Really Cool Art Escape

So I've found something I want to buy myself if I've ever got the money.  I'm sure my money would be better spent saving for New York but this would be pretty amazing to do.  Its a one month artist residency (the kind you just sign up and pay for rather than winning based on talent and hard work) specifically in photography. You can check it out here.  Full facilities and all of your equipment and materials costs are included in the cost.  The only thing that scares me is I'm terrified of snakes and its in India.  I'm still going to go eventually but it will take me a while to save the money.

But an expert at what?

So I found this really interesting website online called "Expertory".  Its this online website where you can do consulting and teach classes online.  You post a class that you're willing to teach, the length and how much it costs and people can then book your class.  Its pretty interesting.  There's already like 10 crappy introduction to photography classes, so that won't work.  So I've been thinking about ideas for classes:

1. Converting my idea for a 12 week class on nude and erotic photography into video lectures where I give an assignment at the end, they have my email to ask questions, the student then does the assignment and emails it to me, then we review it together over a webcam session.

2. How to come out of the closet.  How to do it while minimizing the potential risks to your physical person and how to do it in a fun way.

3. Consulting people on how to throw a rave style party

4. How to cook with marijuana

5. How to find people to be friends with

6. Consulting people on how to have an adventure

7. How to plan a road trip.

What else you I try putting up?

I'll keep dreaming

Well I decided to post my resume on the New York City Craigslist.  I figure there's always a chance I might get a full on bite.  Unfortunately I can't afford to travel cross country for a little nibble at the line again.  It really sucks that I'm missing the Hassleblad photo conference in New York today.  I keep getting asked for a business card so I finally designed one that I actually like.  I've got the design saved online and I'll buy some as soon as I get my pay check.  Sitting here and sending my creative energy out into the universe, its a nice ritual for myself.  Even if nobody is reading this now, maybe they'll use excerpts from my blog in my eulogy, I hope there's some piece of deep wisdom they can extract from here.  I feel like I keep saying the same things over and over again but I don't actually get anywhere.  I'll figure it out eventually.

Halloween is Coming

Halloween is of course a great time of year to express your creative energies.  I went to the Halloween store but didn't see anything I particularly liked so I'm considering creating a latex prosthetic.  Its pretty easy and fun.  So you use alginate to create a mold of your face, then create a positive in plaster.  Over the plaster bust you're going to use clay (preferably oil based clay) to sculpt on top of it to create the look you want.  You are then going to create a mold using gypsum of the bust with the clay on it.  You are then going to scrape all the clay off your plaster bust and you'll pour latex between your gypsum mold and the plaster bust.  You then attach the latex prosthetic with spirit gum and cover your face and latex piece in makeup to achieve your desired effect.

Admittedly this is not my professional field so there may be better or easier ways to do this but its how I know to do it.

Extrinsic Motivation Killed My Creative Drive

I haven't made a serious piece of art in years.  Obviously part of that is that I live with my parents who fully discourage my art making and refuse to allow me to make work at home and have done whatever they can to get me to stop making art and "get a real job".

The thing is that, there's a series I've been dying to make for a super long time but I've haven't been able to find the motivation to make it.  Heck, I can't even get the motivation to go out and just shoot some photos.  I used to love just going out and taking photographs of anything I saw.  Now, if they aren't perfect examples of pre planned constructed reality with some deep neo post historical meaning, then I just don't do it because all I can think is "there's no way I could ever show that in a gallery".  My entire focus as an artist has become about making it in the New York Gallery scene, and that has completely killed my motivation to make art because I no longer want to make art that's just fun. I'm so focused on making art that's "serious" and "good", true examples of "high art".

The problem is if you aren't creating you lose that fire that gives you the steam to power through and finish some huge series like that.  Its nearly impossible to go from cold to performing at full performance.  I don't know why I never realized that before.  Tomorrow I'm going to go out and make something that I think is completely stupid just because its fun.

That's the key to art, keep making stuff that's stupid because its fun till you find something amazing in it.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

So I cashed in all of my savings bonds and got a train ticket to New York City.  Then I got there and discovered that I didn't actually have a job and a place to stay so I had to turn around and go home. Currently I've got this big huge water jug sitting on my floor, with a few quarters in it and the words New York, in gold stick on letters across the side.

There's an online course in Travel Photography and Travel Writing that sounds amazing and supposedly National Geographic Travel Magazine looks at the students of this course for new talent.  It sounds a little too good to be true and I've got no way to confirm any of this.  The course is $575.  If taking it will actually get me the skills I need to get into a career in travel magazines, heck yeah lets do this, but if it doesn't that's $575 that would be better put to use in my New York jug.  I'm not really sure what to do.  What I'm thinking is I'm going to see if I can confirm their quotes they have on their website and see if they've had any complaints against them.

Traveling the world sound fucking amazing, especially if I can have an apartment in New York City to come home to.