Survival of the fittest.

I had my critique on Friday. You get one once a semester. It includes everyone from the workshop and and a guest “critter” as I think folks have come to call them. I have been so incredibly manic lately, working 13 hours a day, always with at least two kilns going at a time and usually one of them is a 40 x 90 paragon. Cold working until I can’t hold the saeuna ( no idea how you spell that. It is a big wet grinder ) The good news is that I am not doing so much by hand that my fingers are bleeding so there have been no nasty mistakes with super glue catching my fingers on fire.

Which brings me to something I feel I should comment on on the other blog, the one I started for school called Teraphim.org. Material safety. I am a pretty big apostate when it comes to Material Safety and Data Sheets, I kinda pay attention to them, but I pretty much work with materials that I am comfortable with and try not to get too much stuff on my skin. (ok I am actually a disaster in this respect at times, please liver, forgive me) BUT that said, everyone should read the MSDS that come with the materials that they are using. BUT don’t stop there! The internet is great resource for information about all sorts of crazy ass projects, and how NOT to kill yourself doing them. Don’t just check out one website, check 10! That can give you a pretty good idea what to expect. Like today I read all about life casting and how skin safe silicon sticks to hair! Fancy that. And it took me all of 3 minutes to find that out. Case n’ point. Friday, I heard a bunch of commotion in the studio next to mine but I was pretty preoccupied cleaning up after trashing my studio before my crit. Some one said something about recharging a battery or something. But I HAD to clean my studio it or I couldn’t put my stuff back in so I just ignored the conversation. ANYWAY, after a bit I went next door to repay kindly Glenn Carter for lending me some coffee money, and was greated at the studio door by a person who shall go nameless, but her name is Nicole, waving me away somewhat frantically. I looked into the space behind her, where someone who REALLY shall remain nameless, was having a silicon mold removed from their head, along with all their body hair. OUCH. They were shaving his head to get the mold off. Hmmmmm…. seems like somewhere there might have been some directions to follow that might of avoided this. And to think, it could have been much worse, like covering a latex sensitive person with a latex mold or something… but anyway… people…all people… where your bike helmets and read you safety info and follow the directions. Maybe they did, maybe the directions were a bad translation from Chinese or something but… Ouch. At least they weren’t casting… oh never mind….yeah so anyway…in about three minutes I found directions for using silicon mold making material and how not to pull out all your hair doing it, to bad they didn’t read that first.

Hey and a great place for getting instructions on making stuff is at Instructables.com

Monitor Hack – Security System!

I heart instructables.

before and after

OK so now I am doing about 10,000 things at once. I am happy. I may not be making any great art but I sure am melting a lot of glass!

Riding my bike home from the studio the other night, during a down pour, my tolerance was out to a test. It was cold, wet, and dark; raining hard enough that I couldn’t see the bike path clearly.

You may be wondering about now, why the hell I am posting this on a blog about art and no, it is not just to get sympathy, and more vegan treats on fridays.

What occurred to me, or what I was forced to confront, out of my own self-pity and misery, was: The slower you go the faster you get there. The inclination I had that night, and in fact each time I get on a bicycle, is to go as fast as possible. This causes all sorts of unnecessary stress. Why is that person on a junky old bike passing me with my sporty new one? Why is that woman passing me, she is surely older than I? I should be able to catch that guy, he isn’t that fast. Oh shit almost got nailed again (while speeding across an intersection.) You get the picture.

I made myself so anxious on all those trips, and particularly that night, in my rush to get home, I got to the point where I just wasn’t going to do it any more. Buy a car, take the bus, WALK, but I was done with riding. But some how out of this crappy mood emerged a system, or maybe better described as a process, of being. Just go slow. Pay attention, enjoy the ride, don’t focus on the end.

And that is where this all comes back to making art. As makers, and in particular as makers in school where each semester we are asked to create a study plan, (that inevitably has an “outcome”) it is all too easy to get caught up on focusing on the end result that we wrote down, or preconceived, and fail to see the potential “eureka” moments that happen along the way.

Of course too this can be a tricky balance to maintain. Do I stick with my exploration of surface tension or do I delve into the new direction of dissection that my explorations led me to? I certainly can’t follow every single new idea that comes along as I am working. But I CAN go slowly enough to at least confront this as a concrete question, and make a decision about what direction to head, and not miss the opportunity in its entirety.

And that is where I came up with my new motto of the week: The slower you go, the faster you get there.

Go slow enough to enjoy the ride, the process, the work, the seeing and being, the out come of disasters before they end up in the trash. Do I change direction? Yes? No? Maybe, no, but at least I got to see another possibility.

My rides home since that night have been exponentially more enjoyable. Riding in the cold rain at night has become akin to on of my favorite pastimes, late night cross-country skis, where the sliver of night sky appearing light against the deep black of the forest trees, was my only guide. The rides now provide me with a chance for contemplation, rather than a chance to embark on some bizarre Tour de France fantasy. In the studio? I have been there in the past, methodical, working, seeing, neither rushing forward frantically towards a goal or turning off the path at the slightest bump in the road. And that is where I hope to be again soon.

And I am working on it.

Riding my bike home from the studio the other night, during a down pour, my tolerance was out to a test. It was cold, wet, and dark; raining hard enough that I couldn’t see the bike path clearly.

You may be wondering about now, why the hell I am posting this on a blog about art and no, it is not just to get sympathy, and more vegan treats on fridays.

What occurred to me, or what I was forced to confront, out of my own self-pity and misery, was: The slower you go the faster you get there. The inclination I had that night, and in fact each time I get on a bicycle, is to go as fast as possible. This causes all sorts of unnecessary stress. Why is that person on a junky old bike passing me with my sporty new one? Why is that woman passing me, she is surely older than I? I should be able to catch that guy, he isn’t that fast. Oh shit almost got nailed again (while speeding across an intersection.) You get the picture.

I made myself so anxious on all those trips, and particularly that night, in my rush to get home, I got to the point where I just wasn’t going to do it any more. Buy a car, take the bus, WALK, but I was done with riding. But some how out of this crappy mood emerged a system, or maybe better described as a process, of being. Just go slow. Pay attention, enjoy the ride, don’t focus on the end.

And that is where this all comes back to making art. As makers, and in particular as makers in school where each semester we are asked to create a study plan, (that inevitably has an “outcome”) it is all too easy to get caught up on focusing on the end result that we wrote down, or preconceived, and fail to see the potential “eureka” moments that happen along the way.

Of course too this can be a tricky balance to maintain. Do I stick with my exploration of surface tension or do I delve into the new direction of dissection that my explorations led me to? I certainly can’t follow every single new idea that comes along as I am working. But I CAN go slowly enough to at least confront this as a concrete question, and make a decision about what direction to head, and not miss the opportunity in its entirety.

And that is where I came up with my new motto of the week: The slower you go, the faster you get there.

Go slow enough to enjoy the ride, the process, the work, the seeing and being, the out come of disasters before they end up in the trash. Do I change direction? Yes? No? Maybe, no, but at least I got to see another possibility.

My rides home since that night have been exponentially more enjoyable. Riding in the cold rain at night has become akin to on of my favorite pastimes, late night cross-country skis, where the sliver of night sky appearing light against the deep black of the forest trees, was my only guide. The rides now provide me with a chance for contemplation, rather than a chance to embark on some bizarre Tour de France fantasy. In the studio? I have been there in the past, methodical, working, seeing, neither rushing forward frantically towards a goal or turning off the path at the slightest bump in the road. And that is where I hope to be again soon.

And I am working on it.

Sick n tired of my own whining.

Ok I am sick of whining. That isn’t to say that some great source of glass has materialized out of thin air for me to work with, or that the scale I need has arrived or that …oh right… yea so what I was going to say was that I am going to try to focus on some thing else. Like questions. I often blab on and on about how much “crap” their is in “craft” and how glass is sort of the epitome of that, but I realize that there may well be proportionately just as much “crap” fine art ( or painting for that matter) as there is crap craft. There are an awful lot of really bad artists out there, glass or otherwise. I was wondering… actually acting like I knew earlier today, about when crafts became the craft movement that artists love to hate. NW at school said yesterday that Art as we know it, seperate from the the idea of artisan, came to exist in the 17th century. Maybe I can get Mark Kurlansky to write a book about “craft” so that I don’t have to.

Does anyone remember…

the last time I cried? I don’t. Seriously I have no recollection. When ever it was it was a good long while ago… or it was a good long while ago until today. GOD I AM SO FRUSTRATED. Being here is like being a hyperactive ADD OCD in a straight jacket, or a laid-off workaholic. I feel like I am BASHING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL AT EVERY TURN. I AM SOOOO FRUSTRATED. Want to cast something? Nope the comp class is in the casting studio and god forbid you do it anywhere else. What to weigh something? NOT unless you have your own five hundred dollar scale, or can ignore the professor who is trying to run you out of the shop, politely, by asking you indirect questions about what you are doing… “um…so you are weighing glass? What for? Aren’t you worried about contamination from the copper in the air? Did you get that scale to work?” I HAD IT WORKING UNTIL YOU DISTRACTED ME! UGH! ” I am sure if you go to the science department… (WHERE THE HELL IS THE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT? WHICH SCIENCE DEPARTMENT? ISN”T THIS KIND OF A LARGE UNIVERSITY?) and ask for Richard Barwick… ( UM who? RIGHT SHOULD I BE WRITING THIS DOWN?) he will go to a closet and pull out an old scale that you can use… it will be much easier than this one with all its numbers on it…( aren’t numbers what you are supposed to use when weighing things? ) FUCK LADY REALLY I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP BUT I WILL JUST GO SHOOT MYSELF NOW. THANKS!

Well fortunately the comp class bailed and Nicci had about as good a day as I did and was cool about me sneaking in there and doing some work. Christ almighty… is this a summer camp or a fucking university? I just want to do some GOD DAM WORK. I am getting the reputation as the woman who swears all the time. Yea. well. FUCK!

Excuse me. I really don’t remember the last time I cried. I have been here for going on 3 weeks and have nothing, nothing nothing to show for it.

Relax… have a spot of tea…

Have I been working alone for so long I have lost touch with the inefficiency of groups or is this place just supremely disorganized?

Oh yea…still waiting for the health insurance that I paid for in January. huh.

BUT in the end I kicked but. I got into the studio and worked straight for 4 hours +. Got several casts done for color samples and a bowl form for a pate de verre experiment. Maybe someday I will get some glass!

Will I keep it up?

Trying to write a paragraph, by hand, with a pen, just about gave me tennis elbow. I think I am going to stick to typing, which I know gives me tennis elbow, only I suspect it won’t do it as quickly. So what I was trying to write, what I have been thinking about lately, is the journal of this year. Two weeks have passed already. That leaves 51 ( I think, seems that I count more than there are supposed to actually be, but that is another matter ) Anyway, what I have been thinking for awhile is that I would blog this process, and at the end of the year, well there you would have it, a detailed record of what I did and I wouldn’t have to write my thesis. OK so maybe I wouldn’t have to research it quite as hard. But here is a starter and I will up load some lovely pictures of my silicone thing soon!

So today. I had a little success. So far everything I have done, or tried to do has been sort of a disaster, add that to the fact that there has been no one around to teach me anything, I have gotten to be in a bit of a pissy mood. But today, I went in and my silicone pour into an ice cube tray came out of the tray perfectly and when I cast it in plaster, that turned out just as nicely, with the silicone pulling cleanly from the side of the plaster. I am going to be using these to do color samples. Hah. An example of a day last week goes like this.

Figure out I want to use ice cube tray as model for test samples. Spend the better part of the day trying to cast the freaking ice cube thing in hot wax. UGH. What a mess. After melting and hand forming little individual cubes all morning I ask myself. “what? are you high?” Use silicone. So I open the silicone and it is a mess like 3 years past its expiration date, but I paid 80 bucks for it so I am going to give it a try. Have to go to the store to get another ice cube tray cause the one I was using was melted in the hot wax process. Get the tray and start mixing the silicon only to have your friendly security guy come in and want to chat as I am bent over with my ass in the air mixing silicone. How charming. The silicone is stiff as hell and it is hard to mix. I figure there is NO way this shit is going to set. Pour it. Ride home.

But that wasn’t the only day that was like that. EVERY day was like that ( OK on Wednesday we went on an excellent trip to Wagga Wagga to see the art mentioned below) But one day I finally get hold of some glass and then realize that I am going to need a scale that measures less than a gram… ONLY AFTER dragging all my shit into the Arch space ( where you are allowed to use powders and frits, unlike your studio) So I hike down to the metals department and wait around for Johanus to show me how to use this scale that at first he says is broken… but then admits that maybe his students are to stupid to figure out how to use it. He is nice and figures out how to use the scale in about 30 seconds. SO I DRAG ALL MY STUFF DOWN THERE… and realize that I need to have the molds made BEFORE I measure out the freaking glass because there will be no place to put it. ( Dixie cups? Little folded pieces of paper… PLEASE…) BTW I don’t have any problems with the scale, that is NOT why I didn’t measure things out. Really.

So you get the picture. Not great. Mix in a little sophomoric behavior by students who only come in one day a week… and I could use a drink… but I don’t drink with co-workers so at the party friday… well I didn’t go to the party friday… well yea I did… just long enough to have an anxiety attack and HAVE to get the hell out of there. It is really nice to ride home before dark anyway.

I have nailed the bike route from my place to school. None of it is on major roads and only 4 blocks is on any roads at all. Riding in in the morning is like being in the movie Bambi, all these birds singing, and the mist rising … and the fire burning and loosing …no wait I hated that movie. It is like… oh I don’t know… really cool. There are lots of parrots.

So the plan is Tomorrow I will write the semester study plan that is due by week four. I am having to edit it not because I am not getting things done but because non of what I am getting done is glass work. And the list of materials for Phil. That will be fun. I like shopping. I wonder when it will get here? Some time next year?

I don’t think I will go into the studio… but maybe. Today sort of stunk because I got there and was JUST finishing the set up for my casting when the only other people there pop in and say they are going. Great. My second weekend and I am already going to be breaking the rule, no working alone. Of course that sort of sets me off. How the hell am I going to get anything done here if I have to be with someone else all the FUCKING time. That is why I am an artist and not a musician. I don’t like other people. ( OK I like them just fine but I don’t want them around when I am working. )So as I am trying to hurry to get the hell out before I don’t know what happens, Nicci shows up and is wanting to work. THANK GOD. She disappears into the cold shop and I promptly smash myself in the head so hard I am really glad she is in the other room. “What fuck-wit put that thing there? ERG, prima donnas, complain about my not cleaning up, and you put that thing up there, what are you out of your stupid mind… grrrr. oh… my mold worked perfectly, excellent” I am happy

Another end to a great day in the studio.

home super hot carne adovada sin carne… man I have to figure out the chili powder down here. It is 9 pm can I go to bed yet?

So Monday I will make more molds, carve more, and what? Wait for there to be some glass for me to work with? Paint more paintings? Write a thesis? um… I guess I will stalk Phil. He and I are going to get really close, one way or another. Oh and I am meeting with Nigel. Ask him and or Phil about glasses at Glassworks.

Djambo Barra Barra

Went to Wagga Wagga National Gallery and saw a great exhibit of work from the Roper River Region, which I will have to write more about when I am not rushing to get out the door… BUT… This painting positively vibrates, you can tell how much it vibrates because I obviously couldn’t hold my camera still long enough to take the shot. OH WELL. I love this painting so much it hurts.

Yikes

I love Australia’s flora and fauna but I am not so thrilled about its arachnidauna. I noticed a spider web right below the nob that I turn EVERY day to get out of the garage.
I sort of started lifting the door a little to the left cause I was sticking my fingers into it and it was kind of ICKY. So today…I noticed that there was a spider in the web… and it is a RED BACK. Not a friendly spider. Here is a link some fun info about Red Backs. http://www.australianfauna.com/redbackspider.php http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/redback.htm

Ha ha ha. The house kitty just played a trick on me. As I was reading all the above links about Red Backs she started tickling me with her whiskers. I just about hit the ceiling.

Oh and here is the link to the NICE fauna.

http://www.iconophilia.net/incoming-fox-terrier/

Shit I am going to just steal the pictures; here.

The Prof ( whose pictures these are ) says when he goes by the sulfur crested cockatoos, which also group in large number,s he counts “$1000 dollars here, $1000 dollars there,” since what they have to push out of the way here to get down the bike path folks in the US and elsewhere pay thousands for!

Now every itch I have is a redback. mmmmmm…

School is startin’ up

So, I have been spending time with the head of the art department here… or something… I am not quite sure WHAT Nigel’s job is, but I can say that he is an interesting “bloke.” We don’t agree on things all the time but that just makes things more interesting. I am auditing a class that he is teaching called Point of View and this semester the class is looking at the way that the institutions in art influence our understanding of art. Yesterday we went to see a bunch of fancified Harley Davidson’s in a craft gallery, presented there as craft. Obviously many will think that this is pushing the envelope a tad bit far, but it does lead to some interesting conversations about authenticity, craftmanship, manufactured vs. handmade. More here http://www.iconophilia.net/hogs-craft/.

We also had a really interesting conversation about the work he is doing on Afghanistany Drugs…ooops…I mean RUGS… http://rugsofwar.wordpress.com/, which he has some AWESOME examples of…

And in his first lecture he mentioned James Elkins, author of Pictures and Tears, of whom I am an eternal fan. I guess Elkins based a lot of evidence of artists being able to write in his book about PHD’s on ANU PHD candidates. Ha ha … that sentence reads like an artist who shouldn’t be writing.

Also I mentioned to him, although not with the outright horror that I mentioned it here, that I couldn’t imagine getting into a master’s program and not being able to draw. He disagreed with me saying that … well shit what did he say… something about…the person having spent their time developing other skills. BUT I am going to defend my stodgy position here.
I really believe that a classical art training is about learning the vocabulary of visual information. Learning to draw is about learning to see, and about learning the basic elements of visual communication. It is about understanding and learning to communicate that understanding to others. If there is some other way that you can learn what I see as a very basic visual understanding via dropping globs of crap on the floor or by wiring chips to gether more power to you, but I don’t think that most people can learn to create things that are visually engaging without first learning how to be visually engaged. ( I am not taking here about the creation of art that is purely conceptual, because there is no need for visual communication to take place here.) And the fact of the matter is, that unless I am going to proven horribly wrong, by a thesis exhibit down the road, this person is not pulling it off.

So.

WHATEVER.

I guess I am getting mentally engaged. That is a good thing because well hell, it feels like I have been here forever already and I want to start making things, but as the head of the hot works studio here , Nadege Desgenedez said, school just started two days ago. Yea so I guess I need to take a pill. Pill taken.

I guess I just hate the first week of school and had forgotten.

Well I gotta get busy, reading writing by other artists.

Sorry no pictures today…

OH and I HATE the OZ pay as you go approach to cell phones and internet. Or maybe it is the same in the Us if you aren’t able to make more than a one year contract.

My Studio

My studio

Moved some shit around today and got to work. Man. Ok. So…Where are all the Professors?

First Day of School / Fauxganoff

So today was the move in day. Sort of anti-climactic. Because …well… the woman whose studio is right next to mine is working from the figure, which in and of itself I don’t find problematic. But OK THIS IS REALLY CATTY BUT…the drawings she had on her side of the room, figure studies, were the worst (worsestest? baddest?) drawings I have ever seen. I have been trying to put the work into some kind of context like faux naïf a le Chris Johanson or something but from looking at the rest of the work, which is essentially casts of a bust, I gathered this was a sincere attempt. I am a little worried. That and the fact that it seemed my studio was filled with all the crap that they didn’t know where to store and… my attempts to get the shit moved came to no end. Tomorrow I am dragging the shit out on my own.
I will take some pictures tomorrow. The space itself isn’t too bad. It almost looked like the undergrad work was better than the grad work… but then I only saw the work of two grad students.

And in honor of Chris Johanson here is my vegan Fauxganoff Recipe YUM!!!

This is easy.

12-16 oz meat substitute I use anything from seitan strips to tempeh.
10-12 oz sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic smashed and diced
1/4 cup olive oil

Saute the above together. While they are sauteing mix in a blender the following:

1 container tofuttit fake cream cheese
Gradually add
2 cups unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk product
juice of one small lemon
2 TBS white vinegar
1/2 cup dry vermouth.

When the sauteed things are cool a little put the pasta in a pot to boil and add the creamy stuff to the sauteed stuff.

Be careful not to heat the creamy stuff to fast because it could curdle. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Heat and Eat.

yelp

Glass Workshop schedule Semester 2.09
Week 1 of 13 20.07.09-24-07-09
Welcome to all new and returning students!!
Monday
9:00-5:00 Complementary Studies (Nikki Main) Meet in Arch space. Mould room & Cold shop.
Tuesday
1:30 Staff Meeting
Wednesday

!!!! 9:00- New students meet in Arch Space with Nadege: quick introduction to the week and semester.

9:30- 10:30: New students (and returning after time away) meet with Tim Edwards: studio orientation and basic introduction to the workshop OH&S.

9:30 All ONGOING students meet with Nadege in Arch Space

10:00 Syllabus overview for Major 4 introduction to the Work Proposal. Arch Space

11:00 Syllabus overview for Major 6 followed by individual tutorials. Arch Space
PLEASE BRING YOUR CURRENT WORK PROPOSAL
11:30 Maddy 11:50Sui

1:00-2:00 Art Forum: Marek Cecula is an artist, designer and educator who lives and works in both Poland and New York. His work explores the meaning of ceramic objects in contemporary culture. He is a Visiting Artist in the Ceramics Workshop.
2:00-5:00: Major 4 Hot Shop. 2:00-3:00: colour overlays with Brian.

2:00- 3:00 Honours tutorials (at individual desks)
2:00 Belinda 2:30 Bella

Thursday

!!!!
8:00 Emptying the furnace!!! Students as previously arranged

8:50 arrival for 9:00 am, ALL STUDENTS Welcome breakfast!
(please bring a plate -or drinks- to share)

9:30 ALL STUDENTS, Introductions and Workshop meeting starts.
10:30 Hot shop sign up
10:45 Kiln bookings

11:00-12:30 New students: intro the cold shop equipment with Masa

11:00 Syllabus overview Major 2: with Nadege. Arch Space

1:00-2:00 Art Forum: Lan Nguyen-hoan. A graduate of the Gold and Silver workshop, she will discuss her recent residency at the Fachhochschule in Dusseldorf and resulting exhibition at Metalab Sydney

2:00 Grad students meeting. Arch Space
Followed by Individual meetings with new students:
2:30 Jenny 2:40 Aby
3:00 Yuko

2:00-4:00 Major 4: Advanced cold working demo with Masa
2:00-4:00 Major 2: Intro to Kiln forming project

4-5PM WEEKLY CLEAN-UP!!!!!!!!!
Friday NO CLASSES, ‘bush week’ at the ANU

week1-1

Wait I am there!

OK I made it. I know that no one looks at this thing anymore so I think it is pretty safe…nothing like leaving it alone for 2 years. So…I am living on the second floor in the house of a woman who works for a non-profit writers organization here in the capital of Australia…CANBERRA…no the capital is not Sydney. This is a lovely capital. A well designed city.
It was designed sort of like a pattern of overlaid wagon wheels. There is a center to the City, which isn’t very large at all you can walk across the main district in 1o minutes. From there the wedges spread out, each one being a neighborhood, as the wedges get larger the divisions increase. Each neighborhood seems to have its own shopping district and school and access to a large nature preserve. I can walk 5 minutes from my house and see kangaroos and Australian wood ducks. There are bike paths running everywhere. The city is pretty easy to navigate, as long as you stay on a main road… and even if you don’t all the other streets are crescents so you almost always end up back on the street that you turned off of.
Gosh ok this is boreing but I wanted to get started… I am here in Australia. So far I like it. People seem to be really nice down here… but I will write more about that next time.

Land of the Marsupial

In just over a month I am going to be leaving for Australia to start my Master’s in Visual Arts at Australian National University. I am going to be studying glass. SURPISE!
Why glass after all these years of painting?

Let me start by saying that I am looking at this as, basically, a different medium to reach a similar end . My painting process has been sculptural for a while. In that I mean I build up layers and sand through them, not that I am concerned with the greater sculptural issue of 3-D space.

The last paintings, the huge white ones, used color interaction to create the illusion of space. The vibration of the tinted whites, caused by color opposites, made it difficult to focus on the surface of the painting.

I am hoping to use the translucency of glass to create actual increased depth in my glass explorations adding that to color interaction to create a more ambiguous surface.

Uncertainty is a vacation.

Opossum

I have a baby opossum I am trying to raise. She got caught in a rat trap in the back yard. ( I didn’t put the trap out trust me!) She is so little, and cute. Poor thing, finally got her to eat something other than peach baby food. Maybe now she will put on some weight

New Deal

It has been over a year since my accident: a year and 3 months. I was so completely clueless as to how it was going to affect my life. I remember a year ago in January taking swimming lessons, thinking that I was going to be doing a triathlon in the summer. I am just now able to run three miles without having to sleep the entire next day. This is great, and a major accomplishment. I am not sure WHY I am finally able to run, and swim and bike and most importantly THINK again, without it kicking my ass. Maybe enough time has passed for my brain to heal, or maybe the thyroid medication I started taking is helping my immune system. It is the first time in over a year that I have been able to exercise everyday for a week, and not get sick, or need to sleep for 24 hours continuously.

I also noticed that my attention span is right back where it used to be. After the accident everything took me so long. I found myself focusing intently just to get the most menial task done. Stand up for 15 minutes and wash the dishes. Put my clothes in the drawers. I could stay on one task without hyperfocusing for the first time in my life. If the phone rang while I was putting my clothes away, I would actually hear it! A funny part of getting better has been losing this ability. I am right back where I was before the accident. A billion things go through my mind all at once and I find myself running around with the sharp metal and wire guts of a video camera in one hand and in the other, a box of ear plugs, a box of dusk masks, and several plastic bags that need to be thrown out and under my arm I have the dogs Frisbee. I stop and put the video guts down and type mold making into Google, and stand there reading without putting anything else down. Half the time when the phone rings all I think is “what the hell is that annoying sound?”

Ah it is so nice to be well again. Or as well as I ever was.

So I have cleaned the studio. The electronics stuff for my new “head injury” project is organized so that there is room enough for me to paint and hack at the same time. I have one of my little TV prototypes hanging from the ceiling, and a table set up in the middle of the room for me to start working on a painting project. And of course the dogs tiger chair is in a sunny spot so that he can keep an eye on me while I am working.

Community Building

*Building Community Starts with You.*
An art project in community building.

As a kid I used to annoy my parents by signing up to support poor
children “for only $5″ a month. It seemed to me that $5 dollars would go
a lot further to benefit this other kid, than if I kept it for my own
needs. I could skip hot lunch for two days. It is in that same spirit,
(and maybe as annoying to some since this is intended to be a chain
communication) that I am undertaking my current art project.

*I am writing to ask you to give one dollar ($1) to my friend, artist,
and curator TJ Norris.*

TJ is a great guy who has given a lot to the Portland Oregon art
community and I would like to show him that he is appreciated. He also
could really use the dough right now!

His address is:

*TJ Norris
Mile Post 5 Suite 214
900 NE 81st Ave
Portland OR 97213*

Alternately you can send it to him using Paypal by using this URL http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/ema/index-outside or searching for Paypal Send and using TJ’s email address in the TO: box. His email address is

tjnorris@gmail.com

Send this email to everyone on your email list, and ask them to:

*1. Send a dollar

*2. Send this email to everyone on their email list. *

Let’s make this go viral and see how big a pile of dough we can raise!*

This is a surprise for TJ and he knows nothing about it. Can we keep it
that way? Feel free to include a note, card or your business card in the envelope if you would
like, just don’t mention this email.

Each year we all give what we can to various causes, donating time,
money, artwork and effort to help Find a Cure, our local arts group, the
Mercy Core, and the likes. How often do you get to know that your money
is going to help one great individual? The federal governments lack of
support for the arts and the current financial down turn is having a
very negative effect. Here is something that you can do to help keep
another artist working, with out suffering yourself.

TJ has a great blog- http://tjnorris.net/blog/ – and website –
http://tjnorris.net/ – that can fill you in on all his work. You can
become his friend on Facebook, and most importantly you can make a
difference in his life. It will be interesting to watch and see if he
writes about money trickling in.

My idea of community is one where we all help each other as much as we
can. This is a unique and painless way to make a difference in someone’s
life. Please join me!

Abi Spring

An endorsement of TJ’s blog is here (you will probably need to cut and past this one)

http://blog.oregonlive.com/portlandarts/2009/01/browsewothy_a_few_links_to_get.html

Recent Work