan Mrowzowski, Rosemarie Padovano, Duke Riley, Kako Ueda, Joy Whalen, and Will Yackulic.