Well, I very recently got back the first proof of the drawing book and it looks like shit. Not total shit, but the drawings are slightly pixelated. You know what that means? It means I have to spend the next few weeks learning Adobe Illustrator. I’ve never learned it. You’d think I’d known how to use it all this time, being a computer wiz and all, but I’ve never learned it. I’ve been using Photoshop for the last 15 years. I’m real good at that! I can tell you just about anything about Photoshop, although, I consider it to be such an incredible program, I think there is always more to learn no matter how many years you’ve been working with it.

So, I finally installed Illustrator today and I’ve been taking some basic tutorials. I have a long way to go, but what a great program that is too! I’m so stupid for avoiding it all these years. I have to learn how to make vector images.

Other than that, I’ve been chipping away at a few little paintings. Sorry I don’t have any pictures today. I’ve been bad at documenting stuff lately. I’ve been inside my head a lot, trying to think about new projects/installations I would maybe like to do during my solo show in a year or so from now.

I also maybe had the mind to apply for a residency in Joshua Tree. It’s the one that most people already know about, but I decided that it may not be a good match for me, that is, if I would actually get it. I’d first have to come up with a project that I could complete within six weeks, and within that time, come up with a workshop on my process pertaining to what it is I am doing there. Then, whatever it is I am making/doing, give something tangible to the organization that runs the residency and be ready to exhibit the results at the end of the residency. I’d have to get two letters of recommendation to apply as well. Knowing that, I would want to get my project set in stone before I hit up those special people to write those letters for me. That’s a lot of conditions that I’m not sure I like.

The thing is, the project that I would like to do for my solo show will inevitably have to do with JTree. I want it to anyway. I have been wanting to do a study out there for a long, long time now. I just need to bring it together in a way that will excite me and exist on some physical plain. It does not have to be tangible, which is great. It just has to be… that’s just it! I’m not sure what it has to be yet.

My first idea was too ambitious. It would have cost me too much money and I would have ended up with a trailer. I have no place to put a trailer! It would have been ultra cool though, and I know a trailer has been done before, but not like this. I’ll have to save that idea for the off chance I ever become some sort of art star or something. Still, I’d like to try to do the essence of the idea, which is about process. I know, it sounds boring and I probably lost you. I’ll keep working on it.

Something that is not boring is this artist that I recently discovered, Tejubehan! Over the holidays, mjp and I got a Vroman’s gift card and we went there to spend it. mjp went over to the Fiction section and I hung around the Art section. There was this book on its side sticking out in the shelf with an orange cover and intricate pen drawings all over it. “What is that!?” I said to meself.

I pulled it out and opened it up and freaked out! It was one of the most beautiful books I had ever seen in any commercial book store. In fact, it was a limited edition of 3000. Teju is an Indian, self-taught folk artist that does pen and ink work that you must see. I love her work! I am so happy I got this book for a mere $35! What a steal.

Okay, back to work and the drawing board for me.