The Ride

Ok so I was going through the magazine Milk this morning and it inspired me. Also I was thinking about a meeting I had with Carissa and I feel like there is another possible direction. I got a response from a gallery in Shanghai and I think there is an option - I got really apathetic at school today, I should be working now, but I am not, I am planning. I need to write this so I have a clear head. Qiqi continues to make me sad and unhappy, the couple of days I didn't speak with her I was much better. Last evening Elliot and Zhu Kun came over and we smoked some grass and played some blues, it was quite nice, I wish we were in Jiang Hu or another small, wooden club. There are some important things to get done this weekend - some of it playing. I wish Helen were back, I am going to eliminate Qiqi from my phone again. Up next, the To Do list:

• Tidy up classroom
• Get triangles made for bedroom scene
• Get money transferred to China Merchants
• Correct reports
• Pick up HSK Score
• Respond to m97 and see about how to get an interview there
• Keep looking for jobs in Shanghai - start with galleries
• Study more Chinese
• Meet with Joel, Leng Du and Charlie tonight and tomorrow
• Show Leng Du what you are interested in as far as 'fashion' photography
  
• Brainstorm GTB - "Home is where the art is."
• Collect photos of cafe racers
• Print Moob and Negative
  

Getting it Together

I am just finishing checking the email for today and I have, at last sat down to do some work although I am kind of at a loss as to what I need to do(it's because there is too much). I about crashed emotionally, physically and mentally last week and as a result I said I need to relx in the next week, which I have been doing. Anyway I said I would use my blog really for myself, keeping track of the things I need to do and things I have done. It's looking like this: Stay on the Tibet trip, contijue writing reports, for now I am not going to do anything about the band, let it take care of itself. I also have to be looking for other work, this middle school teaching thing is getting to be a drag. Although last Friday was fun, we had some guys fro Lomo come over and make light graffiti with the students, the photo above in one example.



Making art should be very important for me right now. I was visiting with Sun Lian Gang last week because Charlie is in town. It made me realize how much I can love/hate/enjoying being in the art community. Leng Du and I talked about making photos together, I just have to pin her down on a time. Ok well there you go I guess I know where I have to get to work.

pieces

I have had this obsession with collage images recently. My own of course. I started making these books about a year or so ago, using recycled materials in the classrooms and the books just became works of art in themselves. I say it's an obsession because I can hardly keep my hands off of them. Whenever I done with a magazine I peruse through it looking for images I like, usually it's fashion but also there is a lot of finding an image and adding either meaning or adding an aspect to change the image in one way or another. Most of the time, after I manufacture a book I begin by putting some images into the book in a regular, but not thought out order. Then I just vamp off of that. Adding drawings, other images or just doodles and let the book take shape itself. At times I will even allow my students to add to it (sometimes they do this without asking but I just let it go there is a nice natural growth to the whole process).

I like to turn these into money in one form or another. The natural inclination is to make these works of art that can be sold, but really I don't have enough of a reputation for that. really like I would like to develop these into a graphic design language of my own. Have people who want these sort of rough pasted and drawn things to be used in advertisements, posters, whatever. I am meeting with my friend Joel sometime int he near future to talk about this (although he doesn't know this yet, but I did say I wanted to bounce some creative ideas off of him). I want to be a creative consultant of sorts. When I was writing my paper this past spring I thought "Yes I will become a master of images" We live in a an image based society these days, with apps and the internet and I have even taken a liking to photography again, so why not push it, make it something more than just a lark, which is what is now.

One of the reasons I really stick with it is because I am compelled to do it and that is in effect the way that points to good art making. I am not patient enough to study anything deeply. I have a lot of good ideas but not enough time to work on them all, so things I am compelled to do, I stick with. Enjoy the image above.

Job

So I decided to brainstorm what I want from a new job here, instead of in my book. I am really tired of teaching, at least at this school. I have talked to another teacher or two and they say BCIS is a bit over the top. Anyway, it has inspired the desire to teach right out of me. Especially as they give me a less than fair dal - providing other teachers an apartment and travel allowance but not I - because I am local. It really makes me depressed honestly and I'd like to just fuck 'em

So what do I want to do. I want to work with the arts, I want to have a design gallery or art gallery or work for an arts foundation. I want to make art and design, I want to write about it, talk about it, attend events to look at it. But I also want it to be pragmatic, I want to accomplish things that people use, enjoy, not just art for art's sake. I want to make money. Maybe a cultural foundation. National Endowment for the Humanities. I want to live in a place I like I do not want to live in Ohio ever again - sorry friends in Ohio - I just can't do it. I have looked at Singapore but sadly all I have done is look, I haven't really had the chance to do anything about it. I need to make more connections and think my ideas and thoughts out better. One of things that drives me nuts about this job is that I never get to work on anything for longer than an hour, I am always switching duties and that is just not good for my personality. I need and like focus I want to make more money - did I say that?

Week in Preview

I am just going to write my week in preview - like I do most Mondays - but instead of my book this time I am going to use my blog. Let's see - last week I got a bit done with the scanning slides and I have even started to get them into digital format so I can transfer them to screens - it would be nice to have a quicker pace but I have been so busy these days that I rarely get a longer than an hour or so to work on something. The photography/lomo article is still in its outline stage and I really do need to pay a little attention to that before it falls by the wayside and the Tibet trip needs finalizing. Rehearsal went well and I must check with the rest of the group to see where we are practicing. Don't forget that there is the event at Landgent tonight and make arrangements to repair the motorcycle and go see Charlie on Wednesday. Get the Lomo guys in here and maybe Leng Du for a photography workshop with the students - light graffiti! There is assessment that needs to be done, I want to retake the HSK (check on your results of the last test, and while you're at it check the grade you recieved from HUX). Which leads me to the next point, what classes are available this summer and next fall. Get yourself a credit card and pay down you bills. Units need reflecting on and start designing that free for all t shirt - in fact buy more blank t shirts.

Ok well that's the list, I would like to come back to my blog to check on my list and leave my book for drawing this week. BTW - if you are actually reading this, then check out my Lomo Home - it's fun!

Whao

Again, quite some time since I have been up here. 2010 was an absolute shit year and probably it was best for me not to post anything, it would have been depressing anyway. 2011 is turning out to be a bit better, trianign Wing Chun, studying and finally seem to be getting involved in a stable relationship (albeit slow, but that's good for me). I have been reading a lot about stylistic analysis recently, what has stuck with me is an article about the psychoanalytical aspects of Jackson Pollack paintings. Recently I have begun to look at my art in the same way. Unlike Pollack, I am not looking to figure stuff out, rather I a looking to express the way things are. Similar to a Ravi Shankar concert I attended years ago. Anyway, have a look.

Far Too Long

Far too long since I have written, I am getting back into now. I have just been so busy doing that there has not been time to think, at least not about things that don't relate to work. But last night I was reading another book about Zen and I can across this passage:

To model yourself after the way of the Buddhas is to model yourself after yourself. To model yourself after yourself is to forget yourself. To forget yourself is to be authenticated by all things. To be authenticated by all things is to effect the molting of body-mind, both yours and others'. The distinguishing marks of enlightenment dissolve and causes the dissolving distinguishing marks of enlightenment to emerge continuously

At first, when you seek the truth, you have distanced yourself from its domain. Finally, when truth is correctly transmitted to you, you are immediately the primordial person.

There is a lot going on in here ad what I think I like most is the finding in past experience illustrations of what is being said. I suppose not writing for a while has lead me to have experiences so that I can come here today and write about events that correspond with intellectual pursuits. I won't go on and on, but here is one.

I have been studying Wing Chun Chuan recently. One of the exercises that our coach has us go through is a push and pull duel with another student. The students take a stance similar to that of sprinter's stretch and slowly play in and out of one another, looking for places that the other is falling off balance. Then taking advantage of that off balance feeling. After several minutes of the exercise one start not to feel like there is a person, just flowing of energy and one becomes in tune with the push and pull. This may sound kind of flakey, but I cannot think of another way to describe it. It's a rocking, a flowing, not looking for opening but feeling an opening.

I have read Zen and Tao texts for many years now and while I have understood intellectually the points, physically experiencing the points is a whole different way. I have similar experience riding a motorcycle, or swimming and surfing. Tomorrow I will hit the slopes for the first time in two years. I'll let you know how it goes.