So I didnt really do anything cool over spring break like Angie, Emma, Evan, or any of the CR peeps… I basically hung around Bemidji, MN. Bored. BUT, as some of you may know, I have lately been working on putting my senior project into a book format for my books class (wow, that was redundant and unneccessary), and happened upon a website called blurb.com. It’s totally awesome. You just download their free software, upload all of you images and/or text and send it to them and POW they send you back a real live book complete with its own ISBN number (Katie will know what Im talking about)!! And then, people can look at your book online, buy it, and you can EVEN choose to get profits out of the deal!! Crazy right? Well, I sent in my book this week and will be getting it back in about 5-7 days. I hope in time for my Merits show… how cool would that be?

The next cool thing, that Ive been trying to get to is that I wanted to include in my book a poem or essay or something by someone else that would complement my images nicely so that I wouldnt have to include an artist statement (these are hard for me to talk about). SO, I found the perfect poem by an actual poet in an online poetry journal (there I go, being redundant again…), and after hours of research, I FINALLY found her contact information… sigh! I emailed her, asking if I could use her poem, was very careful about copyright and all that and she emailed back with a resounding YES! She was so nice. I totally wasnt expecting her to be so great! Direct quote:

“I took the opportunity to go to your website and look at your images and there was a great deal to admire there! I was particularly drawn to the pictures of decay and neglect, which reminded me of the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi . My teaching and writing is very much centered around the idea of collaboration, so I’m happy to participate in your project. Thank you for asking!”

A breakthrough.