Billy's final update 2/27/07

So, let's let productivity pact 2007 officially wind to a close.



This is the last thing I made. This brings my totals to 4 new lamps, and one necessary "display model" I cranked out along the way. I also did some pretty helpful tactical research. I also wrote 5 chapters of a young adult novel. But now I'm thinking about poetry, so go figure.

Did I complete my goals? Certainly not. I wonder where my leisurely winter went. The first week of this thing, I felt like I had a million hours to spare, but that turned out to be the exception, not the rule. I also hamstrung myself by getting pretty contemplative (overly so?) about why I was doing what I was doing. Perhaps that was a mistake.

In any case, did I achieve the basic goal of doing more than I would have otherwise, without a pact? Yes, I did. I hope some of you felt the same way. If anyone is interested in keeping going in one way or another, or perhaps just connecting periodically about the Progress we feel we're making in one avenue of life or another, we should talk. Rachel and Julie, in particular, I'm looking in your direction. Post-college young folks need more prodding than anyone, and though I'm somewhat shackled by my collegiate-calendar job, I'm always interested in being challenged.

VICTORY

Victory might be overstating the case, but I am choosing to enter the swiftly approaching spring term time at Bennington by feeling good about my winter accomplishments. Let's review:

1. I planned to reinvigorate the Weather Report.
Well, whatever I meant by that wasn't what I thought it would be, but accidentally, it happened. I still keep the Weather Report every day, and since celebrating the 1-year anniversary on Jan. 24, I can now look back on what I did today last year. For instance, on Feb. 13 last year I was anxiously awaiting the beginning of the spring term. Sounds a lot like today. Coincidence? I mean really.

2. I wanted to write "a proper artist's statement for the Weather Report."
Naturally, this goal got warped too. But I have 10 pages of fiction, 10 pages of memoir-y essay, 4 pages of an essay about loving the cold, 2 little baby poems and a bunch of weird dream recordings. This is more writing than I did in the entire time since I graduated. And it's all a lot less in the category of whiny journal writing than normal, so that's a good little boost. Hell yes I love writing.

3. I wanted to knit my mother socks.
Shamefully, I have not knit my mother socks. I have fixed up a pair of jeans and a new shirt for myself, though. I have also sent a couple letters and postcards to people who needed them and visited my parents and my sister in person on two consecutive weekends-- perhaps showing my face and spending several hours in the car is enough to trade for a pair of socks.

So. That's how things look in my productivity pact today. I am still working as always, and I for one vote that productive things keep happening even when it's the term at Bennington. Let's not let academia stand in the way of personal creativity, etc. If anyone's with me, let me know.

Oops

I just realized I have not updated this in many moons.
I was in Burlington this weekend, and New York the week before, so I did not get as much done as I do sometimes. I think I need to be bored into action.
Anyways, I've been doing a little knitting but it's pretty half assed. Last night I decided to make a button-down shirt, which is probably my most ambitious sewing project so far. I got maybe half way done and I'm hoping to finish it today. So far it's not that hard but takes a long time. Maybe they save the really hard parts for the end.
I also got fabric to make pants, which are even harder than shirts, apparently.
I also fixed one of the billion dresses in my pile of dresses that would be nice if I only fixed them.
My banjo is gathering dust. My banjo teacher invited me to come over for dinner and banjo practice but I am too ashamed of how bad I am since I have not been practicing. I can never show my face in this town again.
I have been cooking a lot of delicious food which counts for something. I love delicious food.
So here are some revised goals:
Finish my shirt
Fix up at least one more dress
Practice banjo for at least a little while every day until I move. I am moving home for a month at the end of this month, and there are many more people there who will shame me if they find out I haven't been practicing.
Keep applying to jobs. I'm doing ok at that. I want to apply to at least 5 more in the next two weeks.
Get rid of a lot of my stuff. This will be hard because I am a packrat/collector.
Maybe I'll post some pictures when I get home.
Shame on me.

turning over a newer new leaf

i have my very own 8mm projector now and watched almost all of the 8mm home movies my grandpappy left me. they are over saturated and blurry around the edges and have a nice crisp sort of graininess to them. i got the projector running, after only burning part of one film. just one frame. everything in them is uber 50's. women in dresses at parties and shiny pastel cars, lawns, cowboys and indians. it's nuts. and movie projectors are really cool.

still not sure how or if i'll use any of it in a project.

goals readjusted:
transfer a few more tapes to DV
send film stuffs to be digitized (i tried taping right from the projection but it was dark and just seemed sad somehow. i want full quality) have them send it to bennington. w00t.
send my friend alexei a fry daddy deep fat frier like i joked i would as a present for him letting me lay on his couch and eat all his food and do all his drugs. maybe i'll fill it with spam before sending it.

i can't wait to see so many of you in 1 week.

Six.5

I have to admit, the productivity pact slid into the back of my mind in the past few weeks. However, most of the things I've been up to fall into the realm of productivity....

First, I had a shit ton of business-ish things to take care of and I did them all- I was pretty proud of myself for that because most of them could have easily fallen into a corner and not have been taken care of for a long time.

Second, I made a gift for someone- I never do shit like that, but I thought that part of my effort to be less selfish with my time is to do things like that. I know this person will really appreciate that it meant enough to me to do it, so I'm glad for that too.

Third, a trip to New York has been on my to-do list for FWT, and I finally made it down there- reluctantly. I used to love that place, but anymore it's more of a pain than it's worth. I went, again, to try and not be selfish with my time. My oldest friend- we met when we were 2 and three, which means we can say we've been friends for over 20 years; I like the drama of that- lives there and we ran into each other completely randomly in a grocery store in Brooklyn a year or so ago and because it was such an out of the blue reunion, I keep reminding myself of the importance to not take that for granted and try to see her, however obnoxious it is for me to make the effort.

Four, I salvaged some canvas stretcher bars from VAPA and have been spending a lot of time reassessing how I approach my paintings. I've also sewn a few pieces of fabric that are pretty much ready to be experimented with- my current approach to making what I make: experimenting. I need to get to know the materials a bit better.

Five, I bought a roll of black and white film, put it in my camera and drove around looking. I got up early before work (my schedule doesn't leave me open to doing much besides just hanging out or going to bed after work, so I'm getting pretty good at taking advantage of the mornings. FWT is almost over, though, and I'm in a bit of a pickle- do I spend the last week being lazy while I can and not tiring myself out before school even starts, or do I keep trying to take advantage of every little moment?) took a few pictures, and I want to finish the roll before the term begins. I have a bit of work to do on that.

and Six, just today I did a ton of grad school research. That's one of my big projects for the next six months, or even a year and I'm making myself feel like I can handle it by starting now. I decided in Glasgow that I do want to go straight for grad school- it gave me a plan and I like plans. I've been researching schools for both MFA's and MBA's. I want to eventually get a masters in non-profit organizations and management. I think I might shoot for the MFA first, but I was on a roll for both.

That leads into a kind of Six.5, in researching schools, I found out about a graduate scholarship that I'm hoping to get in the running for via the Dean's office.

Climate Art

Ok. So Basically I went into work on Monday, got happily roped into making a huge commissioned "mural" on this huge ramp/entryway in less than fifteen hours.
Here's what happened:
The Climate Project, charity organization trying to end or at least slow down pollution and its effects on the environment (via the teachings of Al Gore) were holding this big celebrity cocktail party thing at my work on Tuesday night. The woman who organized the whole thing saw some art that I'd made in my boss's office, and decided that they wanted me to make some for their event. Of course I said yes, as it was being covered by tons of major magazines and newspapers, and besides, who wouldn't love to get paid an hourly wage to make art.
Anyway. I worked from four in the afternoon until one in the morning, went home, got three and a half hours of sleep, got back to work at six-thirty, and worked until ten in the morning, and I was done right as the press started to arrive. You can see a couple of the photos here, but if you want to see more, click on the link and see my flickr account.
Love,
Julie

Billy's Update 2/6/07

This week I made this:










This is what it looks like upside down:



I specify because, really, I don't know how it'll be oriented yet. It isn't totally finished, because I need to rice paper over the open air sections to diffuse some of the light. I just don't know how to do that while making as few mistakes as possible right now. My inspiration was plaid shirts and Neko Case. The red wood is fir, which when I say out loud, people always hear as "fur", and then they make a face. But it's wood, I swear. If I was physically attracted to lumber, it would be really thin fir with light behind it, much like in this lamp.
To your right is a close-up. In real life it looks sort of like that, but warmer and sexier.

Hey, "if." I said, "if."

I've also been learning some long overdue fundamentals, or at least vocabulary to talk about fundamentals, from a book about residential lighting design. You might have thought from my fancy college degree that I would've looked at books like this already, but no, I actually never even considered that there were books on such things. That'll learn me.

jeans

so PS, I made some new jeans on Sunday. Lauren pointed out that I could proudly post that here as part of my productivity pact. It was especially satisfying, because I woke up on Sunday wanting a pair of light-colored jeans, and by the time I went to bed, I owned them. I went to Goodwill, bought a pair of bell-bottomed teeny-bopper jeans, and then spent the duration of two movies hand-sewing them to fit as the trendy skinny-jean look. Here's to the spontaneous side of productivity!
Rachel