Walker Librarian on Artists Books

Walker Art Center librarian Rosemary Furtag is really the spiritual hero behind the current Text/Messages exhibit of artists' books at the Walker. Local media outlet Twin Cities Daily Planet spent a few minutes interviewing her on her work and her definition of an artist's book.




And have I gone myself to see this exhibit? Shamefully, no. I'm scoping out the next Free Sunday (Walker's admission is $10...trop cher! ..too dear!.. as we said in French class.)

Hoar frost vs rime frost

Rime frost (L) and hoar frost (r)

Once I get out of the city, I spend about 20 minutes on the freeway before turning onto a smaller highway that takes me through lake country to get to Franconia. It's this last section of the drive that I enjoy the most every morning. Lakes, farmland, small towns...it's always interesting.
Yesterday, I drove right into dense fog. You could see it rolling over you and as I went up and down the small hills, it would grow less thick and then surround the car once again. And every single thing in the landscape was lined out with frost: fence, grass, twig, and bark. The word "rime" came back to me....rime frost....and I wondered if that was the correct term for this particular frost or if it was "hoar" frost.

I've done a little research this morning on the different kinds of frost. It turns out that I was correct. Rime is often the result of dense fog, caused by millions of water droplets in the air freezing on contact with a surface that has been cold for a very long time. In northern England, they call it "snowcrumb." Both terms are lovely. Hoar frost, if you're interested, is spikier than rime...more like thorns and long crystals. It occurs on cold clear nights when the air becomes warmer than the trees and fences. Now I am somewhat knowledgeable about frost.

Coop at Minnesota Center for Book Arts

I just discovered this lovely video on MCBA's artist cooperative program...and its participants. Nicely done, it really shows the arts center in action. (There's a weird 2 minutes at the end on another art exhibit...perhaps it needs a bit of editing?)

New Year's Inspiration

I've been looking on and off today for an New Year's offering for you.
Finally, I remembered the video that has been watched over 15 million times on YouTube...and for good reason.
Where the Hell is Matt is about 4 1/2 minutes of one guy dancing....all over the world. His geeky dance steps are repeated over and over again: in Paris, in India, in Africa, in the ocean, in space. And everywhere he went he found adults and children who were happy to dance with him.
Is there any more optimistic message than this: given the chance people will always dance together.

PS. The gorgeous voice you hear is Palbasha Siddiqui, a 17 year old second generation Bengali of Bangladeshi origin from Minneapolis. The words are a poem titled Gitanjali (Stream of Life), by Rabindranath Tagore. Here is a translation of what she is singing:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

You can find more about Matt's adventure here.
And if you have a truly high high-speed connection, watch the video in gorgeous HD by clicking the link in blue just below the video.