Freedom, creatively speaking

Last October on my way to a poetry reading, stopped at a red light, I saw one of the coolest cars ever. OK, so maybe the car itself wasn't so cool. It was a primer-grey, boxy boat, maybe an Oldsmobile or Buick circa 1989. (I know this because I've owned a couple of those.) But the cool part was that it was a mobile art project: across the back, in about 4-inch tall white letters was the request to "Sign My Ride." Lucky enough to have my camera with me, I snapped a shot. But what the photo doesn't show clearly, in part because we were moving by the time I took the picture, is the wonderful "graffiti" covering the entire body of the car. Most of it appeared to be in sharpie, but a few more colorful signatures looked like nail polish, and I think I saw some stickers on there too. I loved it!

For some reason, a certain bumper sticker picture reminded me of this, and since then I've been reminded of the art of words around us, everywhere.

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Last night I had the freeing opportunity to go out on a "date" with one of my best friends, sans hubbies and munchkins. We went out to dinner, and between lots of great food and mediocre service, we talked and talked and turned red with laughter. We covered everything from "Wicked" fanfiction to old college professors to the profound things four-year-olds can say to booty shorts to the logistics of sex. We talked about the novels she's going to write and the shoes I'm going to design and one of Oz's alter dimensions (the red one), Az. At one point I was having such a hard time catching my breath that I was afraid cannoli would come out my nose. Really. (Maybe that explains the less than stellar service: maybe our server was afraid of us.)

After I drove her back home to a sleeping household, we sat in the car in the driveway and talked for another hour and a half. We talked politics and religion and some more about our kids. We talked about the couple who had been getting it on in broad daylight in a car the pool parking lot. And we talked more about those shoes. It was as good as -- or maybe even better than -- being back in college, doing art projects, talking, and eating ramen at 2 AM.

Every woman should have a good date with her best girlfriend every month or so... just to keep her in check, her creative juices flowing, and her heart light. Even at the risk of clogging her nose with cannoli.

Laying it all out...

Though I was on the newspaper staff in middle school, did layout for my high school year book, and worked on my college's art & literature annual for three years, until recently I never fully appreciated the artistic merit of a good layout. Perhaps that would have been beaten into me more if I had taken more than one graphic design course in college. (One semester of typography -- better known as "how to xerox sharpie-drawn letters" or "where to find the best copy machines" -- was all I could stomach.)

Lately, though, I've been doing more and more layout. Most of that stems from working on Shakespeare's Monkey Revue, but I've also been doing a fair share of layout at work too: I've been working with HR to get our overdue Employee Handbook printed. While the layouts aren't exciting or unique -- nothing like layouts for a commercial magazine or newspaper -- the fact remains that a good layout allows the content to shine. Likewise, if the layout does not compliment the content, or if it is poorly done (typos, misalignment, etc.), it distracts & detracts from the content.

Then I got to thinking... isn't that a wonderful metaphor for people? Sometimes we get to be content, but sometimes we're "just" layout. When we're layouts, if we strive to be good layouts, we'll compliment the content we're in the presence of, be it our significant other, our children, our coworkers, our friends. And while it's not as glorious to be the silent partner, there's something humble about doing it well.

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In other news, I heard back from Kakalak earlier this week! I had a poem accepted for publication ("Late but not running") and a piece of my artwork received an Honorable Mention! Once the book is in print, I'll make it public in my Shakespeare's Monkeys library. :)