words I’ve had to teach my computer
intertextual
how things get done – Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134, the Paris Review:
I had a very good editor, superlative for me — Bob Gottlieb. What made him good for me was a number of things — knowing what not to touch; asking all the questions you probably would have asked yourself had there been the time. Good editors are really the third eye. Cool. Dispassionate. They don’t love you or your work; for me that is what is valuable — not compliments. Sometimes it’s uncanny; the editor puts his or her finger on exactly the place the writer knows is weak but just couldn’t do any better at the time. Or perhaps the writer thought it might fly, but wasn’t sure. Good editors identify that place and sometimes make suggestions. Some suggestions are not useful because you can’t explain everything to an editor about what you are trying to do. I couldn’t possibly explain all of those things to an editor, because what I do has to work on so many levels. But within the relationship if there is some trust, some willingness to listen, remarkable things can happen. I read books all the time that I know would have profited from not a copy editor but somebody just talking through it. And it is important to get a great editor at a certain time, because if you don’t have one in the beginning, you almost can’t have one later. If you work well without an editor, and your books are well received for five or ten years, and then you write another one — which is successful but not very good — why should you then listen to an editor?
words I’ve had to teach my computer
callaloo
slip
‘SOS’ for ‘XOXO’ (again)
words I’ve had to teach my computer
subsequence
words I’ve had to teach my computer
sonically
Now Be Here #3
I got the all-call for the event – Now Be Here #3, a South Florida “gathering and photograph of female and female identifying contemporary artists” – from both Sebastian at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale and Tayina now of Girls’ Club. Tayina and Sebastian have been the most ardent cheerleaders of my art practice in 2016, so I had to show up.
Saturday, December 10th was a rainy day. Like, unbelievably rainy. The drive from Boca Raton to the Pérez Art Museum Miami was torturous and included a jack-knifed tractor-trailer, an hour parked in one spot on the highway just three miles from my destination, the car hydroplaning on the off-ramp, and me taking my place for the following pictures with mere minutes to spare – even though I’d planned to arrive 30 minutes to and hour before show time.
My reward for venturing and enduring, however, was running into Autumn and, through these documents, confirmation of my place as an artist in South Florida (I’m #216 and Autumn is right beside me with #35):
