Fever

I would say that I'm full time at CoRK now. The Studio at Blue Buddha serves for storage and supplies mainly.
I have built a beautiful table which measures 10X4 ft. I am now finishing the top with shellac.
I have also published a zine from the 17 paintings on beer coasters during my time in Amsterdam. They are an edition of 100. I am now more comfortable in Adobe Indesign after making this book, (my second with the software). I like the print shop nearby, they can print on a lot of different surfaces and are hard working.

I have been commissioned by my wonderful friends Cory and Grace to create 40 invitations for their forthcoming wedding. The deadline is fast approaching. I have some ideas, and am reading a Stephen Sagmeister design book in preparation.

I am now illustrating a spoke card for my friends at the local bike shop down the street. I am learning about Adobe Illustrator with this project. I think this is very good practice for a postcard (which is basically all that it is, except it also advertises owner, Garfield,'s business and is laminated for waterproofing).

I will be a part of a show on July 12th with my friends Morrison (whom I met during Art Basel Miami) and Mike (an artist who is fresh from living in Boston for some time), both great artists. I have several different drawings and paintings which I am working on in preparation.

Today I went to see Laurel at her job at the Museum Cafe. We had lunch together.
In the evening, I met with Dan, a friend of mine from Tallahassee. We went to a bar where I got a soda, and talked about graffiti, design, sculpture, furniture, quality, functionality, and purpose before overhearing an anti-gay remarks from a group of the bar patrons concerning their views on marriage. Together we unceremoniously stood from our chairs and left. We walked around the neighborhood in a different, more industrial area than I had ever been. It is obvious that this town had a boom, and that white flight left a scar. We made passing regards to locals, two asked us for money.

I am ill with a low fever I believe. This is day two, it's going around. It hit me hard. And I am certainly at a time where I feel motivated to work. I wonder if there is correlation between my work habits and temporarily hosting a virus. I am eating well and I began taking bee pollen tonight as advised by Mike.

CoRK Studio

I am now moving into Shaun's studio space in CoRK. It was mentioned several times that it would be a favorable arrangement for both of us that I take over his lease. I am now building a table to go in the middle of the room. This table will mean a bit more of the same working style, flat, which for aqueous mediums works best for me. My friend Mark McCombs donated a 10 foot by 4 foot sheet of 3/4inch MDF for the table top. This studio will have heavy artillery.

Europe to Jacksonville

I traveled to Copanhagen to visit Laurel and be romantic.

I bought the ticket one day before. I loaned my car to Shaun so he could move some things. 

In Copenhagen, I met with Laurel and her family. We ate well and walked thoughout the city. In the evenings Laurel and I watched sunsets and in the mornings we visited parks and gardens. One day we rode bicycles to the edge of town and jumped into the ocean (which was crystal clear, even in the city- where Copenhageners jump in from the seawalls). Another day we took a train about 40 minutes out and saw the Louisiana Museum.

After Laurel left, I stayed in Copenhagen for few days. I went to the Arken Museum, where I saw an exhibit on Hundertwasser and monuments by Damien Hirst. The town seemed less fun without Laurel ( though likely not the case, I just missed her momentarily). When she was still in Copenhagen, I remember we had a conversation with a couple at a bar, they recommended I see Prague. 

I flew to Prague. On the plane, I sat next to a drunken Swede. He and his freinds were traveling to Prague to party, as is customary for graduating high school students in his country he told me. He was loud throughout the flight. 

I met Benjamin in the airport on the basis hat we were the only two Americans and were introduced by the Swedes. Ben was from Boston. He asked if I had a place to stay. No. He offered me the name of his hostel. We shared cab fare to the center of town then began looking for his hostel, Sir Toby's. We asked around and were helped by a group of Greeks, by way of going inside for a few drinks and using the internet to look up an address. 

Prague was incredible. The skyline was like nothing else, spires of cathedrals and castles in the dozens. 

I went to Vienna next. I thought I might meet an artist that I admire there in his studio, but I learned via email that he was not there. I still visited his gallery, which showed the work of Cone The Weird. Very cool stuff, and I liked Vienna's vibes. I went in the huge aqueduct channel which runs throughout the city. It was early in the morning. My Ethiopian bunk-mates woke me at 4:30 when they got up to catch a flight. I stayed awake and explored giant tunnels. 

 I was running low on time and had to take a flight back to Copenhagen. I had a ten hour layover in Brussels. There were about eighty people who slept on the floors of the airport that night. The harsh flourescents stayed on full bright through the night. I tried to seek relief in a Muslim temple, where I removed my shoes, layed down, and was approched by a man who was also reclining and asked to leave, if I was not a Muslim. I kept my philosophies to myself; when he asked me if I was a Christian, I said yes. Then he said there is a Christian chapel next door, and that this room was for Muslims only. Aagin I kept my philosophies to myself. The Christian chapel had bright fluorescents, wooden pews, and white tile floors, much unlike the Muslim dark room with a large persian rug. I slept under a bench, covered in newspapers like a Christian.

My final day in Copenhagen was wonderful. I went to Christiania and smoked hash and skunk in the soft grass with a graffiti artist friend that I'd just met. We collaborated on a few drawings. 

I am now back in Jacksonville. It is good to be back. I am now moving into my second studio, in CoRK ( a collection of artist studios just a block from my first studio). I now have air conditioning, a refridgerator, a shower, and a communal bathroom with the other artists in the community. 

Copenhagen

I'm in Copenhagen now. Details later. It is beautiful here. I am not getting much sleep. 

Jacksonville

My folks drove up to Jacksonville for a day in their new electric car. We had a nice lunch. It was good to see them. Afterward, I went to a lovely local farmer's market/ craft market. I was inspired by the local talent and spent the rest of the day in the studio.

Shaun and I started a mural behind a local bar called The Volstead (named after the prohibition era 'Volstead Act'). Shaun expressed appreciation for the structure of my murals, so I influenced much of the underlying lattice to our collaboration. Shaun and I negotiated the palette, though he picked more colors than I felt comfortable using. We worked on the mural for an afternoon/evening session. We covered most of the wall space with color, then carved shapes into mostly plant forms, flowers, leaves, fungi, etc. The wall has a great sense of movement thus far, and there is no going wrong within our palette, despite deviating from what I originally had in mind which was closer to dichromatic.  

In the studio, I am building shelves for the bathroom. I hope to turn the space which currently feels like a prison, into a calm space, in which inspiration can strike. I hung a painting, which helped. I do not yet know how the creepy crawly critters fit into the picture. Perhaps they don't, but I also do not want to kill anything for my personal preference. Perhaps I will put in a sort of deterrent. 

Still Life

I made a painting from life last night. It was my first. I intended to learn something about plain air painting before setting out into the wilderness (or more likely somewhere along the coastline) to paint the sun rise. I became enthralled with mixing colors and stayed up late into the night. When I was exhausted, I dated the study and went to sleep. I woke in the afternoon, much too late for sunrise.

Jacksonville

After spending a week or so down at my folks house in Crystal River I felt well and rested to return to Jacksonville. I packed my car full of art supplies and books and made the drive back through bands of rain. I picked some lovely flowers from a median along the way- they are still doing well in a glass of water on my studio worktable, nearly a week later.

I was happy to be back. Upon returning to the studio, I felt as though I knew exactly the next steps to continue moving in. I built a wood holder, then a bookshelf. I unloaded my spray cans and tools. I installed a pegboard and a bicycle hook. The studio now feels like there is more of a flow to it. I took the advice of my friend Shaun in relation to setting up a studio. His advice was to arrange in this order from left to right: books, materials, tools, work station, preparation station, and finished work. With this set-up it is easy to view myself as a cconduit through which art is channeled and created. Flow. 

I finished a logo that I'd started for a local church. The second visit entailed some detail work on a scroll with a heavily seriffed font on top. I enlarged the font digitally and brought it to a print shop where it was printed to size. I made a carbon transfer onto the church wall so that the font would be exactly as pictured. After a total of 20 hours or so, I am happy to be through with the logo. And it looks wonderful.

I helped a family who I met in San Marco (trying to seek refuge from churches with no luck). I helped them get back on their feet by buying them lunch, paying for a night at a hotel, buying them groceries, and subsidizing their bus tickets to Michigan. They were very grateful. I am blessed to be able to help those in need when the case arises.

I also finished a drawing that I began down at my folks house. It started as a doodle, then progressed. I outlined the initial pencil drawing with a gel pen, then went in with a 3B pencil to establish some rough values in the case that I choose to paint it or finish it with markers. Well, that was a slippery slope, as I began to enjoy shading the drawing deeper and deeper. I took it back to the studio reluctantly, dreading having another piece of unfinished artwork lying around, but to my great joy, I found plenty of time to finish it today. 

I am now working on more black and white studies of graffiti-inspired landscape/cityscapes. I enjoy the process of making them as the options are merely to go black or white- no colors or midle tones to crutch on. Working this way has been a fear of mine for some time, but it seems to act like a crossword puzzle at the end of the day. The rules are simple- if you're looking to show a defined line, black must touch white to the point that the eye can recognize a pattern. Becoming comfortable with this one rule, and learning its boundaries is wonderfully rewarding. I feel that working with a full range of values after working with hard black and hard white will be less difficult in many ways.

Laurel left town for a family trip to Europe and while I do miss her, her abscence represents an upturned hourglass in which I can create in the studio without the option of distraction. 

I may move into Shaun's studio a stone's throw from my current studio. We are moving his belongings out now in preparation. I plan to use my current studio as a woodshop where I can work large scale, and the CoRK studio as an illustration lab.