Dan's Life '08: The Art Adventure (And a Bike!)

So first off, this is my Tommasini singe speed. It rides beautifully. I first had riser bars on it, and switched over to Soma Sparrow bars, which are like narrower cruiser bars. I'm lovin em, now I just gotta get some grips on those suckers. This is definitely not what I originally intended with my Tommy project, but I'm very happy with where it ended up.



And now we head to my art studio, which is in a pleasant little neighborhood in Richmond.



This is the front house that David, my studio mate, lives in. The gate leads to the studio in back.



This is the back yard. The studio/garage entrance door is down that path to the left. I very much enjoy the garden surroundings that David has created, it has already helped calm my mind when I need to step back from my drawing table and take a few breaths.



This is David's portion of the studio, which extends around to the right as well. That plaid curtain is the "wall" of my space.



And the studio proper! This is where the magic happens. It feels really great to be in here. I just wish I was there more often! Urgh! Now, one obstacle that I have run into is that, no matter well I try to seal off my space, the sawdust that David creates is impossible to keep out.



All that brown stuff is, say, maybe a week's worth of dust. So basically, I'm just trying to find ways of working that can incorporate sawdust in a beneficial way. Expect my next few years' work to be...hrm...dusty.

Now, what's this you say? Where's the sneak peak at all that artwork you're making, Dan? Well...I just don't feel that it's the time yet. I have many beginnings, but no definite ends yet. You can feel free to call me out when that's starting to sound like an excuse, but for now, that's how it's gonna be.

Dan's Life '08: The Return of Filth.

Okay, so it's unavoidable. Filth is a part of my life, and the best that I can hope to do is keep it at bay. Fortunately, my current experience with Filth is giving me new insight into the cause: I typically have way more projects going than I can actually manage to finish. So let's look at my current living situation, shall we? This is my apartment as you enter:



Filth's main stronghold lies in the middle of my floor, a pile of books and shelving debris. This I can actually attribute to the origin of Filth's current resurgence.



This began as a naive attempt at mounting my own bookshelves, in which I completely missed the wall studs and managed to almost create a book avalanche in the process. This crisis occurred almost two weeks ago, and I have still not managed to remount the bookshelves (perhaps partly due to fear and a lingering sense of defeat). As you can see, the book/wood pile blocks access to my bed, my closet, and my reading chair; the main side effect of this is that Poang of Ikea is currently being used as a clothing storage unit until it can once again be accessed as a comfy chair. Can you imagine trying to navigate a bike through this disaster?



This is a view of the wall leading to my kitchen, as seen lying from my bed. Those spackled holes are the scars from my bookshelves. And yes, that is my laptop sitting directly underneath the spot I chose to dump several hundred pounds of books. This view also gives an excellent display of the new red leather saddle on my Bridgestone, which I have previously described as "an angel cupping my balls". This is a description that I heartily maintain.



Underneath "Angel Palms" lies the Bike Maintenance Pile. This aspect of Filth is actually quite functional, and is not a problem in and of itself. In combination with Filth's other malignancies, however, the Bike Maintenance Pile becomes yet another unsightly clutter within my limited square footage.



And here is the secondary source of malignant Filthdom: the Recycling Pile. My apartment complex does not have recycling. Instead, there is one dumpster to the side of the building, with an opening on third floor in which to hurl one's disposables into oblivion:



Now, I definitely throw away my fair share of waste. But I just simply cannot turn a blind eye on my recycling! And can you IMAGINE how awful it would be to dump a trash bag full of empty beer bottles from 30 feet up? It's just not kosher! So, I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to find a recycling center close by to take my bottles & cans to. You'd think that'd be easy to find, right? Think again. And in the mean time, the Recycling Pile grows ever larger and more immobile. On the bright side, my bathroom looks pretty clean:



No Filth in there, thank you very much. At least not until I try mounting some more shelves.