Recently in sensible ideas Category

Reading widely as I do, the other day I discovered the existence of the “heavy element community.” Now I had thought, being in contemporary art as I am, that I would have known or guessed at all the possible communities in the entire universe. The contemporary art community, naturally. The health-care community. The gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered community (did I get them in the right order?) The fundamentalist Christian community. The NASCAR community. The American Girl community. The Civil War reenacter community. The koi enthusiast community. The Castle of Mad King Ludwig community. And on and on and on. I can imagine a tatting community without straining the slightest brain muscle (for those of you who’ve never heard of tatting, it is an obscure form of handwork). I can be certain there is preservation of spelunking songs community, in fact I think I have their spiral-bound songbook somewhere. And though I might not have thought of it without sitting myself down to be quiet for a moment or two, I can even envision a nematode community, especially as these non-segmented worms were a key plot feature in the Val Kimler epic “Red Planet Mars.” But a “heavy element community?!

Although the tempering my spirit received from my rugged peasant upbringing generally prevents me from speaking too freely of my personal travails, I have not been able to hide that I recently broke a bone in my foot and have thus been quite hobbled. Having had various episodes of infirmity in my past, including a previous crutchly passage that lasted eight long weeks, I have long been of the mind that being waylaid by an injury can be a valuable instructive experience. For if you have never been deprived of the use of a hand or arm or leg and thus needed the kind assistance of others, you haven’t had the privilege of being sadly helpless. And being sadly helpless allows you to realize that most people are kind and will lend assistance, even if being helped makes you feel more pitifully vulnerable than you ever wanted to feel. I’ve noticed that men are particularly kind, which makes perfect sense as I am a female and would thus tend to bring out a male’s protective qualities, while women, except one’s truest friends, tend not to want to be bothered, really. I understand this as well. Women generally have a lot of caring and helping already on their plates. And perhaps the supply of caring and obligation grows ever more limited in our modern times.

Cartoon by Mark Staff Brandl

---

Clipped from the Chicago Artists Resource web site:

Artists at Work 9/14: Strictly Alternative
Thursday September 14
6 - 7:30 pm
Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street

Mainstream media is rarely the place to find out what's really happening in Chicago's art world. Instead, there are several new alternatives that probe and stimulate, revealing and challenging the conventional wisdom and the status quo.

Join Allison Peters, Director of Exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center, as she referees a conversation between the folks at Bad at Sports (Amanda Browder, Duncan MacKenzie, Richard Holland and Kathryn Born), Sharkforum (Wesley Kimler and David Roth) and, representing Version Festival, Select Media Festival and Lumpen, Ed Marciewski. Whew.

Admission free.