Rapid Eye Movement And Artistic Dreams

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I found a piece of paper that I had forgotten about that was written last Friday. On it was the immediate morning scrawlings of a semi-conscious me. Here’s the dream drama:

A tall Asian curator female in a silk dress, very kind asked me to redo an older painting, so I cut it up and added digital sound and video (likely with a Milkymist) then my Dad and I work on it for a few days. During the installation (it was crated the day before) with all the chaos of the opening it was very hard to find the crate. Just in the nick of time the project was found and installed. In addition there was a device/sculpture component where the original 2d image was a city scape and transformed into a rolling chain of images joined with flexible joints, like a dragon kite.

One of the components was a window frame with the initials NJ in the frame…likely meanig New York was the skyline. Very exciting way to wake up. Everything got finished and the installation was complete right as I woke up.

The dream could have been influfluenced by the chain in Doris Humphrey’s water study, or the fact that I had gone to the studio with my father who was working with folks in wheel-chairs being propelled with whipping momentum across the stage the day before…plus I was anticipating building a crate before I left for California the 10th.

Unpacking Art

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Now that I have the majority of my art pieces in my studio in California I’ve been emptying the transportation vessels, hand-built wooden crates, transparent plastic boxes, hole-filled duffle bags. I am pleased to report that there was only one breakage so far, no papers torn, no tubes crushed, no paintings pierced. The most surprising part is that the piece that was broken is constructed of brazed steel…That bag must have taken a major hit…though the hand-thrown glazed teapot made it in the same luggage without incident. Odd.

Love and Rhetoric Are Still Perplexing Topics As An Adult: Poetry From 1996

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Two Poems: A Special Place and Literary Questions by Pete Ippel 1996

Two Poems: A Special Place and Literary Questions by Pete Ippel 1996

I found these pieces while digging through my childhood archives here in Illinois. In the process of packing and sorting. I have to be ready to fly back to California tomorrow morning. Here’s a few introspective gems. Enjoy.

A Special Place

I have a special place in my head,
where only memories dwell.
The manila folders I draw out each have importance pertaining to my life.
Some are pleasant,
others tear at my heart strings.
But, one particular folder,
RELATIONSHIPS,
stands alone.
There is only one piece of paper in that folder.
The memories on that white sheet of paper pulp reveal a side
of me I had never seen.
The side of a caring person,
capable of feeling a broken heart.
That folder will remain locked in my filing cabinet forever.

Literary Questions

Did the ancient writers before
me have problems
with grammar?
Did they worry about
embarrassing misspellings?
Was illiteracy a problem?
Of course not.
Since no one could read their ideas any way,
authors before me had it easy.
For a writer, a construction worker with words,
ignorance of the reader is bliss.

Captured In The Moment of Creative Synchronicity: Successful Portfolio Crate Built With Repurposed Materials

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Last night at the suggestion of my father I made a call to a mutual friend who is a professional video maker, set maker, and expert woodworker. The two men have worked together on countless sets/costumes for Momenta, the resident company of The Academy Of Movement and Music.

Shipping Portfolio Crate Made of Repurposed Materials

Shipping Portfolio Crate Made of Repurposed Materials

We succeeded in making an art crate out of the following

1.) 12′ x 6″ x 1″ poplar plank bought at the store
2.) 3′ x 6″ x 1″ off cut in a garage that was scrap
3.) 1 sheet of reused Styrofoam insulation from an old set
4.) Lots of wood screws
5.) Pneumatic nail gun and tacks
6.) 1/4″ Wood paneling repurposed from my dad’s flooded basement that flapped on the rack like a basketball being dribbled on the roof while we drove
7.) 1/4″ Carved Luan sheet that was a key block for one of the prints I was shipping inside the crate
8.) Gorilla Glue

I watched the two of these men collaborate and zip out a awesome crate in about an hour – closed packed and ready to ship, complete with nylon webbing handles.

I just kept the garage clean, swept up, and watched the magic. True teamwork, not much talking, a few jokes, and a bunch of sawdust.

Afterwards we sat down and watched the season in review in the basement…a fantastic evening of creaive synchronicity.