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TODD GRIESE

Todd Griese reads at the "Take Everything" event in Camarillo, CA

Todd Griese, (born June 1st, 1957) is an American poet and publisher. The scope of Todd Griese’s work has had a broad range of style, from the Beats (i.e., Gary Snyder), the New York School (Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan), to where it seems most at home in the Mountains and Rivers tradition of Chinese poetry. The most distinctive thrust of his work is found in Gandy Dancer Press. Founded by Griese, the small press is dedicated to the collaborative expressions of poetry, art and music.

LIFE AND CAREER

Early Life

Todd Griese was born June 1, 1957 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. His family moved to the South Bay (Lawndale, Lomita, Torrance) in Southern California in 1959. He was an only child, until his brother, Chance, was born in 1966. In 1967 (The Summer of Love), his family relocated to the San Francisco Bay area. When Todd was 10 years old on a day trip with his parents and one year old brother, Chance, they visited the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco. This excursion had a profound impact on Griese’s subconscious, which eventually led him down the path of open discovery of the San Francisco Renaissance and its players.

Career

In 1975, while studying History and Asian cultures at San Diego State University (1975-1980), Griese met poet Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder had won the Pulitzer Prize for Turtle Island in 1975. This meeting and subsequent meetings with Snyder over the next few years solidified Griese’s path to pursue writing poetry. In 1980, Griese traveled to mainland China only four months after its opening to the West. The experience allowed him to see and experience Chinese culture which had been largely unchanged since the late ‘40’s to early ‘50’s.

Ojai/Maui/Montecito

Griese moved to the Ojai Valley, California in 1983. This period was to be known as The Ojai Book Shoppe years. Griese started the Ojai Book Shoppe, largely stocked with small press publications. A vibrant core of poets had also assembled in Ojai at this time. This group included the poets, Todd Griese, Phoebe MacAdams, Judy Oberlander, Crystal Davis, Sean Heaney, Art Beebe, Vail Dinkins, and Vince Mowry. As well as, frequent visitors, Lewis MacAdams and Mark Salerno.

The Ojai Book Shoppe years afforded Griese to write and meet many of his heroes, influences and members of that avant garde literary scene that he was so enamored with when he was younger. He met with Beat writers, Gary Snyder, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure.

Griese also wrote the collections Creek and Canyons, Ghost Dance and Other Poems, Frames and began the large collection Periods of Mist and Light during this period from 1983-1986. It is in these early collections that you see the foundation and experimentation of Griese’s style.

It was also during this period that the germination of Gandy Dancer Press began to evolve. Work began on a magazine to be called Gandy Dancer. This magazine was to feature the works of the Ojai Poets, but the disaster of the Wheeler Canyon Fire of 1985, cut the venture short of its goal and sent many of the poets in different directions. Griese closed the Ojai Book Shoppe, married his longtime muse, Christine Mayer. They moved to Maui where their daughter, Kelsey, was born. It was in Maui, where Griese met W. S. Merwin another major influence. The Griese family lived in Maui from 1986 to 1988.

The Griese family moived to Montecito, California in 1988 where a son, Kyland was born in 1989. Griese’s longtime friend, Claire Rabe, an editor at the Santa Barbara Independent began to publish his work in the weekly paper. Santa Barbara is also where Griese met Capra Press Publisher, Noel Young. Mr. Young’s advice to Griese “was to find his niche and to stick with it for the long term, providing it had legs.” The Griese’s and their growing family soon thereafter bought a home in Camarillo, California in 1990 and have lived there for over 25 years.

In 2004, Todd Griese met Monsignor Terry Richey (St. Basils Catholic Church, Los Angeles) in Cambria, California. Monsignor Richey was a spiritual mentor to Griese and his guidance impacted the direction of Griese’s work.

Griese begins work on Spiritual Lines in 2005 and publishes the book in 2009. The book was designed in collaboration with artist, photographer, and graphic designer, Jane Shanahan. The spirit of Gandy Dancer Press was set in motion with this project. The book's design consisted of an 8” x 8” art book concept with the poetry set against photography provided by Jane Shanahan.

Broadsides

A little liberty has been taken in the production of Gandy Dancer Press “broadsides.” Gandy Dancer Press does not use a letter press in printing. The production consists of a large product size (poster print or frameable canvas). Some pieces are pre-framed, giclee canvas, and some matte paper print. A large linen Japanese scroll was produced in the Terry Bozzio/Todd Griese Collection in 2017.

Through the years, Griese has collaborated with artists, Jane Shanahan, Timm Sinclair, and Terry Bozzio. The initial Spiritual Lines collaboration between Griese and Shanahan yielded three broadsides over the next couple of years (Wedding Song, Arrowhead, Community). This collaboration motif of artist and poet was becoming the “niche,” Noel Young (Capra Press) had mentioned to Griese, a few years earlier. Griese followed with collaboration efforts in the broadside form, Flowline and World Wise with longtime friend, artist, and art director, Tiimm Sinclair.

No Work, No Food

In 2010 Griese begins work on No Work, No Food. The title taken from the Zen koan about Chinese Zen master, Hyakujo. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. The metaphor at play in Griese’s title being implied is that the "food" or "nourishment" is spiritual in nature.

In January of 2017, Griese begins a collaboration with rock legend, Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Missing Persons, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, and U.K.). Bozzio, arguably one of the greatest drummers of all time, is also an abstract artist and composer. Bozzio’s art and musical compositions paired with Griese’s poetry provide a rich and subtle statement.

“Todd Griese and I have been close friends for more than ten years. His spiritual insights and writings resonate (with) me. He is an authentic individual who writes from his local experience and Asian history studies, with a touch of beat poetry thrown in for some flavor.” -Terry Bozzio, Modern Drummer Magazine May 2017

In May of 2017 Griese and Bozzio launched their collaborative effort, A Journey Along Spiritual Lines, a live show of poetry and percussion at Ventura County’s largest art festival, Arts Alive 2017. This show was a preview to their gallery opening and their collaborative album, No Work, No Food.

The gallery opening and show, A Part of the Landscape / A Part of the Human Condition, took place on July 1, 2017 at the Blackboard Gallery, Studio Channel Islands, in Camarillo, California. This show was the debut of Bozzio’s artwork. This collaboration between Griese and Bozzio yielded multiple pieces, including, a live performance, an hour long video documentary on the process and background, six broadsides in both canvas and print, one Japanese scroll on linen, as well as an album, No Work, No Food. The "No Work, No Food" album project consisted of 22 tracks of Griese’s poems voiced over Bozzio’s original musical compositions.

“No Work, No Food is a collaboration between drummer, composer Terry Bozzio and poet Todd Griese. The result is pretty impressive. Todd Griese recites his poems on the top of Terry Bozzio’s compositions.” -United Mutations, December 26, 2017

The Bozzio/Griese collaboration produced an explosion of diverse work in a seven-month period. This collaboration explored the subtle contrast, not conflict, of poetics, art and music, resulting in a narrative fully entrenched in spirituality’s grasp of the notion that all things are present in the now. This project also solidified Gandy Dancer Press’ wide range spectrum dedication to the collaboration of poetry, music and art as the basis for communal expression.

Work

Poetry Collections 1983: Creeks and Canyons

1984: Ghost Dance and Other Poems

1984-1985: Frames

1985-2000: Periods of Mist and Light

2005-2009: Spiritual Lines

2010-2017: No Work, No Food

2018: North Fork (Backcountry Haiku and Tanka from the Thomas Fire burn area, Wheeler Gorge, Ojai, California)

Album

2017: No Work, No Food Terry Bozzio, Composer Todd Griese, Poet

Broadsides

Jane Shanahan Collaboration

2010: Wedding Song

2010: Arrowhead

2011: Community

Timm Sinclair Collaboration

2013: Flowline

2017: World Wise

Terry Bozzio Collaboration

2017: Bottom

2017: No Work, No Food

2017: Tapestry

2017: Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha (Scroll)

2017: Path

2017: Sabor

Todd Griese/Photo Broadside

2018: Pinecone

2018: Hero

*All publications published in conjunction with or solely by Gandy Dancer Press.

External links

• www.gandydancerpress.net