It's been more than a while here and yet here I am, talking about books at a time when often, I check into news from places like Florida where books are being banned, hidden, right and left. What a shame when histories are being shielded and helpful books and inspiring stories and poetry are not there enough to bring up and together our wildly diverse yet wonderful people.

That said, LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, my first book and well awarded is still showing up in bookstores and on reading lists.  This image, from this week up front at the bookstore of the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts)!!!

LIFE Is now 30 years of publication, in two editions, the first and then the 25th Anniversary Edition which you see here...

 Wow - so long since my last post on this blog.  Well what happened?  The pandemic for one. A frightening time for us all and while the United States is opening up, other countries still bear many restrictions and even in the US, we continue to be mindful of others, wearing our masks still in public and noting that booster shots and even a newer variant may put us again at risk.  So, while we are optimistic, hope all of you remain cautious, even if not for you but for those around you.

And during this time, I turned to an opportunity presented: an examination of several aspects of live theatre, one totally photographic and another I am researching and photographing to become a book for children and young adults.  The latter I'll be able to resume working on very soon, I hope.

I have to say that the best activity during this truly scary and isolating time was to read ... and read I did, from wonderful prose that has aways interested me to an exploration into all sorts of curious subjects. Best, back to some of my favorite illustrated books for youth. What a marvelous time to explore, relax and gain inspiration from words and images.

Others must have done so as well as LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, most recently in its 25th Anniversary Edition, appeared on numerous book lists during this time, including several that recommended it as the perfect book for young children during the pandemic.  ALSO appearances on MSNBC and Good Morning America; a visual recommendation from Bridgerton's first season heartthrob, Regé-Jean Page (!),  my favorite Basquiat dragon (Pez Dispenser) appearing on the Coach Store window on New York City's Fifth Avenue! 

I am always being sent LIFE's appearance in bookstore windows, including lots of  US bookstores, but also in England, Germany, France and South Africa among many others! So glad to see it in company with all my favorite books, many art books, (child and adult) but many others including ELOISE!!!!

BTW, LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME now has its own page on FB, and a fun page on Instagram at #lifedoesntfrightenme !  Love seeing especially drawings inspired by Jean-Michel and word interpretation by readers of Maya Angelou's l978 poem! 

... a few screen captures...

LIFE is also now available in Brazil in Portuguese(!) published by Darkside Books.

https://www.darksidebooks.com.br/a-vida-nao-me-assusta-245/p

Best of all, so many are absorbing Maya Angelou's words of such power along with Jean-Michel Basquiat's explosive paintings that become more and more appreciated as time goes by.

Still love this book 

while ...

on to the next ... soon!!!!

The Decisive Moment ... or not

I've been hearing much from writers and scholars that art/photography students are no longer reading nor worrying about writing.

This just happened: Walking up my stairs, I glance up to see my two cats - one a beautiful red tabby and the other a black whatever whom I rarely photograph but whom, like all pet lovers, I will definitely sink to capturing from time to time - sitting regally together, also a rare encounter, lit in luxurious noon light from a window.  The perfect image.

But, since it is my home, neither my iphone nor camera is hooked to my body so ... I lost the picture.  It was a good one.   It was also the one that quite literally got away.
'

Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term "The Decisive Moment."  For us to understand it, we

must read his words and understand what he meant.  For us to capture one of these so precious opportunities we must understand language and if, in my case, we lost the image, how then can we explain that wondrous event and share that moment with others?  It takes language. It takes knowledge. It takes conversation, learning and of course, reading.

My moment is gone on this busy day so I am not going to write anymore but were I to have the time, that work is hard but I know that I am aided by what experience,  knowledge and literature (including poetry and beautiful non-fiction prose) has given to me as tools and inspiration to write and share.

Just as we experience, share and are inspired by our and other's art and photography, so must we not forget the literary arts. It is part of our own artist's being.

Discussion & Book-Signing at Artbook@HauserWirth/LA on 21 July!!!!!

What a great day this was!  So honored that Shana Nys Dambrot took time from her incredibly busy schedule as an art critic, writer and curator to explore with me the LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.  Loved the discussion over this first book that I ever created where I married the so expressive artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat to Dr. Maya Angelou's powerful words about empowerment and overcoming fear.

It's been 25 years since LIFE was first published and in the ensuing time, I became the artist that I always wanted to be and this perspective on this new, updated edition of mine (Abrams Books) was so fascinating to chat about.

Artbook@Hauser&Wirth/LA did a great job and loved the two ways in which they shelved LIFE25, especially where it was living with Karl Lagerfield and Basquiat and Albers.... good conversations there.

Thanks to Carolyn Campbell for the pics below:

on to the next signings!

For LA friends and followers: Mark your calendar for Saturday, 21 July, 3-5 pm for a discussion, book-signing with Shana Nys Dambrot on the 25th Anniversary Edition of LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME (Abrams) where I paired the so expressive artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat with the great empowering 1978 poem of Dr. Maya Angelou.  To be held at artbook@Hauser&Wirth/LA!

See you there!  

https://mailchi.mp/b3a4c49080d8/july-21artbookhauserwirthla-life-doesnt-frighten-me-25th-anni-edition-discussionsigning

Since last post, there have been more lovely reviews of the 25th Anniversary Edition of LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, some soon to post.  Today I caught this one from the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, under the headline

YOUNG READERS: PICTURE BOOKS OF PEACE AND COURAGE

"Young readers are invited to ponder the attributes of peacemakers and peacemaking — courage, defiance, compassion, conviction and imagination — in new picture books.

These titles wield poetry and prose, image and song in the name of peace and personal connection. ...

The 25th anniversary edition of “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” (ages 4 and older, 40 pages, Abrams Books for Young Readers, $19.95) pairs Maya Angelou’s poem about courage and fear with strong and daring paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Editor Sara Jane Boyers curated a conversation between Angelou and Basquiat, two black artists intimately familiar with overcoming obstacles and racial marginalization. This volume is a vibrant reminder, as relevant or more today, of the power of naming our fears and claiming triumph over them."

Life In The Canyon _ Post Mortem

I live in a canyon that was the 19th Century site of the first forestry research station established in the US where various trees were brought to California, among them the magnificent eucalyptus. Two days ago one of them, probably 100+ years old and around which I built my home is now scheduled  to disappear, too large and too old to live and be safe. I walk the yard before the sun appears. I look up through skylights to try to imagine the void, clear sky it will leave behind when I used to feel so protected by its covering.. In three days it will be no more...even the trunk will be ground into the earth.  

Here is its story: 

A house support column was in danger, A pencil line crack was running a slow jagged line around its circumference.  Concrete but obviously not impermeable and the rebar in danger of moisture, resultant rust and weakening.

The ground was riddled with wrinkle lines of surface tree roots from this ancient tree, shallow rooted and worrisome in and of itself for the Eucalypts were brought to the US as savior trees - windbreaks, wood - yet abandoned due to their brittle nature, their tendency to fall, many far younger that ours.  Yet they are beautiful, scented and majestic.

Ours had to come down.