Lately I’ve been writing about a friend’s dad, let’s call him Mr. Roberts, who claimed that we don’t exist. Mr. Roberts had a PhD in chemistry, worked at a major consumer goods manufacturer and had the fortitude to sail solo around the entire U.K. He was, in two words, no dummy. But I was 12 […]
Category: Process
It’s hot, I’m full of angst and aimless, multi-directional impulses, so I think now is a good time to grab the reins here at Nola Studiola for a couple months’ sojourn. Yours truly Alison Barker is back to update you on all things Barker, including Lost Boy, his Mustache, the politics and evolving philosophy on […]
The Quit that Wasn’t Most tours of duty on a freight train lumber lugubriously and are marked by long delays and scrupulous attention to redundant safety rules. The era of cowboy railroading has passed and Rail’s cache and the infatuated devotion rail-fans exude seem absurd to trainmen. Dragging mind-numbing quantities of stuff and prodigious […]
You know that feeling of getting along, jiving with, being simpatico… Like, um, the I-get-you, a wink and a nod and a pop to the hip, a punch in the gut. When you see it, it is a harmless milkdrop, and then it is a plop of angry milk, shrieking strings, a reeeeeek I view the Gurlesque as a […]
Hello, dear reader! Thank you for clicking and saying yes to “unnecessary art.” And for clicking this out of obligation because we are: family, friends, colleagues, or lovers. Or because it is Friday afternoon and your brain refuses to function after lunchtime. Just looking at the neat white box of my internet browser makes me feel […]
During my time at Nola Studiola, I hope to stretch myself through the essay form, but maybe it will end up in verse or as a manifesto in disguise. Or a series of clip art and images found on Google as a “post.” Here are some of the things that I hope to explore during […]
The end I started this series of blog posts with a story of not keeping the pottery I made in pottery class because I was more interested in making pots than in keeping the pots I made. Well, I wasn’t sure I’d keep the quilt I made for this project, because it, too, was more […]
Chicago One of my first interactions was a simple request and response. I’d been eight hours on a bus from Minneapolis, sitting in the front seat, watching the snow fall and a total of five cars spin off the highway. By Chicago I was eager to move my legs. I headed down Jackson Street […]
THE HOW PROJECT blogged March 2014 By Mari Carlson After a recent pottery class, I gave away all the pots I made. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them; I intended them as gifts. What I kept for myself was the pleasure of crafting them. I enjoyed most of all the preparation. First, I got […]
I’m not a believer in New Year’s resolutions. Frankly, I find them a little silly, driven by group think and peer pressure rather than genuine self-awareness. False promises only halfway made, and less than halfway kept, they perpetuate something even worse – the devaluation of our own voice. When we do something because we are […]
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