Here's another one from the vaults. I think this one struck a chord with me because for the past week or so I've been knee deep in "artworld" trying to get some screen printing done for ARTCRANK 2010, which is next week. My posters are due this weekend and I normally never wait till the last minute, but it's been a steady mess of things going wrong trying to get the printing of my posters off the ground, everything from the screens taking longer than expected to the paper store losing my order of paper and giving me some other crap instead, which is surprisingly, working quite well. Anyways, aside from teaching spin class Wednesday afternoon, after work I've just regulated myself to printing, printing, printing. hopefully I can get things done so that I can enjoy the last part of my week aside from spending it in the basement. Anyways, it's at moments like these that even though it's stress full and time consuming, I get a little joy out of the process and the effort because it reminds me of being in college, staying up all night working on those assignments, having shit go wrong (like electrical storms knocking out the power in the building which results in you losing all of your file because you hadn't saved anything the past three hours)... or saving your stuff and then getting your zip disc stuck in the computer. Ah, zipdiscs, those were the days eh? Anyways, this retro post is for you SCAD.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Randomly last week, my best friend from college Emily showed up at my house for a little regrouping. She had planned a non-planned last minute trip to Portland from San Diego and in proper last minute fashion, I welcomed her, Lucky -her dog, and her kayak with open arms in the fresh Oregon air.
One of the nights she was here, Emily sat in the living room working away on her laptop while I stood in my room tracing logos on large sheets of wood with my new overhead projector, and my roommate, sat her in room checking email. There, with the three of us plugging away at our various activities yet still having sporadic conversations, I had a massive flashback to college and just had to smile. It was just like how life was at SCAD, back in the day before we knew the routes that our art careers would take us, we'd all be in our rooms, working on respective art projects and randomly talking back in forth: asking if anyone tried that new burger place yet, how we didn't vote for Bush, if anyone had any extra exacto blades, kneeded erasers or if you could borrow someones guash.
Then, later in the evening, my roommate asked me how much painting I had to do on my large pieces of wood that I had been working on. "Well" I said "I'll probably need to do about three or four more coats, which means I'll be up till 3amish, but I might take a nap in there somewhere to extend the drying time." My roommate just looked at me and said I was crazy. But Emily and I just laughed while we explained to my roommate that it's what we do. As artists, you've got a deadline in which you have to get more work done than is humanly possible in the given amount of time... but, you make it happen. Bring out the late night coffee pots, the hairdryers and the 20 minute naps, you find a way to make that three day art project into a ten hour all-nighter, which included drying time. Week after week, quarter after quarter, year after year. Basically, it's just like the Mastercard Commercial where the kids are dancing in the hallway; having people around who understand you = priceless.
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