Project Brainstorms

I have been inordinately busy, and also blogging has not necessarily been at the forefront of my "things to do". I did feel impelled to write down a few ideas for some projects which I am tossing around in my head and working on intermittently.

The Penance Cycle
This project hinges on my fixation with Arabic calligraphy and the script itself being very beautiful, as well as a moment in my paltry understanding of the Arabic Language, I fixated on a phrase which had a series of "ye"s in consecutive order. Irhabiyeen is a gross transliteration of it. It means "terrorism", conjugated from the root word Irhabi or terrorist. One of the translators clarified the statement on the psychological operations poster hanging in the company area as a sample of a larger billboard which had gone up ion Baghdad asking the populous to not support terrorism. The message is now gone from my memory, but that word stuck. I'm a fan of language and how language works, I thought about my lessons in my 90 hour Arabic immersion course prior to my deployment and all the "I am, he is, she is, we are" exercises, and I thought "Ena Irhabi" or I'm a Terrorist. The phrase itself is very transgressive and confrontational, even if only written out. But to have "I'm a Terrorist" or "Ena Irhabi" written out in Arabic, with its beautiful undulating script becomes something else all together in a post-9/11 United States. I'm still playing with the idea, and what ways I can create images which are both inviting and also engaging for non-arabic speakers/readers.

Idol Worship/Idle Worship
Teaching High School, one of the teenage behaviors which has caught my attention is the fixation on certain celebrities. Students will tape photos onto lockers, or inside binders, and make up impossible fantasies of running away with said celebrity. This is largely a distinctly feminine phenomenon. The male students usually have a particular female celebrity which they objectify, and use as a base for their physical standards which is problematic in its own way. However students of both genders generally have someone which they fixate on. This is where I get my next idea for a possible series. While I do not devote nearly the amount of time or energy to celebrities, I do have a few individuals who I do fixate on either in the arts, performance or music. I was thinking of drawing parallels between the way people worship in various religions substituting celebrity icons for the religious iconography. In a sense this could be an excuse of drawing and painting images of celebrities I admire, but that might be too idiosyncratic.

Pictures with Veterans
I have met with and taken photos with several military veterans; one whose story I credit with giving me the cognitive push to endure my deployment with far more courage, grit, and preparation to accept any outcome regardless what would happen. I have met many more admirable veterans since separating from the Army, and have taken photos with most of them. I painted one photograph already, and have started a second one in the past 3 months. The work on these is sporadic, but I am pleased with the results. I do think if I keep going with this it can become a coherent series rather than a disjointed jump-start-stall of a body of work I normally do which has little coherence or reason.

One of the reason I articulate these ideas is basic ownership and a rudimentary effort to hold myself to some manner of accountability. Amongst the other things I am trying to nurture and grow, I figure something will come of this.

Pitfalls of Finding a Balance and Failing to make Substantial Art during Study Halls

I am trying to find a balance in teaching trying to pair a theme with some fairly technical projects, for what ends up being overall a fairly technical class. I'm tasked by the curriculum to teach my students good composition along with strengthening their skills shading with a pencil. I'm trying to pair the book which they will be reading in their American Literature Classes "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, and "The Things They Carried" exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum. I'm expanding it include the Gulf War, Afghanistan & Iraq in the past decade. I am at an awkward juncture where too many of my students are not finished with the previous project for me to pull a proverbial plug on studio work, but I also have close to half the class who is now finished and ready to begin a new project. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better on this front.

In other news: I am failing at finding an artistic something I can do besides decorating my hall passes during my study hall periods. I am usually reviewing my notes for how class went that day, or lesson planning, or composing presentations, or teacher journal logs, or reading the myriad e-mails I receive. I do get a few moments in which I can sit and observe and let my gears turn, and creativity percolate, sometimes. My issue is that nothing worthwhile has brewed up that is not a lesson plan or image presentation. I have nothing I have created that makes me squee with delight, and proclaim "I made this!" like a kindergartener bringing home a piece worthy of the refrigerator door-and this bothers me.

أنا إرهابي

I have been absent from here for a while. In recent months I have been percolating an idea which is mildly radical, but I have been reticent to move forward on, mainly on account that it is a drastic idea. To the extreme conservative and fringe elements of conservatism, and religion, someone who is homosexual or just not heterosexual, represent something so abhorrently reprehensible that we can be likened to terrorists. I thought about taking this a step further and owning such a term. In order to bridge the link between Wahabi Muslims who have often been the perpetrators of many of the past decade's terrorist attacks, through a simple act of language "I am a terrorist" or "أنا إرهابي" has become the new subject matter. At this point in time I am still playing with the phrase as a calligraphic form, but also as a label. We'll see how this idea develops.

Update of sorts

It has been close to a full month since my last update.
My car has broken down several times and been fixed repeatedly. It has had a multitude of issues and i think I have sank far more money into it than I care to spend. But whatever keeps it running.
I will be leading a Vet Art Project session in a few weeks. I still have not gotten the materials completely ready yet. I should be staining construction paper this week. The seminar I will be leading deals with the paranoiac critical, subconscious exploration (to use a different term). I might have to ask for more oil pastels for people to work with since I only have so many materials at home.
I attended a tattoo expo and gleaned new ideas and new insights as far as what artwork I want to put on my body, as well as what artwork other people want me to design for them. I promised a friend of mine a design last year and I have yet to come through with a coherent plan. Ideas however do not blossom overnight.
In the realm of fitness, I am still struggling with what can best be described as involuntary exercise bulimia. I had mentioned before that my elected workout routine prompts weight loss which could be detrimental to my health in the long term. I'm generally healthy, but I would not necessarily label myself "fit" in spite of other people's assessments. I'm still trying to find a balance. In my efforts, I have determined almonds, sunflower seed nuts, and peanuts are crucial.
Lastly, my studio space has been reorganized. I am still struggling to find a balance between organized presentable storage and production, and usually when i reorganize everything, I teeter too far into either realm. I haven't had a productive binge as of late. However I have found that my culinary skills as a home maker are actually pretty good.

My Artsy List of things I want Checking something off

I am in the process of painting an 18" wide section of wall which will become my magnetic wall. That means I have one less time on my list of artistic decorative acquisitions.

My Artsy List of things I want

I have already successfully converted the awkward space in my closet into an awesome bookshelf/workspace/desk area
As far as other things I want in my living space
-A room, or closet or something painted in the style of Keith Haring.
-A Magnetic wall I can use as a bulletin board to post all my post cards and pretty clippings without punching holes in the wall, and show off my snarky magnets
-A wall, or panel of collaged images of all the magazine clippings I have from pretty much everything.
-A wall which has a salon style display of copious artwork, mine or otherwise.

Thus far, the magnetic wall is the closest thing I have to achieving next on my list. I just need to de-clutter the wall I intent to paint.