Back in the swing!

Holy shit this is great!!! Last night I didn't leave the studio until almost 3 am. There's nothing like a looming deadline to fuel the need to paint. I've been working on a mural for a friend's house. He, somehow, is getting it redone by one of those house makeover shows. The cool thing is that I'm getting to do whatever I want. I'm treating it like a large study for my next "body" of work. It's about 9' x 6'.

It's fucking great. I'm exhausted (a 17 hour day will do that to you) and I can't wait to get back to work................................I plan on doing so after wrapping this shit up.

I actually did a little on camera work yesterday. I was such a fucking 'tard! I had to ad-lib some lines about the mural and the wall that it's going on. As soon as as the producer said action it was as if I was sticken by a series of gradually intensified strokes. I couldn't speak, became all shades of red, and became painfully aware of the large, fluffy white balls of saliva that were collecting in the corners of my mouth. Doing a bang-up job on my P.R.!!!! "Ladies and gentleman get a mural for your home painted by a SPASTIC DOUCHEBAG!!!" I'm getting filmed again tomorrow, in my studio no less. Hopefully that will go better.

BULLSHIT!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with my sisters family. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. Driving through a blinding snowstorm for forty miles with my father at the wheel. The thing that I'll be most thankful for is that I don't end up bleeding in a ditch somewhere outside of Hamburg, New York.

Hopefully enduring twelve years of Catholic school is going to finally pay off. Now where did I leave my rosary?!?!?

Cheap art people

So my studio has this little group show this past weekend. I wasn't terribly excited because my work rarely sells well at these things. It was early in the evening and I had a decent buzz going on (I had gin and vodka and rum in my studio for myself and friends...gotta be a good host even if you're miserable!). A friend of mine comes in. I offer her a drink. she says no and asks if I want to bargain for one of the pieces that I had in the show. Mind you, the prices are clearly marked and that sales out of the gallery are subject to a 25% commission/donation by the gallery. It was a matted pencil drawing. My price was $275.................not exactly a metric shitload of money, especially compared to some of the other prices around. She offered me $200. So in the end, for a work that I wanted $275 for I would have gotten $150. FUCK THAT!

I was polite, although a little indignant with my sarcasm.....remember I did have a pretty good buzz on. I reminded her that she had a job, a rather nifty one, and that my money comes pretty much exclusively through my work. Either way we parted ways, saying that we would think about it. No surprise, I didn't see her for the rest of the night. I grew more and more pissed as the evening and drinks went by. She should know the difficulty of keeping your head above water (........."and making your way when you caaaaan.........temporary layoffs.........GOOD TIMES!".....................sorry got carried away) when you're an artist.

My question is..................Why do people always think that they can, and for that matter should bargain for a lower price, especially when dealing with artists? God knows the vast majority of us aren't rich. Why do people think that my studio is Canal Street and I'm a little Asian guy selling a knockoff Gucci?

More whiny shit

Ugh!! I'm getting a little burned out of all this art-as-a-business/career shit. I go through this every once in a while and it drives me crazy. It's hard enough to come up with ideas and then actually create them, but all the other little aspects of doing this just grate on me..........matting....framing........photographing..........sending out slide packages......applying for shows and grants and residencies. All I wanna do is paint stuff. I gotta have faith that this will just pass again. It always does. i won't be able to be around myelf if my attitude doesn't change soon..................................GOD, I'M SUCH A WHINY PRICK!

I have two small group shows coming up and I just can't bring myself to give a rats ass.



Oh..............and I'm really hung over.

So what do I do now?

My show was taken down two days ago. I still haven't done a real painting yet.................granted I don't have anything to paint on. I just spent several hundred dollars on supplies. So now I'm just a'waitin' for inspiration to wash over me.

I got reviewed in Artvoice and got a less than positive response. I'm not sure what the reviewer recently got shoved up her ass but it must be terribly uncomfortable. The best part was the response from everyone else. A bad review is a bad review................no big deal at all, but everyone thought that she was making more personal statements than anything about the work. The public at large has never been impressed with her writing abilities, but this review really sent people over the edge. At least three friends sent letters to the editor about the review.

I've never gotten this much of a response to a positive review. There is no such thing as bad press!!

QUESTIONS

How come nobody knows how to use an elevator anymore? I don't know if this lack of skill and manners is exclusive to the mongoloids that work in my building but DAMN!!!! It would just seem to be common sense to let people off of the elevator before you try to squeeze your fat ass on to it..........ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M CARRYING SOMETHING BIG AND FUCKING HEAVY!!!............I know this and I don't have a physics or engineering degree.

Do people think that just because they are on a cell phone that no one can hear what they're saying? Same elevator ride as above. I now know that it burns when a particular stranger pees. I didn't ask for this knowledge. I guess I'm a better person for knowing it....................I know what bathrooms to avoid. Even if I'm talking about something cool I keep my voice down out of, I guess, respect. Maybe it's me, but if a conversation revolves around my having a sensation of "prickly heat" I'm gonna lower my voice