A Literary Blog with a Twist by Emily Jaeger, Features Editor The bantering banner of Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour is the perfect introduction to the general vibe of this web-blog that combines literary arts, politics, cartoons and more: quirky but crucial, conversational but intellectual. The founders, best-selling and award-winning authors Bill Roorbach (The Girl…
Tag: process
WTP Artist: Teresa Stanley
“The dance between the scientific inquiry and the artistic one.” by Emily Jaeger, Features Editor Teresa Stanley has exhibited her work extensively both nationally and internationally. She received her MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. A professor at Humboldt State University, she is the recipient of an individual artist grant from the Ingrid Nikelson Trust…
Jeff Alu: Seeing Beyond the Camera
The Advantages of Being Rough on Your Photographic Equipment by Jeff Alu, see his work in Vol. IV #8 I don’t own any expensive photographic equipment. I prefer to shoot with cheaper point and shoot digital cameras. The reasoning for this is both practical and philosophical. First the practical: I’m hiking through a treacherous, rocky area…
WTP Artist: Theresa Knopf
“I Gave Myself the Challenge of Painting Without Paint.” Interview by Emily Jaeger, Features Editor Theresa Knopf is a recent graduate of the California State University at Northridge where she studied painting. Using a mixed medium including paint, textiles, thread, and cyanotype prints, Knopf creates pieces which reflect on women’s histories through restraint, concealing, and revealing. Jaeger:…
A Story That Made Me Want to Write
On Yates’s “The Best of Everything” By DeWitt Henry, Contributing Editor I first read Richard Yates’s short story “The Best of Everything,” some fifty years ago. Yates was in his prime then as the promising author of Revolutionary Road, which he had just followed with the collection, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, where this story appears.…
WTP Artist: Julia Wright
“Pushing the limits is the only way to challenge complacency in design.” Interview by Emily Jaeger, Features Editor Julia Wright is a textile artist and designer currently living in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design. Jaeger: In “Structural Understanding,” (above) appearing in this month’s issue you explore the…
Jeff Alu: Playing with Scale
Ventures in the Tilt-Shift See his work in October’s Vol IV #8 issue One of my favorite techniques in photography is to play with scale. Or more specifically, making it difficult to tell how big or small something is. I want m viewers to look at a photo, do a double-take, and wonder “Just what the…
Richard Gilbert: Word by Word
Writing’s Values—Intelligence, Sensitivity & Beauty—Challenge Me By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor “The ability to forgive oneself … is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.”—Ann Patchett English departments inherently espouse reverence for thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and comely expression. I codified this recently for myself while…
Art Spotlight: Kathryn Baczeski
Claystack See Baczeski’s work in Vol. IV #7 Claystack is an “object experiment” created by dipping the straw of one entire bale into clay slip, and then firing the resulting mound. Gravity caused ‘Claystack’ to sag and morph during the process. Considering the long history of ceramic objects made by hand, ‘Claystack’ was formed by the…
From Novelist to Poet
On Logophilia and Process By Stephen Mead See his work in Vol IV. #7 Just as some have a natural proclivity for math or sports, I have had one for actual words since an early age. “Chrysalis” was a particular favorite, the name of an old Jethro Tull record – I remember the icon on the…
Information vs. Emotion in Memoir
Writing about Dreams, Loss, Fatherhood & Farming By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor One fall day, I sat down to write about my family’s experiences in Appalachian Ohio, where we lived and worked and were part-time farmers for thirteen years. It took me a year and a half to produce a manuscript of 500 pages. It took me…
Seeing in New Ways
Photographic Composition By Jeff Alu Look for his work in upcoming Vol. IV #8 Everything is a good photographic subject. There are no bad photographic compositions. I was incredibly lucky and honored to have given an artist talk to the Disney Imagineering Photography Group last year. One of the Imagineers bought my photography book at…