• Fashion, art and design related things I come across online.
• I host a radio show on WMFO 91.5FM Medford. I talk about novels and create playlists to go along with the story and themes.
• My first blog which has become a repository for weird mis-readings I have due to my bad eyesight.

• Click images to view larger

  I’m not happy that it’s been this long since I did an art show or fair outside of things I’ve done for TeePearls. It’s been almost a year, which means the Riverside Gallery 50-100-150 show has come around again.

  Due to my crazy precision obsessed painting, everyone thought last year’s pieces were prints. This year, I’m continuing my graphic definition theme with SWARM. It will be a series of individually framed embroidered locusts on display as one piece. I don’t think there will be any mistaking the embroidery for prints but, in order to incite confusion, I hope to also have prints of the pieces available as well.

  I haven’t had to deal with separation issues too much with this series, but these guys will be hard to part with. In making prints, I’m taking a cue from Liz Smith and her mother. Although I may not be keeping the originals as they do, it may ease the pain to have copies around to visit.

• Click images to view larger

  I came up with a design and contributed to the To Boston With Love Project. It had such a big response that the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston hung the banner in their Shapiro Courtyard.

  I’ve been trying to take part in more public art projects and small community gallery shows because they not only give me motivation to finish projects, but usually a great, friendly atmosphere is created by people who are just happy to be participating in something. I don’t know how everyone else with a hand in this banner felt, but I was happy to contribute a small visual piece to this larger project as a reminder of the world’s support for Boston during trying times. I personally continue to feel helpless about the whole thing. Really, what can I do for the people affected? It’s just a small gesture that didn’t necessarily make me feel like I helped anyone in the significant way I wish that I could, but hopefully it makes some people smile.

  The banner will be on view until July 7th.

• Lots of reading going on

  I came across these lines while listening to Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Library and had to stop the book for awhile because my mind wandered.

  I had a recurring dream as a child that is still difficult for me to describe and sounds funny when in reality it was terrifying. Basically, I’m looking at a two-dimensional house from the front, but I’m really inside the house (oh, dreams). A bird I can best identify as a baby chick knocks on the door and I let it in. Then two chicks knock on the door and are let in. Then four, then eight, then sixteen… They keep doubling until chicks are popping out the chimney and windows. Right before the house explodes, I would wake up terrified and not be able to go back to sleep.

  I had that dream through college and would always wake up, but the difficulty sleeping slowly disappeared and, eventually, the dream as well.

  I can’t be sure if there was anything in particular that triggered it, but that same overwhelming feeling happens when I’m awake and can’t wrap my mind around something. I’m a visual person, so I’m pretty sure the house is a physical representation of a lifetime and the chicks are things I want to squeeze in. I’m plagued by the reality that there isn’t enough time. It’s more of a fear I’m now able to articulate which may be why the dream disappeared.

  I’m currently trying to read three books and about to add a fourth. I also have three other projects swimming in an idea pool, one project that needs to be finished by Saturday night, and one more that needs to be sketched out soon. The busier I am, the more ideas tend to pop up. I’m not having trouble focusing on any one thing yet, but I fear the chicks may start popping out of the chimney soon if I don’t get organized.

  Anyway, here is the reason I began this post: how I’ve started to make use of my time to read and discuss ALL OF THE BOOKS without losing my mind.
  

  I’ve heard a lot of arguments against e-readers but, since getting one, I read more and obtaining books from new places. After being lucky if I managed to read two books a year, I now drop by the library on my way home from work, read on the bus every day, listen to audiobooks when I don’t have the time to sit and read, and host a radio show about books. I now read at least three books a month. Here is what I’m currently reading and why.
  

  

  Poet’s Choice by Edward Hirsch (own it)
  I picked this up because I do better with poetry when I talk about it, and it is the book of the month for the Harvard Square Book Circle.

  Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Library by Robin Sloan (library digital audiobook)
  I’ve been waiting for this to become available through my library— it was always virtually “checked out.” It’s about bookstores, computer programming, design, secret codes and hooked me in the beginning talking about bagels.

  Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate (library book)
  I will be discussing this on Novel Songs some time in June with local musician Robert Hoffman. I haven’t read any novels that discuss the imagined childhoods of Blues and Jazz musicians. Difficult to read, but I’m enjoying it.

  A History of Reading by Steven R. Fischer (reading excerpts on ebrary)
  I came across this on Brainpickings while searching for articles on the history of technology and books spurred by topics in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Library and the subsequent Novel Songs show this Saturday. I will probably end up buying it at some point.

< Older