Jane Priser and Magical Jasper...



Jane Priser, "Alien Face, Tricolor"


Etsy continues to be an amazing place for me, a hub of like-minded people doing inspiring things. Since I started creating artwork in earnest for the Literary Outlaw store earlier this year, I've 'met' and discovered atists doing some genuinely stunning work. Colorado-based artist Jane Priser is one of those people. Her polymer clay masks, with the haunting, often color-saturated eyes are, at least to my mind, somewhat like reading an A.S. Byatt novel....remember the description of the seance-conjured angel in the two-novella work, Angels and Insects? Or the description of Maud Bailey's flat in Possession? Well, like that. I am completely smitten by Priser's otherwordly beings, which seem to have depth and intelligence in those unblinking gazes.

For my part, I've been doing assemblages in cigar boxes. I've also been making illustrations, like "Magical Jasper", which is supposed to be a hybrid of our dog, of course named Jasper...only with a scaly backbone and fly-away hair (heh, like the hair doesn't fly away on its own in our house...I get out the vacuum one each day precisely because of that). Now, there is something about drawing with a ball point pen that is not unlike meditation for me. It's almost like automatic writing, and somewhat more restful that painting, although I enjoy that, too. Except, except...painting involves a certain level of anxiety. See, painting can sometimes get away from me, and I have to steer it back to a workable format, an aesthetically pleasing product, which sometimes involves reverting to safe imagery. What does that mean? It means, imagery that I've succeeded with before. With ballpoint pen (a good smooth flowing ballpoint), I'm pretty much free to do as I like, and I'm glad for that. I enjoy, too, making and developing the arabesque, nuturing the wisp into three-dimensional believability with the fantastic power of cross-hatched shaing....and then there are the eyes. The muscles of the iris, the diameter of the pupil, all totally absorbing to articulate in ink. Am I an art geek? Well, yes, I'm afraid so.

Savannah Schroll Guz, "Magical Jasper" (2011), ink on paper

Launching Literary Outlaw

So, I've launched something I've been talking about for quite awhile: Literary Outlaw. It will become the place that I publish my fiction, particularly my political and speculative fiction. The so-called 'Featured Story', titled "Conceived in the New Liberty" appears there. I've sent it out to one publication, but I have little hope that it will be published. I say this not because I don't have confidence in the story, but because it's not something that literary journals would readily publish. I explain this statement a little more below. But first, some philosophizing, brought to you by: My Mid-life Crisis, available in regular or economy size. I know. It's a little early for that, isn't it? Indeed. But 40 is just three years away, so I'm rehearsing. Plus, I had one when I turned 30, too, so let's call it a relapse.

Lately, I've been asking myself: what is it that I want to accomplish in life? Well, I'd like to be a writer. Check! Cool. Got that one down. I'll recap...I published my first book, The Famous & The Anonymous, in 2004 when I was nearing 30. The designer and publisher was the wonderful Steven Coy of Better Non Sequitur. Through Steven, I made the online acquaintance of James Stegall, who ran So New Publishing. After he published my work in two short, DIY-style anthologies, he then went on to publish a theme-based anthology that I edited, titled Consumed: Women on Excess. Three years later, in 2009, he published American Soma, although its distribution and publicity didn't go as I'd hoped. (The design, by David Barringer, is awesome, and I'm really grateful to him for his astute marriage of visuals and concept). The rest of my experience with American Soma was less than stellar. I leave it at that for professional reasons. I'm very grateful to author Jen Michalski, Iconoclast Magazine, and horror writer D.L. Russell for their reviews of the book. That helped take the sting out of some of the things that happened with So New. American Soma was the last book James published under the So New imprint. He now is distilling whiskey, I believe. There's more to that story, of course, but it's all water under the bridge. And water moves on. Not even rocks can keep it back. Indeed, rocks, over time, are worn away by moving water. So, let's move on.

American Soma was a mixture of different genres, all of them related to either the actual or metaphorical drugs people take (or are given) to mediate (or influence) their experiences in the world. And I'm very interested in this: in human psychology and the things people cling to in order to mitigate pain or navigate through the harrowing landscape that is life. I'm also interested in politics. As a college instructor, I see how little information students leave high school with, whether through conscious refusal to pay attention to anything that doesn't involve music, consumption, or good times, or through poor high school curricula. I suspect it's a bit of both. But many kids can't even tell me how many amendments there are to The Constitution, or what any amendment is after the second one. They really have no idea. So, I wondered: how easy would it be to convince them that something better is needed, that The Constitution itself is obsolete, that we could come up with something better? Pretty damn easy, I would wager. And therein lies the danger that I see, and that's what I've written about in "Conceived in the New Liberty". This is not something that is going to find easy publication. I'll be the first to ackowledge that.

Back in my elementary school days, I was a handful. I talked back to the teachers, and only through my Mother's intervention did I avoid getting corporal punishment. Oh, they wanted to paddle my behind pretty badly because I was not a docile subject. I was not a bad kid, mind you. I just didn't like people telling me what to do and when to do it. So, I stood in the corner a lot. I often spent recess indoors, so I could think about the ramifications of my inappropriate behavior. This causes me to chuckle now. Anyway, I've taken some of this childhood 'FU' and decided that I would start cranking out my work in a venue I felt comfortable in. Of course, I know that self-publishing, which is in essence what I'm doing, is denigrated. I will not be easily reviewed, but I return to my other experiences in publishing and ask myself, "When has it ever been easy?" The answer to that is "Never." But at least it's out there. Like water, I will keep moving, hewing a path through the obdurate field that hasn't truly welcomed what I offer. Here, folks, is Literary Outlaw.

The Lesser Known Girl Gang and other tales

Tales of the Lesser Known Girl Gang have begun... I've started a series of polymer clay jewelry loosely (very loosely) based on Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates, a book I loved when I read it (and still think about sometimes). This has actually inspired a whole host of characters that I've started painting in between bouts of review writing, lecture prep and paper grading. (Um, right. I made that sound like a case of Montezuma's Revenge, which was not intentional, but funny nonetheless). The rest of the pics here are two of the characters from an ever-growing cast (more each week).

Eva, the Enforcer
See her on Etsy here.

My review of Peter Calaboyias' retrospective, currently on view at GalleriE Chiz in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood, will run in Pittsburgh City Paper next week. And right now, I'm also working on a review of this show, currently at the Warhol Museum: Sandow Birk's American Qur'an. It is not what I first believed it to be from the publicity statement alone. But more on this later, once the review runs. I don't want to show my cards just yet, you know?

Eva on my "lapel". She's kinda tiny.
Believe it or not, I was very much like Eva as a kid.
Dad didn't call me "Rip and Tear" for nothin'.

Loretta, Eva's mother and girl gang "house mother".
You can see her on Etsy here!

Also, check this out: an interview with the artist Alex Kuno, whose work I talk about in the previous post. There are more examples of his art to complement the text. Excellent, excellent stuff--these other worlds and the characters he populates them with are simply amazing.

Finally, before I go a-review-writing, let's enjoy a delightfully freaky moment with our friend Sebastien Tellier, shall we?

Alex Kuno's Tiny Miscreants

Alex Kuno
The Savagery of the Red Cat (Or: The End of Summer)
Featured on the Minnesota Artists website.

 
I'm totally smitten by the work of Alex Kuno, whose paintings I recently found on Etsy. See his shop here. According to his profile on the Minnesota Artists website, his work is similar to Beatrix Potter, Egon Schiele, Otto Dix, Edward Gorey, and Maurice Sendak. I can see that he is the best distillation of all five combined. But I would also say there is some Pieter Breughel, the Elder and Hieronymous Bosch in there as well. (Would Kuno consider doing his own version of the "Seven Deadly Sins", I wonder? Perhaps he already has, and I have not yet found it.) I would also add that there appears to be at least an influential dash of some other Northern Renaissance painters, like Jan Van Eyck, flavoring his work. Dig this Kuno painting detail, for example. Also, check out the gorgeous, watery lustre of the character's eyes here. Now that, kids, is virtuosity.

You can check out Kuno's blog, "Miscreants of Tiny Town" and see more of his works in progress here: http://alexkuno.blogspot.com/

Savannah Schroll Guz
"You Get a Gold Star!" (Art Pin)

In other art-related news, three of the aforementioned art pins (the ones I began yesterday) are complete and in the shop. To the right is "You Get a Gold Star!". But you can see all three in my shop, by clicking here.

Something new for the Literaryoutlaw shop--Art Pins!



"Broccoli Man" and "Silver Lining"



"You get a gold star!"





Last night, Michael and I played with polymer clay, and by 9:45, I had our shapes baking in the oven. Each of the seven shapes--that's all that fit in the glass pie pan designated for the task--got an initial coating of gold or pewter acrylic this morning, and I started developing "personalities" on three of the seven this afternoon. They're pictured here....they'll be continued later tonight.....I hope to have them listed in my art shop by the end of the week!