Self as test object continues...

Above, taken on an easel, below photoed on the ground and showing the Moleskine sketchbook too.

(testing spraying inks on a rendition of ma'self) self-portrait, 2015, ©Brenda Clews, 8.25" x 11.75", 111lb acid-free Moleskine Sketchbook.

I'd like to say that the underlying drawing was a better rendition, but maybe that's not important. I am currently into spraying ink like a crazed spouting whale. So I went to Active Surplus today and bought a bunch of spray nozzles without any jars since they didn't have any that fit the nozzles. They were only .50c each, so no matter. I stuck them right into the ink bottles. But, oy ya, the spray nozzles from Active Surplus spray hard and fast, without any delicacy. The $2. watercolour spray bottles you can buy in the art store are more like clumsy ballerinas, allowing you to arc the spray and to increase or lessen the intensity of the splatter of ink onto the paper. I don't know how many times I completely buried the face when I sprayed with the over-active Active Surplus nozzles and how many soaked paper towels there were at the end of the painting session covered in ink daubed off. Beginning of a new Moleskine too!

_________
Written last Sunday night around 10pm:

Writing presents its own challenges, certainly, but submitting, oy ya. Something I have to bribe myself to do. Last week was an almost sleepless week of editing in between everything else. It got done. Today, on the last leg, I bribed myself with a brandy and some sweet cranberry concentrate swirled in (I do like this combo). After wrapping a tin's contents of organic wild Salmon and chopped tomatoes with Nori, a sheet of seaweed, for my main meal of the day, I chained ma'sef to the chair in front of the computer. I worked, did laundry in the background, dipped cherry tomatoes and carrots into jalapeno humus, drank Earl Grey tea. It took about 7 hours. Copied and pasted from Pages into Word, gone through again checking Word's flags, the red and green dotted lines. The covering letter, done (had already written a draft, but...). All the chapters linked to their respective text, done. Off to the copy shop tomorrow to get it printed (where it will cost less than half of what it would cost to print it at home). The novella is 250 pages single-spaced (was told single-space is fine with this publisher but it is about 10,000 words too long for them - hey lotsa flabba to cutta - or perhaps another publisher will take it, or no-one will, or it'll be composted, who knows). Now for that well-deserved drink...!

Hand-delivered the manuscript before 10am the next morning. That felt a bit strange. Than I came home and worked on a list of other publishers to send it to if it comes back from this one. That research took all morning and took the edge off of the feelings you have when you submit a manuscript in person (of been strung, mid-air, over a canyon when you have just handed over a batch of your feathers). After that, I read Andrea Thompson's first novel, 'over our heads' from cover to cover - it's very good and worth reading. And ended the evening with some standup comedy on LOLFLIX, 'Louis C. K.: Chewed Up, (the link will take you to the show on YouTube, though I watched on Netflix). Good to end the evening with some laughs.

Journal Entries 6 and 7

Yesterday was a good day. It was lovely and sunny and warm (5°C but that's hot after what we've been through!) and so I was able to work in the studio portion of my apartment. I finished the little paintings you see below.

By 9pm, I had also finally finished editing a novella I wrote in 2011. I wrote it very quickly, in less than a month, and had forgotten some of it - which was good since the fresh read helped with the editing. It still needs a working title and an ending, and then this phase is done.

I went to bed at 10pm and essentially slept until 8am - after a sleepless week of pushing myself relentlessly through finishing the editing of a harrowing tale - I feel well rested and almost ready to tackle the next project (of which there are always many). First, though, finishing that novella... my plan is to get it out by Monday.

6 Journal Entry - ©Brenda Clews - 27 Feb + March 11 2015, 5.5"x8", 14x20.3cm, mixed media, Strathmore 400 Series 80lb toned gray sketch paper acid free.

5 Journal Entry - ©Brenda Clews - 26 Feb + March 11 2015, 5.5"x8", 14x20.3cm, mixed media, Strathmore 400 Series 80lb toned gray sketch paper acid free.

Photos and Video from the February Poetry Salon at Urban Gallery

Fantastic Poetry Salon last week at Urban Gallery (thank you Calvin)! We had a memorable, inspiring, wonderful Salon of many brilliances. It was a poetically and sonically rich afternoon. I'd like to thank Stedmond Pardy, Kevin Fortnum and Amoeba Starfish for being our fantastic features, and Vladimir Azarov, Norman Allan and Alana Cook for stepping up to the open mic and sharing their poems with us. And to everyone who came out to a Saturday afternoon Poetry Salon in February, the coldest month in Toronto on record, wonderful to see you and yah, Canadians got grit. xoxo Brenda

(If you go the Poetry Salons album at Picasa, all the names are listed.)

                                                                                                    

A single video of the Poetry Salon, but you can see below the times each of the readers and musicians begin.

direct link: http://youtu.be/bvB0XMFmGS0

0:32 Stedmond Pardy

23:44 Vladimir Azarov

34:41 Kevin Fortnum

49:57 Alana P. Cook

51:33 Norman Bethune Allan

56:17 Amoeba Starfish, Phil Ogison - Guitars, Synths; Jeff Howard - E-Drums, WaveDrum, percussion/voice synths

STEDMOND PARDY’S first chapbook, "Drugs,” was self-published in 2013, and his next volume "Beached Whales" will be published in late Spring. He has had two one man Shows held at Reg Hartt’s, "The Cineforum,” appeared on Howl 89.5 FM twice, and has read his work at various venues around the city since he started writing 8 years ago. He was born and raised in the Mimico/Lakeshore area. The quotes, "an Artist is an Instrument through which the Universe reveals itself" and "word poetry is for everyman, but Soul poetry, alas, is not heavily Distributed" are the words he lives by.

KEVIN FORTNUM is a nightmare dressed like a daydream who wishes he could be like the cool kids.
He only came here to say, 'hello'. When this show is over, he will drive his car into a bridge.

AMOEBA STARFISH’s bio is bio-degradable. Phil and Jeff met in 1988, began collaborating on various experimental, sometimes controversial, multimedia projects thinly veiled as "bands," They created Amoeba Starfish in 2009 to simply return to the ideals of "play." Quantum Jazz is about being sincere and having fun without fear, limitation and expectation.

___________________

Videoed and edited by Brenda Clews
With thanks to Jeff Howard of Amoeba Starfish for recording the sound

Doing a single, if long, video decreases my time working on the footage from 3 days to 1 day. I video primarily to document my Salons, but understand that people like to see themselves on video, and so I do edit them to try to enhance what is a difficult subject to watch - poets standing reading their work with a camera videoing on a tripod. With this video I think I have, at least with titles, begun to create my own 'look' with the clips of these Poetry Salons and so that's kind of nice. Because all of the Features are tremendously creative people who like to experiment and push boundaries of what poetry is, what music is, I felt adding a bit more of a look to the video worked. I hope you enjoy the video of the Salon as much as I did hosting it!

February Poetry Salon @ Urban Gallery tomorrow, the 28th!

Tomorrow! FUNtastic and brilliant afternoon! Come and warm your poetic souls at Urban Gallery, 400 Queen St E, doors 2:45pm, readings 3-5pm. Two poets whose poetry intermeshes styles, spoken word, slam, literary poetry, love poetry, cultural events and icons, you name it, these guys, Kevin Fortnum and Stedmond Pardy are very special. We will project video during some of the readings. And Amoeba Starfish's Quantum jazz... is wow. You will slide gently into and swim and fly in otherworldly realms. Very inspiring, beautiful. They like poets to speak what their music evokes into the mic. They are a tremendously interactive band. And we promise dancing at the end! Yes!

After we go to a nearby Chinese restaurant with good food and inexpensive prices, for a glass of wine, or some nibbles, or a dinner of shared plates of scrumptious food. The menu has both vegetarian and meat options.

PWYC pass-the-pouch. Around 7 open mic spots of 5 minutes each, sign-up before 3pm.

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/326456197563006

KEVIN FORTNUM is a nightmare dressed like a daydream who wishes he could be like the cool kids. He only came here to say, 'hello'. When this show is over, he will drive his car into a bridge.

AMOEBA STARFISH’s bio is bio-degradable. Phil and Jeff met in 1988, began collaborating on various experimental, sometimes controversial, multimedia projects thinly veiled as "bands," They created Amoeba Starfish in 2009 to simply return to the ideals of "play." Quantum Jazz is about being sincere and having fun without fear, limitation and expectation.

STEDMOND PARDY’S first chapbook, "Drugs,” was self-published in 2013, and his next volume "Beached Whales" will be published in late Spring. He has had two one man Shows held at Reg Hartt’s, "The Cineforum,” appeared on Howl 89.5 FM twice, and has read his work at various venues around the city since he started writing 8 years ago. He was born and raised in the Mimico/Lakeshore area. The quotes, "an Artist is an Instrument through which the Universe reveals itself" and "word poetry is for everyman, but Soul poetry, alas, is not heavily Distributed" are the words he lives by.

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Journal Entries, 1-4

         

A small art journal for quick Journal Entries... mixed media, and on a prepared surface. Because I've been blocked, this is a way to gently move into the stream.

The theme that's shaping seems to be Mind Maps. Each one is a picture of the inside of my mind at that moment.

©BrendaClews 2015, 5.5"x8", mixed media, Strathmore 80lb toned gray sketch paper, acid-free.
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A Drawing of Tara

A drawing of Tara, February 17, 2015, 11" x 14", graphite and Derwent InkTense blocks on Strathmore 80lb cream acid-free drawing paper.

Matt Mullins: Ten Notable Single-author Videopoems

Matt Mullins writes:

"I really enjoy all forms of videopoetry, and collaborations have certainly led to some of the most groundbreaking and vital work out there, but I also have tremendous admiration for those people who work primarily as singular “videopoets.” To have the skill and talent to write a compelling poem and the ability to place that poem into an equally compelling visual and sonic context is an impressive artistic accomplishment.

But as I sat down to compile a list of ten single-author/author-made pieces that have influenced me, I quickly realized that there’s a tremendous amount of excellent work of this type out there. So I decided to narrow my list even further to focus on those poets who have demonstrated that they have the skills I mention above, and the ability to read their own poetry convincingly, and the ability to deliver the whole package in four minutes or less."

http://discussion.movingpoems.com/2015/02/matt-mullins-ten-notable-single-author-videopoems/

Comment I wrote:

An amazing list of videopoems, Matt. Each one is remarkable in its own often understated way. I appreciate the quietness of this collection overall, that there isn’t a lot of bright poppy snazzy editing and so on. The intent of the force or drive that produced the poem and the video is stronger when they are produced by one artist and perhaps more completely enmeshed as a unity of word and image. When the poet makes the video there is an inner cohesion to the experience of the words, the voice, the visuals and the music. Thank you. I’ve been sharing this page. – and I was truly taken back to find a videopoem of mine among them – so often one feels like one is working in a vacuum.

After I posted the comment, I thought what I mean is that not only do we enter into the personal world of the poet/videopoet, there is a rhythm between the poem, its reading, and the video, it's style, images, cuts, overall feel that, when it works, works in ways that collaborative pieces usually never do for me. But, then, I operate from my own private aesthetic on this issue and really have not elaborated on what that is, and, due to the complexity of trying to explain my position, might never.