+ed

Have finally gotten my invitation to Google+. I asked to be put on the waiting list for when they were ready to launch the beta test. Whoo hoo. So far the only person that I have followed or circled who has a google plus account is My Bestest Friend in the Whole World Uncle Wil. And he uses + more than he uses the other social sites.

So if any of you readers would like to join Google+ and add me to your circle that would be awesome. Let me know when you do so that I can add you back... in return... also... you get the idea.

I have been horrifically sick since yesterday morning and I am not feeling anybetter. I went to pay my rent and then got something less solid than what is in the fridge with the hope that it would stay down and my blood sugar wouldn't plummet thus adding the shakes to the fever, puking and generalized headache.

You know what they say about hope in one hand....
So off to bed again. Grrrr.................................

It's never what anyone expects

or "This probably belongs on the art blog but it is a life issue as well"

I am in a new place. I do not know how long I will be here. But it is mine for the time being and I will spend most of this week making it mine even though I want to make art. I have too much in my head that needs to get made. And now I do not really want to be at work, or with friends of any nature. So today as I am getting my head out of the foggy grey morning air, I am catching up on my blog reading. Martha over at Art du Jour (www.marthalever.blogspot.com) left an update that got me thinking several things.

• It takes a special person to spend 5 hours putting together an easel even with the instructions.
• It takes a special person to spend lifetime living in an artists studio and not be an artist.
• It takes an extremely special person to avoid relegating the artwork and its production to the basement, backroom, loft above the garage, a closet in the spare bedroom or even the spare bedroom.
• To make art one usually ends up living, breathing and expelling art. And in some cases, eating drinking, peeing and pooping art because it is everywhere.
• The production of art is organized chaos and it looks like a mess to the untrained and unintiated eye.

Why does all this matter, my art friends ask. They already know these things. I guess it was just looking at the photos of her easel and seeing the house surrounding it that things sunk in for me. Art is expansive. It broadens (hopefully) the viewers horizons. But in the practical everyday situation of living and working with your art, the art expands its territory. When I think back to all my works and the places that I made it, I recall how it could not be contained in one place. In much the same way that my whole home was dedicated to the day care (with the exception of my bedroom) the studio has been, quite literally, the whole house. The reason that it matters is because not many people can live like that.

When you produce something that needs to dry in stages or cure it needs to be left out where it will not be disturbed. When you have a piece that will not come together no matter what you do to it, it needs to sit out or sit aside while you work on something else. And then you can come back to it when you or the work has mellowed. These things are not predictable. Artists do not paint by numbers. They paint by trial and error. For the most part we know how tools and materials will behave... that is the skill part. It is how the concept behaves that determines ones success or failure on a given day. It can not be said always that you will paint from 2 to 4pm and have a complete work. It is a goal to strive for. But it does not always happen. And sometimes, most often in the case of assemblage or collage, you cull pieces for a series of works on a theme and have to leave them in various piles in semi-completed stages before the end run where several of them can be finished off at once.

Its messy. Its complicated. Its the best metaphor for life that I know. And it is hard for people who llike order and "clean" spaces. Its also hard for people who want to be the only thing in the spaces in your heart. But artwork takes it all. The thing that you are that makes you an artist is in everything that you are. And when you are in the process of creating art, having already distilled the feelings and experiences that are your inspiration, the art percolates through all the spaces in your life and it comes out in a finished product. Or with any luck, in my case, enough pieces for a good show.

I am in full blown art mode. That pretty much means that I am unavailable for everyone else. And I do not know how well that is going to go over. I can garauntee that my friends will be more annoyed with me than ever before. And with the things that I have to do for the people who want to help me with vocational training and get a real job... well they are gonna be pissed at me as well. But it can not be helped. I have many ideas both great and small. And not much time to get them done in.

Sheesh and if its gonna keep raining so that I can not ever go take pics of Traverse then I will have nothing to do BUT art.  At any rate... pop over to Martha's blog to see what I am talking about. it is a place of exuberant expression where I do not believe repression or suppression has ever had a foot hold. Having been in Michelle's studio when she lived close by I can tell you that the best studios for inspiration are some of the messiest places on Earth. But it is a good thing.

Settled?

Not yet. This week was International Housekeeppers Appreciation week and the week at work has been a buzz with fun and frivolity. Which being in the midst of moving again, I needed. But I also have some deeply personal stuff going on so I have been terribly exhausted wtih trying to settle my brain enough to get my physical environment settled. So after 3 days in the new place I am not unpacked yet.

There are lots of things to update you guys on and its just gonna have to wait for a bit.

At Least it Isn't Creepy Naked Guy's Room

One day this past Summer, the boss lady and I went to Taco Bell for lunch. While we were coming back into the parking lot we saw a Firetruck, ambulance and some cops in the parking lot of the hotel next door that we also operate. Jodi wondered what was up. I said, "Oh it's probably a dead body." We laughed a little. After rubbernecking to figure out what room was the target, I laughed a little and said out loud "I hope its not my own room. I might want it back someday"
We parked and walked into the building and heard the news from Dave. It was a body. "What room?" Jodi and I both asked. He didn't know. The other employees who lived there couldn't remember what room it was either.
So last week things got really kinda ugly where I was living. And I asked our GM what was left for employees over at the other hotel. "There's just one left. If you need it you better grab it now."
So I went over. Paid for the room and got my key. I didn't even look at the room number until I got over there. When I pulled up and looked at it I saw I had my old room! YEA!!!!! And just to let you know, I squeed a little on the inside.
The next day the GM asked me if I got the room. I said yeah. "But I think I got the dead guy's room." He looked puzzled. "Do you know which room that was?" I asked. He did not. So I asked Rocky which room. He does maintenance at three of our hotel. "Well I just shampooed the carpets in it. I think it' 144."
MY ROOM!
So weird Aquarius chick gets the dead guys room. Great. And I just saw insidious few months ago too.
The next day the property director stopped me, "I see you moved back to town with us." "Yeah, and I got the dead guy's room." "Well he isn't in it anymore." "His body is gone." I corrected him. "And the rest of him better not be there any more either."
We crack me up.

No, I do not expect there to be any incidents. There are far too many living college students making a ruckus for any of the dead to rest in peace. And it is those living college students that I feel the need to be wary of. There are a couple that are very weird indeed.