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The Gate, transfer print journal

April 12, 2012 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Transfer print in Moleskine journal

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Iskra Fine Art Blog

the creative process | conversations with artists | the contemplative impulse in art

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Morning pages: outside my window.

Morning pages: outside my window.

My favorite moment of the year. Solstice: Light ca

My favorite moment of the year. Solstice: Light candles, write letters, reflect on the year.

Do you ever feel catatonic with helplessness in th

Do you ever feel catatonic with helplessness in the face of relentless corporate propaganda?

I do!🥲😳

We have only 48 hours left to comment on our city’s “comprehensive plan“. This zoning plan will control the destiny of our city for the next 20 years. The plan has been completely reframed by an unholy cartel of “urbanists”, developers and “social justice activists“. The moral future has been portrayed as 5 to 6 story concrete high-rises stretching as far as the eye can see. Each apartment will be between 250 and 350 ft.² and it will cost $2000 and up per month. This is considered “equity™️” and morally righteous because we have replaced the terrible bourgeois single-family homes that had gardens and maybe even a single unforgettable Dahlia draped over the arbor. Meanwhile, these martially certain upzoners, pushing their ideological trailer loaded with concrete, (one of the most energy intensive and polluting industries in the world), are “environmental”.

Developers have convinced everyone under 32 that the reason they do not own a home is because someone else does. Therefore, we should punish those who have a home by zoning their neighborhood so that their home will disappear and it will all be an apartment. . .

The people pushing this propaganda, most of them came to Seattle 3 to 5 years ago. They don’t remember grunge, they don’t remember when we were a dirty affordable city filled with genius artists and musicians. They don’t remember Kurt Cobain. And they do not understand that when you build a city of micro Apartments, wholly owned by corporate REIT’s and banks and no garages, you do not have garage bands .

This is the time of year I would be normally sendi

This is the time of year I would be normally sending out a Winter Solstice greeting and a meditation on inner peace, with contemplations on the beauty of winter’s bare-boned architecture. Alas, this moment of respite from the daily commerce of life has been forced into an unexpected pivot.

Just as I was in the midst of a holiday sale, and fulfilling my first order from my very first Etsy advertising campaign, Etsy threw my shop into (involuntary) “vacation.” This new purgatory is, I learned Friday night from three hours of bleary research on Twitter, Google and the dark ‘n light web, happening worldwide. It is inexplicable, inexorable, and even calling upon Spock and the superior intelligence of the #NewJerseyDrones will not alleviate the condition. Etsy “customer service” is now allocated to bots and “chats with bots” and if you are a tiny cottage arts industry supremely devoted to your customers, you may be on involuntary vacation for three days, 6 months, or until you leave this galaxy for another. They do not give you free Xanax.

What to do? The swans were in flight, and everything was just humming along. I am not prepared mid-December to research and set up a whole new interface for commerce. I just want to kick back, as I’m sure you all do, with a fragrant branch of spruce and some eggnog, and listen to the Vienna boys’ choir.

My shop, oddly, still allows you to see everything. You can’t purchase through Etsy. . . but you can still browse, and then send me an email. And we have many options here, ranging from personal check to Zelle to Square to stopping for coffee or trading art for repair on my dishwasher or my fence: So there you have it, an end-run. Perhaps, like me, you are not looking forward to Tariffs On Everything! Or, for that matter, polio (Thanks Bob, Vaccines for Nobody!) or Free Speech Just For Who I Say So! (lawsuits for everybody else.) We will need to be fluid, creative, and easy going.
Sometime in January I will rally and figure out what to do if Etsy decides my inexplicable purgatory is a forever thing. Meantime, I will honor the holiday sale of 20% discount in my shop til 12.21 for any purchase over $150, cards excluded.

It is so peaceful living in the studio with swans.

It is so peaceful living in the studio with swans. This morning I am putting together card orders for local customers. When the spotlight in the media goes to the artists working at heroic scale, is it perverse to take so much pleasure from these small moments? One thing I took away from lockdowns, and hope I never forget: the power of the quiet conversation with a friend, walking through the woods. When I had not seen anyone for weeks, these single hours became luminous, and kept my spirits going. The fine art note cards are for the lost art of conversation: for taking time to say hello, in handwriting, to share a memory, an observation out the window, news from home. Thank you to all my new friends who love paper and pen, and who keep the human connections going, one note at a time. First Link in bio to purchase.

“Pedestal,” new series of deconstructed archit

“Pedestal,” new series of deconstructed architecture, started while waiting for the bus in Bath.

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Iskra Fine Art Blog : The creative process, conversations with artists, the contemplative impulse in art

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Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to receive show announcements, first peek at new work and my semi-monthly blog by email. I primarily use the blog for news and updates but by signing up you will also receive the occasional newsletter and special offers for items in my shop.

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