Post- Valentine's

We found more than fifty dozen roses and pulled off their petals to distill rose oil.

Tech issues

I'm having some problems getting a borrowed netbook to work. That computer has my travel content on it, but in the meantime-- some older photos!
Lightning Bolt played at Sound Sessions in Providence a few years ago, outside behind the Providence Black Repertory Theater. Here a police officer tried to break up the show because their set was too loud! From left to right, Brian Chippendale, me, Mike Knives, Alex Field, JoJo, ?, and an angry police officer.

I used to live at an awesome collective house in Worcester, Massachusetts. Here is a pile of punks in the library. Look at how many feet there are! Eight people? I stand out easily, as is often the case. (I think color is the cheapest and easiest way to make life more exciting!)

Videos

I don't usually post things that I didn't make myself, but here is a little selection of videos that I like a lot. I'm in transit right now and have to organize my own content more before posting it.

Beauteous beauty!

Yma Sumac had a five- octave vocal range!

They're not hurting anybody! (Except for that little murder.)

Dancing at home, alone. Everyone should more.

A lampshade

I made a lampshade from a plastic bag and a plastic cup. I like to think of it as a ghost's dress.

Uwajimaya

Uwajimaya is a huge Asian grocery store with a few locations around Seattle. When I say Asian, I mean Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian, and more. I think it's the largest Asian grocery I have ever seen. Pictured above: fresh wasabi, ginseng, and horseradish!

Check out this variety of brassicas! Chinese broccoli, Chinese mustard, choy sum, bok choy, napa, collards, kale. . .

Many, many misos

This aisle is all noodles.

These are the biggest sea urchins I've ever seen in person. They seemed about six inches in diameter. I find echinoderms really exciting!

Eating raw salmon like a bear, if bears ate filets.

Thanks to Jason and Yasmeen for telling me about this place, and to Dan and Lola for taking me here.

Okay, last post about Houston

Imagine waking up here,

seeing this over the backyard fence,

and walking through this yard on the way out each morning.

I have been a very lucky duck.

Hanging out with Sarah

Sarah Gabbart and I went out on International Pie Day! The first pie restaurant we went to was closing as we walked in, another one was out of pie, but the House of Pies was really there for us. I usually try to not eat wheat (it exacerbates my asthma) but, OH, PIE! I finished a slice each of pumpkin, Pippin apple, and egg custard.

Sarah is the darling proprietor of Sew Crafty Houston, which will unfortunately be closing next month, so please support it while you still can by filling up those classes and buying stuff on sale!

Green plants in winter

I am accustomed to winter in New England-- cold and snowy. Sometimes we enjoy milder weather in the Northeast, but there are never plants outdoors like I celebrated in Houston.

I walked past this house everyday on my way to and from the Center.

It was easy to find mosses and ferns growing on tree bark.

It rained a lot when I first arrived, and never before had I noticed plants growing from pools gathered in the roots of a tree.

'

These wet branches reminded me of a person's stretching limbs.

This wet tree looked like glazed clay.

I was very happy to see sidewalks re-routed around big trees instead of cutting off parts of the roots or cutting down the whole tree.

H.C.C.C.

A detail of the installation shows my handmade glass rain and lasercut, hand- sewn plant forms

Houston, Texas has surpassed my expectations by light years. I worked all week to install Inverted Harmonies at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. In my mind, the working title is, "Why Are We Fighting When We're On the Same Team?" This installation is the biggest thing that I have ever made, aside from building rooms in warehouses. The support from the center has been so incredibly thorough and generous. I have to especially thank Anna Walker for EVERYTHING! I am ineffably grateful to Anna, Randall Dorn, and Ashley Powell for their invaluable help, & to Kerry Inman and Nyala Wright for their generous hospitality.

Photo by Anna Walker

As I hung plant forms I rearranged the platforms of the scaffold to allow the pieces to hang, fully extended.

Here Anna Walker (r) and Ashley Powell (l) prepare strands of glass rain before I hang them.

Photo by Anna Walker

I spent months lampworking Pyrex to make lots of glass rain drops. It felt like it took forever to tie them all! Thanks to Dave Olsen for teaching me how to make a fisherman's knot, and for being so helpful to me.

This is the text that accompanies my installation:

The idea of "Man versus Nature" fails to acknowledge that humans are animals. Though we exist in the context of nature, we are distinct from other fauna in many obvious ways. We try to control nearly every other living thing around us, from pests to pets. In relating to everything only as something we can manipulate, we fail to view and understand the rest of life with true empathy.

Our impact on the natural world is currently disruptive and unbalancing in unprecedented ways. We are turning the world upside- down, but I believe in the resiliency of nature sans humans. If plants can grow through from underneath pavement, nature can eventually resolve much of the damage for which we have been responsible.

The most inspiring works I've witnessed have all been naturally- occurring ones. I aim to make things that reflect my respect and awe for the natural world, my quiet sadness for our uncertain future, and the paradox of humans trying to control and recreate nature in artwork that can only strive to be as beautiful as authentic life.

The screening of Handmade Nation at the Lawndale Art Center was packed beyond capacity, with people lining the walls and sitting on the floors. 225 people attended the film and 100 came to my artist talk! It was a lot of fun to meet everybody and talk with folks, so thank you if you were able to be there! Also, the What Cheer Brigade from Providence (the band in the bookbinding scene of Handmade Nation) will be playing at Super Happy Fun Land on March 10th!

Thanks also to Sarah Gabbart and Sew Crafty Houston for hosting my workshop on sewing ruffled textile forms and accessories, and thanks to everyone in the class!

Sarah, you're a gem!

Perfect

Sometimes a moment feels so seemingly unrealistic, in a good way, that it makes me happy for days. A few weeks ago I was driving home through Olneyville Square in a car borrowed from my family. There were very high snow banks on both sides of Manton Avenue, and I could see pedestrians ahead. I slowed down because I wanted to make sure that they could cross the street safely. When I recognized them I got so excited because one of them was the very same person whose album I was listening to on the stereo in the car! I rolled all of the windows down and turned the volume up as loud as it would go. He scowled at me and I think he gave me two middle fingers, but that's Jacob for you. Sometimes.

Also, when I first got to Houston Anna took me to a hardware store to get supplies for the installation. I put off going to the bathroom because I was trying to focus on accomplishing our tasks. It turned out that my timing was just right, because when I stepped out of the bathroom I saw the only friend I was certain I had when I arrived in Houston. Of all of the people who are not likely to go to a hardware store, and all of the hardware stores in Houston, there before me stood Amanda. Perfect.

Tonight in Houston!

My first solo show opens this Friday, January 21st from 5:30 to 8:00 P.M. at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft! I think there are also still spaces available in the class I'll be teaching on Saturday. This whole paragraph is a link to more information.

6 hours of sleep in the last 3 days

I usually try to continue working until the last minute. A very snowy layover in Cleveland on the way to Houston.

Thank you to the helping hands of birthday- celebrant Dave Olsen, Jacque Genetti, and Diandre Fuentes!

WORK MODE

Full speed ahead all the time! Photos coming after the camera batteries charge.

"You are a woman."

That's what a hired snow- shoveler told me after he learned that I hand carved a path for a car through eight inches of snow. The length of the path was equivalent to four or five storefronts. In this photo I was less than halfway done.

I was working all day at the lab and this jerk blocked me in, necessitating an alternate exit.

I shoveled from that car to this curb. It's nice to feel strong and able- bodied. At least I was able to use a shovel, it didn't take too long, and now my muscles are really hard!

Hey, 1996.

I think Ivy Glick took this photograph of teen-aged me.

Glassy waters

We went for a walk by the river. My friend wanted to show me the bend after falls where lots of broken glass accumulates on the banks.

Before the bend I noticed the little stalactites-- frozen drops on twigs in the river, growing longer as the water level fell.

In little alcoves the ice increased on itself like pancake batter.

Thanks for sharing adventures and for showing me new things in my own neighborhood.

Some short things I wrote and read at the library

SUPERPOWER

The ability that I want (that I don't think I'll be able to acquire in this lifetime)

would be the power to find anything that was lost; the power to know where to find everything--

lost keys, missing socks, or children, forgotten land mines.

Sketchbooks! Your stolen bike! The cat that ran away.

FULGURITE

When lightning strikes sands it creates something known as a fulgurite.

A fulgurite is a hollow glass branch;

sand that was instantaneously melted

and fused into the shape of lightning itself!

Morning

I walked in the park again. The tide was low and smelled like it. The water was busy with Canada geese and the applause of flocks launching off the surface was like a new type of quiet firework. The wind made the reeds buzz like hornets, and I liked the fake danger in the noise.

Lovebird

A lovebird is a size such that

if you let it perch on your thumb and gently curl four fingers over its back

and swivel your wrist

it will think it's on a swing.

Future

The unpredictability of life reminds me of:

when Ivy and I lived next door to a fortune teller who always bugged us to come in for a reading. One day Ivy said to her, "You know what I do when I want to know the future?

I wait."

Tomorrow in Providence

Please come to this, I and nine other folks will be reading!

On Wednesday, December 8th, Providence Community Library and Walker Mettling present "100 Very Short Stories" at the Knight Memorial Library (275 Elmwood Avenue in Providence).

10 writers will be reading 100 very, very SHORT stories which will also be illustrated live by Jean Cozzens!

The readers are:

Kevin Delaney,

Joanna Howard,

Jenny Nichols,

Louis Haling,

Bobby Casey,

Jenine Bressner,

Jack Wilmarth,

Shane Farrell,

Bridgette Larmena

& Nik Perry!

There is a small (short?) suggested donation of $4 at the door, all proceeds will go directly to funding the purchasing of supplies for Providence Community Library's "Comics Consortium" children's program.

Doors at 6pm, the action starts at 6:30pm.

Knight Memorial Library

275 Elmwood Avenue

Providence, Rhod eIsland

One of my favorite things

PLANTS THAT GROW THROUGH FENCES

Food in the Netherlands

This guy was hanging out in a particularly touristy area in Amsterdam.

Amir and Marieke were wonderful hosts, and brought us to a lot of different and beautiful places.

a small cheese production facility in Volendam

Fresh fish snack vendors are common in Volendam, right on the water. Broodjes are hearty little sandwiches.

Haring are wonderfully rich raw herring filets, usually served with raw sweet onions. The cylinder above contains stroopwafels, thin waffels filled with rum butter caramel.

This bakery is a stall at the farmer's market in Soesterberg. Note her costume and the prism- shaped, seed- encrusted loaves on the display case.

Flies would disgust me a little, but bees were somehow charming.

These are SOESJES! A phonetic pronunciation would read as SOOSH-yes. Like profiteroles, soesjes are choux pastry balls filled with whipped cream or pastry cream. I never thought I would like something like this, but it makes a huge difference when you have something that is made freshly from great- quality ingredients. I also was surprised by how much I loved a fresh Liege waffle-- soft and dense, riddled with molten pearl sugar.

A fruit, drink, and ice cream vendor in Marken displays mostly fresh berries. Fresh, ripe, intensely flavored berries.

a cute fruit bag

strawberries

Carrot balls at the supermarket strike me as more wasteful sculpted food like "baby" carrots.

Save the best for last-- Marieke's delicious homemade meat pie, filled with ground beef and shredded carrots.