Since I've been working too much and creating too little lately, I wanted to inspire myself now that the BIG freelance job is over (sounds of cheering).
I bought a paperback of Ted Kooser's The Poetry Home Repair Manual. So far, I like it. He explains clearly, based on a lifetime of writing and teaching. For instance Kooser says he may revise a poem up to 40 times "to revise toward clarity and freshness, and I hope that after I have labored over my poems for many hours they look as if they'd been dashed off in a few minutes, the way good watercolor paintings look." More to add when I finish the book.
I took out Mary Oliver's Rules for the Dance from the library. She covers prosody just perfectly and has a short but lovely collection of older classic poems to illustrate her points.
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And just in case you think I've stopped reading my usual YA fantasy books, here are 3 quick reviews:
The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen: first in a trilogy, a group of orphan boys are secretly trained to impersonate the lost prince. I found it totally engaging, the narrator Sage is clever and mischievous, and faced with awful choices if he wishes to survive, for only one boy can claim the throne. Engrossing, went on a bit too long in spots. The climax no surprise. I'd give this one an A-
Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl. Kindle has kept this fan waiting 10 years for her next book and this is a Jane Austen homage using a Pride and Prejudice meets Emma as an armature. It is funny, lively, and not very true to the historic period, but hey, it is a fine diversion. I loved the first person narrator Althea who must force herself to marry a wealthy man in order to literally keep the roof over her head. She is in fine form when it comes to manipulating her stingy and heartless step-sisters who jealously hold the purse-strings since they inherited all the wealth. At times the 21st century poked through too much, but it was amusing all the way. I laughed out loud. B+
Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Cyborg Cinderella in a dystopia that faces plague and possible invasion from the nasty folks on the moon. I know it sounds nuts—in a Flash Gordon way—but this is a delightful revamping of the familiar fairy tale. The partially human heroine is a mechanic and must obey the whims of her stepmother in a society that disenfranchises cyborgs (and augmented humans). At times the plot seemed to take too long and some of the secondary characters are under developed. We feel for our plucky self-abasing Cinder. More books to follow and I am hopeful this author will improve, this was fun, original, and I look forward to the next installment. B+
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I saw great reviews for the new Sketchbook Pro (version 6) drawing program for the computer. Introductory price of $29. Since I've been using the pared down version on my iPad, I knew I liked it. So, yes, I got the full version for a full computer. Sketchbook Pro is so much cheaper than the industry leader Corel Painter 12. I know Sketchbook has fewer features, but hey, at 1/15th the price... deal! I can bring the files into Photoshop for the things it can't do.
There is more you can do of course on a program designed for a full operating system and plenty of memory, and I also used my Wacom tablet and took advantage of pressure sensitivity. Two hours later I had done a self-portrait, graphic novel style, a tough as nails version of me (yes, a bit younger looking), influenced by watching the movie The Hunger Games the night before. The middle aged Catniss Carlson? Except for a bow and arrow, I'd have to cut contestants down with my number 11 blade X-Acto knife.
Jim suggested a great article at Lifehacker about practice, the kind that only helps a little (mindless or overly repetitive; such as how I did piano lessons: start at beginning, make a mistake, stop, start over and repeat--so only able to play beginning well!) and mindful (working out problems and trying multiple solutions). With this study, I thought about how to balance line with color so that it didn't get too finished, I wanted to keep a sketchy loose feel. I have plans to illustrate a picture book and want to develop the level of skills to do it. I was also dealing with a light source that had no strong direction and wanted to see how much of the purple shirt I should reflect back into the face.
What should I do next? I am frightfully bad at doing whole scenes, if I take it piece by piece, try this, try that, I may finally get the level of abstraction I need to do a landscape with a narrative event, i.e., an illustration.
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/27/2012
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
I've had too much work, as the day job and the night job spread thought all my waking time. Writing has happened in snippets on subways, lunch walks, just before falling asleep--interstitial moments. I still walk to my nearby urban park where trees die and are replaced, the reflecting pool is covered in wood--becoming seats and platform for ping pong tables or roller bladers, balloons as large as VWs rise in the evening and by day tiny lights are strung along the crowns of trees. One day the park is an open air market for tiny cupcakes, the next NASA has brought tables of ideas and equipment... Time moves so visibly and change is constant...and my years as a writer and creator of crafted things is no longer feeling infinite. It is time to leave the underground, write and draw, and rekindle my own love of languages, visual and verbal.
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Claudia Carlson,
on 1/25/2012
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I love photoshop. It was like the gift of fire to mankind and artists. One could start with a photo and recreate at will. Layering and collages without glue! Color changes and editing out Uncle Mort's head, easy! No more zits, a result so perfect Dr. Zizmor—dermatologist to subway riders—would weep in envy.
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Claudia Carlson,
on 1/21/2012
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
Last weekend was slated for staying at home and doing freelance. I wasn't expecting much beyond my work and concomitant work avoidance maneuvers: reading, iPadding, and watching old movies...
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Claudia Carlson,
on 12/31/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag I am sure many of my friends and various pundits are happily summing up the departing year and making certain pronouncements about the next, with a big nod to wishes and blessings. I won't. I spare you, and by that I mean me, this exercise. Instead I will take out a piece of paper, a pencil, a thought... and until then, see you in 2012.
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Claudia Carlson,
on 12/11/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: so what is the catch?, milestones are sweet, art show Claudia Carlson, Cornelia St. Cafe, Add a tag
I've been sketching people for years. Especially at readings where the expressions and gestures of the poets and my need to do something with my hands led to my art show currently on display at the Cornelia St. Café. There are nearly 40 framed watercolors and drawings on the wall. It is rather like putting together a chapbook, one general theme, lots of white space around the content, and the act of framing the work, in a page or under glass, makes it feel more real.
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Claudia Carlson,
on 10/30/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
Doing more sketches and studies from sketches...for upcoming show... am wondering where caricature and sketches cross the line and hurt or help the final work... Not all the poets and writers are going to like what I did, I can hear them mutter "too cartoony" or "my nose is not that big!" Maybe I didn't capture them well or my view of them doesn't match their preferred view. And there is always a sneaking in flavor of the artist's self portrait in any attempt to look into another human face.
Years ago, I met my friends Ernest Lilly and his wife Esther McClure at Lunicon, a science fiction convention held in Westchester, NY. They currently live near DC, Esther works at the Pentagon...Ernest reviews tech gear...their church friends, lawyer J.C. McElveen, and his wife Mary (recent poet-laureate of Alexandria) brought up the topic of mapmaking and Ernest mentioned he had a friend who made maps...and thanks to map geeks and science-fiction aficionados having a talk, I was invited to speak. J.C. kindly gave me a topic and description: Mapping Real and Imaginary Worlds: Graphic Design in the Pursuit of Learning. The "pursuit of learning" part troubled me a tad. I'd made maps in pursuit of a fee, for the love of a challenge, for the joy of combining illustration, calligraphy, and narrative interpretation into a graphic representation of the book's story, but I wasn't sure about the education. Then I realized, duh, I'd been the one to learn things along the way. That I'd learned to go from a 19th century style of drawing with a crow quill and Mitchell's calligraphy nibs (sizes 5 & 6 for text, 3 1/2 for titles) to the 21st century using Adobe Illustrator with a digital pen. I found and scanned about 70% of the maps I've done, doing high resolution first then saving a copy for PowerPoint at a smaller size. I struggled with making the slide show in PowerPoint on my mac. Come on BILL GATES make it easy! The circular spinning time hazard symbol happened with every action. Here is what Jim would hear as I was working: "Oooh, I forgot about this cool map I did for that murder mystery book!" [sound of scanner wearily buzzing] "Too bad I don't have a bigger scanner, I am getting so tired of matching up two scans." [Jim grunts a bit off-stage] "Wow I am up to slide 36, Jim..." "Great" he says, shaking salad dressing. "OMG I can't F&*#&ing get this image to drop onto the page, it keeps disappearing and taking the text with it. Why the f*&$^ is this taking so long? Now I have the circling eye of endless Godot ff&%&*" "Maybe you should eat," he says, plating the salad. "Maybe Bill Gates should apologize for not making PowerPoint work on a Mac, he said such nice things about Steve, couldn't he make nice with the software now that Jobs is dead?" I switched to using Jim's laptop, all PC and here PowerPoint worked as it was supposed to, clunky, but doing the job. On the Bolt bus to DC I continued to rewrite my talk. I was feeling nervous. After all, these were map experts. I'd come to it as a graphic designer. I was a lightweight. And then... after being treated to a Chinese dinner (thank you for the meal!) where my nerves made my conversation less than scintillating...we walked through a dramatic lightning storm to the map reading room, a wonderful cavern in the base
2 Comments on I give a talk to Washington Map Society in the Library of Congress, last added: 10/17/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 9/13/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag The long silence? A new day job. The sort that takes rather a lot of time to learn, it's a new field, a new culture... But my lunch hours have been another sort of learning...I go to a small park and feel the wind, sun, watch the birds, water in a reflecting pool, and two rather droopy trees... I will have a chapbook of poems out of my lunches. Plan to sketch the scene as well. So this is good. And I still draw every day on the way to and from work. Have introduced color pencils. The stops go by so fast. A little yellow on a lip, a lid, a hat, oh yes, in my subway the light may not be flattering exactly but it is bold.
1 Comments on Back with pencil and tree, last added: 9/15/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 7/13/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: getting paid for your work as a subway sketch artist, Add a tag
Last night I went to an opening of a friend of a friend's art at the Cornelia Street Cafe. Robert Woodward makes beautiful semi transparent scultptures with resin, found objects and swirls of color, unexpected holes, and lyrical lines of metal. I had a glass of wine, talked to the owner of the cafe about my upcoming show, met some cool artists and writers, and chatted with both my daughters—Natalie working downstairs in the performance room and Caitlin dropping by to see the art and then go meet friends...
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Claudia Carlson,
on 7/10/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Donald Justice portrait, Add a tag
As you may know (if you read sidebar) I have an art opening coming up in December in the intimate upstairs studio/dining space at the Cornelia Street Cafe. I had suggested to Robin Hirsch, one of the owners, that I feature the small impromptu sketches I do of poets and writers as they give readings. I'd call it something like "Poets Corner at Cornelia" and feature as many poets as I can that have graced the small vibrant downstairs performance space with their words (plus a few that would have undoubtedly read there if they weren't otherwise deceased). Robin liked my small works but after a moment of staring at the 3 x 5 inch pencils and watercolors, asked if I could perhaps also work a little bigger. I blithely assured him I would do various sizes. And I have worked MUCH larger--too big for these walls and not with this subject matter...
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Claudia Carlson,
on 7/1/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/29/2011
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I am getting plenty of attention as I draw. "What you have is a gift, a gift!" says lady with crisply curled yellow hair to my left. "Actually I prefer to think of it as a craft, I've had years of lessons." "No," she insists, "it's a gift, I can't do it." "OH MY GOD I saw you draw that man in like 5 minutes, with all that detail! Who are you?" It occurs to me to offer a spot of self-promotion. "Er, I'm the December gallery art show at the Cornelia St. Cafe." The salt 'n pepper woman leans over for one last look. "Oh good, I live in the Village, I will come to your show!" She exits. The woman she leaned over takes an interest. We have a nice chat. Her work in marketing research overlaps mine. She tells me it was one of the most entertaining rides she has had in ages. Young guy on my left reads my comment about big black glasses and says "Yeah, I wonder that too." And he was the one who noted I sure enjoy drawing when I missed my station by two stops. Yes. I do like to draw. I do. Feels good to get into practice again.
1 Comments on Daily Sketch 6-29-11, last added: 6/29/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/28/2011
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0 Comments on Daily Sketch: subway & lunch hour series of unwitting models as of 1/1/1900
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/25/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: webmasters and jargon, this is not about The Donald, Add a tag
I went to a webmaster's round table (yes, big oval table) held at the New York Law School (no, not the NYU Law School). It was for not-for-profit webmasters, which, according to my new job description, I sort of am. Although far more qualified people are in charge of the "back end" (data bases and programs that run everything under the hood).
1 Comments on Why I mention you won't meet The Donald or Justin Bieber in this post, last added: 6/26/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/20/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
My daughters and a friend marched in the Mermaid Parade this weekend and got a LOT of attention. The three of them were splashed across page 6 of the Daily News and also in the Post. They were the merbabe cheesecakes du jour. I am guessing millions now know just what my daughters look like between their necks and navels.
1 Comments on Cheesecake, Guardian Angels, and the Feminist Mystique, last added: 6/21/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/18/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
It's out! The 12th issue of Alimentum (which I designed) printed well and my map is in it. When I laid out the issue there was one blank page and seeing an opportunity I asked Paulette (head honcho) if I could try something... I created the map first on paper, rough pencil sketch, that I scanned and used as a basis for finished drawings in Photoshop (head outline) and Adobe Illustrator (everything else). Coming up with the A-B-C commentary was not a cinch. The humor lurched from too personal to too snarky to just pathetically unfunny. In fact you may still think it is all of those things! I tested it on friends who raised eyebrows as they realized what churns through my gray matter. I thank Jim, Natalie, Deborah, Joe, Flash and Mia for their input...
1 Comments on Junk Food map for Alimentum: The Literature of Food!, last added: 6/18/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/16/2011
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I don't blog everyday. Especially when I've started a new job and am madly figuring out how to put together a one woman show of my poet portraits (Cornelia St. Cafe art gallery in December)—maybe I let a few things slip.
0 Comments on Trump SoHo Redux--say what? as of 1/1/1900
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Claudia Carlson,
on 6/15/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
I often sketch writers as they personally read me their works—while ignoring the large audience that also sits in the same auditorium. In this way I've gotten rather good at scribbling on a tiny pad of paper in the near dark with all attempts made to keep the pencil from squeaking or percussing the paper. The sketches are a bit cartoony but still traditional, kind of old fashioned. I have offended nobody with them.
1 Comments on A small step out of traditional, last added: 6/15/2011
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Claudia Carlson,
on 5/30/2011
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Yes, I spent Memorial Day and more with a cold. The fever makes me listless. Also, can't figure out where I hid the air conditioner... It must be lurking somewhere.
0 Comments on The holiday weekend sneezathon as of 1/1/1900
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Claudia Carlson,
on 3/26/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
Jill Dearman, who interviews writers for a feature "Writer to Writer" on the Barnes & Noble community blog, has interviewed me. Dear Jill, So many of my writing friends grew up in working class families that didn’t read much besides the bible or reader’s digest. These friends were the first in the family to go to college and when they committed to writing poetry that was such uncharted territory their families shook their heads or begged them to come home. There is a kind of freedom in switching tracks. But that wasn’t my journey. Instead I grew up in a two-person nuclear family, a divorcee and daughter in tow. We migrated from one university town to another chasing the seasonal work of an assistant professor. Besides teaching poetry and women’s lit, my mother was openly a poet and quietly a lesbian. I grew up with English professors snorting theories in our backyard, poets declaiming in the living room, and adoring and hungry students hogging my mother’s attention. I found the poets the most annoying. They drooped, they blathered, they hideously quoted themselves. In general they disliked children and ignored me. My mother smoked her cigarettes in a long holder and quoted Roethke and Dylan Thomas in theatrical tones that made my teeth clench. As I child I so detested poetry I refused to listen to any bits that littered Winnie-the-Pooh. My mother planned for me to be an artist, one talent she didn’t pursue, and bought me art supplies and lovely blank pads of paper. She had me sketching her portrait when I was nine and was pleased with my ability to catch a likeness. She often encouraged me to talk about what I SAW, and delighted in my saying things like “pink is my favorite color of lightning.” Then I had one of those dismal childhood illnesses when I was in third grade that kept me in bed for several months and I began to read to pass the time. Soon I lived to read. I tore through most of the interesting children’s books at the library and my mother, looking much as Piaget must have looked observing his child, began to experiment. I was started on Jane Eyre but grew bored with her once she was an adult. In fourth grade I read my mother’s heavily annotated copy of Sister Carrie and fell in love with Dreiser. I read everything, from comfort novels by E. Nesbit to tough stuff like Treblinka when I was 9. When I was ten and visiting my father, he gave me a blank journal and advised me to keep a diary. It had helped him develop his writing skills, and Pepys’ like, he fills them to this day. Since he has retired as a biology and genetics professor he publishes a science book a year! By the time I was in high school I established a habit of borrowing a stack of books a week from the library and only reading though the ones that deserved all my attention. I applauded and cried for Harold and Maude
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Claudia Carlson,
on 3/5/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: CK Williams, Bernard Schwartz, CD Wright, Diasy Fried, 92nd St Y, sketching the writers at the 92nd St Y, Add a tag Had a great time drawing the poets night before last at the 92nd St. Y. Sharon Dolin (who teaches poetry classes there) brought me as her guest. C. K. Williams and C. D. Wright touched on similar themes of death and loss. I had a funeral (for the father of a friend) the next morning, so was hoping for more upbeat choices, but as always art consoles no matter the theme. And they read so well! Daisy Fried introduced Williams. His long lines, infused by his breath, arching eyebrows, expressive line of a mouth, and hunched left shoulder, built in intensity. I didn't have time to draw the guy who introduced the second poet, alas... Wright has a lovely full head of wavy white hair, brisk eyes, and smiles that pass over the planes of her triangular face transforming it into a heart. As I approached the poets after the reading they mentioned they had heard someone might draw them, was that person me? A bit in shock I said yes, I supposed it was. I got their autographs and thanked them for their work and then looked around for the guy who had spread the rumor that there might be a portrait sketcher. Fried pointed me to a slender nice-looking youngish man in a dark suit in a dark corner of the auditorium. My advance praiser turned out to be Bernard Schwartz, who heads the 92nd St. Y writing programs and had introduced the event. He was delighted with my work! How wonderful that feels. I promised to come back and draw more, he encouraged me to do so. I sent him the scans. And now I put them here.
0 Comments on On a lighter note, let's hear from Death and Art as of 3/6/2011 1:17:00 AM
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Claudia Carlson,
on 3/5/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: licorice can kill, avoid daily licorice tea, Add a tag
A couple of months ago I had the flu and discovered the savory soothing pleasures of licorice tea. IF ONLY I had stopped at a few cups. But no, I had a whole box of the stuff and drank it in the evenings and at work, it's wispy fragrance filling the borrowed cubicle where I worked on ads and brochures for a publishing company in it's busy season.
Wiki: "Excessive consumption of liquorice or liquorice candy is known to be toxic to the liver and cardiovascular system, and may produce hypertension and oedema. In occasional cases blood pressure has increased with excessive consumption of liquorice tea, but such occasions are rare and reversible when the herb is withdrawn. Doses as low as 50 grams (2 oz) of liquorice daily for two weeks can cause a significant rise in blood pressure." I'd been having it daily for 2 months! emedicine: "Symptoms of licorice toxicity may include the following:
I read it takes about 2 weeks for symptoms to improve. Months for the adrenal system to fully bounce back. Already I feel better, but tire out by evenings... I am eating lots of potassium rich foods and avoiding the salty ones. I am measuring my weight and ankle circumference every morning and they are going down. I have fewer of all the nasty effects. I am not crazy, just poisoned. And licorice is an ingredient in many of my other tea mixes, with names like Peaceful Mix and Happy Day. They are in a landfill now. What is shocking? Dog medicine is better regulated than hu
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Claudia Carlson,
on 2/20/2011
By: Blog: Elephant House (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: AWP and too many damn books, Add a tag
It is a curious fact that literary presses with reputable writing contests will be supported by MFA students in possession of a manuscript.
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Lovely Post, Ma.
I've been on Instagram for a few months now, and it certainly is a festival of heavily edited photos, overdone HDR, cutesy captions, grunge gone amok, retro overload, absurd crops doing the work, and other illustrations of the "if technology exists it will be used" principle. But in fact looking through thousands of photos, I think my own taste has been both broadening & sharpening a bit. I have really enjoyed the best of what's there, and there sure is a lot. I even follow a group called "United By Edit," devoted to pushing the edges of editing techniques.