WALKING ON THIN ICE

Detail from Self Centered by S B Smith

Hello! This is a clarification about events at the Brandt Gallery this weekend….

Tonight, Friday Nov. 9 at the Brandt Gallery:

Steven B. Smith & Mother Dwarf accompany Kathy Ireland Smith’s OFFWORLD
49 new pieces! 27 Mother Dwarf, 21 S B Smiths, 1 Ken Motz portrait of S B Smith, 23 Lady Smith pieces.

Smith & Lady will be at the Brandt Gallery tonight from 6 to 10 to welcome visitors and ArtWalk walkers.

Tomorrow, Saturday Nov. 10 at the Brandt Gallery:

Russ Vidrick hosts his monthly reading from 3 to 5. Open mic.

Brandt Gallery
1028 Kenilworth Ave.
216.621.1610
www.brandtgallery.org

Gallery Hours: Noon - 6 p.m.

Nov 7, 7 p.m. - Cleveland - the Smiths read at Visual Voices Bookstore. 1023 Kenilworth Ave., between W. 10th and W. 11 in Tremont, Cleveland, OH 44113. For more info, call 216.961.0084 or e-mail info@visiblevoicebooks.com. THIS IS OUR LAST SCHEDULED READING IN CLEVELAND.

Nov 9 - 6 - 10 p.m. ArtWalk - Cleveland - “OFFWORLD” featuring the art of Kathy Ireland Smith, also art of Steven B. Smith and Mother Dwarf Brandt Gallery, Tremont.

reflection of Jeff Chiplis’s neon art
photos by Lady K

CHING

weird to be here,
perhaps I oversteer…

after all, I’m not indispensible
whatever the majority decides
it’s all up to you
nothing is set in stone
let me know if it’s
ok or not

keep your computer safe
you must be logged in to do that
don’t mind our police

lady k

more Chiplis art

reflections of Chiplis art

astro man at my art opening (friday)

Smith reading from On The Road at the
Bookstore on W. 25th

Busy weekend!

Oct 20 - 6 - 9 p.m. Art show closing reading at Collinwood Arts Center. Featuring the art of Jeff Chiplis and Jacob Lang - Closing blog reading by the Smiths - 15605 Waterloo Rd Cleveland, OH Collinwood Arts Center.

Oct 21 - 3 p.m. - Cleveland - Modern Bohemians: City Poetry Contributors Reading hosted by Kathy Ireland Smith - Mac’s Backs Bookstore. This is part of the weekend festival celebrating Jack Kerouac. Organized by Mac’s Backs. ALL CITY POETRY CONTRIBUTORS ARE INVITED TO READ OR PRESENT!

Here’s more information about the Jack Kerouac Festival - there are events all weekend!

October in the Railroad Earth: Celebrating 50 Years of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
www.macsbacks.com

Several Cleveland bookstores are collaborating to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the publication On The Road by Jack Kerouac.

October in the Railroad Earth: Celebrating 50 Years of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road will take place from Friday, October 19th to Sunday October 21st and will feature readings, multimedia presentations, music and a marathon reading of the novel throughout the weekend.

The events kicks off with an opening reception at Visible Voice Books (1023 Kenilworth) in Tremont on Friday, October 19th at 7:30 p.m. The evening will feature video clips of Jack Kerouac and a chapter by chapter reading of the first half of On the Road. A 1947 Cadillac will be parked out front and will travel to different locations all weekend. Food and beverages will be available. The Bookstore on W. 25th Street (1921 W. 25th St.) in Ohio City will feature readings with music and audio clips from Kerouac reading on Saturday, October 20th from noon-4 p.m and the reading of On the Road will continue.

The Barking Spider Tavern (11310 Juniper Rd.) on the CWRU campus will host a poetry and jazz collaboration on Saturday October 20th from 5-8 p.m. Participants will read from a variety of Kerouac’s works accompanied by jazz musicians. Several audio clips from The Jack Kerouac Collection will be played, including Kerouac reading October in the Railroad Earth. Food and beverages will be available.

On Sunday, October 21st, Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry (1820 Coventry Rd.) in Cleveland Heights will sponsor the reading of the last part of On the Road on Sunday, October 21st from 10-2 p.m. at the sitting stones on the towpath trail of the Ohio & Erie Canal, part of the Cleveland Metroparks on 49th St. between Canal and Grant.

The location is just below the gigantic railroad trestle spanning the Cuyahoga valley—–just a walk down the slope from the Canalways Visitor Center.

The weekend finale will be at Mac’s from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday Modern Bohemians: City Poetry Zine Reading will feature contributors to the City online art & poetry magazine edited by Kathy Ireland Smith.

On the Road was published by Viking Press in 1957 and the title still sells 100,000 copies a year. The book was written by Kerouac in three weeks on a typed, single space scroll. Jack Kerouac died on October 21st, 1969.

Please come. The gallery is across the street from Visible Voices bookstore in Tremont, which has a Kerouac “On the Road” reading at 7:30. So before you go to the reading, visit me at the gallery.

OFFWORLD

Work by Kathy Ireland Smith

Opening and Reception Friday October 19, 6 - 10 p.m

OFFWORLD is a body of work created by Kathy Ireland Smith during the last 14 months as she and her new husband traveled through Europe. Read more about their travels here http://www.walkingthinice.com

Exploring a new relationship, new ideas and new worlds, Smith works with some of the same materials and techniques as her husband, most notably liquid copper corrosion. Monochromatic, in her use of the copper corrosion, OFFWORLD is a collection of found object art assemblages that exist for the artist in a world other than ours. A world that Smith has been exploring as a writer and here shares some of the artifacts discovered.

Smith is also the publisher of the online poetry zine The City Poetry. http://www.thecitypoetry.com/

Show runs through December 14th.

Gallery Hours: Saturday Noon - 6 p.m.
ArtWalk Friday November 9 & December 14, 6 - 10 p.m.
other times by appt.

Brandt Gallery
1028 Kenilworth
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216)621-1610

www.Brandtgallery.org

Aug 10 2007, Lady

Finished two pieces yesterday. Can’t decide what to name them. My first solo art show is in October, “Offworld”. I really really like the first piece (above) but I think it’s too expensive to ship to Amerikkka because of the heavy horseshoe. We’ll see.

I haven’t blogged my own impressions lately due to the addictive nature of reporting what My Man Smith has to say. But I have lots of thoughts that haven’t made it onto screen.

I’m doing some memoir writing. I don’t know if I’ll try to keep it in memoir form. I could harvest it for some future fiction.

An interesting and traumatic part of my life was its intersection with my childhood girlfriend’s life. Let’s call her Mary. She was sexually abused. Her mother was ever in the limbo of depression. She was a ghost on the couch, sleeping in front of constant TV. I still have nightmares where I’m trapped with Mary inside her house. Or sometimes I dream I am Mary. She was beautiful and used her beauty as a tool to improve her environment. She often tested her aptitude at my expense.

Another thing I want to capture in writing is the fuzzy warmth of my young 70s childhood which grew into the synth beat excitement of the 80s. The Eurythmics and the Talking Heads were fantastic initiation into modern cool. Adam Ant and Duran Duran and Queen so ecstatic… we pounded the cafeteria tables at school to thump out “We will we will rock you.”

The 80s are back in style,
opening into zebra-striped possibility:
I will be a girlfriend.
I will wear a hat and a scarf
and a flower and sneakers,
a totally ecstatic fanatic psychopath.

While I was in high school in the 80s, Smith was “drinking, mainlining, writing poetry, making art and publishing ArtCrimes. Getting fat. That was the 80s for me.”

Aug 10 2007, Lady

Art I made in Essaouira, Morocco. I left it here. I couldn’t find any art supplies in Morocco. I would normally apply liquitex over the surface which would give it some rigidity; wax alone is too delicate to get through customs without breaking.

These canvasses were made for me by our guide, who is also a carpenter. Usually I don’t use canvas; I find plastic or metal to use as canvas from garbage bins or the side of the road. Canvas is not very strong; it moves and flexes and cracks can form in the textured surfaces I like to build. So I prefer to use garbage instead.

Alcove where I left the art.