October, not ready to say goodbey to summer!

One of the best things about living in Seoul is the fact that Spring comes so early and Summer stays so late. I took some time last week to get outside and enjoy some of the tourist attractions with my lovely new French aquaintance Ginie Chaseigne. We trolled Insa-dong for some good deals and to soak up some late afternoon sun.


HBC is possible the most unpretensious foreigner friendly area of Seoul. My friend Dara plays regualr gigs at several bars in the area and I often go to watch him and hang out with him and his girlfriend (also my friend) Jesse. Here we are at Bar Carmen having a great ol'time.



Finding reliable friends in Seoul is often difficult, but I've been lucky enough to find some very great ones. I've know Jesse and Dara for almost a year now, and I hope to continue being friends with them for a long time to come.




October also brings with it a host of musical events. Most notable amongst them would be the Global Gathering DJ festival. This year it was held on October 8th at Hanganjin Park in near Worl Cup Stadium in the North West of the city. As far as DJ festivals go, it was increadibly odddddddd since all of the biggest DJs seemed to perform before 6pm???????!!!!!!!! I was increadiblt pissed off when I got to the festival at 8pm to find that the large acts had mostly finished!

The festival was then moved into several small tents and continued long into the night. It was a shame, but c'est la vie. To be honest, for the cost of the ticket I was very underwhelmed and for me, this really sealed the last nail in the coffin for my willingness to participate in any future Korean music festivals.

The silver lining of the night was that i was there with a fun group of people who always seem to be able to make the best out of any situation. It's also possible that they were all just terribly drunk. Who can argue with someone who is three sheets to the wind about the prudence of stage arrangements and artist lineups? Love you guys!

In the end though, it's all experience under the ol' belt and when it comes down to it, going to shitty concerts is still preferable to staying in and doing nothing. i just wish it didn't come with such a large price tag!

Finding a new stride and getting back to business.

I wont deny that the past couple of months have been hugely monumental for me in my personal life in Korea and my professional chareer as a teacher. While beginning a new job is never easy, I've found myself welcoming the challenge and enjoying the hard work and long hours of teaching, planning and grading. A momentus amount of time goes into just keeping track of everything and making sure I'm teaching my 6 lecture classes the right thing on the right day. While this increase in my workload may seem a bit daunting at the moment, it's bound to pay off in positive ways.

The best part about my new job so far, has been, frankly speaking, not having to deal with the Korean administration. That in it of itself, has left me much less stressed with all of the insurmountably odd and irrational burocratic issues which come up when working as a foreigner in Korea. Thankfully the result of this much reduced stress level has been the slow but progressive return of my creative energy. You know how they say: the more you do the more energy and ideas you have? Well, I think it's true. My job has been a lot more energizing and stimulating for me and I think that that has enabled me to produce more creative energy.

This being the case, I've been trying to create opportunities for myself to get back into a more regular art practice. I used to love to draw. In fact, I spent a lot of time in school drawing rather than doing my other homework. so while my mother thought that I was being such a good student up in my room, I was actually beeing an artistically inclined, socially akward nerd. and I say, it's time to revive my inner nerd and do more of this thing they call "making art".


About 3 weeks ago, I got an invitation from my friend Deyne to come and join her one Wednesday night at a small cafe in Incheon "Beyond Cafe" http://incheonfhole.tumblr.com/ for what she and her group of friends called "Expression night". At these gatherings, artistically or musically inclined folk would read poems, sing songs, perform monologues from plays or just generally sit, watch and support those brave enough to get up and perform.

I decided that it might be a good opportunity for me to get out and sketch in a real life environment that wouldn't be as akward as sketching in most public places in Korea. (It is very very rare here for artists to work outside of a strict academic framework or atelier environment.) And so, after work on the past 2 wednesdays, I have gathered my sketch book and drawing materials and headed to Bupyeong Stn. with the intention of making art and trying to make some new or better friends in the process.

In another aim to get myself working, I've begun a rather silly yet effective drawing challenge. 30 themes in 30 days. I've forgone the 30 day part, but my aim is still to try and do at least 1 drawing and some sketches every week. More would be nice, but not entirely necessary. Little by little. Ease back into it until it becomes habit and then crank up the volume. For example, the picture above is Day 6: My favorite book character ~Elizabeth Bennett.

Although I admit it feels good to be working again, I feel rotten about the fact that I've let myself fall so far out of practice in the first place. Not just with my art, but creatively in general. I've also let most of my professional artistic ambitions slip to the side or possibly right off the edge of the table. With that in mind, I've been applying to anumber of local group art exhibitions occuring in Seoul over the next couple of months. My hopes are to get myself back into my practice and also back into the scene. I doubt whether that will be possible if I can't produce better works that this my Day 3 sketch: My favorite food~Bread and cheese.

Day 2: My favorite animal~the cat. This is the fist animal drawing I've attempted to do in a really long time and it was actually really fun; I might try to get involved with this multi-disciplinary art project in HBC this winter as a set painter. If that happens, then I'll be drawing and painting a LOT of animals! LOL!

Finally, Day 1: Yourself~ less obvious since I'm not wearing my glasses and the perspective from which it was taken. But there you go. A newly renewed sense of purpose with my job and in my art. With my job, I'm just concerned with staying on top of things and continuing to enjoy the experience. As for my art, I would like to concern myself less with what others think I should be drawing and more with what I actually feel like doing. I'm pretty sick and tired of people saying their has to be meaning in art work. While that may be true for most established forms of academic art, I don't think there's anything wrong with drawing a picture of a cat if that is what you are inclined to do. And if you enjoy doing it, then so much the better. For now, all I care about is the fact that I'm drawing again. Period.