Relativity

"Time is an illusion.  Lunch time doubly so"
I know I quote Douglas Adams a lot, but he had such a way of delivering simple, everyday things to you in a manner that made you rethink them.
Like the  relativity of time.

I'm not talking about Einstein.  I'm talking about how time is relative to your amount of engagement in any certain activity.  Ask any child who's been out playing with friends or is wrapped up in a video game and you'll invariably get a level of perceived time dilation rivaling the event horizon of a black hole.  My son will play a game for an hour (max) and will swear that he's only been at it for "five whole minutes, Dad.  Jeesh".
He actually makes a sound like "jeesh" more than he actually says it.
Time flies when you're having fun.  And even when you're not.  I've recently gone from knee deep to eyeball deep in an IT project for my day job.  Embroiled is a good word I think.  It's an enormous amount of pressure that sprung up from a rather unexpected angle.  It's funny tho.  How time flies and slows down all at once when you're in a crisis mode.  Things are flying by at a daunting pace and yet somehow it all passed by you like bullets in The Matrix.
I don't necessarily dodge them like Neo however.  That's how it is when you're not protected by script immunity.  It's a level of engagement that I haven't had in a while.  It's hectic and time is flying, but in a perverse way it's fun sometimes.
Not all the time.
That's come along with a lot of work on the current projects.  There's a soft deadline looming, but the time dilation's kicked in and I'm starting to envision the pieces in a different way.  I've gotten more engaged in them.  I've put down some underpainting on two and am starting to work on the successive layers.  I'm heading down there in a little bit actually.  I'm working in an every-other-night rotation in different areas of each piece.  As soon as I get the next image green-lighted I'll start putting down pencil and will begin canvas number three, Chicago or Toronto.  I'm sure at some point I'll be working on them all at once.

Here's where the fun part comes in.  Looks like I'll be going to Dublin and London to get photos for myself.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I haven't been to London since I was a teenager and I've never been to Dublin, but have always wanted to go.  Simply put.... Fanf@ckingtastic.
Hey, this is a family show.
I plan on taking about a bazillion pics and touring the Jameson distillery.
And NOT kissing the Blarney Stone.
If you live in either of those places and want to get together for a meal or a pint keep your eyes peeled.  I'll be posting pics the entire time.


Cheers,

R

In Development

Every time you think you know yourself you go and do something that surprises you.  I've done that a few times recently.  A complete change of scenery can do that to you.  A couple of the things were good.  One of them wasn't so much.  That's how it is though and you learn and you move on.  Hopefully you take something from it.  In this case, I'm thankful to say, I did.  More proof that at nearly 40 you're still a work in progress.

Becoming involved in a large-scale Art project like the new Aviva building in West Des Moines was a bit step towards changing the way I look at Art.  I'd become so used to my way of doing things that getting involved in someone else's process was an eye opener.  Especially when those people are imagining projects on a fairly massive scale.  The coordination of industrial processes can be an exercise in project management.  I was very glad for the opportunity to get to pick these artists' brains on how it all goes together.  I'll post some links as things develop.

I'm also working on a series of pieces for the same project so I'm seeing it from both sides.  My project has me paired up with the Artist team of Andrea Myklebust and  Stanton Sears who've got a resume full of sizable projects such as this.  I'd better bring my A-game.  I'm looking forward to further collaboration with them on this one.  Right now we're working more or less independently, but there are decisions to be made regarding palette, etc.  Size and subject matter are already solid.  I'm doing developmental charcoal sketches to tweak composition.  My apologies for the awful pics.  I'll post some better ones later.

This has led me to throw my hat in the ring for some public Art projects that have cropped up statewide.  I've put in for one and have got plans to get my submission materials out for one later this month.  I may be completely out of my league, but frankly I don't care.  I'm leading with my chin a bit, but the worst that can happen is that I get rejected.  Eff it.  I'm past worrying about that.  As Agent J said, "Don't start nothin', don't Be nothin'".

So... that was a bit of a surprise.  Two years ago this would never have crossed my mind.

The Not-So-Great thing I did led to a bit of self-discovery.  That led to a bit of brainstorming and Hell, you know what that leads to.  

Cheers,

R