Hope A 7/27/15 Hope A 7/27/15

To Get A Letter...

Table for writing, chair for reading and smiling

A few examples of past postcards. "Framed"

Thank you thank you everyone who helped with this show: Misha who helped with the set-up, Andy who attempted to alleviate many worries and bought me dinner and created a soundtrack fro writing letters, , Alyssa who offered to help with the dismantling so I don't have to walk the folding tables home 20 blocks. And especially Justin Carder, owner of EM Wolfman's, who not only curates an incredibly good small bookstore, but also supports local writers, poets and artists, makes connections and retains enthusiasm. Saturdays here were lovely, writing letters, showing around the people who had come from the city (San Francisco) because they read about it in the paper, listening to readers as part of the BEAST crawl, eating cupcakes. It was a good month.

If you are still waiting for a reason to subscribe, do it now and save $5 until August 3rd, the sad day the show comes down.

Hope A 7/12/15 Hope A 7/12/15

In My Backyard

So I won't even post what my front yard looks like. We have a large picture window, which offers a view from my studio space onto an exciting stage of drama. If I lay on the rug and look up at the sky I can see the tops of the three eucalyptus trees that survive the concrete plaza's offerings. But if I look right outside there is a park, a plaza really, where a bunch of folks hang out all day and a few regulars make it interesting. It is mostly harmless, folks tending to keep to them selves, with loud laughter and talking and sometimes yelling. Most people don't recognize my street name but if I name the intersection of the nearest 2 streets, most know the spot. I have a lot of complicated feelings about living here, but there are some bright spots.

This month's postcard asks you to write about your favorite spot in your neighborhood. Most Saturdays, Andy and I walk four blocks to another rowdy park, walk through a small handmade gate into an oasis. City Slicker Farms have been bringing produce, garden starts and eggs to West Oakland since 2001. The urban garden and farmstand in our neighborhood is only a part of what they do. They have a nursery a few blocks away, a backyard gardening program helping to build raised bed gardens in residential and small businesses in the community. They recently purchases a lot of land not too far away that will include a playground, and an outdoor classroom and so much more. They just completed a fundraising event for construction costs, surpassing their goal by 10%.

Our Saturday walks lead us past abandoned empty houses, families outside, newish condos, artist lofts converted from a school and to the shady corner where the farmstand is set up every Saturday. Recently, they moved the stand inside, allowing for a glimpse into the garden. Prices are sliding scale, allowing anyone to get fresh vegetables. I usually pick up some flowers too, and on the way out we stop to see the chickens. I've seen a mix of people shopping at the stand but Joseph and the volunteers will chat for a minute if you want. Two weeks ago, I gave them a copy of this month's card. If you live in West Oakland, stop in!

City Slicker Farms farm stand is open every Saturday at 10 am until they run out. Prices are on a scale and if you are able, give them a little extra. It is an amazing asset to the community.

Hope A 4/25/15 Hope A 4/25/15

Collapse of Industrialized Society

Once a week or so, especially after a long day printing or washing dishes, I like to fill the tub with hot hot soapy bubbly water and read the fiction selection in the latest New Yorker. I might also make myself a beverage, maybe grapefruit soda and gin with a little rosewater, perhaps even drink it out of tall glass with a fat straw. When I am warm and pink and sleepy, I might get out of the tub and eat a few spoonfuls of ice cream for dinner.

Don't mistake my occasional treat as a symbol of a decadent lifestyle. I know how to enjoy myself but the realities are also crystal clear. I live in a state in the middle of a severe drought. (I skip showers and generally use an "efficient" amount of water so I can sometimes take a bath). Sometimes I look forward to the collapse of industrialized society. I am not sure how long I will last, but I am an efficient cook, with a lot of practice at one pot meal (post-Katrina Plan B kitchen, anyone? I was cooking with one burner in a bicycle shop). I can make do. I will certainly miss the warm tub of soapy water, and silly silly straws, but I will be ok with letting a lot of other things go.

Every month I print a folded card and mail it to a list of subscribers and call it the Keep Writing Project. One part of the card is for you to keep, a letterpress memento. The other half has a little story about the image, and some instructions. For April, I sent these, asking people what they will bring to the collapse of society. I post the responses here but you can also see them if you follow me on instagram, @gutwrenchhope. Oh, and if you want to subscribe, you can do on my website here or in my etsy shop .

And, if you live in the Bay Area you can come look through baskets of responses when i share them at a show at EM Wolfman's Bookstore for the month of July. There will be more special treat but you will have to wait and see.

Keep Writing number 73, mailed April 2015

Hope A 11/13/14 Hope A 11/13/14

Seashells by the Seashore

Between a new computer, which subsequently crashed, and a tendency to hold onto any scrap that might inform later, I found these photos om my desktop. About a year and a half ago, a friend drove us to Muir Beach for the day, for the first cold swim of the season. We discovered that the beach adjacent to the famous forest is packed, even on an overcast day in May. The trick is to hang out on the corner of the beach with nudists. No kids, no families, plenty of wet sand and rocks to explore. After a brief swim that was so cold I gasped, we walked up and down the beach. There is something appealing about many tiny things that make up something larger. I've been holding onto these photos waiting for the story, decided to share them without a story and, as I have been writing this, thought if what I might use them for. For now, enjoy.

Hope A 10/24/14 Hope A 10/24/14

city adventure

Most every day I would print or bind books or bake treats but luckiliy sometimes Andy reminds me to leave the house. A few weeks ago, we had a friend's car so we drove across the bay bridge and across the city all the way to the ocean. One amazing thing about California is the way they maintain so much of the coast as public land through national parks. You can be in San Francisco proper, not too far from the Golden Gate Bridge, walk to the ocean. We explored the ruins of Sutro baths, a former public bath house. You may not yet be aware of my love of swimming. More accurately, I enjoy soaking. I like lakes, oceans, public baths, hot springs and my giant clawfoot bathtub. Sutro baths burned down in the sixties, but you can still explore the ruins, listen to the tide crash through the pools, and buy 50 cent post cards. Sometimes you can go see punk shows in the caves, but the day we were there, we only witnessed an awkward german couple and a SF photographer taking boring photos of young women in bikinis.

you can still buy these postcards.  i already sent mine to a friend. — you can still buy these postcards. i already sent mine to a friend.

When you get tired of balancing on concrete ruins between pools of green water, you can hike to Land's End, see where part of Harold and Maude was filmed and see the ocean and the bay from a few amazing different points of view. We sat and watched the fog for a while. I was rooting for it to swallow the whole bridge but mostly what happened is that I sat still for a while, which almost never happens. Not bad for a a day out of the studio.