Defy Adversity

We all face our own challenges.  Here's my response to mine.

DEFY ADVERSITY T-shirts, hoodies, and kids clothing are available at RedBubble. 13 colors, sizes small-3XL.

A Good Home

Buyer Ann Welles Hameister with my drawing 'Silence Be My Church' at the Czarnecki family benefit last night. Thank you, Ann!

Never Stop Asking For Poems: A Benefit for the Czarnecki Family

As most of us in the Elmira/Corning/Ithaca area know, poet and publisher Michael Czarnecki and his family recently lost their home and nearly all their belongings to a fire. If you can, hope you'll consider contributing work to or attending 'Never Stop Asking For Poems: A Benefit for the Czarnecki Family' at 171 Cedar Arts Center, Corning, on Saturday, September 8, 7-10 PM. My drawing Silence Be My Church will be included in the silent auction that evening. If you'd like to help but can't attend, stop by 171's facebook page.

Small Truths

Happy to have my poem 'Small Truths' included in the new issue of Scissors and Spackle. My thanks to editors Jenny Catlin and Matt Schmid.

Brushstrokes

That night I dreamt of Grace.  We picked blueberries, filled a rusty paintcan.  She was quiet but she laughed for me.  Some part of me knew she shouldn’t be there and I asked how long she could stay.  She said it’s you who can’t stay.  You’ve people need you.  I said nobody needs me.  I miss you, Gracie.  She said I know.  I’m here.  I said no you’re not.  She looked away.  I said I’m sorry.  She smiled a little.  For what? 

On the way back we came to a stone wall.  I said I don’t remember this.  She said you came the other way.  Remember?  I said what?  She’d climbed over easily.  She said it’s gonna rain.  I looked back.  The sky was a big Steven Sadler painting I’d seen in Smythe Gallery once.  Greens and grays and darks massing and foreboding.  A small figure looking back from one edge.  There was no wall.  I couldn’t find Grace.  I bent close, called her name.  She didn’t answer.  I’d dropped the paintcan.  The berries had spilled.  I knelt, picked at brushstrokes.  A thorn pricked my finger.  Somewhere a phone was ringing.  It was mine.  

Right Hand Pointing

Happy to have six drawings featured in the August issue of one of my favorite journals, Right Hand Pointing. My thanks to editor Dale Wisely.

Grace at Bluecanvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy to have my drawing 'Grace' featured in the new Bluecanvas weekly newsletter. 8" x 12" prints are available for under $17. Matted and framed prints and greeting cards are also available here. 

Last Chance

Happy to have a cheery little poem, Last Chance, in one of my favorite journals, Right Hand Pointing. Thanks, Dale!

Liar

Happy to have a little story, Liar, in Camroc Press Review today. My thanks to CPR editor Barry Basden.

Once Upon A Time

Affordable prints of my drawing Once Upon A Time (Ink and Graphite, 2002) are now available at Bluecanvas. Cards, canvas wraps, posters, and skins are also available.  

It's a little startling to realize ten years have passed since I created this drawing. One gallery provided a magnifying glass for viewers. These prints are enlargements of the original drawing, and when I prepared the file, it was a little startling too to be reminded just how small and tight I worked in those days. These enlargements maintain the original's level of detail and finish, and I'm happy that viewers will be able to explore this place as those gallerygoers did. 

Bluecanvas

Happy to be featured today on the front page of  BLUECANVAS.

Tips From The Lucid Dreamer's Handbook

From The Lucid Dreamer's Handbook (page 44): 'Enter scenes as late as possible. If they conclude without your intervention, so much the better. TIP: Not all the old doors are sealed.'

Only Dreams

A little kinky train noir, Only Dreams, in Horror Sleaze Trash. My thanks to editor Ben Smith.

Johan Santana's No-Hitter

Art by Joe Petruccio. More on his sketchblog My Mets Journal.

A year ago, Johan Santana underwent career-threatening shoulder surgery. Three months ago, Mets fans didn’t know if he’d pitch this season- And if he could, how effective would he be?  Last night, Santana threw the first no-hitter in Mets history, against the St. Louis Cardinals, currently the best offensive team in baseball.  Mets manager Terry Collins to Santana, late in the game: “You’re my hero.” What a great night to be a Mets fan.

Updated Bio

'Mark Reep is a faded Polaroid taped to the only unbroken window of an abanoned house in Ithaca, New York.  Mark affects unconcern with protocols, and was last seen wearing a T-shirt that said FUCK PLANNING.  His current whereabouts are unknown.'

Pictured Within

Deep Purple, from In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, 1999. Vocal by Miller Anderson.

The DVD is available for streaming on Netflix.

Merciful Dark

A truck had just pulled out from the well and I followed it up through the woods past the merciful dark of Augie’s house.  I hadn’t been farther up Barlow Hill since the year I quit 84 Lumber.  You learn the back roads driving a delivery truck.  Then you forget.  Dark and raining doesn’t help.  The road climbed steadily.  One-sided trees leaned in.  Ahead brakelights flashed and bobbed like the truck had run over something.  I slowed. Runoff had strewn stones, debris across the road.  I geared down, eased over.  When I looked up the truck was gone.  

At the top of the hill the woods ended.  Wide rolling fields fell away into night.  Ahead a tall hedgerow, buckets hung from sugar maples.  A Bobcat loader, stacks of blocky shapes defining as pallets of fieldstone wrapped in chickenwire.  Remains of a wall older than the trees, picked for three hundred dollars a ton.  The stones didn’t care.  Why should I.    

Caitlin's Boots

Happy to have a small story, 'Caitlin's Boots', in the May issue of Word Riot. As always, my thanks to editor Jackie Corley, and fiction editor Kevin O'Cuinn.

A Higher Calling

A Higher Calling                      Charcoal, Graphite; 6 3/4" x 7 1/2"

Two versions of this new drawing are available at RedBubble.  If you'd like a print, choose Original Format. If you prefer a postcard or greeting card, choose Card Format. The original will be framed shortly; if you're interested, message or email me.

River Road

The last time I saw Augie in town he’d sold a painting and he was celebrating with the girl who’d modeled for it. She was a grad student at Chaney and she didn’t have much to say to me so I said how’d he get you naked?  She shrugged.  He asked.  It won’t work for you.  A week later I was clearing a storm drain on Howe Plaza and she walked by.  I said hey.  She kept walking.  Her friend said what was that.  

Tremont’s Chaney’s town.  It’s relentlessly gentrified, determinedly artsy and enlightened.  But pedal your Trek out the River Road on a rainy day and the ivy withers quick.  NO FRACK signs thin out and when you look up you’re in Northern Appalachia:  Failing dairy farms, new wellpads.  TOPSOIL.  FIREWOOD.

Waiting at the railroad crossing for a long line of graffitied tankcars I wondered what looked different.  One new wiper slapped the windshield post.  When the last car passed I saw the slumping barn that had stood across the tracks was gone.  They’d leveled the site, already leased the space: A row of watertrucks was parked there.  Where the new ground fell away raw and chaotic a corner of the milkhouse stuck out like a whitewashed outcropping from shredded asphalt, broken sidewalk slabs.  CLEAN FILL WANTED.  The crossing arm went up.  I went on. 

Slow Time

Slow Time                                        Charcoal, Graphite

This drawing, Slow Time, is available at West End Gallery, Corning. Call or email the gallery for info.   More recent drawings are here.

My poem Collegetown is included in the May issue of Short, Fast, and Deadly.  My thanks to editor Joseph Quintella.  A related flash, Caitlin's Boots, will appear in the May issue of Word Riot.

As friends who stay in touch via facebook may know, I'm gradually becoming more comfortable calling one current project a novel. May not pan out that way (he sez cautiously) but it's starting to look at least somewhat more likely. Our Story So Far: Rock and roll noir with tragic deaths doomed guitar heroes ruthless women and a smalltime weedseller trying to keep his custodian job at an Ivy League university plagued by student predators and suicides and ex-Seal security leaning on Our Antihero.  Minimalist, unapologetically genre, big fun. Here's the link to an outtake called Little Yappy Dog. 

Thanks for looking, and reading. Hope you enjoy.

Stop Trying To Make Sense

I’ve ruined promising drawings trying to make the best (read: weirdest) parts work better with the rest: Trying to make the whole make more sense.  Because of and despite its obvious offputtings I'd like the work to confound and frighten as few potential buyers as possible.  And of course because I'm obsessive etc, loosening up in any way imaginable- including leaving the weirdest stuff alone- remains an ongoing challenge. Note to self: STOP TRYING TO MAKE SENSE.

Ilo Oxa

Facebook has its virtues.  About the time you’re sick of tickers, timelines, political rants, pictures of kids’ feet, you hear from an artist like Ilo Oxa.  This is a drawing on canvas.  More great work on his blog.

No Dream's End

No Dream's End
Charcoal, Graphite; 6 ½” x 6 ¼”

Twenty years ago I composed photos as best I could in-camera, and that was that.  If a story or poem didn’t work, I discarded it.  Photoshop and Word have made editors of us all, and these days I’ve come to consider unfinished drawings raw material as well. 

Opportunities to revise a work on paper are much more limited.  Working digitally, you can save the original, save every variant you like.  You can only push paper so far.  Then, like it or not, you’re done. But charcoal and graphite are forgiving, and erasers are a wonderful thing.  I saved one of my favorite drawings with sandpaper. It’s a last resort, it doesn’t work often.  And I’m not saying which one.

When I’m burnt on a drawing, when I’ve lost interest or confidence, I shelve it, move on to another project. The longer a shelved piece sits, the better: When rediscovered, it’s fresh, found art.  New possibilities are apparent.  They may have little to do with the drawing’s beginnings, and little of the initial work may remain by the time a drawing’s completed. 

This is true of those pieces whose development is uninterrupted as well.  I don’t sketch and transfer; I don’t plan; I try everything in-drawing.  What works stays, but abandoned explorations and attempts (sometimes, lots) are still layered in there too, and they contribute to the drawings’ depth. 

If this sounds like my drawings are salvaged fuckups– Yep, absolutely.  They say a good carpenter knows how to hide his mistakes.  Mine are raw material, and I try to make something better of them. 

Real Eyes, Ivory: A Collaboration with Susan Tepper

Hope you'll stop by Big City Lit and read Susan Tepper's story Real Eyes, featuring my drawing Ivory. My thanks to Susan, and to editor Nick Johnson.

For anyone who's interested, artcards of Ivory are available at RedBubble; prices start under $3.

Inn of the Seven Graces

Inn of the Seven Graces
Miniature Graphite Drawing on Bristol; 2 7/8" x 4 5 /8"

Due to the small size and extremely fine detail of this drawing, I'm limiting reproductions to artcards only, no prints. The 4" x 6" card size best represents the original. At $3.00, they're a very affordable alternative to original art, and they're also easy to mat and frame inexpensively.  RedBubble offers discounts for purchases of multiple cards, and you can mix and match from any of my images. Here's the link.

The original drawing will be featured in the annual Little Gems exhibit (February 3- March 9) at West End Gallery, Corning NY. Pre-sales are welcome; if you're interested, email or call the gallery.

Lost

Hope you'll stop by Our Day's Encounter and read my little poem 'Lost'. My thanks to editor Lennie Cox.

Radio Free Atlantis

Radio Free Atlantis 
Charcoal & Graphite drawing; 5" x 7"
Cards and prints available at RedBubble. The original drawing is also available; if you're interested, email or message me.

Randy Rhoads

Randy would have been 55 yesterday.  Awhile after he was killed I stuck a note up over my desk: RANDY RHOADS WAS 24. DO IT NOW.  I was wrong about his age (he was 25), and it hadn’t occurred to me that the note would frighten people. I tried to explain:  I wasn’t suicidal.  Been there, done that.  I put the note up to remind myself to stop wasting time, to work harder at the things I wanted to learn and accomplish. I don’t remember when I took it down.

Opening Act

'She finds her first certainty
at a garage sale. One latch is broken.
When she opens the case
crushed velvet echoes too many
cigarettes, cologne she almost
remembers. Maybe hers.'

Hope you'll stop by and read the rest of my poem Opening Act at Orion headless. My thanks to editor Sara Fitzpatrick Comito.

Remembering Liz

Remembering our dear friend Liz Gerard at West End Talk. Thanks to LuAnne Gardner for providing Liz's photos of her work, and to my partner Parnilla for this one.

We miss you, Liz.

How To Profit As Copper Becomes The New Gold

My story How To Profit As Copper Becomes The New Gold is up at Left Hand Waving. My thanks to editors Dale, Howie, and John.

Point of Grace

My drawing & text piece(s) 'Point of Grace' at A-Minor. My thanks to editor Nicolette Wong.

Raw

A raw scan of a drawing in progress. Scans always help me see a piece more clearly. They're like looking at work in a mirror, or from a week removed. I see a gazillion tiny things I want to make better. Whether I need to, or can, that's another story.

That'll Be Two Bits

My poem 'That'll Be Two Bits' is included in Right Hand Pointing #45.

Mystery

In a corner of a neighbor's land too stony to till Cob makes a mystery. The small pines are budding, and today he brings an armload of stakes, pocketfuls of baling twine, soft rags to keep the bound seedlings from wind-chafing. For a moment, Cob sees clearly a far-off summer day, a child smiling, wondering. With his good stone he sharpens his shears to a fine bright edge, begins pruning.

A Woman Walks Into A Bar

My story A Woman Walks Into A Bar is up at The Camel Saloon. My thanks to editor and barkeep Russell Streur.

Ramshackle Review Concludes Publication

When I closed Ramshackle Review to submissions in June I hoped other obligations might allow reopening this fall. Unfortunately, that’s not feasible, and won’t be anytime soon. Difficult decision, one I've put off, but it’s time to shut RR down.

One of my goals was to give RR at least four issues. I’d hoped to publish many more. But I’m also happy with and proud of Issues 1-4. They’ll remain available for online viewing. Many thanks to all who’ve supported and contributed. It’s been an an honor to share your work.

Maybe Next Year

Tjaden Hall, Cornell.

Angie and Twitch

The girl singer Angie was hot. She was maybe twenty-five and ignored the crew or tried to. More on this later. The guy singer was older. It wasn’t like we were knowledgeable fans of the Sammy Kaye Orchestra but you figured he’d been with them awhile. Maybe when Sammy was still alive. The guy singer wasn’t badlooking but he had a bad eyetic. It scrunched up the whole left side of his face in a big exaggerated wink. It fucked with his phrasing. I didn’t know his name. We called him Twitch.

markreep.net

My new website is up. Most images are available as greeting cards and prints at my RedBubble store. Prices start at $3.

New and recent originals are also available. If you'd like to inquire about an original drawing, please use the Original drawing available links to get in touch with me, or the gallery exhibiting that drawing.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you'll share.

Postcards from Cornell: Fuertes Observatory

Cornell's Fuertes Observatory, a few minutes before sunset. Postcards and greeting cards are available at my RedBubble store.

Old Spy

Applepicking. Sorry, deer. Spies make good pies.

Book Review: Kio Stark's 'Follow Me Down'

My review of Kio Stark's first novel, Follow Me Down, is included in the new issue of Word Riot. Readers of Kio's blog Municipal Archive will recognize many of the supporting cast, and like MA, Follow Me Down is great reading. As always, my thanks to Word Riot publisher Jackie Corley.

Alder Run Lane

On the way home from La Petit Chou's today I stopped to photograph this lane. A big monarch butterfly hung with me awhile, and I hoped it might have found its way into a shot, but when I looked through the files tonight, it was gone.

Last Load

Thunder rumbled to the south, but no rain fell, and I kept cutting. At sunset, I stopped to take this photo. She's an old horse, but she's still running.

Windows of Heaven

Windows of Heaven
Pen & Ink, Pencil; 2001

Postcards & greeting cards available at RedBubble.

A Good Stopping Place

In the little wood between Cornell Plantations' Herb Garden and the new Welcome Center. Greeting cards and affordable prints available at my RedBubble store.

Cut, Split, Stacked

No time for laying stone lately. But there's this. Much more momentary, but I've learned to value momentary. Life helps with that. Andy Goldsworthy's work does too, and opens up your head to a gazillion possibilities. Art is anything you make of it. Greeting cards of this image are available at my RedBubble store.

And A Woodcutter's Son

We make the path walking carrying firewood.

Parnilla.com

Parni's new site is live. Greeting cards and prints available at Redbubble; for information on available originals, contact West End Gallery, Corning. Thanks for stopping by!

Prints at RedBubble

Happy that several of my drawings are now available as affordable prints, greeting cards, and posters at my RedBubble store. Click on an image to view and browse. I'm sorting through archived files, selecting work to be made available; if you're interested in a print of a drawing you don't see, email me. Thanks for stopping by, and hope you'll share.

Ramshackle Review 4/June

The Moor
Cover photo by Karen de la Bald

RR4/June 2011 is live, here. In this issue:

Fiction by Jen Knox, Nicolette Wong, Jack Swenson, xTx, Danny Goodman, and Robert Wexelblatt.

Poetry by Meredith Weiers, Bill Yarrow, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Lucinda Beeman, Al Ortolani, Tony Brewer, Byron Matthews, Jennifer Wineke, Jessica Bell, Laura Grafham, David Tomaloff, Rachel Mangini, Barry Spacks, Brad P. Olson, John Tustin, Ally Malinenko, Sara Basrai, Jennifer Blair, Amanda Laughtland, Darryl Price, Andrea Spofford, Susan Keiser, Emily Severance, Heather Abner, Tina Barry, Howie Good, Randi Beck, and Heath Corlew.

Black and white photography by Karen de la Bald, Laurent Miaille, Stefan Randholm, Annie Atkins, Kirsten Thormann, Helene Fjell, Quervel Sébastien, Beatrice Belguiral, Marco Masciovecchio, Ana Moreno, Shlomi Kramer, Alessio Di Menna, Penny Hardie, and Netra Nei.

Also in this issue: Memoir by Maureen Eppstein, and Sheldon Lee Compton reviews Rusty Barnes’ book Redneck Poems.

As always, thanks very much to all who have contributed. It’s an honor to share your work in RR.

Operating Costs

My flash Operating Costs is included in Criminal Class Review 4.1. More on the issue here.

Berthier Door

photo: les specialistes

My flash Berthier Door is up at Used Furniture Review. My thanks to editor David Cotrone.

More on Julien Berthier on BLDGBLOG.

After Bukowski

My flash After Bukowski is up at Metazen. My thanks to Frank Hinton & Len Kuntz.

House By The Sea

Happy to have my story House By The Sea in the new issue of Word Riot. As always, my thanks to fiction editor Kevin O'Cuinn and publisher Jackie Corley.

Hope

Hope
Ink, Graphite, 5" x 6 7/8"
$150.

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Happy I still can. We all need hope.

Hope is available unmatted and unframed (it'll fit comfortably in an 8 x 10 or larger) for $150, shipping to continental US included. This offer is not available through any gallery. If you're interested, email me.

Moon Milk Review 2011 Anthology

Happy to have my drawing Ceremony included in Moon Milk Review's 2011 Anthology. It's available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble; more information here. My thanks to MMR editor Rae Bryant.