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Painting by Maya Hayuk. Words from Jenny Boully’s essay in this issue
Stacie Johnson makes paintings about the everyday items that she finds in her immediate surroundings. In her process of creating seemingly abstract works, Johnson first builds a temporary sculpture out of such items as fabric, pink Styrofoam, paper, tape, plants, wood, and string. Johnson carefully observes these weird tableaus of line and color, studies the forms and shadows, then re-creates the sculptures in paint. In the translation from sculpture to painting, Johnson concentrates on the tension between illusion and flatness, condensing the accumulated passages in the 3-dimensional forms to embody similar relationships in a flat image. The paintings allow the viewer simultaneously to believe in and recognize the means of illusion.
This is her first solo show outside of Chicago.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:30 sharp
Danny’s Tavern, 1951 W. Dickins, Chicago
Poetry by Travis Nichols and Sandra Lim
Sandra Lim is the author of the poetry collection Loveliest Grotesque (Kore Press). She was born in Seoul, Korea, grew up in San Francisco, CA, and is the 2009-2010 poet-in-residence at Columbia College Chicago.
Travis Nichols was born and raised in Ames, Iowa. He now lives in Chicago. An editor at the Poetry Foundation, his writing has appeared in MAKE, The Village Voice, The Believer, Details, Paste, The Stranger, and the Huffington Post. Iowa, his first book of poems, is just out from Letter Machine Press, and will be shortly followed by his first novel, Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder, due out in April from Coffee House Press.
For more info, visit the facebook page
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:30 sharp
Danny’s Tavern, 1951 W. Dickins, Chicago
Poetry by Rob Schlegel and Catherine Theis
Catherine Theis is the author of the chapbook The Fraud of Good Sleep (SUN SUN SUN Press) and co-author of In Fortune (dusie kollectiv) with Jared Stanley and Lauren Levin. Her new poems are forthcoming in Action Yes, LIT, Sonora Review, and Volt and a poem appeared in MAKE issue 3, edited by Kevin Coval. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is the recipient of a 2009 Individual Artists Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.
Rob Schlegel is the author of The Lesser Fields (Center for Literary Publishing). His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Handsome, Octopus, Volt, MAKE issue 8 and elsewhere. He was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and has lived in California, Montana, and Iowa.
This book was also among Time Out Chicago’s top ten for 2009. Also, an essay from the collection appeared in MAKE issue 7. Basically, we strongly recommend you buy this book.
From Mike Zapata, fiction editor on issue 4, commenting on Saeed: I’m very happy to see him recognized nationally, as when I met him four years ago he was struggling to figure out how to make his work known here. A novel a year, regardless of his situation, struggling, working, in political asylum, forgotten, found. A real writer.
Saeed’s story Saddam and Khamini appeared in MAKE issue 4 – Sister Cities: The International Issue.
If you’re in Chicago, then check out the launch of MAKE contributing editor Kathleen Rooney’s latest book, the essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs, on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm at Women and Children First at 5233 N. Clark Street. She will be joined by co-reader Erika Mikkalo.
Issue 7 contributor Kembrew Mcleod’s documentary COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS premieres Tuesday, January 19 on PBS’s Independent Lens!
Also check out Mcleod’s alter ego Robo Professor who just finished a dance music video about digital sampling and copyright law, with an interactive component. Here’s the website: http://www.robotainment.net/musicvideo.
