Monday, September 30, 2013

Work Notebook (Ray Johnson Is Everywhere)

One of my favorite things in the world are these composition notebooks, the ones you always see in movies in the 50’s or 60’s. I’m sure they had more than these notebooks, but film and television doesn’t like to show anything else. I’ve always loved them. I’ve always used them for really long trips and in this case, my work notebook.
The first week I was a full time instructor, I noticed that people were taking notebooks with them to meetings so I did to. Since I always have a few of these handy it was what I took to the meeting. Now that I’ve been full time for a little while (starting my fifth year) I’ve developed some patterns. Every two years I start on a new notebook, this one is obviously my third and it’s got a jump on the others. I’ve almost filled the back of this one and the front is coming along nicely with stuff I find around school.
On the inside I have notes from meetings, conversations with coworkers, and a lot of little doodles. More interestingly, I have a lot of found notes, little things I’ve rescued from the floor or notes given to me during a class, anything interesting I felt I needed to keep. My shelves are starting to fill up with these notebooks.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Work Makings...

Every once in a while, things slow down at work so I decide to make the most of my time. Normally I go around to the recycling cans out in the halls and in the faculty workroom and find bits and pieces. There’s nothing better than a school to find a lot of paper sitting around. During the year I even collect interesting bits of paper and put it in a desk drawer, just for one of those “down times.” A few days ago, I had a little downtime and decided to put a few things to a piece of cardboard. This was the creation that came from that boredom…had the glue stick out and everything, working at the desk. I put everything away when I coworker came into my office to chitchat. Looks pretty neat to me, not sure who I’ll mail the thing to? First one to leave a comment will get it.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

From North Carolina to the Ukraine! I Sent Something?

Every once in a while I send something to an “all call.” Sometimes I hear back from these things that could be anywhere in the world and other times I do not. Today I received this in the mail, something I do not remember sending to but was pleasantly surprised to see. Unfortunately I have no idea what is going on with this zine. My name’s in it but it’s in Ukrainian. Along with the package came a personalized note from the organizer. I have no idea what this is about? I love these little surprises that come out of nowhere.
I’ve scanned the front cover, the first page of the zine, and the page clearly containing my name.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Project Updates

I have nothing new to show on this blog. Well, I made a couple big piles of cards and sent them out into the world but I haven’t seen evidence of them landing just yet. They’re out there somewhere even if I’m not too sure where. After the summer of making zines and handmade CD’s I’m ready to get back to making more cards and strange things. Every week I’m going to send out something, anything, just out there.
A few seconds ago I posted something on IUOMA about a few notebooks I sent out into the world. I guess I sent them out there as an “add and pass” scenario. I hoped they’d come back to me but I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. In fact, I’ve only heard about one person receiving the book and that was at least six months ago. It didn’t come home so I figured it was still out there traveling around the world. Hopefully it made it over the water, or one of them made it over the water. One book was quick big, an autograph book that was quite old, the other two were tiny little speckled black and white notebooks, really small things. Not sure what anyone could put in one those, but I wanted to see. Hopefully my little note will grab someone’s attention and send one of them back to me, or at least evidence of it moving around back to me.
I’ve started a new zine. I probably shouldn’t have started another new zine considering how much work the last couple of them ended up being. Well, it wasn’t that much work but it was a little work. This one I put out to close friends to see if they wanted to contribute. It was simply a facebook message backed up with a group updating what’s going on with things. At this point I’ve received six contributions and every single one of them is visual. I wanted some writing in there. I expect I’ll get some writing to flesh out the great images I’ve received. My contribution, which I’m not too sure I’m going to keep, is something I wrote. It’s not that good, although funny, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to post something I created? Looking to mail this thing out at the start of the New Year.