September 2013 – Page 2 – WALKING ON THIN ICE

Daniel doc

September 12, 2013 1 Comment

Daniel Thompson marionette by Michael Bradley – fotosmith

Going out with a troupe today to film scenes for a Daniel Thompson documentary (1935-2004, Poet Laureate Cuyahoga County) built around a marionette of Daniel made by Michael Bradley, Jim Wolpaw directing. I and the others are props, extras, whatnot.

Michael commented on Facebook, “great…..looks like we have an undertaker joining us….and ventrwiloquist and his dummy…(not me)…bree…a flamboyant poet who lives down the street from barabara….my wife, my daughter…couple of camera guys….should be interesting…didn’t sleep a wink……i’ve been anticipating this weekend for so long it’s sort of a sensory overload….i’ll also have the daniel, lincoln and elvis marionettes….and they hate ventrwiloquists, so it could get ugly. oh, and the fucking cake.”

me: Well now. This is looking interesting. And if things go wrong, we can always count on the undertaker.

him: “exactly…it’s perfect….”

Daniel Thompson marionette by Michael Bradley – fotosmith

circle work

September 10, 2013 No Comments

tomorrows dream – fotosmith

Circle Work

Tomorrow dream
Yesterday due
Today

– Smith 9.10.2013

yesterdays due – fotosmith

rust, corrosion, chance, wash

September 9, 2013 2 Comments

Acid Snow, 2003, 9″ x 14″, Smith – fotosmith

One thing I do that is fairly unique in art is add the chance factor of chemistry
by including the element of rust which takes 6-12 months to finalize
in ways I have no way of knowing or predicting.

Lotus Blossom, 2000, 12″ X 7″, Smith – fotosmith

1946 ink drawing from church rummage sale
added to corrosion, paint, wash.

The Olde World, 2003, 9″ x 14″, Smith – fotosmith

Rust, wash, corrosion with areas cut-out.

Chiplis MoCA montage

September 6, 2013 1 Comment

Here’s my fotomontage of Chiplis’ 3 sculptures and talk at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

He’s in a 4-artist show titled “Everything All At Once” with Jennifer Omaitz, Elizabeth Emery and Dana Depew which continues at MoCA through October 13, 2013: MoCA show & talk Aug 24th, 2013, curated by Liz Maugans.

Chiplis at MoCA – fotosmith

Keeping the Whole

September 6, 2013 1 Comment

KEEPING THE WHOLE

There are some things that should be pressed in the ground, that should remain whole in the ground. There are resources that are not meant to be resources. They are not resources. Do not make them resources other than knowing they are there, lying deep underground, solid, whole, at peace.

We do not have to rush into the future at breakneck speed. Let fields lie fallow. Let herds loose over the plains. Manure nurtures futures well.

Wells. We can let the streams dream deep. Streams trickling invisibly underground. Just buckets pulled up to sip, dip in when we need to, maximum efficiency for an easy future.

Wind strings around sticks, screw lids on jars, watch steam rise from the burner in efficient batches.

In winter, we open a jar of summer on our plate when it’s pale outside. Cold out there, peachy in here.

Let most mostly at rest. That’s what I say. Cultivate bits of heaven here in the loam with our fingertips and nimble thimbles. Mind ourselves, go back to the past in some ways, homesteading.

I’d like to homestead. I’ll find the forgotten trees that belong to we. All those peaches that have been lingering decoratively. Set some bees to work on them, make them fat and juicy. Fat bees, fat peaches, me minnowing about the trees, peeling grapes from vines, climbing ladder cherries, mindful with the berries to take time, coax pull, others fall in hand.

Even the prickers are sweet, the stooping sweet, the backache sweet, the squinty sun sweet, the mosquitoes sweet, the sting of the bee, my lips.

~ Lady

Peach porn

September 4, 2013 2 Comments

1st Lady canning: peaches

Lady did her first serious canning last night: half peck of peaches.

If Polly picked a partial peck of purloined peaches past their prime, how many pecks could pretty Polly pluck?

She did her first 1st canning last month when we picked three quarts of raspberries and she made freezer jam, which is canning without the trouble of a canner.

Gotta give her credit – she say she do, she usually do.

Last week she ordered a used canner/pressure cooker. Saturday we drove 30-some miles to Amherst Ohio for the last of the season’s picked-over peaches. Canner arrived yesterday. After work we bought canning jars and she went between peaches, pressure cooker and computer screen and canned six quarts. Added a bit of lime juice and cardamom seeds.

Kept her up two hours past her bedtime.

I helped peel and was left with depressurizing and removal when she crashed.