#phyllis green

We're closed on Mondays, but you can still watch a live feed of Phyllis Green's "Fall 12: An Autobiography Considering Charles Ray's Fall 91" in our window gallery. http://t.co/F9bvpjoPd9 

TGIF! Our latest review is on Phyllis Green's wearable sculptures at LAM Gallery. Thank you for reading!

Love it or hate it, when it comes to imagining what our favorite literature or graphic novel characters may look like, Hollywood pretty much has the most impacting say. The images it produces stick and linger on and on, in the cultural zeitgeist. But even then, these big screen heroes and heroines are fluid constructs, as studios continuously churn out the remakes. Long before some real estate…

It’s Me, Christy by Phyllis Green

Christy Clarey is caught shoplifting pantyhose, so her parents decide to ship her off to “bad” Grandma Matthew for a week as punishment. Great moments in parenting aside, Christy has never met Grandma Matthew and the woman is apparently really disliked by Christy’s dad and somewhat disliked by Christy’s mom. That makes sense because Grandma Matthew is Christy’s mom’s mom. Now the twist: Christy is adopted, so there’s no real genetic link but in fact her adoption is supposedly why she’s being a bad kid lately.

I just hate it when a book’s details bring me back to reality, proving that I’m dealing with fiction here. For instance, learning about Christy’s adoptive parents jars me into wondering about those stringent home visits and tests and background checks they do on folks that want to adopt. Christy’s parents wouldn’t have made it past the first questionnaire. Then there’s the fact that despite the fact that bad Grandma only lives a few hours away, Christy has never met the woman...and her parents are going to unload her onto the old crank anyway! What is with these folks, don’t they have family reunions and such? How would you never see your own grandmother, even if she’s a witch?

Grandma turns out to be pretty cool anyway. Her husband is away on a truck-driving stint and she herself is a truck-driver. She smokes (tobacco) and drinks and has some great one-liners, and there’s no such thing as a “bedtime” at her house. (Could we be seeing why Christy’s parents have hidden from the old woman for thirteen years? But wait. Sending Christy there is supposed to be a punishment. There we go, back into the realization that this is fiction and not very good fiction at that.)

To complicate an already loosey-goosey plot, we learn that Christy’s mom was also adopted. Who is running adoptions in Pennsylvania anyway? Furthermore, Christy had no clue this was so. Her mother never once mentioned it, even when Christy bitched about being adopted.

#Prose Wednesday and we have an excerpt from Phyllis Green's new epistolary novel, 'Polly & Veronica'. A charmingly-told and bittersweet coming-of-age story that unfolds in intimate letters between two cousins.

Dear Veronica,

You probably don’t remember me. I am your 2nd or 3rd cousin twice removed, whatever that means. We came to visit you once. I thought you looked like Margaret O’Brien with your pretty eyes and dark curly hair. What is wrong with you anyhow? Can’t you ever get out of bed?