Does anyone know why Monday is Asian wedding photo op day in Prospect Park? 

I’m having trouble concentrating lately. I’m looking forward to taking time off and having time to focus.

I plan on baking a whole mess of food tomorrow. Hopefully it will relax me. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about timing.

And pacing. I’ve gotten better at both. I think it’s mainly developing a sense of how very long things take. 

Cooking is one of those things that teaches you about time. Also about how you change over time. I always thought I hated cauliflower, I thought it was the most boring vegetable I could think of, almost as loathesome as peas. I learned I was wrong about that this week. Apparently cooking a vegetable properly makes it taste better. Who knew? 

I think that drawing also teaches you about time, a little bit, depending on how you do it. Drawing for me is satisfying because it’s something that can happen in bits over time. I don’t actually have a lot of time all the time, so this works well. 

But nothing has taught me about time as much as setting type does.    

Or building a form does. I like having learned a new way to think about how long time lasts, how long it takes to finish something. I like that time is variable and shifts depending on where you are and how you’re feeling.   I like that’s something you can learn, and not something you’re just sort of stuck with as is. 

I like thinking about reading and time, how your consciousness of time disappears when you’re engrossed in what you read and how it’s a kind of internal time, rather than an external one, regulated by your own pace and not something outside.

My brother went to school to be a marriage counselor, once upon a time. At one point he was treating married couples decades older than he was while he was a single twenty-something guy living with his mom. He told fantastic stories about his anger management support group. I wonder if he made faces at his patients. I would have, if I was him, at the patients I didn’t like. It’s always perfectly clear to others what I think about someone. I’m terrible about hiding things like that. 

I am still tense. I think I worked too much this weekend. Didn’t stretch enough. My roommate is getting up before dawn to vote tomorrow. She says her family voted early this weekend and waited two hours in line. So did her friend in Florida. Early!

I hope people aren’t expecting the next president to work a miracle. That would be unfair. 

I made brussels sprouts with pecans and butter tonight. Perfect little cabbages.

I’m glad someone is able to relax. I went for a long run this morning to try to improve my mood with mixed results. I’m on edge, and I’m not sure why. It was one of those verge-of-tears runs I don’t have very often any more. I came home and realized I ran out of checks without noticing and am annoyed about having to pay my rent in some other, less convenient way, and order new ones. And here I am trying to sit on the couch and Jasper the (large) cat is trying to elbow me out of his way. The nerve! 

I’m thinking some cooking might relax me. I’d like to make this tonight. Or this. Now that it’s November I want to cook large elaborate meals again.

In the meantime, remember this:

Some people don’t like to let go. Some people have to hold onto their pain to make sure that it means something. Objects are solid, are reliable, are specific. You can leave an object in a place and it will tend to stay there. Objects are grounded in time, they record time. They are tactile, collectible evidence of thought and activity. Do not underestimate objects.

1. This is some beautiful type. 

2. I spent Thursday night at the NY Art Book Fair, Printed Matter’s yearly artist book fest. Why is it always hot no matter where they hold it or when it is? I drank some disappointing cocktails and looked at a lot of books. Drawn and Quarterly were there, happily with this lovely book by Julie Doucet.

She’s my fantasy guest artist I’d like to bring to my unnamed place of employment. Did you know this was a translation?

That means she drew the entire book in french, then re-lettered the entire damn thing in English. Does that amaze you as much as it amazes me?

3. Today, I made parsnip-carrot-sweet potato pancakes, apple-blueberry crumble pie, and roasted some squash. I have now used up the last of my CSA fall vegetable crop. I have blueberry juice all over the bottom of the oven. 

4. This place cannot be. 

5. The wall is coming along nicely, thank you. 

I think I’m supposed to be sheepish about this one. 

I love this.

I’ve been working on these drawings for over a year now; there’s something so comforting about working on them. One phrase or two; maybe just a word. Black ink on white paper. It’s just so simple. I’ve been thinking about making both a book and an animation out of them, but it’s the stringing together into something coherent that begins to trip me up. I like that they’re like the voice in your head. That same quality is what makes it hard to string them together into something else. That voice in my head tends to go in circles, not into anything sensical. That’s why when people ask me what I’m working on, I’m likely to just say ‘nonsense’. 

This may be of interest for some: 

The Hot Iron Press visiting artist program grants artists the opportunity to introduce printmaking processes into their body of work while interacting with the culture, setting, and art community of New Orleans. We are currently seeking artists working in any media who desire a chance to create an edition of works using screen-printing, relief, and/or letterpress printing.

There’s no deadline; you can find more information here: http://www.hotironpress.com/visitingartists.htm