My first blog of the new year

Well this is my first blog of the year. I'm sitting here in the apartment of my friends Felix and Willie watching one of my favorite films ever which I'm pretty sure was one of the unconscious inspirations for this blog, "Julie and Julia", and I realized I'd been neglecting my blog lately. So an update on my life, I gave up on trucking I have neither the disposition or the patience for it, which is saying something because I've been told I have the patience of a saint unless I lose my sleep and I can not sleep in a moving semi.

So I'm two thirds of the way through the process of getting into the Tashiro Kaplan and I've found some work as a graphic designer to hopefully cover the bills. I've actually been working on designing a logo for a dj company here in Seattle. The guy I'm making it for really didn't give me any parameters so I got to go pretty free flow on it. I ended up deciding on this really amazing three-headed raven, it actually looks really amazing. These are the kinds of jobs that make graphic design fun and amazing.

I applied for the 4Culture Gallery show, I really hope I get it. I'm checking the internet everyday to look for info on when casting for season 3 of work of art comes out. I'm still working towards the dream of owning my own place with a storefront art gallery in front, studio in back and attached apartment upstairs. We'll see when I actually get into my apartment I plan to start blogging weekly if not daily about my art practice.

Till next time dear readers and art lovers.

My life at the moment

Well I went to truck driving school and was out on the road for like a week until I figured out that it really is just NOT for me. Trucking is a really difficult life and you've got to love it or there's no way you can do it. I thought I could just do it as a job to pay for my art career but that's not happening. Basically right now I'm trying to find a job that will cover my bills as quickly as possible so that I don't lose this apartment at the Tashiro Kaplan.

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Super Excited!

So I'm still waiting to hear back as to whether or not I passed the first part of the leasing process but I'm super excited that if all goes well I'll be moving in to the Tashiro Kaplan hopefully at the beginning of January. I wonder if I'll be able to have a New Years party at my apartment...

So for those of you that don't know the Tashiro Kaplan is a rent controlled artist building in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle Washington. Its one of the Art Space Live Work Artist Loft buildings.

I have all these amazing ideas for paintings that are just screaming to be made. I feel this overwhelming NEED to paint.

Crappy Gay Art

This homo is extremely annoyed with the lack luster quality of gay art being produced in this decade. By gay art I refer to art which specifically addresses LGBT themes or issues. There's been some interesting developments in design and advertising but actual Art with the capital "A" has been severely lacking. For one thing though, if your art isn't erotic, you've gotten over your coming out phase and you're fairly well adjusted, its kind of hard to make good work about LGBT issues that isn't seriously depressing. I mean there are a lot of really important issues that need to be discussed (HIV, Gay bashing, disconnect of identities for LGBT persons of color, those horrible ex-gay ministries, the legal battles LGBT parents go through, etc.) but if every piece you see on gay issues is negative or depressing, eventually you just go numb to it all and you stop taking in the information.

That is part of the reason why I think works of art that show the world as we'd like it to be are so effective. We see this piece and really want to just stand there and soak it up as much as possible because its the world as we know it could be and should be, the way we wish everything worked, and then the message really has a chance to soak in and there's a driving passion to create that world we saw.

I want to live in a world where true love exists and princes fall in love.

Joining the Failure Club

So I came across this thing in the Yahoo news cycle called the The Failure Club, its the most amazing concept I've ever heard of. The whole idea is that if we never allow ourselves to put our entire being into something and put 110% into it and still fail we'll never learn our own limitations, that mediocrity is what fearful people settle for because they're scared to fail. So I've filled out an application to join the club. I had to select a goal to try to accomplish in one year that would be almost certain to fail but not completely impossible. I decided to attempt to move to Paris France and make my living entirely from my art. Its a huge dream and would be the most amazing accomplishment of my life, if I could do that, all I'd really need to have a fulfilled life would be to have babies and possibly a solo show at the Louvre and maybe a husband.

A Change of Scenery Provokes Inspiration

its interesting, I thought my muse had left me. Going for such a long time without a good outlet for my creative energy had caused some serious back up and stress. I went on vacation to the Oregon coast with my family and after some proding went for a walk along the beach on my own. After an hour or two I could feel all the emotional crap empty out of my head and the "spirit" if you will move through me. I may not have a place to go paint as I'd like to right now but I have been able to invest that creative energy in other productive ways. I'm actually really excited.

Some of the Best Advice I've Gotten in Life

1. The key to great poker is not having a good poker face but being able to convincingly fake a bad one taught to me by my grandfather an old card shark

2. Fake it till you feel it I forget who told me this one

3. Do not take a critique personally, you are not your art, a piece of art is a scratch in the surface in an idea you once had Told to me by my professor Preston Wadley

4. When you paint finish an entire layer, don't stop part way through a layer, especially on the grisaille, or the styles won't match Told to my by my painting professor Claudia Hollander-Lucas

5. Don't go out of your way to correct people who think you're an idiot, they won't see you coming and are less likely to attempt to sabotage your career from my mother

6. Kill them with kindness, you don't have to like them just be as professional, sweet and polite as you possibly can be at every turn so there's nothing they can use as ammunition to bad mouth you my paternal grandmother and mother both

7. Forgive but never ever forget my folks