2010 REALLY?

What up Ballas!

I recall that the last time I posted I ended with a statement that expressed my desire to post sooner rather than later, but alas that never came to pass. This is my first post in roughly 3 months and the first of the year, given that I'm staying for a third year in this lovely albeit cold island nation I'd like to be more diligent in posting. Though I always say that only to get caught up in the flow of life; during which i often consider posting yet repeatedly fail to make good on my intentions. Speaking of intentions, aside from posting on this blog, I hit a stride towards the latter part of 2009 and was successful in accomplishing a number of my goals.

The majority of fall and winter 2009 was spent preparing for a solo exhibit in the town that I live in. In every sense of the phrase it "just fell in my lap, " which had down sides considering that I wasn't able to dictate the time line. Ideally I would have liked to have had the show this year, April 2010. That would have given me enough time (I finally started painting again in July) to create a body of work that I was proud of. Instead the people coordinating the show could only muster up dates in January. Never one to back down from a challenge and enthralled by the prospect of a deadline, I eagerly accepted. Yes, there were occasions where my eyes felt as if Satan was eradicated my retinas with the fires of hell, I saw the sunrise on more than i few occasions, and i most definitely put one or two holes in my rice paper screens ( result of rage propelled) paint brushes); all the lovely things that we put our selves through in the name of art. But in retrospect i loved every minute of it.

Starting last December I basically eased myself back into a solid routine. Since I'm far more confident in my drawing abilities than my painting abilities I focused on drawing, what would have been value studies turned into full scale drawings, I then moved onto to color studies and finally oil studies of principle components I knew would be particularly difficult. With those studies I slowly regained the confidence to move into painting. One thing I've been wanting to do since graduating was take my time on a piece and have all of the details worked out prior to diving into the painting; work through the entire process without being pressured by a deadline. It's not that i particularly would like to work this way in the future rather i felt it necessary to codify the immense amount of knowledge that i had ingested over my 4 years at CCA. I'm overwhelmed by the results, I feel that my work jumped leaps and bounds in terms of both style and execution.

In all I showed 5 pieces, 3 of which you have seen already in my blog posts. The other two are completed paintings of the drawings I have shown you. One being the of the Jellyfish now titled "Incandescent Nettles" and the other being the Fall image titled "Unravel: Falls Passage." And unravel is a bit of a nod to Bjork as the song Unravel is a favorite of mine. I also displayed a self introduction comic of sorts that utilized imagery and story telling elements so my elementary school students with there limited understanding of English could better understand the content. At this point I haven't had the opportunity to photograph the new paintings, so those will come at a later date. I also want to wrap up a couple more pieces that are in process so you can get a clearer understanding of my progression.

As I mentioned earlier I'm staying one more year, Dan was aware of this but I don't think the other readers of this blog were. One reason being is that I would like to accomplish the lofty goals I set out to accomplish. I'm planning on having a new portfolio and website up by the time I leave japan, I hope to have my loans paid off in there entirety and have a sizable sum of money saved for my return to the states. I also hope to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 2, passing would certify that I'm fluent enough with the language to hold a job in Japan. As for my loans I've been able to pay of one in full, I currently have no debt and roughly 11,000$ to pay off. Considering that i came to japan with roughly 23,000$ in loans i feel I'm in a feasible position to pay off my the 11,000 dollar sum prior to returning. As for Japanese I'm now at a conversational level, though my reading ability is still low an aspect I'll have to work on if i want to pass the JLPT 2. My intent is to finish about 10-12 pieces this year, thus completing my new portfolio. Starting January of 2011 I'll begin constructing my new website and then cramming all the Kanji in my brain that i can in hopes of passing the test held in July 2011. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm bragging, I'm just proud of my accomplishments and want to share what has come to pass as during my time in Japan; moreover, writing down my goals helps solidify there importance.

With many lonely hours spent in the student inhaling turpentine, i came to think quite a bit about my future and what to do upon returning to the states. Again, I've talked to Dan about this topic ( so, sorry Dan if this is a rehash for you.) For the past few years I've been of the mind frame that graduate school isn't a necessity for Illustrators, I still believe that the experience gained through working with clients is more valuable in the developmental course of an Illustrator. Granted I've never worked with actual illustration clients. As i sit here in my woodshed contemplating and observing the climate of the current illustration landscape, I've had my doubts about the feasibility of creating a successful career. The current media landscape is in transitioning, we all know about music, but publishing is also experiencing a paradigm shift as book sales decline, online line readership increases. With Online media being relatively free, the market can't sustain as many illustrators as it once did. Of course people are trying alternative methods of media dissemination with new price schemes, etc.... An interesting idea I've recently scene from Tor and other sources is an increase in commissioned work for online dissemination. The outcome of this transition is unclear and with all things that are so lucid it fills one a certain amount of excitement and trepidation for what's to come.

One industry in particular that still seems to be fairing well is entertainment i.e. movies and video games. So recently I've been looking into the Concept Art Atelier. It's a more traditional studio study environment akin to the traditional master and apprentice model, with emphasis on academic drawing and painting first and later moving on to the tools necessary to be a concept artist. One reasons that I'm interested in the atelier is that the courses offered educational gaps that i left CCA with: focused study on anatomy, perspective, life painting, and various digital tools. So in a sense it would round out my education. Further being able to focus on my art with out distractions is sounding more and more appealing as get deeper and deeper into my new body of work. There was a period i called "post art school syndrome" where i lost my drive to create and began to contemplate, the feasibility and my own want to pursue this career that i had just invested massive sums of money into. Currently the passion is rekindled and that is of my own doing, it is a result of my own motivation/ will power and i feel wholly content with the idea of doing this for the rest of my life.

Around the 3rd week of December I wrapped up the work that would comprise my show and on December 23rd i took off for the warmth of Thailand and Cambodia. All I'll say at this point is that the trip was amazing. Currently I'm composing a mass email that will fill you in on all of the exciting details. But i will go on to say that Project Thai Beard was in part a semi success. A full beard is still an unfeasible reality, but i can manage to muster up a somewhat full goatee.

After returning from Thailand I hung the show, I was a bit dismayed at how unclean the walls were. The discontent stems from a voice that hearkens back to my freshman year of college, Melisse Herman the presentation gestapo. As you know Dan, i say that with the utmost respect and affection. A truly great teacher. I held the opening the following Saturday and the turn out was spectacular many of my friends from around the prefecture came out to show there support as well as current and past students and co-workers. I've had a few people show interest in purchasing pieces, so well see how that pans out. After the opening i held a party, i crammed roughly 30 people into my house and we drank, danced and frolicked in the snow until the we hours of the morning. It was good fun, though i wish all of you had been there to celebrate.

I guess I'll begin to wrap this up, but i do have one final bit of information to share. In a rather unexpected turn of events I'm dating someone. Funnily enough she's not Japanese. Her name is Nancy and she is what is called an "ABC."Which i recently came to learn means an American Born Chinese. She's a sweet girl, one of the most compassionate and selfless people I've met. Odd huh, cause as you all know I'm a selfish ass. We've been dating since about mid November and things are going well. She'll be most likely leaving Japan in August and we're both aware that at that point anything that we have will dissipate. But for the time being we're enjoying one another's company.

Oh by the way Dan your new Job at the coffee shop sounds great, we'll have to share a coffee there once i get back.

Auditory Hallucinations:

Baroness- Red and Blue Albums

Loving the how this band paces it's albums the transitions from dirty almost bluesy slow compositions to ear pummeling rock. Plus they have great album art.

Midlake - The Courage of Others

They slowed it down a bit on this one, upon first listen i wasn't in the right mindset having being more in a upbeat poppy mood. Van Occupanther offered a nice balance between pop and folk so i was thinking this would be more of the same. But this is Midlake so my assumption was a bit misguided. But after a second time i fell in love with it's beautiful lush compositions. The subtle transitions and atmosphere that the album successfully carries through out is amazing, me thinks.

Yeasayer- Odd Blood

like the direction they took this album in, though i think there are a few missteps. The pacing is no where near as spot on as All Hour Symbols. I find it to be a bit front loaded and wish it was a bit longer. I had high expectations and though i wasn't let down i just find myself wanting more. Which is a good thing because I'll continue to keep my eye out for these guys.

Beach House- Teen Dream

This album is just beautiful, luscious layered keyboards and guitars with brooding female vocals, as you know it's my cup of tea.

Spoon- Transference

Spoon is typically pretty spot on with there albums, they write tight intelligent pop songs and it amazes me how simple yet effective they can be. Take for example the repeated beat box on Say Don't Go. Also there production is pretty tight so it's nice to see them loosen up a bit. They sound pretty playful on this album which i think gives it a bit more life than some of the past efforts. I don't think it's as consistent as some of there past albums but the playfulness makes up for that. You feel as if your in the studio and the band as the band is creating and we all know the creative process has it's highs and lows. And Spoons lows still make for some pretty damn strong songs in my book.)

Other albums of note:

Cymbals Eat Guitars- Why There Are Mountains

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

Do Make Say Think- Do Make Say Think

Owen Pallett- Homeland

Maxwell- Blacksummer's Night