My friends are super cool. I thought I already knew this, but I really had NO IDEA how cool they really are. Reading these guest "10 things" posts has given me a new appreciation for all the crazy creative and talented people that God has placed in my life. That being said, I am so pleased to welcome Stephanie Brewer to the blog. Stephanie is currently a student at Kent State working on her BFA in Printmaking. Although we have a shared love for art, our world's kind of collided through campus ministry –she has been married for seven years to a wonderful man who serves at a college church. I LOVE knowing other people who can share in both my passion for art and creativity and my passion for spreading the love of Jesus and Stephanie is one of those people. In her own words, "I first met Jesus at a punk rock concert and I am very, very grateful for the immensity of God's grace." I could go on and on about how wonderful I actually think Stephanie is, but I'll just let you read for yourself. - Caitlin
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10 dear things
I'm going through a weird season of life. Everything feels "in transition" and I've done so much life-processing that it's like my nerves are sitting on the outside of my skin. When I'm not working, most of my time is spent toiling away on a series of etching that are about –what else?– transition. I made a list of things that mean something to me in this strange, silent landscape.
1. The work of my printmaking advisor, Noel. His prints make me think of an anecdote Annie Dillard used in her book The Writing Life. She'd asked a painter friend of hers how he came to paint, and he said, "I like the smell of paint."
2. (On that note) Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. I have read it many times, to the extent that Annie feels like a very wise friend. I'm not a writer, but her observations apply. For example:
Process is nothing; erase your tracks. The path is not the work. I hope your tracks have grown over; I hope birds ate the crumbs; I hope you will toss it all and not look back.
3. Heike Wadewitz's work. I often feel this pressure (coming from where, exactly?) to make artwork that is clean and neat, but...I really do think it's our mistakes that are most interesting. I like how Heike's frenetic scribbling is anchored by her strong sense of composition.
4. This American Life's "Our Friend David" episode. David Rakoff was one of my absolute favorite This American Life contributors, and the episode the TAL put together after his passing is one of my favorite episodes.
5. Aaron Rose's Beautiful Losers documentary. I kid you not, I've seen this a lot. From imdb: "This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world."
6. Earl Sweatshirt "Chum" song and music video. I apologize if you hate swear words. Rap is one of my favorite music genres. I spent my childhood stifling negative emotions so, I guess it means a lot to me to hear anyone working from some of the worst parts of their lives. From "Chum":
"I'm supposed to be grateful, right? Like thanks so much you made my life harder"
(disclaimer: explicit language)
7. PAWS. When I was in high school, I loved bands like Jawbreaker and Braid. So now, naturally, I love bands like Cloud Nothings and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Imagine my excitement when I heard PAWS:
8. Salem mixtapes. IMHO, the the perfect studio music.
9. Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space. This book is amazing - I have been referencing it often. This excerpt gives a good idea of the content:
Of course, thanks to the house,a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit elaborate, if it have a cellar and a garret, nooks and corridors, our memories have refuges that are all the more clearly delineated. All our lives we come back to them in our daydreams. A psychoanalyst should, therefore, turn his attention to this simple localization of our memories. I should like to give the name of topoanalysis to this auxiliary of psychoanalysis. Topoanalysis, then would be the systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate lives.
10. Jesus's humanity. I feel like everything I am about to write will be so inadequate, will fall lamely in front of the reader's eyes, because it is really pretty basic, but... lately I am in awe of how Jesus didn't fall back on religious actions, but was a perfect God physically engaged in broken situations. When I feel stuck in the tension between things, I am comforted that Jesus really does know what this feels like, more than I ever will.
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Connect with Stephanie! Instagram: stphnbrwr
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