neuf

A train of thought I’ve been riding:

I think being an artist means being able to see what others can’t, interpret it, and express the interpretation with purpose that engages a viewer/listener/experiencer and causes them to change and/or question and examine their own way of seeing/thinking/believing (and/or to show them something they’ve never seen).

My definition leads me to this belief; artists are undeniably important and, once deciding to pursue what I’ve described above, they carry huge responsibility – both for the actions they take and those they don’t take. Influence is very easy. Manipulation is not far from it. In truth, all people have similar responsibility, but since an artist chooses to put his or her work on display – to attract the public eye – she must stand behind it. She must measure it against her beliefs of herself, society, the world, and find it worthy. An artist has a voice that shouts and struggles to be heard, but it is heard.

It is about opening minds – to whatever the artist chooses. In the choice lies the responsibility.

An example: Aesthetically pleasing, decorative art is not worthless and it is art, but there are limits. In my opinion, a pleasing pattern or image put on a journal cover that causes a young girl to buy the journal and want to write in it is worth a very lot. Cover art on books is actually very important. Despite the cliche, everyone judges a book by its cover before they’ve read it. Getting people to read the book is the visual artist’s responsibility (which books does the artist stand by? Which would mar his/her integrity) and what’s in the book is the word artist’s responsibility.

Pop artists (especially music and film) have the weightiest responsibility of all, and the least amount of control.

..these thoughts aren’t quite resolved or finished, but I may add more later, and at least I’ve updated the blog.

-Juliet

huit

Even including the dead fish smell (I think lightning from a thunderstorm last week killed the bluegills and they are now rotting all along the edge of the bay) my evening bike rides on shore drive and along the bike path are perfect. At this time of year when the trees bloom and you can feel summer coming even though it’s still chilly (especially with the Isthmus wind I did not experience when I lived at my parents’ house on the South East side of Madison) and the sky is periwinkle (it is) after 8:00pm when the street lights start to come on, I love to be outside and moving. I really missed these lakes when I was in Savannah. I like walking in the Vilas neighborhood too and imagining which houses I would want to live in when I might afford it.

Work is still going well. And the Art thing is getting better, as demonstrated by this photo of Whitney and Me in front of some of my work displayed at the State Street Gallery on Gallery night (last friday May 1):

The gallery director found my work on Etsy on a search for new artists and asked to carry my work. How wonderful. Here are some more photos:

here mom and I stand in front of the piece of mine that made it to the window display, and below Allison and I pose by some cool square pieces and a big buggy sculpture

At work there are men with jackhammers tearing up the concrete on the terrace right outside the bistro windows. The concrete needs resurfacing so that when it rains it won’t leak into the cafeteria below and so that we can have outdoor seating! The customers and most (or all) of my coworkers find it very irritating, but I sort of like the sound. It’s just a low drone.. not like hammering or high pitched rotary sawing. It’s like falling asleep to a fan at night. Sometimes when I’m at the register I get a slow minute and I doodle. I promise I really do a good job though.

- Juliet

sept

Two images that embody my current state:

Enchanted. Experiencing newness. Inspired. Happy. Learning. Looking forward.

six

There have been lots of good things. I put a new piece on the website, started working on other new pieces, started an Etsy shop, got over past heartache, started falling for someone new (again… re-falling) and successfully completed two 32 hour weeks of work at the Greenbush Garden Bistro (formerly Meriter Hospital Coffee Shop… still inside Meriter).

I’ve never before had the opportunity to see so many people in a day who are experiencing either extreme sadness or joy. And the surprising thing is that even though a lot of the customers are going through stressful times, they are on the whole much nicer, more understanding, more easy going than people who are patronizing non-hospital cafes.

I also felt like writing again. And I wrote this. Be nice, it’s only a first draft, clearly unfinished, and I haven’t written poetry for a long time. Just thought you might like to see:

Park street gets louder
I have to hang up the phone -
cross Fish Hatchery road, still loud
so unlike fish hatching

imagine them in the buildings with dark windows
under water barely moved
by their new fins emerging

Think of fish love,
so unlike people,
interaction between them is irrelevant -
it’s automatic.
The water rushes, but underneath, the spawning
quiet.

Pisces submits
to the sound
to the realization that nothing
is accomplished alone.

-Juliet

cinq

When Spring nears, you feel it in your belly and on the souls of your feet. Unlike fall, which shows itself in the empty spaces in your head, the nose, Winter which you feel in your bones, ears, and strangely enough, your hair, or Summer, who lives in the lungs, the arms – before it comes, Spring is felt in the parts of you that do the heavy work. The parts that are so easliy abused by the desires of eyes or tongues. These are the parts that will soon be more exposed. These are the parts that dig in, that ruminate, that know about farming. These are the parts that experience luxury most appreciatively. They know things in that deep kind of way that can never be questioned.

quatre

had a little fun with Adobe Illustrator – good way to preview how a sketch will look as a relief print. Despite the mostly melancholy look of these drawings, I have actually had some moments of joy in the past week. It’s still a bit of the up down here on the rainy south end of Brooks street, but there are crocuses and daffodills under the soil just waiting for their turn.

-Juliet

trois

Sorry readers, whom I hope I haven’t lost, for not posting more often. I went through a very busy couple of weeks. Here’s what I did:

1. moved to Madison from Savannah – mom, dah, and I drove (well, mom and I didn’t drive, only Dah did) with all of my stuff packed into a Uhaul truck. There were lots of issues that came up that resulted in changes to plans, but nothing worse than that, and we made it up in one piece, as did all my posessions! We spent a day at Stratton and Mary’s guest cottage because we could not get another night’s stay at the hotel in Hilton Head, which was lovely. When I get photos from dah’s camera, I will post them.

2. turned 23. I had a really nice dinner with mom, dah, and whitney, and then went out to the Orheum on State Street where I drank pinot noir and began to feel like good things are lining up to come into my life:

3. had three job interviews. One, a bank teller job, I really think I won’t get because they wanted someone with a strong sales background. The other two I want, and hopefully I’ll find out some good news soon.

4. set up my studio room in my new apartment! (also unpacked MOST of my other stuff, but there are still a lot of empty boxes filling up my space. There isn’t enough room in my recycling bin to get rid of all of them at once) I am about to work on some art in my studio as soon as I finish this post, and it’s really exciting to have this great space for it.

5. went to the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (or MBLGTACC, though that doesn’t make it any easier to say) in Bloomington, Indiana with my friend Laura and her friends Casey and Sarah. It was a really fun time overall and it was great to talk about LGBT issues with so many people. The last speaker at the conference was Rose Troche, writer/director of the L word and a few films – Go Fish, the Safety of Objects, and others that I can’t really remember at the moment. She talked a lot about the L word, which was fun because everyone at the conference loves that show, as do I, but also about her experiences as an out film and media artist, and the validity of a queer perspective in a writer or director even in non-queer productions. Good stuff to hear!

-Juliet

deux

My stitches were taken out on Saturday. Instead of bugging a friend for a ride I decided to walk the 5 miles home from the hospital. When I rounded the corner out of the St. Joseph’s Candler compound and saw the length of Habersham street from a pedestrian’s (with no ipod!) perspective for the first time, I felt helpless. I felt like the 5-year old sitting on the rainy elementary school steps whose grandparents forgot to pick her up. But I’d already committed to the trek, so I just went. About two blocks into it I started singing Joni Mitchell to myself. And then it was nice. It was the nicest thing I’ve done or experienced in a long long time. I saw parts of Savannah slowly and up close that I had never really appreciated before. I got to walk past the mansions on the stretch of Abercorn between Victory and 60th street. I meandered. I stopped to feel the soft ground under my feet in parks that I’d never noticed before. There is a big difference between seeing a sight with your feet on the ground – with all your senses available to take it in – and seeing it from the inside a moving vehicle. I felt happier than I have in Savannah in maybe a year. I had a smile on my face.

I’m getting out of this town in 5 days. When I wake up in my apartment that’s half in boxes I feel indifferent (as opposed to feeling panicked and uncomfortable… the way I usually feel in a transitional period) I have made peace with all the things that I did or didn’t do in this city, and all the people that passed through my life for a little bit, and I’m ready to leave. But after my walk on Saturday morning/afternoon, I think I will actually miss it a little.

-Juliet

numero un

This is my first blog entry. I hope you enjoy it:

Tonight I’ve been feeling very indulgent. I’ve been indulging in sadness. There are some times when feeling lonely is the most attractive thing there is and letting out all that beautiful emotion is irresistable. Eventually the weird spark and air of it all gives way to water and heavy things of the body and then I feel much better… out of my head. Change in things involving my home and friendships is not something I’ve ever been able to accept gracefully.

Anyway. I haven’t been able to work on my art with my pending move and this injury:

a laceration on my finger which needed 7 stitches! It happened at work while opening a can of strawberry topping. The bulky bandage and brace is to protect it from breaking open… and it was also quite painful during the first 48 hours so the extra padding was useful. I still can’t ride my bike – the vibrations and bumps go right to the end of my fingers and it hurts so much. Not as much as it did actually getting the stitches though. I’m so glad my friend Grace was with me.

So I have a new project in mind, and the last of these sketches includes one element of it, but I’ll reveal it later on. I plan to use it as a new promotional post card and it will be a cover illustration for the book I’m currently reading. Here are some sketches I managed to doodle before my injury:

The little “T REX” is a very small copy of one of my favorite things when I was a kid. I had a “sticker book” in which I pasted stickers and drew pictures. I LOVED dinosaurs, and I had a drawing of a tyrannosaurus rex that I spent lots and lots of time going over and over with a ballpoint pen until it was a s dark as I could make it.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I will feel like continuing the packing and cleaning process. I really am excited to be moving to Madison.

-Juliet