Blogs: March

Thursday, March 05, 2009Busy Body

It has truely been a busy last couple of weeks. I drifted from taking the time to post any new web logs towards the end of last month because I've been exceedingly busy with the art and web design prospects, also with getting myself setteled into my new home, which is also my studio. It has been a chore getting them to be one and the same while keeping them seperated in my life and in the space. It is nice to have a home where you make your art and make your web design, all which help me pay the bills and do the things that I want to do. I've also been busy with planning trips. In the middle of a recession I have made it a point to let some of the hard work pay off with trips overseas. I love to travel. I did a lot of it when young and haven't done a lot of it overseas since I've lived in Louisville (except to Hong Kong and Morrocco). But that is changing now. At the end of this month I have a big birthday (I turn the dreaded 30) and from April 1st through April 8th I'll be in Santiago Chile visiting my friend Francisco Bustamante - the artist I was an artist-in-resident with in Beijing, China last year. For the last week in June and the first week in July I'll be in Athens, Greece. 4 continents within a year's timeframe!

Creation

Sometime while spending years jumping from one college to the next - around ages 16-21 - I discovered something out about myself. That I could deal with the ups and downs depression and manic behivior by "creating". During this time the simple acts of taking lots of photographs or drawing a picture of a tree or a landscape put me in a better state of mind, one that I liked more than the feeling of being dependent on antidepressent medications (just like the doctor ordered).

As I evolved I started to dabble in art and design. Discovering that with practice I could improve my skills and express myself in multiple ways by painting, drawing or creating a design on a computer. Even later still, I discovered that there was money to be made in these talents (thankfully), went back to school to get some technical knowlege on the subjects - excelled - and now am a full time artist and designer. One would have to be blind not to visit this site and not see my artwork. It is my passion, my defining love, my reason for being. But, when I have an exhibition up and the books have been sent out to galleries across America and around the world I like to design websites. My platform for this is Contemporary Websites.

That's what's has kept me busy while my show has been up for a month now. I got the pleasure of designing the web presence for Kentucky Opera and now I am working on a design for sonaBLAST! records. Not quite the typical artist or small business client's that I'm use to. I've enjoyed keeping a job while having the ability to turn my creative powers into beautiful tools for organizations to use to get their message out to the wider public. I have two more large-scale projects on the table after the sonaBLAST site is completed. I am very excited and hope that they will keep me afloat through this reccession with enough to come out of it with the funds to start new art projects and finally pay to have the rest of the designs sitting on my computer printed and framed. Those would be more Holding Pattern works and works in the Beauties Series.

Reccess

The reccession has taken it's toll on all of us. Fear of job loss, friends who have been laid off or lost their jobs because of the economic crisis that plauges us currently and a general "tightening of the purse strings" have me very worried. Yet, I am trying to live life as usual, trying to stick to my attitude that worrying about circumstances beyond my control is a fruitless and time-wasting endeavor. Not much has sold from my current exhibit at The Green Building Gallery (except the books). I guess this is fine as it is my plan to have many more exhibits soon alll over the world. At least I won't have to pay to have all these series in edition reframed!