Goofin' Around

Came up with this last night just because I was bored.  I'd probably re-tool all my thesis images, but I don't want to beat a dead horse.  Anyway, I like the light complementary color scheme + the rounded doorways reinforce the space-pod/alien-egg feel that the plastic domes already had.
It's like: abandoned farm houses...from the FUTURE!

Notes to Myself, part 2.

I’ve been thinking about doing photography exclusively again at least for a while.  It, in some ways, seems absurd that I should abandoned the sculptural way of working, when the ink on my newly minted MFA isn’t even dry, but I need a break.  Even though three years has passed since the inception of me being a sculptor, in a broad sense, I still don't feel any more comfortable with the processes now than I did then.  I was lambasted the other day for referring to my objects as "props for photography".  It wasn't said in derisiveness; it was exactly what I meant to say. I see a direct, uncompromising relationship between my sculpture and my image-making. 
That said, I think the pendulum is swinging back to my photography roots, and why shouldn't it?  My relationship with the craft came a long time ago and hardly seems profitable to abandon it completely.
Object-making fills the time, but discovering a sense of place as it can be recorded is my ultimate goal.

Notes to Myself, part 1.

I think I might know where to go from here.  Need, crisper, clearer images, from a better camera- more epic proportions.  Need to play with scale and camera angles, orientation. Have all the parts, just need to re-organize.

Look at more art. Be more sensitive to what artists are doing.  Try to grow as an artist and scholar.  Quit being at once both self-doubting and complacent.

I’m afraid for the future, but I also know that in a day to day sense, my vision is short-sighted.  I think about what the next months will be like instead of what I CAN do in years to come.  I’ve always had a job in some capacity, an apartment, horrible and crappy as they were, and in retrospect, none of that matters.  Who cares that in 2003 I lived with a leaky bathtub, or that I only made $11/hour?  I care that I “suffer”, but the suffering is only temporary.  Those previous situations didn’t ruin my life.  The two issues that do stick out were: Letting myself be taken advantage of in the corporate world and not making art, and those things were constants under different living conditions.  In years to come, the art is the only thing that matters.  Do I really give a fuck that Henry Darger was a janitor in comparison to the treasure trove he left behind?  Would I discredit the man for not being a professional?  So what’s the difference if that happens to me?

Art must endure, no matter what. 

Heck yeah!

I passed my oral defense today, which means I got myself an MFA degree.
Yep.
: )

Yay For Creativity.

While I was working on my show for the past couple of months, I couldn't see anything past it and actually felt like I had artists' block.  I starting wondering if my best artistic days were behind and if there was any truth to that rumor that you get less creative as you age.  (That was the whole impetus behind John Lennon wanting to trepan a hole in his brain...thank god he didn't.)
I also figured that I would be so worn out after my show went up, that I'd have to take weeks off to recuperate, but jeez,  I am chomping at the bit to get started again!  I feel like I have a new lease on life.  These dreams and visions I've been having regarding new directions are so vivid, I can barely wait to get out of bed in the morning to get started on them.  Hooked on grad school worked for me!
Barring time, money and unexpected total failure, expect to see awesome things soon.

: )

Making a List

I'm re-prioritizing my materials list.  I think I want to start working on a more intimate scale and I'm only going to use materials that have a strong appeal to me.
That said, anything I make from now on going to be girlier than shit:

clear and amber colored plastic
rhinestones        string
beads          hair
fur           glass
wax         satin
foam         nylon
tulle          flocking
netting          LED lights
yarn             stuffing
wool           ribbon
I think I'll stop short of glitter - might be too kitchy.

I think that I'm just going to make piles, literal piles of texture from this stuff as a way of clearing out the mental funk of the last three years.  I plan on being childlike and going back to square one,  and it will be nice to not have outside feedback or deadlines. I want to be able to think clearly.
At the root of it all, I still do not know what material to work with.  I want it all and until I know how to handle all of it in a satisfactory way, I'm not going to consign myself to making "anything" in particular.
Pretty little blobs. That's all most art amounts to anyway, dammit.