Contact me through GalateaTen@aol.com

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

MINI-CHAIR MINI-PAINTINGS by JEAN VENGUA!

Because I love the visual arts, I intersperse such throughout SitWithMoi.  Well, the poet and visual artist Jean Vengua made my day when she sent over these lovely 2" x 2" paintings!  Of chairs!!!! 




One is a cafe chair while the other is a rush chair.  Naturally, I have to shelve these lovelies somewhere -- so I did on  the "Tennessee Yellow Chair" which, whiile a mini-chair, is oversized for Jean's paintings!




Some of Jean's paintings, by the way, are available on Etsy.com.  And if you're interested in my personal engagement with her "haptic drawings," you can check out this article on OurOwnVoice.

Last but not least, I most definitely recommend Jean's poetry book, PRAU!

Maraming Salamat, Jean!  I will treasure these paintings always!




Tuesday, July 2, 2013

TENNESSEE YELLOW!

So the last of the three chairs I purchased in Oregon actually came from Tennessee -- this metal chair painted in pale yellow and with a "distressed" effect.  Made by Creative Co-Op of Memphis. I find it charming:




[Prov.:  Paddington Station, Ashland, Oregon. Size: 10" height, 3.75" width, 3.75" depth]




Wednesday, June 19, 2013

RECIPES: 3 POSTCARD POEMS by AMANDA LAUGHTLAND

Here's a book I put together from stuff lying around my writer's studio--in this case, the inspiration were three postcard poems I'd received over the years from Amanda Laughtland--a poet, blogger, beekeeper, visual artist and founder of Teeny Tiny Press (click on all images below to enlarge):




I decided to incorporate the postcards into a single "book" which was sized at 3" x 4.25" as such is half the postcard dimensions.  Because the text all had to do with food, I thought the cover should incorporate that theme.  I flipped through a magazine I received that day and noticed an advertisement for Eiko's, a Japanese restaurant. As you can see, I cut the horizontal band of images and made them the image for the front and back covers:







I then cut up an unused postcard and pasted it across the front cover.  I also cut a stamp from one of the pieces of mail that day:






When you open the "book", you can see the pages formed by simply folding the three postcards:



Here are the interior content as you turned the pages over:










If you click on above images to enlarge, you can read the recipe-poems.  The exception (due to moi poor skills as a photographer) is the third recipe poem so I'll just type-to-share it here:

from I Meant to Say


You work at the Taco Place

You have blonde hair and usually wear
blue eye shadow. You seem to be
in the back most times and don't work

the register much. I probably will never
tell you how sweet you are and how I wish
you were into girls. I sometimes try

to get your attention and talk a little.
If you guess who I am, please
don't say anything at all. Or say yes.

A lovely poem!  And this below is the back cover where you'd see the edge of a postcard laid over the food imagery.



Now, where shall we serve this yummy book?  Well, it seems to enjoy itself on the "Swingasan" chair, so there it shall swing!






Tuesday, June 18, 2013

SITTING WITH OWLS!

Here's a chair I really wished was carved from wood, instead of just looking like it is, uh, carved from wood:




It's a really nifty image, right?  That's why I got it even though it's only made from resin.  Besides, I was in Ashland in a very good mood from partaking of Oregon's Shakespeare Festival and that only made me too open to helping out the local economy, hah.  Here's a detail shot:




I am sure we will find a sagacious mini-book to sit with these owls!



[Prov.: Unicorn Gifts & Toys, Ashland, Oregon. Size: 10.5" height, 3.5" width, 2.25" depth]




THE DOLL ARTIST'S CHAIR

Visiting gorgeous Oregon for its annual Shakespeare Festival allowed me to pick up a lovely mini chair by Selma's "Doll Artist" Nancy Hall.  Here's what the little flyer said about her works: "Her dolls have been shown in the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Master catalog, Soft Dolls and Animals Magazine, Art Doll Quarterly and featured in Doll Costumers and Crafters Magazine. She has won numerous awards for her work including the Hoffman Challenge First Place Doll Award in 2011 as well as having her dolls tour nationally with the Hoffman Challenge." Here is her hand-crafted addition to SitWithMoi's Chairs Collection:





And here's a shot featuring the chair's equally charming backside:





Must find an equally charming mini-book to shelve on this blue felt-plus!


[Prov.: Oregon Cave Outfitters. Size: 10.25" height, 4" width, 3.75" depth]






Wednesday, June 5, 2013

SHE by SUSANA GARDNER

Part of the "Dusie Trove" was this interesting 2" x 2" "book" that extends the definition of a book (e.g., to my eyes (and perhaps to my eyes alone) the feather bespeaking the notion of "wings of a prayer" as a book, like a poem, can be a prayer ...).  It's not just a story but book art!




It's not titled by its creator, Susana Gardner, but for purposes of this post, I'm going to title it SHE...for reasons that I hope will be obvious below.

So, when you untie the pink yarn around the book and first begin to unravel it, the book reveals the first "page" to be:



There is a pencil, an even smaller book with blank pages within this fold, and as the following detail shows, a URL address:



And what do you know?  Guess who's blog is noted in the URL address?  Well, click on it: http://angelicpoker.blogspot.com.  Yep, that's Moi primary blog where I post the results of playing poker with the poetry angels (all fallen, of course).  If you look at the detail above, you'll see a make-shift folder, too, where strips of the URL are enclosed, as if one can take one to give to others.  In other words, to pass the word about the writings of this person who pens THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS, which is where http://angelicpoker.blogspot.com goes.  I won't go into the very long conceptual underpinning to my blog, except of course to note the gender of "Chatelaine."

When you unfold SHE further, you will see a page that contains a quote from Muriel Rukeyser,

What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?
The world would split open
--Muriel Rukeyser



Then when you go to the next page on the other side of the above, you will see a poem I wrote from I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED (Marsh Hawk Press), my book that was released at about the time Susana made SHE:




Here's the text of the poem, in case it's not clear from above image:

Helen

Part of mortality's significance is that wars end.
Yesterday, I determined to stop watering down my perfumes.
Insomnia consistently leads me to a window overlooking silvery green foliage—tanacetum argenteum—whose species include the tansy which Ganymede drank to achieve immortality.
Once, I could have been tempted.
But to be human is to be forgiven.
The man in my bed shifts, flings an arm across the empty sheet—gladly, I witness him avoid an encounter with desolation.
Soon, summer shall bring a snowfall of daisies across these leaves whose mottles under a brightening moonlight begin to twinkle like a saddhu's eyes.
I can feel my hand reaching to stroke the white blooms as gently as I long to touch a newborn's brow.
By then, I swear my hand shall lack trembling.
I am nearly done with homesickness for Year Zero.
This is my second-to-last pledge: insomniac thoughts understate my capacity for milk.
This is my last pledge: I will not drink until all—all of you—have quenched your thirst.

When you unfold the above page, by the way, more blank pages fall out:




The pencil, the blank book, the blank pages inserted along with references to a woman writer's blog ("The Chatelaine"--which I will share I define as not necessarily a chateaux's caretaker but its other definition of "keeper of keys"), the Muriel Rukeyser quote, a poem regarding "Helen" from the male-centered Greek myth -- do not all of these combine to offer implications about de-silencing women's "truths"?  That's just a general interpretation, of course.  What's smart about Susana's approach is the lack of didacticism and the offering, instead, of several ways in which the combination and recombinations of her material can hint at or reveal stories that women can tell.

So where shall we "shelve" Susana's book?  Well, why not on one of the Star Trek chairs inspired by innovative designer Eeno Saarinen -- because I suspect that what's also relevant to Susana's project is a voyage into the (still) unknown:







Saturday, June 1, 2013

GETTING BENCHED!

I love this miniature concrete bench!  It's obviously meant for the outdoors, so I position it here in front of scenes from Yellowstone and Grand Teton visits!






[Prov.: Etsy/Kazoo Creations. Size: 7.5" length, 3.25" height, 2.5" width]

Friday, May 31, 2013

KUNDIMAN by EMMANUEL LACABA, Trans. by PAOLO JAVIER

After Paolo Javier became the Poet Laureate for Queens, New York, he instigated several lovely poetic projects, such as this feature of "Kundiman," a Tagalog poem by Emmanuel Lacaba that Paolo translated into English.  Both may be seen HERE, though I present the English version below

LOVE SONG

What you said was red is a favorite of yours.
What I said is white was a favorite of mine.
When the two of us saw each other last night,
I dressed in red and you wore white.

Paolo (I believe) had translated the poem before he became Queens' Poet Laureate.  As such, he once created this nifty project where he presented both printed on a tiny piece of gold-flecked, translucent paper.  He then inserted that slip of paper into an envelope aptly colored red (red may also be read to have significance that relates to Emmanuel Lacaba's role as a revolutionary warrior against the Philippines' Martial Law dictatorship):










Given its 2 5/8" x 4 1/8" size, this lovely red project fits with SitWithMoi's "Books on Chairs" collection!  So I'm pleased to move it from the regular Poetry Library to SitWithMoi's library!  Which means, where shall we shelve this "book"?  Well, why not with the other similarly-sized  HAIKU by Ivy Alvarez and FLORULA LUDOVICIANA by Marthe Reed on the comfortable rocking bench with rush seat and throw! 




I think they all look comfy together, don't you!?
 
 
 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

MADE WITH LOVE by E.R. TABIOS with book design by SUSANA GARDNER

I was so pleased to rediscover the "Dusi/e Trove" of fabulous elements snailmailed to me a few years ago by Susana Gardner, then living in Switzerland.  Among the trove was a small, blank book sized at 1 3/8" x 1".  I immediately thought it'd be perfect for one of the very tiny chairs in SitWithMoi's chair collection.







But, first, I had to inscribe text within its pages.  I chose to write a poem, "Made With Love," within its pages because most of its lines are short and I thought to inscribe one line per small page.  And because obviously this tiny book was made with love!  The text of the poem is below, but here's the title page that also gives credit to Susana for the book design:




Here is the full text of the poem (I wrote it months ago and left it alone in the files until I saw this book -- so perhaps the poem was just waiting for a reason to raise its purty little head and let the world become aware of its existence):

MADE WITH LOVE

Mad with love

Aid with love

Am with love

Damned with love

Dem(ocrat) with love


Maid with love

Dim with love

I'm with love

Dia con amor

Ad with love

Dada with love

Dad with love


Mad

Aid please

Am Damned 

Dem Dim

No Maid!

I'm Dia Ad 

Dada Dad 

and I'm a Dad all Mad and Damned with no Aid in this Dim Dada world--
the perfect Ad for a universe to run on Love!

Donde los Dias con mucho amores?

From the following image, you might notice that the first few pages still had part of their top folds uncut, so that they couldn't be opened without tearing.  Since the subject at hand is poetry, I chose to leave those pages blank to symbolize how, in a poem which is often (though not always) a minimalist art, not everything needs to be articulated.



The following is a representative page, where a page contains one line:




But, as you can see from the above text, the last two lines of the poem are quite long.  And so I inscribed them within the tiny book as follows and continuing as needed onto the next page:





I decided that this book has two publishers: Meritage Press which publishes most of my SitWithMoi books and Dusi/e.  Hence, the last pages look like the following, complete with my heart:




And now, where shall we "shelve" this tiny book?  But of course!  On one of the tiniest chairs in the collection, the loving and loveable rattan chair:


Monday, May 27, 2013

A DUSIE TROVE!

I've already written about the wonderful Susana Gardner and her fabulous global and often DIY publishing project, Dusi/e -- I wrote about it while discussing one of the Dusi/e publications, FLORULA LUDOVICIANA by Marthe Reed (so please go to Marthe's link). 

Well, I recently came across a piece of correspondence from years ago from Susana Gardner -- even the envelope is fabulous, isn't it!
 



The envelope had brought several goodies, including this wonderful collage by Susana:




Also in the envelope, however, were four small books whose sizes make them perfect for shelving into SitWithMoi's "Books on Chairs" project! 




What a trove!  Now, three of the books were blank -- which I used as prompts for making new mini-books (I will blog in the next post about "Made With Love," a poem I inscribed into one of the books.  Over time, I also will post about the other three.  Meanwhile, THANK YOU, Susana Gardner for your beautiful spirit and Dusi/e, still one of the most innovative and creative uses of technology -- a use of technology that in no way diminishes the role of the hand in creative art-making!

(Here is another SitWithMoi post on another Dusi/e project,  ALL THIS FALLING AWAY by Tim Armentrout.)





THE FRAGILITY OF EXISTE... RATTAN

This small rattan chair was part of the "Ebay 30-now-25" acquisition.  It had a twin which I let go when I deaccessioned the smaller chairs.  I kept this one because one of its legs was cut off -- so I thought to keep this special limb-different child chair with Moi.  I wasn't sure I'd ever find a book to "shelve" on it because it's so small and fragile -- but (as I will show in a forthcoming post; UPDATE: post is HERE) -- I did find such a book, and now the chair is happily preening amidst the rest of the chairs in the collection.




Love those happy endings!

[Prov.: "Ebay 30." Size: 3.25" height, 1.5" seat circumference]




Sunday, May 26, 2013

WAKE UP! by E.R. TABIOS

THE AWAKENING: A Long Poem Triptych & Poetics Fragment (theenk books, New York, 2013) is my latest book.  At some point, I had a tiny reproduction of its front cover image -- a painting by the very talented jenifer wofford -- and printed it out.  I had in mind to do a mini-book using that small reproduction.  Well, I did!  And while it shares imagery with THE AWAKENING's front cover, it's not quite the same.  My mini-book is entitled WAKE UP! as the image focuses on the three faces with closed eyes:




The cover has flaps so, actually, when you unfold the flaps, you see more of the context, the original cover to THE AWAKENING.  Here's the front cover with unfolded flaps and back cover:




The mini-book has one long accordion-style page.  When you open the book, the first thing you see is this folded page bearing the instructions, "Pull for Instructions."



When you pull open the page, you then see the text:


Open the flaps
To uncover
The Real Picture

To Read
A Book
Is to discover
A World

Is to AWAKE--
See
The Revelations
Of former secrets!

Now:
                ACT!


So where shall we "shelve" this book?  Well, why not on the transparent Philippe Starck's "Ghost Chair"!  Because when you look at this chair, you still see or "discover / A World"!

 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, May 25, 2013

BUT OF COURSE! A LIBRARY CHAIR!

As soon as I saw this "library chair" -- a chair that turns into a ladder -- I knew it'd be perfect for SitWithMoi and "Books on Chairs"!  So, I acquired it!  Here's the chair evolving into a ladder:









So absolutely nifty! 


[Prov.: Etsy/Studebaker Miniatures. Chair Size: 5" length, 2.5" width and depth]