Going to volunteer at the thrift store today--first time in two, three weeks. I thought I'd go more often, but I've been busy noodling around. (Need to get a job, but not feelin' it...)
Prints Abound
I started putting my prints out and about--that was my idea behind printing them on free industrial paper. But now I see them, I'd rather print them on art paper. Then if people want to take them, they have something nice.
I printed "Play to Your Strengths" ^ (on the fireplace mantel at my favorite public restroom--an old park structure at Lake Harriet) on Rives BFK. That is $10/sheet though, so I bought Speedball print paper, $4/sheet.
Also, coming up--bookmarks.
I love making reproducible art, which I hardly ever have--it's easy to give away! I used to do 'Left Art' (as opposed to Found Art, it's leaving things you make out in public), inspired in part by former-blogger Art Sparker, (Susan Sanford--her IG), who used to do a lot of that herself.
And then I made and left Alley Protector (apotropeics), with Em from the thrift store.
I was always a little reluctant to let go of OOAK (one-of-a-kind) pieces, though--it took so long to make/leave one at a time, and I wanted to (and did) keep my favorites.
Now I have so many of any one thing, I want to move them along.
Prints Abound.
Maybe that could be my printer name. I haven't got one yet. Not sure.
City Research: Rest Rooms
Noodling around with my youtube channel too. Met with a friend who said I was being too morbid, I should talk about fun things about aging, like needing to be near bathrooms.
Heh. Finding that a "fun thing" is definitely a sign of age.
But I took note. I'd thought my cemetery-niche video was fun, but discussing pain is definitely not fun. I took note. I don't have a plan for my videos, but I don't want to be too morbid.
That's what led me to the Lake Harriet Restroom--and then to doing a little research.
The restrooms (one men's, one women's) were designed in 1892 by Minneapolis architect and Park Board member Harry Wild Jones.
Closed in 1990, they reopened in 2002 after a $215,000 restoration.
The Women’s rest room really is for resting--separate from the stalls is a six-sided waiting room complete with a fireplace.
City Research: Cinema
One more bit of City Research--found on FB, a photo of downtown Minneapolis, 1971.
What amazed me---the cinema is showing Elaine May's A New Leaf--one of my favorite movies, but slightly obscure (Wikipedia calls it a cult classic).
You can see part of Walter Matthau's name spelled out.
The movie came out when I was ten, living in Madison, Wisconsin. I saw it with my mother, who used to take me to a lot of movies. Sometimes she'd keep me home from school, and we'd go to matinees at now-gone cinemas I can still picture.
The Orpheum, the Capitol, the Esquire, the Majestic.
My report card from third grade shows I missed 35 days of school. I was not sick. Looking back, I see how lonely (bored, uneasy in her self) my mother was to keep me out of school to keep her company, but I loved it!
It was an informal home schooling, a good thing done for a sad reason (my mother's own lack of emotional resources).
____________
The Benefits of Diagnoses
I want to say again, I did NOT mean to dismiss the HUGE benefits of diagnoses of neurological or psychological differences in my previous post.
I was talking about a popular habit of people casually labeling other people who are NOT actually diagnosed--tossing around labels like, "narcissist" ("they must be a _____") --using the term not to further understanding but to name/shame and blame.
But many of us who are older grew up suffering with brain situations (our own or others') that there were no good, accurate names or help for.
I am ALL for increased understanding and help.
Thinking about this, I'm perhaps extra-sensitive to the fast-n-easy throwing around of labels because of how many people dismissed my mother's death with an easy-to-label term:
"Oh, she must have been depressed," many people have told me. Told me!
It gives them an easy handle, and I do understand wanting that in the face of distressing news.
I want to laugh and say in response, "Why no, she was just fine."
But it was far more complicated than that print-n-stick label.
People who wanted to understand didn't tell me, they asked me.
It's a complicated subject, and I was worried I would come across wrong in a short video (why I didn't post it on youTube)---but perhaps I did come across wrong in that blog post.
But let me say, unequivocally:
Our increased understanding and sharing about how brains work is a tremendous good!
Working
with autistic students, for
instance, I learned that before the Federal IDEA Act in 1975, children with disabilities
didn't even have the right to be included in public schools.
That's 21 years after Brown vs Board of Ed ruled against "separate but equal" racially segregated schools.
"In
1975, the United States Congress passed the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act, referred to as the IDEA, which codified the
right of all American children to a free and appropriate public
education regardless of disability status."
So, yeah for greater understanding, diagnoses, medicines and treatments to help!
But we humans have a tendency to reduce complexities to bumper stickers or fridge magnets (that's the nice version), and that's what I was concerned and complaining about.
No comments:
Post a Comment