My Life Is All About Place
As the Winter rolls on I find myself faced with some interesting new challenges ahead, including a major relocation (the first in nearly thirteen years). Thoughts tumble and jumble as I rack my brain about new soil. When I moved from Boston to Portland (OR) in May of 2001 it was no tiny feat, though I got through it with my partner at the time. And in 2014 I am moving to be with my current other half in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Admittedly I had my hesitations, but most certainly my experience of living in Central Washington state, albeit short-lived and 250 miles from Portland, has not the kinetic energy that this metropolitan-thinking man craves. Though living somewhat remote did provide plenty of ambient room for thought - perhaps too much. It was, shall I say, a bit disingenuous (to say the least) of the museum board president for whom I briefly worked as curator in Ellensburg, WA to let me go so soon, and without cause. It will ring as a tiny blip in my life, but one that, even after being selected from twenty-nine candidates, will remain quite personal and offered only displacement. That said, such a decision has, in turn, led to a brand-new adventure - what life should pose. While it's difficult to leave the great Northwest, it's in the cards and good measure.
In moving on there will be some significant changes, nips, tucks, shifts, et al. The primary challenge I will have to face head-on is environment. As one who appreciates the changing climate of the four seasons and am not a big fan of the hotter temperatures. Dallas gets quite toasty over Summer, not to mention randomly throughout the year. When I visited in 2012 I was wearing shorts around the holidays - and in June of 2013 I felt like a wax candle melting while perusing the arboretum. That said, it can be 37° one day and 70° the next - reminding me of New England's unexpected shifts in weather. This might be disorienting, or appealing to a literal "change agent" to experience.
That all aside it's time to immerse myself into a completely new cultural community, one I still know little about, though I have made the rounds and there are signs of promise. Perhaps it's time to consider settling with gallery representation once again, it's been several years as an independent and it feels time. There is just a heck of a lot of administrative work that goes into the whole process that I simply have less time to delicately balance. So, thumbs, eyes and toes crossed that I will be up for that challenge. It's time to consider a reinvigorating shift in my studio practice too. In this relocation I am actually (at least temporarily) moving most of my work and belongings into cold storage for a while. With a new camera and computer I will have the very basics to consider developing some ideas initially. Though my guess is in this shift inspiration will rise and fall in the new roads I am physically treading. So, who knows, perhaps new collaborations afoot, new ideas about bringing my work into a new presentational realm and refreshing some ideas that have been on the back burner too long.
Two powerful new essays are both nearly completed for the upcoming book "No Sign" though one serious glitch entered the ointment in late December, my Drobo had a disc failure, and in the process of rebuilding a second one may have been effected. Unfortunately it's only a single disc redundancy disc array - so all of my data, including photographs - I mean ALL of them - as well as years of documents and a few jukeboxes worth of music lay in the delicate balance until I can sort it all out come February. Your thoughts and offerings to the goddesses are welcome. It's a serious conundrum, and one that may put a slight bend in my path. But I retain hope.
Thrilled to be included in an exhibition at the new Upfor Gallery in Portland in February, a wonderful way to start the new year. In May a new commissioned work (my first of such in Europe) will be on exhibition for a prominent family collection (tba) -- both very promising. The Portland exhibition feels like the converse of my 'Spread Ego' show of 2010, a quiet update (and less WYSIWYG, more wiggle room). I'm working with new people, professionals who understand the process, in both cases, remote and soulful.
This upcoming year will be my final as a forty-something being, so I plan to make it all count with a determined voice. To that end I have reignited my love for all things vegan as well, I am feeling better than ever after a surprising hospital stay early last Autumn. Not one to let these things weigh me down, it's probably what some might call reinventing oneself - I just feel there's no time like the present....