I've been re-reading 'The Time Machine' and today feels very much like I've taken a trip back in time.
Today I scanned the negatives of the photos I took of my NYC apartment at 161 W. 78th Street back when I went to Parsons in the last century. It was so cool to recognize and revisit everything in that room. It was just like being a time traveler - I wondered at the objects I'd forgotten and remembered.
Some of the circled treasures are: my radio and toaster (that I'd hauled from Utah to Seattle and now to NYC). My cup hanging from a wire (to keep the roaches off), the mini-stove (sitting on top of the mini fridge), my tea kettle and my illustration in progress.
Everything but the bed was scrounged off the streets. You'd never guess how attached one can become to an old second hand toaster and radio.
But it was when I looked at the window at the view that I signed the lease without a doubt. The Museum of Natural History is just down the block. It was such an adventure to just look out the window in the mornings watching people going to work.
On our way to
"Memphis" yesterday we stopped in the Fashion District, rode the crowded elevator to the second floor of
Mood, and shopped where the Project Runway stars shop—got lost among countless bolts of fabric (does anyone actually know how many bolts of fabric lie supine at Mood?). Oh, this was a great thing to do. Yes, I did come home with Mood feathers and a T-shirt. Next we went to Parsons and stood inside its skinny lobby. All so that I could say (to any who would listen; will you listen?): I stood among the vapors of
Mondo and
Austin.
"Memphis" was just what I needed yesterday—third-row orchestra seats, center, thanks to my brother. I loved the storyline of this show, surged ecstatic about the stage sets, felt the hammering heart of the big dance numbers, totally dug that gospel choir. I loved the two big guys who danced like there are no dance rules and who sang with such peppy abandon.
Just before the show began, I received a note from my agent, Amy Rennert (who always remembers), and another from Tamra Tuller, that dear soul, who was writing to say that my
Small Damages jacket—a sample from the first run—would be waiting for me at home when I returned. It's gorgeous! It's
debossed!! It, in some unpossess-able way, belongs to me. And at this dark hour, dawn, I am still trying to figure out how to take a photograph of it so that you can
see what the fabulous Michael Green calls its "special touches." Philomel made an investment in this jacket. It shows. "You need to frame that one," my husband, the artist of inscrutable high standards, said.
On the bus home from NYC, our son called. He's an extremely happy kid. No, not a kid. He's a young man with the right friends and a bright future and such a knack for analysis and writing that he earned an A plus on a big paper this week. "What did the professor say?" I asked. Quietly, then, never boastful, my son answered.
"Well," he said. "He actually called it awesome."
"
Awesome," I repeated. "
Wow. Was there more?" I have to ask; my kid is immune to bragging and strut.
Michelle Rafferty, Publicity Assistant
Recently Tim Parsons, Professor of African History at Washington University and author of Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall, stopped by Oxford with his wife Ann. In the following podcast Ann asks Tim a few questions about his book and what empires past can tell us about the present.
Michelle Rafferty: Today we have a special treat here at Oxford. I’m here with Tim Parsons and his wife Ann Parsons, and Ann is actually going to interview Tim. Here we go.
Ann Parsons: Your specialty is African History. What motivated you to write a book about empires worldwide?
Tim Parsons: Well in the past as a social historian of Africa I’ve written books about common people, which means I write about how common people live their daily lives, and in this case, in studying East Africa, I’ve looked at how East Africans, average people, experienced empire. And one of the things that troubled me is in the last ten years we’ve heard a lot about how empires can be benevolent, civilizing, how they were forces for global order and security, and how then the way to solve the problem of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the global war on terror, was that the United States should impose an empire from above, and that this would be the way to restore order to the world. And as someone who has studied empire from the bottom up, that I see the true realities of empire, I knew from the start in 2003 that this was a very bad idea. One of the things that I felt I had to do was make this case, I had to actually talk about empires historically, to go back in time and to see if what I know about the British Empire in East Africa held true all the way back to the Roman Empire because that’s what many of the current proponents of empire now, cite.
Ann: So then what do these historical empires tell us about the present?
Tim: Well, first of all they us that it’s really a very bad idea to cite ancient civilizations as examples for modern American foreign policy. In others words, empires, if we go back 2,000 years to the Roman Empire, if we even go back to the 15th century Spanish Empire in the Americas, yes those empires did last a long time, but one of the reasons why they did is because things were very different back then. The communication was much slower, transportation was much slower, they were largely agrarian societies when literacy was not very widespread, and most identities, which means how people identified themselves, were local and confined to the village level. And in those times it was very easy to conquer many villages and then to impose rule from above. So that made these empires appear much more stable than they actually really were. And what you find out, if you at the history of empire over time, you see that the lifespan of empires gets shorter, and shorter, and shorter, to the point, as I argue in the book, that empires today don’t exist.
Critics on the left of American policy in the last maybe 50 years have branded the United States as a new empire, as the new Rome because they don’t like American foreign policy, because they don’t like the exertion of American force around the world. And that’s a problem I think, because by calling the United States an empire they are missing the true definition of empire. An empire is direct formal rule. They fail to recognize that it’s not the question of whether the United States is an empire or not, it’s that they should point out using empire as a model is a very bad idea because empir
Julia Gorton is the illustrator and designer of many books for children, including Abrams’ Score! 50 Poems to Motivate and Inspire and Harpercollins's I See Myself by Vicki Cobb, the MathStart book Super Sandcastle Saturday by Stuart J. Murphy, and Ten Rosy Roses, by Eve Merriam. She teaches design at Parsons the New School for Design. Julia Gorton lives in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with her husband, author-illustrator Daniel Kirk, and their three children.
Julia Gorton with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
CW: How would you recommend to other illustrators to get there work published?
Get out of the studio and make an effort to meet people. Be friendly and send lovely mailers that will be memorable and useful. Follow up and don’t give up. Volunteer to do work for your friends, their bands and any local spots that need updated graphics and images. Think of making small editions that use a narrative theme to show someone how you might work on developing a story across many pages. Do something different, but not so different that there is not a place for it in the market.
CW: Who are your influences.
0 Comments on Interview Adventure series—Julia Gorton • 5 as of 1/1/1900
This weekend I’m looking forward to a Symposium to be held at Parsons, The New School of Design in New York. On the topic of “illustrative responses to world events… both visceral and intimate”, it will explore “the current state of political and social visual commentary“. The impressive speakers include Steven Heller, Rutu Modan, Peter Kuper, Steve Brodner, Luba Lukova, and Anton Kannemeyer.
Symposium: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 1:00-5:30 P.M.
The New School, Tishman Auditorium
Johnson/Kaplan Hall, 66 WEST 12TH STREET
Free and open to the public!
I wish I could make out the illustrator’s name for the image above - best I can do is “Gary ____”. It’s printed tiny alongside it as it appears in blog entry for the Symposium.
There is also an exhibition of illustrated covers for Der Spiegel magazine at 2 West 13th street, 8th floor, from November 14th to November 30th, with a reception happening on November 14th, at 6pm.
(Disclaimer: I’ll be teaching at Parsons next year).
That sounds like a perfect start to a birthday weekend.
Hope the rest of this day is wonderful.
I can't imagine how any day can be better than that yesterday! But best wishes for one just as good in its own way.
Happy birthday! Can't wait to see the book cover, and your whole weekend sounds great -- so far. May today add more delightful things to your list.
I can see you smiling and hear you laughing in these words. I love that you had such a fun day :)