Carpentry Journal 4

Sheila came to town, Amelia left the country

AMELIA WOULD BE leaving the country for a month, so I took that Friday night off. There was a lot happening, there were two birthday parties Amelia wanted to go to. And then Sheila was in town.

It ended up being a bit of a wild night. We ended up attending some literary world–adjacent functions. I don’t know why I do this to myself, why I go to these things, I feel no affinity with these people. 

Though it was just so nice seeing Sheila, and seeing Sheila and Amelia interact. Amelia was doing the thing she does where, when asked what she does, she says, in an unflinching deadpan, I’m an influencer. This tends to bring out the funniest responses in people, where they don’t know how to respond. We were down at McNally Jackson Seaport, for the launch of Leanne Shapton’s beautiful book The Native Trees of Canada, which Sheila wrote the intro for, and it was such a small intimate gathering, I tried to soften the blow of Amelia’s comment. I said, She’s an artist, a great artist, and a writer—she just likes saying that to people. But they both ignored me, and began speaking intensely and seriously about why we make art, how much the audience should be taken into consideration when we make it, where the line between quiet art and internet art lies. I sat back and went quiet, it was like witnessing two powerful magicians interact. 

On Sunday, I did laundry, and got set for what I knew would be an intense week. Feeling a bit like a coward for