Installment #3 of the Studio Visit series: Meg Madison and her recent cyanotypes.

Thanks again to the Nashville Scene for giving some love to my micro-docs.
Great conversation with artist Meg Madison in Los Angeles. Click the link to view.

Behind the scenes in the editing process.
This one took much longer. I tend to think I can do it all on the fly and nail everything on the first pass. I'm learning not to rush myself as I shoot these, and I'm totally cool with asking for more elements when I need them. Meg generously provided me with additional stills so I could make the doc a little longer than the usual 3 minutes. She was prepping for two shows, so my timing was fortuitous, but I still needed some cutaways to make it less claustrophobic. After the fine cut was done, I opened it up for feedback. There were a few subtle changes after the rough cut— swapping out some conversation for clarity, tightening or loosening a scene for pace, and I lost a self-refererential bit in the middle, but I lived. And finally, the music thing. If I could have one person on my wishlist right now, it would be a sound person to record audio and a sound designer/mixer in post. Okay, two people, but a mixer would def streamline the process.

Gearing up for the 4th one, but had to divert some attention to office and studio work. It's my not so subtle cry for an assistant.

One timeline to rule them all.

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And it's still under 6 min. 

I was excited, but I'll have to wait a day or two. 

Shorthand: Insight Outta Site talk with Austin Thomas at Nashville Public Library

From My iPhone Notes, With Autocorrect Turned Off Which Means I Stopped And Corrected Everything As I Typed.

  The gist of the talk was premised as "whether an art practice necessitates a studio, and whether a work or concept may have an audience outside the gallery context."

• Post studio practice. Liberating. Relational aesthetics. Perches. Indoor perches. Perspective led to open up art spaces. Sketchbook daily practice. Happy accidents.  
• **When you're an artist the same hand builds everything.****
• Placemaking new word. Code for gentrification. Plug for Sharon's [Louden's] book. 
• New space in Newark. Being a steward is important. Bushwick. Showing artists who live there. 
• Dispelling myth of lone genius. Saying yes. Plug for Art and Fear book * (I still own my copy that was recommended on the down low in grad school, so I second this.)
• Artist taking risks. World as Material. 
• Artsy. Pinterest. for keeping up to date [editor note: no. no no. ok, maybe Artsy, whatever.]
• Failing upwards. Questioning success. Casting a silhouette. 
• Concentrating on the shadow will have an impact. Rather than building a statue. 
• Jerry Saltz how to be successful. 
• Running a gallery. Family money, loans, owning real estate. Essentially listening to money. Personal Loan in exchange for having a show. [editor's note: lost me around here.] 
• As a gallerist you really wrap yourself around the artist. You create their shadow.

✍           ✍          ✍

I briefly met Austin when I was in NY a few years ago visiting with Sharon Butler. I thought of her perches this summer when I was in LA cleaning out my storage unit because she had orchestrated a project of gifting a few perches on  a cross-country drive. The story stuck with me and I, for a brief moment had been inspired to do the same. Drastically different though- she gifted 4 perches. I had about a 100 works and a plane ticket. But still, I was inspired by that act and we chatted for a few minutes after the talk. And if you're just tuning in, I destroyed my work instead of cheerfully donating it, so we also talked a little about destruction and lightness and how that related to a post studio practice.

Hearing another artist talk about not having a studio was great. I've had my studio at home for 5 years now. As much as I'd like the luxury of a going somewhere totally separate to tune out and make art, I'm siding with the the "World as Material" view currently. I also keep going back to the phrase, "casting a silhouette."

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.  
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Came home, hit send on my thesis-length residency app and fucked off by looking for MORE things to apply for since I'm on a roll. Still need to finish Meg's cut. Premiere is open, willing, and ready. 

Coming up for air

When the kind people at Trader Joe's ask me if I have big plans for the weekend, it's a gentle reminder that I have no sense of time. In other words, I always feel like I just started my work week. Possibly something about the blurring of Monday night into Thursday morning and my internal clock telling me I must brave the sunlight and forage for food.

I applied for 2 residencies this week, or was it last? The first one was a wash. The deadline slipped up on me while I was out of town and I had all of 3 hours to apply. I was serious about applying for it, but after being on the road 2 days in a row, crafting a cohesive proposal was not to be. I turned something in because I had been thinking about it, but writing and thinking are not the same when it come down to it. About 6 hours after I turned in 4 or 5 hard-earned sentences, falling a few thousand words shy of the allotted maximum, did my idea start to gel. Several hours later in the middle of a second proposal I started hitting my stride, or so I thought.

I had the foresight to ask a trusted friend/artist/writer to proof my proposal. It was an eye-opener.  Some great general advice, a few spins on current wording and boom. I revised the first draft and onward. I think most people would have sounded fine because it did sound fine for a boilerplate proposal, but I'm better than that. I know it and my friend knew it. Most helpful piece of editing I've ever had.

Of course that wasn't all. No, there were 2 mores essays, and a trick question that involved seeing how well you could turn a 10-page resume into a 1-page summary. They already had me list that stuff in a bio, and again in accomplishments, so for the 3rd request I'm certain it was a test to see how creative you could be with formatting. Should I keep all the solo shows and list 2 honors? List all the honors followed by 4 solo shows? One item from each category? Can I just draw a bunny and call it a day? What happened to the good ole days when I had to double-space my ressie and I could play with EMPTY SPACE?

Oh, yeah, and that's not counting front row seats for the Parade of Angst While Selecting and Resizing Images.

The good news is I hit the send button earlier today.