Dividing the Goose and the Art of Leisure
August 29, 2009, 12:01 PM
Filed under:
Art Gallery,
Pennsylvania,
United States | Tags:
'future tenant',
alex etschmaier,
ben hernstrom,
disco underworld,
dividing the goose,
erica stratton,
fairy tale art,
genderfork.com,
jeff schreckengost,
jody perigo,
kyle fischer,
laura vincent,
linnea glick,
lisa toboz,
michael lotenero,
michael vincent,
morningside,
roya hamadani,
russian tales,
stephen boyle,
teresa foley
Jeff and I are co-curators of “Dividing the Goose,” a multi-media fairy tales exhibition at Future Tenant in downtown Pittsburgh. The opening is September 18 and the show runs through October 17 featuring artwork by: Stephen Boyle, Alexandra Etschmaier, Kyle Ethan Fischer, T. Foley, Linnea Glick, Roya Hamadani, Ben Hernstrom, Michael Lotenero, Jody Perigo, Laura Vincent and Michael Vincent. Working with Kate, the FT director has been awesome and I’m so excited to see all the pieces in one room, finally!
The title of the show is from a Russian fairy tale — a peasant man must find a clever way to divide a goose among many people when there is only one to go around. After reading through all the artist statements, I can pretty much sum up in one sentence how fairy tales affected the artists’ works: Fairy tales scared the shit out of us as children.
We haven’t been able to travel much all summer because Jeff received a Sprout Fund grant to paint a city mural in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Morningside (I’m so proud of him!). And while my hubby is busy away working on various freelance projects, I’ve been sitting on the couch watching deliciously terrible films, not feeling inspired much to do anything. It’s summer, right? I’m allowed a creative vacation.
But this past Monday I finally picked up my lazy self and started working on the fairy tale photos I took at the beginning of the summer. It’s amazing how distance makes you see your artwork in a whole new way. I remember taking the photos in June and thinking a lot of them weren’t what I intended. After flipping through them the other night, a whole world opened to me, much like it does when I write stories and let them sit, then go back to them months – years sometimes – later. I should learn to apply what I know from writing to photography, but I still have a hard time making them connect.
I want to thank Erica Stratton for finding my photo “morning ritual” on flickr and including it on www.genderfork.com. The site has really beautiful, inspiring photography, so I felt honored to have one of my pieces on there. And thank you S. for encouraging me to submit my photo to the Silver Eye self-portrait exhibition – that helped get me back into photo stuffs again.
You can also find some of my other photos along with the secret Toboz-family stuffed cabbage recipe in issue #’s 8 and 9 of www.discounderworld.com.
Now that I’ve completed my shameless self-promotion, I’m going to watch more crappy movies this afternoon. I need a break from all of this typing.
Fifteen Books I love (or yet another example of my compulsive list making)
I love making lists, and I just finished doing this book list for Facebook (the site that sucks me into the “pick your 5″ lists every time I have a spare 3 minutes – damn my left brain). I’m starting out August with a full page at least.
I also watched a documentary on George Eastman this afternoon, and I was excited to see that he too made compulsively detailed notes of all transactions in his life. As I watched it, I thought, oh shit – I know how this one ends – and it wasn’t pretty.
I want to travel to Rochester this fall. I’m sure the whole city must be haunted.
1. Camilla Dickinson – Madeline L’Engle
This book makes me want to run through the streets and shout and laugh and cry – it’s that kind of book. You can really feel the soft snow blanketing the streets of NYC as you read this.
2. Behind the Attic Wall – Sylvia Cassidy
One of the best ghost novels, for any age.
3. The Unbeliever – Lisa Lewis
poetry – read “The Accident,” it’ll blow you away.
4. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
I read this in 9th grade on the suggestion of my English teacher, Mr. Ristanovich. I remember staying awake long past bedtime, wanting to know the identity of the woman in the attic.
5. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
Lo and behold, the first book I ever read about a family more dysfunctional than my own.
6. Charlotte Sometimes – Penelope Farmer
Turn of the 20th century time travel creepiness. The artwork is pretty amazing.
7. Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann
Surreal trashy novel. This one doesn’t have a happy ending, it’s just weird – love the pink cover with the cut-outs of pills making little frames for the characters.
8. My Mexico – Diana Kennedy
When I used to stay at my ex boyfriend’s house, the only things to read were Chistopher Hitchens, the Atlantic (yawn) and this book that his mother bought him for Christmas. It was my first taste of how cooking could be made into literature.
9. Maus – Art Spiegalman
Pulitzer prize winning graphic novel about a father-son relationship in the midst of family history. I think I’ve read the complete volume about 3 or 4 times, and I never tire of it. I always find something new in the art and the text.
10. Nancy Drew mysteries – Mildred Wirt aka Carolyn Keene
The danger, the car thieves, jewelry heists, train travel and Titian blond hair. I love the formulaic plots, the one steady thing in my childhood.
11. Therese Raquin – Emile Zola
Freaky novel about what happens when you marry your first cousin who is a big loser and you plot to kill him with his best friend. I first read this on a bout of the flu, so the scene in the Paris morgue circa 1880 only heightened in creepiness under the influence of my meds.
12. Out – Natsuo Kirino
I can’t get enough of her books, and it’s a shame because only 3 have been translated into English. Her novels concern women in contemporary Japanese culture that transcend the mystery genre. Out is particularly gory — you really get caught in their lives.
13. Burning Your Boats – Angela Carter
Fairy tale reinterpretations. Read the “Fall River” one, about the Lizzie Borden murders.
14. Home Cooking – Laurie Colwin
I love her food essays so much. They are a chicken pot pie on a cold winter afternoon.
15. Lunar Eclipse – Alona Kimchi
Years ago, I had bought this book because I loved the photo on the front of a young woman sitting on the floor of her shower. The photo was tinted blue and the book was a nice square shape that I love in books (I sometimes do that – buy books because of their shape and pretty pictures on the covers). A few years more went by, and I finally decided to read it. I was so sorry that I let it sit for so long. “I, Anastasia,” the opening novella has a voice so strong in translation that the text must be freaking amazing in its native Hebrew. I love, love this and wish Anastasia would appear in English so I can read the novel.
