Architectural studies, hurricane house

Climate Change and Sustainability Hurricane House Proposal

this picture makes me breathe heavily and feel excited in my stomach. i'm not sure why.

i don't know

i don't know.

i feel like i'm missing something, maybe.

is this teenage angst caught in a cryogenic freezer?

it could be.

maybe i need punk rock to save me.

maybe i need to make the world.

maybe i need to just go outside in the sharp clear cold and breathe, lightly at first, and then with growing conviction and strength, until i am breathing in everything that exists, even the things that i can't see and more than ever, i maybe will know that's it ok not to know.

war

i always thought when i was little, if ever faced with the notion of being forced to kill another person in the name of conflict, i would simply run away.

i would see myself running from above, a zoomed-out satellite photo.

i would see where i was currently, the war zone, and i would see where i could run to.

it is just a greenish mass, the place where i would go. it is nondescript and has no features which specify it as being a place of sanctity. it is the same as any other place, just somewhere different.

everything seems possible in my head, every place is exciting and insane and profound.

at some point, i realized that there might not be a place to run to. there might be someone waiting for you there who wants to kill you, or maybe a land mine along the way. these notions of safety and danger are illusions constructed by minds seeking to influence others with abstractions that have no real meaning when you occupy your own body in a given place.

if i don't like something, i can always run away. this is important to remember. there is no such thing as guaranteed safety, or comfort, or happiness. the important idea is that change should always be an option, for any human, in any circumstances.
if you are living a life that is not worth living, and you can't physically move yourself away from this terrible place, you die.
death is different than life. one must take solace in this fact.

none of this is true. we have a vast number of examples throughout human history that prove otherwise. torture happens. imprisonment happens. isolation happens. small children sometimes get lost. there is not always an escape.

i think that we should, as humans, have a choice, a built-in mechanism that allows us to check out of the giant hotel that is our brain. no continental breakfast, no room service fees, just the option to walk out at any given time.

the burden of the brain is often too much to bear. we should have a choice.

cut corner

sometimes, people get cuts in the corners of their mouths.

these cuts are very difficult to heal; one must exercise control in these situations, especially when it comes to eating and speaking.

it must be so that a scab is formed, which allows the cut to heal.

the scab is opened, however, when the mouth is opened to a certain point.

we must say that it's possible, then, that these sort of cuts never actually heal.

it's also possible that, each time a person suffers a cut corner on their mouth, their mouth becomes larger.

maybe this is an issue that needs to be addressed in the ongoing fight against obesity in our country.

we must develop a cream specially formulated to heal corner cuts. there is no time to waste!

hat lamp

this happened

sometimes

sometimes
i want to write something
but i don't
because
i am too lazy to log in to my account
so that i can write something
that one other person might see
and think
'hey, this makes sense to me.'

there is chess
or painting
there is also writing
and there is cooking
there is riding
and falling
and there is also reading
there is drawing
and there is building
there is also remembering
and building again
building anew based on remembering
old mistakes
there is sitting
and there is waiting
there is running
and there is jumping
all equal in weight
which of these things is the best?

three people that i don't know

are we sure?

some new and some older paintings

“A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gases and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.” New Scientist conclusion on the CO2 emissions of the meat industry. This conclusion is based on the emissions of EUROPEAN vehicles, which are considerably lower than AMERICAN vehicles. Incredible.



The majority of the emissions from livestock originates from within the bowels of the animals themselves. That’s right. Farts. Incredible amounts of methane gas is released over the life span of the average piece of livestock. The next largest CO2 source in meat processing is the transportation and production of feed for the animals. It takes 16 times as much fossil fuel to produce 320 calories of beef as it does to produce 320 calories of vegetables and rice. 16. These figures do not factor in the transportation of the beef once it is butchered, or the hefty energy consumption of refrigeration for meat.

The UN”s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that livestock production generates more than 1/5 of the world’s greenhouse gases- more than transportation.

It’s clear- if you switch to vegetarianism you can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to research by the University of Chicago. - Time Magazine

This is the biggest impact I could possibly have on my own carbon footprint. Phasing meat out of my life has reduced my carbon footprint by leaps and bounds. I realized towards the end of this past summer that I didn’t really need to eat meat anymore, and so I began to phase meat out of my daily diet. It took roughly a week to quit completely, but I haven’t had any problem since then in terms of craving meat. Tofu, nuts, certain grains, and dairy products have kept my protein intake at a sufficient level. The most striking element of this argument that I couldn’t have predicted was the fact that changing your diet could be more effective than upgrading your car from a gas guzzling SUV to a hybrid.

Choosing to eliminate meat from my diet is clearly the most effective way to reduce my carbon footprint.

I will do a Letterman-style countdown for the other ways I have reduced my carbon footprint:

10. Craigslist

9. Buying used clothing

8. Using glass water bottles

7. Washing dishes by hand (already a part of my routine)

6. Air-drying clothing, not washing as often

5. Making a concerted effort to purchase less individually wrapped items and plastic bottles

4. Attempting to cut back on dairy products

3. Shopping locally whenever possible

2. Trying to conserve electricity, turning off lights when not in use, turning off my computer.

1. Riding a bicycle, not traveling by plane, staying in one area for an extended period of time.

The best way to make an impact is to influence others with your own actions, and I’ve been attempting to do this without forcing my views onto others. Presenting the facts is enough to at least make most people think about how they live; making someone say “wow” by showing them the reality of something they had never before considered is pretty incredible. Inspiring change through education is the ultimate answer, which is why this class is relevant in the first place.

my bike

this is my bike.

i ride it every day.  

i am happier with a bike.

running

hit the right floorboards

and they won't catch you

it's ok if you aren't the fastest

they can nip at your heels and

throw packets of ketchup at

the white shirt on your back

don't fret!

the packets won't break

and your pockets won't either

even though they are lined with nickels

try to remember

how many nickels you have

you might need them later

for an awkward parking meter

even though

you've never owned a car

christmas with a shallow stocking

today might be a new for me,

maybe,

also, people seem as if they know

what they want

they close the blinds at night

and open them in the morning

except when it rains, because

when it rains, we all feel

the collective water weight

of the entire world

sometimes i sit at a desk

and worry about making a mess

but mostly, i try not to disturb

other people,

people who have so much to do

every second that i'm not doing

i'm wondering, and worrying.

how can i move, with facility, 

through my own life, with this face

and this hair

do these ears belong to me

do i need them

i do not know

i drink water to forget.

utopia

utopia seems alright

a little boring for me

we'd like to get it right

through mass hypocrisy

pretense causes tension

and tents pop up anew

rejection of your pension

and pens predict the blue

fields of green and gold

but not of plants and mold

sunlight gives up hope

still face an upward slope

swallow your pride, i've tried

allowed to slide you lied

retention of the facts

practice with your ax 

my roommate, justin gilman

pretend

i used to pretend

that i had a little brother

we played tag in the woods

and burned paperback books

tree

a tree is like a ring

perfect in it's vision

better still than fission

take less than what it brings

everywhere

if i sleep here, 

then this is my house.

at least one person should sleep

in every building

first time ever

for the first time ever, 

last night,

i had a dream about something,

that i was thinking about, 

just before i went to sleep.  

awesome things

there are so many awesome things

that it makes me want to throw up with joy

i have seen a lot of amazing things in my life

and i don't know if i have made anything that is amazing

this notion might induce nausea 

in myself

i'm not sure

i am afraid of not doing enough with my life

and also afraid of my hands becoming old and gnarled

these are legitimate fears

i know this, because there aren't many things that i fear

i just don't want my hands to become useless

i need my hands 

and

i need to do something, always

impossible triangles

impossible triangles

are like girls

who make things difficult

for you

smells

Some good smells include:

fresh grass

washed clothing

newly born babies

air mattresses

small filing cabinets

dense magnets

leftover Olive Garden in a styrofoam container

books made of polymer 

nylon

bbqs

the nhl

leather sporting equipment

receipts from items purchased that passed the test of longevity

anything that is designed and printed nicely

cedar

any volkswagen manufactured between the years of 1983 and 1992

any purse

all packages received from amazon.com

electricity

those soft sticky eyeballs that you get in a quarter-machine at a 50's-themed diner

some bad smells include:

your own burning flesh

hair of any kind

people who have been working out for an extended period of time

plastic spider rings that you get at halloween

a woman's clothing who isn't your mother when you are 7 years old

shoes that you've worn every day for the past 6 months

fried leftover potatoes

burnt corn

ridiculously obese people who can't possibly clean their entire body

your arm after it's been in a cast for any period of time

french public transportation

cavity breath

mold of any sort that looks like it might be powdery or could become so at any point in time

any volkswagen produced between the years of 1992 and 1999 that is owned by a student

a season of soccer without the smell of wet leaves

your old house

cat shit.

The terms "retardedly awesome" and "brilliantly stupid" come to mind in situations such as these.

I'm having trouble understanding how "everyday life" is related to "time" or "the big picture."  

There is a blatant disconnect between these two ideas which I'm forced to consider always.

Somewhere off in the distance, a small plane sputters in the air for a moment before reconsidering life and coughing back to life with a great roar.  No one notices, mostly because the plane has no pilot or passengers and the air traffic controllers are napping after eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  

James Madison was our country's smallest president.  He was both the shortest and lightest.  I think he was 5'4".  Is it obvious why this fact is notable. 

Barack Obama is our country's blackest president.  No one else has come close.  I think I should feel "inspired" or "moved" by this fact.  I do, sort of.  

In some faraway crater, a snake sheds it's skin and slithers away, feeling sad because he just lost something that was a part of himself at one point.  

fuck

Fuck.

I built a refrigerator for my class with beer inside of it and then I didn't go to class.  I feel like a loser.  I drank some of the beer instead and fell asleep.  It doesn't really matter.  Everything that happens will ultimately prove to be either false or misinterpreted.  This is ok.  I will continue to make appliances that don't really work out of wood.  Probably for my final wood project, I will make a pizza and box for the pizza, both out of wood.  Everything will marvel at my ingenuity and my ability to render the banal in a way that is imaginative and also still convincingly realistic.  It is ok to make pizza out of wood, I know this because I have thought about it before.

I also used epoxy last night.  Now there are various items permanently attached to my desk.  I also masturbated with some epoxy on my fingertips.  I was surprisingly calm during this process.  I washed my hands afterwards and went to bed.  

Here is an artist who has done some actually amazing things with wood.

Also, Ryan Manning, how did you find me?  Do you have a team of blog-explorers constantly searching for new and obscure blogs to post on?  You are like ten men, except you're just one really lonely man.  I think I maybe posted once on someone's blog that you could have possibly seen, and you found me?  I feel so confused and alert.

peel bottles

I used to peel labels off bottles.  A lot of people do this, I've seen it quite a few times in my life, this destructive inclination.  It is not such a bad habit to have, though, probably better than smoking or biting your nails or having four bourbon and waters before dinner.  For some reason, I don't peel labels anymore.  I understand the impetus for such a habit; it is satisfying to feel the resistance of glue against your taut fingertips, to undress the bottle, to create two objects where before, there was only one.  Some people like to say that it's an act signifying sexual frustration.  Maybe this is true, I am not really sure.  

Personally, I do not feel any less sexually frustrated than when I was a bottle peeler.  Maybe I just don't care as much.  Now, when I get the urge to slip my fingernail under the plastic skirt of the bottle and slowly work my way further into the label overlap until I can feel the soft and sticky glue sealing the two pieces together, I simply stop.  It is no longer an unconscious action.  I realize what I am doing and stop myself.  It makes me feel calm, composed, in control of my mind and body.  I might fold the tiny plastic corner backwards, test the resiliency of the glue and then smooth the fold I just made back down in it's original place, like tucking a child back into bed after a nightmare.  Shhh, go back to sleep little label.  I am calm, I do not need you, I will not destroy you.

Bikes

Sometimes, riding a bike is like being naked. People walking, people riding in cars, people sitting, everyone looks at you like you're a freak. Maybe it is the audacity of self-propelled sufficiency in transportation, or maybe it is out of sheer boredom; I can't count the number of eyes I meet while I'm on my bike. They are all naked to me, too. Everyone is naked all the time.

Hurricane House

Here are some prelimiary studies for a sculpture project that I'm planning on creating, the Baltimore Hurricane House. It is meant to be completed as an homage to global warming, and the unintended consequences of the carbon footprint that each and every one of us contributes to. The project, in a nutshell, is to create this monument of what a structure in Baltimore might look like when subjected to the incredible forces of a hurricane. It highlights an idea of the unthinkable happening; hurricanes are a very real and tangible fear for a large population in our country and I would like extend this idea to a place that wouldn't normally need to worry about a hurricane striking. The project is not meant to instill fear, rather, the object is to point out the growing evidence that global warming is contributing to the increase in both the strength and frequency of hurricanes in the Northern Atlantic weather system.

My cat is under the workbench.  I don't know how he got under there, it doesn't seem like there is enough space at any one point to slip through and into the dusty cavity, but he's a cat, and I guess that's what cats do.  He's depressed and his urethra probably hurts, because he has a urinary tract infection.  I think he might have crawled under there to die.  I'm not sure what to do; I can't take him to the vet again because I don't have the money.  If he would come out, I would give him little cranberry extract capsules or apple cider vinegar, and maybe that would help.  I hope he doesn't die.  I have to go to work soon and I'm afraid he won't be OK when I come back.  

"It's like," she said,"I miss him...but he's right here.  I'm looking at him, but he's not there, and maybe I'm not here either."

more on this to come...

Friends

Can we be friends? I think that maybe we can.

Sure, we're very different people and I don't always understand what exactly happens inside of your strangely shaped head, but that's no reason for us to not have cucumber and hummus sandwiches on wheat bread together at a small, locally owned coffee shop in a large city.  

We can possibly walk together down a quiet side street and we probably won't have awkward silences, because we are friends and it is understood.

You can show me your quartz collection and I won't act interested if I'm not.  When I say, this is boring, your feelings won't be hurt because we are friends.

I will come and help you change your tire when it goes flat after you run over a porcupine and you will come to help me when my computer melts because I downloaded too many full-length soft-core porn movies.  We will do these things for each other, because we are friends, and that's what friends do.

We won't have to call each other to hang out, we'll just run into each other randomly and we'll pick up where we left off and maybe make plans to play miniature golf.

We won't say mean things about each other when other people are around, because we're friends and friends shouldn't say mean things about their friends.

I will forget your birthday, and you'll remember mine, and I'll be upset with myself for 10 or 15 minutes, but you will tell me not to worry, that I can buy you a beer and it's not a big deal because we're friends and these things aren't of much consequence in the long run.

You'll move to another country, but we'll keep in touch by email.  You'll write me long emails about how it feels to be alone in a new place and I will understand how it feels.

We'll both have gmail chat, but we won't talk through it because it's too personal and we are in different places, living our own lives and speaking in real time is just too stressful sometimes.  We will accept this idea because we are friends and friends understand this type of thing.

murakami

"Memory is like fiction: or else it's fiction that's like memory.  This really came home to me once I started writing fiction, that memory seemed a kind of fiction, or vice versa.  Either way, no matter how hard you try to put everything neatly into shape, the context wanders this way and that, until finally the context isn't even there anymore.  You're left with this pile of kitten lolling all over one another.  Warm with life, hopelessly unstable." -Haruki Murakami

Proposal Student Gallery Space

I would like to have a show in one of the student space galleries at MICA, hopefully in the springtime.  I've been thinking a lot lately about how someone can literally be someone else in a given moment, act, look, think differently, respond to stimuli differently.  I am using myself as an example, in this case.  So, to humor this idea, let's say I'm watching Oprah on the television in the middle of the day.  I'm lying on the couch, with my feet up, in sweatpants and warm socks, because I am sick.  I have eaten a banana and two bowls of ice cream.  Oprah is a charismatic person, and I can see this.  I am imagining through her gestures and animation what it is to be like Oprah.  I think of people smiling as I reveal that I am going to give them a makeover, and their smiling crooked teeth look hideous to me, which is part of why I want to give them a makeover in the first place.  I want to make everyone feel great about themselves, and I want for people to listen to me, and most of all, I want for my toy poodle to live a long and healthy life.  

For a moment there, on the couch, I have become Oprah Winfrey, through the power of my own thoughts and by literally placing myself in her position as I can see it at this moment in time.  This happens often to me, and to other people I believe, these moments where you don't feel that you are residing in your own body, a moment when your mind has completely numbed out any physical sensations and you can sometimes even imagine looking at yourself from a different physical viewpoint in the same room.  These moments are fleeting, to say the least, but what if they weren't.  What if one could sustain this feeling of being someone else for a minute, or an hour, or even a day.  What if someone could create paintings, as I do, as if they were someone else.  Painting to painting, created by a different hand each time, with different sensibilities and completely varied subject matter.  The power of thought and deception of the self is something that interests me greatly, as a reaction to this interest, I would like to curate my own painting show, using a number of different aliases to label paintings that we all created by myself.  The point of this is not to pull a publicity stunt through some novelty art piece; my name doesn't need even need to be on the exhibition wall, preferably not if possible.  I would like to test the control and strength of my own mind against the eye of the viewer.  Is it possible to create paintings that have absolutely no connection with each other when you are the sole person creating the paintings?  

I hope to make this exhibit part painting, part performance, and part installation.  The painting portion is self-explanatory.  I would have 8-10 pieces of artwork, all fairly traditional paintings and all given equal amounts of time and care into their makeup.  I would hope to create aliases for each painting, create a booklet with names and background information for each individual "artist."  To take it a step further, I would attempt to gather a cast of characters to play these "artists" at the opening for the exhibition, create a tightly woven script in which I would create an artist's statement for each of the characters, and with their help, put on a performance in which a gallery of paintings are the stage.  At this point, there will be blatant lies and deceit, and there is no way around this.  I would hopefully be able to plant an ear bud in each actor, and monitor their conversations with gallery goers, and speak through the microphone to one actor at a time, inserting my own bit and pieces into the conversation as I see fit, improvising on the script in interesting and hopefully funny and awkward ways.  I'd make a point to document this experience subtly, with people filming throughout the crowd, these conversations between the artists and the viewers.  Part of the project will be an open jab at the idea of gallery openings, about how much of a spectacle they are and how ridiculous and inane some of the conversations can be.  This documentation will be edited and then shown in three different parts, on three different monitors inside the gallery space, after the opening has already happened.  There will then be a closing exhibition in which the "artists" will be invited back as spectators to view their own performances, and of course, the paintings themselves that they "painted."  

Carbon Footprint

I calculated my carbon footprint today.  Some people do not know what this means.  Here is a definition for the term, carbon footprint.  I used a number of different carbon footprint calculators, and then took the average of all of them.  This may or may not be a good way of finding out what my carbon footprint actually is, but I think that since the different calculators have such high degrees of variability and complexity, it may be my only option.  

Here are the calculators I used:

BP (nice little flash interactive thing going on, comprehensive): 9 tons per year

Carbon Counter (ridiculously simple, mostly interested in selling off-sets): 4.5 tones per year

EPA (my favorite, very comprehensive, also provides results for hypothetical reduction scenarios, the site is unattractive though and seems a bit daunting): 4.072 tons per year

Sterling Planet (straight forward, made me feel good because they say the average is 27 tons/yr): 3.12 tons/year

Climate Crisis (only really focuses on direct energy uses, i.e. cars, planes, and heating/lighting): 3.1 tons/year

Ok, so my grand total average whatever you want to call it is 4.76 tons/year.  Not too bad.  

Now for some issues with these calculators.  Clearly, they aren't taking into effect the collective transgressions that are committed constantly.  For example, we are all responsible for the jet fuel that is consumed  to transport packages, goods, soldiers, etc.  We are all responsible for the food we buy.  Meat does not appear in a cooler in a supermarket, a cooler that is on at all times, using energy at all times.  The meat is transported from god-knows-where (you can find out though) to the supermarket in a truck.  Trucks use an insane amount of fuel, especially when they are dragging 20 tons of meat behind them.  How do we account for the energy that is consumed to create plastics bottles, or computers, or refrigerators?  The list goes on.  The problem with these calculators is that they do not address our world society as one entity, they are breaking it down into individual responsibilities, which in theory, is logical.  We can each make a difference in our own way, but we can only make an actual change when we create a paradigm shift in the philosophy of how we live our lives.  I guess for most people, these calculators are designed to show them how much they are contributing personally to a global problem, and the hope is that these results will inspire an alternate course of action.  My own carbon output is relatively low, so I was not surprised or worried about my own results.  I know there are things that I can change, but I realize that making a difference means reaching out beyond my own personal impact.  

As for my own course of action on how to reduce my footprint, the options are fairly straightforward.

Here are the facts:

I do not drive a car or take public transportation.

I rent an apartment in a building that is extremely inefficient.

I do not use air conditioning, ever, if possible.

I am not careful enough with my use of electricity.

It is not possible for me to alter my living conditions at this point in my life, i.e. energy-saving appliances, better insulation, a choice in energy provider and the type of energy provided.

I am just barely wealthy enough to make small changes in my life.

Here is what I can do to reduce my footprint:

I can switch to energy saving light bulbs, although this can be problematic, because I need good light when I am painting.  It may be possible to only paint during the daytime, which would be an ideal solution.

I can turn my computer off when I am done with it, make a better effort to keep the lights off in my house when they are not necessary, and try to convince my new roommates that air conditioning isn't really needed.

I can buy food locally more often, visit the farmer's market once a week, stop succumbing to the convenience of supermarkets.

I can encourage others to ride bikes locally, as opposed to driving their cars.

There are some other issues in my own life that I can address that would have an indirect effect on my own footprint.  One example is recycling.  Our building does not recycle.  Everything goes into one dumpster in the center of the building, and that dumpster is emptied once or twice a week.  This can change.  I have spoken to the landlord and he has agreed to participate in any reasonable projects or solutions that I can come up with to keep "valuable" materials out of the garbage.  I say "valuable" because I know that we are still down-cycling materials, but this has to be better than the landfill.  I can also change something in my own life, my eating habits.  Eating habits often dictate how our daily routines, weekly routines, monthly routines are performed.  Although it does not directly affect my own carbon footprint, I have done enough research to realize that eating meat is not a sustainable practice for our planet.  The amount of energy that goes into one pound of beef is staggering, from the labor to create pastures, to the energy used in the slaughtering process, to the packaging and transport of the meat itself.  I have begun to wean myself off of red meat already, and I feel as though this has been something I haven't thought about enough in the past, which is maybe why I am both physically and mentally ready to do this.  Meat often makes me feel not good in my body, and I often feel downright sick after eating a meal that is full of fatty meat.  Yes it tastes good, but there are other options.  For many people, it comes down to a matter of cost.  Meat provides the most physical energy in the form of mass for your dollar.  I believe that with more planning and a bit more legwork, I can exist without having to burden my planet with a demand for meat.  This is a shift in philosophy, and while it may seem like a drastic change in lifestyle, it is essentially the same as turning off the lights when you aren't using them.

Failure

I ran to the bank.  It was closed.  There were a couple of police officers outside.  I waited until all of them exited, and then tried to open the door.  I didn't realize that the bank was closed.  No one explained why it was closed.  One of the cops got into his car and then said something like, bank's gonna be closed for a while.  I looked around at other people.  We were all confused together.  Was there a bank robbery?  We all hoped so.  This girl who was a bike messenger looked at me.  She had a purple bike.  I said, awesome, in a really sarcastic way, as if I was complaining that the bank was closed and that it was actually a big deal, but the way I said it made it seem like I was just annoyed that it happened to close just as I got there, but that it wouldn't really ruin my day or anything.  I spoke well.  She looked at me through sunglasses and then walked towards her purple bike.  I ran away to buy a bike tire, so that I could maybe one day ride with her.  

I have a job to do

Today, I have a number of things that I need to get done.  I will list them in order of priority, and then in parentheses, explain why this task is important.

1. Get a new bike tire and tube (I feel incapacitated without my bike)

2. Go deposit money in the bank (I have $3.14 in my bank account and sometimes money gets taken out without me realizing, because I'm only a partially responsible person)

3. Install new bike tire and tube (reason listed above)

4. Visit the Office of the Public Defender (I have a court date on October 27 and I'm not a lawyer, nor do I have a lawyer, nor do I have money for a lawyer)

5. Go in to the restaurant where I work and create an inventory list of all the glasses and silverware in the restaurant and include the holding capacity for said items in each hutch/cabinet in the restaurant (I have no idea why I have to do this, but I do)

6. Try very hard to call off of work tonight (because this list isn't over yet and I've only got 3 hours to do all of this if I have to go to work)

7. Calculate my carbon footprint (for my Climate Change and Sustainability class)

8. Buy concrete from Home Depot (for a sculpture that I'm attempting to create)

9. Finish drawings for architecture class (I don't know why this is so far down on the list, I guess because I can go to the studio any time of the day or night)

10. Call Citibank and other loan-givers and tell them why I can't make payments (because I am still in school, something about deferment, thinking about it makes my face hurt)

11. Paint?  (fuck, I could just wipe everything off the list and only do this)

12. Read (this has become an escape from all the other shit I have to do, so it has to be last)

Finally, here is how I feel right now: 

This is a glacier.  I feel like a glacier.  To counteract this feeling, I will now run with great speed to each of my tasks.  If I happen to cross paths with a glacier, I will steal someone's car and drive it with great inefficiency and laugh as the glacier melts before my eyes.  It will make me feel pained to do this in a way, because I feel like a glacier, sort of, so I can empathize with the glacier.  Maybe we can become friends one day.  I love the glacier.

This guy is awesome

Here is an artist that I have been thinking about a lot lately.  His layering and space are both sensual and convincing, and I can't get over the way in which he overlaps abstract color fields and definable spaces.  I'm surprised that he isn't more well known, he's not gotten much press from what I can tell, but the paintings speak for themselves.  He uses the color blue in ways I wish I could.  Here's his website, he certainly deserves some attention!

Graffiti buffs

Here are some images documenting a project that was done in France and continued in the US involving graffiti buffing.

France paintings

Here are some images of work from the past year or two, these specifically are from the France studio program I participated in.  More to come.