Artwork

So this is my real life: The 2009 Edition.

I am a high school art teacher in Crystal Lake, Iowa. You've never heard of it? Well, it IS home to the World's Largest Bullhead. Dually it serves as my "real life" for the time being. It isn't perhaps my ideal situation, but it is a job.

I figured I better put a semi-periodic update on my life when I have a tiny bit of time.

Here are a few positives about having my job:

I can afford to pay my bills.

I have a desk.

I don't live with my parents.

I am getting my first year of teaching out of the way.

I get to hang out with little kids twice a week. (I miss KTC kids)

I have time to do grad school application stuff.

My apt has an extra room that I use for making art.

Some students can be pretty cool sometimes.


And that is all for now. I will write more when things change or become more exciting.

Coffee and CocoRosie

It's August.

UPDATE:
I graduated from college. :)
I moved back home. :(
I was in the Des Moines Arts Festival. :)
I have two part-time jobs :/
I have no real life (job). :( :( :(
I am going to apply to grad schools soon. :)

I am making art here and there. Currently slump-age is taking over my ability to make art but this is soon to change. I feel it. I ate a fortune cookie and it told me that my worries will go away if I face them bravely. I thought that was good advice.

Did I mention I need a real job that's away from home. If anyone has one for me, pllleeeeeaaaasssseeeee help. I'll do a good job, I swear.

Not much else going on with this gal.

Oh, and I miss hanging out with kids more than ANYTHING. ug.

February, eh?

It blows my brains that it's February already. I am a student teacher and only have three weeks left at my high school placement. The students who are passionate about art are bomb. The rest are semi-ok.

Oh and i just realized that i GRADUATE in APRIL.....Yipes Snipes.

I just felt like I needed to post something because it has been ages since I have. But more will come when I am less busy and am making more art. This will all be in the very near future. I promise. This is my written contract to myself.

Front Door

This is my front door. Well maybe not my front door, but the door to my room. To me it's MY front door. Technicalities are always involved when living in the dorms. This photo will be a catalog of time spent here in Jensen.

This dim lighting is what makes my hall and doorway extremely enticing. Its much more calming without the brutality of the industrial top lighting. I am a fan of warm lighting. It keeps me sane and things look better that way.

Someone likes the lights on so we're in a war. Whenever I leave my room I turn off the lights on my end of the hall. Now my secret has been given away.

It seems this blog has been less than revolutionary, for my brains have been fried and sleep has been nonexistent. So I am thankful for for dim lighting and my cozy room. The end.

Do artists have a responsibility to society?

Hmmmmm. Well this is a tricky question. I think it's hard to have a definitive answer from my personal point of view. So perhaps this is more of a tool for me to think aloud, aka "ablog".

I guess artists should have a responsibility to society. Artists as a whole maybe more than each individual artist. But I guess without the individual you wouldn't have the whole. It seems far too obvious. Hmmm.

I guess if I consider myself as an artist in society and my role therein, it will make things easier. I don't think I am doing anything monumental for society personally. But, I think I'm making work that relates to those who see it even if they don't understand my relation to it. And isn't that saying something and upholding a responsibility?

My art is being viewed by human beings; those who are all under the conditions of life today and understand common occurrence while dealing with the day to day struggles and pleasures in life. Herein, maybe it's not my responsibility to society, but instead a default relationship to the human nature that causes me to make what I make. Maybe rather than me upholding some responsibility to society, society is what upholds me.

Stories, past, childhood, present, icons, and identity are all natural to those in society. These are words/ideas I tangle with in my art. While I don't go about it with my mind set on addressing those "big issues", the underlying issues seem to be relevant. My art is extremely personal, my own stories behind each decision within pieces. So maybe artists do uphold a responsibility by default. To represent those lives, interests, trials and tribulations that strike us as universal.

If we didn't have a responsibility to society would there be art museums? Would we have traced the path art has taken over the years? If all artists believed they had no responsibility to society, wouldn't a certain passion for art be lacking? While art is so personal, it is also as I mentioned previously, universal. This contrary statement so very well helps us understand how we must take art and implement it as being so very important. And if it's not my responsibility to do it for some societal reason, than maybe I shouldn't be making it at all. But I can't not make art. That would just be silly. So maybe i'm upholding my responsibility to all those people out there. To the world at large. I like to think not...kinda scary.

Who knows. All I know is I will keep making stuff as long as I can still wonder.

Who is my support system?

Who is my support system? Well that's a good question to pose. I don't have a very strong base of "art friends" outside of GVC that's for sure. I get picky when I want to talk about my art or art in general. I mostly like to chat with people who have some inclination of what good art is today or at least who are educated enough on topics in art to have a justified opinion. I find it really frustrating to be satisfied with chatting about it because I have extremely strong convictions and when they're questioned, I get extremely frustrated. So I must admit it's very hard to find people that don't frustrate the hell out of me and also inspire my art-making. I better work on getting a better support system, for I'll need one to keep me wanting to make art. Another task to add to my list of things to work on.