Week 30 of 48 (7 Months!)
August 30, 2010
Another month come and gone. Another set of residents come and gone and come again. September looks like it will be jam packed with two amazing poets, Carl Phillips and Adam Zagajewski, the Literature in Translation forum and the usual mix of visiting artists. It should be a busy but good month. In the studio world, things have been a little slow of late. Ever since the show came down, progress on the next project has been much slower than I anticipated, but I suppose I have to cut myself a little slack sometime. It’s pretty unrealistic to expect everything to blast forward all the time—I really want to think through some of what I’m doing before diving in head first so there has been a lot more thinking and a lot less doing than usual. Still, being ridiculously task oriented means it’s hard to accept that sometimes visible progress is slow if a lot is going on in the brain. With only four months left, there is no doubt I am trying to cram too much into my time here and throwing myself into a panic as a result. Goals before I leave (some of them may have to be adjusted… I do work a nearly full time job!):
Assemble another show of new work for the end of November—includes conceptualizing and then making everything…
Teach myself aesthetics—all the basics of continental and analytic from the 18th century forward, then readings that apply specifically to visual art and sculpture, then some of the new work in cognitive/neuroscience as it applies to aesthetics, then some feminist critical theory…
Redo my website—not a redesign, but definitely a restructuring. Mostly this will involve transferring it from flash to html…
Research graduate programs—would like to apply this year just to get a read on how people react though I am not necessarily sold on actually going somewhere yet. Since applying will have to happen right at the new year, when I’m in the middle of moving, I should probably have a good start on the applications themselves before I leave…
So yeah! That doesnt sound so bad, right? Yikes. Anyways, I’m still not ready to say anything about the new project(s) so for now, more post-senescence images:
Week 22 of 48 (5 Months!)
July 5, 2010
Show preview… Without much explanation, here are some photos and a time-lapse video of what I am working on for the show. It is a week and a half away (the opening got pushed back 2 days) and for now I am feeling good about where I am at in terms of getting everything done. I still have a lot of work to do, but things are moving along without too many glitches so if it continues this way, I should be just about ready. I might have to pull an all-nighter or two, but by now I feel like that is just part of the process come show time.
And the time-lapse video of the prototype melting over several days:
Week 20 of 48
June 22, 2010
I’ve made a lot of progress on the show this week, which is great, but I don’t think I’m ready to share yet. I can’t give too much away ahead of time. What I’m planning is very different from what I’ve been showing here over the last 4-5 months… Hopefully different in a good way! In the meantime, I think I will share a little of how out of control studio is these days. With summer going full steam ahead, everything is melting at an unbelievable rate. Making successful casts is becoming more and more difficult as the candy never reaches a completely hardened cool state and instead, immediately begins to melt into a sticky goo. I might actually have to set the casting aside until fall or winter when studio cools off a little. Being on the second floor of an un-air-conditioned building means it is never cooler than 85 degrees. Add to that the fact that I am also cooking and using blow torches…
Week 19 of 48
June 14, 2010
As promised, stills from last weeks Dawn to Dusk project—the first of what will hopefully be several time-lapse videos of sugar diamonds in the outdoors. My show at the Red Mill Gallery is exactly 4 weeks away so I will be spending 100% of my time between now and then preparing for that. Since there isn’t a reliable way to show video in the gallery, I probably won’t revisit Dawn to Dusk until after the show is over…
And of course, the video itself:
Week 12 of 52 (3 Months!)
April 25, 2010
This weekend marked the end of 3 months (counted in residency time, not calendar time) here in Vermont and was filled with a lot of reflection about my place here. April was a tumultuous month with mud season, issues with residents and staff, difficulties reigning in the office work and very limited time in studio. Cabin fever has been in the air along with wondering if I can actually survive a year in this bizarre contrived community. Every day is a roller coaster of emotions oscillating between really wonderful moments and complete despair over how trapped I feel here. It regularly occurs to me that I might hate living here. I love it as a residency, but to stay year round is something else entirely and I am losing all enthusiasm about this situation. It becomes more and more difficult to be excited when meeting new residents and to pretend I enjoy being here; more and more difficult to want to work to improve things, to invest any of myself in this place. Today marks the beginning of Vermont Artists Week, a one week residency just for artists who are Vermont residents, and then the following week is what is known as “Work Week“, the only week ALL YEAR when there are no residents at all. Rumor says it’s the best week all year for getting a lot of work done in studio because there are no residents to interfere and no scheduled activities. I can’t wait. I’m also hoping to use these two weeks of supposed good studio time as a gauge for whether or not I can stay through the year. If I can’t get good work done during the best week of the year, then I’m not going to be able to get good work done any other time and I need to leave. So wish me luck! I have made myself a new schedule that I think will improve my studio hours and includes good chunks of time everyday for walks and yoga to mentally escape a little. I also set my studio up so I can spend nights there in order to hide from everything/everyone when necessary (I’ve been going crazy at my complete lack of privacy)—all of which I think will really help in the future. I’ve also talked with my roommate about borrowing her car on occasion since I have no means of getting out of this stifling town and that should help as well, though I can’t go too far with it since it isn’t technically hers. That’s where I’m at with everything and I will keep you posted on how the next few weeks go. If this weekend doesn’t become a turning point in my time here, then I will have to start working on an exit strategy.