Down and dirty...

My goal for this year is to workshop the crap I lay by the wayside. This is my start. A bad poem that I hope will translate into something better...

It's as simple as sitting

Simple as a pose

as quiet as grinning

while a world implodes.

I imagine you waving

as if you'd always known

that I'd end up swimming

and overgrown

from your world of anger

and the slight circumstance

that you noticed me timing

your next second chance.

I've got this dock of memory

with you tied to it's side

as I serve up chowders and soups and stories and loops

in my New England pride.

I am the problem here.

I am the one cast aside.

I am the one who fought

to tie the knots that kept up with this tide.

It's all a loosely frayed metaphor

to honor the one I most loved

as I set him off to the sea-

It's not him, it was me-

and it all worked perfectly.

He built what I wanted.

and what I saw in him.

and I didn't stop him,

or cause him to hesitate

as my silly, impassioned ties that bound

never built a knot that couldn't break. 

So, here's to you.

I cheer from my bedroom floor

that is scattered with marks and memories

and the hope for something more

simple than sitting

and posing the past

in the form of grinning

and tying off one more last

Baby, it's cold outside...

So...my thesis semester is about to begin at Columbia, and I've spent much of the holiday season working with the dynamics of my thesis proposal, which goes a little like this...

Abstract:

Loss is Expected is an installation manipulated by direction, chance and discovery designed to examine public and personal atmospheres charged by motion, triggers, patterns and anchors.

This project is inspired by  the impetus of motion, the ideals that anchor both the cities and the individuals who exist within them, and the quest for discovering a personal world in a public sphere. 

I looked to my own life, and the cities in which I have lived-Kent, Ohio, NYC, Memphis, TN, and Chicago, Il. What struck me is that all of these cities have a significant common thread; each city has had an event, or series of events, that significantly changed the direction of the city. One city completely changed, another froze in time, one stopped to consider, and another constantly reaches for the spotlight. I applied these directional shifts to my own journey, and the movement I see to all sides of the path I have have been building. I've been revisiting the things I've kept with me-the photos,  journals, letters, trinkets, and common objects infused with memories, moments and revelry, to see where those lead now, in this time and place, only to understand that all of these things actually led here. It's a common journey, colored with experience, one that is directed by shifts and choices. Atmosphere is everything. 

And then...

Apparently, I got a little too wrapped up in political agenda and forgot how to properly upload photos of recent work...so here it is(I hope)

Okay, OKAY...I've been hiding a little(lot)! I've been overwhelmed!At first, I was overwhelmed with relief and a new sense of national pride by Obama's election...I still am. I didn't go to Grant Park, much to my family's chagrin. I went to my friend's house, so I could watch the returns, the speeches, and the responses, and quickly make an escape plan, if necessary(I have been through 2 Bush elections, haven't we all?). I did cry when Pennsylvania went to Obama. I didn't know how else to react, except with pride and fruition. Obama was going to win. The US was going to elect the right candidate, hands down. Like many, I had respected McCain for his service to our country, and his constant push. He was the Republican I liked. He seemed invested in his country and his experience. I was glad he was the Republican candidate...until he chose Palin as shock treatment and a really flimsy attempt to garner the support of the Hillary camp. Guess what...I'm a Hillary camp lady. I voted her into the NY senate, and I voted for her in the primary. I've followed her career for a very long time. Granted, when I voted for her in the primary, I was in Illinois, and it could be seen as a gesture but It wasn't. Obama was going to sweep Illinois, and I was proud of that. I was also proud to vote for Hillary. I guess I wasn't voting to win-I was actually voting from my heart and, were I not in Illinois, I may have paused longer.As I told my friends later, "Hey, I get to vote for Hillary now, and Obama in November," and then would give a quick recap of Hillary as what we have already known from her political career, when questioned. What a real freedom!FINALLY!To discuss candidates. Either way, we would win.I've never felt that way in an election. Anyway, the biggest offenseof McCain was choosing Palin as his running mate in a gender grab. It still is, as she now has national spotlight and is calling on the media for having more scrutiny on her than Caroline Kennedy. I actually feel sympathy for her, now that she is not at the healm of the second hand. She's not going quietly, and I don't fault her for that. However, blaming the media for not being as tough on Caroline Kennedy, who is vying for a senate seat, as opposed to the vice presidency of the nation, seems petty and grasping.Again, I don't blame Palin. I think it's telling of who she is and what she wants, which is simple. Something bigger than what she has. I'm reminded how relieved that she didn't win the election.Because the world is fucked right now, and I'm so relieved to have both Obama and Clinton to make the decisions that need to be made. I hope I keep agreeing with them.

None of this has anything to do with art.

I've been making some.

I've been working on the CD art for the upcoming Striding Lion album...The first is the wingspan for the interior of the CD case

Next is the cover-collage is clearly the deal here

And my thesis is still coming along. The title is "Loss is Expected" and focuses on that uncomfortable/euphoric time of transition that leads all of us to our next step, no matter how ambiguous or succinct it may be. My inspiration spans a few years and a couple cities. I've designed it as a walk-in pinball machine/photo booth/journal of experiences. It's an extremely personal piece, but much of that personal exploration has been found in a public aesthetic, so it makes sense in an awkward, weird and accessible vein...at least that's the plan. We will see how it goes