Art as Healing and Activism

CALL for WRITERS for a new anthology

2012-01-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

The Firewalkers Project is looking for well-written, authentic writing for an upcoming Anthology that focuses on the following themes:

    Emotional turbulence
    Altered states
    Spiritual breakthroughs
    Visionary meltdowns
    Ecstatic visions
    Crazy blessings
    Mad gifts

What we are seeking is accessible, enjoyable, surprising pieces that relate to the themes listed above. We are interested in creative nonfiction and essays that show insight, humor, quality of writing and diversity of experience.

Submissions can be emailed as an attachment to malaina@vocalvirginia.org.

Submissions must be in 12pt Times Roman font, double-spaced, with numbered pages (max 20). All submissions should be accompanied by a one paragraph author biography. One submission per person. No poetry please.

Writers will retain all rights to their work. Previously published work will be considered. There is no payment except for a copy of the book. This is most definitely a labor of love and a chance to define this experience that may be labeled as “mental illness’ in our own terms. The anthology is being planned as a self-published book.

Our first book, Firewalkers: Madness, Mystery and Beauty was also self-published and has sold over 1300 copies and 10,000+ people have visited our website, read the book or attended a Firewalkers event.

Deadline is March 1, 2012.

I haven't actually READ any of these yet...

2012-01-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/

But I'm pretty much swooning over the cover designs, the website, the burbs...plus there are free mini-books to be had.

Chicago's Featherproof Books.

plus oragami books
http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=279&Itemid=48

This is art (and I want to pretty up my house for the new year)

2012-01-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.soojinkang.net/dressed%20furniture.html

Dressed Furniture by Soo Jin Kang. It dresses nice, mostly in velvet.

This whole site is in Spanish

2011-12-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

and I don't speak Spanish. But I can see that this is a lodge and spa in Chile. And I can see that I would like to be there now.

I am hoping for a new year that feels like this picture. And I am wishing you the new year of your dreams as well.

http://www.huilohuilo.com/alojamiento/montana-magica-lodge

Thinking of Jerome Caja

2011-12-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

I culled this photograph of Jerome from http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/12/a_long_way_from_mayberry.html

I've been paying more attention to my dreams lately. And I woke up this week remembering Jerome Caja and seeing his work in San Francisco almost 20 years ago. I saw little paintings of drag queens done in nail polish on tin foil. Beautifully done. Campy and wise and wacky. He also used bottle caps, plastic ashtrays, liquid eyeliner, glitter and coal.

He was also a performance artist and a character.

Plenty more of his racy art to be seen on the web

Toby Liebowitz, you saved me!

2011-11-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have been depressed for a spell. I really can't put my finger on the reason why. I had this great experience of being alive in Chicago and came home to an ugly feeling of not being good enough. Then I started Kickstart's saddest and loneliest project, while plush dna dolls pull in thousands of dollars. And then I look at this:

and it felt like a religious experience. (Ok, I will be totally honest. I was thinking "oh, if I could make an image like that I would never be depressed or lonely or bored again. Because everyone knows that artists don't feel pain.)

I looked it up. It was drawn by Toby Liebowitz (http://inbruno.com/menu) Bruno is her the land of her imagination? I read that somewhere. It is the cover for the new Fleet Foxes record.

Anyhow, stare at this a while.

Kickstart!!!

2011-11-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

If 300 people pledge $20, a new Firewalkers Anthology will be born!

Firewalkers is a book designed to radically rethink mental illness. These are stories to learn and share. It has given hope to those who felt limited. It has helped mental health professionals become more understanding, more expansive and more creative. It has opened the minds of people who were only familiar with the medical model - hospital, meds, being a patient...

It is the book you want to hand someone who has just been diagnosed and thinks life is bound to suck from here on out. This book is a resource of options.

Firewalkers chronicles the profound, turbulent, spiritual experience of living through a mental health crisis. What our society labels as “mental illness” can be a sacred quest that has the power to enrich us, reveal unknown strengths, and transform our lives.

Want to see a new Firewalkers Anthology in print? Click below!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1186064533/the-firewalkers-project

All I want for Christmas

2011-11-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/05719/facts.trespass_a_history_of_uncommissioned_urban_art.htm

the good stuff at home

2011-11-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

I came back from Chicago with Proximity Magazine.

Proximity is a magazine dedicated to contemporary art and culture.
Our mission is to amplify discourse on local and global art ecologies. We hope to serve as a map of artists, collectives and alternative spaces to commercial galleries, museums and universities as a means of connecting and cultivating sustainable creative communities.

http://proximitymagazine.com/magazine/issue-7/

I'm looking over a million rad ideas on the plane ride home, tons and tons of sites to look at, and there is my friend PATRICK COSTELLO.

http://ptackcostello.blogspot.com/

We just had dinner together two weeks ago in little old Charlottesville. He is one of the nicest, most fun people around. I knew his work was amazing. Turns out that his blog is one of the raddest and I think we need to do a project together pronto.

Here are some images. You dig?

Signs that you are in Chicago

2011-11-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

I just spent a week in Chicago. Here is what the streets looked like:

These are not the best pictures, but you get the idea. Chicago does not look like the woods of central Virginia. I stayed at the home of Maria, who has been one of my two best friends since High School. Is she sassy? You judge. She is pictured here with Khadisa.

I say all this first, but the reason for the trip was a visit to Dominican University. Here I am with the brilliant Letecia Villarel Sosa, who teaches a graduate level course called "Advance Family Practice".

I am sure the reason I look so engaged is that she is so engaging! She shows "Crooked Beauty" and "Open Dialogue" to her class, gives readings from Robert Whitaker and one from me (!). Anyhow, it is break from pathology and social work terms and whatever else. She organized an auditorium of soon-to-be-social-workers to listen to me talk about my story, the Firewalkers Project, Icarus Project and peer support. An absolute honor.

One great thing about being in a city is just to see all of the amazing art and work happening. I will post some more about that later. Now I need a nap.

animal spirits, wonderful boys at the tattoo shop

2011-11-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

This summer I was in Brooklyn at this hip tattoo parlor, Three Kings. All the boys who were working were in their 20's, very pretty, very tattooed and very sweet. They were talking about this site:

http://www.walkingthunder.info/daily-animal-spirit-reading.php

where one can go daily to get some advice from that days spirit animal. They day I was in the ant was the animal. "We could really use some ant medicine around here," one cutie said.

I love these boys who seem to have been mothered well and who seem to respect women and have curiosity and reverence. Given my teenage-hood I always have my fists up when I come into male, hipster environments. I'm giving Three Kings a giant thumbs up.

http://threekingstattoo.com/

Butch Anthony, Sigh

2011-11-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Go and look up everything you can find about Butch Anthony. He who makes life into art and magic down there in Alabama. This is the south I dreamed of and how I came to be here and why I will never leave.

"Mr. Anthony, a lanky and laconic 46-year-old who dresses exclusively in Liberty denim overalls (he owns 25 pairs) and a battered straw hat (he has 10), is a self-taught artist, builder and local hero, whom the state of Alabama once chose to make a Christmas tree ornament for the White House — the Bush 43 version. He is also the host of the Doo Nanny, the annual alt/folk art “micro” festival, as he calls it, that started as an “art party” he and two friends gave on the side of the road 15 years ago in nearby Pittsview, and moved to Mr. Anthony’s property here three years ago. " (New York Times)

http://www.museumofwonder.com/

Over 10,000 curiosities from around the world and beyond.

Admission
25 cents.

Its the Most Wonderful time of the Year!

2011-10-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.aaronfarrington.com/

I share my birthday with the prettiest girl in the world . PLUS her boyfriend is an amazing photographer and film maker.

Here we are in Sandbridge and I SWAM in the ocean the weekend of my 36th birthday. This thrilled me. The cake you see is a marzipan covered princess cake. Our back door led right to the beach. We brought costumes and ate crabcakes. It was very very wonderful.

Celebration!

2011-10-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Look at this party!

In September I was in Hanover - Ashland, VA. The Community Services Board sponsored a Recovery Festival held at the city Arts building. I drove past it at first, thinking it was a wedding. White table cloths, flowers, sunshine, fruit and veggies and lemonade - then came booths and booths of art made by people with psychiatric histories. Art of every stripe - hand-painted helmets, lithographs, altered books, flower arranging, photography, painting...then came the drum circle! And amazing hula hoopers! And a live band!

Somehow my name was put out there as a person who could speak about art and recovery on the stage with a microphone. And I really want to do these sorts of things even though I can't stand so much attention! (I know people look at me, covered in tattoos with my loud, goofy laugh and assume I love attention, but I promise I'm an introvert)

Sometimes I talk about how few rituals and celebrations we have built into our society - I really believe we are meant to make music together, to make art, to celebrate. This was wellness in action - a glorious day!

(all photos - www.photosbyjoelle.com)

...and Counting:

2011-08-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

http://wafaabilal.com/html/andCounting.php
Wafaa Bilal's brother Haji was killed by a missile at a checkpoint in their hometown of Kufa, Iraq in 2004. Bilal feels the pain of both American and Iraqi families who’ve lost loved ones in the war, but the deaths of Iraqis like his brother are largely invisible to the American public.…and Counting addresses this double standard as Bilal turns his own body – in a 24-hour live performance -- into a canvas, his back tattooed with a borderless map of Iraq covered with one dot for

each Iraqi and American casualty near the cities where they fell.

Books in my mailbox from Scottland in Slovenia

2011-08-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, aaallll the way from Slovenia and Scotland. All because these two lovely ladies read about Firewalkers and got in touch.

I love it.

It is most delightful to see more and more people coming out of the closet with their schizophrenia, with manic depression – nowadays called bipolar disorder, or with a similar disorder such as schizoaffective disorder. In my book I write about my experience with schizoaffective disorder, which I perceive as a mixture of schizophrenia and manic depression. There are many books about mental illness written by authors first hand. My contribution to the subject is the bright approach I chose in order to make mental illness more casual and less frightening. Next to my optimistic style of writing, there are also humorous illustrations by Leon Zuodar, making the whole trouble with mental illness more bearable.

http://www.helenasmole.com/balancing-the-beast

"The Journey Home" is a collection of poetry, artwork & photography creating a new narrative embracing the theme of recovery from severe depression.


	Caption : Book Cover

The all encompassing theme of my book "The Journey Home" is fittingly therefore one of HOPE without which recovery cannot take place.

This work, comprising 76 poems, illustrated by all my own artwork and photography, first found its footing as a series of streams of conscious thoughts which surfaced spontaneously and were an attempt to make sense of what I had been through in terms of severe clinical depression and emerging from it.

The book opens with the all encompassing despair that is depression where we rely on others to carry that hope for us and continues via the metaphor of weather to trace the recovery process over time, unfolding the innate ability we all have to heal ourselves once the clinical symptoms have been treated.

http://www.hope4recovery.co.uk/

Sliiiiideshows

2011-08-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.vocalvirginia.org/#/who-we-are/4553107122

I now have completed three slideshows. The people interviewed are great.

I intended for them to be simple but I worry that they are too much so. Sigh.

Telling Stories

2011-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

I hear a lot of good stories. And I had the idea to tape them and put them in a slideshow format like a beautiful piece that I saw on the New York Times website. Somehow I didn't realize how much I am not like the New York Times - in terms of knowledge, know-how, resources, equipment...

Barbara is a friend of mine, nearly 35 years my senior. She has shown me a different way of "growing up" than I knew was possible. And she achieves a lot through the art of storytelling.

Here Barbara tells me about the purple lady, an artist and character who impacted her life.

http://hosting.soundslides.com/mkv9v/

May was Mental Health Month

2011-06-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

I may need all of June to recuperate! I had a garage sale/fundraiser for Firewalkers. Then we hosted a Wellness Expo with On Our Own on the 20th. I put out a little art group leaders guide book. We applied for grants because our money runs out in July. Then the VOCAL conference and all that brings. In my case it brought a crown making workshop, among other festivities. Here are some pictures:

I had all of my usual art supplies and together we made crowns. At the end we had an official crowning ceremony where we took on a title, such as Princess of Faith, Queen of Books and King of Jews (this one caught me off guard!).

Being an activist can be draining and I'm not even much of an activist! Happy to have this time to play...

What have ya'll been up to?

a good bike

2011-04-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.zenzibar.com/artcars/pedaltractor.htm

The Suessian Pedal Tractor is a three-person mutant tricycle that was built for kinetic sculpture racing. It does not have tires on the rear wheels. It has shoes. I built it mostly out of recycled steel, scrap from my shop, and old bicycle parts. There are two seats, side-by-side in between the big wheels, each rider has a set of bicycle pedals. The front rider pedals and steers. It weighs about 250 pounds.

The events of the last two weeks (many of which are extra-ordinary)

2011-04-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

I will tell you the last thing that happened first. I tried to go out for food after a rainstorm of biblical proportions. The road was flooded in all directions but one so I went that way and hit something which popped my tire. I went into a little store and the girl behind the counter - petite, young and blond with long eyelashes heated it up for me. When I left I saw my flat back tire and had to go into the store to use the phone. But, no. Because the little blond 17 year old cutie grabbed a tire iron and fixed that sucker. Not only did she fix it, but she explained every step so that I can fix it next time. So, that was cool.

Before I left I found a site of free Victorian clip art. I'm finishing up a little book of art projects for people interested in art and mental health and want to start art making groups. I've been feeling so uninspired but this site changed everything. http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

and this site too (another gem):
http://antiqueclipart.com/

My parents headed back to Michigan this morning. While they were here they fell in love with my boyfriend (I'm pretty sure), witnessed the extreme states, emotional turmoil, mad gifts and general mischief that my kids express and fixed my lawnmower. We all pet a wallaby and a camel.

Ari

Llyr

dad

mom

me and the cow

Mosha gets the bigger picture here for being such a prince

Nathan


Isis at 11

Also noteworthy - Isis has the gall to turn 11 on
April 5th.

NYC on April Fools Day. perhaps a bad day to travel? 11 hours it took to make a 7 hour drive. My event was postponed by 24 hours. We had some troubles with our sleeping arrangements and left town a day early.

The good parts: I got to meet Jenny! We are fans of one and others online blogs and got to have breakfast together along with her girlfriend Cindy. I forgot to take a picture!

Bluestocking in the lower east side makes me want to go on living. They have everything I love and are volunteer run. I shopped it up because that is the sort of activist that I am. www.bluestockings.com

Here I am speaking there. It looks like I need a gospel choir behind me.

Anyways. Thats what going on over here. How are you?

Firewalkers in the East Village

2011-03-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be in NYC tomorrow....

I'm presenting the book "Firewalkers: Madness, Mystery and Beauty" and some dialogue about what this thing we call "mental illness' even is...

“Firewalkers: Rethinking Mental Illness”

Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St. New York, NY 10002 212.777.6028
...
Friday, April 1st @ 7PM - $5 Suggested

www.thefirebook.org

Altered Books

2011-03-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

Here is some of the work done by a group of 12 in an hour and a half class. It was a first time experience for all, even though some of the people felt very comfortable about their artistic abilities.

I was really pleased at how everyone dove in and I was impressed with the results! I love how we all start with the same materials and the finished products are so very different.

Firewalkers

2011-02-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.amazon.com/Firewalkers-Madness-Ms-Cassandra-Nudel/dp/1449998313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296749362&sr=1-1

Radically Rethinking Mental Illness. Firewalkers chronicles the profound, turbulent, spiritual experience of living through a mental health crisis. What our society labels as "mental illness" can be a sacred quest that has the power to enrich us, reveal unknown strengths, and transform our lives. A note about buying this book: If you buy two copies, your shipping will be free! Please consider buying a second copy as a gift for a loved one, local library, agency, therapist waiting room, hospital, or anywhere else where you think a spark of fire can make a difference in this world. (all proceeds go to support our nonprofit community working for mental health hope, healing, and recovery) A guide to radically rethinking mental health, Firewalkers redefines mental illness as a journey of emotional turbulence, crazy blessings, ecstatic visions and mad gifts. Could it be that what we are diagnosing as mental illness is in fact a search for wholeness, balance, and meaning in a sometimes painful and irrational world? Firewalkers is the story of seven people who have experienced extreme mental states and through this experience, have learned things they never expected to learn and become people they never expected to be.

Great audio peice in the New York Times

2011-02-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/16/health/healthguide/te_schizophrenia.html

In other news, I am going to be on public radio talking about what it is like to break down, why we need a variety of services (and quick access to them) and why it matters.

AND this coming Saturday is art group at the VOCAL office 11:30 until 1:30. malaina@vocalvirginia.org for more info.

Love this magazine!

2011-01-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.mulemagazine.com/

Worth a peek for a job well done!

Collage Crush

2010-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.salaczar.com/collage.html

David Wallace. Love this.

Two facts - I am exhausted and I love these collages.

New Blog to Follow

2010-11-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.coriberg.blogspot.com/

The blog of artist Cori Berg. My sister in Cyberspace whom I just met.

FRIENDS IN HEALING

Join us! We are a healing support community, where you will find connection and laughter, but most of all support in our troubles. We work toward being defined, not by our challenges, but by our strength, knowing that only together can we become better than we are today. Our chat room is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and we have members from all over the world.

JR, French artist, wins humanitarian award

2010-11-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

http://jr-art.net/

Quasi legal street art - images of the poor on the grand scale - a desire for the art to speak, not the celebrity

"Winning such a prize is a consecration for JR and a headache. He was refusing to give media interviews yesterday because he regards celebrity as an obstacle, even a threat, to his work"

Bulb planting time

2010-10-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggseedbombs.html
and time to toss some seeds into empty lots - instructions on the link above
(and some gorgeous pics from the site http://www.guerrillagardening.org

Here is how Wikipedia defines it:

Guerrilla gardening is gardening on another person's land without permission. It encompasses a very diverse range of people and motivations, from the enthusiastic gardener who spills over their legal boundaries to the highly political gardener who seeks to provoke change through direct action. It has implications for land rights, land reform. The land that is guerrilla gardened is usually abandoned or neglected by its legal owner and the guerrilla gardeners take it over ("squat") to grow plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it.
Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, to sow and tend a new vegetable patch or flower garden. Some garden at more visible hours to be seen by their community. It has grown into a form of proactive activism or pro-activism.

Birthday Birthday Joy Joy

2010-10-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

35 years old this week.

Saturday, Oct 22, 11AM

2010-10-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a group of creative people in recovery - ta da!

This group has been meeting for about a year with a rotating cast of characters and projects. Most materials are provided and you are welcome to bring anything you may be working on.

Art group meet up this Saturday in Belmont at the VOCAL office. Email malainajean@gmail.com for more info or directions.

Post 101 is about my #1 Favorite artist

2010-10-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

It really starts here for me. Thinking back lately of things that I saw or experienced when I was young that made such lasting inspiration. Certainly seeing Howard Finster, the man and his vision and art, was one. Self taught, hard working and a great storyteller with a unique vision. Love it so much.

http://www.finster.com/HFBiography.htm

From the biography on his official site: "A little boy standing in the fields of sweet home in Alabama had his first vision at age three. Howard Finster looked up to see his sister come down from the clouds with steps appearing before her as she came and went, never touching the ground. Her name was Abby and he called to her. Little did he know that he had just seen his first vision. He grew up in a family of thirteen children, several siblings left him to be with Jesus before he was grown. At the age of sixteen he was called to preach. He started many tent revivals, and built several churches. He married Pauline and they raised five children. They have always been faithful to their marriage, to their children, and most of all, to the service of the Lord. Howard and Pauline would have been married sixty-six years October, 24, 2001, the day after he left to be with Jesus. The story is told that the Reverend Howard Finster gave up preaching because one Sunday night he asked who remembered his Sunday morning sermon. No one did. Now he reaches out to the congregation of the world."

Howard created more than 46,000 pieces of art and created Paradise Gardens at his home in Somerville, GA.

The art of Richard Lange and Judith Selby Lange

2010-10-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

In 1999 we started collecting plastic debris—carrying it away by the bagful— all from Kehoe Beach, a remote stretch of the Point Reyes National Seashore, in Northern California. Certain items would catch our interest: milk jug lids, combs, toy soldiers, disposable lighters, cheese spreaders from lunch snack packs. We were attracted to things that would show by their numbers and commonness what is happening in the oceans around the world.

The plastic we continue to find is not left by visitors; it is washing up from the ocean. Back in our studios we clean, sort and categorize the pieces according to color and kind. We use the plastic to make artworks including large sculptures, installations, photo tableaus and jewelry.

We are a collaborative team. Our love of nature is combined with our interest in science to produce an on-going series of art works about the oceans and the environment. While the content of our work has a message about the spoiling of the natural world by the industrial world, our final intent is aesthetic and celebratory.

Judith Selby Lang Richard Lang

http://www.beachplastic.com/beach_plastic/What_and_Where.html

The artists I live with

2010-09-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday we walked the railroad tracks for what seemed like a good while. My daughter brought two cloth bags to carry railroad ties and filled them up. Then she got her eight year old brother and his pal to take off their shirts and haul some more that way. (She said you couldn't really call them slaves as she we helping them and not just walking alongside with a whip)

Walking home we came across a crazy tree root and that had to come home with us too.

Now we have a spike lined walkway and root installation in the yard.

Really?

2010-09-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

German toymaker Paraplush has designed a controversial new line of toys with an assortment of psychiatric disorders. The company advertises stuffed animals who suffer from a range of mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, depression, multiple personality disorder) and even come packaged with a personalized medical history and treatment plan.

"'Patients' from the Paraplush toy company include Dub the turtle with severe depression, Sly the snake who suffers from terrifying hallucinations, Dolly the sheep with a multiple personality disorder and a crocodile with an irrational fear of water,"

http://www.parapluesch.de/

http://theicarusproject.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=183257

Call for entries

2010-09-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.healingthroughcreativity.org/

Trauma Survivors and Supporters of Survivors of Trauma are invited to share art, music, writing,
poetry and other creative forms at the Healing Through Creativity Festival.

Join us in TWO LOCATIONS in 2010

Sept 17-19 2010 in Bramwell, WV
Bramwell Town Hall, 100 Simmons Avenue, Bramwell, WV

AND

October 1-3 2010 in Roanoke, VA
Grandin Gardens, 1731 Grandin Road, Roanoke, VA

Sign up for our newsletter for more information.

Free Art Event for Survivors of Trauma including Rape, Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, Crime,

War Trauma, Disability, Illness, Accidents, Grief, Loss and other Trauma

Thinking of the Fall

2010-08-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

My daughter is on the verge of 11 and so "precocious" and growing up fast. She loves to hear stories about me at the same age. The crazy thing is that I was just the same - plotting my escape and imaging the wide world. She would like to move along, fall in love and be a cute cowgirl type. I was reading Andy Warhol's "Interview" and imaging a life in NYC where I would befriend some real, weird artists.

In Detroit we got Canadian television and radio, which was much more adventurous. This Fall video particularly I remember. It made me feel like, "Whoa, life is freaky and limitless"

What is fun to me now, on the saddest most unsatisfying day of my life I can remember that I have done almost everything on my to do list. (There is a whole new list now, but that is for later) Check the record.

The Fall New Big Prinz

2010-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit, these are witty

2010-08-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.paulblow.com/

Wondering where the piece in my brain went that comes up with cute ideas and if it will ever visit again,

Write to a Prisoner Project

2010-08-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

kaisafran@gmail.com will connect you

Brandi Strickland - Today's Collage crush

2010-07-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

http://brandistrickland.com/ www.paperwhistle.com

Out of Charlotte, NC

Holistic Psychaitry

2010-07-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Holistic Psychiatry seeks to treat the whole person and locate the underlying causes of symptoms. Physical body, mind and conscious thought, feelings and emotional reactions, our interconnectedness to our family, friends and the world at large and finally the aspect of soul, our connection to spirit are all taken into consideration in the process of healing.

Here are two links that explain in more detail:

http://holisticpsychiatrist.com/2009/07/14/what-is-holistic-psychiatry-interview-with-dr-rachael-sand /

My friend is keeping this blog, which I think is amazing and useful

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/Marion-Kolitwenzew

Collage Crush

2010-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.warpart.co.nz/index.html
Warp Art - The collage Art of Peter Lewis

Look at these bad ass houses in Watts

2010-06-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

http://wattshouseproject.org/wp/

The Watts House Project (WHP) is an ongoing, collaborative artwork in the shape of a neighborhood redevelopment centered on East 107th St., across from the historic Watts Towers in Los Angeles. WHP is driven by the vision of local families, artists, and architects who work collaboratively to reimagine the neighborhood through housing renovations and community activism.

i like this

2010-06-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Australian artist Kendal Murray has the amazing ability to create miniature worlds and unite with fashion. Taking the essential accessories like the clutch and the compact mirror, Kendal Murray has his little worlds invade their space.

Swoon

2010-05-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Do a web search for Swoon street art and you will find her. Or on the cover of art news. Beautiful work.

SWOON is a street artist from New York City who specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures. Swoon, real name Caledonia “Callie” Curry, studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and started doing street art around 1999. Swoon is also a member of the Justseeds Artist Cooperative.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swoon_%28artist%29

Jaina Bee Pencil House

2010-05-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.jainabee.com/pencil.html

Looking online/looking ahead to summer. We need some cool projects to do as family to get excited about. This one is too extravagant, but I'm glad someone did it!

On the Radio, like Donna Summer

2010-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/index.php?audio_id=1454 to listen to me speak like an expert about mental illness and stigma and the Firewalkers Project.

San Fran

2010-04-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

I came to San Francisco to talk about Firewalkers. First with Wendy at Underground Ads, the amazing folks who did the graphic design for the book (http://undergroundads.com/), then to the staff at New Leaf (a LGBT counselling center), then at Modern Times Bookstore (http://www.mtbs.com/) which has been collectively owned since 1971 and still remains vibrant and vital. My new friend Sascha Alman Dubrul wrote this fantastic post about the event: http://theicarusproject.net/firewalkers-in-the-bay (while you are at the Icarus site, be sure to poke around. They are forerunners in the mad pride movement and this site is packed with great info and an excellent forum)

It has been an enormous blessing for me to connect with people locally and nationally who are thinking about what it means to be "mentally ill", how to treat those who struggle and where we would like to go from here. San Fransisco has its own flavor - thoughtful and progressive among other things. I was happy to bring my bumpkin vibe and feel the love!

Some street images from the Mission where I am staying with friends:

Neither here nor there

2010-04-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

A) I was in Urban Outfitters with time to kill.
B) I sat on their sofa and looked at pictures in a book of interesting street fashions over the world.
C) There was not one person in the book who was not thin.
D) You do not exist if you are not thin. Or that is how it feels.

http://love.twowholecakes.org/index.php?album=fat-love
(this is a museum of fat love. I like it.)

http://kateharding.net/
(this is one of the best blogs about body issues and weight that I've come across)

This is a picture of Crystal Renn, who happens to be beautiful

http://fatgirlslikeniceclothestoo.wordpress.com/page/2/

and this image comes from this blog

Thank you for looking at my blog.

This is the man

2010-03-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.tobinkaricher.com/

I have been off topic lately and just floating around, enjoying the artwork of others. Everything I can think to say is personal and painful, so lets just look at paintings now, shall we? Anyone who comments should also leave me a piece of free advice, without knowing at all what I am struggling with.

These are amazing and beautiful.

Girlie Girl Army invites me into the glamorous world

2010-02-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

http://girliegirlarmy.com/blog/20100221/firewalkers-radically-rethinking-mental-illness/#comment-5503

Well, well, did I write a guest blog about Firewalkers? I did, I did!

And I'm grateful for anyone who visits to leave a comment.

A real log house

2010-02-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

http://thomasmayerarchive.de/categories.php?cat_id=2462&l=english

Maybe, if I can't leave my house for a week because the roads aren't plowed, I will make myself one of these dream homes. I see lots of trees out there.

Art group

2010-01-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to take some pictures of our art group in the beautiful space at McGuffey. It has been open to anyone interested, but every week its all women. Sometimes we talk about dark things, some times we giggle, sometimes it is silent. It is all allowed.

Here are some camera phone shots from last Saturday.

Jimmy Danko

2010-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

I started this blog at work with the idea of drawing together art, mental wellness and activism....because in a round about way that is what I do for a living (plus empty the recycling, track payroll, order take-out for long meetings). Sometimes I fantasize about who I will be in my next life, when I really hit my stride. Maybe I could move to Argentina and forget about winter, keep an illustrated journal, paint giant Bob Dylan and Frankenstein, explore abandoned carnivals, sport a soul patch...........but there is no point, because Jimmy Danko beat me to it!

http://www.jimmydanko.com/

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada

2010-01-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

The street art of Samuel Francois

2009-12-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.samuelfrancois.com/scales-of-the-universe-the,242.html
Maybe I should not move out of my crazy shack, I should just decorate more with the junk, glam it up a bit and get over the long drive to town and relative isolation?

They say good art inspires....

Vic Chesnutt - I Ain't Crazy Enough

2009-12-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

Vic Chesnutt - I Ain't Crazy Enough

David Shrigley, Scottish Artist

2009-12-22T04:12:00.000-08:00

The snowstorm has left us marooned. My outlook ebbs and flows. Last night I slept with my kids on a loveseat with a tablecloth as a blanket. It really wasn't that comfortable. I have on Friday's clothes and I'm tired of my own company. Let us hope that I can be a "life is beautiful" mom rather than a "why us?" mom until we can get back home.

But here is some fun artwork.

http://www.davidshrigley.com/

MURALS

2009-12-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

http://www.gualicho.cc/html/walls.htm

These murals are in Cuba.

Actually, Cuba, poor as it is, has a good bit of street art, even though a lot of it is Castro and Che. But there are the brightly painted houses and decaying dance halls and amazing artists. Cuban people are art, actually.

I would really like to go back there.

Saturday art group, last of 2009

2009-12-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

McGuffey Art Center, 11:30 until 2:20
art group/support group/art support group
quuestions? malaina@vocalvirginia.org

Dexter

2009-12-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

I watched a documentary called "Two Headed Cow" that my father taped and brought along on a visit from Detroit. It is about Dexter Romweber of The Flat Duo Jets, a band that I adored for their zeal and "spinning out of control and looking bad-ass while doing it" style. In all honesty, I ran away from home at 16 and moved to Athens, GA thinking maybe we could be best friends. It didn't pan out. When we did meet and I told him this anecdote he told me, "Well girly, sometimes shit don't turn out like you plan." Then he downed his whiskey and got on stage.

Now he is calmed way down and medicated. He is medicated because it hurt to be so loose and open. But gone too is that hot spark that drove the people wild.

It has been asked, "If Van Gogh was medicated, would he have painted Sunflowers?" And of course the answer is, probably not. And he may not have cut off his ear either.

I guess it just brought up a lot of emotion in me, knowing that wave that is incredible and creative and destructive and painful all at once. And you know, what do you do with that? We each choose. And I recognized that I liked him better wild because it saves me the trouble of living it myself. I want to watch and be inspired, but I'm not the one cutting myself open wide on stage. Ya know what I mean?

http://blip.fm/magdalenasqualor

2009-12-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

http://blip.fm/magdalenasqualor

I don't know, I'm turning into a ghost, I guess

2009-12-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

i am so glad and very

i am so glad and very
merely my fourth will cure
the laziest self of weary
the hugest sea of shore

so far your nearness reaches
a lucky fifth of you
turns people into eachs
and cowards into grow

our can'ts were born to happen
our mosts have died in more
our twentieth will open
wide a wide open door

we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so i

ee cummings

Maybe everyone already knows this?

2009-11-30T08:01:00.000-08:00

This Monday morning, my first task of the day, was to clean out a big closet. I needed something to entertain me and egg me on, so I listened to two episodes (it was a big closet)

Here is the link:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Archive.aspx

in case you have anything to clean today.

Renovated gas station

2009-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Via MAKE:

"Tired of seeing the abandoned eyesore on a daily basis, artist Jennifer Marsh decided to cover this old gas station in 5,000 square feet of fabric.

With the help of professional and amateur artists from 15 countries and more than 2,500 grade-school students in 29 states, Marsh covered the 50-year-old former Citgo station — pumps, light stands, signs and all — with more than 3,000 fiber panels that are crocheted, knitted, quilted or stitched together."

I am impressed with a lot about this, but the sheer SCALE of it. Wow.

Say what you will

2009-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Interesting blog post

2009-11-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Why do some people get PTSD and some don't?

It is thought that between 40-70% of Americans have experienced traumatic events yet only about 8% go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the course of their lifetimes. Researchers from Yale University studied 1,252 people aged from 17 to 79 who had experienced adversity in their childhood and/or as an adult. People who had experienced adverse events in both adulthood and childhood were much more likely (29%) to develop PTSD than people who had 'only' experienced adversity in one part of their life (9.9%). A gene called 5-HTTLPR was also found to influence whether people developed PTSD or not but it was only found to increase in people who had had a double dose (in childhood and as an adult) of trauma.

http://mentalhealthupdate.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-some-people-get-ptsd-and-others.html

Two things

2009-10-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

First off, an obsession:

http://blip.fm/invite/magdalenasqualor

I've been making a list of every song I've loved since childhood. I love this flippin site and you may too. Lots of other people are "deejaying" and you can look at their songs and share.

Dos:

Many of my great friends are photographers, but I'm going to give extra love to my friend Aaron Farrington right now. This is a shot of the party last week for the birthday of myself and my dear lady friend Jessika.

And here is a link to his site:

http://www.aaronfarrington.com/

Walking on fire every day

2009-10-18T06:55:00.001-07:00

My work life is consumed with getting this book out there, so of course that spills over into every other moment of my life. "Firewalkers: Madness, Beauty and Mystery" A book that sets out to radically rethink mental health. Interviews, stories and gorgeous black and white pictures. At least 15 folks worked as a team to create this book and I feel like that love and attention really shone through.

Copy and paste this link to purchase
http://www.vocalsafelink.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1
or to learn more
www.thefirebook.org

and we all shine on

2009-10-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

A 48-year-old immigrant from Malta regularly hangs out in various New York City bars, but always on the floor, so that he can enjoy his particular passion of being stepped on. "Georgio T." told The New York Times in June that he has delighted in being stepped on since he was a kid. While one playmate "wanted to be the doctor, (another) wanted to be the carpenter ... I would want to be the carpet." Nowadays, he carries a custom-made rug he can affix to his back (and a sign, Step on Carpet) and may lie face-down for several hours if the bar is busy. He is also a regular at "high foot-traffic" fetish parties, where dozens of stompers (especially women in stilettos) can satisfy their own urges while gratifying Georgio.

[New York Times, 6-14-09]

It is possible I am a dork

2009-10-02T07:34:00.001-07:00

This was from a stream-of-consciousness collage exercise. I really don't know what it means or why all the Elijah Wood.

I went to see U2 last night, which makes me old or dorky, or both. I have this sentimental love for U2 of a certain era, namely my Jr High days. It really helped my believe in beauty, art and a life outside of the one I knew. Bono, while he may have a messiah complex, really does have heart.

Images from the latest book

2009-09-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

collage without thought

2009-09-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Finishing up this last altered book. The last book was super lovey dovey, this one is super heart broken. *sigh* I tried to put myself on every page, as if to say "I am my own true love". But I didn't totally mean it.

more art for breakfast

2009-09-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

This encompasses all I find good and needed - art in the most unexpected places, beauty for no reason, inspired thinking and yummy, yummy pancakes! I do sometimes work at the glorious Blue Moon Diner here on Main st in Charlottesville, and I am a friend to Jon Hampton, powdered sugar stenciler extraordinaire, but these are great all on their own.

Henry Darger, custodian, artist

2009-09-11T10:33:00.001-07:00

Henry Darger was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story.Darger’s work has become one of the most celebrated examples of Outsider art.

Darger had troubles from the start with adults and children. He was diagnosed as being feeble minded at a young age and taken from his home and institutionalized. He himself felt that much of his problem was being able to see through adult lies and becoming a smart alec as a result, which often left him beaten by nuns. He also went through a lengthy phase of feeling compelled to make strange noises (akin to Tourette Syndrome), which irritated others. The Lincoln asylum’s practices included forced labor and severe punishments, which Darger seems to have worked into In the Realms of the Unreal. He later said that, to be fair, there were also good times there, he enjoyed some of the work, and he had friends as well as enemies.

The Godmother of Creative Journaling

2009-09-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.healthy.net/CreativeJournal/

Meet Dr. Lucia Capaccione, author of "Creative Journaling". This is a great site for very simple exercises that involve dialogue with your pictures, inner child work and more. Some people will find her far out, but for others this will be good medicine.

Here is a sample from her web page:
Close your eyes and ask yourself:

What does the word creative mean to me personally? How does the creative spirit live in me? How do I express my creativity in my everyday life, activities, relationships?

Meditate upon your creative self.

Draw your creative self in any graphic style that feels right for you: symbols, abstract design, doodles, cartoon, picture, etc.

Look at what you've drawn and write down your reactions. Then let your creative self speak to you (in the first person, singular), e.g. "I am your creative self . . ." and write it out in your journal. Have a conversation with your creative self, if you wish, asking questions and responding to what it says to you.

Uses: This exercise can help you explore and expand your definition of creativity and to actively experience and express this innate human characteristic. By recognizing and cherishing the creativity you already use without perhaps being consciously aware of it, you can tap hidden potential. This exercise helps you to affirm yourself as you are now and to build inner strength and self-esteem for taking on new challenges.

Really, really gonna make some art

2009-08-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

Please come to our once a month art making/creative expression group at McGuffey Art Center this Saturday, August 29 from 11:30 til 2:30. The room is near the gallery, last door to the left. If you are working on a project, bring it! Many, many materials will be provided. The group is intended for those who struggle with mental health issues.

Back from the city of New Orleans

2009-08-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

I've sweated out my demons in New Orleans for a very full week. Now I'm back in the groove. Please come to McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville this Saturday at 11:30 for our art making support group. malainajean@gmail.com for more info.

Eliza Evans, here in Charlottesville

2009-08-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

paints portraits on little slabs of wood of the people who sit in front of her. She painted these pics of my kids. She said Llyr was the wiggliest one ever. I love them so much for not looking totally lifelike but also not looking like a caricature. And now I'm going to New Orleans for a week, so goodbye!

Thats my baby!

2009-08-04T09:58:00.001-07:00

On the cover of the newspaper this week.

Resource for artists or workshop leaders

2009-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.soulcollage.com/home/index.php
A very specific collage concept developed by Seena Frost, that I like to use in a much more loose format.

The incredible paintings of Julie Heffernan

2009-07-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

These paintings move me. Not just because of the skill level involved, but they are classic and creepy and they look right at you.
Represented by PPOW galleries
http://www.ppowgallery.com/selected_work.php?artist=10

Changing the face of mental illness with one super sweet 'stache!

2009-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.crayonmustache.com/

The incredibly awesome, good and generous Jason made this site. Then he listed a bunch of cool vintage toys (and other wonderful items) on Ebay and is giving all of the money to charity.

http://myworld.ebay.com/crayonmustache/

My book and poems are available for anyone to read and pass out for free, I hope they will help somebody. I am working on new written works and I would like for this website to showcase works of art, written or otherwise, by others in the mental health community. Thank You and Enjoy! -Jason

Today's little tip about burning things

2009-07-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

I like to play with paper and I like to play with matches. I like things to look older than they really are when I use them in collage. Sometimes when I put fire to paper I get a big hot mess, drop it on the ground and burn that too. Soooooo....when you want to singe the edges of a paper, take it outside and burn it with a stick of incense. Thats a new trick for me. An old trick that I also love to hold a flame to the side of a crayon tip and drip the wax onto my collage.

My camera is broken so I can't show you anything I set on fire lately.

Vintage paper in exchange for your donation

2009-07-08T06:58:00.001-07:00

So, I work for a group called VOCAL, inc in Virginia and we do many things in the mental health field, with an emphasis on advocacy, recovery and self-empowerment. Of the many worthwhile projects we do there are two that are close to my heart. The first is an arts for recovery group and the second is the Firewalkers project.

The art group(s) are free of charge, with all materials included and open to anyone who struggles with mental health issues.

Firewalkers is an intensely beautiful book coming out this fall. It is the story of seven people affected by mental illness and how it has transformed them. It is uplifting, stigma busting and full of gorgeous photographs. It is like nothing else I've seen.

If you look down at the btotom of this page there is a DONATE NOW tab, via paypal. If you make a donation and ask in the notes that I send you a prize, I will! You get the tax write off and I send you one of these very cool packets for your crafting pleasure:

A grab bag of 12 pieces 1930's vintage wallpaper, good for collage, scrapbooking or small projects. Subdued designs. Largest pieces are 7 by 10 or so.

A grab bag of 10 vintage tarot cards. Some are from the Rider Waite deck, others are large and golden.

Thank you for your support!

Pretty good wedding picture

2009-06-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to post tutorials, but things are busiest for me in the summer time. I do have this excellent picture from my sister's wedding two weeks ago. That will have to do for now.

First quarter altered book

2009-06-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

It is my journal and it all makes perfect sense to me!

Going on vacation

2009-06-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Gotta watch my little sister get married. This is us when we wore terrycloth.

Be back June 17th.

Saturday Art Group Again

2009-06-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

Please come to our once a month art making/creative expression group at McGuffey Art Center this Saturday, June 6 from 11:30 til 2:30. The room is near the gallery, last door to the left. If you are working on a project, bring it! Many, many materials will be provided. The group is intended for those who struggle with mental health issues.

Lynn Whipple, mixed media artist

2009-06-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.whippleart.com/Lynn/lynn_index.htm

I like to think that I am the artist that the talented Lynn Whipple is. Its just that I am too busy to really dig in. Or too distracted. Or uninspired. Or I don't have the right materials. Or I am lacking in some other way. If it were not for those things I would be making big installations of gorgeous things.

Either way, I can look at her work and mooch good ideas for my journals and altered books.

Life and things like that

2009-05-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a hoot and a holler. Saturday's art group was a smashing success. Then off to a long kirtan with Krishna Das. Then some time with my sweetie baby, farm manager, moving into his new home on a beautiful horse farm. Then a huge party with the kids that turned into a surprise wedding. 12 excellent bands and so many friends. And of course swimming, swimming, swimming.

Monday night I watched the Wrestler and I really liked it. Does that make me somehow dumb? I thought Mickey Rourke was brilliant to watch. I'm sorry that he is dating a 24 year old model. I'm sorry that weird old men find hot young girlfriends everywhere I go. What can you do?

By the way

2009-05-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Creative Expression and Healing Art Group

11:30 til 2:30 with potluck lunch

Saturday, May 22nd, in Charlottesville at McGuffey Art Center on 2nd st

Free and open to whomever

(drop me a line for more info)

Another way to recycle

2009-05-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

Some people are so cool. Made from old cassette tapes. Credit goes to "Ghost in the Machine"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iri5/sets/72157611954107572

Prayer Flags

2009-05-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

So far I have 59 and they are hanging in my office. I want 216. The idea was to create images of wellness and display them like so many open hearts. I have worked with people who are struggling with mental illness and those who are not.

They will hang in the entrance to VOCAL's conference in June at JMU. All my friends and anyone who wants to impress me should stop by my office and make one!

Idea #51 of what to put in your altered book

2009-05-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures of the bare backs of men you cannot help but adore.

Everyone is Invited

2009-05-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

I am feeling kind and inspired after a three day planning retreat for my job. There is the work of creating community not just for people with psychiatric labels, but the bigger work of making a place for every one of us at the table; the loud, the lewd and the lousy, along with the lovely (Sometimes I am all of these people in the course of the day). It may just come down to being very patient, very cool and for some of us, very maternal.

When I was in Cuba I was visiting a farming co-op, hearing a lecture in Spanish I could not really make out, and in the small audience were American commie tourists, babies, teenagers and real, real old people. And one of these old people was an Abuelo who was shouting out things like, "CIGARS!" and "PENNIES FROM HEAVEN!" and no one shamed him or made him leave. A kid about 10 winked at me and wound his little index finger around his ear, like "cuckoo." And while that sounds condescending, it really wasn't. It was just so that I could understand the way of it. You know, some people shout out.

more Icarus

2009-05-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

I put that post up, but realized that I didn't really explain what makes the Icarus project so enticing. The website has galleries, discussions, resources, member journals and more. They talk about "mad pride". So if you are crazy or your friends or crazy......

The Icarus Project

2009-05-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

http://theicarusproject.net/

This site has every idea I'm really getting at. The intersection between madness and brilliance. Jack Kerouac said this: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Aaaaw!"

Art as Healing and Activism

CALL for WRITERS for a new anthology

I haven't actually READ any of these yet...

This is art (and I want to pretty up my house for the new year)

This whole site is in Spanish

Thinking of Jerome Caja

Toby Liebowitz, you saved me!

Kickstart!!!

All I want for Christmas

the good stuff at home

Signs that you are in Chicago

animal spirits, wonderful boys at the tattoo shop

Butch Anthony, *Sigh*

Its the Most Wonderful time of the Year!

Celebration!

...and Counting:

Books in my mailbox from Scottland in Slovenia

Sliiiiideshows

Telling Stories

May was Mental Health Month

a good bike

The events of the last two weeks (many of which are extra-ordinary)

Firewalkers in the East Village

Altered Books

Firewalkers

Great audio peice in the New York Times

Love this magazine!

Collage Crush

New Blog to Follow

JR, French artist, wins humanitarian award

Bulb planting time

Birthday Birthday Joy Joy

Saturday, Oct 22, 11AM

Post 101 is about my #1 Favorite artist

The art of Richard Lange and Judith Selby Lange

The artists I live with

Really?

http://www.parapluesch.de/http://theicarusproject.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=183257

Call for entries

Thinking of the Fall

The Fall New Big Prinz

Ok, I admit, these are witty

Write to a Prisoner Project

Brandi Strickland - Today's Collage crush

Holistic Psychaitry

Collage Crush

Look at these bad ass houses in Watts

i like this

*Swoon*

Jaina Bee Pencil House

On the Radio, like Donna Summer

San Fran

Neither here nor there

This is the man

Girlie Girl Army invites me into the glamorous world

A real log house

Art group

Jimmy Danko

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada

The street art of Samuel Francois

Vic Chesnutt - I Ain't Crazy Enough

David Shrigley, Scottish Artist

MURALS

Saturday art group, last of 2009

Dexter

http://blip.fm/magdalenasqualor

I don't know, I'm turning into a ghost, I guess

Maybe everyone already knows this?

Renovated gas station

Say what you will

Interesting blog post

Two things

Walking on fire every day

and we all shine on

It is possible I am a dork

Images from the latest book

collage without thought

more art for breakfast

Henry Darger, custodian, artist

The Godmother of Creative Journaling

Butch Anthony, Sigh

http://www.parapluesch.de/

http://theicarusproject.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=183257

Swoon