Wait, did we skip spring?

I ran twelve miles this morning and am still dehydrated. I still have about twenty books left in the edition to finish, I’m defrosting my freezer and I’ve run out of towels to mop up the water.

On the upside, I’m working on a great broadside for June. And plotting a pie contest.

Tomorrow I’d like to bake a rhubarb pie. I’m not sure I like rhubarb, but I’m willing to give it  a try.

The re-entry from a brief vacation is a bit rough, I’m afraid. I’m having a week full of failure.

(The above images are from the Orange Show in Houston, TX. Hurrah for the orange! )

Good lord, what a horrible day it’s been.

I helped organize some programming for the Chapbook Festival coming up next week for the Center for Book Arts:

Annual Chapbook Festival

Monday May 3 & Tuesday May 4, 2010

The Festival celebrates the chapbook as a work of art and as a medium for alternative and emerging writers and publishers. Now in its second year, the festival features a two-day bookfair with chapbook publishers from around the country, workshops, marathon poetry readings, and a closing-night reading of prize-winning Chapbook Fellows.

Co-sponsored by The Office of Academic Affairs, The Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center and MFA Programs in Creative Writing of the City University of New York, The Center for Book Arts, Poets House, Poetry Society of America, and Poets & Writers

There will be a great bookfair featuring many, many small presses,  several panels, and readings at the CUNY Grad Center on Monday and Tuesday- there’s a complete schedule of events here on the festival’s website.

On Wednesday, May 5th there will be a daylong chapbook-making workshop at the Center for Book Arts with Susan Mills and Karen Randall- writers can get a hands-on taste of how to make a book-there’s some photos from the workshops they led last year here. And a poetry reading in the evening, organized by John Yao and featuring Boni Joi and Albert Mobilio! Liz Zanis  and Amber McMillan are printing limited edition broadsides for the event, and everyone gets to take one home with them.

I’m participating in a workshop with Roni Gross and Jeremy Thompson on the Chapbook as Art Object on both Monday and Tuesday mornings at CUNY at 11:30.

April is an exhausting month.

I started redistributing the type from my book today; it’s sort of spring cleaning in slow-motion. Most of the students in the studio where I work skip this step; then we eventually have to sweet-talk some lucky volunteer into doing this for them. I’ve had many volunteers run away after spending a day redistributing. I’m good at driving them away, my mother always told me so. It’s easier when the students follow the rules and write down what type they’ve used; of course there are many who decide not to do so. Then I get to hunt down what it might be, which makes me feel like an exciting sleuth-type-person, like a type-nerd version of House, but which is probably not really what I’m being paid a salary to do, other examples of which include peeling the old dried glue out of old containers of PVA, organizing the instructor cabinet, sweeping all the tiny bits of paper off the floor near the guillotine. This is what I do on a bad day to soothe my nerves.

Me, I like redistributing; it’s faster than setting and give you a nice sense of closure. It’s rhythmic and mindless and makes me feel virtuous. I started cleaning my studio at home this week, and my closet too, all in honor of spring. Out with the old, in with the new.

On a completely unrelated note, I’d like to direct your attention to this.

It’s that time again…

Support the Center for Book Arts! Next Wednesday, April 7th at 6pm is the Center for Book Arts Annual Benefit and Auction.

I’ll be there herding waitstaff, hanging decorations, serving cocktails and making sure someone bids on all of the fabulous work in the auction this year: here’s all the info from the Center’s website:

We hope you will join us for an enchanting spring evening of French Jazz, cocktails, gourmet hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and a rousing live auction featuring work by acclaimed artists.Enjoy live music by Les Chauds Lapins, cocktails, and gourmet hors d’oeuvres by The Gourmand & the Peasant, all while supporting the Center’s important work of furthering the book arts. This year, we will pay tribute to the following individuals who have made exceptional efforts in the field:

Lesley Dill, Artist

Dikko Faust, Printer, Purgatory Pie Press

Ann Kalmbach and Tatana Kellner, Founders, The Women’s Studio Workshop

Ruth and Marvin Sackner, Art Collectors

Mary Coxe Schlosser, Binder and Scholar

You may purchase tickets for the benefit through our website, by phone at (212) 481-0295.

Bid in the Center for Book Arts’ silent and live auctions, part of our 35th Anniversary Benefit, and carry home a beautiful work of art! Preview the auction works: click here to see the complete roster. Remember, you don’t have to attend the Benefit to place a bid! Call us at (212) 481-0295 to place an absentee bid, or attend the Benefit in person to join the fun.

All proceeds from the benefit and auction go towards supporting the Center’s programs.

Great time.

[vimeo 10250099]

I’m over the rain.