Making Treasure Maps

Falling Like Water

Summer 2009 Paintings

Line in Light

 

Line in Water

Eric requested that I make him a painting, so I painted two and gave him a choice. He picked Line in Light, and I gave the other one to mom.

New York City 5-09

I was lost in nearly every part of New York City. I took this picture while I was lost in Central Park. How do you get lost in Central Park? Exactly. I even got lost in QUEENS. Why was I even IN Queens? Yeah. It's a special talent of mine, apparently.

I was in New York for six days, which was technically the same length of time I was in Puerto Rico in February, but for some reason I feel like I was only there for like five minutes. No time for rest or introspection. I don't know what happened.

My doula training was awesome. I did huge massive amounts of walking, usually aimlessly. I did not document or process the trip really at all. I'm not even sure I was there. Good times!

My Overall Impression of New York

Like the center of the universe. And it made me thirsty.

Crowded places make me feel lonely. I had been feeling really drawn to New York for a while, and part of me was like, oh, god, what if I go there and I'm like I HAVE TO LIVE HERE. But that didn't really happen. I did enjoy myself, and I do like it, but it all felt sort of like an out of body experience. I wasn't really IN New York. I was watching it, like through a barrier of some kind.

Like watching the gorillas that time at the Denver zoo through a glass wall. It was cool. But I can't say I have experienced life as a gorilla, know what I mean?

A great New York moment: I walked up to this slicked back hair, tough looking (but like New York tough, not like scary) dude and asked him if he had a lighter. And he looked at me with kind of a cocky grimace, handed me his cigarette, and said, "I ain't got Swine Flu. Not yet anyway." With that awesome tough guy accent.

It was amazing. I felt like I'd just had an encounter with some kind of wildlife. Like I'd just spotted a manatee out in the marina while I ate breakfast or something.

My Impression of MOMA

Museum of Modern Art. What a confusing place.

Now that I know what art is (and if some of that stuff was art, I honestly don't think there is anything in this world that isn't art, which is reassuring to an artist like myself - much less chance of failure) I intend to create art at all times and in all manners with absolute reckless abandon.

From what I've seen, I believe that part of the trick to getting art into a museum is that it needs to be a thing that is so hugely oversized that it will only FIT into a museum. My first project will be a twenty-five foot taco constructed entirely out of recycled sheet metal, crude oil, and butternut squash. With holes the size of my lunch and ego.

My Impression of Walking Around

New Yorkers walk around looking straight ahead. The rest of us walk around looking straight up. There's just so much to look at up there!

There's a part of me that is like, how can they not look up? I know you stop seeing the things you look at every day, but could you really stop seeing huge hulking skyscrapers and some of the most famous and beautiful landmarks in the world? I suppose. Like the way I stop seeing Avenue C. Rockefeller Center. Gateway Fashion Mall. Empire State Building. Medcenter One. Whatever...