Paint Fumes

St. Jude’s Fish Farm I

hoffmakatie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:21:32 +0000

Oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″.

Cross to Bear/Study after Pinacoteco Civica

hoffmakatie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:10:41 +0000

Pencil on old book page.

English Orphans 2

hoffmakatie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:51:18 +0000

Pencil on old book page.

English Orphans 1

hoffmakatie — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:45:40 +0000

Pencil on old book page.

Sufjan Spree

hoffmakatie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:04:21 +0000

I’m not too easily stirred to acquisitiveness, but since I first heard Sufjan Stevens’ Casimir Pulaski Day on Radio David Byrne, I’ve become increasingly obsessed with this man’s gentle, quirky poetics. After weeks of making do with what I could find on Youtube, I knew I needed to buy some CDs. My local record store had only Michigan and The Avalanche (extras and outtakes from Illinoise.) I bought and am more than pleased with both, but was still a little frustrated that I couldn’t find Illinoise.

Imagine my delight when I found it on sale at Amazon for only 5 bucks. It’s the best 5 bucks I’ve spent in a very long time. 22 tracks, including the haunting “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”, featured in Claire Carre’s Youtube video above. What a deal!

Tinfoil Hat Society Member #4

hoffmakatie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:31:41 +0000

Tinfoil Hat Society Member #3

hoffmakatie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:56:13 +0000

More progress

hoffmakatie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:04:14 +0000

On “War Prayer.” I think it’s almost finished. There is still some awkwardness. Not sure how I feel about the cross-hairs. They may need to be red.

Tinfoil Hat Society Member #2

hoffmakatie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:44:34 +0000

Work in Progress

hoffmakatie — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:07:00 +0000

Well, a small section of a work in progress- the bit that can be caught on the scanner bed.

I’m working on this painting for a politically-themed show. Originally sparked by Mark Twain’s brilliant short work The War Prayer, I found myself looking through a box of my grandfather’s World War I stuff for inspiration. Among a bleak report from the division sanitary inspector ( the unwrapped French bread was loved by American soldiers but always getting unloaded on the muddy ground) , a brief history of the operations of the 1st division, and a June 19, 1918 memo on the exorbitant price of French foodstuffs, I found a poem. 52 type-written lines organized in 3 stanzas are written about “The Other Bird,” the guy on the supply side who wishes he was fighting. The last half of the last stanza:

I crave to take these burning youths

By their soft and tender hands

And lead ‘em to the scene of hell

That’s bound by moral hands.

But it’s too late now and they’re going back

These boys from the S.O.S.

They’ll be our heroes from “Over there,”

And we’ll stay till we rot, I guess.