It was told to be to keep up my blog today. This is good advice surely. Yesterday I worked on a film set of a friend of mine, a sophomore film student at Ringling here. I woke at 8, to be on set by nine. I'd taken a Melatonin before bed. I felt that it would do two things; put me to sleep and get me into character. The character's name was John. I was John. My co-actor was Carmie in real life and 'Lauren' in the narrative. I was a slacker pill-head boyfriend, and Lauren had had enough. SO I took then melatonin the night before to knock me out and in effect I hoped to splice-in a bit of method acting. I read tonight about the effects of melatonin, and upon reading, kind-of felt that it might of been better had I not done that. I guess melatonin is produced by the pineal gland, and taken before bed acts as a signal the it is dark now (Pineal, I understand is in relation to the early reptilian brain. It can sense light, and is the seat of the mind, effectively the third eye.) I read tonight that a sufficient dose is .003mg, however the pill I took was 3mg. The journal I read noted symptoms of drowsiness through the following day as the excess melatonin finished processing through the system. Hard to say whether my taking the pill was a bad choice. The opening shots of my character involved a washed out John, vaguely watching the television screen. I opted for a flight simulator to be screened for my stimulus. I hope they keep with this idea in the final film edit. I felt that the role suited me well. Lauren, for one was a great name for my girlfriend. I've thought about this a fair amount- hard not to think about after dating a Laura, then another Laura, then a Leah, then a Laurel- I kind-of felt cursed, or stuck. What's more, I felt when I met (especially Laurel) that there was a spark of destiny in our companionship, like I was some confused reincarnate who couldn't quite recall whether it was one name or the other who I was meant to be with, but I thought it started with an L.. L something...
Also appropriate about my relationship to the character(s) was that I was fixated on some other thing, that was destroying our relationship, and that I called my mother upon her (Lauren's) walking out on me. It was not so hard to get into character in so many ways. I used to take amphatamine salts as a young adult, to help me focus, and to basically motivated me to do things that I either felt otherwise unimportant or could be put off. I became a monster (liberally speaking), if nothing more than to myself. I took the pills in the film in the same way. There were a few scenes of dialogue with Lauren and I in which I was under the influence of the 'loving' drug. I focused my energy, breath and blood to my heart, and gave it to her in every line and look. At some point, upon her walking out on me, I had a scene of overdosing. This was not something I've experienced personally, so I gave it a try with my acting. Also, during one of the takes for this, I frantically opened multiple pill bottles which I was told were all full of tic-tacs, however, upon pouring out a serving into my palm, I saw some little orange scored pills mixed in. I turned over my hand to spill them, and to try to recover the scene, then made a fake swallow. Yikes, I finished the scene which was strange, and useless, and notified my film crew buddies that there's some real pills mixed in. Those, I found out were xanax- yikes. I had a couple scenes of pain- one of me post-breakup- crying, and the other of me losing my footing, fainting and collapsing onto the ground after overdosing. I thought about the times where I (think I) know I'm safe enough to lie down, and fucked up (drunk) enough to pass out right there. I used my glasses as a little device to show that I was more committed to losing consciousness than to preserving the niceness of my personal things. I hope this all came out well. I feel that I did moderately well, and I hope that my greehorn-ed-ness shows minimally.
The day before I sat-in on a wiring team for some big ambitious space oddessy graphic novel that somehow a group of freshmen seem to think they have time for. I am as on board as they are, and the team seems strong too. We'll see what becomes of this. I listed my strengths as storyboard and art-direction, in hopes to gate-keep a bit.
The day before that I had a showcase at The Ringling Museum's 'Ringling Underground' event, with other fellow students of my Metal Fabrication course taught by Vicky Randall. A Sarah Valdez, whom I'd met in 2012 in Tallahassee when she came through to install a fine art show from Ringling (and I at the time was attending school at FSU, I think, or TCC maybe), who is now the artist liaison for the RIngling Museum, asked our (Vicky's) class to feature in the November Underground event. In short this would mean one month's work to show for three hours in a very high profile event. We all whorishly jumped at the opportunity. I began working on this ten foot circular ring (an excerpt from an industrial wire-holding wheel), adding little skis that it stand upright, and welding on doo-dads and metal rods to establish gestural lines. It looked pretty good, and certainly had that big presence needed for impact in an area so large as the outdoor courtyard at the Ringling Museum. I got the best, most prominent spot of the class to display my sculpture. It wasn't long before a bespectacled man in a sharp blazer approached me to inquire as to whether I sell my works. "Sure." I replied. He then told me about his affiliation to the city parks department and that he would be interested in perhaps purchasing my piece or commissioning another for a nearby park. I gave him my phone number, in addition to a little zine (booklet) I'd made about the sculpture for the event. I hope he contacts me, but think the chances are slim (trying to reverse-juju this one). The title of my sculpture was: and "She said, "You've got it in Spades Kid" and so we went- the punctuation and capitalization were a result of my dreamlike mindset leading up to the event- the mindset that got the piece done. It was approaching the piece in a top-down (that is, concept-centric) approach that prevented me from getting into the work, but as the deadline approached this title came to me as a mantra- "You've got it in Spades, Kid". It reminds me of Pink Floyd a bit, and of the encouragement from Vicky Randall- she would tell me that I have just a natural gift for sculpting- for organizing form in space. I agreed. But also the title comes from a verbatim quote, something that struck me when I first heard it, because it was so reassuring. It was from my partner at BMC (Body Mind Centering- what was for me a three-month embodiment yoga money-pit), after I touched on her leg, to give her a listening touch- maybe a fascia touch. She said, "you got it in spades kid". I loved her for that. I don't mean to be only critical for BMC, I learned a lot. I just mean to be funny. The quote itself, I felt needed resolve to be adapted into a title for my sculpture, as I added the 'and so we went'. I like the title. I think it has direction. like the piece. What's more many viewers interpreted the piece in much the same vocabulary as I was thinking as I was making it. It felt great hearing interpretations so similar to my own. It felt as though I was successful at tapping into an unspoken language with material (iron). This is what sculpture is about, I thought.
