Why I write and quotes

I have always loved to write, poems mostly. In the last two years I have been writing more than in the past and taking it quite seriously. I participated in an Inprint class the last two months and it was amazing. My teacher was brilliant. Writing and art making go hand in hand for me. That is why I am seeking to fuse the two in my current work. I want to draw on my poems and write on my drawings. I want to cover the walls with drawings and poems. I think there are always connections between the two in my work although they may not be readily apparent. Here are some quotes by poets and artists I have come across lately that speak to me.

Nature is a psychopath.
Humor is disruptive of authority.
Nothingness if a structure.
...the hand in art...stay malleable.
...handwriting around the edge like tatting, like lace made by hand.
...by getting the reader to participate in making the meaning does it become a poem.
-Alice Fulton

Your thorns are the best part of you.
Most natural emeralds are heavily flawed.
-Marianne Moore

The days you work are the best days.
-Georgia O'Keeffe

For everything we reveal we must conceal four times.
?

prose

I sit here in my white, wicker chair and view my world. My chair. My world. What is this desire to own things? Can't they simply be out there and we all take turns using them? The difference between my and the is as big as the space I now feel between us since you slammed the phone, said those things. Vacated the safe place we found. Now we. Not I or you but we. Again, the vastness sucks me in. I swirl and tumble, swirl and tumble. Finally giving in to the circular motion and the way my limbs are now curved instead of straight and my hair stands on end instead of falling down. I want to stop the swirling and climb out to do all the things I love but there's safety in the repetition, the emptiness. It's just me, space and movement. Nothing else to roll or bang against me.

poem

Upon reading a Jorie Graham poem

I want to get in between
the pages, lay down
in the field of images, eat
the words, cover
up with the language
feeling the thickness,
the down of its heavy
weight. Running,
pulling like banging,
clanging pots and pans
all things tied
I take a step,
hear the clatter.

correction to last post-poem

I hit the wrong key and the last post was published before I was finished. Here is the way my poem from the last post should read. Thank you for your patience, dear reader.

The map of my skin
takes me through days,
months,
of words slicing
through a softened
heart. Sometimes a gash,
a rush of red runs
off the table,
pooling onto the floor. Other
times a space mended,
filled. Cavities
and holes no longer leaking
life but scarlet
pockets, blue-veined
and hollowed.

poem

takes me through days,
months,
of words slicing
through a softened
heart. Sometimes a gash,
a rush of red running
off the table,
pooling onto the floor. Other
times a space mended,
filled. Cavities and holes
no longer leaking
life but scarlet
pockets, blue-veined
and hollowed.

My Voice

The yarn is a huge mass of tangles and threads I am not wanting to unravel. I realize the layers feeling flooded with uncertainty. But I look at this yarn, its frenzy of fibers, its simultaneous coarseness and delicacy and I can see the piece it will become. I feel the good, the positive, the yes. So I let go enough to venture into that mass of knots and tangles. All I see are pink and intersecting threads. Up and around and under I follow this trail. I trust it. Deciding and acting, it chooses its path. Finally there's light, a smoothed out skein of color just like before.

Ah!!!!

What a whirlwind couple of weeks this has been! Tonight before the Real (Art) World Meet and Greet my students are having an opening for their show in our new gallery at HCC Northline (Northeast). Make sure to be there, 5-7pm, to check out some really cool art by some very talented blossoming artists! You can check it out and still make it to DW for the meet and greet!

So their have been all kinds of challenges with the show for my students at HCC but I think they have all been resolved and we are ready to go. It is so cool to see something like this come together and I am really proud of my students. I have been dividing my time between HCC and DW but after tonight I can concentrate on DW which I am really excited about. The energy was really jumping last night at DW. Maria was sewing away (really cool stuff) and Kia was working her ass off! Wow. Her work is looking great. It is really great to see everything evolving in everyone's spaces.

I am a little divided between my sculptures and drawings and I have been hopping back and forth. A little frustrating. I need to have a studio visit and bounce some of these ideas off someone and get a fresh perspective. Almost every night when I try to go to sleep the ideas are spinning in my brain and I try to write them all down so now I have lists of ideas and it's a little all over the place! Oh well. I am being productive and have lots more time to work. We are going to have a closing open studio at the end of the residency so hopefully things will resolve themselves.

Oh, I loved doing the interview on KPFT last Friday. I hope some of you were able to catch it. Eric and Kia were cool as cucumbers but I was nervous. Robert was great and really set me at ease. Once we began I didn't want to stop!!! It was so fun. I was like, give me that microphone. I made the bad joke of wanting to sing into it and that was mentioned on air. AH! My family listened. Sweet. Three adults, two children and three dogs were all squished into my Dad's tiny office so they could listen on line. When I saw my sisters, they kept repeating things I had said on the air such as, "I love to talk!" and "...it's a departure from the work I've been doing" to tease me.

Lots to do. See you tonight!

poem

Hibiscus

The chain-link fence made diamonds
of the world like the ones
in her sketchbook
around faces, needy faces.

In the kitchen she drank the black
coffee he made the day
before noticing spare
drops. She took
the sticker off
the apple, sliced it, stirred
the oatmeal, tied her
shoes. The collapsing
container feeling was like hot
water on her hands.

She washed
the dishes in the dark, staring
out a window
facing a wall. Her eyes
went to the spray paint on the grass,
fine dust like an early snow.

A dream from the night
before, not wanting to put the shirt
on because she feared
suffocation like shoes
too tight or words around
her throat.

She went to the porch, seeing
the mysterious gift from the night
before, a droopy hibiscus
she had watered. In the morning's
heat it was standing
tall, proud.
Refreshed.

Tina Kotrla

what a week!

Wow! I cannot believe the first week has come and gone. Everyone said it would fly. I have been trying to get in as much studio time as possible. What a great environment. Everyone is so supportive. Getting to know Maria. Already knew Eric but getting to know him a little better. Haven't really talked to Kia much yet but I am seeing her work grow, pretty cool.

The best time I have found for me in terms of producing is when the others are there and we are all doing our thing. I have been at DW alone but don't find my time as enjoyable. I am producing but there's something about others around you toiling away. Still I am getting work done and it feels really good. I am one of those people who feel tremendous guilt over having worked or not. It has been a crazy week with school/work and getting in time at DW and my parents coming into town. I managed to sneak away while my parents were here and work a bit. They are very cool about the whole thing. I even dragged my Mom up to DW. She kept talking about being there once before for an art crawl. She helped me hang my chandelier pieces that I am expanding on and worked on some crochet while I drew. We have collaborated in the past and I am always bouncing ideas off of her or she will say, tell me what you think about this... I love it. We think a lot alike.

Hung a bunch of stuff in my space. It is really starting to feel like my little home. I love the way I can leave everything exactly like I want, stuff open, pens out, yarn everywhere and when I return it is EXACTLY the way I left it. I have an adorable Staffordshire Terrier named Boognish in a part of my studio space at home so I can't really leave stuff out. Alert to all animal lovers and friends of animal lovers: Boognish needs a home! I have been fostering him and getting him healthy. He's one hell of a dog. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about him! I will post a pic soon. So sometimes I go into what is like my studio at home and Boognish has gotten some of my stuff out to improve upon it. He likes mixed media best, i.e. dog toy stuffing with paperboard and magazine images. Perhaps I should post a piece by Boognish!

I am looking forward to wrapping up some projects this week so I can concentrate fully on DW. Yea! The class I am teaching ends tomorrow (hip hip hooray!) so mornings will open up! Til next time.