“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?”

A line from my diary: “We are sealed in our own little melancholy atmospheres, like planets, and revolving around the sun, our common but distant desire.” Jack Kerouac to Allen Ginsberg, August 1945

“The only thing that separates the writer from others—and, far from making him or her a better or wiser person, let alone a more amenable one, as it redoubles the force of solitude, ‘one’s ultimate hard irreducible inorganic singleness’—is that the reading of a poem, or the pondering of a Crucifixion, becomes an event. Not a diversion, a flight, or a release from chores but an experience no less transformative than a day in bed with a lover.”

“He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.”

O, hello, Mia Feuer… How did I not know about you before? You’ve been teaching sculpture at American and GMU and somehow managed to slip beneath my amazing-artists-in-DC radar. But now I have found you, and I will be a devout follower moving forward.

This Saturday, the Canadian-born artist will be giving a talk at Transformer about her latest solo exhibition, Suspended Landscape. Her work spans site-specific installations of styrofoam, paint and steel to paper mache donkeys and hanging spheres covered in black snakes. This fall, after a trio of exhibitions in the DC area, she’ll show at the Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta.

“Some choices we live not once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives.”

When I was in high school, a good friend snabbed a role in the Seattle Opera’s “Die Zauberflöte,” or The Magic Flute. I never got to see it, but remember reading all these reviews about how it was the best children’s opera, how beautifully done, how simple. Tonight, at The Met, I got a chance to see for myself.

It’s a story told in Singspiel (“song-play”) format, where dialogue and stage activity bridges the musical acts. The tale that takes place in a land between the sun and the moon first premiered at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, 1791. Mozart had his premature passing only three months after the debut, making the Flue his last musical work for the stage.

The other night I went to see a documentary about the animation department at Disney called “Waking Sleeping Beauty.” It details the tumultuous time period for the sector between the years of 1984 to 1994, and shows how films like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King brought the company back to life. Now all I want to do is watch those movies…

So I was delighted to read about a studio visit to San Francisco-based artists Kelly Tunstall and her husband, Ferris Plock (and also their little boy, Brixton). The two collaborated to make a collection of works last summer called Sea of Love. I like. See more on Kelly’s web page, here.

I really liked Antony Gormley when I was first introduced to his work back in December in London (remember all the little clay people?). His most recent work only further solidifies my belief in him: He’s made 32 life-size fiberglass nude body casts and has placed them all over New York. On sidewalks, rooftops, Madison Square Park, the Empire State Building… everywhere. It’s a project titled “Event Horizon,” and will be on view from 26 March – 15 August. I’m going to try and see them all.

I was reading today about a new graphic novel that is due out by Portland-based 25-year-old artist Blaise Larmee called “Young Lions.” Supported by a prestigious Xeric grant, it’s about a group of hipsters trying to figure things out. While I’m not a huge fan of the story line, I am quite a fan of the pencil drawings, which are complete with smudges and paint dribbles and such. See more of his work and  order the comic at http://blaiselarmee.blogspot.com.

EDIT: After many kind comments today, I realize that I went against everything my editor self stands for and made an error! Blaise is a tride and true boy, I say! I have fixed it, but my dearest Blaise, I do hope you will forgive me. And many thanks to Ryan Cecil Smith (whose work is really wonderful as well) and others who informed me of my mistake. x