3 posts tagged “museums”
I spent about 8 days in Dana Point and Los Angeles for an extended Thanksgiving trip. It was fun getting to be a sort of tourist in my own city as it were. However, I never want to go back there for that long again! As much as it is nice by the beach and getting around to certain shops and museums, I was glad I didn't live there anymore. As I drove around all I could think was, "I never want to die here". As ugly as Cleveland can be at times, L.A. and Orange County can be just as ugly, but in a different way. I had so much friggin' fun with my friends who I haven't seen in ages, but that can never mask the uneasiness and stress I feel anytime I set foot anywhere in SoCal. I always feel manic energy spewing from the basin, and my pulse rate goes down once I get to the desert or further north. Anyhow, it was a long trip for me, and even though I skipped going to some old haunts, here's what I remember:
- Giving a neck massage to a large goat at a petting zoo. Because all animals deserve a break I think.
- A small boy falling into a swimming pool, me fishing him out in a panic, only to have him say, "that was awesome!"
- Getting lost downtown with my friend trying to find a party, "I feel like it is 1990 and I'm trying to find a rave"
- A mod dance party on the set where they film CSI Miami laboratory scenes.
- My friend getting bitched out for daring to play Led Zeppelin at the dance party.
- Lots of Tecate
- Spray painted pictures of Che everywhere, which turn out to be pictures of Stallone for the new Rambo movie.
- A $100 gallon of KY Jelly at the Westwood CVS, with full hand-pump included.
- Loads of art shows in Culver City, Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills
- A rather famous artist sending dirty -- therefore hilarious -- emails to my friend.
- Shuffleboard
- Dancing in a parking lot
- Getting lost in Beverly Hills, "I'm in front of Michael Kors, what street is that, where am I?"
- A stripper pole in someone's dining room.
- Riding around in the back of a Rolls Royce for an afternoon to various museums.
- The Murakami exhibit, which was so out of control and such overload that I couldn't even sleep that night.
- Watching the rough edit of Snoop Dogg's new reality show to give a critique on it.
- The "Salvation" sign at the Silverlake Lounge, it had been so long since last I saw it.
- Drinking more Starbucks than ever in my life.
- Getting stuck on the 405 for two and a half hours (it wouldn't be a trip to L.A. without that)
I forgot my camera on this trip, but it isn't like people don't see pictures of SoCal cities and art shows all the time anyways. But yes, that was what I've been up to. While on my trip, I had a new painting drying, and finally here she is...
What is up with Louisville KY? First I find it totally impossible over the past four years to ever book a motel/hotel room for the Oaks Race. I've tried a year in advance because my wedding anniversary is the first week of May, and have been told the Oaks Race is the race day all the locals come out for. The Derby seems flooded with celebrities to the point of stupidity these days. Maybe I'll try for May 2010?
Now I find out that the art museum hotel is booked about a year in advance almost all the time, even in the off seasons. Dangit! If you don't know about this fabulous looking place called 21c, check it: www.21cmuseumhotel.com
It probably doesn't help now that their restaurant was featured in Food and Wine magazine. But someday I would like to go, I may just go to Louisville for the hell of it. I was asked recently if I'll ever have a show there, so it gives me an excuse I suppose. Hey, you're looking at a woman who almost went to Lexington just to see the horse museum.
Speaking of restaurants and reservations; we had some Cleveland spots featured in Food and Wine magazine, but now, it will be impossible to get into Lola or Lolita now that Chef Symon won Iron Chef America. Ah well, guess I'll have to wait for the fan fair to die down to get my beef cheek pierogies. At least I have a few well kept secret spots, no reservations required.
This week I met with one of the assistant curators from Cleveland's Museum of Contemporary Art. She came and just did a private walk through the show, as viewing the images online isn't as good as in person and you don't get the full experience with the biographies and family trees etc. It is good to know the staff at MOCA like to be on top of what is happening in the area.
I was so nervous at first early in the day, I freaked out wondering if I would turn into my 18 year-old self at CalArts having to constantly defend my work and not really knowing how to do so. I thought I would get a slew of questions in the manner of a Spanish Inquisition and then have it turned around and thrown back in my face. Ah, those CalArts critiques, they didn't really teach me anything they just annoyed me to no end. Technique was never really taught, only theory. And being that installation art was the hot poop and figurative painters were looked down on didn't help. "Painting has been done to death, do something original!" I'd get all the time. This was of course right before John Currin and Cecily Brown started getting popular. Only a few instructors I could tell were supportive of us non-installation or conceptual students, like Jim Shaw, Derek Boshier and on occasion John Mandel. In recent years I have become better at talking about my paintings, but still I'm at a loss for words 40% of the time and find other people are much better at describing my stuff. To be honest, I think I went to college too young. I also think I chose the wrong school for what I was doing, but I did want to do film/animation and they gave me good scholarships, so I stayed.
At any rate, I was surprised how few questions the MOCA curator had which I was rather happy about. I mean there were questions, but not the totally loaded and combative type of questioning I was expecting. My work isn't some big statement about politics or the environment, nothing that is analyzed or with a message about the human condition. I just do what I like and what interests me without thinking hard about some big loaded concept. And that was what I got scolded for in school and by critics still at times. It is also exactly why I don't get grants.
But no, we talked about how happy we were the painting comeback, about the pros and cons of installation art and our disdain for Thomas Kinkade -- albeit we admire the empire he has built for himself. We also talked about the career fall backs art students need. Most people don't know that I was totally set on being an animator early on, that was my fall back to fine art. My career path I plotted out by age 19. I think I didn't pursue it hard enough once out of school due to getting married, low self-esteem about my animation and just the fact I realized I wasn't too great at it. It has gotten to the point now where every program I learned has been outdated anyways. I don't think we even had Adobe InDesign when I was in school. I don't know what people do these days out of art school for a real job since art school enrollment has gone up drastically the past 7 years, along with tuition. My mom told me that I should go to beauty school once I graduated as my back-up income making job. And I think she was right. Then again, there is only so much you can do with a lot of college degrees now isn't there?
My dream "day job" at this point? To just be someone like Diana Vreeland who spews proclamations about art, decor, fashion and get paid for it. I doubt I need beauty school or interior design courses to add to my resume for a "job" like that now do I? Because even though I love over-the-top and opulent decor, this is just disgusting and I could do better...
