2 posts tagged “artist conversations”

ok, peeps. here's the dealio.

First of all, for those of you who are still confused and for some reason not comprehending what the hell is going on in this blog, I am at Elsewhere, an artist collaborative, in North Carolina. It's amazing. People come here and make art all over the freaking place out of this huge collection of stuff that George's grandma collected between 1939 and 1997. see a few posts back for some more details. I'm here till the beginning of July, working as a production intern. Check out the website! come visit! Drop me a line and we'll talk a bit!

And here's the big news. I have to cut back on my blogging. I know i know, it's become a real important part of your day and life. But you'll just have to do with a bit less. Or start commenting. you know. But I've realized today that I've been hiding out and not making art because I'm scared it'll be dumb or i'm just an intern or this isn't really what I should be doing or I think it won't make a difference. So I haven't been doing anything, and making a lot of really great reasons not to. So I have to devote some blog time to art time. I'm gonna make sure I do at least one art thing - whatever that means - everyday. I'm still gonna update. Probably just more lists.

like this one.

Things I'm excited about in the very near future:

1. The UNC surplus sale tomorrow morning! we're waking up at 6:45am and leaving at 7:30 and I made a picnic breakfast and we're gonna run and grab tags of cheap supplies and it'll be so great. Like high powered tag sales. Exactly that actually.
2. Then! We have the artist conversation! After I make lasagna  -- with tomato sauce I made tonight -  and it' gonna just be great. I don't really know what's gonna happen tomorrow in the same way that I understood what was going on last week, but this week is going to be good too.
   
3. SATURDAY! is urban green, and then I'm going to get stuff done, and then! we play CITY! Which i've figures out is basically just a huge game of pretend. I love it! I can't wait to be silly and have fun. Also, George suggested that maybe I could do an audio story about city or the characters in it or something. I'm intrigued. I just remembered the power of interviewing. I'm gonna keep thinking about things.
4. I just have a lot of weird and random ideas floating around my head ever since I got upset and confronted about not making art. But I'm going to start doing this stuff.
   
5. I'm going to talk to the cheesecake store tomorrow and enroll them in hosting the obama party! I'm so excited about the ingeniousness about this combination of interests. Who isn't interested in cheesecake? or at least soy-cheesecake?

1. I made dinner with Danna and we made spring rolls and they were beautiful and delicious and it was so fun to cook with her.
   
2. We went on a group trip to the ymca. It was nice. and refreshing.
   
3. I cleaned the hell out of a room on the third floor. vacuuming up dust is so satisfying.

Wow. So guess where the hell I am. Yeah. In the treehouse. It's above the kitchen wash room. I climbed a real live (well dead now) tree to get up here. and I am surrounded by fabric leaves and some stuffed animals and windchimes, and ---- best of all!! ---- above me is the bottom of the wishing well room! Which is a place I've been wanting to update in and talk about for like everyday, but it's kinda scary and I doubt it has an electrical plug. Let me tell you a preview: Its filled with beautiful glass bottles and things in between the ceiling of the first floor and floor of the second floor, and they're organized by color! And with the light shining through, it's beautiful. And a little scary. Tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow.

First let me complain a bit. I can't ever seem to charge up my computer, so I'm severely constricted as to where I can update because I only have like 25 minutes of battery. It's cause I'm just doing and making all the time! And I can't just leave my computer out because this place is a freakin MUSEUM and we have STRANGERS walking around all day, watching me sweat. Whatever. Just know that I want to explore more places with you, but I have to figure out this whole electricity thing first. Also, internet doesn't work on the second floor.

Today I kicked ass on the front window. Tomorrow is the big first artist conversations event of the summer! We're all working super hard to get things done. So I put a third coat of paint on the back of the facade window thing in a very official color that Danna says is forever. Which is why they picked me to do it. Cause I rock at painting. And then I put up fabric on the ceiling and wall to cover the collage so that everything is unified for this event. And I swept and cleaned up and everything. It took me all day. I have run out of This American Life podcasts (and episodes in general. geeze. they need to crank them out faster). I must move on to RadioLab. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Also, tomorrow I'm in charge of dinner. I'm totally second guessing my curry chickpea stew. It's just so damn hot and sticky, who wants to be eating more hot and sticky things? There's so much in the fridge (wednesday is shop day) and I'm overwhelmed. Plus, I have to make something totally awesome for 18 people and then they'll all think I'm the shit.

Oh! and this morning, before Lily and I went to the spa (the ymca) we made my bed into a treehouse! I have to think of another name though, cause that name is already taken I guess. But I pulled in some tree limbs and tied them into place and tied red ribbons in the tree! it makes me really happy to be in my room. I also cut out a silver headboard out of contact paper and it looks so great. Now I just have to figure out how to use the gold fabric I found which is sosososo pretty. Curtains are useless in this case, and draping it in the trees would look dumb. like when I tried to tape the fabric to the walls. duuuuuumb. maybe cut out and in frames. oh but i hate to waste it. ooooooo I would loooooove to make a golden dress. ohohohohoh. but no. kinda goes against elsewhere's rules.... but maybe not....

Omg. I love this tree house! Although, I just dropped the cord to the light into the kitchen so it's kinda dark and a little bit more scary. but I'm done being scared. poof. done.

I made cookies tonight! everyone loves me. I added CINNAMON (which I add to everything) and rolled oats. After the first batch turned out looking like pancakes I added way more oats which was awesome, but maybe a bit too oat-y.

There are about a billion people here tonight. I have no idea where all of them are staying. Two new artists came in today, Meng and Travis, and then Les, the visiting artist from last month, is here because his show is tomorrow and then Eliza, the other intern is supposed to come maybe sunday or something and wow. I really like Les. He went out of his way to introduce himself to me and I helped him make elsewhere t-shirts for tomorrow's event. Maybe it's just cause he feels more comfortable in the space whereas a lot of the other artists here are more new.

Some upcoming/ non-scheduled-yet plans:

1. Go to the airport with Danna to pick up her friend and then stop in Durham to get A BILLION AMAZING POPSICLES FROM LOCOPOPS!!
2. Figure out something to do for about 5-7 minutes while everyone else smokes to give me an excuse to sit out there and chill too. Danna suggests drink a glass of water. I like something that gives me a line to ask people like, "hey, wanna go out and eat a carrot with me?" but, neither is really quite that intriguing so far.
3. Make ginger-ale. last night we didn't make it cause we didn't have a 2 liter container to make it in. So, whoever has the bottle of orange soda, drink it fast.
4.  get shower shoes next time someone goes somewhere corporate. I'm sorry now I didn't take up kerianne's persistent suggestions of Old Navy's 2 for $5 sale...
5. at some point, hopefully inspiration will hit me about my desk. it looks kinda lame right now. Oh well.
   
6. go into the clothes closet and pimp out my wardrobe (new "frocks" as everyone here calls them)! so excited.
7. Figure out the ymca's (from now on called "the spa") class schedule! Pilates here I come!

goodnight!
aliya

p.s. !!! I'm official. I'm on elsewhere's website! check it out! it's on my link's section on the right. Once you're there, look under "artists"