Artistically I was definitely scattered and wearing thin in more than a few places by the time I moved up here. Winter isolation is always a little tough here and this year is no exception, but on the whole I really enjoy most of the quiet life. We’ve got two chickens, a cat with extra toes, lots of bees, and… I think Sam and I need to get out of the woods for a bit before we get too much older. Sam is actually a city girl (really Long Island) but for some reason she moved up here to take a stab at country life with me. I definitely give her any and all credit for breaking me out of my hermitage in 2001. We have know each other since 4th grade, but were never really close. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time until some mutual friends had a huge all Memorial Day Weekend BBQ bash near Ithaca in May 2001. I spent the following week on Long Island trying to figure out if this was just some really bizarre sideturn or a really bizarre something, which it was. We spent one day just wandering all corners of lower Manhattan, including a loop around the soon to be ground zero, and at the end of it were on a train together back to Vermont for 2 weeks. A year of long-distance courtship ensued, Sam made the move here in summer 2002 and…..
That’s a really quick recap of 1998–2006.
Now 2006……………thank OLD I’m not getting any YOUNGER.
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Your most-hated list is pretty great. I agree wholeheartedly with all of your 1 stars. Did you really watch all of that crap? Even Friends? I am applying to the MFA program at XXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX.
MR. C says hi.
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John Imber told me he hoped I would move to Boston so he could see my paintings.
Gregory Amenoff told me he used to hang out with Jonathan Richman and that he thought XXXXX was great and I should really be in touch with him.
These have been the highlights of art school.
My studio is next door to this incredible older Japanese woman named XXXX XXXXXX……. daily meals with XXXXXXX XXXXX, a sculptor from the Czech republic and his 17 year old son….. it has all been a trip…..and then there are the cooly cools not so cools. Sort of looking forward to returning to normalcy on Friday…. and I miss the wife….. anyway
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the other half of the dynamic duo here is on the post-post-post tip. sigh. says i need to keep a journal about my feelings AS i paint…..
I call these “journals” PAINTINGS.
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Dear David,
I find your work dark in spirit, born of I know not what. What size are these paintings? Will be curious to see how your painting develops, and am not able to offer your work any wall space at this time. I’ll send you e-announcements for the VCAM Space exhibitions.
Sincerely,
Jane HORNER
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Again hello,
You would be somewhat kindred to the work of Philip Guston. Google would bring him up lots of times. Keep on painting.
Sincerely,
Jane of VCAM Space
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Dear Jane,
what’s google?
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……went down to MASS MoCA in North Adams with Sam yesterday. ever see THEO JANSEN’s work? HE IS A SCIENTIST. the shit is totally wild. currently (since 1990) he’s trying to “evolve” these PVC pipe beach animals. hard to describe…. like BUCKMINSTER FULLER meets INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC. At some point he flew a UFO over the netherlands & freaked everybody out.
one of the coolest things I’d seen in a while, especially compared to some of the other CONTEMPTIBLE, uh I mean CONTEMPORARY WORK on view there. It’s a big show called “THE BELIEVERS,” an extremely mixed bag.
Were you aware that GENESIS P-ORRIDGE and his girlfriend have been surgering themselves to be more alike, androgynous, a “new” lifeform….BREYER P-ORRIDGE. um, that part of the show sorta freaked me out.
But there was also some dope stuff by a 20th c. NEBRASKA recluse named EMERY BLAGDON. mostly he took scraps, wire, etc and made “Healing machines which exude energy……….” I WAS ENERGIZED. a couple nice little paintings too.
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day 4 @ the XX XXXXXX XXXXXX. mostly OK except for the stalker…but i knew she’d be here………………
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it’s freaky, i thought she was just a semi-obsessed art-worshipper or something, but apparently she considers ME to be HER “muse.” yeah, i know, its friggin wild. 40 y.o. upper crusty wife of a XXXXXX/XXXXX XXXXXXX…….total freako. the more i think about the wackier it gets.
MY NAME IS DAVE.
I AM A LONG-TIME OBSESSIVE, FIRST-TIME STALKEE.
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after finding the whacked out study hall art project existential love collage under the studio door this morning the proverbial camel went quadraplegic and then some. at the urging of parties including: SAM, my sister KATE, and the rad chix who are running the show at XXXXXXXXX for me….I told the teacher. 4 real.
2day was studio visits, great visit, then I sat my man XXX down and laid it down……he was like “WHOAH”. so up/down/through “OFFICIAL CHANNELS” we go……
looking over my shoulder,
DAVE
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By the way, that really is ME in the bee suit.
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she came to my studio to night and told me not to worry, she was sorry, and “THE WHITE WITCH IS DEAD.”
i said “there IS NO WHITE WITCH!”
“I am THE white witch,” she said.
it is wachked man, really whackd.
and did i tell you about my chickens?
…………..consumed……………………