PostCcards #8! /  by Nathan Webster

Today’s generous contributors are two Canadians:

Architect, Brian Wakelin and Financial advisor and NOW-ID Board member, Heidi Westfall.

Brian Wakelin: We just came back from NZ on Saturday and are in a two week quarantine period – we can’t leave the house for anything. Sooo, at this particular moment we are working at the kitchen table. Caroline has ducked upstairs for a zoom meeting. For me the view from the kitchen table is vital as it’s our real connection to public life. All grocery deliveries (thank you aunt Shelley) and visits happen with the glass in between. The other image is the kids doing exercises in the living room. We are certainly building (and testing!) the family bonds – one of the bright sides in this dark time.

Heidi Westfall: I really am taking this as a sabbath to be present, grateful, creative and clean up all the piles of projects I have been avoiding.


PostCcards #7! /  by Nathan Webster

Today’s contributors are Poet Joanna Lee, based in Richmond, Virginia and Artist Portia Snow, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Joanna Lee: It is National Poetry Month! So I am part of a couple cohorts doing a poem every day in April. (It's something I attempt every year but rarely make it through due to everything else going on... so this is actually a plus side to the slow-down for me.) I really believe in writing as a tool to sublimate some of the trauma we are all feeling these days. Here's a haiku from a prompt a couple days ago: 

planted years ago,

why do the white irises 

first bloom in this fear?

...true story, as the iris bulbs from a friend I planted 3 years ago do have blooms for the first time. :) 

As far as inspirational settings, it's all about the growing things! These are morning-coffee shots of the 2-year-old lemon trees I grew from seeds, and one of my cat, Max, helping me with poems at night!

Portia Snow: I have been in my studio working with a new medium.  I was prompted by Liza Lou and her #aparttogether_art project. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/arts/design/liza-lou.html

I have been patching together parts of my daughters old clothing in order to make a quilt. She is off to college in the fall. The process has been quite extraordinary. First, the experience of going through all of her baby clothes (all the feels), then choosing the pieces to use.  Second, patching them together to form a comfort blanket sounds simple in theory if you are at all familiar with sewing or quilt-making, which I am not. Or, was not. I just began stitching things together and it seems to be working. It’s coming along. It has been a very cool project, very much about connection, about comfort and about moving past my idea that I don’t have the skills to create something like this. I have gone in and out of moments of wanting to completely light everything on fire to being really thrilled about the outcome. So goes the making of art.

PostCcards #6! /  by Nathan Webster

Today’s contributors are both based in Salt Lake City, Utah: film artist and photographer, Jan Andrews and Principal dancer with Ballet West (and NOW-ID), Katherine Lawrence.

Jan Andrews: I spend some time every day getting exercise by hiking through the cemetery with camera in hand. Perfect place for social distancing as most of the residence are 6ft under.  

Cemetery Views.jpeg

Katherine Lawrence: Picture 1: We've begun daily family walks and the cemetery is not only a great place to social distance, but also full of beauty, life, and peace amid the uncertainty and chaos. Picture 2: My boys fill my days and remind me how fortunate I am.

PostCcards #5! /  by Nathan Webster

Today’s contributor is the wonderful artist, performer, designer and magic maker - Gary Vlasic from Salt Lake City, Utah.

We are excited to feature and celebrate his art today, on his Birthday!

Happy Birthday beautiful friend!

Gary: In our new reclusive lives I have buried into the studio. A refuge. This is a time a reflection, art making and re-strategizing our lives.

I am sharing new works and works in process. I have been doing a series of 22” x 30” mixed media 'visual poems’, as well as my bossy 8' mylar pieces.


PostCcards #4! /  by Nathan Webster

During this time of distance, I felt it could be helpful to share entries from collaborators from all over the world, to help our readers out of their personal space and into someone else's. I created this series because I have been looking for inspiration and connection and know I am not alone.

Friends are sharing an image of themselves… the space that they occupy most these days or a moment, landscape, piece, book, view, thing, dream or simply something keeping them inspired, optimistic and sane.

Charlotte

Today’s generous contributor is: architect/educator Chris Taylor - based in Lubbock, Texas.

Chris shared images from his life and the preface to William Carlos Williams book length poem Paterson.

Preface 

"Rigor of beauty is the quest. But how will you find beauty 
when it is locked in the mind past all remonstrance?" 

To make a start, 

put of particulars 

and make them general, rolling 

up the sum, by defective means — 

Sniffing the trees, 

just another dog 

among a lot of dogs. What 

else is there? And to do? 

The .rest-have run out — 

after the rabbits. 

Only the lame stands— on 

three legs. Scratch front and back. 

Deceive and eat. Dig 

a musty bone 

- 

For the beginning is assuredly 

the end — since we know nothing, pure 

and simple, beyond 

our own complexities. 

Yet there is 
no return: rolling up out of chaos, 
a nine months' wonder, the city 
the man, an identity — it can't be 
otherwise — an 

interpenetration, both ways. Rolling 

3 


up! obverse, reverse; 

the drunk the sober; the illustrious 

the gross; one. In ignorance 

a certain knowledge and knowledge, 

undispersed, its own undoing. 

(The multiple seed, 
packed tight with detail, soured, 
is lost in the flux and the mind, 
distracted, floats off in the same 
scum) 

Rolling up, rolling up heavy with 
numbers. 

It is the ignorant sun 
rising in the slot of 
hollow suns risen, so that never in this 
world will a man live well in his body 
save dying — and not know himself 
dying; yet that is 
the design. Renews himself 
thereby, in addition and subtraction, 
walking up and down. 

and the craft, 
subverted by thought, rolling up, let 
him beware lest he turn to no more than 
the writing of stale poems . . . 
Minds like beds always made up, 

(more stony than a shore) 
unwilling or unable. 



Rolling in, top up, 
under, thrust and recoil, a great clatter: 
lifted as air, boated, multicolored, a 
wash of seas — 

from mathematics to particulars- 
divided as the dew, 
floating mists, to be rained down and 
regathered into a river that flows 
and encircles: 

shells and animalcules 
generally and so to man, 



to Paterson.

PostCcards #3! /  by Nathan Webster

During this time of distance, I felt it could be helpful to share entries from collaborators from all over the world, to help our readers out of their personal space and into someone else's. I created this series because I have been looking for inspiration and connection and know I am not alone.

Friends are sharing an image of themselves… the space that they occupy most these days or a moment, landscape, piece, book, view, thing, dream or simply something keeping them inspired, optimistic and sane.

Charlotte

Today’s generous contributors are:

choreographer/dancer/educator, Anne Van Gelder - based in Virginia and designer/artist/educator, Mallory Prucha - currently based in Arizona.

Anne Van Gelder took the below photo on a walk with her sister, last week before state parks were closed in Virginia.

image001.png

High Bridge State Park, near Farmville, VA.

Mallory Prucha: These days, the color of spring blooms serves as a reminder of renewal (even amongst the spines) is a compelling source of inspiration...here are a few sights from a Sunday walk near the Salt River, in Arizona...

PostCcards #2! /  by Nathan Webster

During this time of distance, I felt it could be helpful to share entries from collaborators from all over the world, to help our readers out of their personal space and into someone else's. I created this series because I have been looking for inspiration and connection and know I am not alone.

Friends are sharing an image of themselves… the space that they occupy most these days or a moment, landscape, piece, book, view, thing, dream or simply something keeping them inspired, optimistic and sane.

Charlotte

Our second couple of contributors are:

Artist and Educator, Susan Beck - based in Salt Lake City, Utah and Opera singer, Nana Bugge Rasmussen - based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Susan Beck is working on a series of images at the moment, titled the following:

Down but not out (featured below).

Nana Bugge Rasmussen says the following: I go to my scores for inspiration, the music is always full and rich, totally independent of what’s happening IRL.

Problem is, I have a terrible lack of discipline these days, so it takes me only too long to actually get there, but when I do, it’s worthwhile (Photo taken from and of her living room and rehearsal space).

image1-2.jpeg

PostCcards #1! /  by Nathan Webster

Welcome to a new blog series!

During this time of distance, I felt it could be helpful to share entries from collaborators from all over the world, to help our readers out of their personal space and into someone else's. I created this series because I have been looking for inspiration and connection and know I am not alone.

Friends are sharing an image of themselves… the space that they occupy most these days or a moment, landscape, piece, book, view, thing, dream or simply something keeping them inspired, optimistic and sane.

The first two below have been generously shared by Theatre Director, Rolf Heim based in Denmark and Deaf poet/performer, Walter Kadiki based in Australia.

Charlotte


Rolf Heim: Greetings from the time where you wander and only meet your shadow.

Walter Kadiki: Working on a piece during the day.


NE PLUS ULTRA: FILM ARTIST TJ MARTINEZ /  by Nathan Webster

TJ Martinez

TJ Martinez

Born in West Texas and raised in New Mexico, TJ is a native of the High Plains. His love of storytelling drew him to filmmaking. He has made both documentary and narrative films and enjoys the challenges and rewards of each. His films have screened at multiple conferences and festivals, including the American Folklore Society Conference and SXSW Film Festival. TJ holds an M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Texas-Austin. 

TJ is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.

I have known TJ Martinez for close to three years and we have collaborated on several projects while I have been at Texas Tech University. He is now working on the NOW-ID film project I-MIGRANT, which will be shot at Stubb’s Memorial Park in downtown Lubbock, amongst other places. The film will be released late April.

Charlotte Boye-Christensen

Tell us a little bit about your background: Where are you from and how did you end up in West Texas? 

 

I’m originally from northeastern New Mexico, a region that is very close geographically and culturally to West Texas, so I am very used to the pace of life in West Texas. 

I landed here after I finished my MFA if filmmaking at UT-Austin and entered the academic job market. I felt good about the folks at Texas Tech and this place felt ripe for creative opportunity, and thus began the current chapter in my life.

 

When did you know that you wanted to work as an artist and how did you choose you preferred medium? 

 

Growing up in rural New Mexico, my days mostly consisted of schoolwork and ranch work on my family’s ranch. I always had an active imagination and would find myself letting my mind fantasize and get lost in the stories I saw in the movies. I would watch any VHS movie I could get my hands on and was mesmerized by all the different worlds that could be created. Eventually I began to gain a fascination with that creation process and began to read about and study filmmaking. I didn’t know how I would be a part of that world, but I knew I wanted to.

 

You are such a prolific artist: doing film as well as photography, which format do you prefer and why?

 

My first love is film. It’s what I fell in love with first and photography came later. The two are closely related in some ways yet very different in others. At the end of the day, I suppose I have a fascination with all the moving parts that go into making a film.

Photos taken by TJ Martinez of our dance students at Texas Tech University

 

Can you talk a little bit about your creative process, where do you look for inspiration?

 

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and I’ve found inspiration from a number of sources. I think what’s more important than where you get an idea, though, is the discipline to develop that idea. Ideas come and go, but if a good one comes along, that’s worth our attention and effort, it’s our responsibility to develop it, flesh it out, and execute it, or else that idea will never be realized and brought about into the world.

 

Who are some of the people who have inspired you in your work and why?

 

I work mostly in documentary film and I have been very inspired by some of the subjects in my films. People like Mac, the cowboy in my film All Around who lost his eyesight in a tragic accident but didn’t let that keep him from doing what he loves, riding broncs in the rodeo. 

 

What do you consider to be some of the highlights in your career so far?

 

Making the film just mentioned, All Around, was definitely a highlight. It was challenging to figure out the best way to tell that story, but it was an incredibly rewarding creative process, as well as a collaborative one with my cinematographer and editor. That film has been very well received by many people and has won awards and screened at several festivals, including South by Southwest.

 

You work as a Professor of Practice at Texas Tech University, has teaching in any way helped you define your own creative voice? And what makes a good teacher of film?


I don’t know that it has helped me define my creative voice, but it has definitely helped me gain a deeper understanding of my craft. Being a teacher forces you to articulate as best you can the processes and techniques of what you do. When you’re forced to explain something, you understand it better. I think a good teacher in film is someone who can articulate those processes. A good teacher is also someone who understands what is objectively a good or bad choice by a student versus what is a matter of taste, and then knowing when and how to speak up about it.

 

Who do you consider to be three of the most significant artists in the world (living or dead)?

 

Three that have been very significant to me are Martin Scorcese, Jane Fonda, and Bruce Springsteen.

Looking towards the future, where do you see yourself as being in 25 years? 

On my family’s ranch in New Mexico, drinking my coffee on the front porch in the morning as I watch the sun rise, and in that same spot sipping whiskey in the evening as I watch it set, a full day of hard work in the sun in between.