| In an effort to change my perspective and hopefully glean some inspiration, i built a pinhole lens for my dslr.
This weekend I visited friends in Jacksonville for Virginia's birthday. I figured going to a place i'd never been would be a great application for my new jerry-rigged device. Here's what I came back with.
yes, they're dirty. the shutter curtain jammed whilst cleaning the sensor, and I had to pry it loose with my finger. the oils and the moisture in my breath pretty much glued this dust to the optics. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Back from Art Basel Miami Beach. It's really hard to talk about basel for me. not because i feel uneasy about the event, or that i don't understand what the fair is. It's just the sheer quantity of art, and artists, and art things, and art foods, and art talk, and art drinking. I read somewhere that Art Basel Miami Beach is viewed as a costco for billionaires. not just because it makes it easy for them to buy art, but that fact that it's easy (and affordable) to buy all sorts of flagrant displays of wealth, and that's it's all in one place. I've never seen so many rolls royces, lotuses, ferraris, lamborginis, maybachs, bentlys, buggattis, and maseratis all on the street, and being driven. I've also never eavesdropped on so many people saying things like "i just dropped ninety [thousand] on a painting in the next aisle" or "these prices are so affordable! I only spent $500k today".
I know many people who are disgusted by this kind of wealth. 'eat the rich' and 'redistribute' and so on. Their heads would have exploded. I love this kind of stuff. I mean, yeah it is disgusting, but it's so beautiful. The way I see it, is that somebody clever from my socioeconomic class can shit on a canvas and sell it to these status-hungry patrons. The art that these people were buying up are not particularly important, nor are they that innovative. They're just purchasing to decorate their castles, or their penthouse, or to brag to their friends. So somebody like me, if marketed right, could make a (bad) painting in a couple of minutes, convince a gallery to represent me, and bring a dozen of them to art basel. I could mark up the price to say $15,000 (which is a bargain basement price here), and in the first few hours of the weekend sell all of them and make all the money i would need for a year. That is the sole reason Art Basel Miami exists. Every piece of art is displayed out of context, with no background information. It's just a giant art dollar store. and I love it.
So here are the fairs we visited:
- Art Basel
- Pulse
- NADA
- Scope
- Stages
- Ink Miami
- Photo Miami
- Fountain
- Aqua
And here are the fairs we missed:
- ArtMiami
- Design/Miami
- Art Asia
Some other things to list that i don't want to forget:
- driving in miami beach is exactly like driving in NYC. people do not care about posted traffic signs or signal lights. and the car horn is the most frequently heard sound
- upon arriving at the hostel, we ask if parking is included in the price. They tell us that it's not (it's all on-the-street parking) but that they can give us the private apartment for just $10 extra. So instead of sharing bunk beds with 16 other strangers, we got our own beds, bathroom, and parking for an almost negligable price increase
- juan and I worked the artforum booth at art basel proper. they awarded us artforum press passes, and exhibitor passes. We were able to get into every fair for free, and a little bit of swag too.
- every morning we talk a short walk to a little cuban diner/cafe for breakfast. two empanadas and a legit cuban style cafe con leche for less than $5. i love miami.
- juan got shit on
- we witnessed an old man with a woman's voice pleading "OH DANNY! THE BATTERIES ARE DYING! DANNY! OHHHHH!" in spanish, while driving an electric wheelchair into some mud, to a man who probably didn't speak spanish (and visibly did not care or understand), whilst it was raining
- spent less than $250 for 4 days in miami beach.
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| So graduation is coming up. I've got senioritis bad. It's ok though, cause i've had more than enough credits to graduate for a few semesters. I don't have any concrete plans for the next few months but here's what my options are:
- trying to get a theatre gig on a cruise ship. i think they may have lost my resume, i'll have to send a new one.
- if the cruise doesn't work out, i want to get a gig teaching english in asia. doesn't pay the best, but spend a year in another country? i'm down.
- tremaroli says i can work at w5 in new jersey. I hate new jersey, but it's a real production job, just outside of NYC.
- I can maybe get a sbux job in clarksville. hangout at the shop and make goofy art. honestly cavan , this sounds like a lot of fun, but i don't know if it would be worthwhile for me as a non-tattoo artist.
- I could move to chicago, find theatre work and make art. Chicago has never had much draw for me, except for my family. I would love to move up there and chill out, but i have no idea why. jaclyn, what do you do for fun?
- Boston is calling to me for no reason. I mean, i do eventually want to go to MIT. but i won't even be trying to apply to grad school for a few more years. I've never even been to boston. what's there?
- I can stay in tallahassee, working my part time job and hanging out. but i don't really foresee much of a future doing that. (as much as i feel the local scene is about ready to explode with awesome things happening)
right now it looks like the w5 gig is the most promising. need to find out if it was a legitimate offer for a job and not just a casual "man, i wish you still worked here. But what I really want is the cruiseline job.
these are the things i want to do for a living:- make gadgets
- design posters
- make videos
- take photos. (my own photos. not some cheesy cookie-cutter wedding shoots or vacation portraits. that's not photography.)
- build things
- backstage/pyrotechnics
i know that most of the people who read this are going through their own what do I do with my life now that i'm done with school things. But maybe one of you guys has heard of a production/theatre/design job near you? | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| went to clarksville this weekend. still have no idea what tennessee looks like in the daytime.
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| for the last year and a half, i've spent 90% of my time alone
looking for company
when i couldn't find any, i just went to the studi, drank coffee and made things
then when i moved back to orlando, i hung out at dank. making things, drinking more coffee, but amongst people
when dank died i hung out downtown a lot
drinking coffee, riding bikes, dancing, moshing, yelling, making, flirting, running, jumping, climbing trees
get back to tallahassee. on the 3rd day i break my leg
everything instantly stops, for two months
i'm having fun withdrawls
i'm really going crazy here. i haven't made any art in months. i'm making my gf worry because i'm never happy. i drink coffee, but it's all wasted energy cause i've got nothing to do.
hate life. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| after reading ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) itsjustcavan 's post about the whole Tam Tam project i'm remembering about how much of the hangouts there were not just fucking around and goofing off. there was a lot of things being produced. I try to explain what went on to people like my parents and tallahassee friends and teachers. my words never do it justice. i think they still might not be.
anyway. those countless late nights spent at the HOD were spent learning. learning how to be creative. learning about bikes. learning about electronics. learning how to be more spontaneous. learning how to talk to strangers (boy was this true). yeah it's true that i spent a lot of time sitting on the couch, and that i spent a lot of time not actually making things. but i think it led to one of the more creative and rewarding experiences i've had in my post childhood years.
My food vaporizer would never have come into existence if it weren't for giggling around the kitchen with the prototype just looking for any liquids to huff. i never would have gotten the balls to go fixed if it weren't for hanging out and watching macaframa and mash videos. wouldn't have done anything with my silkscreening kit. wouldn't have made so many gadget designs in my sketchbook. wouldn't have gone to sick of it sundays. wouldn't be as comfortable telling girls to like me.
my new project, making bike gang branding irons, came out of the culture of the group. long after the demise of the HOD. long after the exodus of most of the group (cavan in tennessee, myself in tallahassee, jaclyn in chicago, brittany in boston, emelio/jordan/morgan/jenna moving downtown). even still, i'm making designs for electronic messenger bags and hip pouches and such. and as soon as i'm out of tallahassee, i'm going to be carrying that spirit with me.
I was all fine art oriented for a while. going to college makes you do that. and i will consider myself a fine artist. but that stuff is not accessible to the layman. i think the stuff that we're doing reaches a wider audience (even if they're all punks), and we have fun doing it.
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pumpking up my tires, and greasing up my chain for this. during my lunch break today i'm gonna get on emy bike. it'll be the first time since aug 27th. hope i don't die. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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