All My Ducks in a Row.

Well it’s that time of the year again. No, not Christmas, I mean application time. This week I assembled 12 exhibition proposals for my photographic series (Re)calling and (Re)telling. Yes, 12. I had actually already written up the proposal plus a sheet outlining all the exhibition specifications ages ago, but I decided that both documents needed to be revised and that some other critical information needed to be added. (Funny, how when you put a piece of writing aside for 6 months, when you come back to it you magically see how incredibly flawed the writing is.)

Now, I had been putting off doing this since the early summer. And spending an entire month gallivanting around Paris and then sneaking of to London just served to push the project even further back from any reasonable due date. In addition to all that, there are about 101 other reasons why artists generally go into full-on procrastination mode concerning applications, but I’ll just leave that for another post.

Today I just want to announce triumphantly that they are finished and ready to be shipped on Monday! At the moment they are all proudly displayed on my work table. And as much as I really need to move them out of the way to start working on another project today, I’m just so digging the sight of them all lined up. So there they stay. The expression ‘having your ducks in a row’ comes to mind.

8 megapixels and up!

I haven’t been blogging, but I’ve certainly been working. In fact I’ve been working so much that I now have new paintings I need to photograph. Problem? I think it’s time for a camera upgrade. My 8 megapixel cybershot is great for quick and dirty shots, but I’m really looking to get more control, different lense options, and higher resolutions.

I’m totally clueless on even where to begin shopping and price comparisons. I have no brand preferences. I just want something that’s easy to use, but complicated enough that I can grow into it. Aaah. Life was so much easier when I could just do everything I needed with my first true love--- my Pentax ME Super. *deep mournful sigh*

Does anybody have any suggestions? What camera do you have? How much should I have to spend for a decent work camera? What can I get for under $1000?

"Slide? What's a slide?"

One of my most daunting projects of the summer is to clean out and re-organise my studio. Storage space was getting pretty tight and then I realised that I hadn't done a good "sort and purge" in ages. Afterall, how many art magazines am I supposed to keep. Can I throw out the Art Forum magazines from 2003 yet?

Anyway, in process of dumping and shredding and filing things, I pulled out my slide binder. And dear lord it's enormous. Enormous and covered in dust. I literally cannot remember the last time I sent slides to anyone for any reason. I'm thinking the last time was back in 2007 maybe?

So the question is: Now that's we everyone has gone all space-age sci-fi with our imagery, what the hell am I supposed to do with this enormous binder filled with nearly 1000 slides that's just siting here clogging up my bookcase?

Wherefore art thou?

Well since I’ve been on "blog holiday" for 6 weeks I’ll give you the uber-quick run-down on what I’ve been up to:

1. Vacation in Crete:

2. Show Opening in Brussels:



3. 10-day Trip to London and Paris with one of my oldest friends:



4. Complete exhaustion. (No photo necessary. You know exactly what that looks like.)

Aaaaaaah. There really is no place like home. After a month of non-stop work and travel I can barely begin to tell you how damn good it feels to just be home. Sure, it was all great fun, but hot damn---travel is exhausting! Now that I am home, I may never leave my house again. I'm actually looking forward to doing laundry and re-organising my armoires. I am in full-on nesting mode.

Best of all, I have 3 glorious months of summer that are intentionally scheduled with absolutely nothing! No shows, no deadlines, no applications, no galleries, no nothing. Well nothing accept one little treat that I've arranged for myself: After more than 10 years of hemming and hawing, three weeks ago I started taking guitar lessons!


Now, so far I suck. I mean I suck really hard, but I am having so much fun. And some things are just worth doing because they're fun! I'm really excited, but also worried about how on earth I'll be able to acquire all the new musical vocabulary. Remember, I’m in France. I’m taking guitar lessons from a non-English-speaking instructor. Taking guitar lessons is one thing, but taking them in French is another.

But whatever, I’m up for the challenge.

The Gallery's Show Invite! Yippee!

C'est Finit!

Ah there is no feeling more glorious than finishing a series of artwork, delivering it to the gallery and having the director nod with approval.

Last weekend my husband and I drove to Brussels to drop off my artwork at Galerie D’YS for the two-person show that opens May 10th. I cannot begin to tell you how relieved I am to be finished. As much as I love it, I’m just so...over it. My brain has moved on. At the moment I’m curious about different things and other possible directions, which made it nearly impossible to focus on putting the finishing touches on the series and getting them framed.

But get’er done I did!

The show opens May 9th, with the opening party held May 10th. A Sunday afternoon might seem like an odd choice for an opening, but in Europe where everything except restaurants are closed on Sundays, it’s quite perfect. The opening begins just as the 12-2PM lunch crowd finishes their meals. With any luck we’ll have good weather and we’ll be able to extend the party out onto the Galleries private terrace and garden just beside the backroom. *fingers crossed*

Subway Art Gallery Opening. Good Stuff.

Quote of the Week.

"Every good painter paints what he is."

-Jackson Pollock

Advice for Artists Who Dream of Fancy Art Schools.

Like most people. In order to put myself through University and Graduate school I had to take out student loans. After the slight feeling of defeat that came along with signing that first promissory note had faded. I came to celebrate the arrival of my loan check in the mail each semester. “Loan Check Arrival Day” was a cause for celebration which usually started with a grocery store shopping spree followed by a much needed weekend out with my girlfriends at some dive bar on the Lower East Side. (MotorCity!)

But somehow in my brain, it didn’t really register, that these small installments would inevitably lead up to the huge insurmountable mother-lode of debt that would hover over me for years and years to come. Oh, and just in case you think I’m overdramatizing how much looming debt I had, I’ll tell you how much it was. Two years after I’d finished my graduate degree, with interest and all that stuff, I owed the government $60,000. See. I’m not just being a drama queen.

So, I guess I never really thought the day would come when I wouldn’t owe the government money, but somehow through a few strange twists of fate, last year I managed to pay off my student loans. They’re gone. Dead. Game over. In fact, in making my last payment I somehow managed to over pay, and my rich Uncle Sam had to mail me a refund check. Yep, the creditor that I thought I would be paying back for the next 30 years, ended up owing me $6.62. The irony was not lost on me.

Then just last month I came across the podcast On Point with Tom Ashbrook about the whole student loan problem. Ashbrook interviews Allan Michael Collinge, who wrote the book “The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in US History and How We Can Fight Back”.
Basically Collinge is trying to educate people on just how dangerous student loans can be. Sure, he’s trying to sell his book, but he makes some interesting points:

- Student loans are the only type of loan that you can never ever refinance.

- When students apply to for student loans, many aren't given adequate information about the terms of their loans, especially the fact that they cannot be refinanced.

- Certain Student Loan companies make it make it very difficult or confusing to pay student loans at the very beginning of the loan, then profit by putting an account into default and locking the borrower into a high interest rate for the life of the loan.

Ouch.

Check out the pod-cast here. Or at the very least read the listener comments.

Advice for art studentswho dream of attending fancy art colleges: Consider every possible option before taking a loan. Then take only what you absolutely need to survive. Realistically look at what you will be able to pay back on a monthly basis. What kind of monthly income will you be bringing in 6 months after graduation when your loan grace period ends? Do you really want to be making $300 a month payments on top of the $1200 a month rent you pay for your crappy Brooklyn apartment?

*piggy image from artvex.com.

Fun Friday Image.

Technically it's on topic right?