Marie Starr

Let's see ... a little bit about me ... I am a writer & artist & photographer & fool. I try to use my fractal focus and obsessive tendencies to illuminate the edges of invisibility. I can usually be found snapping pics of locals, chasing my kids, drawing abstractions with my sharpies or long & gangly sticks, writing whatever happens to spill out of my pen, & reading banned books.

I have this deep affinity with trees ... used to talk to them when I was young ... still love to listen. When the wind blows through their leaves, I can spend hours under their canopies … listening ... watching light move & shift & bend.

Along with that ... I write a lot ... mostly creatively but, also: essays, articles, promotional materials, press releases, and the like. I pretend to run a small publishing company: Serendipity Press … (Someday, I hope to do more than pretend) ...

In the meantime, I'm writing & creating & reading & making a living any way that I can. I’m also quite an excellent proofreader ... (Which is annoying to me because it means I notice every big & little error in every big & little thing I read ... Except for my own stuff, of course, that would be too useful.)

In general, I'm all about finding wisdom anywhere that I can ... whatever, wherever, whenever ... "Disturb the comfortable, comfort the disturbed," is a bit of wisdom gleaned from a bumper sticker (bumper stickers can be very wise) and have applied to my life ever since. I often find random bits of wisdom stumbled upon in casual conversations or misheard mumbles, on bumper stickers or bathroom walls, are some of the truest things in my life. Strange, huh? But true ...

Also, questions ... I am searching for questions ... much more so than answers. There are already too many people who think they know the answers (which I have found to be very dangerous); I am searching for people who are trying to find the questions (which I have found to be very difficult.) When did we stop asking questions? I've decided it's all about the questions anyway … that there are already too many answers (reads as: too much willful ignorance) and not enough questions (read as: not enough wonder).

I tend to focus on the edges of invisibility. On those things we try so hard not to acknowledge, spend so much energy denying or willfully ignoring, & so much money filling the holes we have created within. On those taboo subjects, those things we just don't bring up in polite conversation, those dark corners we'd rather leave dark. And on ways to make the personal universal, without becoming confessional: ways to take those singular moments in our days that hit us with such force that we know something has shifted ... ways to take all those moments throughout our lives that seem chaotic and random and find places where they meet … make unexpected connections. It’s all about the serendipity …

Currently, I find myself to be working on a series of short poems, putting together a workshop/residency program combining poetry and drumming, and finding creative ways to make a living. I’m interested in the ways in which different forms of art can intersect, complement, and clarify each other. Eventually, I’d like to open a Writer's & Artist's Retreat (one that encourages collaboration between different forms, crafts, mediums, styles, etc.) on what’s left of my grandfather’s farm.


Powered by iSOUND.COM