"Teach Me to be an Activist:" What YOU can do about Marriage Equality

I received an email today from a good friend who was grieving over the passage of proposition 8, the amendment to the California constitution that stripped gay couples of their right to marry.  The amendment reads: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California"- and it completely overrides the recent CA Supreme Court decision that marriage rights between same-sex couples were a "human right."  In her email, my friend said that, upon hearing the decision she cried and called out to friends and family:  "teach me to be an activist.  What can I do to make that small difference?"

As I crafted my response, I realized that I wasn't only writing to her; I was doing the research for myself and for all of my friends who had been expressing the same reaction over the past few days.  (Tears, then anger... we're working through the stages of grief...)  So, with the thought of many of my closest friends in mind, here are a number of ways to be an activist about this.

(*A note of warning:  sorry for all the links!  But they're to some integral stuff, I promise!  Also, my copy and paste function doesn't work in this browser for some reason, but the link tool does.  Go figure.*)

1.  Go to one of the many many protests being organized all over the country!  Tell your friends!  Print posters and hang them EVERYWHERE!  Post blogs!  Send text messages!  Get out the... uhm.. anger?  (Providence, Chicago, Boston, Prescott AZ, Baltimore, Manchester NH, DC, Ithaca NY )  I cannot believe the number of protests that are scheduled for Saturday!  At least one in EVERY STATE!  I don't think I've ever seen a better organized protest campaign.  Anyway, for links to more cities, posters, video advertisements and anything else about the protests check out the Join the Impact website!  (Also- anyone know how to ensure that your local protest gets news coverage?  Is it possible to just email your local paper or news station with a heads up?  I don't know, but I'm it would be great for the ultimate size of this event to be properly publicized for once.)

(get your poster-paints and big-gay-flags outta the closet- we're goin' protesting!)

2.  Never stop being angry at the Mormons.  Never.  (They bankrolled most of the $ spent on the campaign to pass prop 8.)  In fact, I've even heard rumors on a queer boycott of the state of Utah.  Seriously!  I don't know if that's really practical, but for what it's worth, I'm not going to Utah for the forseeable future!  Take that!  

(Seriously, guys.... no Romney, ok?)

3.  If moving to California to join the fight there is not quite possible for you right now, check out the marriage equality status of the state you're living in.  Unless you live in Massachussets (or sort-of Vermont and New Jersey with their "civil union" versions,) your state probably has some dubious laws that are being tirelessly fought by some very weary non-profit people.  Look 'em up and go help 'em out.  (Even if it just means sending them a coupla' bucks or showing up to events they organize... they need participants almost as much as they need volunteers.)

4.   Stay informed in upcoming months about national and local political stuff about Marriage Equality.  I've heard that 2010 is the year to overturn the California decision, but 44/50 states have laws on the books than negatively affect gay marriage.  There have got to be things in the mean time that we can do.  I suggest listening to pundits like Dan Savage (of the Savage Love column and podcast) and watching the ever-HOT Rachel Maddow, and of course Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert...  and any other national or local news sources you rely on.

(why-oh-why won't they let her wear her glasses on the show?!? Soooo hot....)

Please please please let me know if there are any other things that anyone can think of to do to be of use on this (and any) issue!  I would love the blog to be much more interactive... with comments, clearly, but also with guest writers on related topics and maybe even actual discussions of issues.  So please, talk to me, people!  And...

Get off the internet, I'll meet you in the streets!!  (City Hall, Saturday, 1:30-4pm.  I'll be the really gay one.)

Taking the Long Way Round (And Round And Round...)

So... I know I was crazy to start my first sock project on size 1 dpn, I know.  But... come on!  Harry Potter KNEE SOCK??!  How could I resist!!  And they actually looked pretty simple!  So I bravely cast on.  (Back in September.)

(look at me being all organized and shit.)

And got through the toe and foot before I realized I had no idea what I was doing.

(Me trying to figure out that darn "short row heel" nonsense.  Nonsense, I tell you!)

At which point I took a break to knit the afore-mentioned Amelia Earhart hat in an attempt to learn how to make short rows.  Then!  Back to the task at hand:

(Ok, clearly this photo was taken at the same time as the first but, I swear!  I was still just as confused!)

Anyway, I labored on, trusting the pattern (sort-of) and finally made my way through the heel.  Then came the easy part, the leg.  Only thing was... the easy part was also the deadeningly boring part.  4 knit, 2 purl ribbing for a bajillion and a half rows.  2 months, 18 inches and 5 seasons of Buffy later I was done!  Stripes and all... and then.... TRAGEDY STRUCK.   And that tragedy was my own laziness and stupidity.

And so, I learned something important while making these socks.  Never trust how long socks look on the needles:  TRY THEM ON.  I put on my newly finished sock and... it didn't fit!!!  It came to about 4" below my knee and the bind off was too tight to fit around my calf! (I had been too lazy to use the elasticized bind off suggested in the pattern.)  I HAD TO TAKE OUT 7" (that's about one month's worth of knitting and I was running out of Buffy to take my mind off of the overwhelming depression.)  I was CRUSHED.  So crushed, in fact, that that was over a month ago and it took me until now to be able to speak/write about it without tearing up a bit. 

So here is the sock (still the first one) now.  Le sigh.  I have to admit that, although I knew this project would take a while, I had no idea it would so greatly cut into my christmas present making time!  So... even though I'm so tantalizingly close to finishing the first sock I'm going to do the right thing and put it away until after the holidays.  That way I'll have time to knit some presents and throw together some crafts for the upcoming Punk Rock Flea Market!  (More on that as it gets closer.)  Anyway... alas, my poor Hufflepuff socks...  one day we shall be together...

A Changing America!

"We don't know what the next president's going to face.  If we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas... someone who's connected to the other people's lives and cares about making them better...  if we choose someone to inspire us...  then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things we can't imagine yet."  (-Toby Ziegler, The West Wing, season 4.)

Politically speaking, I have never been part of the winning team.  The only presidential races I have voted in ended with embarrassment and despair- and the only political satisfaction and inspiration I could find was from the fictional characters on the West Wing.  (And come on, I know I wasn't the only one thinking "Bartlett for America" all the way through the primaries!)  Politics weren't anything I could support in real life, just a fantasy pipe dream brought to us by Aaron Sorkin, and my role in politics was activist, radical, revolutionary and general mal-content.  But last night made me feel like maybe something else was possible.  

I was a nervous wreck all day:  I woke up at 7:30 with stress dreams, dressed and walked down to my local Mafia bar to vote.  (Technically, I think it's called a "private club" on my voter's registration card... but it was pretty clearly Mafia owned.  Also, just in case you were wondering, the mafia voted for McCain.)  Work was just a blur of me trying to destract myself from the election...  mostly unsuccessfully.  There were texts and calls from family and friends:  "Have you voted yet?  Have you seen the numbers?"  Yes: I voted, no: I'm trying to remain calm.  (Mostly unsuccessful.)  I watched the election in the basement of a friend of a friend, surrounded by like-minded queers and plenty of snack food, adorned in my Hufflepuffs for Obama t-shirt, my "I voted for Change!" sticker and my lucky underwear. 

(underwear not shown.)

Now, Philadelphia has been rioting for the past week straight (first the Phillies winning the world series on wednesday, then Halloween and the Phillies parade on Friday, then the world's largest pinata on sunday... don't ask about that last one, it's still sort of a sore spot)  but when the clock struck 11 and the west coast polls closed... we could hear the rumble of celebrations all the way in a south philly basement.  People started honking and screaming all over the city.  We stayed and watched McCains almost unbelievably humble concession speech (he almost sounded like the old McCain- the one from before the campaign!) and then Obama's wonderfully amazing speech.  We had goosebumps... and seeing Jesse Jackson crying was possibly the cutest thing ever.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.html

(did you catch that gay shout-out at the end?!  A president mentioned gay people!  Unprovoked and unapologetically!!  also... sorry this link doesn't work... copy and paste?)

And then we hit the streets. 

 

(Along with a few other people.)

I have been to protests.  I have been to marches.  I have been to rallies and teach-ins any many many other political gatherings, but NONE of them were this joyful.  For the first time, our gathering wasn't based on anger or frustration.  It was about desperate relief and sheer joy.  It was amazing:  people of all races and ages out in the streets at 2am!  It was a moment that I will never forget.  Ever.

(Josh, Sarah and Q. at Broad and Chestnut at about 1:45am)

So now comes the hard part:  now Obama has to live up to everything we see in him.  But today, we celebrate.  Today I'm not reading any incendiary political material, or making any activist art work.  I'm not going to stress (too much) about prop 8 which is still up in the air, or complain (ad nauseum) about the 2 other states that passed anti-gay marriage amendments.  Today, I'm going to bask in the rosy glow of being politically successful on a national scale, and invest energy in the belief that things can be and are going to be different.

Studio Day #2: NYC

In the name of grad school I have managed to finangle my way into having wednesday's off so that I can "work in the studio."  Which is totally what I'm going to do!  But while I get back on the "making stuff" horse, I've been catching up on my museum-going.  Last week I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Gee's Bend Quilt Show (which I had already seen in Baltimore, but, c'mon, why pass up a chance to be in the presence of those quilts?!) and a show at the Perelman Gallery on African American Quilts.  Both shows were very impressive and although I meant to do an entry about them... clearly I didn't get to it.  Sorry.  Today I decided to try to get over my (vaguely irrational) fear and loathing of New York City and check out the Museum of Art and Design's new facility and a Ghada Amer show at the Brooklyn Museum.  So I got up early (aka the same time I get up when I have to go to work) and caught the Chinatown bus to the Big Apple.  

The show that most interested me at the MAD Museum was one called Second Lives; Remixing the Ordinary.  It featured art made out of "ordinary" materials- materials that were created for something else, like disposable plastic spoons and vintage records (see left: Paul Villinski's My Back Pages, 2006-07).  I feel like there has been a lot of art shows lately that focus on similar issues, for example, the Green Show that I participated in last month at Cafe Estelle's.  I don't think that this show was

 specifically designed to be recycled art but the concepts tend to overlap.  As the world gets more and more "green" themed even the art world reacts.  On one hand I think: "jeez, it's about time.  We've been over-producing and obsessively collecting shit for years!  Everyone on the bandwagon!"  On the other hand, some of the pieces in MAD's show seemed more like a waste of materials than they would be if they were used for their original purpose.  Which just doesn't seem... productive to me.   I guess there are a couple of things that this kind of art needs to get my motor revving.  (intellectually, duh.  Get your minds out of the gutter!)  Below are a couple of highlights that demonstrate some of those things that make my art-heart twitter. 

Transcendence of Material:

Long-Bin Chen: Reading Chair w/ Buddha Heads (2007)

NYC phone books, catalogues, wood.

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the exact piece from the show, but this is the basic idea.  It was a reading nook in the back and a sculpted face in the front.  It was accompanied by a Buddha face that was similar to the one below.)

To take a mundane material and make it art there needs to be some sort of transcendence into something worthwhile- either functional or thought provoking in a way that makes it more important than it's original functionality.  I liked this piece a lot because at first glance you can't even tell what the sculpture is made out of.  The artist statement that accompanied the work said that the phone book pages looked like wood and although that is true (and definitely karmically appropriate what with the pages originating in tree form and all) to me, the sculpture looks more like stone.  It transcends even the material past of it's own origin and questions the relationship between stone and wood and paper.  Between place and time and alchemy.  The imagery used propels the comparison:  books for reading, reading into knowledge, knowledge into life.  

It's like drag:  the reveal is part of what makes it so compelling.  You can almost believe your eyes, but the artist doesn't let you.  Instead, they give you the power to understand the entire situation- all the past incarnations and implications.

Cultural/Political Statements

Hew Locke: Golden Horde (2006)

Plastic toy shields, tow swords, metal chains, mirrors, plastic christmas decorations, plastic/metal beads, toy guns, baby dolls, rhinestones.

(Again, unfortunately, images of the specific pieces seemed unavailable, but these "Hordes" were also part of the show and can almost illustrate my point.)

The pieces by Hew Locke that I appreciated most were not the free standing, float-like sculptures shown about, but were smaller sculptures that resembled absurdist coats of arms.  They hung from the wall in clusters, recalling overly decadent collection of taxadermied animals.  Each cluster was completely covered with plastic toys, gold beads and rhinestones along with fake flowers and the heads of baby dolls.  There was also an anachronistic collection of weaponry protruding from hidden depths:  plastic swords and toy machine guns crossed behind mutilated plastic faces that peered out from under words like "congratulations".  The result of this plastic cacophony is a mockingly modernized and hauntingly familiar object that hangs in defiant pride.

We are achingly familiar with all of these objects, but when combined in such a greedy manner they seem almost a tribute to over production, the hording of useless junk, the game of violence and a general sense of contemporary glut.

Also they made me think of sorority pirates.  Which made me giggle.

Beauty:

Yuken Teruya:  Untitled (2006)

Cut paper bags.

I seem to have noticed a trend in the pieces that struck my fancy in this show: work that involves the history of paper on it's uses in capitalistic society.  (Hey look, my dad's an environmental codger, ok?)  I loved these bags and I loved them for their beauty.  Teruya managed to create a full environment within the given spacial limitations using nothing but the bag itself and it's own history.  

Look at how pretty they are!  The beauty of a simple act of amazing craftsmanship is sometimes enough for transcendence. 

So... how does all of this fit into my own art making practice?  Well, not only have I been trying to focus my creative energy into reusing preexisting materials, but I've been thinking a lot lately about art and... well, worthiness.  As someone who's trying to balance being a studio artist and a full time employment struggling to make ends meet, it's actually a terrifyingly difficult reckoning:  Do you give up one day a week to making art, even if it means eating less or not getting new shoes?  Do you spend your money on art supplies, yarn, fabric... or PECO bills?  On some levels the answer is mind-numbingly easy.  PECO bills, duh.  Your house needs heat.  Food, duh.  You need it.  And even though I was convinced when I graduated from MICA that I would never make art again... i yearn for it.  I miss it more than I even knew I loved it.  I hate the fact that our capitalistic society does not provide me with the wherewithall to just create, to think for hours on end, to read at leisure.  Money reigns supreme here and I've been building up this this resentment that makes me feel like I deserve to relax whenever I'm not at work.  Which inevitably ends with me alone in my room drinking beer, knitting and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for hours on end.  (And loving it.  What.)  But then I end up feeling guilty about it.  Like I should be spending that time changing the world through my art work.  Which makes me question the hubris of my opinion of myself, and then doubt the worthwhile-ness of my own art.  Which brings us to todays word: worthiness.  

I guess at this point it's just one day at a time.

Bring It, Amelia Earhart!

So.. originally, I started knitting Harry Potter House Socks... but I got really confused with the heel turning business so I thought I would knit a hat while I waited for a chance to get to loop to ask what the hell the pattern was talking about.  And, well, I sort of knit a whole set!

The hat is an Amelia Earhart cap from a pattern I found on the internets.  

(I picked the pattern because it is entirely constructed of short rows... exactly what I needed practice with for my sock pattern!)  I knit it with the same sock weight wool/nylon I used for the feather and fan scarf.  I LOVE this color combo and wish I had an infinite number of skeins of it!  But unfortunately, I only had the one.  I knit the hat first (on size 8 needles, which makes the hat a little lacy) but had almost half a skein of yarn left, so... wristlets!

It was really fun to see the different patterns that the yarn colors made with different guaged needles (the wristlets were done on size 5 dpns).  

Check out these sweeeeet buttons I found in fabric row!!  Each wristlet closes with a button on the wrist and the hat has one on each ear.

(grr... arr.. I am tough.  Bring it, Amelia!)

(All right, I get it.  You're still hotter than me.  Whatever.)

Paper Jamtastic!

The My House Gallery's opening event for the show Paper Jam was amazing! Unfortunately, I was not personally amazing at said event and ended up only staying long enough to check out the phenomenal work before I headed home. (But in my defense, I felt a little crazy: 1. I think I had a fever and 2. my "date", who, by the by, is already in the doghouse and should know better, was a half-hour late.) Anyway... like I said: the work was amazing. Alex Gartlemann, curator at large, estimated that about 150-200 people came through the gallery throughout the night!

(Ooooh... Art.)

(Alex is the bearded fellow looking at the camera.)

(I don't know if that's a cape, a messenger bag, or just a really snazzy vest... either way I like it!)

The show featured almost 50 artist's work based on the 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper as a cultural icon. I entered my Women's Suffrage Memorial Handkerchiefs: machine embroidered images of Women's Suffragettes and motifs on sheets of silk screened notebook paper. (I made the piece in college, but it felt so appropriate- I was thinking a lot about paper and potential and history at the time.) I was surprised to see a number of other notebook pages among the other pieces of work. One artist knit a sheet of ruled paper, almost identical to mine (a nice and indicative duplicate). She stitched the lines in on top of the knit substrate and then stitched doodles similar to mine in look but not focused on any one theme (as far as I could tell in my fever/tardy friend related crazy state.) A lot of the other work dealt with communication... but I didn't get any photos. Sorry!

Among the teeming crowd were a few reviewers and I was startled and humbled to find that my work had made it into a review! (Well.. technically, I think it's just someone elses blog, but Alex sent it out as a "review" so... either way, it's pretty cool!) Check out the blurb about the event and see pics of my work (At the bottom of the blog there's a link to a flickr page; check it out for images of other work from the show):

http://fallonandrosof.blogspot.com/2008/09/ceci-nest-pas-un-review.html

And other press stuff that doesn't feature yours truly but are still pretty rad:

http://www.firstpersonarts.org/blog/2008/09/19/document-ary-art-paper-jam/

http://fallonandrosof.blogspot.com/2008/09/tonights-jam-is-paper-jam.html

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the gallery! And if anyone else is interested in seeing the show, the gallery is open by appointment, so drop me a line and I can put you in contact with Alex.

Reconceptual Fashion

No seriously.  I was flipping through the New York Times last week and remembered that it was fashion week!  (I was later also bombarded by multitudinous images of Linsday Lohan and Sam Ronson at fashion shows all weeeeek looong.  Oh wait.  Did I say "bombarded" I meant looked up obsessively online)  Anyway, let me just say that I was completely blown away by the Marc Jacobs Ready-To-Wear Spring 2009 line!  

Wow... that was the dorkiest fashion thing I've ever said.

But seriously!  

(swoooon.)

Jacobs quotes all sorts of history as his inspiration for this line:  1940's tailored pants lines and prints, straw boater hats, something about an Yve's St Lauren's show from the 1970's, and the fashions of the women's suffrage movement!!  (Did I mention swooooon??!)  But what most of the reviewers are talking about is how Jacobs managed to create a complicated line of clothes that "embodies America."  I'm not so sure that any one fashion line can embody ALL of America but I like watching him try.

(I want that waist-coat more than I want... well.. pretty much anything.)

What I do appreciate is the acknowledgment that fashion is complicated.  Fashion, history, the history of fashion, historical fashions... all seriously complicated.  Gender constructions inevitably factor in, and nothing is new.  I like this line because I feel like Jacobs acknowledges these complications, pays tribute to them, and still manages to make something new and exciting.

(Really really really exciting.)

I've actually been thinking a lot about fashion this season, but not in the super-hip up-to-date kind of way.  My most excellent friend Ketch has introduced me to "reconceptualizing" one's wardrobe!  Basically, you pick a theme and a look and shop/dress accordingly.  I love this idea!  I think it helps to add some confidence and fun into the changing of the seasons!    I'm thinking of going with something like a Glam Giles.  (You know... from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Duh.)

(Picture him with more sparkles.)

I mean, sure, he's a librarian... but you should see him kick vampire ass!  I'm thinking a little british librarian, a little disco glam...  a little Jack Sparrow goes to Oxford...  I can't wait to go shopping.

(Three Words:  Huge. Shiney. Stripes.)

Check out the New York Times website for more photos of the Marc Jacob line.  Just search for Marc Jacobs spring 2009.  (I'd post the links myself, but my computer seems incapable of copying and pasting into the blogger site. ??)  If you're on the nytimes fashion blog site, go to "view slideshow" to see all 54 outfits.