11/6/2021 #39
Booster shot, Notion.so, paper (Teoh Yi Chieh), art (nostalgia & chaos), Haunted Librarian, LindaLay, Ossorio, Day, Dysturb, Reeves, and a Pomplamoose mashup.
OUTPOST UPDATES
I finally received my Covid-19 booster jab, yesterday. And yes, I did feel crappy (headachy, muscle soreness, slight chills), and was wondering if I'd be able to do the newsletter this evening. But I started feeling a LOT better this afternoon, so it's a go.
It's surprising to me that I manage to come up with things to write about every week on a *regular* basis (well, except for last week when I took a break). I'm also going through a shift in my writing, generally, from experimental poetry to non-fiction prose; it’s something I’ve been thinking of for awhile, but writing this newsletter makes that impulse feel more doable. Lately, it seems like my experimental urges seem to be flowing into the visual art I make.
Because I'm always juggling various writing and editing tasks, I've been trying out the free version of Notion as a management tool, not just for this newsletter, but also for my nonprofit projects and freelance editing. Their Kanban board template has been really useful for tracking progress, and I like how you can personalize pages and templates.
One little complaint: I'd love to be able to just copy and paste parts of texts directly into my Substack page, but instead, I first have to export the whole page and save it in Notepad. Still, the plusses are that you can insert images, bulleted and numbered lists, dividers, and large quote marks, insert tables, galleries, videos, and more—similar to how it's done in the Substack editor.*
*Update: after exporting the text into Notepad, and uploading it to Substack, all the content and links uploaded, but bullet points, dividing lines, video, and jpg or png images didn’t. So…I might as well be writing it in a word doc?
ART
Continuing my autodidactic ways, I'm learning about watercolor papers and watercolor. I'm trying out a big sheet of Arches paper which I've been storing away for more than a year, now, because of fear of ruining the expensive sheet, but I finally decided to just go for it. Also I'm waiting on a package ea. of Shizen watercolor paper, and Indigo [watercolor] artpaper, each 100% cotton and handmade in India. Below, Teoh Yi Chieh reviews Indigo watercolor paper:
I enjoy watching this artist draw and paint even as he discusses the materials he's using. I'm drawn to his videos partly because my first drawings (when I really got interested in art) were urban sketches done live on location, and later sketching from old photos — both of which I still do, occasionally. Several examples:
While the above drawings were done originally in ink on paper, nowadays I can do digital drawings on my drawing tablet:
I like the narrative aspect of these drawings, which is why I still continue to do these, occasionally. They're also a bit comforting and nostalgic (though urban sketching can be certainly be done sans the nostalgia). But they are very different from the abstract pieces I've been doing lately (see below), which seem to be all about flux and chaos—hmm, I wonder why?
LINKS:
Halloween and the dark season is still on my mind:
Belated Halloween special: Becca Lee, The Haunted Librarian (Substack) looks under Death’s cloak, and finds a surprise: Medieval Zombies and Lively Cemeteries.
LindaLay's recent post, Monsters and Classical Gas, on pareidolia, monsters, and everyday materials in art is fascinating:
Thinking of pareidolia and monsters, I'm reminded of the art of Alfonso Ossorio; so many of his pieces seem to be glaring back at the viewer. James Kalm visits the Ossorio Centennial Celebration in 2016:
Rima Day's red-thread sculptures remind me of blood vessels and roots. See more of her work on IG @rimadayart
Artists against the Infodemic (from Dysturb; they describe themselves as “media dedicated to news and education . . . also a socially engaged creative studio.”)
SOUNDINGS
Diane Reeves' jazz cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" is probably the most "different" take I've heard so far on this much-covered song—but this jazz interpretation is great.
That moment in the studio when they find the groove: Sweet Dreams + White Stripes mashup from Pomplamoose:
I hope you're having a lovely weekend. Next week, I hear, we’ll get some rain—something we can use a lot more of around here.
Visit my art website, JeanVengua.com