A Few Days Too Early?

Going into the studio today to get some work done was no doubt a premature decision on my part. Not only was I not productive, but I became frustrated while sitting in the space.

The only good part of it all is that I edited down my images to just my eight strongest. A one-and-three-quarter inch stack of drawings reduced to eight images. And the interesting part is that all eight images are in different styles, which eliminates the "just anime" look.

I ran the idea of treating these portraits as if they were commissioned family portraits or vacation pictures by Brady, and he seemed to like the idea looking at the images I selected for that process. The fact that I want to use the same photo printing process that Joe Shmoe can use at Wal-Mart is an interesting tactic, and the use of "kick stand" frames like the ones my mom has set up around the living room would be an interesting way of interacting with the space. But it is clear that I have a long process to go. Brady is confident that I can make it, though.

The entire time I was looking over the images, I kept trying to figure out which of them I wanted to do in oil and which I wanted to do in acrylic. There were at least two images I knew I was going to dump into Photoshop the moment I felt productive again, but for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to think in said productive fashion.

On the ride home during my mom's lunch hour, we talked about NYC. I said that a few people at the school suggested this and that, but ultimately we are still looking. I forwarded the idea one student had, which was to just fly there for the day and then fly back that night. Mom and I agree that if we are going to be in NYC, we should spend a few days there and see what we can instead of going for just that show and then leaving like a frequent-flying corporate business mogul. If all else fails and we can't go, I'll just order the catalogue from the museum's online store... as well as a few of Murakami's character plush dolls if not for my collection then to make my studio space a little bit more bearable.

I also had to explain where my thesis is right now to my mother. She didn't understand how what I was doing related to subculture-mainstream social interaction. It was a nice practice to explain to her how I'm still in the arena of subculture behavior while just cutting out mainstream reaction and focusing on the idea of the avatar, which is an element similar to cosplaying but different from those hired to walk around the Magic Kingdom dressed up like Tarzan. I got it "in one." So did my mom. It's a good sign.