Artist Profile: Hilary Emerson Lay
My advice to someone just starting out on their journey to become a successful artist is to treat your art like a job right from the get-go. You’d never slack off at your day job; apply the same work ethic to your art.
The Thesauri Crisii
It happened on the campaign trail of the presidential election of 2000. Five years before conspiracy theorists concluded that Dick Cheney brought explosives to the levees of New Orleans, major news organizations trumpeted that he “brought gravitas to the ticket.” No less than 16 different news commentators touted the same word-for-word hyperbolic revelation.
Spotlight: Joshua Baptista
“I don’t want to tell people what to think with my work. I feel that there is enough white noise out there. I don’t expect people to have the same relationship with the work that I do”: The Orris asks mixed media artist Joshua Baptista about art, death, and inspiration.
The Orris Book Swap @ Allston Village Street Fair
The Orris is hosting a book swap at the Allston Village Street Fair this Sunday, September 23 from 12-6. The Allston Village Street Fair is an all-ages, free event featuring live music, street performances…
Dali Drew Comic Books: Bryan Ramey
The purpose of his art is to “stir a passion in the audience,” “to transport you either metaphysically or emotionally.” He hopes his work “reminds them of something deep,” that “it haunts them.”
Moments in Nature: Christopher Ives
In the words of Henry David Thoreau, ‘I have been anxious to improve the nick of time… to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.’ In a very objective way, releasing the shutter for me is just that, to capture the present moment, and ‘toe its line’.
Poetry: Valentina Cano
It happened when I wasn’t looking.
It came, dragging its chains
of scorching days,
each fused to gather your image.
Artist Profile: Ernest Williamson
I’ve always been fascinated with visual art and poetics; however, I came to the realization that I was an artist at the age of nineteen. After a nervous breakdown, I began to create visual art at a feverish rate and interest in my work grew rapidly.
Motivation
I was so far back from the starting line I couldn’t hear the starter gun. As I crossed the starting line, I started my stopwatch, hearing the beep that had become all too familiar the past two months. It was hard to move, one step too fast and I was running over somebody…
Poetry: Michael Brownstein
They could not bury them fast enough,
the rain thick and slippery, the mud a river,
and in the morning’s blue sky, a whip of cloud,
pink haze, great green vines hugging short trees to strangle
He’s a Vampire
Not long ago, a noted academic
Told me, in reference
To my misuse of the word “polemic”
In an abysmal book review sentence,,,
Art: Fabio Sassi
“I’m inspired by putting together different subjects trying to create weird perspectives. I’m also inspired by the news and the global issues.” The Orris shares the eco-political artwork of Fabio Sassi.
Black Jesus
An impulse as irresistible as in the acorn to germinate is in the soul of the prophet to speak. —Ralph Waldo Emerson. Bobby Barrow couldn’t seem to get the chicken and rice on his fork fast enough, as he shoveled it into his mouth much like he had been shoveling dirt
“Revelation”
Most things change,
leave shards.
The spirit-letter thing
stays hard.
-Guy Rotella
Illustration: Bryan Ramey
Farmers Markets In Your City
We love the harvest season, that period of late summer and fall when the crops have ripened, the bounty picked, and the bushels are brought to market to share. The vibrancy and tenacity of the harvest is best showcased at local farmers markets.
Spotlight: The power of “o-c-O-C” : Environmental Organizing
Trevor Lovell, the environmental program coordinator for Public Citizen’s Texas office and co-founder of ReEnergize Texas, speaks on the power of “o-c-O-C” (pronounced “aukuh-aukuh”).
Spotlight: The Maine Farm Chick
There’s this bumper sticker I keep seeing, “No Farms, No Food.” I guess that’s the basic nature of it. But beyond that, people tend to see neatly packaged food in the supermarket and forget where it came from.
Man v. Car
I don’t know why I’m out here
On worn-down tires and pitted
Chrome, red and yellow sparks
Flying in little comets from
Call for Submissions: Competition
The Orris is seeking critical and creative work on the theme of “Competition” for our next issue. Essays, fiction, poetry, artwork, photography, music, film, and other digital mediums are welcomed.
The Planet is Creative and So Must We Be
Ecologists, rooted mostly in scientific disciplines are woefully ill-equipped to communicate their systemic ideas to the mechanically trained minds of Western Industrialized citizens. Support and initiation of this cultural shift must originate from the arts.
Allston D.I.Y Fest and The Orris Book Swap
Allston D.I.Y Fest is a free celebration of Do-It-Yourself ingenuity and creativity taking place this Saturday, July 21 in Ringer Park, Allston, MA. The festival is organized by a collective of Allston locales, promoting participation from the community at every level.
Artist Profile: Roeya Amigh
“I want the viewer to come close to my paintings. To look at my paintings.” The Orris sat down with painter Roeya Amigh to discuss her work, her Iranian home, and the necessarily fine line between beauty and darkness.
Issue Three: Letter from the Editor
To live environmentally is not just to work toward conservation, but to be an observant, mindful participant in our complex global, social and natural ecosystems. In this issue of The Orris, we look at the environment as not only the natural world around us …
Issue Three: Table of Contents
Forthcoming: New Content Every Tuesday & Friday. Subscribe or Like us on Facebook to get updates on newly released content.
From Black Thumb to Secret Garden
I am not a gardener. Before living in urban Massachusetts I grew up in New York City. The red clay that passed as soil in our yard was not only impossible to dig through; it was all but impermeable. Flowers and plants grew, but only with a lot of hard work and persistence.
Artist Profile: Adam LoRusso
How do you represent the boundaries of the known world? Adam LoRusso seems to have found a way. The Orris interviewed this talented artist, illustrator and tattoo artist who has developed a unique style to explore “both the seen and unseen…”
American Dream Recommendations
Orris Contributors share their favorite American Dream inspired works like Arcade Fire’s “Modern Man,” Sherry Garland’s “Shadow of the Dragon” and Ilan Stavan’s “Spanglish”
Looking at You, Twenty-Four Years On
We remember imperfectly, thank God;
you across to me; me across to you.
Still some measure of sympathy, I guess:
parity, we realized early on,
is one sure recipe for disaster —
The Orris: A Cultural Journal 