Artist?

This weekend I realized that most people who know me now and have only gotten to know me over the past few years don't think of me as an artist. This stings a little. But I have not thought of myself as an artist in a long time.

When I came to this realization of how I am currently primarily perceived, as a vegan. To those that have had my cooking I'm also thought of as talented in the kitchen. Since I became vegan I have spent a lot more time cooking and it really is my creative outlet. Even when it doesn't feel very creative to get recipes from the Internet, follow the instructions and have a usually tasty dish in the end.

That process of finding the correct way to do something and executing it is not too far from what my fine art practice was. I put my own spin on things I had learned.

So I resolved to organize my studio this weekend, which ended up being for a couple hours yesterday and about an hour and a half this morning.

It is still a mess but as I went along I kept looking at the stack of Netflix papers I still had, waiting to be folded into collared t-shirts.

So when I came to a stand still in organization with a bunch of odds and ends piled around the room I just started folding.

The entire process was pretty painfully self aware. Composing this blog entry in my head. Wondering what I should dedicate my creative time to. Questioning if my piles of folded paper shirts will end up anywhere other than boxes in my studio or ultimately the recycling bin. Do I do this because I have a compulsion to do this? It can't be that because this pile of unfolded paper was sitting here for a long time, we don't even get the discs from Netflix anymore. But now I spend even more of my free time watching Netflix. Maybe I should cut myself off from any social media for a while then I'd get things done... Maybe or maybe not.

I did not resolve to become an artist again. I think doing the creative work I've committed to will inspire me to do things for myself. I rarely draw inspiration from other fine art, it feels like a world separate from mine. I am inspired to write for my friend's blog that is being reborn: Yogatropic

I will try to focus on one thing at a time. But it's hard not to have my attention drawn to all the potential projects that could I could benefit from: mini versions of my 16mm film covered shadow boxes, knitting hats and scarves and gloves, folding paper, making books, making paper, making clothing, cleaning the house, starting projects on the house, starting a garden ... I feel like I could go on forever.

Looking at the piles I folded helps me calm my rushing mind, if only a little bit.

Where has my creation urge gone?

It has been an amazingly long time since I've written on this blog, or even looked at it for that matter.

I pay to keep a domain name for this site, because I have not yet figured out how to build and maintain a website. I literally paid for the second year of this domain and didn't even bother to check out how it's even looking over a month ago.

Now I've finally looked and I can see that it's not looking good.

Has my creativity dried up and left me? Did I stop being an artist May of last year? Life was definitely different back then. I was working a terrible job that I made little money doing, one a long line of bad jobs I've had in Albany, NY. I still tried to find time to create and do what I loved but not in the same way as it was when I needed to create things for a grade. I have a lot less stress than I did when I was in art school but I also don't do much.

I have worked two jobs for over a year now. One is being a cocktail waitress at the City Beer Hall. It is fun and even when I'm not making all that much money I'm still making money. The second is Lifetouch, which is a seasonal job going to local (within two hours drive) schools and taking pictures of kids for their yearbook and spring pictures. My second fall season is about to start at Lifetouch and I'm apprehensive about it. I know it will be taking up a lot of my time. Usually I am working overtime every week. In addition to the hours at CBH, which are minimal but still labor intensive and can be exhausting. Together it's pretty brutal. Now that CBH serves brunch and I work almost every one I won't even have a day off.

All of those impending time suckers are nerve wracking. But what makes me more annoyed is that I've had a good long while of hardly doing anything all day every day... and I've made no use of my free time.

Of course I did put together a wedding, including making my dress from scratch.

I also love spending time with Rod, our favorite pass time together is watching movies. We even keep track of all the movies we watch together.

August of movie watching

We've spent a lot of time trying to get our apartment back together after the state of disaster it was in post wedding. DIY weddings mean a lot of work and a lot of storing. After the wedding we still have a lifetime supply of party supplies (plates, cups, forks, knives, spoons, lights etc.)... thankfully we have access to a basement where all of that is stored in four large tubs, the same tubs that held ice around our kegs during the wedding.

There is also the problem of us both being artists, who no longer have studios. Rod was most recently kicked out of his about a month before the wedding. Even before all of this stuff was not in our tiny back room it was still a tiny back room that did not function well as a studio space for either one of us. I always ended up taking my book making out into the living room etc. I really don't know why this is, maybe because the spaces we designate for one thing always end up not working out to serve the purpose we intended. 

Anyways... this is the situation we're looking at now:

Entering (note this is actually better than it was, we cleared the doorway so we could go to our back patio)

Rounding the corner

And that's a mess

So we need to get rid of a lot of shit before anything can be made here. But that's the conundrum... we need a lot of that shit to make shit. Or maybe we just feel like we need it?

New Projects

I'm slowly trying to accomplish new projects.

One of which I have pieces completed, here's one piece:

 

Plexiglass box, syringes, crappy cell phone picture

I am also making a couple coptic stitch books. Kind of like this book on my etsy. But not quite like it. These two books are made out of scrap paper from other books and wood covers. As soon as I get around to drilling the holes they'll be done soon after.

I also want to make some mini versions of the 16mm covered lightbox that was part of my thesis show a year ago. I think I want to go with those led lights you press to turn on, but I'm trying to find the right design for it... I'm working on it.

I'm also a slow and bad Portuguese student. But I'm working on that too.

Sunspot Café

I will be working at the Sunspot Café soon. As soon as it is properly inspected and all the employees are trained that is. I've been helping out in the decorating and painting of the place in the last few weeks. I've also designed a coupon and two gift certificates that will be printed and used once we've opened. I'm really excited to start working there, it's going to have fantastic, mostly vegetarian food, treats like cupcakes and gluten-free baked delicacies. And it's a two second walk from my house!

Here's what I've designed:

coupons, doubled up to fit on 8.5" x 11" paper

Gift certificate, postcard sized

Gift certificate, dollar bill sized

The logo is different in the certificates because it changed, and I didn't design the logo, I'm pretty sure the owner did that. It was nice to work with.

Please don't try to print these off yourself. One, because we're going to print them on specific paper and two, because that's rude.

2011 Artwork

So those post-it notes didn't go very far after I posted about them. But I did continue to collect security envelopes from my former employer.

I used most all of them to fold into shirts, my favorite thing to do with paper I collect.

Here's a sampling of some:

Shirts

I submitted my proposal to use them in a wall installation of 100 shirts, behind them will be a graph, filled in red for the percentage of unemployed people in the United States at the time of installation. Right now it's at 9% (and that's a drop).

With the remainder of the shirts I made a piece reflecting on the wastefulness of mailings and paper that gets recycled or even filed in office settings. It's a waste of time and space in my opinion... but for records it's necessary.

full piece

detail

I submitted these pieces to the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy. Which is a pretty nice space.