How is it already November 8th? Oh my Lord! Where has the time gone? Not quite up in smoke, but somewhere not quite clearly defined. There have been a coupple interesting developments in my life here recently. I've been coming to the realisation that work is not that enthralling and despite the fact that I'm at work 40 hours a week, I don't feel like I'm doing very much with myself here. I've been trying to think about what it is that I really like to do and what I really want to be doing with all of this extra time. I've also been asking myself why I can't be quite sattisfied with doing nothing. I blame my education for that. i've been having it hammered into me that there is always something to do and that any time spent doing nothing is a real waste of time.
I started to think about what I had told myself I would do after I finished grad school. I had repeatedly told myself that after grad school I would: a) Get a good job, b) Travel and c) work on my art. Well..... I have a job, it's not the best job in the world, but it's a good job at the moment and it will help me move towards better jobs in the future. Maybe I just need to invest more creativity into that job, to make it a little less banal... and well yes, taking the job in itself has included travelling. It hasn't really been a vacation, so to speek, but it has given me the chance to experience life in a new culture and seeing and exploring new things and ways of life. And after all isn't that why we travel in the first place? that and partying.... maybe that's what's been missing from my travelling adventure so far? Not enough alcohol induced crazy nights. LOL! I think I'm going to start putting some money asside each month so that next summer I can go somewhere and lie on a beach and swim to my hearts content as long as I can afford.
And then we come to making art. somehow, it's been really difficult for me to move away from a strictly academic framework and move towards a mindset that will allow me to just creat art for myself or for pleasures sake. It has been a real challeng and also a real pain in the ass. it's something I know I like to do and something that I'm good at, but now that the movivation of school and due dates has been removed, it's become increadibly difficult to find the motivation to sit down and actually do the work. I guess you could say that like many people I work best under pressure, so i needed to find a situation that put some pressure back into my life. I began looking aroun and i found the answer through the seoul Artist Collective on facebook. One of the members; Richard, was looking for artists who were interested in forming and international artists collective and putting on group art exhibitions with a specific theme in seoul. I said I was interested, and before i know it i was attending an information session and a meet and greet with other artists. At the meeting it became clear to me that I had all of the sudden left the real of art student and found my way into the sphere of professional artist. Quite by hazzard really, but there you go. We met at the "Jay Gallery" near Anguk Station in Insa-dong, to discuss putting on an exhibition with the theme "Cultures Connect" from december 2-15th. There were about 15 artist there, plus the gallery owners, from all over the world. that's the idea with this collective. that we represent artist from all over the world who have found themselves in this emerging culture and art scene in Seoul. Seoul is in fact at a point in it's own culture where it must begin to accept more workers from overseas in order to balance it's labor force. Therefore, it will become more multicultural over the next decade, and it is this new move towards multiculturalism which really interested the (leaders) of the group and instigated the creation of the collective. It's all very exciting. It's also a bit heavy in a way. I just want to make art in a community with other sympathetic and like minded people. i don't know if I really want to be part of a group that sees itself as a driving force in the emergence of a new art movement. We'll have to wait and see what happens after our first exhibit! Anyway, I've decided to go for it and have paid the entry fee into the group, for brochures and advertising for the upcoming show. By doing so, I've succeeded in getting myself a spot in the show and also assuring myself at least 1 international exhibition on my artists cv. I think THAT was the deciding point. I think it is time to start thinking on a larger scale. I've already got solo and group shows in Barrie, Toronto and Montreal, now I have to begin making contacts and broadening my CV. with a coupple of international ticks, I'm sure it will look more convincing. I'm a bit bummed that none of my work at the \Youthdale exhibition sold, but at least I've shown my work now at a show funded by the Canadian Council for the Arts. Good start.
For the exhibit I have an idea that I want to work with the theme a little more literally. But i also want to continue with the main theme in my work which is the self, storry-telling and documentation. I am not really set up to paint in my appartment and to be honest, I'm not really interested in putting the time into painting so much at the moment. i find working with acrylics frustrating, and seeing as I'm not going to get a studio here quite yet (may be slightly pre-mature I think ;) ) I'm probably going to work with a mixture of acrylic and dry mediums. i've wanted to do some experimentation with gel medium transfers, so that's the direction I'm going towards. I also had the idea that I wanted to show how my understanding of Korea and Korean culture has come mostly from what I have read in travel books and brochures and then how that has stood in contrast with my lived experinces when i have visited these places. How are our expectations of a place changed when we visite a location, hear, see, taste, smell something with our own eyes and senses as opposed to just reading about it in a book? Anyway, I've been doing some tests and I actually really like working with the photocoppy transfer, there's a lot to play with there. I also like that this has given me an excuse to make art but still within the slightly academic (or theme based mode of artmaking) that i'm used to.
otherwise, my life hasn't been overly exciting. I've been getting to the gym more often and although i still feel desperately out of shape, i do feel slightly more in shape than when I began a month ago. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking? I DO miss swimming!!!!! There are no pools around where i live and the Olympic pool has very restricted swim times for people to come and pay for a swim. It's quite annoying really. Halloween last week was a good time. I managed to make it to my friend Sarah and Jeffs' bithday halloween extravaganza. It was a right 'ol good time. My costume was a real success although i failed to get one good picture1 Darn it! i have to admit i keep carrying around my camera and not getting any good pictures recently. Bad..... need to work on that. this weekend, I made the treck accross town to go to a house party. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo far! it took me 2 hours to get there door to door, but I'm glad i went because it was exactly what I needed. I have become really lazy with going out and meeting new people and I can't deny it makes me miss all of my friends in Montreal and just hanging out for a little while. I never considered Montreal a small city, but I guess we were pretty centrally located. i guess it would be the same as me moving to the west island or something. those people have an hour commute downtown as well!!!! So now, back to work and trying to just freeking enjoy myself. Why is that sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard!??????
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