January 2010 archives
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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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | categories: poetry
January 18, 2010
animation: what I did in 2009
by sven at 7:00 am
On Dec 12 ASIFA Portland hosted a "Show & Tell" social for the local animators.
I love that kind of thing! I put together an 11-minute DVD showcasing my animation work from 2009… Which you too can now see, simply by clicking the link above.
posted by sven | permalink | categories: exhibits & events, stopmo
January 15, 2010
poem: new year's resolutions
by sven at 7:00 am
Seems I write 40+ poems in a typical year. Not doing any good just sitting on my harddrive, now are they?
new year's resolutions
I will tend my elephants
I will avoid the death march
we will go around the mountains
I will map our journey
we will take time grazing in meadows
we will explore the forests
when snow comes, we will set up camp
to wait out the winter
December 20, 2009
posted by sven | permalink | categories: poetry
January 12, 2010
save the date: sven's plays on jan. 29
by sven at 12:00 pm
Two of my 10-minute plays -- The Buried Piano and The Astronaut & The Nude -- will be read at the Fertile Ground festival this month!
If you're in Portland, I hope you'll come out for the show!
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 (lunch sold separately)
tickets available at the door, or
call 800-494-TIXS or online at www.fertilegroundpdx.org
flash your Fertile Ground button and save $2 per ticket
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.
ABOUT THE “DOWN & DIRTY AT 12:30” LUNCHTIME READING SERIES
This breezy, casual box lunch reading series will have you spending your lunch hour at the Armory listening to short segments of plays-in-progress and sharing your reactions with the playwrights. Pre-made box lunches will be available through the Armory Café- no brown bag required!
click here for more "Down & Dirty @ 12:30" events
ABOUT FERTILE GROUND
Fertile Ground 2010 is a 10-day arts festival that will be held January 22 through February 2 in Portland, Oregon. This city-wide festival is focused on new work in the Arts. It will feature up to 30 world premiere projects, staged readings and a myriad of other arts events from the Portland creative community. From fully staged world premieres in theatre, to ensemble and collaborative driven work, dance, comedy, visual art and film…this festival spans the spectrum of creative endeavor and seeds the next generation of creation through artist conversations, workshops, lunchtime readings and more.
click here for more about Fertile Ground
posted by sven | permalink | categories: exhibits & events
January 10, 2010
2009 birthday card collection
by sven at 9:30 pm
In 2009 I made 31 hand-painted birthday cards… And here they are!
In 2010 I'll be doing a birthday card series again… But this time I'll be using color laser printing as part of the project.
It's a necessary evil. Printing allows me to make a smaller pool of paintings -- so there's more time to do animation. It also enables me to send cards to a larger number of recipients. At 3-4 hours per card last year, I wasn't able to be as inclusive as I'd like.
There are still limits… But it's definitely a more expansive project this time around.
posted by sven | permalink | categories: painting
January 4, 2010
toby's christmas miracle!
by sven at 12:40 am
Toby, our mischievous softie, had an astonishing adventure this Christmas…
It's a comedy.
It's animated.
It's a MUSICAL.
Watch!
(Update: Now also available on YouTube.)
posted by sven | permalink | categories: stopmo, toby
January 3, 2010
toby's third birthday
by gl. at 7:00 am
it was toby's third "birth"day friday! yes, i made that loud british shameless bighearted sock creature on new year's day, 2007. lucky me! thanks to everyone who tolerates & encourages his whimsy.
[happy birthday!]
posted by gl. | permalink | categories: toby
January 2, 2010
paintings for ann & mike liebert
by sven at 7:00 am
For their Christmas this year I did some paintings for my mom & stepdad. Travel's kept them from opening gifts on the big day… Even so:
Merry Christmas from Sven & Gretchin!
posted by sven | permalink | categories: painting
January 1, 2010
new year's dawn at powell butte - 2010
by sven at 9:42 am
Happy 2010!
Gretchin first introduced me to the tradition of watching dawn rise on new year's day. This year she went on her first dawn bike ride. A little miracle: it stopped raining just 15 minutes before she left!
I had the last-second inspiration to do a time-lapse film of the sunrise. I took one photo per minute from 6:50 - 7:50am… By hand.
What you don't see: A little cloud puff zooming across the sky in the wind, low to the ground… Dawn's first colors reflected in the rain puddles… A lone moth racing home just as the sky begins to light.
And most miraculous of all… A new year's rainbow!
[Notes to myself: Time-lapse was shot at 5", f2.8. Next time shoot darker to get the clouds. Shoot automated, and from behind glass for rain protection. Maybe bedroom window? Note that from our vantage, sunrise is south of the butte. Best colors at 8:00.]
posted by sven | permalink | categories: miscellany