3 by the Fire: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

As for my father, Ian Hughes, the progenitor of this story, its main confessor, and where he ended up or might still be—and where Linus Grey aka American Crow might reside now, if he ever existed in the first place—that I leave up to you to figure out. I can tell you briefly what went into my decisions in organizing and designing the contents of the box into the manuscript that lies now so placidly in your hands, disguised thinly as a novel. How, in hopes of providing a basic map of the territory (if not an actual path to follow), I have left as many blazes along the way. You should at least be able to follow our trusty Narrator on his journey, for his trail is relatively fresh. Be patient. Though it takes him a while to get going, when he does get moving, I assure you, you’ll be hard pressed to keep up. I wish you could hear for yourself his strange, melodious voice that starts every story he tells—and he tells a good many—in a syrupy jazz crooner voice but ends jumbled and confused, the last words and syllables strangled and garbled in his quavering mouth. The man who crosses the threshold of the tale is not always the man who stumbles out.

Evasive

Collage Mural by Sebastian Matthews

60s Poster

...grabbed off Tumblr.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

from Thomas Rain Crowe

this winter sun-filled day!

Monday, December 26, 2011

"To Kate"

Kurt Schwitters

Outtake from "Message in a Bottle: An Intro," on Kurt Schwitters:

Kurt Schwitters, one of Ray’s early heroes along with Duchamp, came to label his collages “Merz,” signifying an “openness to everything.” In her essay on Schwitters in DADA, Dorothea Dietrich writes: “Merz designated above all a collage process that Schwitters defined so broadly that it could be applied to any and all matter of things, so much that he also considered his own works of art as collage material for later projects, thus creating a rich web of connections that extended into space and time.” Of course, this could be said about Ray, as well.
There’s a Schwitters’ piece that he made in Germany in 1947, entitled “For Kate,” that carries all the essential Ray attributes. It’s a postcard collage sent to Kate Steinitz, with a handwritten note to her inside the collage. Swchwitters has signed and dated the piece in the left-hand corner. He’s glued the found papers in a rough manner, and the post office has stamped the images, which appear to come from comics, magazines and books. In the center of the collage resides a lovely woman surrounded by other figures—a bearded man above, a strange bald man to her right who appears to be brandishing a stick (though it’s really a piece of paper laid down by the artist); there’s another bearded man behind her grimacing, and another woman directly to her left whose arm reaches across the heroine’s torso, profile hiding her facial expression. The woman is bisected by a bar or line and her hands are up as if in defense. It seems her beauty and sensuality have gotten her boxed in. Or she's dreaming, surrounded by dream figures encircling her in her sleep.