still not quite finished - but i’ve got three weeks to do touch ups and add a few things.
i can hear him softly singing aloud through my headphones - muffled against this black sheep track, and its sweet. today i spent hours with pen in hand inking one page of a comic - pure. i’ve still got cold feet about this written statement due - and i killed a mouse in the kitchen. well the trap killed it - but his little eyes stared me down in his last moments of a death rattle - and i think he knew i intended his demise. or probably not - but it was an odd experience.
(note: thats a couple sticky coats of green, black and brown glaze- strokes create the grassy illusion and i hope the linseed oil does not spontaneously combust.)
Its the last day of October. i’m sitting here with my santana abraxsas tape queued up and ready to play as soon as this grandaddy song finishes up. so many memories… reminds me of friendship. when i switch to this old Sony Megabass i will hopefully have a glass of cool water in one hand and oily pigment in the other.
I still need to finish this murderous painting let alone write my artist statement and meet the other qualifications to enter this showcase. sidenote: a really talented guy i know will also be entering, so if anyone who reads this is attending the show in early 2012 - keep one pupil exposed for the chance to see some art by Nathan Ramone.
im feeling serious and my feet are cold… maybe its the missed dose of my medication or just the healing cut on my thumb - the swarm of isolation is covering me up and maybe in the spirit of real life story book horrors i’ll watch the shinning tonight. but right now, between the fuzzy noise of the tape deck and the pile of crumbled up reject band-aids, i have some work to do.
The clock is ticking and November starts tomorrow.
stroke by stroke - piece by piece - its coming to me slowly, never dragging… that slow motion anticipation - like focusing on a mouthful hitting each tiny bud on your tongue until it waves over you: instantaneous and stretched out at once.
yesterday marks week 6 of biologics. i have been injecting myself for three weeks now - getting a little easier each time - but like painting - it will take time and it will never quite feel easy. (the day art is easy is the day i will hang my head low enough to drag behind me.) sounds like a good image. wait for it.
emotions have been re-rooting themselves in the frozen earth, hard and heavy and overwhelming. but i’m enduring for the long hall, so don’t trip.
Also, i’ve busied myself with the hope of completing this painting for what will be a very realistic and timely goal - The entry deadline for the 2012 NM Contemporary Art Showcase at 516 ARTS Gallery. Expect to see me there, hopefully twice over, and i will expect to see you too.
So far there’s a good three art spaces within my reach. I sort of missed my window of opportunity for recent collaboration with the Talking Fountain, which, fortunately, I wasn’t too jazzed about in the first place. It was last minute and by far not my first choice.
516 ARTS is really the only legitimate place to have a show these days (that has great foot traffic, a real opening and doesn’t require pre-payed space months in advance.) But then again im not that educated on their methods for shows, how to contact, if they do calls for artists for jurored/non jurored shows, rent space, or what their percentages are.
My real, true and best bet all around is working with Factory on 5th. They’re a great space that isn’t exactly in the best area foot traffic-wise, but has built up a very good reputation for having serious art by serious artists. I’ve been there a few times, before the space was diminished by 2/3 its original size. I can at least rest assured that my work will be up along side people I respect and will be seen by professors, art students as well as people who may be able to provide connections. Lucky me there is a call for artists - deadline Feb 27. I have to meet it this time. My dad is going in, mark my words.
Makayla Armijo is an artist and poet from Albuquerque, New Mexico. These are her poems, paintings, drawings, and inspirations.
above photo credit: Tess Coats
above photo credit: Tess Coats
