update

1. sculpture completed: three
2. semesters remaining: one
3. final crit: successful?
4. photographs of work: stuck in camera, due to missing camera cord.

48 hours to finals

All I have done today has gone kaput, but it's only 5pm! The night is young.

Dan Cameron Lecture

Fantastic. Dan Cameron opened his talk, which was focused on his creation and curation of the inaugural incarnation of Prospect One: New Orleans Biennial, by talking about water. He talked about how water flows down the Misssissippi River, and empties in part into Lake Pontchartrain. He talked about trading, and slaving , and rowing, and the bayou, and all of the effects that all of this water has had on the tropical climate in Southern Louisiana. He had his facts and figures down pat. He talked about the city itself and its three most important cultural axes: music, food and architecture. Dan Cameron, along with many of my friends from New York, is openly in love with New Orleans.

His first concrete action, as curator of the largest biennial in North America, was to redraw the official tourist map of the city. He included all of the poor neighborhoods that the city commissioner didn't want tourists to be able to find, including the Ninth Ward. For my money, that was a terrific and inclusive way to begin a relationship with the city. He gave us each a copy of this map. It's a real beauty.



I have discovered on line that it's called the"Birds-Eye View," and was created by Atelier Fleufhaus and Thalweg Studio for Prospect One.

His lecture was really great, and moving, and the projects that many artists made just for the event were beautiful and well thought-through. If you have a chance to hear him speak, try to make it.

listing

So, Hi. There's that Part.


Now for the taking stock:

Studio visitors this semester:

1. Kenny Goldsmith, ubuweb.com
   
2. Elana Herzog, sculptor
3. Ellen Driscoll, sculptor, professor
4. Dean Snyder, sculptor, professor
   
5. Martha Schwendener, critic, village voice
6. Lee Boroson, sculptor, profesor
   
7. Joe Wolin, critic, time out new york
   
8. Gregory Volk, critic and curator at large
   
9. Luca Buvoli, sculptor
   
10. Jöao Ribas, critic and curator, Drawing Center, MIT

Accomplishments since September:

1. Sculpture completed: none
2. Shows curated: one
3. Papers written: four
4. Catalogues created: two
5. Essays written: two
6. Artists Statements revised: two
7. Dance Parties: one
8. Applications filled out: none
9. Meetings held: possibly in the hundreds
10. Trips to New York: six
11. Money spent on sculpture material: about $150
12. Books read: part of one
13. windows broken while I was in the room: twelve
14. mirrors broken while I was in the room: two
    
15. Drawings created: four
16. Collages completed: twenty four
17. Collages sold: fourteen
18. Collages traded: should be two
19. Commissions: two, both of which are minor
20. Albums purchased: two (All Things Must Pass, Forge Your Own Chains)
21. Movies watched in the middle of the night: like fifteen, I think
22. Shows seen in New York: gotta be around seventy five.
23. Really good conversations: five (Charlotte, Dan, Rubens, George and Allison)
24. Lectures Attended: Four (Kenny G, Elana Herzog, Gregory Volk, Dan Cameron)
25. Best Lecture: DAN CAMERON (more on that later)
    

So.

Thinking about art and war and illness and homemade music and bird taxonomy.
One week from today this semester will be over.
I pledge that the next semester will go well, will be managed better.
There is no excuse not to make this work.
This grad school business is a privileged position, and I am about to get bumped out, back into the cold, with incredible concern.

The best thing to do now, I suspect, is to really try and enjoy myself for the next six months.
One of the Sophomores I TA for gave me this beautiful Moondog album to listen to in the studio. I can't stop. I think it might be the soundtrack til finals.



One Week to go.

hideout in the secret fort

Brasilia

There are two 1970's Brazilian films streaming on Netflix right now, Bye Bye Brazil and Black Orpheus. The former deals in economic change and technological progress in 1970s Brazil, (as told through the eyes of a dwindling traveling circus) and the latter is an absolutely stunning reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus (set at Carnaval).

This recommendation comes with thanks to my in-house and treasured Brazilian, the Great Rubens Ghenov, for sending me off into one of the highest fits of inspiration in recent memory.

Watch 'em late at night, with no distractions, if you can.


Bye Bye Brasil


http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Bye_Bye_Brazil/70064563?trkid=912834



Black Orpheus


http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Black_Orpheus/19599610?trkid=912834

addiction

This is what a good morning looks like. Lavazza is a very good coffee to start the day right in the studio. If only I could get to the studio. Now, back to the drudgery of endless paper writing.