Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment at Rock The Garden 

Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment at Rock The Garden 

I slept in today, and feel fully rested for the first time this week. I finally got access to the files from my old computer, and am currently getting a lot of administrative stuff done. I just found out that the new gallery space at the Chatfield arts center was officially approved, so that project will be moving to the next stage. I'm trying to decide what information I want to gather from people to inform the work that I make. I'm excited to see Chance and many others perform  tomorrow at Rock the Garden. 

Never get tired of seeing Chuck Close at the Walker

Never get tired of seeing Chuck Close at the Walker

Weekend starts now

another image from the cabin

another image from the cabin

I'm house sitting this weekend

in Minneapolis, and taking the opportunity to see some artwork. Going to free Thursday night at the Walker tonight, and I'm planning to see David Rathman's show at the Weinstein before that. Saturday is Rock the Garden, and I'm so excited to see Chance. I swear I'm going to get some writing done this weekend.

Tired today

Stayed up late with friends last night, so today was a drag. Luckily everyone was out of the office for a meeting, so I didn't have to do much. I have so much administrative stuff I need to do. Anybody want to be my assistant? I won't pay you. Here's the plan: Email tomorrow, updating my website and bios and stuff over the weekend, clear out a studio space next week, start painting the week after.

Here's a cool think: My good friend Annie Galloway was kind enough to document my exhibition last month, and took a few photos of me. She just posted them on her page and everything looks amazing. Go check her out: https://www.facebook.com/annawrae/. I'll be updating my site with the artwork photos soon, for those who missed the show. Also, fyi two of my prints from the show are on consignment at the Saint Peter Arts Center, so you can go take a peek in real life.

That's all. I'm going to take a nap.

Back from the cabin

Had a really nice weekend in northern Wisconsin at my friend's cabin. I didn't get any reading or writing done. Just sat by the river and the fire and had conversations with friends. It was really nice to have a few days of completely unstructured time.

Since I've been back, I have been doing laundry and unpacking from my move home. I had a phone conversation with the people at the Anderson center about what to expect this August. I'm figuring out what sort of work I want to make while I'm there, and how much preparation I should have.

A list of things I don't like

  1. Overzealous air-conditioning use.
  2. Road construction that effectively traps me in Cottage Grove.
  3. People who like Donald Trump (Even more than I dislike the man himself).
  4. Mold
  5. Arrogance
  6. Apples (I can't do it)
  7. Not having a computer
  8. Moving (Moving from one home to another, but also motion in general)
  9. People who don't think
  10. Being away from home too long

A list of things I like

  1. Chance the Rapper
  2. Sunny days
  3. Cabins, and most things that go along with them.
  4. White T-shirts
  5. Nutter Butters (Favorite food)
  6. The safety, comfort and conveniece of urban environments 
  7. My bed
  8. People who think
  9. Ticonderoga pencils
  10. Artists talking about their own work

A list of things that don't interest me

  1. 90% of architecture in the suburbs.
  2. The good old days.
  3. Why being an artist is going to be so difficult (Surprise! Everything is going to be difficult.)
  4. Very spicy food.
  5. Any comedy that has come out in the last decade. (There may be as many as 5 exceptions.)
  6. Finding new exhibitions. (I've had way too much on my plate for the past 5 years.)
  7. White people with dreads.
  8. Reality TV
  9. Binary thinking and false dichotomies
  10. Proving that I know things

A list of things that interest me

  1. Accuracy
  2. Maps
  3. History
  4. Enclosed spaces
  5. Patterns
  6. Sculpture
  7. Other people's artwork
  8. People my age who are passionate about what they have learned
  9. Learning how to paint better
  10. Learning how to bike in the city

Vacation weekend

I am really excited to take my first real vacation probably since Christmas. I have been working really hard this year, finishing up my job at Gustavus, painting and getting ready for my solo show, organizing shows for the summer and fall, and recently starting a new job and moving Beck home. I've had days off, but those have been taken up with entertaining guests, attending concerts and shows, and driving from place to place. 

This weekend I will be driving up to a friend's cabin in northern Wisconsin, away from everyone and everything and with no schedule. I plan to catch up on my reading: I have the  Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates to finish, along with a Barbara Kingsolver novel and a John Berger book. I also plan to do a lot of writing. I have  a lot of decisions to make about projects this summer. Usually I figure out my ideas through the process of painting, but this summer my time will be so limited that it is important to have a clear goal before I start. Also it's time to get a really solid handle on what my art is doing, and what I want it to do in the future as I get ready to apply to MFA programs.

I just have two more hours at the office standing between me and freedom! 

Short one tonight

(From June 6)

Tied up my loose ends in Saint Peter today:

  • Returned my laptop
  • Hopfully backed up my laptop properly
  • cleaned out my apartment
  • Had dinner with my mentor Betsy, her hubby Matt, and their toddler Gus, who won't stop talking about me, but calls me "Cameron"
  • Delivered a piece to a buyer
  • Dropped off a lamp at my friend's new apartment

 

My empty bedroom in saint Peter

My empty bedroom in saint Peter

I have failed you, my country, and myself

So apparently the squarespace blog app does not share my goals for an updated blog. I am newly without my own computer, and thought that the phone app would be a great way to keep up on my posts until I find a new one. I sent two posts to the blog via my phone and felt good about keeping up with everything despite limited resources. Instead, my phone decided to hold them really nicely while lying to me about sending them on to the world wide web. A quick check of the website shows that my daily blog hasn't been updated since Monday. I have let everybody down, and I truly apologize. I'll post the missed blogs now, and have new ones for the weekend.

A short list of things

I forgot to post for yesterday, so Here is one for now, and I'll make another later. This is a short list of things that I've been thinking about, and that  I want to influence the work I make, especially in Red Wing.

  • Pipes
  • Maps
  • Wallpaper
  • Texture
  • Enclosure
  • Cement
  • City
  • Untouched

Also I went camping on Saturday. Here are some photos:

Rambling free writing passage from my sketchbook

I have several constraints for this show. One is time. I have three months from today to have work ready for a show that is based on the city of Chatfield. Part of that will be spent in Redwing producing other work. Or not! I could conceivably make the Chatfield work in Red Wing. How can I blend the two ideas that I have not come up with yet? I am used to making art about places I have lived in, or am at least familiar with. I want to be shown Chatfield, but probably don't want to just make work about what people want to show me. My goal is probably very similar to a memorial to the town, but I guarantee it will be distinctly different. In my experience people have a very specific idea of what artists would be interested in looking at. They are usually associated with history and tourism. Can people be objective about what places and stories are important? I wonder if people would report on places that they have thought about, and hope others will think about, or if my status as an "artist" will cause people to cater to what I might want. What am I looking to gather in order to inform the work? History. History attached to a place. What makes the place interesting? I am after the stories that aren't overly interesting: The second or third tier thoughts. Not because I want to make quirky artwork, but because those create more complex ideas. And the point of art is to take complex ideas and translate them into simple expressions. This summer in Chatfield and Red Wing I want to do more gathering than making. Partly it's about the time it takes to make a piece, but also it's about partially taking my voice out of the documentation process. More editing the information I gather instead of creating new information.

Meeting with the Saint Peter City Commissioner/Oddisee & Bad Company

This afternoon I met with the Saint Peter City Commissioner about purchasing one of the pieces from 30mph Zone to display in the public library or City Hall. We didn't get connected until the very end of the show, so I left a few pieces on the walls for him to see. we had a really great conversation about Minnesota Avenue, and he brought up a lot of points that I had thought about while developing the show. It seems that everybody in the city government was concerned about making the downtown business district walkable when the Highway 169 renovations were happening, but MnDoT, who actually owns the road, was more concerned with moving as much traffic through the city as quickly as possible. for the first time I had to give my opinion about Saint Peter as a City to live in, rather than Gustavus as a school to study at. I'm interested to know what long term Saint Peter residents have to say about the Minnesota Avenue renovation, and what young people thing about Saint Peter as a place to live. Let me know in the comments, and I'll let you know if today's meeting bares any fruit.

Tonight I am excited to see Oddisee & Good Company at First Avenue. Oddisee is one of my favorite rappers right now. He is of Sudanese decent, and grew up partly there and partly in Washington DC. This gives him an interesting perspective on a lot of topics. His recent project Alwasta ("wasta" means "middle" or "middleman" in Arabic) talks about what it means to be a Muslim in the United States today. He raps about being mistrusted and profiled because of his religion, but at the same time being needed and sought after by those in power because he is one of the "safe" or "good" Muslims, and therefore could be useful. The EP is extremely relevant right now, and also just a really good listen.

I first fell in love with That's Love off of his 2015 album The Good Fight when I saw him perform it on an NPR Tiny Desk Concert video. I'm really struck by the genuine positivity that is mixed into a lot of his verses. I'm not saying that positive rap is better than rap that is negative or talks about violence. Gangsta rap and all the kinds of rap that people of a certain age condemn for their negativity (with a few exceptions) are just as important. In part because they started as the autobiographies of marginalized people, and because they paint a more complete picture of the different experiences humans have. I'm just saying that his positivity along with his frankness, and a great beat grabbed me right away. Just listen to That's Love and you'll get what I mean. 

Another reason I like him so much: He performs with a live band, Good Company, and they are so, so talented! They could hold their own even without a front man, but the combination is just really special.

Summer 2016

I'm writing this blog to record my thoughts and my process of art-making this summer. My goal is to simply post one thing each day for the three months of the summer and continue as far into the fall as I need to. I'll have no word minimum or restrictions on content. I'll be working on several projects which you will hear more about as details become clearer. I'm interested in how the different projects and ideas interact, and how timing plays a roll in the fabrication of each piece.

No promises that anything will make sense.