Friday, March 7, 2008

This Is How I Build A Book


my friend sarah cain said it's like i'm hanging the laundry up to dry.

i've been living with these pages for four months now.

i did do a clean up last week and took them all down and organized them into sections: Lives Of Girls And Women, Failed Relationship (We Almost Had It is a working title), Banger Pyramid, The Selves, It Comes In Waves, Beautiful Pages....

the pages come down, the pages go back up.

i was feeling particularly destructive the other day and borrowed ben's shredder and pushed some paper through that. That felt really good.

I had unearthed a whole other box i had forgotten about - it made me feel exhausted. I'd printed off old email correspondences from a few years ago...i shredded them.

i was watching the making of marie-antoinette and i learned some interesting things about process. There are 2 opera scenes in the movie but they had shot three. Each scene clearly a MAJOR production. I loved hearing about how *they* decided to cut an entire scene - tens of thousands of dollars, hours and hours of people power...gone poof!

so a bunch of old papers...my life...doesn't really matter.

it's liberating.

i'm starting to work more on the computer lately - for the book. Today i designed some pages. I used Cooper Black font to spell out: You Know You Want It.

and i used my own calligraphy with these brush pens i love: Enjoy It While You Can.

I am also writing songs right now.

I have no idea where they are going - if they are going anywhere...i should be more superstitious..i shouldn't talk about projects...but really i am only talking about what i have been doing.

we'll see what comes to light.

( but i have been talking with a musician friend - we would like to do a project. i would love that..i wrote songs before and i sang them and reading the songs over now - they are still totally relevant - to me. i know i wrote them because i had to but i see now that they are a part of the whole body of work i started making in the early 90s. The lyrics were gleaned from the bookwork...crystallized forms).

so maybe this is what needs to happen now.

again.

who knows?

---------------------------------------------------

The Sea Of Tea Asked Me:

who's gwen?

why, Gwen Stefani!! from our favourite band NO DOUBT.
epilogue of the gwen perfume...i ended up having to have a second shower and use a STAIN REMOVER on my ski jacket to get the reek out.

(actually, the Sea of Tea likes HAYWIRE!!!! We were trying to download DANCE DESIRE...i can only find it via CABLE hahahahha)

i went and bought more office supplies today at STAPLES. I use OFFICE SUPPLIES to organize all my book stuff. Ben gave me some nice file folders, too.

2 comments:

Candice Tarnowski said...

This is really beautiful. I love reading it. The photo of your laundry (dirty laundry) is gorgeous. I'm currently obsessed with yellow - tho the yellow of your room in 'real life' is a bit nauseating to us both, it looks pretty in the picture.
I think maybe this came about after scoring that yellow velour top at the church thrift shop. I don't know.
But I am into the process of you building your book. ..the shredding (SHREDDER! + NICKERS!) and clothes-pinning and oragnising, foldering ...
it's good to hear about it.
love,
c.
p.s. thanks for clarifying gwen. She looks like her perfume should reek. Miss sticky.

sef said...

Sonja

there is this quote i love, this guy said " the O.C. never inspired me to do anything..not even throw up in my own mouth"

I wanted to tell you how inspiring your picture of your progress your process your pages....your laundry line is
but I fear if I tell you one more time how inspiring you are to me...YOU might throw up in your own mouth!

I think of you a lot these days.
I often wish I could come visit you in your Narnia.
I also wish I had something more original to say about your work.

I love I love I love

but again, thank you for doing whatever you're doing
I can't wait to hold it in my hands
another book to help save my life

where did you see the making of Marie Antoinette?!
the most beautiful bad movie ever the best 2 hour music video of all time. you know how much I love it !
I'll take scenes of shoes and sweets to Siouxsie.., the decadence, those sunrise scenes, the dresses, the Dunst. 'Ceremony' is amazing in that film..I remember it filling the theater. I watch it all the time in the background while I'm in the studio


well, talk soon. shred it up xx shana

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

Ahlers

going on about Random Avenue, friends, art (maybe), rock (sometimes), movies, current events, childhood memories & other things like bunnies