You Snooze, you WIN!

Those of you who check my blog and are also avid craftsters will likely already know about Susie Ghahremani. However, for those of you who are yet unfamiliar, I would like to introduce you to living proof that you can be good at more than one thing in life.

From what I gather, Susie is primarily known for her whimsical and illustrative art, as well as her interest in blending art, craft and illustration. I am in love with her musical animals.
Here is her website. I especially like the "old art" section of the site, which is sort of hard to find.


Not only is Susie a talented artist and craftster, she also dabbles in indie-pop under the name "snoozer." I did not realize this until the other day, and I was pleased to find out.

Not only is she all that and a musician, the sheer volume of interesting stuff on her links page indicates that she may be one of those people who probably just never stops or sits still.

enjoy!

Zaki Ibrahim

I have decided to partially dedicate this blog to exciting female singer/songwriters, poets and artists I find out about. Sometimes music feels like a very male arena. It has become a hobby of mine to seek out female artists, for my own affirmation and encouragement. Why not share that?


I heard this Canadian/South African singer/songwriter on CBC on Friday, and I couldn't get her voice out of my brain. It's great stuff. One music journalist argues that Ibrahim's EP has more to say than most full length albums. Check it out (p.s. love that photo eh?):
http://www.myspace.com/zakiibrahim

or the podcast from Friday, with live performances:
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20080125_4551.mp3

etc.
http://www.afrotoronto.com/Articles/Dec05/Zaki.html

.

my northern wall crashed down today,

and I was left without defense
foot and voice, hand and eyes
eels in ears and head in vice
weary will and witting wear

I left you upset,
standing there
my heart and I self-wrenched

argh!

Blood stirred and plots thickened
without my help,
and I, unwitting cauldron's ward,
must nip away to find my cackle.

Hahahaha

I enjoyed this: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=AJLW1wh1ii8&feature=related

But this made my day

Happy New Year!

This has been a busy and full month for me. What an interesting way to begin a new year. I spent the first two weeks of December in New York City, which was amazing and so rich for me creatively. There are lots of things that I could say about that, but I am still feeling jealously protective of my stories, inspirations and ponderings. I certainly fell in love with the city, especially Brooklyn, and I have schemes to get back there soon. VERY soon.

Christmas came and went rather quickly and frantically and I suddenly found myself in Calgary for Rise Up!, a national conference for Catholic Christian Outreach, a movement of young Catholic evangelists from across the country. This was also an incredibly inspiring experience, and confirmed my suspicion that the Christian Church in Canada is about to see a ridiculously huge revitalization. The keynote talks will all be posted online soon, and I will link to them then.

Anyway . . . .
While I was in Calgary, I used my free time to hunt down what little art and culture I could find. I found more than I had expected, including this show at Axis Gallery entitled "Brooklyn Mythology: The First Nations Cycle" by artist Tim Okamura.
This dude is amazing! the pictures online do not do justice to the scale and beauty of his paintings, nor to the skill he must have. I guess he is Canadian, and has been shortlisted to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. His art has also been displayed in England's National Portrait Gallery and has appeared in several well known movies. He lives in Brooklyn and his paintings largely deal with that city's culture. Amazing stuff.

Once again, I am really tempted to move to Brooklyn.

sigh. (quietly scheming)