This elk, ecstatic or wary as he may be, and accompanied by roots occasionally growing gold, is headed to One Way Gallery in Narragansett tomorrow. Go visit him in person… the gallery is RIGHT next to Crazy Burger, wherein you will find things crazy delicious.
I just met some deadlines. Met ‘em head on. No one’s as surprised as I am that things came together as well as they did.
Much of what made up my to-do list over the past month was the usual glitter and debris; appointments and web launches, commissions and training sessions and about a hundred things I’ve already forgotten that I did.
I also finished a 160 hour contract design job which required me to commute about 3 hours a day and work in an office. I realize that even finding this noteworthy is a sign of my completely ridiculous and decadent freedom. I haven’t commuted, nor sat in a desk chair (any chair, really, I’m on the floor right now) regularly in over five years. It was a change. As was the need to wear a badge in order to return from the ladies’ room to my desk.
Simultaneous to said contract job, I finished a 48″ x 60″ painting and shipped it off to Thinkspace for the February 12th opening of “Fresh”, in which I’m flattered to be featured. This whopper of a piece is in freight transit as I type, and tracking predicts it’ll be in the gallery tomorrow afternoon. I’m really proud of this piece, proud of the brute force with which I wrestled it into my truck during a veritable sub-zero nor’easter, and also somewhat disoriented by how quickly it came (out of me) and went (out the door).
Oh elk painting, I hardly knew ye. I hope ye aren’t smearing in any way, as ye may not have been totally dry.
It’s taken a lot of momentum to pull everything together recently, and as I shake myself out (and bang myself against a river stone or two, like good old fashioned laundry) I’m really interested in how best to maintain this momentum, carry it forward into my new, next, as-yet-undefined projects. As well as a wee little twinge of frenetic, dyspeptic stress here and there, the kind of deadline-dependent projects I’ve just finished demand a kind of focus that I find really soothing, constructive and somewhat new. The past month has reminded me (and not just because I couldn’t leap from my cubicle without someone noticing) that you can truly only do one thing at a time, and that it’s best done deeply, without distraction, and until it’s done.
Right now my studio looks like this:
Ready and willing, blank and waiting. I may need to finish this bottle of wine first and I may need a little while to sketch, but I really do intend to keep up the forward roll I’ve recently set in motion– making choices without undue doubt and lollygagging, responding to ideas with action rather than double-thought, and finalizing projects decisively even without the imposed deadline of a particular opening.
Oh next paintings. I hardly know ye.
Yet.
I just got back from the AIGA Leadership Retreat in Portland Oregon. That is, I got back several days ago but am still waiting for my checked brain to come around the carousel. Do not board several planes and elevators with a head cold unless you want permanently alter the function of said head.
I am a fairly new member on the board of AIGA – which is The Professional Association for Design, not the American Institute of Graphic Artists (because acronyms are no longer acronyms, unless they’re self-recursive acronyms which are some of my favorite things on this vexing planet). Being thrown into a three day experience with 250 smart, competent, outgoing, eloquent and markedly more experienced board members was overwhelming for sure. The combined stimuli of these great people, the plethora of AIGA programs I was introduced to and my first-ever exploration of Portland was enough to inspire a sort of paralysis. Too much awesome to choose from.
Lest I overdo this entry, become a premature AIGA evangelist, or reveal too much about what happened at The Silverado on Thursday night, here’s a simple list of links to things I’ve just become aware of and think you ought be aware of too.
Some inspiring AIGA programs:
Youth Design, born in Boston and spread to Denver and Providence
Compostmodern: the intersection of sustainability and design
And more sustainability and design from AIGA HQ
The history of graphic design in New Orleans
…And the new book Signs of New Orleans
Some things about Portland:
There is this sign.
There is an establishment called the Doug Fir, complete with a mounted moose head made of glass, cruelty-free and sparkly, in which I had a lovely conversation with musician and Schwa co-minister Tom Filepp and apparently just missed meeting a local bicycle building hero. Bah.
There is a Dinerant—presumably the marriage of a diner and a restaurant, which are already pretty similar but whatever—where one can enjoy an amazing salad in the cool embrace of a really well designed venue.
There is a great establishment called P’ear that does art and advocacy work with homeless youth, and that graciously opened its gallery for us to gather and party in.
There are too many donuts, to my mind.
Also I sent 742 text messages in the time I was in PDX. I’m at a loss to explain this complete seizure of textitude, other than to say that the level of input I was receiving on my trip had to find release in a proportionate amount of output. I hope that this output instinct can be translated into a similarly productive season of design, art and work.
I also hope that my text plan is really unlimited.
So here is the place where I have every intention of posting news, work in progress, and whatever-else-on-earth. At least, after a nap.
In the meantime, check it out: we recently cleaned up Suite Six! My studio is now feeling refreshed and renewed and relatively work-worthy. Also please note the almost completely inaccessible Luxury Loft installed in the upper left of this photo. Were one able to access it, one would marvel at the ingenuity of turning an old climbing wall into a fine floor for a couch (and a fine ceiling for the bathroom below it). Renovations shall continue.
There’s also a new board primed and ready for action in my space. Maybe you can guess what I’m going to be painting?
