Natalie
Without images there is no proof that a particular feeling ever happened at all.
In the long run, an ongoing illustrated autobiography may be the best friend you have.
Through my blogs many beautiful things have happened. I started blogging more than five years ago (I had a different blog then, with a different name), and it’s difficult for me to remember what life was like when blogs didn’t exist. My blogs are part of my “ongoing illustrated autobiography”, the public part of it at least. It is clear to me that the “virtuality” of blogging is not opposed to what we call “real life”. Blogging has had real, actual consequences in the off line world (the publication of my first poetry book, for instance, but not only that). Whenever blogging stops being a mere diversion or excuse to procrastinate and becomes a more complex laboratory where actual things and relationships between texts and people are being created and produced, my hope for the activity is almost endless.
Meeting fellow bloggers has been one of these beautiful things that make it all worth it. I met Nick Piombino for lunch in New York City in 2004 (and I am likely to see him again this year); a month ago I had dinner with Ivy Alvarez in London, and just yesterday I had the most gorgeous afternoon sharing tea and biscuits with Natalie d’Arbeloff.
Natalie’s creative energy is endless. Her house is full of treasures she made herself. The excuse to meet was her new graphic novel, the God Interviews, which is a deliciously funny, touching, intelligent and delicate book that turns philosophical dialogue into a feast of color and joy and complex innocence. Natalie is a true artist in the whole sense of the word, which in this case it means for me that she has a total commitment with her work and employs every possible medium available to her. Outside of the traditional circuits of comicbookdom or literary or artsy fartsy snobbery, her paintings, illustrations, objets d’art, sculptures, sketchbooks, prose and comics compose a very complex corpus of beauty and intelligence that has yet to be discovered and appreciated by a larger audience.
Had it not been for blogging perhaps never would I have found out about Natalie’s work. Meeting her in her house in London, getting signed copies of her books and seeing her personal collection was a gift from life (and blogging, which is life, too) for which I remain very grateful.
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You can buy Natalie d’Arbeloff’s the God Interviews here.
Ernesto, I’m blushing every colour of the rainbow. Thanks for this lavish praise every word of which is, of course, true but so much better expressed than I could possibly attempt.
I will be endlessly quoting you.
I knew from your wonderful blog that you were a friend but meeting you confirms it without a doubt.
Hasta muy pronto, amigo.
Jealousy! I am a fan of both of you. Sounds like a great afternoon.
Ernesto,
I discovered you (and many other wonderful people) through reading Natalie’s blog. Your narrative on how blogging became part of your real life and had a deep effect on it resonates strongly with me as I underwent the same process. Most of the people I know online today was thanks to blogging.
If all goes well, I will be meeting f2f Natalie in London in a month and I am eager to relive your experience, get a copy of her interviews with God (which I have been following from the beginning), hear her singing and laughing and be able to share with her what is most important when two human beings meet: care and love.
Warm regards from Brazil