Hello. Three o'clock already, sheesh.
Time is flying today because the hours are being enjoyed full well. Good sign. It has been a really good week for creative production. Hallelujah. After participating in the Rainbow Trout Music Festival bicycle rally on Saturday night, I lay in bed wide awake with strong brainwaves coursing through me. Ideas. It had been so long since I lay like that, the brain churning and churning. There was really no choice but to accept them with thanksgiving and regurgitate as fast as possible to the half asleep buddy guy beside me. He's a really good listener. In that hour or so I worked out a few projects that I have been chewing on for a while now. Here is a sample:
- Margot Pollo's Daytime/ Nighttime Portrait Studio: how? backdrop? stool? who cares? how much per? light meter? flash kit? signage? top hat? cape? should vanity matter in this context? No; but a top hat is a must. No props on sticks. Just me at the Kiev on a tripod under a black throw at the aforementioned upcoming Trout music festival with a measuring tape and a flash. Five dollar (or maybe ten if people take to the process) mail order portraits. New biz Ta-dA! This is how my mind works sometimes. CRAY-ZAY woman.
- What on earth to sell at the Maxi Crafts craft table that Lisa and I will also be manning at said festival? Given by the last craft sale that Lisa and I participated in back in April 2012, new items of interest are imperative. No one wants old prints from 2009. Those should all be burnt. Please burn them. Time to buff up the inventory. So how does one go about making the rent A.) without the resources/ breaking the bank for fast duplication and B.) maintaining the integrity of (what I consider) fine art? Read: cut the cutsie craft crap. I want to sell art. But what is art? Are handmade rabbit dolls art? Not really. They take hours upon hours to cut, stuff and sew and yet people GUFFAW if they are priced over $25. Holy smokes! The weird thing is I feel better just giving them away then selling them for peanuts. Backwards.
- Stencils. Keep going. I love the process and the insane amount of hand-work involved, the heat from the overhead projector (that my sister just bought for me, hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in the cool house, the hours spent at the lighttable in my bedroom carving away negative space on paper that just grows and grows. Todays stencil takes up the entire living room wall. Spray paint. Muslin. Pins. Exciting. This is my art and I am sticking with it.
If I wanted to be printing silk screen badly enough these days, I would be. Let it go, it's in there for life. Large scale stencils challenge me in new and exciting ways so I am putting my energy into new projects these days. The main lesson is: Work to finish! The peel-away result is just too good to leave hanging. The yeild of one (stencil) versus 100 (silk screen) in the same block of time is a new adjustment, but I appreciate the one-off so much more than the churn-out. And that is amazing.
Back I go hi-ho to the carving station at the lighttable. Iced tea in the interim. The job-to-pay-the-rent shift picks up at six. Gotta hustle. Sula, Lisa and I catered a weird event last night with Uno Mas, a new catering venture under the guidance of Alejandro. It was a great experience. Even got myself a knife blister from hustling on the production line! I realized I hadn't worked hard in the kitchen in over a month. WEIRD. Felt good to be back, flying through piles of produce and churning out fancy food on sticks.
Baby's back.
