24-hour poetry, froghoppers, and trust
I'm paying attention to the shapes of ferns, to the thunderheads building in the afternoon skies, to the changing voices of the frogs. It's the end of May, dragonflies dart…
Great is the matter of birth and death
I woke up early this morning and created this digital collage. The Art Department's office manager, Sue, died unexpectedly this week. She will be greatly missed. We've had four deaths…
Call for participation in “The eloquence remains” film-poem project
Want to be involved in a collaborative film-poem project? We're looking for various readings of (or responses to) this short poem: The eloquence remains — seems to — even as I…
In the Studio: Work in Progress
Work in progress: a redesign of Spokane Public Radio's visual identity, a new visual narrative, email designs for Indiana University, and more. A few screen grabs.
Trusting the Process of Art-Making
What does it mean to "trust the process" of art-making, or image-making, or writing, or creating anything new in the world? "Trust the process." Sounds suspicious. Sounds unfocused. Definitely over-used.…
We Are Constantly Arriving
I ran across these notes in a sketchbook: "The process of making — the experimentation and joy in the making, the unexpected surprises along the way — this is the…
The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival
"The Mantis Shrimp" video/film/poem has been juried into "The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival" in Fort Collins, Colorado. The screening is May 4. You make something; you send it out…
An Afternoon of Sketching with Sandhill Cranes Flying Over
On a recent afternoon, I walked to the back hill and set up a place for some watercolor-sketching. Got into the flow, just feeling the wind blowing, the sun slanting…
When You Truly Understand One Thing
William DeBuys, in The Walk, a chronicle of years spent walking the same path on his land in the Southwest, says that “a species of hope resides in the possibility…
Staring at Things We Don’t Fully Understand
Jonah Lehrer writes in Imagine: How Creativity Works (p. 135): "Knowledge can be a subtle curse. When we learn about the world, we also learn all the reasons why the…
In the Spirit of an Amateur: “Traveling to Cloverdale”
I drive this stretch of highway 231 often as I travel back and forth to Charleston, Illinois, where I teach at Eastern Illinois University. It's a 10-mile stretch of…
We Can Live Any Way We Want
“We can live any way we want,” says Annie Dillard in her essay “Living like Weasels,” in Teaching A Stone To Talk. She explains that people take vows of all…
Ryan McGinness: Advice to Beginning Artists
from Inside the Painter's Studio, Joe Fig (p. 127): Lastly, what advice would you give a young artist just starting out? Ryan McGinness: "I think there is something to be…
Marks and Materials
There are thousands of kinds of marks: smooth, rough, hard, sharp, clean, dirty, tight, loose . . . What you hold in your hand — a pen, a brush, a…
“Dream Pictures”
Beneath my writing and drawing table, sketchbooks have piled up over the years. I have maintained an ongoing ritual: I wake early, brew strong coffee, read for an hour, then,…