Tom Waits – I Don’t Want To Grow Up
One For The Wolves (A Song)
You always were one for the wolves.
Strutting around in their clothes.
A sheep at heart, you played the part
and offer your skin for the sacrifice.
You always did love to be the feast.
Even if it was to feed the beast.
Born into this world, just a helpless little girl
alone in the wilderness, full of wolves.
Now you’re done with me.
Cast me off into the sea.
Said you got to run free with the wolves.
Won’t let me slow you down anymore-
and you’re walking out that f*cking door.
You’ve got to run with the wolves.
You’ve got to sacrifice your love
and you won’t surrender any of your will-
but you just want to lay down and be the kill.
But you dont know how much I love you still
and I am a sheep, just like you.
Levi Shewalter
-girl-
relish this moment
of playing the fool.
one day you will grow
to be an old woman
who knows everything-
much like all the old women
who’ve known before.
Hither and Yon
A lot of things happened during my childhood which led me to believe I was going to live an extraordinary life. You can imagine my disappointment when I realized that this hadn’t yet occurred. So instead of letting the monotonous or mundane consume me completley, I did what any self-respecting, post-modern alchemist trapped in such trying times would do; I summoned for the winds of change.
The Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes did not ring my front doorbell and present me with an oversized check. I did not find the cure for cancer, nor the missing link in mans evolutionary chain. I could not, if prompted, spout off the Ten Commandments, or recite the Seven Wonders of the World, let alone discover an Eighth. I had simply sent an email. To the same recipient I had tried sending an email to nearly once a year, for ten years. What happened next is the part I could have never seen coming; a response.
Oblivion Will Greet You
It was never my intention
to jump wildly, blindly into the abyss
not knowing of what beasts
might devour me whole-
without blinking an eyelid.
The soul is a fragile thing
and when pushed closley to the edge
oblivion will greet you
without judgement of your sins.
I want to be that kind of friend for you.
I want to be that kind of mother for my children.
I want to embrace you despite what kind of tragedy has beset you.
I want to love you like death,
weither or not you’ll love me back.
Artist Statement
It used to be that I made art because I felt that I was good at it. Anymore, it seems I’m making art to get good at it, and that is what holds my interest. Art is infinitely challenging. In the process of making art, I usually find out more about myself and the order of the universe then I learn about technique or procedure. In throwing pottery, it becomes obvious when enough is enough, and how one false move can screw up an already beautiful scenario. The same is true in painting, but canvas is more forgiving than clay. With drawing, I’ve learned not to over think things, because that critical voice inside my head is incapable of creating spontaneous beauty, unlike my hands. Art is a great teacher, and someday, I hope to teach art to others and continue the learning process.
It is hard for me to say what the subject of my artwork is. For me, artwork has always been disposable, and I tend to keep nothing. I feel that what should remain is not an artifact created by me, signed or framed, but instead, the skills I have learned by doing so. If I had to find one similarity that my artwork possessed; a theme, it would be that everything I make seems to be directly connected to the human experience. Until now, I’ve never been forced to ask myself why this huge emphasis on my own species above all other things in such an immeasurable universe? Having done so, I come to the conclusion that it is not an act of ego-centricity so much, as an awareness of human responsibility. As a species, we determine the fate of all other creatures who share this planet with us. We determine our own outcome. Humans are capable of such perfection, and such destruction. I create art that exploits both sides of our human nature.
