Life Artists Unite: Those Who Make the World More Whimsical/Surreal/Wondrous

INVITATION

If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

~Shel Silverstein

Imagine this: you're walking down the street, and the trash can is looking at you.

Or you're dragging your hand along a brick wall and discover a secret city between the cracks.

Or you're at a cafe, and a girl pulls off her hat, removes a handful of treasures from her bag, and starts playing a game with her tablemates.

Art isn't just paint on a canvas or clay on a pottery wheel. Anything that makes you stop and think and see the world in a slightly tilted way? That's art too. In my travels around the net, I've discovered quite a few artists who are making the places they live a bit more surreal, whimsical, and wondrous.

Every day I see such lovely things.

ColorMeKatie documents tiny adventures in NYC--sticking hearts and eyes and butterflies in unexpected places, dying food unexpected colors, dancing with strangers and photographing missions with Improv Everywhere. Her photos have a wonderful sense of color and composition, and every post makes me want to go out and have an adventure, too. The best part of ColorMeKatie is the integration of art and everyday life--so inspiring!

Lea Redmond’s other creative projects range from socially-engaged conceptual artwork, to projects with youth, to small performances reminiscent of magic tricks. In a nutshell, she loves to make things. Things that inspire. Things that tell stories. Things that spark critical thinking. Things that question. Things that make us wonder. Things that envision and create a new world.

Recipe dice and The World's Smallest Postal Service. Poetry ribbons and reader-named crayon colors. Matchbox theaters, creative wedding consultations, and earrings for spontaneous seeding. Lea Redmond proves that you can be whimsical and environmentally conscious with her quirky, earth-friendly projects, crafts, and performances. When I first discovered this site, I gasped in delight and devoured every word. Find treasures in her Curiosity Shoppe, read about her Art Projects, and keep up with her latest works on the Leafcutter Designs blog. The World's Smallest Postal Service was recently featured on BoingBoing.

When Leonardo's da Vinci's pupils were stuck for inspiration he advised them to make a study of a crack in the wall, and it's true that when you spend time engaging your imagination with such a crack, all sorts of possibilities and new worlds may begin to appear...

Helen Nodding's website is called Stories from Space, but her work is thoroughly terrestrial.  She creates castles for spiders, fairy-lit caverns for squirrel gods, a bestiary's worth of mythical bugs, and messages in moss.

ABC Adventures began one dreadfully boring night in Tempe, Arizona. Elizabeth Adventure and Brian Adventure were sitting at her house, determined to have an exciting, adventure-filled night but were running dry on ideas. We wished we’d had a book that was full of awesome things to do almost anywhere, any time, any day of the week. Since no such book existed as far as we knew, we decided it was imperative to create such a thing and share it with the rest of the people in the world who would most certainly, at some point, be as bored as we were that night. While the physical book is still our goal, we’ve chosen to publish our adventures as we go on this blog.

When you've been all shook up from reading arty blogs and want to go out into the world and do something, ABC Adventures is your guidebook to cheap fun: bubbles, moustache-wearing, tree-climbing and secret-note-leaving. They love reader participation, so send in your own adventures!

plain and simple, the mission is: to spread big or small bits of love and things that make you smile and laugh, little bits of unexpected happiness and affirmation. we believe in feeling good and spreading it; we want everyone everywhere to know that somebody somewhere loves you. because you are amazing in all your strange and wonderful ways.

here you will find lists on how to love yourself more, beautiful things, ways to share your beauty & knowledge & love. you will also find stories of people who have discovered YOU ARE REMARKABLE through the tangible guerrilla love sharing.

Does what it says on the tin. While the sites above aim to spread art, this one looks to spread love--which becomes a kind of art in itself. I love the List of Ways to Heal a Broken Heart, secret gifts, and love letters to & from.

Want to join them?

1. NamelessleTTer is a collaborative art project where people from all horizons leave personalized bookmarks in books with the goal of seeing other readers discover them. Library-based arting? Awesome.

2. Cakespy created faux cupcakes with inspiring messages and left them for the world at large. “The ultimate goal was a momentary escape from everyday worries, and a small reminder that yes, life can be strange, but sometimes sweet.”

3. Zoomdoggle's on a mission to send out 1,000 love letters.

4. Magnets + plastic army men, dinosaurs, and aliens +magnet friendly surface = Vertical Wars! Guttermonkey on Livejournal tireless documented his own tiny plastic battles: Post 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. (Noting that I don't necessarily endorse the views of the first website, but I do like reading posts about weird art and ghost stories.)

5. Are you a fiber artist, or just a chick (or dude!) with sticks? Join the Global Guerilla Knit Up Challenge!

6. If it wasn't for Keri Smith (and Jerry Spinelli--Stargirl, naturally), I wouldn't know about the crazy world of guerilla art. Read her post on How to Be a Guerilla Artist as a primer, and this interview at Art News for in-depth exploration of her work and philosophy.

30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used to Call Your Boyfriend: A Heartbreak Handbook by Clea Hantman

Is it the season of breakups?

More often than not, I've been counseling friends with broken hearts. No wonder so many made New Year's vows to seek another soulmate.

I'd also like to take a moment, for any friend-of-a-friends who are reading this, to mention that my ex is not a dork. My ex is a sweetheart.

Except when it comes to They Might Be Giants. Then she's a dork. :)

Well, awesome readers, dry your eyes and pick up the ILL form, cause Clea Hantman--aka Super Clea of LSL's much-touted Hey Day!--is here with 30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used to Call Your Boyfriend: A Heartbreak Handbook.

This tiny but powerful title promises that the sun will shine again, the pain will end, and you'll be singing a new song , Chiquitita. However, no wallowing is allowed. Each day has a new bit of hard-won advice and mission to get you moving and discovering bits of yourself, topped with a haiku and served with a song . Following the five stages of grieving, Clea starts you off writing the saga of your lost love. After you've committed it to memory, you're instructed to tear it into itty bitty pieces and toss it over your head. It's a slightly messy celebration of new things to come! What fun!

When you hit the anger chapter, you'll be doing yoga and turning that nasty break-up letter into kistchy paper jewelry. Bargaining for her love? Get your mind off the torrid past by learning to flirt, or making your own little "Love is..." posters to stick about. Depressed? Feng Shui your room, remake your wardrobe, and script your life as a movie starring you. Accepted that she's hit the road? Research your passions, chart a world tour-de-force, and then reward yourself for the last 30 days of growth and:

Do something silly and ridiculous and flirtatiously fun with your friends. Like, throw a congratulatory party with lots of meaningless pop songs and yummy snacks...Or mark this day by having you and your friends communicate only through song lyrics!...Or maybe you and your friends can hold an all-girl poker tournament at your house, and instead of money, you play with gummy bears...Or you could gather the girlies together to create a magazine about something or someone you love. And you can do it in one crazy, fun-filled night...Or you and your friends could all plant little flower gardens in your bike baskets and then go on a parade all around the neighborhood and all around town. Yes, it's absurd, and yes, it's silly, but that's the point.

By rewarding yourself with a fun activity, you're rewarding yourself with a rousing good memory, a wonderfully delicious memory. And like I've said before, the good feeling you get from that memory is something you can return to again and again.

This is a fantastically dynamic guide to duct-taping your heart back together, following warm advice with proactive activities to get you back into gear. You may not be totally over that dork, but you'll be well on your way to a happier, well-rounded existence. Fun, portable, cheap and full of good spirit, I totally recommend 30 Days to Getting Over the Dork... to all the newly-singletons who need a kick in the proverbial bottom.

*Clea Hantman blogs at SuperClea and Clea's Corner

*When your month is up, check out Holi-Dazed, a free book about weird holidays in the zine-y style of the much loved Hey, Day! I have the whole thing from the original website and adore it to bits.

*The Getting Over the Dork blog follows up on Clea's love of indie music, posting tracks to sigh to and scores for your moment of revelation that hey, you're just not into her (or him) either

*30 Days to Finding and Keeping Sassy Sidekicks and BFFs: A Friendship Field Guide is out on April 14. Sweet!

Life is just more fun with friends. And who doesn’t want a sidekick in case there’s ever a need to fight crime or solve a mystery? Every girl needs at least one wonderful pal, and when you harness the power of friendship, life’s possibilities can be limitless. It might sound like kid’s stuff, but the support of a girlfriend can last a lifetime. Long after the boys have come and gone, a true blue girlfriend will still be by your side.
But like it or not, friendships take work, plain and simple. And that’s where 30 Days to Finding and Keeping Sassy Sidekicks and BFFs comes in—a field guide to friendship that will help you learn the basics of meeting new friends and keeping the old.

*Grrl.com founder Bonnie Burton's list of things to do to repair a broken heart makes for good extracurriculars during your 30 days.

*Still stuck? Read Ask Nicole for advice about love, life, and everything in between, and if you're brave, submit your own query

Call it Cabinet of Curiosities Couture

Art by Vera Bee, who draws cute kisses and fantastic hats

Oh, that's a wonderful question. I'd definitely want plenty of 18th century polonaise dresses, and I have long greatly coveted the Princesse de Machin's headress: a bird cage filled with live butterflies! I'd want plenty of elaborately draped dresses from the 1870's, both bustle and natural form, two eighteenth century men's coats, one plain and one all embroidered. As well as that lots of wonderful wire-and-padding undergarments! An 1860's croquet skirt would be nice as well. I would also adore a Poiret lampshade skirt (could I try and make one out of a real lampshade?) I'd love a stylized version of 1700's skirt supports, made to look like an pyramid of suspended gargantuan picture frames, graduating in size from the waist to the floor. I'd love to have one of those umbrellas with antique dolls on them, and a few of Mme. Tilman's taxidermy hats, though perhaps not, because I'd feel terribly guilty wearing them, knowing that the animals were killed for it. Since it is my dream wardrobe, I will have lots of automaton jewelry that in real life, like these other things, I could never afford. Oh, and I'd love some of the costumes from the Ballet Russes, and Loie Fuller's dancing dress, and 1940's doll hats, and posy holders, and a hat with a Venus flytrap on it, for insect control! Also wearable terrariums, and a land going octopus familiar that would sit happily on my head and act as a wig during bad hair days. ~mudpie_duchess, in response to "What hangs in your fantasy closet?"

Hey Day: Super-Amazing, Funk-Da-Crazing, Ultra-Glazing Things to Do, Make and Ponder Every Day of the Year by Super Clea and Keva Marie

Back in the day (the early Oughts), zines were kind of a big deal.
Think of graphic novels or manga now--zines were hot. Girl Power was hot, thanks to the unlikely combination of Dr. Mary Pipher and the Spice Girls. Craftiness was...kind of hot. Nothing like the humongous and all-devouring DIY movement of today, but still hot. So, HarperCollins took a leap and published Hey Day, a zine-ish daybook for the young, empowered and artsy crafty. It was scribed and designed (on an iMac! Those were the days.) by Keva Marie [Dine] and Super Clea [Hantman].

It's big, a little messy and totally exuberant with a charming naiveness. This is a daybook you could have cut and pasted with your best friend in high school during study periods, if you had the stamina. It's full of inside jokes and random asides and cute little doodles in the margin. Organized in a page-a-day format, you instructions for decorating your locker, meanderings about the word "epiphany," and a set of questions for making your friend the ideal birthday cake:

1. When the birthday person orders a milkshake, what flavor does he/she get? This is the flavor the cake should be.
2. If the birthday person were to buy a party wig, would it be blue or green or pink or white or what? This shall determine what flavor/color the frosting should be.
3. What kind of outfit would the birthday person most likely wear? This is how to decorate the cake.

There are love paens to your local library (<3!), weird little-known holidays to celebrate and essays on the beauty of girls with glasses and how one visit to a cool aunt's flat can change your perspective forever:

Ahh, the bliss I felt when she led us down the long white hall into her studio. My eyes raced over the room.Tables with paints sprawled all about, stacks of canvases, buckets of brushes and pens and pencils, piles of multicolored construction paper, and every tool you could imagine. Oh, and books, so many books. Books on Thai architecture, books on Paul Klee, Andy Warhol and even Madonna. More books than I'd ever seen in someone's house before.

I was overloaded, overjoyed. I had a flash. A moment of clarity: people do live art. Women do make art for a living. It is possible to live in the blissful creation of your own devices. I decided right then and there that when I had my own home I would revel in its beauty. I would live in it to the fullest and one day, one day when I was able to do it, I would work at home and make art. But in the meantime, I continued to sew buttons on everything.

Hey Day is kicky and young and eccentric, full of creative energy and good things to ponder. Though sadly out of print, it's worth picking up for the artsy/bookish/quirky pre-teen on your giftlist, or yourself if you're having a fit of nostalgia.

Excuse me while I turn up Patti Smith and make some fairy bread. The year 2001 is calling and she wants to reminisce.

Hey Day: Super Amazing, Funk-da-Crazing, Ultra-Glazing Things to Do, Make and Ponder Every Day of the Year by Super Clea and Keva Marie

Sadly, out of print, but try the fine sellers at Amazon.com (be sure to check their feedback!) and Albris. Bookcloseouts.com sometimes sells remainder copies; I recommend them wholeheartedly as they've given me the best service of any online bookseller.

Keva Dine, now a professional recruiter of creative types, has her own website.
I adore her essay on Why Girls Kick Ass.
Clea Hantman recently published the I Wanna series; 30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used To Call Your Boyfriend will be out in January 2008.

You can read interviews with the authors at Craftygal and TeenReads.com.

Oh, and here's a recipe for fairy bread. Randomly, Australia has really cute snacks: fairy bread, lamingtons, butterfly cakes, pavlova...lamington butterfly cakes.

Your Daughter's Quite a Character: Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip

In her ten-fact bio provided at the end of The Zine Scene, Hillary Carlip offered tantalizing hints about her past: she juggled and ate fire, performed in a punk rock band, and befriended famous songstresses in her youth.

"Wow," mused little 13-year-old Rie, "I wish she'd write about all those crazy things she did."

The funny thing about musings of that nature is that sometimes, when you're really lucky, they come true.

Queen of the Oddballs follows Ms. Carlip from her youthful days of being expelled from school for imitating Audrey Hepburn and dancing at a cotillion with children of the stars to tumultuous teen years where radical self-acceptance circles leave your butt itchy and your mind blown to winning The Gong Show and dramatic wooing of dancers on the set of Xanadu and I haven't even started telling you about the juggling or baking banana bread for Carly Simon:

All that week, bringing gifts of pumpkin, date nut, cinnamon-raisin and honey-walnut bread, recipes courtesy of The Tassajara Bread Book, Molly and I hung out in Carly's dressing room. On the third night, she added us to the guest list--a great relief, since with the $4.00 ticket price and the cost of baking ingredients, my weekly allowance was barely enough to keep up.

Her writing is inviting and very, very funny, and the cast is oddball enough that they positively have to be real. I especially love how Carlip shook things up with different story formats-diary entries for "The King Case," a letter for "Dear Olivia Newton John," and the 45 steps to fame for "Anyone Can Be a Rock Star; or How to Be an Impostor." Every story begins with a list of notable facts from the year in which it took place; all end with a collage of ephemera central to its plot. Never boring, always inspiring, Queen of the Oddballs is a must-read.

A few words of advice for us young oddballs from the author herself, from an interview at Pink World:

I was a total outsider, the weird, chubby writer girl, until I began to Think Pink, that is! Queen of the Oddballs, what advice would you give to readers who feel like no one gets them and that life is a bit sucky right now?
GO FOR IT! Be who you are – FULLY! Be an eccentric, a trail-blazer, somewhat mistrustful of the tasteful and the restrained. Act 45 when you’re 13, and 13 when you’re 45. Travel off the beaten-path. Do things unaccording to plan, and not only embrace your oddballness, but CELEBRATE IT! As long as YOU get yourself, and decide that who you are is freakin’ AWESOME no matter what, then others will think you’re awesome, too.

Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip
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