Updates

So I know, I been missing lately. But it's all good. I have been busy making art and I just got my third art show since i have been laid off. So all in all, I think this has been a great thing. I have been busy learning how to create kinetic sculptures, which has been fun and challenging. One of these is going in an upcoming show in August. The other thing I am working on is a skull, for an exquisite corpse show in October. So, I have deadlines, which we all know is something i need.

I need to get a website. That is one of the many important things i have to take care of, but with my lack of skills as a web designer, i think this will take a little longer than usual. That and i need to document some of the new pieces. I hate this end of art. I just want to create it, not worry about trying to sell myself.

So for now, that is where i am. Sorry for being distant. It's all good over here. No worries!

New Sculpture!

Well, I started this piece back in 2007. The majority of doing this was this past year. And especially since i have been work free. I figured it was time to stop being stagnant. Time to do some work. So i gave myself a deadline of the end of the month, and I did it, with time left! I am naming this piece "Death of an Art". The entire piece is covered in letters. I had collected letters that had been sent to me since high school. They been sitting in an accordion file in a basement. I had them separated alphabetically. So if anyone had ever written to me within that time, I had that letter. I rarely get letters now, so it's kinda amazing that i have saved these. Ever since email, letters have gone by the wayside.

As I was working on this, I was reading through the letters and trying to remember what was being talked about. Most of the time, I had no clue. And they all said what great letters I wrote. I kinda wish I had those still. I am curious as to what i thought was so important or funny at that time.

I am really happy i have finally finished this piece and happy that I am ready to move on and work on some new stuff! This won't be clogging up my room and I might even get to put this in a show next month. So even more inspiration to get the piece done! Ever since I have been unemployed, I have had tons of ideas of what i want to do. My mind is not stagnant anymore. I just don't have enough time!

I am off to Baltimore this weekend and am going for more inspiration. This weekend is the Kinetic Sculpture Race. Then the next thing I want to do is go to the American Visionary Art Museum. They have a collection of smaller kinetic sculptures where you can crank something or there is a motor and the pieces move. I need to find a book and do some research of moving sculptures. I want to do a series of kinetic pieces based on circus sideshows. I just finished a book about it and I have been fascinated with them for a long while. So we shall see. I want to make some pieces that are cheaper to produce and sell. So each box will be 12" x 12". I also want to make shadow boxes, which I got the inspiration at a museum in Istanbul which was all about shadows.

So let's see what is about to happen. I am excited!

A Week of Freedom

Well it has been a week of unemployment. I must say, so far so good. I have been cleaner in the house than i would be when employed. I have made dinners and gone shopping. I have had time to work on my art work and time to spend at the radio station. Even did another version of my podcast, which will be more often if this keeps up. I think i have been more productive than I have been in a normal work week.

The one rule i am making for myself in this lapse of work is that I will NOT take a job just to take a job, well at least not yet. I am holding out for something that is right for me. I don't need to jump into another job that I absolutely hate. And I refuse to take a pay cut either.

So today I had an interview. I was not too psyched to go, to be honest. I knew their hours and mine don't really agree with each other. But all in all, I can't say no to an interview. I have to give everything a chance and if this job is right for me, they will work around my needs as well. So I go in and all seems to be going okay. They even brought up the radio station and what my schedule is there and say that they could work around that as well. So I am fairly happy to hear that, but then he starts to quiz me. Literally. I had a verbal and written test. Now I understand talking to someone and giving scenarios on situations to find out how people respond to them. But I just felt a little taken aback by having to take a written test and adding things together. And not only adding things together off the top of my head. The written test was even about shit that doesn't even pertain to the job i am interviewing for, such as making a formula for an Excel file and organizing photos.

I think if you are going to do something like this, please let them know ahead of time. I was totally off my guard and might have been a bit more prepared mentally. Hell, at least brought my own pen! The whole thing left a bad taste in my mind. Then he gave me a tour after finishing my test. I walked around and saw the tiny rooms they work in. Then I realized that this metal finishing really is a lot of nothing. Cutting lengths of metal, tapping and die it, and then finish the metal with scotch brite pads. Really, not very difficult. I think i have a little more experience with metal than this. So this aspect of the job could be very boring.

The part that did interest me was some possibilities of learning more glass blowing and working with glass in general. I had done a course in glass blowing that i paid for in college. I left there with a new respect for glass after that. So the idea of learning more of this definitely interests me a lot. I am all about learning new things, but with my luck I would be stuck cutting brass tubing.

In the end, I walked away not really knowing what to think. I just don't know. I don't know if this is something i want or not. In the meantime, I can just keep going on with what i am enjoying on my own. And i am keeping busy, so boredom has not hit.

I have sent out a lot of resumes. So as my TKD teacher would like to say, if you throw enough mud on the wall, some of it has to stick. I am hoping there is some truth in that. I figure i am throwing out enough resumes, something has to stick. I am kind of wishing for a part time job. One that allows me to keep getting my unemployment and keeps me working and making a little money while I am allowed to work on my own work. Is that bad of me? I just feel like this is the first time since college that I am being allowed time to work on MY artwork. And I see progress. Something i haven't seen in way too long. I am almost finished with a piece. That makes me psyched. That is actually pushing me more and more as well. I am trying to get it finished by the end of this month. i have also started to work on another piece as well. It's amazing what happens to a creative mind when it isn't being bogged down with the job of hating your job. That really puts up a big wall in the creative progress and makes you extremely tired.

I also came across today some interesting reference material i had stored away from college. I haven't been able to look at it, but one of the things I found was about freelancing. Tomorrow i have a busy day at the radio station and then a concert, but I see Thursday as a great day to sit down and go over all this information. So busy days ahead. Then Friday night, i hop on a plane and am off to Chicago for a TKD seminar on refereeing. See, I told you I have not been bored. This free time just may do something good for me. Just stay tuned to see what it is!

A Statistic

Yep, I am officially a statistic. I am apart of the 13.2 million people out there. I was laid off. Yep. It sucks, but part of me doesn't feel bad about it. We all know, I hated my job and every aspect of it, so part of me right now is breathing and finding my zen. I am not stressed, but it's only because I had way too much stress from old job. It's not like I didn't see it coming. I saw the numbers coming in, or more like not coming in. I saw the bills pile up and the stress getting worse and worse. I was the last full time employee there. We moved into a new space because of rent and sent out sculptures that were practically free.

So yes, it happened to me. It happened at lunch on Friday. He wanted to sit down and have a lunch meeting. When i heard that, I knew what was happening. We sat down and ate and talked about my vacation. I knew that was a cover. Then he said that they have no money. They can barely pay themselves. They are skimming by, and barely. He said I should know, which i did. He didn't say it officially for a while in the conversation. It was strange. I was hurt, only for the sake of not leaving somewhere because I said so. I wanted to be the one to say, I quit. Not leave and think- well at least i can collect unemployment.

So that is what is up. I am free. I don't have to dread going to work. I don't have to hate every single day. I won't feel the need to flip off my boss behind his back on a daily basis. I will be able to collect my thoughts. I will be able to do something for me now. I will be able to work on some art, go to WFMU more and find the real me again. I am good, I am not freaked out (yet) and I am remaining calm. We shall see what the future holds. But I think this all happened for a reason.

I'm Alive

I am here. I been busy fighting jet lag, uploading photos and hating my job. So nothing new. Found out my dad lost his job. Who has this economy not effected? or is that affected....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ahhhhh, hello all! I am BACK. Back in more ways than one. I was away as you might have been able to tell by my lack of posts and due to craziness at work. I was also away on a MUCH needed vacation. And lastly I am back in a "my mind and patience are re-aligned" way. I feel a lot better to have been away. I really needed to get away from everything. I guess i should go back a few weeks, to give you an idea of crazy.....

Well two to three weeks ago, my work was getting ready to go through a move. We were packing up the studio and getting ready to move to a new space. The new space is good in the sense that it is closer for me to get to and drops my commute by 15 minutes. So that is good. So it was a good move.... but bad at the same time. So in the middle of packing, our phones and internet were turned off, which then means no sales were coming in. We lost contact with all our clients and since my job is in sales.... that is not too wise.

When we did finally move to the new place, I was told that the new office, which had to be made was moving right along. I was under the assumption that it was going to be by the middle of the week that we would be back to normal. That Monday morning when i walked into work, I looked around to the lack of work that was done and the horror of what was ahead. All the office was was a built up loft space. Just a floor. That was it. The guys were just starting to build the walls that day. So between, dry walling, mudding up the walls, sanding the walls, scrapping the decay and paint off the beams and ceiling, repainting the ceiling, painting the entire room, moving shit around.... I was doing everything BUT my job title. Now don't get me wrong. i am not a primadonna. I don't mind getting dirty and doing some hard labor. I actually miss it in a way, so sorry Chuck... I do miss being dirty from the mold room! The problem was more of- not my job department. I was not prepared to all of a sudden do the work that was needed. I was wearing nice clothes under false assumptions of the progress. The other issue was that I ended up being the only person working! I was told- Oh yeah... no worries... here you will have all these people to work with you on these miserable tasks, such as painting a ceiling. Then they would be pulled away and I would be left alone doing it. Yeah... fun.

The first week finished, and there was still no office. Just a pure skeleton of one. The following week, they had moved in all the furniture.... and moved it into the undone office.... which you saw images of. So needless to say, all that had to keep getting moved around that like annoying puzzle game where one piece is missing and you have to slide the pieces around one at a time to make the image complete. Yeah. Awesome. So on top of getting no help, my boss who you all already know that I think is completely useless, did NOTHING. He did absolutely no manual labor in helping getting the office ready. He stood to the side playing with his iPhone. That pissed me off more than anything. I was busting my ass (and back) while he did nothing. He'd come in and move stuff in the way of what you were working on, or give useless ideas about what should be done next. Then he would say... okay i gotta go home and do some work. Nice eh? Oh, and did i mention that there was no hot water or heat? No? Well, there wasn't. So washing your hands after getting utterly filthy was next to impossible. You would wash them in freezing water, dry them off on your dirty clothes and have them be freezing cause the room temperature was freezing. Yeah....

That week, i busted my ass and finished the painting and started to move the carpet around when TA DA! I threw my back out. Yes... two days before my vacation. Why was I moving carpet without help? oh i wonder..... I had noone else helping me. The guy i work with was watching me move it when it happened too. Nice huh? So I sent an email to my boss saying- you planning on coming here and helping any time soon? I just threw my back out trying to do this by myself. So he came in and I went off to the acupuncturist. That man worked miracles. MIRACLES. If you never have had that done... go do it! I don't care if you are afraid of needles.... just do it.

Finally the last day before my vacation, I came in, helped roll out the carpet with my boss and coworker and we finally had an official office by the end of the day. Amazing.

Oh, while all that drama was happening that last week, I was also busting ass at WFMU. It was marathon week and I was working on two shows that week. So I spent ever single day at WFMU that week. Which isn't a bad thing... just eats up all my extra time.

So lastly I finally went on vacation.... YAY! and I will write about Istanbul later... with appropriate images to go with! But wow... did I need that break. The one good thing is that when i got off the plane, I had a message on my email asking me to do a fill in for Wednesday, March 18th. So of course I said HELLS YEAH! So tomorrow night at 11pm to 2am EST I will be spinning tunes at the station again! Very exciting. So come listen and send your love!

So now that i am all rested and relaxed, I am ready to jump into the swing of things again. Sorry I have been missing! Now go out for a tasty beer tonight and for god sakes... don't drink green beer... that is just wrong. And if you are in Chicago... go by the the river to see it that brilliant green color.

My Version of Hell

I have been MIA lately... these pictures will only begin to explain it. This is 2 weeks into the whole thing too. I hate hate hate hate hate my job.