Go forth, multiply.

Ah, the wealth of the multiple! I like to talk about the "democracy of the multiple" when people ask about printmaking. My friend, Erin Mullenex, argues that the internet could be considered one Big Print in that it uses a matrix to repeat information. I've heard said that all bloggers do is repeat things they've seen elsewhere. To these ends I offer these images from my brothers' blogs.

From Papr Papr:


























This excellent image of multiples from The A.D.D. Sportsman. Behold, I give you The Mantiple.

Digging It

Alix rallied a good crew this weekend and began work on the Birdhouse garden. We now have concentric oval ditches in which we will pile woody debris, leaves, partially finished compost, and finer soil. It's a German method called hügel, which means mound. How apt. I dug and dug and earned a nice blister.

We went to see Antony and the Johnsons later that evening, and my open blister ached and stung. Again apt.

Between the Big Ears Festival, the stunning warm weather, and the open trenches waiting in the yard, I am overwhelmed with the good work in the world.



(Photo above by Cara Pfennigwerth.)

Possum Fists

Or opossum. There are many in our neighborhood: the quick and the dead.

The Joke Has Been On Me

Found this video by scoping contacts of contacts on Vimeo. My friend from college, Mimi, is a dancer and videographer in SanFran. This video is by one of her contacts. Cheap and fast digital video + contemporary dance = YES.

I'm especially glad to find another heart song (as Going On by Gnarls Barkley has been). Makes you (or maybe just me) want to dance. Need to cultivate that feeling. And to act on it.

The world is large and full of noise, write Jane Hirschfield. I add that the work is never-ending, the suffering, unavoidable. Which is why it is important to sit down and eat a meal. To dance and shake. Ain't nobody going to do it for you.

Vulture Realty sings,

"I'm a fool with hesitations. You're so full of allegations. Agitate my senses, you're fogging up my lenses.

I finally see this world with different lenses, they just don't seem to fit me. I guess I never really realized, the joke had been on me."

Ah yes.

What we did on Thanksgiving day from mira cook on Vimeo.

Oh the Wind

I think this video is funny.
It has been windy this winter.

Synergy of the Studio

When I was an undergrad, I spent much of my free time in a craft studio in the basement of the student center. There they offered quarter-credit classes in weaving, ceramics, metals, book arts, and assorted other areas. It was a primary part of my time there and I loved both the people and the space. My mentor there, Jeanne Steiner, recently wrote to solicit student comments about how the Arts and Crafts department served us during our time there. The paragraph below is from my response to her. I'm speaking about that studio, but I think the sentiment holds up across similar spaces.

There is a beautiful synergy that can happen when people are working together and building community. We observe those who are more technically skilled. We compare tools and materials. We meet those whom, in our ordinary lives, we would never see. We enter into a space that is Other, in which we are permitted to set down classes, work, finances, and relationships in order to make. Where else might we learn to seek this stillness-of-focus and community? Some people find it in sports, and many Colorado College students seem to look for it in the mountains, but that's not for everyone. I needed this department every single year of my college experience. Each year it provided for me a different kind of support and opportunity. Now I hope to share my experience and technical know-how with my students, to help them find the profound balance of craft in the storm of the instant and shallow.

Per usual, I talk a better talk than I walk. How can I teach anyone about carving out stillness-of-focus through craft when I struggle to do that for myself? By blogging about it, natch.

Fat of the Land

Below is a google map documenting edible perennials in Knoxville. Perennials are plants that return year after year, as opposed to annuals like vegetables, which must be replanted each season. Most of the plants marked here are trees: black walnuts, pears, apple, and a couple peach tress. What great abundance! I'm looking forward to the spring when I can identify fruit trees by their blossoming. If you know of any edible or medicinal perennials in your area, please let me know and I'll add them to the map.



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