Soft and Tender Love Stories

A thing I made a while ago, with scraps I found on the ground or on something I was throwing out. I don't have the original anymore, just the original photocopies of the arrangement.

-Jim DuBois

3 Pairs of Bamboo Earrings by Guy

A final look, for now, at some of the bamboo earrings made by my friend Guy Constantine.

Quark Dreams

I had this dream
that I was explaining to Robby
that when electrons jump from state to state,
they sometimes emit photons.

I woke up
and thought about
that living beings
are made of the same stuff,
like electrons and protons,
as other matter,
and that
all those weird quantum things
apply to the underpinnings
of our own selves.

Do we emit photons
every once in an improbable while?
do our protons ever decay?
do we have junk DNA and multiple back up RNA
to compensate for quantum randomness
that might disturb our
cellular reproduction?

I pictured us
as glowing collections
of subatomic particles,
heat, trapped and controlled
by elaborate methods,
like neurons and DNA.



-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

More Earrings!

By Guy Constantine

Orange Twist

Acrylic Paint on 12 x 14 " canvas.

-Jim DuBois

Bamboo and Coin Earrings

My friend Guy started to make earrings a little while ago, and I really like his results, so I am featuring some of them on this blog. He uses lots of bamboo pieces as well as coins for some of them. I am sure he would sell you a pair if you wanted.



I think I will run a few more entries with photos of his earrings.

A Handmade Life #5

This is a great art zine put out by my friend Robin Olson Mayberry, and it also features some art and poetry by me. There are a lot of collage journal pages, and articles about the simple life. Get a copy!

Or visit Robin's website to see more of her creativity: Alchemy Studios

Algae Hole

Cool new painting by Stephanie Gerolimatos! You don't get the sense of size, but it is big, like maybe four feet tall. It is up in her show at the Center for the Arts until the end of October. It is even better in person. Go see it if you can.

Detail from the painting, because the texture is really important.


If you want to see steps along the way to the final product, and learn a little about her process, follow this link:
Photobucket pictures

Evolution

[.01]

Jul 14, 2040

[snapshot of average household]

“Stand up when you’re told to,” Mom snapped. Junior had been glued to his seat for more than twenty-six hours straight.

Junior protested—“But I am!”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Mom went over and tried to pry the ten-year-old off the chair. Her efforts, were futile.

The 99.99%-nude girls continued shaking their booties on the computer screen.

They, could move.

[.02]

07 14 2070

[LatestOutbreak_in_GlobalEpidemic ©
WorldDigitalSyndicateNetwork]

Major epidemic reported worldwide.
Muscle atrophy outbreak.

Associated with extended-extended use of computers.
Other digital, technical, devices inc.
Latest outbreak comes 30 years post groundbreaking study: 081450_ChildrenLoseUseOfLegs_01570209.

Leading scientists not worried.

1) “We are 10 steps closer to developing materials that will render physical degeneration non-existent.”—Noted Bioscientist Dr. John Scull, Nanomaterials Institute

2) “The discovery offers a new way to look at the links between genes, behavior, and nerval function.”—Dr. X Doe, Chairman of WorldUni Biosciences’ Education Research Group

[.03]

07² 2120

[Official Announcement © WDSN Dvlpmnt Blog 3.8.1]

Evolutn of human species 1 step ^.

Zero nd 4 limbs. Bane o.exstnce, limbs! Limbs tt u had 2 ke²p moving, 2 prevnt joints 4rm frzing ^. Creakng joints wr frequent along w muscle atrophy, due 2 lack o.impertve ne²d o.hving joints+limbs in 1st place.

Internet = all 1 nds. Mouse+keybrd phased out humns undergo latest neural-cortex Microchip Update 1.7.1 instal²atn. Upgrade ≠ mandatory, √ highly recom²ended, 2 fix bugs+security iss in prev vers. 1.7.0, released 86400.41.26.51 s ago, by Mr. DX26.78.9 on his w.site. Enhances MU 1.0.0 tt al²ws humn brain 2 cntrl mvements onscre²n via brain pwr alone.

-Limbs! 2day, we celebrate we²k 29’s milestone highlight o.humn progres², o.the prjcted nu-humn being evolving 2 ke²ping just brain, and 1’s head in glass canister o.SuperSalt (® Dr. WQ1.51.61.2).

Rmber *23:59:59:59pm*: 2 com²emrte latest milestone in Human Evolutn 1-2-3.

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2: <we also com²emrte extinctn of last Class Insecta on planet. all animals hv died out—it is th(us)² humans tt hv provn 2 b big²nest win²ers in “survival of the fittest” (™ CR Darwin, “IV. Ntrl Selectn; or Survival o.the Fittest”, in CW Eliot, Origin o.Species)>

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- Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

Don’t give up now!

Don’t give up now! Don’t stop your creative endeavors! Write a poem! Draw a picture, do whatever! Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Jump into the fray and let everyone see what your mind creates!

I fell in love with a nobody

thinking that I wouldn’t
and never would
what if I become
a nobody too?

~ 30 Aug 06, written in 20 seconds. Partly inspired by the poetry of Zen monks like Ikkyu and Ryokan

Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

Light & Dark

[light]

Raindrops on
My room window
I think of
You
And to the night
I wonder
If you’re thinking
Of me
Too?

[dark]

Raindrops against
My room window
I think of
You
And wonder
If you think of me too
Or if
You’re spending the night
With
Your TV set.

-Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

Immersion is Delicious

- Christine Texiera

1000

A thousand kisses
A thousand apologies—
We aren’t meant to be.

~ 14 Feb 2004
Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

Introducing: Jess C Scott

I got a request from a random person one day. She wanted to know if I could feature her work on this blog. I delayed checking out her book for a little while, but when I read it, I found that I enjoyed many of the poems in it. So I told her I would feature them on here, with a little introduction.

The book is called Porcelain, and can be downloaded for free from her website, Here

Bio from her website:

:: Short Version ::

[x] Jess C Scott :: missfey @ gmail.com

[x] Writer. Artist. Non-conformist. 23. Why I Write.

[x] I design my own book covers. I am a solo powerhouse :)

[x] My LinkedIn Profile.

[x] Contributed to the 2010 Jossey-Bass/Wiley publication, MY LIE.

I could just keep driving

- Christine Texiera

Making Art is Important

We sometimes belittle our own efforts as artists and writers, because we are not professional, or it was “nothing” or whatever we use as excuses, but being creative and making art in its many forms is important and revolutionary. The smallest phrase you put together begins the undermining of the current consumer capitalist society which wants you to be “entertained” but not creative.

I decided to start this blog as a place to encourage people I knew to think more of themselves as creative beings. Many of them wrote terrific things, made interesting paintings, and left them in some dark closet; what else was there to do with them? I wanted a forum for those items to be brought out and given to larger audiences and for the creators of those items to have more moments where they think, “Yes, I am good at this!” and “I love doing this!”

I wanted to make a place where we aren’t after perfection, we aren’t after the best ever, we aren’t out to make any money off someone else’s creative acts. We are out to encourage the spread of creativity and art in the hands of everyday people. We are out to encourage people to engage in the most important act: to think for themselves, to trust their own minds.

England seems to circle imperfections on the road

- Christine Texiera

Introducing: Christine Texiera

One time, I went to this brunch part in Greenfield, which is an unusual time for me, because, let's just say, I'm a late sleeper. But I had not slept so well, and woke up just in time to get a ride up there. I was there, and my host introduced us to some new comers, and one of them was like, "I know you already. From Lindy Hopping." and I was like, "Hmmm? Oh, yes, I remember that you came by the Center for the Arts for lessons, and you were fun to dance with." It is fun when things like that happen.

Then we became electronic, and sometimes in person at dances, acquaintances. I learned a little more about Christine, including that she likes to Contra Dance, is friendly, and makes art, including collage.

I asked if I could put some collages up here, and she said yes. So, now you get to see them too, and enjoy them.

Links:
Her Blog

Birdsnest

On those days the sun never quite came up
The young man acquired a meresome aspect
His mind was all swampy from too much rain
And a birdsnest clung to his hair
He liked the sound of the snowmelt
And his chair was often visited
But as for caring
He was plum worn out
So he feasted on the snow and the silence.



-Jeremiah Griswold

Primeval

Under a stone in a clearing
in the midst of a vast primeval forest
lived a boy who never did what he was told.

He was alone, but for a small bird
who sang to him so sweetly
he never longed for more various companions.


-Jeremiah Griswold

Like the Sun

Cool book of poetry philosophy by Jim DuBois.

Get a copy:

Like the Sun - poetry philosophy

Josh Painting Again

Aqua Green Stripe

-Jim DuBois

Joshua Painting

Introducing: Joshua

My friend Rachel has a son named Joshua, and I have been close to him ever since I attended the birth. The whole experience has activated my 'tribal instinct', the feeling and need to belong to and with a group of people who are important in your life. So I go along with them to do stuff and they come along with me, and generally life is much better that way.

The other day Joshua wanted to paint. I videoed part of his painting, and enjoyed how he was quite unafraid of putting paint on paper, so his mom has agreed to let me put the videos up here.

SCOTT'S HANDSHAKE

Scott gave me a hearty handshake
          with the hand attached to his arm,
          the arm that he had,
          that went with him whenever he took
          his body somewhere,
          and moved around to various places,
          the kind of handshake that would break yer hand
          if you weren't on your toes
          countering
          with your handshake.


-John Bauman

January 14, 2001

First you're born,
          then you live for a while,
          you do a bunch of stuff,
          then you die.
You might get buried in the Earth...

Sometimes that red light
          on my caller ID flashes.
Maybe I should answer the phone.
Sometimes I like to laugh at myself!


-John Bauman

Shell

Taken 4/15/10 at Porcupine Hill Farm, Windsor MA.

- Selena Dittberner

Caller ID

Like a beacon in the night,
Like some faint, remote lighthouse
          pulsing,
My caller ID flashes,
          alerting me to the phone call
          of a human.

-John Bauman

Imaginatist Manifesto

1. Art is the manifestation of the imagination.

a. Imagination is a function of the mind which arranges and combines known elements to create new things.

b. Imagination is something everybody has.

2. Expression of imagination is more important than any particular way or form it is expressed in. So we are not primarily painters, or poets, or even artists, but imaginatists.

a. Set forms and mediums can distract and limit the imagination, which is much more fluid than those forms or mediums.

3. Expression of imagination is more important than mimicking reality. It certainly takes skill and is interesting to mimic reality, but it doesn't necessarily require imagination.

4. Expression of imagination is more important than the skill with which it is expressed. Even an un-artistically trained person, if they focus on imagination and its expression, can be a master imaginatist.

5. Imagination, when truly manifest, bridges the gap between minds, and helps people realize there are other thinking, imagining entities in the universe.

a. Art is a conduit for love.

Become an imaginatist today!

Red Stripes with plant

From a recent series of experiments.

Untitled Short #1

Standing beneath an apple tree,
I catch the cheerful song of a bird,
and tuck it in my pocket
to bring home for you.

- April-lyn Caouette

Because There are Rainbows

I want you to understand:
     we are all specks on this earth
     which is circling in its orbit
     in a galaxy
     that is speeding through the universe
     which spirals through the fields
     of infinity

and maybe
nothing we do here matters
in the end

we are all specks
     but our atoms are specks, too
     spinning and pulsing in the
     galaxies of our cells
     and mitochondria
     (dear mitochondria)


and all those specks
     add up
     to make our breathing
     smiling selves


maybe nothing we do here
matters in the end
     but while we are here
     we must make meaning
     from the breathing
     and the spiraling
   
because there are rainbows
and because the seas are stormy
and because the spring will return once more
to warm our skin

-April-Lyn Caouette

Introducing: April-lyn Caouette

I met April-lyn at least a couple of years ago, at a Lindy-Hop dance. She is a person I have gotten to know very slowly over the years. Now I have learned that in addition to dancing, she likes to play board games, write and knit. We have had fun playing board games together. I also find her to be an easy person to talk to.

I have read her blog, and enjoyed her poems, so I asked if I could post some here. She said yes.

Link:
Her blog

Snake Swimming

Because it was elegant.

-Jim DuBois

best friends

and so they jumped
off the golden gate
knowing they'd meet again
somewhere
maybe in hell
maybe in a movie
or maybe in a book

like thelma and louise
they were outlaws
but just hadn't broken
any laws yet
except the unwritten law
which says
you must be good girls
you must be bland girls
you must be
life support systems
for the only thing you own
that really matters

and so they jumped
off the golden gate
leaving giant bras
and licorice cats
and fountain pens
and plastic dishes
and old old dolls
and mountains
of things behind them
their legacy of things collected
piled up around them
as the emptiness stayed
inside them...

-Cory Raymond

preparing to leave me

the old, old woman
my friend
forgets to remember
more every day

talking like dreaming---
scraps of what's real
all stirred up
together
with things
that never were

doves in her mind
beating their wings
scattering
the pieces of her life
the sticky notes pasted
on the woman
she once was

she talks
and talks
her strong contralto
now breathy
and wavering

a haphazard tear
forms and rolls
ever so slowly
down her velvet cheek
once artfully painted
now exposed

her pride put aside
her wispy white hair
glittering silver still
hangs lank
and unattended
like a garden
of memories forgotten

she looks at me
closely
and clutches my hand
for a moment
as if to anchor
us to the present

then she tells me
about the friend
she once had
a long time ago
never suspecting
that I'm the one
she's talking about

"oh, the times
we had together"
she says
her eyes young
and bright

i nod and
i smile and think,
"oh, the times
we had together
indeed."

she loves
my memory
but she doesn't
know me
i've been fixed
in her mind
in another time

i mourn her passing
even as she talks on
remembering
forgetting
preparing
to leave me...

-Cory Raymond

sometimes ever after

"This is about a place that my dear friend, Linda Sue, and I dreamed about going to in August, 2002." - Cory Raymond


so they carried their bags
full of rocks and seashells
and their shoes full of sand
home where they decided to make
a magical wall with rocks and seashells
and driftwood and ocean-polished glass

it would not be high, just a demarcation
of their territory
a notice to all that this was theirs
the magic would keep out
anyone who did not possess a key
to their minds and hearts
but would allow entry to all
who aspired to gentleness
who practiced kindness
who spoke softly and let
their dogs carry the big sticks
for them

cats of every color
would sit on the wall
and sleep on it
and sing on it at night
celebrating the moon
and their catness
eyes glowing in the dark
with visions human eyes
failed to perceive
feelings human hearts
could not contain

people would sit there too
sometimes
and drink champagne from
chipped coffee mugs
and talk about
a different world
a beautiful place
and laugh and pet the cats
and hope to live
happily sometimes
ever after...


-Cory Raymond

the poetry makers

I think of them as tiny people
that I carry around in the pockets
of my mind
along with lint
rusty paperclips
missing buttons
and small change from a misspent life

they tiptoe through
the disorderly conduct of my thoughts
collecting bits and pieces
of people and places
books and songs
comic strips and movies

things that drifted into
and out of my life
a hastily discarded feeling here
a long-forgotten idea there
possibilities scattered like ashes
in the rubble of my regrets
all shaken, not stirred, with a few missing links
that came from who-knows-where

day in and day out
for over sixty years
the greedy little scavengers
followed my sloppy thoughts around
happily hoarding
whatever I left behind
like tiny little pack rats

somehow they knew I needed them
stuck as I was
at the bottom
of a cracked glass
filled to the brim
with the stuff of exquisite isolation

so, now they clamor for my attention
eager to give me back all those things
lost in life's translation
a word here
a word there
grain after grain of hope
their gift to me
I think I'll call it poetry...


-Cory Raymond

Introducing: Cory Raymond

Well, now. I know this blog is about the community around me, but the internet is an interesting place, and I have met some interesting people doing some interesting things through it. One of those people is Cory Raymond, a poet whose blog I started reading because... hmmm... I can't recall. Perhaps she commented on a poem of mine. Anyway, she is very creative and friendly and I like her poems, so I am going to feature several here.

Links:
Her poetry blog

Transformations

Another poem read by Jim DuBois.

Genetic Astrology

A second poem read by Jim DuBois.

Dear Mr. Frost

Jim DuBois reading an original poem at the Florence Poets Society summer festival.

A Place to Promote Creativity

Why I started this blog:

"I wanted to have a place to promote the creativity of people close to me and in my local community. because I think there are not enough places to see the creative works of human beings. Lots of people do creative things and they just end up in a pile in their closet or something. Which is too bad. The world is more interesting to me when those things are shown.

Even people who make art for a living don't have enough places to have their work shown, and can always use some more exposure, so I started adding some artists that I like to the blog. But I always try to make and have at least some personal connection with them when I do.

So, I started this blog to have a place to show creativity that I find interesting. Hopefully it brings a little more connection among creative people in the world, because that is also important to me."

-Jim DuBois

Peanut Corral

Another short animation by Ron McAdow.

You can get another one on Amazon's video on demand service. It is called Hank the Cave Peanut and Captain Silas, and I really enjoyed watching it way back when.

We The People

We the people
        of these United States of America
        walk around, talk, say this and that.


-John Bauman

Peanut Submarine

This film was made by Ron McAdow in the mid 1970's. It was part of a series of peanut animations created for the educational television program "Infinity Factory", produced in Massachusetts at the Education Development Center. The music is by Jon Klein.

Ron's longer peanut films, also featuring Jon Klein scores, are available on Amazon's video-on-demand: Hank the Cave Peanut and Captain Silas.

When Ron was my teacher in junior high school, he offered an after school course to learn to make animated stop motion films. Me and Jeremiah took it and had a great time. I remember the process taking a very long time. I have no idea what happened to the actual films.

Bored

Boy, I’m really bored.
Smorgas- bored.
Shmorgas bord.
Ironing board.
What the fuck’s a smorgasbord?
Anyone?
Smorgasbord:
          a luncheon or supper buffet offering a variety of foods and dishes.
Smorgas- bored.


-John Bauman

Define Prophecy

- Pete Smolenski
From his website.