Christmas Eve 2007, new camcorder, and apples

Trying out my new mini DV camcorder on Christmas eve, looking around the living room and focusing on my apple painting when suddenly the real apples start moving. The soundtrack is from a choir on TV and part of a telephone conversation.

IF YOU'RE STILL HERE, GO THERE

I know that everybody is elsewhere at this time of year but in case you're passing by, please click right now on qarrtsiluni where you can read and/or listen to Strangers in Paradise (my actual voice reading my actual words!) which I'm proud to say is my tenth contribution to this outstanding online literary magazine. If you want to see, in one go, all my pieces published by qarrtsiluni, this link will do it. Make sure you browse the entire site, it is overflowing with excellence from a great variety of writers, poets, photographers and artists, interpreting the themes set by a new pair of editors each month.

Here's that tree again, this time in its whole environment. See how the cars beneath it match the colours of Christmas decorations? Pure serendipity. Have a happy time, wherever you are.


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FESTIVE TREE

Caught this moment of tree-caressing sunlight from my window. I think it is a perfect Christmas tree, more beautiful than any of those laden with man-made baubles. I'm submitting it to the festival of the trees.


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GOOD WILL WILL BE GOOD FOR US THIS SEASON

Whatever your angels look like, may they bring you joy at the end of this year and all through 2008.

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QUIET AND HUMBLE SEASONAL SALES PITCH

Assuming you follow the seasonal gift-giving tradition, maybe you are still wondering what to offer your loved ones? If so, wonder no more because I have the perfect solution.

Everybody on your gift list will be grateful to you forever for giving them something which will make them laugh and think at the same time. How many gifts can do that, I ask you? Laugh heartily and think profoundly, simultaneously? Well, this one can do it.

Even if you already own a copy, you must have friends and relatives who have not yet experienced the special thought-provoking joy contained in this book's brilliantly coloured pages. Therefore I am making this astonishing, unrepeatable offer.

From today until February 1st, I will personally sign and send The God Interviews anywhere in the world for an absurd £7.00 per copy, including postage (airmail only if one copy. For multiple copies outside the UK, I'll send by surface mail). Payment should be made to me via PayPal, specifying sterling (otherwise the bank charges me £7 per transaction for conversion!)

Email me: endapress AT blueyonder DOT co DOT uk with the address where to send the book/s. Yes, I know it's late for holiday posting to foreign parts but at least I can guarantee that I'll rush to the post office the minute I get your order.

You can, if you prefer, still order this book from Lulu.com or from Amazon UK but that would be at the usual price plus shipping costs, and not signed by yours truly.

Wait, I'm not finished!

Another ideal gift for yourself and those you love just as much, if not more, is Brilliant Coroners, a Laupe House Press publication, sixty-eight poems by seventeen poets, edited by Rachel Barenblat (Velveteen Rabbi) and Rachel Rawlins (Frizzy Logic). Available to order from Lulu.com in USA or Europe, here.

I must confess that one of the poems, Canary Yellow Scarf, is mine and I'm truly honoured that it was included in this collection by real poets, ones who know how to carve words out of silence and polish them with a flair and artistry that I can only stand back from and admire. All of us met in cyberspace, via our blogs, and most of us subsequently met in the real world. Beth Adams (Cassandra) describes it best on Phoenicia Publishing , which produced this book:

Writers and artists have always formed groups for mutual support, commentary, and encouragement, sometimes collaborating on public projects from group shows to hand-printed literary magazines. But while one tends to think of local writers hanging out in Paris cafés in the 1930s, or on the lower East side of New York in the 1950s, how does that desire for communication and creative inspiration translate into today’s online world? The poets and visual artists of this anthology met online through their blogs, and have corresponded for a number of years, across continents and oceans. All are serious writers and artists, many with published poems or books. Brilliant Coroners arose from their desire to create a collective work and share it with a wider public, and also their wish to draw attention to the high quality of literary writing on the web, and to the exciting possibilities for creative collaboration it affords. The title of this collection refers not to the poets, but to the poems themselves, which sharply dissect meaning from a post-modern world.

Go on, order both books now and make my humble heart beat a happy tune.

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Sonata for Apples and Chairs

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Stages of an oil painting by Natalie d'Arbeloff which began as an ordinary still life of two apples and ended up multi-dimensional. The music is also by NdA, assembling loops selected in Garage Band.

ANYONE FOR ART?

ATTENTION: BOYS AT WORK 

Last Thursday and Friday I was back again at the school where I've taught printmaking workshops for the past couple of Novembers and once again I marvelled at the boys' inventiveness and responsiveness. This time I took photos of some of their work which you can see here . Printmaking is always exciting and absorbing and there are invariably some amazing surprises, no matter how long you've been doing it. Another surprise was seeing in the reception hall a poster reproducing one of my self-portraits and advertising my presence at the school - cor blimey, am I famous? Are we there yet? I've asked for a copy of the poster, needless to say. 

A PLAN IS BREWING: ANYONE FOR ART? 

I've been thinking for a while about setting up an online studio/workshop to teach collagraph printmaking and other processes (such as making an artist's book) where the use of a press is not essential. This seems a good time to start planning it. People would need to sign up for a course and I'd have to charge a (reasonable) fee. I'd describe and illustrate procedures step by step, give assignments, suggest projects and materials and for those who are on this continent, we might organise occasional meetings.
What do y'all think - would anyone be interested? If so, raise your hand and I'll go on from there.

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