Lily S. May–Life with Art
I've begun making a series of postcards. Here are the first two I've designed, back from the printer. These are combinations of two poems I've written superimposed on two of my linocuts. You can also see the postcards in my etsy shop. I decided to give the series a name and hit upon naming them in… Continue reading Cedar Postcards
The great great poet and song writer Leonard Cohen died yesterday. I was very fortunate to see and hear him perform a few years ago in Toronto when he filled a stadium with fans of all ages. He and the musicians with him gave the most generous long gracious show. This is in remembrance of… Continue reading Leonard Cohen
As I continue turning some of my early prints into booklets, I'm playing around with words I might include with the prints. This last print I've been working with (the one that's also in my previous post) has a lot of black ink in it. And that got me thinking about some writing I did a… Continue reading A Poem for An Old Woodcut
I'll be showing you more photos from my trip to Spain, but meanwhile I've begun a project to transform many of my old prints into origami books. I first did this when I sent some prints as mail art, but haven't continued sending them out. Here's the plan which may change over time. I'm going… Continue reading Reading Old Prints
A few years ago, I entered several notebooks and photographs in The Sketchbook Project. In 2012, I sent away for another moleskine book. I had previously written a poem that I thought would paradoxically work with the topic "Fill me with Stories." I made a book using very simple line drawings and printing. I can't recall why… Continue reading The Emptiness We Require
Last week while looking through the sketchbook in which I found the artwork for my previous post, I came upon a drawing I had forgotten. A few years ago I used the drawing as a starting point for an oil painting. The painting was, in its style, unlike other work I had done. In the painting,… Continue reading The Road
The great poet, Mahmoud Darwish, was born on March 13 in Palestine. Different sources have dated his birth to both 1941 and '42. He died in August 2008. At any rate, today I am celebrating his birth. His words have added more beauty to my life than I can adequately describe. From the book The Butterfly's… Continue reading March 13: Mahmoud Darwish
A few years ago, I came upon This Body is to Ask in a used book store and bought it. It is terrifically inspiring, leading me to recently reread it. The book was compiled by Marsha Connell and Maureen Hurley, who were Artists in Residence in schools in Sonoma County, California. This book, from 1993, contains… Continue reading This Body is to Ask
I've begun writing poetry regularly during the last few years. Before that, most of my creative work was in the visual arts. Working with words at this point in my life is a great challenge, but one that I enjoy. Because I'm familiar with the language, so to speak, of printmaking or design or painting,… Continue reading Take Up The Night
I'm reading and rereading the books of two great poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Zaqtan. These were translated from Arabic into English by Fady Joudah. I mentioned that his translation of Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me won him and Zaqtan the Griffin Poetry Prize this year. Reading Straw Bird has led me… Continue reading The Excellent Poetry I’m Reading
Arts of May 