GET IT TOGETHER
LISTS
List are the greatest way to organize things.
List create checkpoints for getting things done.
Sometimes I put very simple things on the list like take a deep breath. Just so that I can check it off.
The feeling of accomplishment is amazing. you should try it. Just put read this post on your list and check it off when complete.
Other times I put things that remain on this for a very long time. Every task isn’t a quickly.
I like looking back at list they remind me of what I saw how I spent my time.
And then make a list about the love of lists.
ART? MONIES? WORTH?
One of our Mz’ was a participant in the early stages of the Contemporary DIY movement including being the first person that Etsy did a video portrait on. Her process is extremely tactile as a move through materials including yarn up-cycled found objects as well as painting and collage techniques. She shared her thoughts on that experience and thoughts on consumption, exchange and art:
The combination of running an online store and having a creative process led me to explore various contracts of exchange economics and resource acquisition these themes are prevalent in the work as I often deconstruct context and value in various manifestations.
My conclusion is that it is harder to be an artist than to make money. Money is simple and binary buy low sell high. It’s a metrics of time and productivity. The hard part about money is we are not metric and binary in human composition. That’s the skill of robots.
Creation part of being an artist is a conversation with the gods, it’s a show up the party butt as naked thing. Its being all up in your feelings. My practice is skill based but themes are intuitive. Unless it’s used as a material or for logistics such as buying supplies, money isn’t useful in the creation stage. In the form of excess or scarcity money is generally more of a hindrance in the creation process.
Here comes the business part of being an artist. That part is a true shit show. Between buyers, curators, gallerist, commissions, day jobs, side hustles, patrons and institutions it has the potential to be the most complicated financial structure that exists.
I never subscribed to the doctrine of being a starving artist. But that’s just me. It’s not fun to be starving, it’s not fun to be able to have to decide whether or not you’re going to put gas in your car feed yourself, I have no false illusions about that. Artist contributes so much to society that it seems ridiculous to have a grumbling belly while you create vision for folks and challenge people to widen perspective. That means that I don’t find any nobility in being a starving artist. I feel like if you can have a conversation with the gods you can also have a conversation with a financial person. Money ain’t everything but options are good and struggle life is struggly. that being said,I’ve been known to be extremely frugal. I go through these periods of time where I decide that I’m not buying anything new or I’m only supporting handmade or locally made goods. Because too much stuff just feels like too much stuff and I can’t quantify the value of my purchases.
OBSERVATIONS FROM GLOVER PARK WASHINGTON D.C.
Due to a bit of nudging from a travel mate we decided to stay in a 'safe' neighborhood. Generally, this means a predominately white neighborhood with wealth and this area did not prove wrong. These social settings require careful consideration, as the cloak of blackness creates a marker bringing on stares and overly friendly gestures that seem somewhere between overcompensation for discriminatory thoughts/past actions or nosiness as to why we are occupying white spaces in such a leisure manner. In super early hours of the morning I made tea, grabbed a book and sat on the front patio. I watched about 20 white dudes all wearing light blue button down shirts and khakis...actually all the dudes donned this uniform, leave well manicured homes, rush to their fancy cars parked in front of those homes and drive off. One of the duded even came out of the house i was staying at, fearfully replied hello to me and left. I then also watched about 15 black and brown women arrive and replace the Audis and bmws with old hondas and Fords. They then rushed into the same houses and come out with white babies in stroller.
I wonder if it has always looked that way. The dude Charles C. Glover, the namesake of the neighborhood, was a big banking dude, came from Dutch wealth and was pretty chummy with Pres. Roosevelt. In the development of the neighborhood, I wonder if black and brown women caring for white children was baked into the design of if, it's just left over from slavery.
This caste system is a tough one and it appears that the folks benifiting the most are just completely blind to it. There is nothing inherantly wrong with caring for another's child, and a job is a job, but there is something cringe worthy given the racial and gender 'uniform' of who does that job and who does other jobs.
So I'll be leaving some offerings, hopefully a reminder to share and 'see' and occupy space mindfully.
After writing this I went to go back into the airbnb only to discover the fearful dude rushing out had locked me out. Well I suppose he wanted to feel safe...at my expense.
Welcome to the capital.
THE LYING PHOTOGRAPH
A photo was never enough. A photo couldn't tell the whole picture. It was as if a photo was just lie that everyone mistook as intrinsically 'the truth' because it looked so real. Perhaps that's why I love a collage and photo montage I love the idea of forcing the viewer to contend with, what you were showing them is not real it's altered. it's all a prospective. it always was a perspective.
My University had an amazing archival photo collection and one of my favorite things to do was to look at the contact sheets. one photographer in particular was Henri bressant's. he was always running around talking about his decisive moment. but that was a myth or a straight up lie because that decisive moment was only made possible by The moments before the moments after it and that one singling out that perfect frame. Making the decisive moment more like a decisive curation. I love a contact sheet, it speaks way more to the journey of what's happening than any single picture could ever do.
there's something about the dIstorted proportions of college that Force the viewer to contend with the curation of the image maker. It renders the image so impaired that it's impossible to take it as absolute truth.
though a photo should never be taken as absolute truth because there was always something that happened right before or right after to the left and to the right of what was captured in the frame. Often the sun and the mood itself is part of the conspiracy.