Check out the new nemens.com.
I’ll still be posting here, but check there for news and updates.
Part of becoming a Louisiana resident is getting my head around the sports culture of this place.
Best way to do it? Become a sportswriter. My first article for the Baton Rouge weekly, DIG Baton Rouge, came out last week. Appropriately enough, on female fandom.
Read “Fake it til you make it.“
Just found out I’m one of ten finalists for the Aspen Writers Foundation/Esquire Short Short fiction contest. I’ll be “competing” in NYC on Nov. 1. Holla.
More on the contest here.
As of August 8, 2011, I am a resident of Baton Rouge. I’ll be here for the next three years pursuing an MFA in Fiction at Louisiana State University. I got an editorial assistant position at The Southern Review, and the Schwartzberg Scholarship for outstanding incoming student in the humanities, which feels like something of an auspicious beginning.
I’ll be occasionally blogging about architecture, planning, and places in LA over at Learning from Louisiana. Otherwise, stay tuned to nemenator.com for news on stories, pictures, and the like.
Also, while waiting for my furniture to arrive, I painted the next twenty Congresswomen. Here’s to sandwiches and watercolors.
Filed under: in the media
Yesterday, I was profiled in ShalomLife, Canada’s “#1 source for Jewish arts and culture,” as part of the site’s “Top 20 Jews in the arts.” The profile is here.
Between this and the HEEB 100, I’m becoming a regular Jewish artist. Mazel tov!
Greetings from Glen Wild! For the past two weeks I’ve been at Denniston Hill, an artists’ residency in the heart of the old Jewish Catskills. While life in New York City is full of good things, it’s been wonderful to unplug for a while, eat vegetables, run on country roads, and work like a dog on writing and illustration projects. I finished a 5K short story about derrotero maps I’ve been kicking around ever since I saw the Zoe Leonard show at the Dia/Hispanic Society two years ago. The new novel has also made great progress… I resolved the POV situation, and it’s more than twice as long (just passed 100pgs) as when I started up here. The view from my desk is pleasant, to say the least: 
When writing’s done for the day, I switch to illustration. My latest project is the Women of the 112th Congress. The Senate is done, and I’ve started the much bigger task of painting the House. And yes, those rainbow-colored suits are painted in true-to-life hues. I am so proud that we are represented by women, but I find the peacock aspect of being a female politician a little funny, and a little sad. I thought the best way to represent those conflicting emotions was with delicate and honest portraiture. Here’s the Senate:
and the start of the House:
And when that’s done, there’s still time (I love this!) to read before bed. I’m re-reading “Glory of their times” an oral history of the first generation of great baseball players, in preparation for my first trip to Cooperstown (we’re about two hours away, and have elected to take the long way home). I’ve also cracked DH’s beautiful library to read Colm Toibin’s first novel, The South. It brought me right back to Barcelona, in the most graceful, gut-wrenching way I’ve read since Hemingway.
April 15 is not just due-day for taxes, it’s also the decision-day for college and university-bound students all over the country. Acceptances and rejections have been filing in over the past few months, but everyone’s decision is due today. I’m proud to say that I’ve chosen to attend Louisiana State University for an MFA in Fiction. It’s a funded, three-year program, and for the next two, I’ll be wearing the hat of graduate assistant at the Southern Review. I’m excited to study with Jim Wilcox and the rest of the English faculty, see the insides of the Southern Review, and start exploring the Deep South. Go Tigers!
And don’t worry, I’ll keep one toe (and one pair of pumps) in Brooklyn.
Ben and I were featured today in the New York Time’s Real Estate section, in an article by Constance Rosenblum.
Read Habitats: Williamsburg, Brooklyn – One Relationship, Times Two
Also, check out the slideshow, with a number of my paintings on walls and in corners. Wonderful shots by Kenneth Dickerman!
Three 12×18″ watercolors, of Clip Clop at the newsworthy Domino Sugar plant. They make me think of Misty of Chinchoteague, plus urban decay.
I’ve had a few work-y clips and photos in the past few weeks. Here’s a piece I wrote for Architectural Record, here are some photos I took of Rafael Vinoly that ended up on Metropolismag.com, and here is an awful shot of Will Oldham from the Village Voice Blog. I figure, if you have to stay all night, you might as well get the photo credit.
Speaking of photos, here’s the best one I’ve seen in months. Credit Dad, of Penny having a bad day. Lesson learned: things could be worse.
