3 posts tagged “third floor”

Wow. What a dirty day. Filled with black, dust filled boogers.

Today we (resident Brian and I mostly) tackled the last of the stuff in the way (i.e. everything that was obstructing the way to the second and first floors four years ago when the elsewhere project began and they had to start organizing/ clearing somewhere) on the third floor and moved it around so it was more compact and cleared a space. And then we went to this warehouse and picked up some old industrial shelving (think home depot orange), disassembled it, brought it here, brought it up three flights of stairs (with some help of some really great volunteers and haulers), busted holes in the ceiling because the shelves were too tall, and then reassembled them. Then, tonight after dinner, a crew of guilford college students showed up (george and yuri, another intern, kept calling it "the crew will roll in" "they'll roll from this bbq and then roll out to this person's party after and then the crew will all roll back here" everyone's rolling everywhere.) and we just hauled ass! We picked up all the wood that was put in this room on the second floor that for four years has been called "the wood room" and we brought it upstairs! Right now it's all over the floor, in piles. But tomorrow Brian and maybe me too will keep moving it around and organizing it and putting it on the shelves! So exciting! Then Brian can start his installation in the former wood room! It's going to involve this really old fabric (I guess they all are technically) which is shedding it's fibers, making this sticky-ish (it must be polyester or something) beautiful red dust. It's just amazing. I'm so excited to see what he does with the red dust.

Today during dinner (omg. such a great southern dinner. Collards, fried tomatoes and fried mushrooms, black-eyed peas and coleslaw. It was just so delicious) Brian gave his informal artist talk, where he introduced himself to us and showed us pictures/talked about his previous work. It was so great. I just loved seeing his work and it got me so excited to work with him and also to just start making work again. All day I kept bothering him with a million questions, asking about how he ended up where he is right now. And we talked about Harrell Fletcher and community art and artist residencies and how it took until grad school or an artist residency where someone was refering to you and looking at you as "the artist" and not just some person who might be doing art for him to rise to the occasion and become the artist and stop thinking that he's just messing around or doing whatever. So that was exciting. Exciting to think about my division III (like a senior thesis at Hampshire college) as my time to think of myself as "the artist" and just be that. I'm so excited.

My parents suggested another way I can use my last two weeks here. They suggested that I come up with a new division III idea every day and test it out with the people around me or talk to them about it or get feedback from this great artist community around me who's doing such cool stuff and has mostly been in this kind of boat before. So here's my suggestion for tonight: (oh man, i might not post them all because then I'd feel they have to be important and good. so don't judge my first one. I thought of this during Brian's artist talk)

I could make a ton of stuffed animals and then place them in mass quantities in places there aren't really usually lots of those animals. Or they could be made up animals, or weird versions, not dead, but maybe really small or really big. Also, maybe they could be hanging. or have a lot of parts inside. I like the idea of people holding the stuffed animals-things. or taking them around and taking them on adventures. or adding stories to things that have their own stories inherently.

I feel self conscious about posting that, because it doesn't seem involved in community enough or involved in a specific cause, but i think I just need to stop stressing out that i wont make a difference or that my project will be dumb. So I'll just keep brainstorming and generating ideas and hopefully they'll get better. Hopefully you my faithful reader won't have to hear all my stupid ideas before I get to some good ones.

This just in: I have some misinformation in one of my earlier posts. Danna just told me that she is not in fact certified to teach pilates anywhere. She's on her way to be certified in Raleigh, but not yet. So, if she teaches a class here (yes she will. before she leaves. next week. ahhhh. she's leaving next week) it won't be official, but she has a book. So it'll be amazing.

Another important update: I tried, yet again, to have a plain white shirt (got one at the big hospice sale last week) and what do you know, I end up dying things saffron, and now I have a saffron shirt and no white shirt. But I really like the saffron. It's just so pretty and vibrant. Not as good as onion skin dye, but whatever. I didn't want to do the creepy weird artist thing again where I go from grocery store to grocery store sweeping up the onion skins from the bottom of the onion display into a plastic bag and leaving.

Dental hygiene update! Yesterday I just felt the urge to floss. Yes. I did. So I flossed, and brushed my teeth, and then Eliza walked into the bathroom, and so I inspired her to do a face mask, and then she brushed her teeth, and we just had a great little mid-day hygiene break! better than a cigarette break! I just felt great afterwards. I love impromptu cleaning.

I feel so excited! I'm so excited for my last weeks here! And art making! I think that sitting here on the fire escape makes me feel like I'm flying. I'm not scared to be up here anymore. It just feels nice like flying. So I think my stuff hanging off of this thing will involve flying.

I think danna is making biscuits right now. That sounds so good.

tonight, a mysterious person added to my art installation over my bed! They put little nests of blue ribbons on parts of my trees which already have red ribbons tied on it. I love it. I love sleeping under random branches stuck in the corners of my bed. And these blue nests make it so much better. Thank you mysterious ribbon distributor. You are amazing.

I'm sorry I haven't updated as regularly as before. It's been crazy in a weird way. A way I haven't really understood why I'm so busy because I feel like I have a lot of time still. Last week was taken up a lot by trying to finish these play costumes and props. What a freakin ordeal. We found out that the saffron dress I made was hideous (which it was because I didn't have measurements or a dress model or a working machine or whatever) and so we had to find another one quick. Danna and I spent all of Wednesday driving around, getting lost at literally every step of the mapquest directions, thrift shopping for this stupid dress. We didn't find a saffron one, so we got a white one and then got dye and dyed it saffron. And then, we stopped at the laundry mat to finish drying the dresses because I had just dyed them, and we made it to the rehearsal before it ended, and SHE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK CLOSELY AT THE DRESSES WE'D SPENT ALL DAY ON!!! It was crazy. I presented her with four dresses - one that I altered a bunch, and two that we thrifted for and then I'd dyed. And the last one was some yellow dress I just threw in there at the last minute, an Elsewhere dress. And that's the one she liked. One of the ones I'd pulled from the closet the week before. So crazy. Commissions are so much work. I guess I learned about how to make it seem like you know what you're doing. And how to work with impossibly specific and difficult considerations.

I spent a lot of time in the car with Danna talking about elsewhere and how the staff works. It feels like it could work better, and I think everyone knows that, it's just about figuring out how to actually make that happen. It seems like Stephanie and George and Mary and Danna do a ton of work all the time, and then there are a bunch of interns hanging around that do important things, but also could be taking some of the slack off of everyone else. At the same time, there is something really nice about doing data entry into this big database of media emails with Lily and George - it makes it feel less like mindless work and I get to interact with people really in charge of this whole operation, not just someone who's my supervisor or delegator. At the same time, that's not the best use of George's time. I've been feeling really weird and upset because I realized I'm leaving in about two and a half weeks and that just seems way too soon. I wish I were staying all summer. I feel like even in just the last week I've found my place here so much more and really settled down, like I could figure out what I'm doing here more now or how I could work better. But I'm leaving! Because they said the internship ends July 9! But now everyone's saying I should stay forever!

I realized I was worried that I'm not important or no one will care when I'm gone. Which is totally my own thing and not the fault of the internship length or elsewhere or whatever. I know that my job here is to support what's going on and do what's needed to make this thing run or make it so that other people have more time to do jobs I can't do. So I do other things like cook dinner on the busy night or make the saffron dress or really scrub down the dishroom. I think because i'm good at a lot of little things and I don't complain about doing some dirty work I end up doing that stuff a lot in situations I'm in and then I feel dispensable even though I know I'm appreciated and I'm making a difference somehow.

So today I overheard another intern (from Greensboro) Chelsea talking to George about ways to make elsewhere run better and so I stepped into that conversation and it was really great to talk about it and make concrete ways for the intern system to run better and be delegated. And George sorta saw what I was saying about someone needing to do the actually work but me also wanting to take on more responsibility and he said that there was something in me being the chef and having all those things taken care of so that other people can make the events happen. And that that role could be the whistle blower, or the person who starts things like the all-staff event clean or right before the event gathers everyone together, is the person who declares it begun and everyone on the same page. I sorta feel like that's throwing me a bone for what I already do, but it's also just re-framing it and it makes sense. That's more of a job that I feel inspired by and about doing, and something that I could really make into something. More than just being the person who picks up whatever slack, instead I could be the person who's generating the whole staff working and that mostly could include picking up slack. Maybe i'm making this all sound too grandiose. But I've just been thinking a lot lately about how my role here could grow, and how I feel limited even to decorate my room because I'm leaving so soon, and how I don't know how I fit in in most organizations I'm in because I so often take roles which support other people -- which I'm good at -- but maybe I need to think about how I could support others in a way that doesn't always have me cleaning the dishroom? But maybe that's just what I need to be doing right now. man, putting things up on the internet really makes it seem forever and like it has to be important. I hope those last three heavy paragraphs didn't weigh anyone down too much.

Because I'm really not just doing lame stuff around here. I am really taking on this week making some of my own artwork (waking up at the crack of dawn!) and also working in the space in a way that is exciting AND supportive. Today and yesterday I worked with Brian, a new artist resident who arrived last Thursday, in clearing out the third floor pile of crap. He wants to do an installation in a room on the second floor that is currently filled with haphazardly piled wood. So we're going to build a new wood organization structure on the third floor and then he can make his installation in that room on the second. But that meant attacking "shit continent" which is a pile of stuff moved out of the first and second floors five years ago and piled in half of the large room on the third floor and literally held back with chicken wire and disguised with blue fabric (if we can't see it it doesn't exist!) So it was just really great to really attack something and find all this great stuff and just be on a discovery tour and make clear progress in the space. I can't wait to keep going, and to start clearing out the wood room, and just have all this creation going on around me.

As part of clearing out the stuff on the third floor, we found a pile of disintegrating army surplus supplies. One of the installations on the third floor took all of the army surplus items in all of Elsewhere and the artist inspected each piece and labeled it "serviceable" or "unserviceable" based on real military standards, and then numbered each item, cataloged it, and placed it in this one room. It's a really intense and awesome installation (and super creepy at specific times of night) and has a log book for taking out or putting in any items from the room. So part of clearing the third floor was entering in this stuff we found and putting it into this other installation.

Also, Travis was working on the bathroom he's clearing out and then adding dust and a whole installation to and so we kept hearing great dripping noises and all other noises while he's sitting in the room next door, next to a bathtub and sink that he spray adhesive-d dust that I collected for him from the vacuum and it was just really cool. I can't wait to see how it keeps going.

Another exciting thing going on is this Obama Unite for Change House party I'm organizing. It's going to be at the cheesecake store down the road because Elsewhere is a nonprofit and can't really hold those kinds of things, and I put my fingers out on the internet and have all these people I don't know confirming that they're coming and that's really exciting, and then I also made a rockin poster (using some elsewhere solar system phamphlet I found and my signature tearing the words out and scanning-- I love the scanner) so I'm gonna pick that up and distribute it tomorrow before the staff meeting. I'm so excited! I'm gonna wake up early, make some art out of movie seat covers, bike to the copy shop with Lily, have a staff meeting, clean the space, and then haul some more shit with Brian! What a great life! And I even get to wear a great dress while doing it all! I found this sorta scout-looking dress with red zippers and pockets all over so I thought it would be a great big cleaning day dress.

Even more random things that are exciting:

    * I had a hairwrap! in my hair! for about four hours. It was so great. Danna put it in my hair in the back behind my ear, the longest pieces of my hair (about 3 inches! wow. I hadn't really measured or thought about it in a while. I remember now when I was pinching my hair and calling it long...) And it was great. It was red and golden-yellow and saffron ribbon and a grey light blue and she put in a white feather too! But really my hair's still too short, and it fell out when I took a shower.
    * I gave a tour with Eliza (another intern) to a real outside person! It went well. I feel like I learned a lot about some rooms I didn't know so much about from Eliza, and it was just really exciting to talk about Elsewhere to someone else. You should come visit so I can give you an official tour too!
    * Travis (one of the residents) and I made dinner last friday and it was so good (wow, I think this list could be renamed, "I did this. And It was so great.") We made pizza in three flavors: spicy garlic-y mushrooms and onions, spinach artichoke, broccoli, and bean feta tomato and cilantro (inspired by Amherst's Antonios pizza!). A real morale booster on the end of a crazy week.
    * Danna's best friend, Aaron came to visit and he went to Umass and so we had lots to talk about about Amherst. And it was funny to be talking about Hampshire and Amherst things here-- also refreshing. I miss my mod 4squared sisters and everyone around Hampshire! Oh what am I saying. I miss everyone. I have too many people I love who are all over the place.
    * When Danna and I went to Raleigh to pick up Aaron, we got to go to locopops in Chapel Hill and OMG! I got locopops for everyone and it was quite a production. Mango Passionfruit was amazing, as was the Thai Rice Pudding. And the Chocolate Sesame Wasabi flavor had some kick! I love locopops. Locopops is the reason why I will always return to North Carolina. And because I love it here. This is my crush state. As a little kid I figured out I would end up here because Texas and Florida were too hot, and Pittsburgh was too cold, so I picked a state in the middle. Also, I had this rule in my head thinking that once you lived in a state, you can never live there again. So my options were a little more limited.

Ok. No more hating, no more complaining, no more feeling insignificant or small or worthless here. I am on a mission! I am so pumped! I can't believe I have to go to bed and lay comatose for upwards of 7 hours! What a waste of time! at least I get to sleep under my newly embellished trees.

Goodnight everyone.

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.