And I won't get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes

In other words, blogging class has begun.

With a commitment to building a more vibrant blog, I signed up for the 4-week Blog
Triage class with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield. Today’s assignment is to
describe the people I want to visit and read my blog.

That's the suggested opening for this first blogging class post. Through the day, as I have thought about what I wanted for this blog, from this blog, the people I want to connect with and the things I want to get from blogging, I have come to the conclusion that this will only be the first of many times that I visit this idea.

Because I haven't a clue what I want. Or maybe I do, somewhere deep. What was it that Chomsky called it--deep structure, I think. So, yeah, maybe on that deep structure, non-verbal level, on that I-know-it-in-my-gut-but-not-in-my-brain level, I know it all. But here on the surface, it's hard to tell.

Do I care if my readers come from a particular region? I figure I'm restricted to Earth right now and that's good enough for me. Fluent in English would be good. I've watched enough misunderstanding flare up on LJ (or read enough incomprehensible stuff in fanfics that turn out to have been written by non-native speakers). Someone who can spell reasonably well and has some understanding of grammar. Am I being too picky? No text-speak. The occasional LOL is all right, much else and I'd scream. Age? Mature enough that their moms don't get on me for corrupting the morals of a minor if I let slip the occasional expletive. Someone who doesn't think that history began last week. Artists, for sure, and not just metalsmiths or glass workers. People who don't take themselves too seriously, who don't go on and on about deeper meanings and nothing else. Gender? Why would it come up? Politics? Religion? I won't show you mine if you don't show me yours.

People who are

• mensches
• kind
• intelligent
• funny
• multi-faceted
• bipedal
• non-dogmatic
• animal lovers--I go riffing on the Fairy Princess once in a while, I'd like them to smile and nod and not yell at me to get back on task
• gardeners--same thing, if I wax poetic over a new old fashioned rose that I've found that thrives in Florida...
• honest, not people-pleasing. I'd rather have someone look at my stuff and say, I don't get it, rather than oh my god that's the most scrumptious solid gold thing [I] ever saw? Oh sister!
• whose heads are not lodged up their butts
• reasonably comfortable with blogging and computers, but then again, how would they find me if they weren't
• I'd rather have the rare, pithy comment, something with insight and humanity and humor, rather than 'me toos' and 'omgs'

What do I want to get from this blog? Some far-flung friends I would never have met otherwise because I live in Gainesville and they're in Dublin or Kiev or sailing around the world on a sailboat. To make a place where I document what I'm making, how I got there artistically, emotionally. A place to direct people who are interested in my work, where it's going (in terms of design), shows and things that I might take part in. People who can laugh with me at my foibles and commiserate over the pieces that turn out, well, embarrassingly bad. Who can remind me on those days when I ask myself who the heck am I to think that I'm an artist of the times I've touched them. And let me return the favor.

I'm gonna get me some new red shoes.