Back in 2008 I was selected to attend a weekend professional development workshop for artists run by the NYC art funding organization Creative Capital. The San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs sponsored this event, and I assume that members of that bureaucracy were involved in the vetting process. If that’s the case, thank you so much OCA! There were, I believe, 23 of us at this two day session. Twenty-three San Antonio artists. Of this group, I only personally knew two; three others I had heard of; the rest were new to me. But after the workshop, I would say that fifteen of these folks I am now connected to — I go to their shows, I advocate their work, and some of them I collaborate with. The truth is, these annual workshops have run from 2007 to 2010 (and hopefully they will continue), and my deepest artistic collaborative relationships are with these Creative Capital alumni.
Creative Capital provides funding for many artistic disciplines. They divide them into two clumps. One clump per year. So, each disciplines, like, say, film/video, is funded every other year. I missed the last funding cycle. But not this one. I cut short my lucrative gig in Dallas a day early to head home. There were some important materials I needed for my proposal which were in a hard drive I’d left back home in San Antonio. So, I hopped in my truck, and headed out of Dallas around 8:30 at night. I got home a little after one in the morning. I worked on my proposal until about 4 when I took a nap for a few hours. I got back up, made coffee, and got back to work. And, hey, don’t point and laugh. I had begun it a couple days back. But it’s deceptively comprehensive. Eventually I hammered out something …. at least. It probably sucks. But I made the deadline. I have placed my proposal into the 2011 Creative Capital hopper.
Here’s hoping the hopper smiles back. But I won’t know until sometime in June. We’ll wait and see.
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I’ve been in a fairly foul mood lately. Luckily I’m unemployed, so I can lay low and not make other people miserable.
In fact, I wrote a lengthy blog the other night railing against things which were pissing me off. I decided not to post it because, even though I didn’t mention people by name, canny San Antonians might be able to read between the lines. And it’s not those people I’m upset about. Sure, I find myself, often, interacting with people who grate on my nerves and who I have little respect for, but whose fault is that? Certainly not theirs. So, I decided that unless I have a solution, I need to stop bitching about the problem. But, damn, I get sick of hearing myself bitch.
Instead of just lashing out and shutting people out of my life who I think are even more pathetic than myself, I’ve decided to take it slow. I’ve managed this with a couple of individuals already. Just dialed down my interaction. Eventually I just stopped reading their emails and listening to their voice mails. There are maybe six other people I need to start doing this to. Now that I have a a successful non-confrontational passive-aggressive template of success, it’s time to take it to prime time.
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It was a lovely day. My iPhone promised it’d get up to 80 or so. I don’t know if it ever did. When I went out for a bike ride around one this afternoon it was about 70. I wasn’t feeling very ambitious, so I tossed my bike in my truck. On my way to Mission park I stopped at the fruteria on Roosevelt near the golf course. I picked up a fruit cup. And then I drove to the parking lot of Mission Park behind the old Mission Drive-In. I picnicked on my fruit cup. Then I suited up and rode out to Mission Espada and back. Maybe 10 miles. I stopped at a little hill between Mission Espada and the San Antonio River. I sprawled out on the grass and took a little nap in the sun. I forget, sometimes, that life can be good.
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I’ve been asked to film the window show at Jump-Start tomorrow. Jump-Start Performance Company often has free outdoor theater events during the monthly First Friday art celebration in my neighborhood. The Blue Star Art Complex is ground zero for this artsy bacchanalia. And Jump-Start, one of the most prestigious venues in Blue Star, makes its presence known by staging experimental theatrical works for free. The crowds remain outside. The action happens in a large window, or the raised loading dock of their front entrance, or the ground level, under the window … or, more often, a combination of two or more of these locations.
I have no idea how tomorrow’s show will play out. But I’ll be there. It’ll be fun. Jump-Start never disappoints. And I understand that tomorrow’s show was created by ST Shimi and Billy Munoz. And, they too, never disappoint.