while in milwaukee

"a manifestation"


front door sign.




"marshallterristephanievanessajared"

first woodcut.

the print



the block


the morning my kit arrived.
oh what a feeling.

favorite watercolors of the summer

"eiffel towers can't break us"

"inspiratin: caitlin daniel"

"etta's rules of etiquette #15"

(for rachel brown)

red.green.yellow

papyrus entry #3

katie bogdanowicz's dream.

I went to sleep that night with purple rings of tired under my eyes. In my hands I grasped my camera.
In the beginning there was nothing…just a dull white room. Whiteness like bleach. It stung my eyes so I closed them—and then I felt a mighty wind rush over me.
I hesitantly opened an eye. I was surprised to find that I was in the middle of a great big field. I’m not sure if you know what Lupin are, but I’ll try to describe them. It’s a type of flower, kind of like fox gloves, they are purple, pink, or white. This field was brimming with them along with yellow daffodils and bright, vibrant green grass.
In the distance, there was a great big tree with a beautiful pale bark and deep crimson leaves. So, I waded through the thick field and up to it. The way the grass and flowers swayed, you could see the wind skimming and swimming over them, like silvery fingers playing on the surface of the smooth, green blanket over the ground. It blew my hair, which was long and dark brown, like it was when I was much younger. I was aware that I was wearing a bright yellow, cotton dress; it buttoned up my chest and fanned out below the waist. Ideal for twirling in. Around my neck hung my camera, glinting in the pale shafts of sunlight.
When I finally made my long ascent up the hill, I found the massive tree to be much larger than I expected. It was probably seventy feet high, with enormous knots and knobs. The bark was smooth, despite the bulbous knobs and upon closer inspection I discovered that the knobs were actually faces, because, as I began to climb the tree, one of them started coughing.
Quite indignantly, quoth the face upon the knob upon the tree, “What do you expect you’re doing, girl?” It had a think Irish accent.
I sat down in surprise into a soft patch of moss. The mushrooms growing by the roots were as large and thick as my legs. They were red and spotted and I found I could settle upon the top of one quite comfortably, if I pretended it was a chair.
The knob-faces were all contorting and twisting this and that way to get a better look at me.
“There hasn’t been a human here for years!” Exclaimed a mottled face that rather sounded like an old Russian woman.
“Ye’d best be careful,” warned an old, garbled southern man, “This tree will just as soon eat you as let you eat from it.”
I looked up and behold, there were the most beautiful golden orbs hanging on it, dripping with dew. They looked like a cross between an apple and a peach, although they were a bit greater in scale than, say, a large watermelon.
I wandered to one which had hit the ground. It was a bronze colour, wrinkled and not as attractive as the plump shiny things in the blood red branches. Inside there were many seeds that were the size of my fist, large sparkling rubies and emeralds.
“These look pretty valuable.” I said.
“They probably are, if you had a place to sell them,” replied the young Swedish voice of a nearby knob, “The nearest city is fifty leagues.”
“Consequently, if you touch one, this tree will take your soul,” whispered a sly voice,.Out of a deep, dark knob slithered a bright, salmon-coloured snake with golden eyes and a bright blue tongue that flicked at me with an ere of supreme intelligence, “How do you think this tree became so massive?” Its laugh was a low hiss, not entirely unpleasant, but still somehow malevolent.
“Snakes can’t talk.” I said.
The snake simply shrugged (if that’s possible), and slithered away, “I just thought I’d warn you.”
“I thought snakes were supposed to be rather sinister.”
“Well, that shows what a silly child knows.” The snake suddenly began slithering through the air, gliding away into the sky in a huff, like a glittering pink Chinese dragon in the sun. I picked up my camera from my chest and a resounding click echoed through the glade as the snake glinted out of sight behind a gloomy gray cloud.

-Katie Bogdanowicz