Clementine Willowilde

City, My City and other works by Clementine Willowilde on display now at Cafe Verde (part of the People's Food Coop) in downtown Ann Arbor. Free event October 2-27th For purchase, email [email protected].

“I came to Ann Arbor with a sense of self and slowly unhinged my connection to Atlanta.  All the parts of me flew about, having no familiar outlet of communication or being.  But the magic of a city is magnetic!  My flappy parts began to find their Ann Arbor outlets.  The real home you find somewhere else is a sense of self.”

“Being in the flow is like gliding through space and time.  The magic of breath is that you barely feel it coming and going, in and out.  Body and spirit, completely in sync!  From this spot, I can see all the iterations of the avenue blur into one another.  Like old graffiti visible under a new tag.  Like a camera captures movement when the shutter speed slows.  One long blur but with an understanding that we are present in all moments at once.”

“On the edge of the city, the ground wants more than the stores and residents that populate.  It calls out for the woods that once were.  A lost identity.  Where I stand I look into the a small thicket off the back porch.  My grandfather has laid out seed for the begging birds.  I look down and see an ant hill where there was none before, as cities appear.  Colonies with one motive - survival - and each ant must fall in line or die.  Makes me want to kick the ant hill.”

“The Park has a lovely way of documenting the seasons, in leaves, and wind, in shade and markets that display the produce most abundant.  Sending a kiss to you of time’s own truth, the days will pass by even as you slip down between the trees, grass at your feet, to eat a bag of peaches in the sun.  There’s your friend who juggles the clubs, let’s check in to see what mischief has begun today...skipping stones until we’re old and gray...that was a good one!  “I can’t wait to try it again” my grandmother whispers from beyond the grave... ”skipping stones is just another way of expressing the beauty of you competing with yourself eternally.”

I wonder where that wild city is, the one that I called home.  Does is exist inside me, now that I am grown?  I remember hunting good times through the streets at midnight.  I remember cackles and howls and beer cans and bad handstands and bar fights.  We never knew what we’d come back with by the time dawn broke the light. It was quite a sport in such a wild place!  We knew it better than anyone.  City, my wild city, where have you gone?

The lantern workshop was a hit!  What a joy to see all those Disco Squids dancing in the parade.  I feel very lucky to have met everyone at my workshop and the workshops that I assisted with afterward.  Everyone has an inner creator, artist inside and it’s great to see it come out once in a while.  It was a true privilege to be part of that process!

Thank you to Jennifer Lingvall of Wigwam Fest, a social mess, and other various projects, and to the Atlanta Beltline and Rivalentertainment.  I am happy to be here with you!

Hi Shane, follow the link below to reserve a spot in the workshop!   http://rivalentertainment.com/events/old-fourth-ward-fall-festival/

TBT:  Almost 2 years ago...I'm not afraid to stick figure. "Thursday night drawing at Kelly’s house. He’s playing call of duty while I hash out some scribbles."

I haven't seen this artwork for some months. My friend Fatimah bought this piece from the first show in which this body of work premiered. City, My City is a themed family of work that I have continued to develop over the past 3 years. Read more about it throughout my tumblr portfolio!

“We played the regular games, street fighter, malibu grand prix, skee ball, and air hockey...the mall was our jungle and we were the monkeys, truly annoying teens, with pranks up our sleeves...that one time that you slid down the banister of the escalator and your butt broke the glass at the end- whoops!  No injuries and I never laughed so hard with anyone else.”

“Why r u here” #sharpieart #clementinewillowilde #macaroniart

"City my city, today a portal opened on Ponce. It swallowed the Yarob Temple with its exquisite fonts. I jumped out of my car as it got sucked inside. So did the Eagle’s Bar and Atlanta’s pride parades, with the queens and the gangsters all mangled in the warp, with the Ihop and Taco Bell all completely absorbed…a twisted rabbit’s hole indeed. Alice hold on to your mushrooms and follow me."

http://onelovegeneration.org/news/

“If the enemy of the best is the good then maybe we don’t believe what we should.  We jump ship before we know we’re saved.  We get swept away.  And when a branch comes by, we cling….but it’s best to look out for better things.  It’s best to land.  But here,the waves don’t start for miles.  And we keep thinking…just jump…but into what?  The city that saves us also betrays us…my city.”

Fair, not fair to think,  to escape, now I'm drawing a blank....partly blind and starting to sink, with death at my side giving "the wink"...If there was a she, there was a he, and somewhere before, there was me...how I've wasted simple minutes thinking miles into the distance, sinking low into the ground, pulling everything I've found...back into my body, back into my mind, back to somewhere solid, back through space and time...half, if I can't see, kept, in the city...my city.