This week has been pretty exciting things are picking up as summer begins to round the corner. i landed a job with a large catering company in OC as prep cook! Woo-hoo...well the pay isn't great but at least I'm learning alot and with enough time...I think I'll know enough to hold my own in cullinary school if I decide to go that route...I've thought about my future in this field and I'd like to set the goal of some day owning my own bed and breakfast up in oregon that will double as a hostel/ gallery/ bed a breakfast inn for wayward travelers...It'd be rad to convert/restore an old victorian home/painted lady and hold quarterly/seasonal salons, old school parisienne style, with bands/musicians artisit and cultural figures discussing the crossroads of their interest and forcasting the state of global affairs...lofty goals I know but we all need a little direction at times.
Other news I've been continuing work on my personal drawings/paintings. I'm not quite sure where they're headed but I feel I'm making great strides to say the least.
Well life in OC is pretty chill most of the time...
....until a street art opening comes around!
I ended up at Subject Matter last night for the Collabro opening (the premise behind the show was that selected street artist were chosen and paired to work on a collaborative piece(s) together.) instead of going to the second run theater in Huntington beach to check out Silent Hill. I figured I'd rather enjoy booze, the company of fine ladies, graff/street art nerds music and art rather than spend more time and money alone at a film for a game I don't have time to play...
I ran into ryan and his girlfriend as I was exiting the show and throwing up stickers. I met ryan in Oct. at our mutual friend's birfday party in Placentia. We continued to talk about spots and politics. Ryan informed of me of his main political concern of the moment the NETWORK NEUTRALITY bill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netw…
Gold leaf is a bitch and half...Just the faintest breath and it flys all over the place!!! well I think Aelfie will appreciate the effort I put into her gift....Though it is small I think it was agood practice ground before I start blowing gold on larger canvases and drawings....
I'm totally amped.....I just woke up after getting some zzzz's after hanging an art show I'm in at Nickelodeon's Animations studios in burbank. The show looks amazing and the art is really good. Imagine what an animator would do when all the professional constraints are thrown off and you have our Show REAL LIFE WIZARDS!!!
Well if you're in the Los Angeles area and come down and checkout the madness...
Thursday April the 13th, 5-7 pm at Nickelodeon Studios 231 W. Olive Ave. Burbank, CA bitzes. Pizza and PArty!
Have you seen/ heard of any/all these electro/disco/house/noise/punk/Art/nintendo/acid/bands coming out of texas???
Holy shit it's like they stole the semen off my kleenex and stuffed it into magical forest hippie chick's wombs and made babies. Then incubated and raised said children on awesome 80's cartoons pop culture and psych/electro/techno/folk music then sent them to art school....WTF????
Either they're making mad hallucinogenics out there or the public magnet art high schools are stealing children from the future...regardless I still think it's pretty rad on the lo-fi paper radish tip...
I've been thinking alot about my career path lately. Mainly because it doesn't seem to be working out the way I want it to or have expected it to. I've spent a good portion of my life dreaming, planning, and working on trying to make a career for myself in the arts/ creative realm. And for all practicle purposes it just doesn't seem to be happening/paying fast enough. Alright I've been out of school for only six years now and I have yet to invest the amount of real time it takes for any real recognition and success to sprout from that said career path. But perhaps it's time I face reality. The reality of the need for growth into full independence and responsibility. The reality of being able to pay for my own bills and assuming fiscal responsibility for my less than spectacular credit history.
Alright I've worked on several projects to varying degrees of success and involvement but none really being completely satisfying or rewarding from a personal standpoint. And I think the work I've found most rewarding and satisfying is the personal work I've done painting/drawing/writing/cooking I've done for myself over the years. Having come to this realization perhaps it's time I sit down and think what aspects of past jobs/assignments did I find unsatisying, annoying, irritating. So let's see I hate taking direction from clients who are: Vague, cheap (aka not paying me adequately for the time, effort and energy I'm spending on their projects), have a very different idea (calculated / corporate/ marketing research driven) of what it takes for a project to succeed. Alright clients are entitled to a certain degree of control and suggestion (they are paying for my services after all) but at the same time there needs to be a middle ground where we need to meet. They need to trust my skill and judgment level to the point that drove them to initially hire/work with me in the first place other wise alot of time will be wasted in pointless back and forth over changes, inconsequential details, contracts and management/overseeing of the project.
So it looks like I'm not cut out for commercial creative work (aka design/illustration) just quite yet. Mainly because I don't know how to handle clients or how to meet their demands. That I am cut out and ready to handle my own path in painting in drawing but no one elses. But that kind of work won't pay the bills so to speak until I get into some galleries/shows and have an extensive network of collectors, buyers interested in my work. In the meantime I should retool my skill set in a more practicle direction to support my personal work. I've been thinking about getting into construction or culliary work recently just because there seems to be more of a necessity for it than say the design/illustration market that seems to be saturated right now. I also want something that will get me out of the house/studio/computer screen where i can use my mind and body. I can see that there will always be a demand for construction/ carpentry work seeing that there will always be a need for houses, sets, and building to be built. The same can be said for food to a certian extent unless we move into the far flung sci future where robots and micro-machines create food and homes for us out of surrounding molecules. And it seems that carpentry and cullinary work can be as fullfilling creatively and maybe even more so as I get to see the fruits of my labor take shape more immediately.
We'll see how it pans out...it is just an idea after all. I am going up to the Art Institute in Santa Monica tommorrow to interview and test out for a highly coveted spot as a model builder at Legoland in Ca. It sounds like it's the total polar opposite of what I just mentioned but perhaps in someways it's a merging of the two career paths. After all if I make it past the initial modeling test and urine based drug test and beat out all the other regional finalist in MAY (there's supposed to be a World Nintendo Championship/Wizard-esque Finale Competetion) I could just be working the dream job of many a youth...Alright so I'm almost 30...But FUCK IT I could be paid to play/work with LEGOS!!! Alright so it starts at a shitty $13-$15 but at least there are benefits... and room for growth (supposedly/hopefully into the R&D wing of the toy/block creating division) not to mention it's based in Carlsbad / San Diego (home to UCSD a notorious party school as well home to a large Republican constituency [wierd combo I know] ). Well at least they have a beautiful park and it's also near Mirimar, Top Gun Naval academy.
I recently quit my job at the print shop out of stress, fatigue , and lack of monetary compensation. I feel totally refreshed and free again. Though part of me is wondering what job I'll take next to bring in the cash flow. I feel my personal work is greatly improving though part of me is concerned over the way I deal/handle professional work/obligations. Perhaps it was due to general fatigue and lack of interest that my work started to take a noticeable down turn...I mean 2 months of working 10am-12am 6 days week straight is gonna have it's eventual toll on any worker...so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on myself....
Regardless all I can do now is take note of my shortcomings and move forward onto better and more fullfilling goals/work. I recently developed an old roll I had shot in NYC after watching the William Eggleston documentary...Inspired I shot these image on the walk home:
Houston and Crosby
I think I'll go take awalk alone I'll find my self as I go home....Minetta Place and 6th ave.
6th ave. and 3rd st.
Man I miss NYC sometimes....
At least my work in drawing and painting is keeping me busy enough to ignore just how much I want to be in the thick of it all again. Or at least pay it a vist.
Life in suburbia is surreal at it's best, banal at it's worst. But who doesn't know that? Anyone who has already lived in suburbia can say this about suburbs. I had dinner today with an old colleauge and his family at vietnamese near my job in south/central OC....His uncle lost his house in mississippi to the huricane last year....He seems like a cool dude...Vietnamese transplant with a southern drawl...His girlfriend/wife was semi interesting as well in that she was a Japanese/Vietnamese-American with a slight drawl as well and a hair do big enough to have come from a beauty salon in Texas. After our 7 course meal dinner he introduced me to the local trend of vietnamese coffee shops in which bikini clad vietnamese racing queens serve their AZN sausage fest clientele iced coffee (beer would make them too rowdy/horny and no one wants to be stabbed or poked by drunken AZN youth)....The coffee was strong and thick with condensed milk and sugar...I might as well have been drinking whale's milk (which has the vomit inducing consistency/richness of vegetable oil or so my high school bio teacher told me once ). The girls, lean, leggy with face framed by dyed or streaked hair were alright if you're one of those macho AZN dudes who're into racing queens which I'm not so go figure why they didn't appeal to my alt.porn/indie-rock/boho-princess by night, hot librarian/office lady/working class gal post-art-fag school taste...
Life can get pretty dark out here...There's one loan house at the end of my block (that I still need to document) that burned down earlier this holiday season....Not sure exactly why but I like to dream that it was a meth lab accident gone wrong but it's more likely due to fawlty christmas lights...Merry Friggin Holidays eh? The roof collapsed and you can look into the remnants of their house. Unfortunately all their vehichles were scorched as well and left in the drive way....I'm sure all the neighbors epathize with the family that lost their home and belongings yet feel the remnants of the house and fire are an eyesore/lowering the property value of their collective investments. I guess these sentiments capture what it means to be in OC best. Regardless it's has a poetic quality about since it's surrounded by track-home shopper-taining family McMansioness Utopia in this relatively secluded/safe/semi-rural part of OC.
Speaking of exploring the darkside of human nature I skipped church one sunday to go to one of the few remaining full contact strip clubs that allows dancers to actually touch, grope, and rub up against you in SoCal. Why did I go? Out of simple convenience and horniness I suppose... figuring that I don't have much time to chase/play with girls given my ridculous work schedule...Sometimes I feel like I've entered one of those sun drenched dark dramedies on Showtime/HBO set in SoCal like the L-Word or Six feet Under...
Work can be a mixed bag being an art director at a start up Bi-Cultural Asian Magazine/Print shop slave. I have several interns working underneath me now who have delivered layouts of varying degrees of success/skill. It's sort of awesome to ask them to do something and they actually deliver! In turn I coach, encourage , guide them into designing turning out their best work. It's also nice being able to work with talented photographers covering everything from fashion, rising asian celbrities, distant locales for travel and dining guides. On the down note it sucks making production errors that end up costing thousands of dollars, catching other designers errors and spending most of the day trying to figure out and fix them...Well at least I'm learning tons about the production side of being a print-designer as well forging contacts plus getting access to free printing when there's space on the plate for me to sneak a business card/postcard/flyer job in.
I've been carpooling with an old high school buddy who works at South Coast Repretory Theater. We usually end up leaving work around the same time as well given our jobs long hours into the night. We usually end up having a drink at the bar to vent about work and bitches then a joint/spliff/bowl upon our arriving joyrides home (we've fondly termed victory laps) through the suburbs of Yorba Lame-Duh and Ana-slime Hills. I enjoy driving home late at night to be greeted by darting death defying bunnies who dash in front of my car across the street into the surrounding brush. On occasion I'll sneak a smoke in the backyard and catch a deer, some quail or hawks hanging out or flying circles around my palm tree ladden block. I suppose this is one of the few things that makes So-cal great in that all this crap is accessible and at my finger tips: cable tv/ affordable organic produce and good eating/ bikin clad vietnamese coffee shops/ full contact strip clubs/ nature/ bizarro fashion/ McMansions/ Super highways and the mild weather from season to season until the infernal summer comes around...
Fuck I'm nearly 30 and I may still be living at home with my parents but at least I can observe and enjoy the novelty of moving back to the suburbs of northern OC while it last and slowly work my way out of pro-sumer debt/credit hell. How do I bear with it? I try to keep in my mind no situation is permanent and that I should enjoy/humour myself with what/where/who I am. I guess I'll end this update with a quote from one of my favorite films Nothing Last Forever... "Nothing last forever. So let's make forever never."
If you asked me a few months ago what I would be doing in CA. I would've replied "looking for work...working on my portfolio...playing video games working on comics and art....". A couple weeks ago I responded to an ad placed on craig's list for a call out to design assitant and interns for 13 minutes magazine (http://www.13minutesmag.com). 13 minutes magazine is a bi(multi)-cultural magazine aimed at asian women(and discerning asian men)aged 25-35. So I go in for the interview this past thurs to find out more about the mag and what I'd be doing for them. I found that it's a small staff and crew running it on a shoe string budget yet somehow they're managing to turn out this great looking magazine. Due inpart to the fact that the printer's facilities are next door and that the aforementioned printer is the parent company of said magazine I guess it also helps if you're also run by a former photographer turned printer/publisher/entrepenuer. So I go in today to the staff meeting and introduced myself and met the rest of the staff who all seem to be fresh out of school and driven. All of them asian women ranging in age from 20-35. So after the meeting we have drinks and dinner at habana and drive back to the office where the creative director pulls me aside to talk business. So he goes on to ask me what my career goals are nad where do I see my self and what kind of time commitment can I make to the start up magazine. I tell him aboutmy other gig and how it's not fullfilling and that I'm more than willing to make/bend my schedule around for the magazine. He then proceeds to offer me the SWEEEETEST gigs I've been offered in a long time. yeah I've worked in publishing for 5+ years...yeah I've written, drawn and designed comics...I've put together magazines,flyer and cd's for way under the amount I could/should ask for...And guess what all the toiling away late in the night...all the canceling of dates and fun....all the obsessive hours of collecting and pouring through magazines,books,manuals,treaties,stock photo catalogs and font books has finally paid off. I am now art director and print shop assistant! This means I get a paid position for something I was initially willing to work on stipend for. PLUS I get to learn a whole new set of skills...plus I get access to setting up my own print jobs whch means I can sneak in flyers/ business card designs/ and eventually comics to be printed on ANY spare space on the printing plate! Not mention all the perks of being an art director at a fashion lifestyle magazine. Comped hotel rooms...travel...women...shit what did I do to deserve this? I guess it makes sense if you're nearing 30 and have worked on the variety of shit I have knocking around in my portfolio...Life in the OC is fucking good! And it's gonna get a whole lot better! It just took some sacrifice, a break up and move back west to show me that life can still throw out those wonderful little surprises when things are looking down and out. Now if I can get this to last long enough before the world will end.
After spending nearly two hours in line at the local FRYS I am now the owner of a New Order musicvideo/documentray collection and 160 gigabyte USB 2.0 hardrive...Both were quite the score and after viewing the New Order DVD collection I am quite inspired and refreshed for a bout of creative art/video/photography/zine/comic making...As for the hard drive i couldn't resist the deal of a $40 dollar external storage unit for illegal downloads, pron and art...shit is crazy..I will now be working on filling the aforementioned 160 gigabytes with ridiculousness...As for the New Order DVD collection was crammed full with "take the piss out of" meaningful/meaningless avantgarde pop music video madness supported/directed by some pretty heavy duty names and sexy ass videos...my favorite being KRAFTY and a parissienne edition of temptation...whew I practically creamed my jeans over those two... something about girls with short dark hair that gets the libido into overdrive...
My pre turkey-day bash was eventful since I got to hang out with my fellow meathaus cohort chris and animation pal corey at deerhoof show in LA...I'm glad went since thye drummer in deerhoof is probably the best drummer alive. The guy was amazing and chris was telling how he could see/feel how happy he was to play. I'm glad I got to hang oput with my fellow LA creatives and flip through their sketchbooks...Corey is a pretty amazing dude wuth some hilarious theories on noses...some of my favorite being mushroom and stwaberry shaped...I heard some gossipe about some christian animators/cartoonist that got corey jazzed enough to make some awsome sounding comics...regardless I'm fueled /amped for the next few weeks...Corey said he might be able to get me in on some animation work for nickelodeon's avatar which would be sweet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed... He also said I should submit a proposal for an animated short contest so I'm thinking my space rock opera featuring dolphins/sea mammals in neon patterned seizure inducing space suits escaping an apocalyptic earth to rock the fuck out of the universe would be an awesome candidate...
