Beginning-of-year reflection on 2012

Achievements in 2012

Started teaching at Pitt Community College, Winterville, NC (PITTCC)

• Non-Western Art History
• Art Appreciation
• Photography Appreciation (yeah, this was maybe not a good idea)

Re-hired at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Interlochen, MI

• Put together $10k Torchmate CNC plasma cutter
• Coordinated the Collage for Visual Arts
• Made new friends and re-welded friendships from last year
• Taught welding sculpture even better than last year
• Bought a new bicycle!
• Donated old bike and bike-trailer to Dow Visual Arts Building
• Set up their underused TIG welder.

Rehired at PittCC

• New Class for me: Art History Survey 1 and 2
• New Class for me: Gallery Assistantship
• Class curated multiple exhibitions in the Goess Student Center and Art Avenue Contemporary Gallery and Studio.
• Class matted and framed 30 pieces for exhibition

Took on commission to sculpt giant Doves in clay for Trey Martin.

• Welded armature
• clay modeled
• mold-making in rubber 
• cast wax patterns
• sprued wax patterns
• rammed sand molds
• poured bronze
• helped installation

Art Avenue Contemporary Gallery and Studio

• filling up the walls with senior shows from the ECU School of Art and Design.
• refitting the studio
• Curated a sculpture show called The Ancients Made These
• too many things to list

Random Things

Visited my long lost brother in California. Haven't seen him in 6 years. It was a bittersweet reunion.

Visited Yuma Symposium and made dozens of funny baby snake pins.

Used the snakes to have a solo exhibition at Art Avenue...which I re-named Bad Avenue temporarily. 

Got out of paying my excessive student loans by mailing them a copy of tax returns from 2011 wherein I made $6000 for the entire year (!). I blame an ankle injury, the economy, and anyone or thing other than myself.

2012 was a hard year for me. I haven't been this poor since I was in college and had to work at Ben and Jerry's to pay rent while taking out loans to attend SAIC that would forever be my ball and chain.

Spending way more time in my studio, the Dirty LAM. My life as an artist continues to evolve. 

Wrote and won a Regional Artist Project Grant through the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge. Used the grant to help purchase a Millermatic welder.

So far 2013 has been pretty interesting and I hope it brings me some peace and happiness. Thanks for reading, I hope you have some peace and happiness as well.

Sincerely,

Andy

Blogs I follow.

Look I'm really not a very good blog-man. I read somewhere that people who don't blog everyday aren't really bloggers. Someone else told me that you aren't an artist if you don't make a living as an artist. These sort of statements aren't helpful to me so I'm sorry I have to spread them here too. I'll say it now that you can be whatever you want as frequently as you like.

Anyway. As I look around at other people's public writings and photos of projects, it spurns me to write more frequently. Its much like having a studio with other artists and how that is motivation to work.  They are in there working while you watch that funny-as-hell tv show stream by you.

Here are some recently discovered blogs that I want to share with you. If you look to the column to the right of this writing, you will see "Allies Blogs". Some of these are friends, some of them people that I admire, and some are both. I guess I admire all my friends (insert a happy wink).  I could write a but about all of them, but here are just a few.

I hyperlinked their names, too.

Matt Harding - Just found out he has been blogging. He's about to wrap up his MFA in the ECU sculpture department a year after I did. His sculpture explores formalism in very unique way.  Looks to me to be mostly process-oriented and inspirational photos with short descriptions.  I like his blog because I like shiny metal stuff, pin-stripping, and Matt's a real cool guy.

Chris Koch Goose Hunting in Chicago - Another very young blog with just a few posts. Chris was my first roommate in college at SAIC. He studied painting there and went on to study philosophy at University of Chicago. He has seriously studied piano and Leadbelly-type songwriting, bicycle repairs and I'm not sure what he's doing now.  So far Chris's blog has featured Goose Hunting in Chicago (which is the name of the blog) and his thoughts on yoga. You will have to sit down for a good few minutes to read his posts, they are intelligent, honest, and funny.

John Dovydenas - PDX Picnic. John is another good friend from my SAIC days. His blog is about his Portland Oregon food cart that is totally rad. It looks like an old Lithuanian chapel or the Prancing Pony from the Lord of the Rings...but on wheels. I remember John always cooking great simple dishes and loving to serve them to his friends. So its neat to see him serving Portland his dishes. If what I've read is correct, he bakes his own bread, smokes his own meat, and grows most of the herbs and salads in the durn cart! He posts photos with descriptions, he's also a bit of photographer and this makes his photos very nice.

In one of his posts he says that the food-cart industry has inflated and its hard to find a spot in Portland: Come to NC! There's plenty of room for funky food carts!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my metals girlzzz!

Liz Steiner - Atomic Rabbit - Liz is really good at this while blogging thing. She posts process shots, talks about books she's reading, exhibits she's curating or getting ready for. Her jewelry work uses string, river stones, found objects, and precious metals within a Zen Buddhist frame of mind (feel free to correct me Liz if I'm wrong).  Liz did her MFA at ECU and now lives in Kinston, NC.

Lisette Fee - Eilisain - Lisette finished her BFA at ECU and is now renting a studio space from Art Avenue Contemporary Gallery and Studio (another blog post for another day). She's also pretty good at updating her blog with inspirational music and articles with process shots and tidbits of her life sprinkled in. Her jewelry work uses animal parts like bird talons cast in silver and other precious metals. We have heard that Jack White is now in possession of one her talon rings. She also has huge list of other bloggers in the metalsmithing field.

If you have a blog or know of a blog you think I would enjoy, please be a sharer!

That's all for today. I'll try to get back in here again soon. Take care and have a nice day.