Art & Process

Slow Chip

Ayin Es1 Comment

Spencer the dog never worked out. He was too wired up and crazy for my border collie and liked to jump four feet off the ground a lot. They just didn’t get on too well and I opted not to get him, which is fine. I need a dog that is going to get along with Buddy well since Buddy doesn’t have much time left. He’s over 12 years old now and I want him to enjoy his last years, not just endure them.

I’ve been in Joshua Tree for the last week and it was great as usual. It rained one of the days I was out there and the smells are just fantastic. There’s nothing like it. I also met some new people and they are very special and I hope to hang out with them again next time I go out, which will probably be around the holidays.

I am still working on Bioillogical, my show at UCLA Medical Center. It’s been slow-going. I have a couple of peeks here, but I don’t have much to show yet. Even if I had more, I’m saving it for the show. I also have an illustration to do for Alligator Stew, a small press that has accepted one of my poems and asked me to illustrate a poem by another writer for their next publication.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’M STILL TIRED! I have many ideas and plans swimming around in my head. I’m inspired and all that, I just don’t have the physical energy to get it all done. It really pisses me off.

As for the novel, I’m at 60,000 words. I’ve turned 9. My family just bought the house that they hold onto the longest in North Hollywood. This is where a lot of shit happens, not that a lot of fucked up shit hasn’t already. I moved about a dozen times already before this point between three states. My parents have separated four times – and I’m NINE! Luckily, it doesn’t happen again, but that doesn’t mean I wish I would. Good thing I get out of there five years from this time… Damn, I have so much more to write….

Working vs. Sleeping

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I’ve been working towards an exhibit that I will be hanging the first week of January at the Learning Resource Center at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine called Bioillogical. It’s going to include a couple paintings and mostly drawings on pattern paper, plus a few of my specimens in glass Erlenmeyer flasks — speaking of which, I have put up a KickStarter project to complete this entire series. PLEASE HELP! There are some great incentives for you to contribute there.

I say I am working on the pieces for this upcoming show, but I have to admit, I am doing a lot of sleeping. I am STILL going through a long bout of fatigue that has not let up very much. I am embarrassed to admit just how long my daily naps are exactly, but I believe they are just not normal. I’m looking forward to getting back to what was once normal.

I’m also considering adopting a new doggie. I am going to take my Bordie Collie and myself to meet Spencer on Wednesday to see how we all like each other. If it goes well, I just might bring him home with me.

The novel is coming along slowly. I’m chipping away at it little bits at a time. I am still not even at the best parts, so it feels boring. While I’ve written in parts of my life at 40, stories about a few key people, a few tragedies, and my parents’ histories, I decided to then go chronologically from the beginning of my life and now I’m not yet nine years old. I’m at the part where my family finally got back together after a long separation, drove across the country from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, and we are about to rent an apartment in North Hollywood on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. The bulk of the shit has yet to begin, but I’m at 52,000 words (200 pages) into this rough draft now. And I still have a lot to write.

Me and my brother with “Gigi” our doggie in Culver City, circa 1973.

Still working on Houses.

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I try to make an Artist’s book every other year. They certainly are major projects. This one will be my smallest edition, of only six. It is because there will be two hand-embroidered pages in each, plus three original watercolor pages. The covers have a hand-cut die, plus I still have yet to carve the block print. I still have lots to do and I haven’t really been “on it” the way I should be. I last did the sketches for the watercolors a week ago. Today I realized I will have to score each page about an 1/8 of an inch inside the binding for the pages to flip better. Yes, lots to do, but a good deal is done as well.

All the letterpress is done – there was a lot. The two etchings are done, and the digital art is done (four of those pages.) Here’s a peek at a couple:

HOUSES is based on poem, written in 1999 by me. I updated it a bit for the book. The papers I’m using used throughout are Artistico Fabriano, Rives BFK, Strathmore Artagain, Moab Kayenta 205 gsm., various cereal boxes as the front and back covers, and imported handmade flower pressed papers. The pages are going to be all French folds and then Japanese stab bound with waxed linen thread from Ireland.

Here again is one of the etchings:

I am still trying to think of a clever box or leather casing to put these in. I have thought of a wooden box, mini suitcase, etc., but I’ve also considered a kind of tattered leather pouch with embossed lettering. Still thinking about it…

Stuff n stuff

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I’m not so good at blogging as often as I used to be. Sorry. It’s just that I have been using all my writing energy for my book these days. Didn’t I mention this before? I’ve been writing a book. It’s been a couple years in the making, but the past six months I have been really been focused on it, more or less, on a daily basis.

It wasn’t until then that I un-fictionalized it. Plus I got The most incredible program called Scrivner, which has made organizing the process about as easy as brushing my teeth. It’s a God send for anyone who is writing a book, screenplay, or what have you. I highly recommend it! It was a difficult decision to make it an actual autobiography of non-fiction. That was quite the hurdle actually. Now I am walking on very thin ice when I think about publishing it after it’s finished, but MJP was in my ear for over two years about it – telling me how I had to do it. The best thing about the entire story is that it’s all true. He has a good point there, but it’s not easy to then out my friends and family, and myself in a public manner about everything under the sun, moon and stars. It’s going to be difficult. And if this thing actually gets published by a real publisher, I’m probably going to get sued by a couple of people at least.

In other news, I am in an article on the Huffington Post that Mat Gleason wrote about the private studio tours he did during July. I had a few people come through my place and it was very fulfilling. Mat did a good job of describing the tours he did.

I also made my very first YouTube video! I have never tried to do such a thing before, so don’t be too critical:

Machine (In progress)

I’ve also recently applied for a grant at a NY foundation (pending) – wish me luck, and another residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. I’m also in a new group show at Hebrew Union College at USC right now, but the reception date has not yet been announced. The show will be there until December however.

Here is a painting I just finished:

I’m also still working on my Artists’ book called Houses. I have 4 more pages to go, plus the covers. Times that by six copies though. I still need a couple of months at least. Slowly but surely…

Lately

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What’s been doin’ lately? Things are moving along, but slowly. I’ve been doing a lot of resting, but I’ve been getting some art done slowly here and there too. Not as much as I’d like to, but that’s never the case, so what else is new?

I managed to finally print those etchings last week with Master Printer Poli Marichal. We actually used my old studio in Highland Park, which now belongs to Stephanie Mercado and she has an etching press there. She gave us the key and allowed us to use it. It took us a couple days, but we gotter done and the prints look great.

Before that, one of my best friends, Yolanda Gonzalez and I were hanging out and somehow she managed to talk me into going back to her studio with her after breakfast one morning to mess with ceramics. Now I usually hate ceramics, but she somehow made it so much fun! Maybe when I tried it before I had a shitty instructor. I took a class at the local community college a few years ago when I was living in San Pedro. Actually, I didn’t even take a ceramics class. I took an open-ended, self-instructed arts term and the Chair made me do ceramics. I was totally reluctant about it, but I did what he said because I figured he was the “professional.” I wound up hating every minute of it and the potters’ wheels were designated for the men.

Anyway, Yoli and I wound up having a great time and she helped me to make Fire Dan!

I’ve also been doing this strange thing where I am taking paintings that I have already painted and doing miniature renditions of them. here is the first one of Danarama. the original is 36 x 36 inches, but this one is just 6 x 6 inches. I have a briefcase that fits about 10 small canvases and I am going to make them all mini versions of my bigger paintings so they can travel with me. It’s a silly little promotional idea I had, like old timey salesmen used to have smaller versions of furniture and pianos they would take with them in order to try to sell the real deal when they were out in the field. Crazy, I know. me and my silly ideas.

The rest of time time has actually been eaten up with helping out my best friend Tracey. She is finally moving back to SoCal from Pennsylvania after being out there for nearly nine years now. I found her a house in Joshua Tree that she is about to move into and I have been taking care of the whole organization of the thing. It’s been a little bit of work, but I must say I like doing it and I am so excited about her coming back and being just a couple hours away from me, that I jumped at the chance to do it all. She actually just left on the road today and is making her way west now. I’m going to the new house early next week to spiff it up and let the movers in and get it all ready for her. All I can say is I fucking hope she likes it!