Marjorie Wood Gallery

Poetry by Ingrid Keir

Drawings by Kyle Knobel

August - September 2009

For the exhibit at the online Marjorie Wood Gallery, visual artist Kyle Knobel and poet Ingrid Keir collaborate on a body of work centered around their apartment.

Ingrid says, "since we are married and live together, and this place is the first and last thing we see each day, it seemed a good place to form a show around."

The first image of the show is a watercolor painting of the typewriter belonging to Ingrid's grandfather, also a writer.

From Kyle, "I was interested in the sort of aggregate energy collecting in this little machine, now passed down to another artist in the family. This family continuity is of interest to me, as it is absent in my own."

Ingrid's selection of writing revolves around events that are both incidental and specific to the home. The apartment as studio, as kitchen, as place to spend time, as a place for love and for annoyances, are all explored.

22 Tours of Chi-Town

Long before the Obamas and Oprah, Chicago had been deemed a cultural hub of the Midwest. I recently discovered that The Poetry Foundation, publisher of the highly esteemed Poetry magazine, has created a wonderful online poetry tour of the Windy City. This twenty-two part series not only combines maps, images and audio, but also has many poets reading their own work and discussing the Chicago poetry scene, past and present. It is thrilling to hear Gwendolyn Brooks read, and surprising to find the voice I have in my head differs drastically to what she actually sounds like when reading her work.

Go ahead, listen to it while you are supposed to be working at that boring office job, or if you are one of the funemployed. A wise artist once said, “If it is fun, it shouldn’t cost anything!” You’ll be happy to know this tour is F-R-E-E!

Floating in the Sea of Possibility

I have been following this group of artists who have built handmade rafts from recycled materials. Over the past few years, they have made their way down many waterways, including the Hudson, the Mississippi and this year they floated from Slovenia to Venice. I feel inspired by their ingenuity.

These photos and journey remind me that anything is possible! These pics were taken by Tod Seelie, a really fantastic photographer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Please see his blog for more of his fantastic adventures. He ROCKS!

Hudson

M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i

Venice

These rafts are the stuff that dreams are made of. Cheers to the dreamers, sailors and artists making it happen.

Feeling a bit bookish

I have been making homemade accordion books/cards.

These little guys came out of an experiment for Mother’s Day and also a friend’s birthday.

I hope to create a bunch of blank ones to sell at SF zinefest.

Drawing a Tree

I have been obsessed with painting trees for a few years and I came across this little gem while perusing a collection of art books: Bruno Munari: Drawing A Tree.

This book contains loads of sound advice, drawing exercises and examples of varying types of trees (leafy, sparse, curly, pointy) meant to encourage artists no matter what level. He also has several other books which elaborate on drawing things like the sun, ABCs, animals etc.

Here is my favorite line, which Munari weaves throughout the book,“When drawing a tree, always remember that every branch is more slender than the one that came before.”

Here are a few examples of trees that I’ve painted, enjoy!

RIP Obey Giant of 16th St.

I have a set of personal landmarks. These are usually places that have special meaning to well, just me. In my college days these things distinctly defined SF as home: DJ bars like The Top, The Distillery in HMB, Club Townsend/King St Garage Wicked parties, The Henry Miller Library, 2am waiting on the side of Highway 1 for some weirdo with a flashlight to take me down to Esalen, XLR8R mag, well, you get the gist…

I’ll get to the point. I am ok with change for the most part -- it is life. But sometimes change makes me pause, even if it is something seemingly small, and that’s just what happened yesterday when I noticed Fairey’s Obey Giant has been painted over. That Andre painting has been there for as long as I can remember, at the old Sports Basement building on the corner of 16^th St and De Haro.

Now it is gone, poof, finito. (Boo. Hiss.) I know it is a tad irrational to mourn the loss of street art. Sorry, can’t help it! It made me happy when I passed by on my bicycle.

Speaking of Fairey, there are a couple of posts you may want to check out if you are a believer in artistic freedom. The first post addresses the Obama Hope poster (you know the one) & the Associated Press who are suing him because he used one of their photos to make the campaign poster. See here. And here.

And, here is another NYT blog post which does not touch the lawsuit topic, but discusses his work overall which found interesting.

 

RIP Obey Giant of 16^th St.

Visual Poetry

Hello Friends!

I've decided to start blogging again, so here goes the first post. This past April I was super inspired by the "Free Verse Project" for National Poetry Month by the Academy of American Poets.

See here for more info:

http://poets.org/page.php/prmID/541

I've since been crafting art pieces based on the concept that poetry can be a visual experience. Below are a few concepts I'm developing. I'll continue to post as I develop others.

I love the ocean, pirates & sea glass. The idea of a message in a bottle has always fascinated me since I was a child.

"bottle poem"

I wrote a lot of short poems initially meant to be postcards, but they work as here as short succinct snippets. Hopefully none of the exes will take offense!

"letters to the past"

My grandfather's Underwood. This is the best hand-me-down I've ever gotten. I'll need to dedicate a post to elaborate, but I've been typing up a lot of poems using this beauty. There is something so special and concrete about using a typewriter. Old school. It is nothing short of thrilling. If you send me a word, I'll send you an insta-poem!

old school beauty