Ellen walked by, not sure if she saw me, headed straight for the kitchen, and on the way out she said hi (she went to eat at the courtyard). I read the catalogue until I finished it, very cool set of essays that might have some good use in a class situation, as it deals with the subject of Memory and Identity in an interesting way, and the essays carry a punch but the language is easy to understand. I went back to my room, checked to see some of the video pieces were online (most were), wrote some emails, wrote the blogue, and got a text message from Aimee. She had made straps for my new hat. Aimee works with paper, she makes paper, and she makes things with paper (like right now she's making a traditional Korean chamber pot out of threaded paper), and because my hat is made out of paper (made in China, sold at Target, go figure), and because the wind blew it off a couple times on our trip to Ghost Ranch, and because she was feeling well enough to be in the studio, she decided to make straps out of paper. I walked over to her studio (it was great seeing her there after two days of it sitting empty), with my hat at hand, we caught up and I went to take a shower.
When I got back she had installed the straps and made this knot thing that lets me adjust how tight it gets, I was so happy with the results. Went to the studio and had a semi productive day (considering the gym is closed on saturdays and sundays, I get two extra hours in the day). I had to do a second coat for the silverpoint, and began doing some paintings on the new canvases. I left my black paint pot opened overnight and when I saw it I gasped. A film had formed over it and to access the paint I had to get rid of tons of it. Sad but worst things have happened.
But before all that I saw Bee, the Beagle, walking around and begging for food, as usual, so I knew Diane was around. She saw me and said very kind words to me, about me going through a rough period and I needed to talk, she'd be there for me. It was so unexpected (news do travel fast), and nice at the same time, I was very touched. Diane was working on a big grant application (we folks in the non-profit arts and academia do seem to work every day) and preparing food for an event with donors she was going to at night. She left and said she'd return later, and in the kitchen I saw someone had cooked a pasta salad and left 3/4 of a coconut cream pie, which looked delicious. Aimee and I had talked about favorite pies (mine are pumpkin, followed by pecan, and coconut cream being the last but not least). She loves pumpkin too but never had a coconut cream one... I mentioned it to her, and to Ellen and Cobi, and the four of us tracked to the kitchen, split it into four pieces, ate it all really fast and giggled. It was yummy. It hit the spot. It was about 10 am. Later in the day, around lunch time, Diane came back, and while we ate at the dining table, I heard her going into the kitchen, and I expected a scream "where is my pie!" but none of that was heard.
We all planned on going to the Pig Roast birthday party John got us invited to, and after a series of emails exchanged, we decided to take two cars from the institute, and worst case scenario, we'd take a cab home and do a drive o' shame on sunday morning. I got back into my room to work on the computer and visually sketch the new silverpoint piece. I always find it better to know how the proportions will be on the paper, so I created a document the size of the actual paper (22"x 30"), drew a grid of 35, and started placing the elements. This was extremely tedious work, imagine 26 slots with 5 different elements in it, four with one element, and the rest blank. But I think this will be an important piece, a piece that will unravel the rest, or tie the rest together, I am calling it the KEY piece. Halfway through it my arm started to hurt, so I went to the studio and drew the grid. I noticed that the paper had dried way flatter than I expected (this was around 2 pm, and I had put on a second coat around 9 am). My coating was uneven in some spots but I decided to leave it as that, because my stuff is never perfect anyway (only alah is perfect), and because this might not work out at the end, so I thought better get it started and seen through than obsessing over a process and new material (the stuff I bought to coat the paper is new to me, silverpoint I did it in college). Drew the grid with the help of Cobi's ruler and level (thanks bud!), can't believe I forgot my own stuff. The grid looked good and the silver lines good as well, I am excited about what I will do today with it.
Went back to my room to finish the digital composite. It took me about 3.5 hours to do so, and it was then closer to 5 pm, our meeting time for the pig roast expedition. Aimee wanted to drive in case she wanted to come home earlier, even though her foot is not 100 % (she kept saying "it is the OTHER foot"). We all hung out at the courtyard deciding on the car situation, Charlie showed up out of nowhere with an eye vein burst (the green eye, his left I believe, the 3/4 brown one being on the right), having just returned from a day-long trip to LA. He was not joining us, but would use the fact that most of us were gone to do his sound stuff really loud. Agnes is still somewhere in Arizona, and Marisa was in Albuquerque visiting friends, so the rest of us, Rita, Cobi, Aimee, Chris, Carmie, Ellen, and myself would go on our own (though there was no sign of Ellen, so I went to get her in her room). She was reading Rita's book and lost track of time. Ellen decided to drive, so again we had weird car divisions, with all the boys in one car, and all the girls in another.
Chris drove one and Ellen followed. We got semi-lost at one point (two rods with the same name), but made it to the house, and parked in a church lot across the street as per instructions (talk about drive o' shame on sunday morning). The house was a nice ranch disguised as an Adobe, very unfinished, like a minimalist frat house in different degrees of remodeling on a room by room basis, but actually extremely nice and pleasant, a good vibe there, open rooms, tons of windows, big yard, etc. The pig roast was in the front and the party in the back. We saw John, who introduced us to the party boy, and we went inside. It was almost 6 pm by then and we were all starving. Aimee, Rita, Ellen and Cobi sat by the kitchen island, while Chris Carmie and I went to the patio to drink beer. We talked about their project, people watched, and eventually were joined by Cobi and Ellen. We all ran into the kitchen when we heard there were some sweet potatoes wrapped in bacon, as we were starving. Like any parties, there were all kinds of small groups formed, and it seemed everyone only talked to the people they knew (this was certainly our case, though I briefly talked to some French guy here on vacation named Virgil, I believe). Everyone in the party looked hungry and angry too. By then it was close to 8 pm, I had gone to the bathroom at least three times to return my rented beer, and I was pacing myself. At one point some cornbread was stolen and passed around by Ellen and Chris, and soon others at the party followed suit.
When the food finally arrived we all just flew to the table, and the wait was worth it (though the pig was nowhere in sight, just the side dishes were released to the gen pop). By the time we were done the pig arrived, conveniently placed in front of Aimee at the island, and we all just hung out there and ate like boars... or maybe it was boar that was served and we ate like pigs. Some folks by 8:45 were ready to go, so Ellen drove back Aimee, Rita, and Cobi, with Chris, Carmie and I staying behind for "one more drink" (file under famous last words). It finally got dark and a band started playing. All of a sudden, out of nowhere I see Chris waving at someone, and I turned around and Marisa was there. What a surprise! She had decided to come back fro ABQ earlier, and when she got to the institute and saw it empty, she decided to come to the party. She ate some, drank some beer, and we all talked about all kinds of random things, as usual. We hung out at this sun room with some of the people that lived in the house and their friends. Chris was not feeling well (ate too much too fast, my guess), so John found us a semi quiet room, the media room (a very cool room with this weird car seat driving video game thing, home made), so he could lie down, Carmie stayed with him. Marisa, John and I went back to the party, where we were introduced to this Japanese artist who lives in Santa Fe (I cannot recall her name), but who actually knows Brian Barr (he curated her into a show), what a small world. She was very cool, great outfit, and the three of us (John wandered off) talked for quite a bit, and eventually we all went to see the band and dance. Around 10:30 or so we decided to leave, and Marisa offered to drive us all home. Today I will take Chris back sometime to get the car, and with Carmie we'll go see Prometheus. It was a fun saturday, and I think today is promising too. I am looking forward to what I will achieve in the studio. My horoscope for Sunday (I get this personalized one on email every day, but I never read) says:
You are totally fulfilled when you do something you really care about. Indeed, this beautiful day underlines the essential need to be happy in order to do something really well. What are you are [their typo] doing, VAGNER? Your intuitive nature allows you to do most things well, yet there is one area that really stands out. Try to put more of your energy into that area, and allow yourself to really blossom!
- posted via iPad
Location:Santa Fe, NM
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