October 2002

Happy Halloween everyone…I’m headed to Castro, but I still need a costume.

Lots happened today, I had the grad council meeting and I don’t have to re-take art history, they changed the requirements and I’m getting “grandfathered” in. I should I had 20 credits of art hist. and they thought I was not qualified.

I am going to be applying to the Jacob J. Javits fellowship again this year, I want to winnnnnnnnnnnnn! I may be going to Santa Rosa this weekend to shoot a winery. That should be fun. So much is going on, but I still need a job.

Headed off to battle financial aid…

Geez.

Scared about getting rent in this month, good news is though that I may be able to get a loan for work study money. Also I’m trying to get a design job working with Focus International. I hope that works out. I’ve been spending so much time job hunting, I’m sure it will pay off soon. It’s been over a month that I’ve been looking. I am finally getting in a cycle. I feel more comfortable every week here in SF.

I went skating today and actually got a two truck grind and landed it. Thank goodness for the little ledge on McArthur St.

Free Memory II was a success, and went a lot faster this time, only 23 minutes. I am still looking for a job, and it’s getting really scary, because I don’t know if I’m going to make rent this month. I have to do a lot of searching for funds before Friday. Open studios was well attended I think, however, since I’m not a painter, I felt a bit out of place. Perhaps if I get my film developed and make some more big prints I’ll be ok. My work is strong, but I am not sure how many people actually looked at it at the open studios. I gave away some stickers, so maybe they looked at home.

Feels like network art is the wave of the future, but I need funds now.

mmmmm

Psyched about open studios tomorrow, I will be showing this new work. Talked to the rentals for a long time tonight, and they’re finally getting plugged in. IM, email, and internet at the same time! Wheeeeeeee! Anywho, I went out to eat tonight for the first time since Tizz left, and I can say for $4.88 you get the best meal in the hood from Cancun Burrito Mojado.

Got plans for Turkey Day. LA baby, just got to figure out when and how to get there. I’m stoked, and need to figure out rent first. Maybe I can trick or treat to 802 houses for a dollar each, if I start now, perhaps I can finish by Nov. 1.

Look for part two of Free Memory tomorrow at 12:00 noon UN plaza (don’t forget to set your clocks…)

Well, another Friday lecture down the tubes, I wonder if it’s a prerequisite to be an awful speaker if you’re being a visiting lecture. Tonight she was yawning to her own slides, AND THEY’RE HER SLIDES! It’s a damn good thing I’m becoming an artist, because I want to create change when I come back to SFAI, people will have fun, and the lecture is going to be SHORT, because I don’t want to waste grad student’s time.

In other news open studios is tomorrow, and I’m stoked.

In other, other news, I want to high jump so bad I can taste it, and I finally have a goal, I want to compete in the State Games of America in CT this summer. I’ve got a long way to go, as I’m a bit soft right now.

Gotta tone down the skating too, my left hip is getting funky from skating 6 miles a day to and from the studios…skate to stay young.

So I”m still awake, I am sooooooooo tired, but tonight I just couldn’t get off the phone with Tizz. We talked about a lot of things, and one of them was how it’s unfair to live on the West Coast. I get more time. But I just get different time. Critique went well, although I ran out of time, but I said my piece, and got a bit of positive support. I just have a lot of work head of me. Obay.

I went to the world series game last night, got a ticket stub from a guy that bailed in the 4th inning, it was a 175 dollar skybox seat. I couldn’t believe he was leaving. I tried to get in, but the bar code on my stub wouldn’t let me, and then I just watched the game from the foot bridge. Some other REAL fans and I cheered and sneered at the people leaving. We were hopeful for the 6 run rally in the 9th. Also a mentally challenged guy named John gave me an MLB pin, anonymous gifts are wonderful, and a drug dealer offered me to buy the I-Ride skateboard I built for 200 dollars. Of course I declined. Overall, a good night.

So I went to San Francisco Art Institute (from this point on SFAI) to see ANYA GALLACCIO talk. Finally something that didn’t suck. The last few speakers I’ve seen makes me wonder what I’m paying for and question why I didn’t stay home to pick the toe jam from under my nails. I have to say that she was at least a dynamic speaker. Her art…well, I’d say one thing, I’m not so much an art criticbut more of an art Cynic. Bottom line is, I have respect for her presence and her persona. That’s what’s selling her work (and most artists for that matter) dispite what she says about wanting to have an attachment to her viewer and place. She was from London at the right time, and rode the same conceptual train as Damien Hirst and the rest of those folks on the other side of the pond. I want to get that gig, having larger than life “art status” and work that is enjoyable. I just want to break even, set my own schedule, and be present for my kids and wife when I have ‘em. That’s what art is about for me, “artrockstardom” (a term I coined at my last year at Cornell University. Living it is doing it, and doing it now.

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small parts.”
-Henry Ford

“One of the reasons people sell out so quickly is because even the talented think they’re frauds. It’s a culture that doesn’t encourage people to believe in the work they do. You’re told to second-guess yourself all the time. That’s where I think a little hostility and arrogance can save you. And I’ve never been lacking for either.”
-Sean Penn

“We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic innovation itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.”
-Paul Valery

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
-Sir Winston Churchill

Greetings to those who may stumble upon this. I am in the process of making this a daily habit, an online journal, and hopefully the basis of a book someday. If you’re interested in anything at all, you’ll probably dig this, as my musings are quite varied. Enjoy.