Credit Is Due

I like consuming images. I enjoy looking at things and sometimes not having to think to hard about where they come from, who made them, or what they mean. This kind of image consumption doesn't sustain me for long, but I understand the impulse to look at pleasing or pretty things and not have to analyze why it works or what's going on. When I want to scroll through images curated by other people I turn primarily to two websites: pinterest and tumblr. Both are visual echo-chambers in which popular images are "repinned" or "reblogged" by others. This means an image picked up by a popular blogger can get a lot of eyeballs on it, or impressions. This could be great exposure for the people who make the images, except that most pinners and tumblrs don't credit their images. Often, I assume, because the source where they find the images has not credit the photographer/designer/artist/maker. And so all the hype around a provocative or pleasing image doesn't benefit the work or page hits of the image-maker. It's lazy and a disservice to people who make their living creating said images. This is a losing battle, but I don't repin or reblog images for which I cannot find a author/artist/designer/source and I'd like to ask you to join me in this. So there you are, a small rant for the weekend. And back to work.

If you're so inspired, you can download a higher-resolution version of this file here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

There's a lot of fluffy wisdom on the internet telling us how to attract a partner/mate, how to be at peace with ourselves all the time, how to deal with difficult people, and so on. Much of it comes to me in the form of precious jpegs on pinterest and facebook. It's not that the suggestions of how to be better are off base, it is that I am annoyed by the implication that my problems and solution are a function of my outlook, bad attitude, or gluten intake. Some of them might be, but that's something else. Complaining aside, there is one positive meme that resonates with me and that shows up well beyond the scope of pithy life-coaching pics: cultivating gratitude.

Landed Gentry

Now we are in Wisconsin-- near the Fox River-- settling in and learning a new place. The unfolding adventure has been bolstered by many fine friends and our loving, furniture-schlepping families. It is odd and a little lonely, especially in these first couple weeks, to be without those people in our daily lives. Phones, email, and video chat mean my longing for distant folk pales in comparison to that of say, Laura Ingles Wilder, author and protagonist of the Little House on the Prairie series. But hark-- as Ms. Wilder might have, I've been taking solace in writing letters to friends. It feels joyous and urgent: Hey! Respond! It scratches an itch and helps me use up some of the abundant small materials in my studio.

If you'd like to receive a piece art-like, joyous and urgent mail, please send your mailing address to katie@urbanlandscouts.com.

Lake Michigan and algae

Joyful, joyful

Recently we got to travel to Italy for a friend's wedding. It was beautiful and festive. Below are some photos from our time there.

Moving

We're moving again. This time to sunny Wisconsin for a full-time teaching job (yeah!). In the meantime we'll prepare to bid our fond farewell to Nashville and Tennessee. In honor of the impending move, I'll be hosting an Open Studio and Art Sale on Sunday, May 12th, from 12-5 pm at 336 Whitebridge Rd. (former location of the Pig and Pie Restaurant). If you're in the Nashville area please plan to join me for art talk, age-appropriate drinks, and, if you're so inclined, the purchase of some very affordable fine art. Bring the family.

{Please note, the stunning portrait below is by Andrew Wyeth.}

Ten Thousand Words

American Love Poems

Below is a poem by Ted Kooser that comes by way of my grandmother by way of her friend and just in time to sum up my long-distance longing. My grandmother's friend, Emily, wrote of Kooser, "Pulitzer Prize winner, US Poet Laureate, and Presidential Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kooser is known for finding wonder in seemingly ordinary things. For many years, he wrote a new poem each Valentine's Day.

'Pocket Poem' seems to me quintessentially American, stripped down, direct, as if the poet were explaining something simple in serious in words that only happen to be the language of love."

Pocket Poem

If this comes creased and creased again and soiled
as if I'd opened it a thousand times
to see if what I'd written here was right,
it's all because I looked too long for you
to put it in your pocket. Midnight says
the little gifts of loneliness come wrapped
by nervous fingers. What I wanted this
to say was that I want to be so close
that when you find it, it is warm from me.

Ted Kooser



It reminds me of the beloved found poem "this is just to say" by William Carlos Williams. Another one in stripped down "words that happens to be the language of love." It is also one that I consider personally to have great social currency, an attribute I judge by the frequency with which friends and family find ways to quote and parody the poem.


This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos William