Leveling the Balance

After some serious consideration of my priorities and my goals for the fall, I've decided to cut back in a few places. Quite a few, actually, and it feels great. 

It's been easier to get back into the studio and into the swing of making again. My grad piece is coming along nicely (photos tomorrow, and the whole thing should be done on Saturday), and the writing is... well, I'm taking another crack at it tonight and expect to be completely finished by Thursday. 

Yeah!

Post-Apple Meltdown

Despite going to bed early, eating well, and maintaining some level of physical activity, I am not feeling well, and I haven't been for some time. Ick. I came to the conclusion the day before yesterday that I have overextended myself in a big way, and I believe the stress from this is contributing to my feeling like garbage. 

Not being one to miss an opportunity, I have a tendency to jump in way over my head and then continue to swim out to sea. Failures so far have been few, but let me assure you the mental agony makes up for it. 

It's nearly impossible to be a good, creative, happy artist when you feel suffocated by your workload/anxiety. There's no glamour in being a "tortured artist" (I hate this notion! It's ridiculous), there's no glory in being a pack mule. But here I am, an overspent artist with screwy priorities. 

Current Priorities:                  Ideal Priorities:

1. Shop set-up                       1. Grad piece and writing

2. Exhibition application            2. ME (includes sleep, food)

3. Grad piece                        3. Friends and family

4. Gallery Connexion               

5. Writing (for school)

6. Food

7. Friends/family

8. Household chores, sleep (me)

Ugh.

A Big Apple

The Museum of Natural History is a spectacular place, and while everything I saw was amazing, the gem exhibition was the BEST. 

 Just look at that azurite sample! I was too busy staring agape at nature's splendor to take many photos. Katie snapped this shot on our way out.

Time Lapse

The past two weeks have been one hell of a trip, let me tell you! I returned last night from a five day trip to New York City! Well, two days were spent traveling, but those in-between night and morning hours count, right? 

Hanging out at the Met. No big deal.

Obviously the week leading up to that was crazy and I didn't have time to blog at all. I had to work my arse off to get a week ahead of schedule with classwork and stuff for the summer shop, and I still didn't get time to actually work on my grad piece. 

We'll talk about that later though. This post, and probably the next one too, is just about what I did and saw in Manhattan.

Hello Handsome!

I forgot to post these last week: installation photos of the Two Sisters show in the lobby at NBCCD. 

My Luthier on the left, Sarah MacLeod's murderous sister on the right.

Art Party

On Saturday night, artist WhiteFeather hosted a vernissage in her apartment. Thirteen artists (including myself!) presented everything from interactive art installations, to music, to video, to paintings, poetry, and photography, to our peers and friends.

It was totally awesome. 

Jackie seated at my installation, typing away. Photo credit Biff Mitchell.