Mar 23, 2012
Get in on the first round of Art Subscriptions! They are shaping up into something super fun and lovely!
Place your order by the end of the day on 3/26 and I will fit you in. Sign up at art page. Woohoo! (If you miss that deadline, sign up for the next month!)
–J
ART SUBSCRIPTIONS:
I’ve designed three art subscriptions to amuse and delight you. Sign up for one or all three! You can also give a subscription as a gift–just note the recipient’s name and address in the notes section at checkout. Each subscription is for six months, and is mailed from China at the very end of each month. Affordable & fun!
International shipping is included in each subscription.
Monthly ORIGINAL:
Receive an original work of art each month for 6 months. Maximum dimension 8” x 11”–size and media will vary each month.
Monthly MULTIPLE:
A newsletter creation published by yours truly, once a month, that will tell you about my monthly observations & experiences through drawings and handwriting.
Monthly ARTIFACT:
A small item/s of interest mailed to you each month, directly from Shanghai! (or perhaps an artifact from somewhere else if I’m traveling.) You’ll get a description or a clue each month to help you sleuth out the source of your artifact!
Mar 16, 2012
Anita Desai
Today I share with you words from Anita Desai, which I came across in a book of essays I’m reading. This is from a piece she wrote called, “Bicultural, Adrift, and Wandering.” from the book The Writing Life, edited by Marie Arana. She describes well the strangeness of living in a foreign place, certainly more acutely and adeptly than I can! Enjoy.
–J
about why she likes to travel to Mexico to write:
“Not being a Spanish speaker, I’m thrown in with other misfits and stragglers.”
about living in the U.S.:
“. . . America made me feel incapable, incompetent. If I tried to make a call from a public phone booth or handled a tray in a cafeteria or attempted to fill my car with gas, all my fingers turned to thumbs, I dropped coins and forks, felt foolish and apologetic.”
about being a foreigner:
“Place had been of an importance as basic to me as soil is to a plant, but once you have torn up your roots, you become a piece of driftwood. It is tides, and currents, that become your fluid, uncertain home. Every once in awhile you find a shelf to pull yourself onto, as shore on which to catch your breath. Perhaps only momentarily, but these intervals take on a certain brilliant vividness like a scene lit up by a flash of lightning. As a foreigner, you cannot participate, you only contemplate. Not knowing the language, you cannot converse, only listen. What appears to be a most passive phase of existence becomes one of intense and heightened response–although that may not make itself apparent till long after, when you find yourself turning it into words on paper.”
at the end, she quotes a German translation of Czech writer Jiri Kratochvil. (I’ve not placed the umlauts-lame, I know)
Alle sind wir Emigranten….Emigranten aus dem Reic Gottes, und alle laufen wir weiss der Teufel wohin, wahrend Gott die Schaferhunde Seirner Gottlichen Absichten hinter uns herjagt, uns die Stacheldraht-Barrikaden Seiner Gnade in den Weg Stellt und aus der Maschinenpistole Seiner Gottlichen Liebe auf uns schiesst.
“We are all emigrants. . . . Emigrants from the Kingdom of Heaven, and we all run the devil knows where, while God sets the hounds of His Godly will on us, blocks our way with the barbed wire barricades of His grace, and shoots at us with the machine guns of His Godly love.”
Mar 13, 2012
Started this set of four drawings today. Watercolor, pencils, pen and markers so far. Here they go!
–J
p.s. don’t forget–you only have ’til the 20th to sign up for the super-fun ART SUBSCRIPTIONS!
Mar 5, 2012
New haircut yesterday. Creative projects today.
The image of a magazine spread below is from Chinese Vogue at the salon–TCM snacks that will make you beautiful.
Been fighting…something…and feeling nauseous every few hours or so. Ug. I assume my inner bacteria are just duking it out against newcomers. TMI?
Beginning to draft March’s Monthly Multiple! Have you subscribed yet?
Found out today the last month has been the grayest in 32 years! And only 5 hours of sunshine in the last half if the month–no wonder its felt dreary. Where did I stash my vitamin D?…
Hopefully some of my paintings-in-progress will brighten things up.
Hugs,
J
P.S. happy birthday jesse!
Feb 19, 2012
Some nighttime pics of a stretch of graffiti in the M50 gallery area.
–J
Feb 5, 2012
Jan 30, 2012
I took down the Matthew drawings at Chakra Khan tonight.
I found the post-it I’d stuck up by the photos of Matthew and the milagros…it’s from p. 59 of my copy John Berger’s The Shape of a Pocket. Fitting for the show, of course, and that’s why I’d posted it there, but fitting for this particular week as well.
The sudden anguish of missing what is no longer there is like suddenly coming upon a jar which has fallen and broken into fragments. Alone you collect the pieces, discover how to fit them together and then carefully stick them to one another, one by one. Eventually the jar is reassembled but it is not the same as it was before. It has become both flawed and more precious. Something comparable happens to the image of a loved place or loved person when kept in memory after separation.
I miss you, buddy! Thanks for leaving so many wonderful creations.
love,
j
Jan 9, 2012
Jan 8, 2012
Sarina is awesome, and so am I, and so are you, so let’s get together next Saturday and do something great!
I’m referring to what will be our final retreat (for awhile). It’s Saturday the 14th, from 4-8pm, which turns out to be the perfect time for such a thing–we finally get it right (haha). Come along and tap into your inner awesomeness!
If you are hesitant to do this just for yourself, do it for me, too, because I find these retreats to be such a TREAT. We end with a little show-and-tell, my favorite part, and each time I am moved by what people have created and discovered. I’m sure you’ve heard me say this before. So why don’t you come and be amazed, too?
We have a few spaces left–join us, and bring a friend or partner–it’s a great way to spend time together. Sarina’s going to make her famous veggie chili, too.
Below are some pics from yesterday’s retreat, which was wonderful, and below that, the details about next Saturday’s retreat.
Happy 2012!
love,
julie
The pics were taken by Sarina. Let’s see what she captured from yesterday’s retreat about making a plan for a year’s worth of self care:
oh, the comforting space that is chakra khan! here’s the book about Shanghai hiding behind a philodendron. the cover is one of the people who apparently hang out in their PJs in the evening on the streets in Shanghai. i can’t wait to discover them!
this retreat participant cleverly made a “take one-give one” pocket at the back of her self-care calendar, for notes of encouragement and congratulations.
we have all kinds of materials to create with at our retreats. this “love” print i made years ago in a monoprint workshop became the cover of someone’s self-care calendar–she’d just chosen LOVE as her “word of the year” so that worked out perfectly.
a page from a self-care calendar. our projects typically have a loose structure, so you can create them according to your needs and inclinations. sarina talked about four areas of self care: mental/intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional.
cutting and pasting is FUN!
DETAILS:
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Julie Kesti and Sarina LaMarche
are excited to announce our
Create Your Year Retreats:two fabulous retreats to support you in making 2012 an amazing year of growth, care and creativity.Retreats include an amazing shiatsu massage, wine and treats, and time for reflection, journaling and art-making.
A Guide for Your Year: Reflecting back and looking forward
Saturday, January 14th from 4-8 pm
Explore through writing, collage, drawing, doodling or whatever you please, the things you’d like to let go of from 2011, what gifts you want to bring with you into 2012, and what you want to create in the New Year. This retreat will involve lots of writing, with creative prompts to guide you in your reflection & get your pen moving, followed up by building images from your writing. These images (and writing, too, should you choose) will also be bound into a book you can continue to work with throughout the new year. Get inspired and start your year with a little more clarity!
* intuitive collage with journaling to look back on 2011
* decide what to leave behind in 2011, and what to bring with you into 2012
* creative prompts to inspire you to begin to make goals for 2012–mental, physical, emotional and/or spiritual
* vision board for the new year
Writing prompts, creative inspiration, and all supplies included!
Reserve your spot here.
Fee: $125
Payment and registration required in advance. Please register online, and we’ll email you about payment.
Minimum of 5 people per retreat. Bring a friend!
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Jan 4, 2012
trio of matthew pics from the current show
learning to fly / MK / maps
