Preparing for Take Me to the River

halfway between rain and sea i know the river is

Art School Teacher: Book Making Class, An Encounter with Man Ray

Assignment #2 - Make an Accordion Book 
(using an image from assignment #1's ABC book)

*****

I overhear Britta talking about Man Ray

and ask
"The Dada artist?"

and she says
"No, the stingray.  From Sponge Bob."

I remember once writing something about Man Ray the artist

so I search and find the post

and think to use it to make an accordion book

since I haven't yet done assignment #1

so have no ABC book from which to fish for images.

M is for Man Ray!

How to start?  

How about with some old scraps

like the remains of those acrylics on watercolor paper

painted when the kids were babies?

How about cropping to fit the envelopes Strathmore gave away at the park this summer?

How about making two line drawings of Man Ray to add to the two I already drew of Lee Miller?

And needing one more to make an odd number

why not a drawing of an assemblage Man Ray called "self-portrait"? 

Scan, print, trim.

With my nondominant hand
I write the words for the portraits on other cards
planning to glue them together
(a little trick one learns)
making the cards more durable and
decreasing the possibility of ruining what I've already made. 

But something isn't right.

The white against white?

I paint a border on the back of each portrait. 

Still not right.

So I rewrite the words in black ink.

Again, no good.

What is right is the brown painting 

I'm planning on using 

as the strip to join the envelopes together.

What is right is the thin refined line of the portraits.

Why not machine print the text and then trim

making rectangular compositions on the brown painting?

Much better!

This process lasts all week

working on it for an hour or two at a time 

taking a break when the Mod Podge needs to dry

learning once again

that the art is in the process

folding the paper

for example

before gluing on the envelopes

or making the title page last

or knowing to follow your instincts

until you sense it's right.

Still

near the end

I screw up

accidentally gluing the envelopes closed

when attaching them to the brown paper. 

I pry them open with a knife

but it looks like crap.

Luckily 

I don't panic 

realizing there's another pack of envelopes

which I glue right onto the first

this time making sure to not seal them shut

though what I should have used

was two-sided tape

which doesn't leave wavy marks.

But my kids devour two-sided tape so I never have it when I want it.

And I'm not patient enough to wait until I get it

being eager to add a string and. . . . voila!

merci

where do you noodle?

noodle: to think about something in a way that is not very serious

where do you noodle

after a long doodle

dabbling all along the way?

with a pocket full of waggle

and a snuggle in a rocket

while we noodle with the littles

along the Old Tucson trail

where i sometimes dream

i'm noodling
the mariachis 
playing the blues

and the sun shines

blindingly bright

try as i might

i can only 

noodle with my doodle

if i dabble while i noodle

noodle i while dabble i if

doodle my with noodle

only can i

might i as try

bright blindingly

shines sun the and

blues the playing 
mariachis the

noodling am i

dream sometimes i where

trail Tucson Old the along

littles the with noodle we while

rocket in a snuggle and a

waggle of full pocket a with

way the along all dabbling

doodle long a while

noodle you do where

Opinion Poll

Why do we modify opinion with "my", when our opinions are never our own?

Because isn't every opinion formed by things that don't really belong to us: language, culture, class, governance, genes, wealth, poverty, family, health, allegiances, prejudices?

And isn't it true that opinions can change with a song, a commercial, a kind word, a strong conviction, a strange smell?

Don't our opinions of others speak louder about ourselves than of those we speak about?

do you doodle?

doodle: to draw something without thinking about what you are drawing

do you doodle with a brush or a pencil?

a noodle or a strudel?

do you dream of your doodles on the walls of the Pompidou?

or imagine a passerby noticing your doodle and exclaiming,

"that's the most fantastic doodle I have ever seen!"

is a doodle a dabble or a dabble a doodle?

is there such a thing as a doodle that's a drawing?

a noodle that's a novel?

a dabble that's a song?

do you doodle in the dictionary, the phone book, the funnies?

or do you doodle on the table top with ball point pen and honey?

do you doodle while talking, while walking, while sexting?

do you doodle while out on a noodle?

My First Garden, Episode 9: "And Yet It Struggles On"

do you dabble?

dabble:  to take part in an activity in a way that is not serious

do you dabble

with your rattle

shaking here

shimmying there

nattering

about imagining

dabbling

for a living?

do you dabble

undermining the battle

of determining good from bad?

would you rather

5 + 4 = ?

or

9 = ?

do you allow

people to fail

or fail to discover

what it is

to dabble a

seriously unserious

dabble?

do you dabble

with a paddle

and a craw

and a crook?

how do you assess

a dabble

when dabbling

was all

it took?

Her Intense Dislike of Cucumbers

Found List: Band Name Brainstorm

Big Slough

Continental Drift

Tootie Fruity

Malarkey

Ether Madness

Harbinger

Lackadaisical Revolt

Improper Evidence

Late Start

Hill of Beans

Margaret

Supra Proof

Rhumb Line Report

Auto Wow

Occidental Antecedent

Cracker Pants

Manager Damage

Blinka

Dire Errand

Path Under Construction

High Resolution Detection Effect

Coefficient Distortion

Primordial Season

Luminous Distortion

Precious Duets

Starboard

Dipstick

Operation Banjo

Hardwired

Rotation Migration

Flat Earth Society

BeeZee

Bonsai Beach

Offer of Proof

Post Conventional Motion

Unsolicited Advise

Brief Allegiance

Inadmissible Inefficiencies

ibid

Class D Memorandum

However

Spontaneous Generation

Laissez Faire

Bivouac        

Adaldium

Affective Discontinuity Disorder

{sic}

Post Ethereal Effect

Azalea Pudding

Gargantuan ____________

Colossal Apple

Mammoth _______________

Stupendous ____________

Huge ______________

Immense ____________

Vast ____________

Enormous __________

Gigantic _____________

Hijinks