stuff and things

Autumn is arrived at last, bringing with it a warmth that we didn't have all summer. The sun shines, the birds sing, the trees slowly (or not-so-slowly, it seems) turn the colour of flames.

October is just around the corner, and brings with it the threat of imminent mid-terms. I'm not entirely sure where the time has gone. I feel like last week it was August.


My business cards arrived the other day! I got them from here, and they're wondrous. The card-stock is nice and thick, and the images are clear. And - better yet! - they're all image of my own work.

Here's some pics of stuff I've been working on. I feel sort of like I should be doing more stuff, like I'm not being productive enough, but I think that's my brain telling me stupid things.



I love that I get to make pretty things at school. I love that it's what I'm planning on doing for the rest of my life.

beginning of school

The first week of school is over. It's always interesting going back to school - things change, and stay the same. I'm taking different courses, but I know most of the instructors and most of the students around me. I'm fortunate to be in a small college where I can say that. I couldn't imagine being in a large university or somewhere where I'd only recognize a handful of the people I see each day. My school is my community, and my department more so.

The most exciting part of going back to school is I get my own studio space. It's not much: a desk and a cupboard, pretty much. But it's a large step up from a locker. Plus I'm surrounded by other fibre students, which is always fun. We're all a little crazy, which you have to be in fibre. Still, I find being surrounded by artists is one of the most inspiring things ever.


Note the inspirational calendar. ;) I'm sure in a few weeks I won't be able to see the top of my desk under the piles of fabrics, books, and other random stuff I seem to pile onto every horizontal surface when I work.

Now, I'm sure there's some homework somewhere that I have to do...

gone gaga

Once a month I perform at a drag king show with a troupe called Fake Mustache. I've been performing for about three years now, and I love it so much. At the last show I donned a wig, make-up, as many rhinestones as I could stomach and performed the gayest version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" that anyone has ever seen.
It was brilliant. One of these days I really will become a drag queen. I spent quite a while making the costume for it as well, which is one of the reasons I'm so proud of myself. Costuming is one of my favourite things to do. It's such a challenge to create something that is recognizable, accurate, and almost never comes with its own pattern. And since this performance was more a gender-fuck than true queening I decided I needed the top to act as a binder as well.

i am

Vancouver

The weekend before last I went to Vancouver with a group of friends to go to Pride and perform in the Dyke March. We'd been preparing for this trip for months - we had practices twice a week which were both intense and hilarious.

It was an awesome trip. We drove out there, most of us leaving at around four in the morning on the Thursday, and driving all day. Sunrise in the mountains is a wonderful thing, although I'd have gladly missed it for a couple hours more sleep that day. But it was nice to get out of Calgary for once, and to experience the breath-taking beauty of the mountains and forests that still fills me with joy. I spent most of the weekend with my best friend, whom I haven't seen since June, wandering around Vancouver and just generally hanging out. I like Vancouver. I could live there, I think, if I decide to leave Calgary after I've finished getting my degree. I wouldn't mind getting to live right by the ocean.

I find it quite ironic that both my best friends live in supposedly rainy cities, and yet Calgary has been getting more rain this summer than London and Vancouver combined. Vancouver was sunny, humid and hot. We performed our number on Saturday afternoon under the blazing sun. It went amazingly well, although that's not really a surprise. Our choreographer is a genius, and we practiced cursed hard to get everything as close to perfect as humanly possible. The video can be found here. I also got to see the Black Parade Kings perform for the first time. They're one of Van's drag king troupes, and there was a friendly rivalry going on between us since we were all performing at the same venue. They did really well, although, naturally, we did better.

*laughs* Kidding. Mostly.

The Pride Parade was long and impressive. I arrived late with some friends, and we still didn't manage to stay to the very end. And the crowds were even more impressive. I don't know that I'd be able to manage Pride in Toronto or New York or places where they must get even more people out. That might be a little bit much.

I came home on the second, which was another really long drive. Spent a couple days recovering (sadly I caught a really bad cold in Vancouver), and now I'm back into my summer schedule of working and relaxing. School starts in a month. I'll be a third year, which is super exciting. I may even get my own studio space for once!

the world mine

I, the poet.
The world - mine!
Captured, in essence
line by line.

**

I used to write a lot of poetry. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through my teen-angst years without the help of many a pathetic couplet. These past few years I've stopped writing as much as I used to, down from one poem a day to maybe one a year. It wasn't until I started going through some creativity activities in a book when I remembered that years ago I actually considered myself a poet - a title I have not felt comfortable claiming for a very long time.

The book is about unblocking creativity. I didn't even consider myself blocked (since I'd spent the last semester creating at least one piece of art every two weeks or so), not until I remembered that I haven't really written anything in recent memory. No stories, no comics, no poetry. And I used to have notebooks and notebooks of writing. Now? I draw. I'll scribble a line or two in my sketchbooks of poetic-type language (the dust remembers the shape of the rain) and then forget about it. Part of me misses creative writing, though. I'm comfortable with written language, far more so than I am with spoken language, as anyone who has spoken to me on the telephone has probably already guessed. It's easier for me to process things through words on a page in a way that I can't do aloud - by the time I've collected my thoughts the conversation has changed.

I wasn't sure about the creativity exercises, didn't know if they would work for me. Then, last week, I came up with four poems in the bath. I think I've written a total of maybe four poems in the past three years. It was amazing. It was like part of myself, long dormant, had finally re-awoken.

On Bread and Other Things

I bake my own bread. I started doing it last fall, just after I became vegan and discovered that the only 100% vegan bread that my bakery sells is about $5.00 a loaf. Which is ridiculous. I can buy 5 kilos of flour for that much money, which will keep me rolling in bread for two months. I couldn't keep baking bread throughout the school year - it took to much time - but as soon as summer vacation came around I was up to my elbows in flour again.
I think baking is a creative endeavor. It's a transformation from one state to another - from a pile of ingredients to something beautiful and delicious. Everybody loves fresh bread, when I worked at a bakery the loaves would sell twice as fast if they were still warm. And it's not that difficult to make bread; all one really requires is patience. There's something lovely and meditative about the process. The kneading and the waiting, and then the kneading and the waiting. Then you stick it in the oven and wait some more. I always feel so much calmer after I'm done, more centred, more myself.

In other news, last week I made a necklace. See, a year or so ago I started wearing a collar all the time. Part of it was just because I like the aesthetic of it (still do, really), but it was also because I was just getting over an abusive relationship and the idea of self-ownership appealed to me. I was coming to terms with the fact that I can't count on other people to look after me - I have to look out for myself, and care for myself, and listen to my own limits. I wore that collar, and the next one I made, almost every day. However, it's gotten to the point where wearing a collar is impractical. It's too warm; it'll make me sweat all of the time; I can't wear it at work. So I decided to create something smaller, and more work-friendly.


I found some beads, a key, hemp, and a charm shaped like a lock. A couple hours later I was good to go. It's still really itchy because the hemp is so new, but other than that it's perfect.