Susanna's Sketchbook

June 3, 2008

June 1, 2008

New Jersey is positively lush during the summer months. Heavy vines drape themselves over trees, marsh grass thrive along the canals and brooks, and right now millions of little white flowers and honeysuckle are blooming and casting their scents though the forests. And I found one lone poppy waiting for me on the top of a hill...

May 29, 2008

My, this week has flown by so quickly, hasn't it?  It's been a bit of a catch up week for me. I've been catching up with the spring cleaning I started last weekend (woah, who made that mess?!), catching up with letter-writing (uh, remember me..?), catching up with art projects (quick, think of an excuse!)...

Presently, four envelopes containing my "winged messengers" sit in front of me. They'll finally be heading off to four different addresses in the world this afternoon, to readers who generously offered to put them up in their neighborhoods and then photograph them for me. I'm curious to see what they do with them, where they choose to put them up and who then might see them. These are a few messages that have yet to have their wings attached: You are beautiful, Your opinion matters, You are a work of art. I still have to paint in the envelopes. I'm hoping by the end of the summer, I'll have a collection of photographs of these little guys out there in the world.

And what have you been creating?

May 25, 2008 - The Long Weekend

 

It's the long holiday weekend and I am covered in paint. My apartment looks like someone ransacked it (okay, it was me). My bedroom, however, is looking so fresh and clean and calming after a couple new coats of "Antique White" - ahhhhh! Tomorrow, I'll return everything to its place and start thinking of which photos to print and hang on the walls.

In the meantime, I'm going to wash the paint off, pour myself a glass of red wine and hang out with these guys on the balcony:

Hope you're having a good long weekend, too!

May 21, 2008

Time seems to be flying by this week. I've been carefully cutting shapes of wings from paper and roughly painting feathers in grey, white and black on each of them. Old issues of Travel + Leisure and Elle Decor magazines hold them down to prevent curling from occurring. Soon messages will be written and attached and my winged messengers will finally fly to their destinations.

In the meantime, I am spending my evenings reading a really good book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. I saw Julian Schnabel's film adaptation of the book over the weekend and absolutely loved it!

Both the movie and the film are based on the real life experiences of the former Editor-in-Chief of French Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby, after a massive stroke left him with the rare "locked in" syndrome; that is, he could only communicate by blinking his left eye. Sounds depressing, huh? I can't imagine living like that either. But Bauby decided that he would not feel sorry for himself and with the help of the amazing hospital staff and a personal assistant, he wrote the charming, eloquent, heart-breaking, spirit-soaring book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Two days after his book was pubished, Bauby died. His book went on to become a number-one bestseller across Europe.

Julian Schabel's film adaptation of the book is smart and witty. He had me laughing out loud and crying out loud. It's impossible not to fall in love with the character of Jean-Dominique Bauby in this film. And the cinematography is inspiring! Just as Bauby writes in his book of "capturing the moment, these small slices in life, these gusts of happiness", Julian Schnabel captures those precious little moments on film perfectly. I love the scene of Bauby's children on the beach, when he cries (and I cried), of the beautiful close up faces of the women who assist and visit him in the hospital (and I laughed out loud, hearing his thoughts) and of the long hair of a woman blowing in the wind (God! Where is my camera?!). Beautiful!

photo: my sister, M.

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Typepad has recently made changes which will be good in the long run but right now my links are not working - argh! - so here are the URL's to the above sites:

The book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Bell-Butterfly-Memoir-Death/dp/0375701214/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211405427&sr=8-2

Julian Schnabel's film adaptation of the same name: http://video.movies.go.com/thedivingbellandthebutterfly/main.html

May 19, 2008

On my last post, I showed a photograph of an Obama graffiti poster spray painted on the side of a building in New York. My friend, Brian, later emailed me a link to an online Huffington Post article about the artist who created this image - Shepard Fairey.

Fairey has made a name for himself in the art world through his graffiti art. When he first created this Obama image, he made it possible for people to download it for free and since then, it's been countlessly copied onto t-shirts, mugs, you-name-it.

I thought this was an interesting article on how someone could be moved to take a political stand through their art.

May 16, 2008

I am exhausted tonight. I spent today with an old friend from Canada who I hadn't seen in about seven years. I still can hardly believe that much time has flown by...how did that happen, Michaela? Now she's a mommy to two little boys and with another one on the way. It was so nice to catch up about her life "back home" and about old friends from "back when". Yes, it was a really nice day. Thank you, Michaela. And I got to wear my new rubber boots in today's downpour. $20 well spent, I tell ya.

All I have planned for this weekend is to paint my wings (and finally send them off on Monday), drink a glass of red wine, read a book and sleep. Oh, and catch up on my blog reading (that is, I'll be visiting you this weekend). And you? What are your weekend plans?

Before I leave you til Monday, here are a few photos from today's adventures in New York...  Have a great weekend!

    

May 15, 2008

When I think of certain people in my life, certain words come to mind - and not necessarily the usual ones like shy or outgoing, short or tall. Certain people in my life bring to my mind words like cappuccino, cupcakes, encyclopedia, green, adventure, poetry, radishes, snowblower, shortbread cookies and clay.

Mary brings to my mind the word colour. That's the first word that pops into my head when I see her. Her gorgeous collages and mosaic sculptures are eye candy. Her home is a happy world of key-lime green and tuber rose pinks. Colour shines from Mary's spirit like light. She should never be photographed in black and white. (Yes, I know, Mary, I photographed you in black and white once before. Tear it up!)

Happy Belated Birthday again, Mary!

May 13, 2008

Life has been craaaazy this week! It's all good. I've just been busy in my artroom, juggling projects and ignoring everything else in my apartment. Just don't look in the kitchen.

Recently I joined my first round robin; that is, ten bloggergals, including me, are collaborating on a project. The theme is Royal Confections and each of us have started our own sketchbook along with the beginnings of a doll based on a royal figure. Our round robin includes all of royal society whenever, wherever, from scullery maid to Queen. Once we've started our doll and sketchbook, we mail them to the person who is after us on the list. That person adds something to the doll and creates a page in our sketchbook. Then she mails it on to the next person on the list who does the same. We do this until everyone has contributed something to everyone's sketchbook and doll. In a year's time, I should be getting my original sketchbook back filled with artwork and my little doll should be complete.

My nine round robin companions are talented artists, all with different mediums and styles, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've created. They are... Holly, Susan, Sandy, Constance, Beth, Monica, Cat, Elizabeth, and Stephanie.

My doll and sketchbook was inspired by Canadian Author Jane Urquhart's poem, The One Before. It's from her book, The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan, published by The Porcupine's Quill, Inc., 1995. The poem was later republished in Urquhart's beautifully-written book, Some Other Garden, published by McClelland & Stewart, 2000.

The One Before by Jane Urquhart

The one before
walked in these rooms
gazed in these mirrors
and searched her thighs for flaws

opening his cupboard
pouring this decanter
her mind set sail for landscapes
where you might stop
to choose a gift for her

a snowdrop pressed inside a book
birds frozen in a cage

the hours filled with
preservation of her flesh
her hair and face and muscle
till laying down her brush
she felt your absence speak

as though you hadn't nodded when
you passed her in the garden
or kept a place
beside you at the table

now I fill these rooms
and search the mirrors
I listen to the sound of strings
caressed by fountains

those imperfections in the glass
her face       thighs
lost in silver

the ghost travels with me
to your chamber

*

I love how visual this poem is...it's like a little film for me. I imagine a young woman entering a king's private chambers and seeing the "ghosts" of the women who came before her in the way objects are arranged on a table. She knows that her being in this room is, like the objects, temporary, that she may be asked to leave at any moment. It all has to do with pleasing that Someone Else so she takes extra care with how she appears in that beautiful room.

On the dress of my doll, I sewed little flat glass beads that remind me of a chandelier's crystal. Underneath are black and white photographs of me during my twenties. The photographs distort under the glass beads. The head of the doll is a black and white photograph of my twin sister (don't read into that. She's been one of my favourite - and willing! - models since I took up photography. Plus it's impossible to take a terrible photo of M. Well, there is that one photograph...She'll be calling me the second she reads that sentence...hee hee!). Anyway, I thought by placing her photograph in a round frame, slightly off-center, it would give the idea that M is looking at us rather than at herself through a mirror. I've left the arms and whatever else up to my fellow round robiners.

The sketchbook has that same portrait of M on the front and on the first page is a grainy black and white photograph of a reception scene I took years ago when I was doing wedding photography. The large painting on the wall and the drapes are the main image with a blurry, ghost-like image of a woman on the far right edge of the photograph. Then there are loose pages for my fellow round robiners to do whatever they'd like to on them. The last page is a black & white closeup of an old tattered couch. That's for the "ones before", the contributors to my book, to sign. 

May 9, 2008

Yesterday, I wandered through a deserted amusement park in the parking lot of a half-empty mall along the side of a highway. It felt oddly exciting to walk by the wrapped tents and the still rides, nodding to the roadies, taking photographs of the sights. It was opening night, and in a few hours this pristine, quiet, glitzed-out place would suddenly come to life with flashing lights and blaring music. Families would arrive carrying pink cotton candy wands and fizzy sodas and tickets for rides in their hands. In the meantime, though, I had the place to myself.