communikate

This January, I'm using swap-bot's lovely interactive services to help me with an art project for the 5th annual fun-a-day project by artclash (www.artclash.com). Fun-a-day invites anyone who wants to join to do or make one thing for every day in January, then present the finished collection at a one-night-only exhibit. Past years have been just smashing, and I'm so excited about this project!

I've pledged to make one swap a day through swap-bot for every day of January. This means that whatever my partners send me will be shared with the public at the February art show, so flakers will make me extra sad (there will be a blank space!). If you really don't want what you send to be in the exhibit, just let me know - I promise to respect your wishes and love what you've sent just as much.

I'm blogging about it too; check out my weblog above. Thanks everybody for helping me out!

I live in and love West Philadelphia, and do mostly arts-, editing- and organizing-related odd jobs for a living. My odd-jobs life came about when, instead of going back to school for textile design as planned, I decided to put it off for a semester - the rest of my life had just been turned on its head (end of a relationship, moving house), and I needed some ease-time. But I'd already quit my day job, so I got little project-oriented jobs I could finish by the time school started, and discovered I loved it! I love making my own schedule, working from home (mostly), and having a huge variety of complementary work. I decided that getting loans to go back to school would really narrow my options instead of opening them up, so my life-long dream of art school turned out to be something I didn't want after all.

This affirms my observation that most things happen for a reason, whether or not we know what the reason is. Now I'm trying this grand new experiment of trusting that the universe will take care of me as it takes care of everything, so I don't worry so much about stuff I can't necessarily control.

Supporting local economies, fair trade, and handmade enterprises is important to me, as are animal welfare, a diet of locally-grown and organic foods, and a sustainable lifestyle. I try to live simply and keep the amount of stuff I have to a minimum (but I can't make that apply to shoes, asstastic jeans or art supplies).

Usually I have a cat in my lap when I'm in the computer cockpit.

I oscillate wildly between loving to be around people and wanting to be by myself all the time.

• Flipbooks (I have a small collection)
• Terribly boring (as in, why on earth would I go there?) or otherwise unusual postcards
• Languages (I'm trying to learn a smattering of every major language, just in case)
• Cheap art
• Polish art posters
• Sewing
• Recycled & upcycled stuff
• Bikes & bike culture
• Long earrings
• Letterpress, serigraphy & woodcuts
• Handmade anything & fair trade
• Things that hang from the ceiling
• Vintage illustrated dictionaries, encyclopedias and textbooks
• Anatomical, biological and architectural drawings
• Obscure vocabulary
• Seeds, nuts and seedpods
• Origami
• Colors: black, navy, dark gray and red.
• Reading. Lately I'm on a medieval history, early American history, arctic exploration and science-writing kick, but I also love fairy tales, dorothy sayers, pearl s. buck, marge piercy, octavia butler, douglas adams and the 'his dark materials' trilogy. I will not read romance novels to save my life.
• Quilts
• Working myself silly
• Unstructured time
• Getting mail!
• Contemporary art with a sociopolitical bent
• Collage
• Music from the 1930s, and lyrics that aren't in English
• Useful things like kitchen utensils, pocket knives, magnets, thumbtacks, picture frames, etc
• Maps
• Musky incense, but not the fruity stuff
• Chai, black and detox teas

I'm in this for the surprises, but there are some things I won't know what to do with, such as

• Meat, leather or other animal ingredients
• I'm a vegan-leaning vegetarian who tries (and often fails) to squelch her sweet tooth, hates green peppers, and can't drink apple juice.
• Dolls & bears
• Disney, sanrio or other pop cartoon characters (but I really like more underground comix)
• Pastel shades
• Cute & sweet anything
• Romance novels
• Bookmarks (what for? an old envelope will do)
• Religious & spiritually-oriented stuff (I'm not unspiritual, but I prefer to define it myself)
• Any synthetic fibers (polyester, nylon, etc), they're the equivalent of scratching a chalkboard to me
• Knick-knacks, dustcatchers, or tschotchkes
• Things from walmart or dollar stores
• Smelly bath & body products (but I love the natural stuff)
• Not that I'd get these by swapping, but I don't have a husband and kids and I don't want either of them.

josephine baker, radiohead, wilco, calexico, mission of burma, carina round, propagandhi, q and not u, old 97s, pj harvey, the weakerthans, the smiths, bad religion, the dears, diverse, elliott smith, frank black & the catholics, fugazi, yo la tengo, neil young, slim cessna's auto club, the stooges, neutral milk hotel, the roots, stinking lizaveta, andrew bird, the clash, stratotanker, can, the make-up, the fall, joy division, MC5, gang of four, bauhaus, alice coltrane, TV on the radio, patsy cline, the carter family, talking heads, curtis mayfield, the cure, violent femmes, pavement, sslyby, etta james, john coltrane, jose gonzales, iron & wine, karl larsson, etc etc etc etc etc.

mostly independents. very little country or R&B.

photo by ms Julia Blaukopf http://www.juliablaukopf.com/