Team Wet Dog

Yo, what up. Sorry for the lack of posts (as if you're eagerly checking the site each day) - I was in Albany visiting one of my best friends. So there. But now I'm back and feeling saucy and also feeling very glad that my friend Zack forwarded me the link to Team Wet Dog.

First of all, very cool name. (Of course anything involving dogs or even the word 'dog' gets points in my book.) Second - I admire what this artist, Robert Walton, is trying to do with his new book, called Twelve Dreams, which he's self-publishing:

"The project represents a lot of time spent writing and editing, trying to ensure that the final work really said what I wanted it to say. It’s intended as a statement about a lot of things — home and dreams and faith and family. But perhaps more that that, it’s a statement about making something, setting it out for others to see, and hoping they connect with it."

Yes yes yes yes yes. This is what we must do - have the faith to make something, and to share it. The point isn't whether the rest of us love Robert's book - it's that he made it. Sharing something you made with love is probably the greatest gift you can give the world.

And the good news is: you can do this anywhere. In DC, or in Albany, where my friend lives in what she describes as a "brown box" rental apartment with crazy neighbors who tote shotguns. There's nothing there that inspires her - lots of nondescript shopping strips - but I told her, there are people in this town who take photographs, who write stories, who plant gardens...even in the corners of the globe where nothing calls out to say "Step right up, getcher creativity" -- it's still there, waiting patiently for you to discover it.

If you'd like to check out Robert's book, stop by a release party he's having at the DCAC in Adams Morgan tomorrow, August 20, at 5pm.

• Learn more about Twelve Dreams.
• Also, be sure to check out Robert's photos of Mount Pleasant - they're evocative and, I think, combine a richness of storytelling with a strong eye for aesthetic detail.

Over and out...