Three Things: The Canine Sidekick Edition
This week let’s imagine a character with a canine sidekick. Whether that pup is friend or nuisance, I’ll leave up to you.
Alex Colville, Stove, 1988. Silkscreen on paper. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Christopher Wood, ‘Ship Inn’, Mousehole, 1930. Oil on board. Manchester City Galleries, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Gigi Mills, Bird Dog Places His Gift on the Table, 2015. Oil, paper, crayon, graphite on bookboard mounted on panel. Via Gallery Orange.
Three Things: The Spotlight Edition
This Wednesday, we’re inviting you (yes, you!) to step into the spotlight* (or at least, stand in front of our microphone) and read your work at our third Words at WAM. Co-hosted by yours truly and our dear friends, the WAM Collective, this third iteration of Words at WAM will feature writers Katie Sisneros and Dobby Gibson, and however many more of you we can get through in an hour and a half (get there early to sign up!).
Intimidated, ever-so-slightly, by the idea of a spotlight? Don’t worry, it’s much easier than you think. It won’t be anything like the following three performances. Unless, of course, that’s what you want. In which case, it will be exactly like that.
Pablo Picasso, Curtain for the ballet “Parade”, 1917. Tempera on canvas. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
Lisa Swerling, portion of All the World’s a Stage. Mixed media; shadowbox sculpture. www.glasscathedrals.com
George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo, 1924. Oil on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
* We don’t have an actual spotlight. Sorry, folks.
A certain three-year old woke up this morning with an impressive foot-high nest of hair atop her head. It inspired me, which hopefully will in turn inspire you. Hair is something we can all relate to (even if only through the lack of it). Care to write about it?
Claude Cahun, Self-portrait, 1914. Photograph.
Ellen Gallagher, from DeLuxe series, 2004-2005. 60 works on paper, etching, screenprint, lithograph with plasticine, velvet, toy eyeballs and coconut oil. Tate Collection, London.
Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen, from Eyes as Big as Plates series, May 2011–ongoing. Photograph. www.karolinehjorth.wordpress.com, www.riittaikonen.com
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It’s Online Open Mic week this week! Submit your work-in-progress prose or poetry piece today and tomorrow, and then return on Wednesday for 24-hours of wild workshopping!
Three Things: The Spectacles Edition
What is it with bookish people and glasses? Do the countless hours we spend deciphering small print make us more susceptible to needing a second lens (or two) to look through? Did those childhood nights reading by moonlight, or under the covers with a flashlight do us in?
This week I’m thinking about glasses, so I’ll make you think (and write) about them, too. I’ll save images of (lucky) be-speckled folk for another time; this week, let’s focus on the instrument itself.
Pierre Dubreuil, Ombres d’Optique, 1929. Photograph.
Aram Moon, Mr. X’s Wonder Glasses, circa 2010. Automaton (sterling silver, brass, ruby, rubber bands, plastic, eyelash, twigs). Via Mikhail Zakin Gallery.
Arman (Armand Fernandez), Colère de Lunettes (Eye-glasses anger), 1970. Mixed media (fragmented eye-glasses, acrylic paint mounted on board).
