sketchbook no. 7

self portrait portraits: i want to convince a group of my friends to take pictures of themselves. i want each friend to take a picture of him or herself, naked. just the beheaded picture of a body, the camera gazing down like a head upon itself. it's all we can ever see of ourselves without a mirror or a camera or a reflection. and i think in that self-portrait each person would capture the things about his or her body that he or she most hates; he or she would have to face the imperfections of his or her body and still love him or herself enough to photograph the body. and then i would take each self-portrait and paint it or blow it up into a giant photograph. each self-portrait would become a portrait of mine of that person the way that person sees him or herself.

ghouls

the fall! the fall! my favorite season. with birds and squirrels and cold weather and jackets and the quiet. the rain comes to portland, but the chilly weather makes up for it. all the good fall memories remembered make up for the rain. and everyone has the best luck in the fall. we think of spring as a time for couples, but i think people begin pairing off during the fall: holding hands and linking arms and wrapping up and going home together. and drinks. and hot toddies. and the damp fragrant earth. and the leaves: they always surprise me. i wait and wait and wait and think i'll catch them, but i never do. one day they're just red and fiery and orange and floating.

and the hungry ghosts. the ghosts make me sad, their chill fingers pulling at my clothes, tussling my hair, caressing my face. they demand something, they always take something. but what? i feel like i loose something each year to them, the hungry ghosts. the sacrifice of time.

sketchbook no. 6

i want to put together a collection of memoirs from my friends who have moved to oregon. i think it would be interesting to have a specific place unite all the memoirs: portland, or. certainly they would all just be about moving to oregon, but would all address portland as a place in some way. i'm interested in making them/mine as specific as possible, with road names and store names and people. "place-names" : proust. portlanders should be able to connect to the piece(s) in a way that outsiders cannot.