February 6, 2010
art i want you
by gl. at 8:04 pm
dot posted a link to a charming video, "art":
then sven sent me a still just to make sure i knew it had a bicycle in it, because he knows i can't resist art with bicycles:
[great ideas come from great bike rides]
posted by gl. | permalink | comments (2) | categories: links
February 5, 2010
poem: the breath of giants
by sven at 7:00 am
I'm really fond of the last line.
the breath of giants
the office is the brain of the house
the studio the soul
the kitchen the heart
living room the stomach
bedroom the libido
our home here is
a thirty-foot-tall marionette
and I the puppeteer
each morning I get
the giant moving again
water the plants
put dishes away
feed the cat
each night I
put it to sleep
I look out from
giant's eyes
running from room to room
turning cranks and pulling cords
not a robot that I command--
this house is a living being
and I am the hidden motor
running its body
I am the breath that
spirits through every cell
animating colossus
(and yet
what a small being we are
set beside the great towers
of the city
whose hands touch clouds
gods propelled by
the furious pedaling of
fleas)
January 1, 2009
posted by sven | permalink | comments (1) | categories: poetry
January 29, 2010
poem: don't live in the cage with your elephant
by sven at 7:00 am
I'd like to dedicate this one to all my art buddies out there who are mired in multi-year projects…
don't live in the cage with your elephant
i have a love for colossal animals
the giraffes and rhinoceroses
with my camera
i go to Africa all the time
hunting thunderous beauty
but to bring a pachyderm
back to America
is a Herculean affair
i arrived by airplane in a wink
transport back
is four months by boat
on a heaving dark ocean
posters go up
and the crowd murmurs with expectation
but suddenly there's no coin
for opening day banners
in horror you spend every nickel
trying to figure out
what this damned thing eats
and it turns out that what it eats
is time
not by the bushel
but by the year
consuming your earthly body
like only the most ravenous calendar can
proper care and feeding
requires dawn to day-end attention
the would-be zookeeper sets up residence
in the cage beside his capture
ever attending to
its hunger, its exercise, its boredom
you've got the elephant keeper's blues
as it slowly sinks in
just how much bigger
this creature is than you
so lithe and wild on another continent
now the insight:
the bigger the animal
the more excrement it produces
tonight i think i want to go home
to sleep in my own bed
tired of sleeping with my broom
and janitor’s hat
soaking in a stale smell
on these bales beside the behemoth
tonight i'd like to dream
of other dreams
November 19, 2009
(This one ought to help illuminate new year's resolutions a little, too… i.e. "I will tend my elephants.")
posted by sven | permalink | comments (1) | categories: poetry
January 27, 2010
happy birthday chloe wicklund!
by sven at 7:00 am
Dear Chloe,
Here is something true that artists know… It’s difficult to be creative when your art supplies are too precious.
If you only have one piece of paper, then you want to make the most perfect painting ever. Perfect is scary… So you never even start.
But if you have 1000 pieces of paper — then getting started, playing around, and making mistakes isn’t so scary.
Make a mess. That’s how artists who are really good got that way: by having fun making hundreds of mistakes.
I remember you said you were interested in being an architect. So I’m giving you an abundance of graph paper, scissors, and tape to play with.
It’s totally OK if you never actually become an architect. I just want you to get to explore and have fun. Happy birthday!
posted by sven | permalink | comments (2) | categories: miscellany
January 26, 2010
see my plays this Friday
by sven at 9:30 am
A reminder… This Friday there will be a staged reading of two of my plays: The Buried Piano and The Astronaut & The Nude. Please attend!
New news… This Saturday I'll be a reader for two short plays by David Holloway. I get to be Mr. Rockwell and the Voice of God!
Here are the details for my plays.
WHEN:
Friday, January 29 @ 12:30 noon
WHAT:
PG2 Presents: The Work of Sven Bonnichsen, Amy Doherty and Marguerite Scott
WHERE:
Gerding Theater at the Armory
128 NW 11th Ave
Hothouse Stage (on the mezzanine)
TICKETS:
$5 - tickets available at the door
DESCRIPTION:
Portland Gallery Playwright’s Group presents a variety of short plays from Amy Doherty, Sven Bonnichsen and Marguerite Scott. Sven gives us two offerings: The Buried Piano and The Astronaut and the Nude. In the first, a girl is reunited with a family friend while a massive party for her father’s election bid booms in the distance and a recently unearthed, antique piano rests near their feet. The second play is a metaphysical exploration of marriage, nakedness and the cosmos. In Amy Doherty’s A Touch of Cleveland, we (along with the cardboard cutouts that look on) are party to a Laundromat encounter between two people, each awkward in their own way. Marguerite Scott’s The Ugly Duckling demonstrates the opportunities that come (and go) with plastic surgery.
Here are the details for David Holloway's plays.
WHEN:
Saturday, January 30 @ 12:30 noon
WHAT:
PG2 Presents: Counterparts II: Three Short Plays
WHERE:
Gerding Theater at the Armory
128 NW 11th Ave
Hothouse Stage (on the mezzanine)
TICKETS:
$5 - tickets available at the door
DESCRIPTION:
Portland Gallery Playwright’s Group presents 3 short works from PSU professor David Holloway.
Counterparts: A mother and father wonder if their son had once been abducted. Even the son isn't sure. "What happened?" they ask -- and can anyone really know that question's answer?
Death Panel: Three executives and an office boy discuss pre-existing conditions and whether little Virginia with cancer lives or dies -- all under the watchful eye Mr. Rockwell, the talking head on a monitor who can destroy them all.
The Egg: In a cave that dreams of Infinity, Gods demands that George look through a Portal, within the presence of his family and dead people form his past. He does so, and returns home… But everything hinges on the strange message in his hands. What does it mean: "remember the egg"?
Incidentally: I didn't have time to promote it, but last Friday I got to read stage directions for Brian Kettler's short play, Personal. Brian is the director for my plays — a real pleasure to work with.
posted by sven | permalink | comments (2) | categories: exhibits & events
January 24, 2010
resolved 2010: always towards better things
by gl. at 1:34 pm
[semper ad meliora: always towards better things]
i have a hard time with new year's resolutions: they seem to be both Too Much and Not Enough. they linger like to-do items with the same potential for failed obligation. (though one year i did learn to make origami boxes. :)
sven wrote a lovely set of "guiding principles" in 2008 i quite liked. and writing a poem is very appealing, like the birthday poems i write every year.
but this year i wanted something a little more visual and concise, so i came up with a different format: create a seal to represent the year! with a latin motto and everything!
i perused the Latin phrases wikipedia article to find some likely candidates for this year. since my focus at the studio is shifting away from hosted events & teaching, i wanted a phrase that would reflect my aspirations for the year.
then i popped over to the official seal generator to create this seal. i think i'm going to enjoy seeing the collection of them over time.
posted by gl. | permalink | comments (4) | categories: miscellany
January 22, 2010
poem: the spiritual dimension of time-lapse photography
by sven at 7:00 am
Obviously inspired by the film I made of 2010's first dawn…
the spiritual dimension of time-lapse photography
an animator should take equal interest
in capturing time-lapse photography
as in composing sequences of images
that fake motion
snapping the camera's shutter
once each minute for an hour
I watch the year's first dawn erupt
like a new god's visitation
noon and starry night
chasing each other in streaks
and in the bright darkness of my studio
I become slow athlete
sweating with a patience
that nudges puppets to inhale
their first breath
whether by power of my own hand
or long surrender to a crawling world
from within the silence
of my crystal ball
this is my magic:
to slow myself to the point
where small, voiceless things
come to life
January 3, 2010
posted by sven | permalink | comments (0) | categories: poetry
