1. Designing and creating a logo for Zuri Crafts – a new company that imports African crafts. For now, all they have is a facebook page. But the logo is on it!

2. Illustrating for Corporate Report Wisconsin. The issue will be in print this week. The article is called “Up in the Clouds” and is about cloud computing. This was a concept that took me a little effort to understand. After a bit of research I realized my difficulty was with the fact that I already “cloud compute” all the time. In fact most people do. I was under the impression that it was a new and very strange thing. But really the newness comes from the way businesses are using it. I guess. Anyway, I did one half page illustration and three icon-like spots, and I’m getting paid for it!

3. Made a new fine art piece and took it and lots of prints over to add to my collection at Hatch Art House on Willy Street for my reception as the featured artist for the month of August. The reception was a great success! We sold lots and lots of my work!

4. Continuing to plan all the little details for Marlo and my commitment ceremony. My latest idea – for the issue of “what do we put on the tables?” which was something I thought we didn’t need to worry about – involves folding a ton of paper cranes. In all sizes and colors. We plan to have a party to enlist the help of our friends and family members during which I will teach how to fold cranes out of paper, and then ask them to fold some (a lot).

5. Enjoyed the beautiful weather while simultaneously being annoyed at how much we all talk about the weather and which day of the week it is.

-Jet

-J’et

p.s. I’d like to see movies of my dreams.

p.p.s. “The contemplation of beauty causes the soul to grow wings.” – Plato (The cryptoquote I solved yesterday)

Tybee Island Jimmy C

This was real.
By my saying that you already doubt.
You don’t want there to be
things like this in your world:
long-fingered, crack-nailed, hissing and toothy,
dirty.

Unclean. Not, as you first think, soiled.
Soil is a hearty hand-made bread.
Soil is where you tuck in the crocus bulbs,
is what produces the grass that cools
your hot and blistered feet.

He is dirty.
Only smoke animates his limbs.
He covers it with expensive leather and pressed cotton.
Fancy.
Designer eyeware – the smooth molded plastic
as good as ebony trim
for that sense of refinement.

My story sounds like lies even to me.
These are the phrases that do it:
seriously,
I kid you not,
really,
so,
very,
super extremely totally.

But here are the facts.
He knew my name without my telling him.
He drank enough tequila to tip two men his size,
but did not even slur his speech.
He spoke a language I could not recognize.
He was angry.

He said I was a child of God.
He touched my hair and
I felt his cavern of loss.

He said, “I am not the Devil. But I’m the closest thing to him.”

Outside the beach is littered with
rum bottles, cigarettes.
The whole island rimmed with sharks,
(go fishing and their babies are all you will catch -
they are taught forearms, teeth instead of a fist,
fins at the elbow, skin that rubs yours bare)
could be seen as something very low,
very bottom. But it will never be close to that word-
the word I’d use to describe him
if only I believed it would not discredit me.

I run into the sand, fall, scrape my knee,
see the perfection in all those tiny crystals
sticking to my thick blood.

I thank someone. I thank something.

-J’et

The other night I half woke up from a light sleep to tell my girlfriend as she crawled into bed after finally completing the filing of her taxes that we needed to be ready for February 2,553. I remember thinking it was the 2,553rd day of something. Is it 2553 days from that night? Or  is it a redundant way of talking about a date? 2/5/53?

The numbers added together and reduced (in the way that is used to find a person’s soul number in numerology) make 6. 2+5+5+3=15, 1+5=6. This is interesting because 6 is a number that follows me around in life, not to mention that it is in fact MY soul number: 2+7+1+9+8+6=33, 3+3=6. But what does that mean? I don’t know. But also weird is this: 2,553 days is 6.99 years. That’s almost 7. But 9s are numbers that follow me around in life too. And both are divisible by 3.. and 9 and 6 are the same shape, just seen from a different perspective… and you see how this can keep going in my head.

February 5, 2053 is 43 years from February 5th of this year. On that day, 43 years from now, I will be 2 days away from my 67th birthday. But I’ll still be 66. What do you think of that?

If you’re thinking this is the day that I’m going to die, I have to tell you I don’t agree. Maybe my brain was just messing around with numbers in its subconscious state. Whichever way you look at it, it’s cool. Next time maybe we will talk about the dream in which a horse talked through a bathroom stall to tell me it wanted to meet me.

-J’et

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

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

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

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

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