1st: I'm Bona Fide

Very belated great news:  J'ira a la France!!!

I applied for a UNESCO sponsored residency at Camac - an arts center located in a tiny town about 1 hour outside of Paris.  Sadly, I was not chosen for the sponsored program.  But the people who reviewed my portfolio wanted me to come anyway!  I told you I was brilliant!  I made the decision last fall to apply for artist residencies rather than to grad school, and here's the reason why:  there's too much MFA-produced crap out there.  No, I won't take it back.

Los Angeles is probably the best place to live as a practicing artist right now.  It's not about being in the "it" spot, or trying to be where everything is happening - indeed, everything is not happening here.  It's just that there's something about the environment in LA that facilitates creative thinking and productivity, and so many artists feel that and respond to it.   Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that just about anything gets an audience these days.

Whenever I go gallery-walkin' and such, I get the impression that at least 70% of the art getting representation right now is utter BS.  And more often than not, that BS has an MFA to back it up.  So I was thinking, "...if this is what passes muster after a rigorous program and critical thesis project, then I need to chill for a second while these MFA programs get it together".

I'm bona fide, I am already more than $130,000 in debt to Sallie Mae (see profile, that money-grubbing WHORE) for having the audacity to pursue a higher education despite my financial standing in this world - I'm super NOT going to pursue a masters while these programs try to channel my work in a more commercial gallery direction.  Because that's what everything is looking like.

I could be wrong, and if I am, I don't mind being wrong in France.  I'll be in Paris for a week before I go to the arts center in the countryside.

btw-If anyone ever happens to read this and you've spent significant time in France, I would like to know your opinion about it in the comments section.  I've got quite a few French friends, and most of them hate Paris.  Some tell me Paris is racist, others tell me that I'll never come back to America because I will be so loved that I'll become a star or something.  What's the deal?

Long Time No Post

As if anyone really reads this.  Seriously.

Many reasons why.  Full length expo-zay coming this summer.  In the meantime:

The Brick Testament

Xtra Normal

CAMAC

Urban Art @ Lincoln High School - Revok, Augor, Saber

Sills Models

UTLA

Btw, there was an earthquake just now.

 

 

My Christ, will you look at his FEET?  I swear, every time I hear some James Brown I get that feeling I had when I saw Rage Against the Machine live in concert - my soul just responds, ya know?  Don't get me started, I LOVE dancing to James Brown.  My auntie Gloria Jean used to love him, I'm told.

Frenchmen Say The Darndest Things

Favorite quotes:

"I like this, when you open your hair..."

-Antoine, my best friend's former landlord, in reference to my afro

"It's a bearsexploitation..."

-Tony, my facebook husband in London

 

I'll add them as they keep coming...

Starck Club

A converted warehouse in Dallas that was designed by Phillipe Starck, and where Grace Jones sometimes sang (!).  I wish I had been born earlier!  And apparently there's going to be a documentary about it coming out later this year.  Here's the trailer:

 

 

Right now I'm entertaining a fantasy of my mother having Kim (one of our babysitters) over to take care of us one night while she goes to Club Starck, takes a pill, and rolls aallllllll niiiiiiggght (awwww yeeaaaahhhh!)

The Soundtrack of my Youth

A typical Saturday morning before my mommy remarried:

1. My sister would wake me up, and we would take our blankets downstairs to watch cartoons and PBS while my mother slept in

2. We would eventually get hungry and start eating tortilla chips, drinking orange juice, and making up new games to play

3.  My mommy would wake up and start cleaning the apartment with the record player blasting.

She played Sting, Heavy D, Steely Dan, Anita Baker, Sade, Vanilla Ice, New Edition, The Rippingtons, Kenny G, and especially

 

BASIA!

 

Don't ask me where my love of grunge, punk rock, and Brazilian baile funk music came from because clearly that precedent was not set in our household...

 

btw I was at the gym about a month ago and a brand-spankin'-new Heavy D music video came on - woop woop!

Roland Burris is an ASS, I Tell Ya

Again, I'm just sayin'...

2008 In Review

JibJab sums it up nicely.

 

Now, we can look forward to nuclear war between India and Pakistan, further wankery from the Republican Party, more wholesale genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, Obama's inability to really change anything because of his unwillingness address this country's fundamental problems, and such like.  Yay alright!

My Nephew: Jayden Lee Reece

Yes, I'm super-late doing this.  I finally have some time on my hands (two posts in one day, can you believe it?).  I must memorialize my brand-spankin'-new nephew, born September 28th 2008, ten weeks early.

I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no.  They did not pose him.  Apparently this is the position he assumed just a couple hours after being born.  It's obvious to me that when he grows up, he's going to be an underwear model.

My sister had returned home after her first baby shower about a week late because of the hurricane that had hit Houston (I forget which).  She had a routine pre-natal check up and when she went, her doctor saw that she was beginning to dilate already - no explanation why.  They put her on magnesium for a couple days to relax her muscles, but that can't go on forever so they had to let the baby come.  This is him smiling already at his father, James (the young man who knocked up my sister).

This is from Jayden's first bath.  He looks just like my sister in this picture.  I love the expression on his face, he's like "Okay, I don't know what's going on but I'll bear it as long as I can..."  Isn't he precious?  Everyone tells me he's so quiet and sweet!  He has my sister's eyebrows and nose and my temperament, but the rest is all James...

Everyone except me - his own aunt - has seen him by now.  I'll be seeing him next week though, I'm going to visit them in Houston.  I can't wait!  We're gonna have so much fun!  We're gonna do baby yoga!  Feel free to leave comments extolling my nephew's good looks and sweet temperament, and congratulating me on being an aunt.  (Note:  I'll not be following in my sister's footsteps so don't even ask.  Unless, of course, I can be with the man of my dreams again... I love him too)