I've been perusing the COS site, like every one else, and have a possible funding source for the Edinbrugh Fringe Fest -
USArtists International. Hmmm...? Application deadline is April 22, and we need a NFP company backing us...
There certainly is one hell of a lot of wading through to do in COS, but ya gotta start somewhere...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The vastness of the COS site
When navigating the cos site, my first instincts were to use key words that either described me or my practice; so words like artist, installation artist, sculpture/sculptor. Then, some words that described my identity, like 'latino' or certain countries, or even cities. Interestingly enough, my fraternity has a scholarship listed that I should jump on. Why NOT give to one of your own? At least I hope that would be the mentality.
I found several postings relating to "competitions", where an award was given on your selection. Those are certainly good opportunities, but I think the focus (for the class at least) should be to get funding for future projects. Then I searched for travel grants, but a lot seemed to be for library research or art history. But the money is in how you word it, right? So leave no stone unturned
Some of the postings say: Requirements Ph.D./M.D./Other Professional
The vagueness of "other professional" is always helpful
I have my solo show coming up in about 9 days, for which I am carving many panels of Styrofoam into what will (hopefully be a good and successful) mural installation. A thought that came to mind was "what am I going to do with it after my show is over? Just let it collect dust back in my studio?". It's certainly not the most "salable" piece, but it would be great to have it be re-exhibited, perhaps in conjunction with another event or performance.
Oh, and you're all invited by the way... :)
My reception is next Thursday, March 3rd from 7-9pm. It will be at the Alloway Gallery (First floor of the library). It should be a party, bring a friend. If it goes well, all the more motivation to find a grant to show it again
-Jose
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Waylon 6
I’m honing in on what I want to work on for my documentary, and grants to fund it. At first I was thinking I’d just work on something silly like chemtrails. But, then I realized I could make this project into something with a real social use. And there are no grants for chemtrail movies anyway. As a Karuk person, I am very interested in issues of Native self determination in culture and economics, two things that are more related than maybe a lot of people realize. So, what I’m thinking about documenting is either the ongoing process of un-damming the Klamath River, or the controversy over the MLPA.
The Klamath River is the ancestral homeland of my people, as well as the Yurok, Shasta, and Klamath peoples. Unlike Indo-Europeans, who came to Europe and the Americas from somewhere else, and who seem to take migration for granted, we have always lived in our villages on the Klamath River until a minor diaspora around the 1930s and 40s. This was nothing of the magnitude of the Trail of Tears, or the Long Walk. It was individuals and individual families moving away from the River to pursue better economic opportunities elsewhere, primarily in the Bay Area. Salmon have been and still are part of our subsistence. In fact, where jobs are lacking in Northwest California, salmon make up a substantial part of the diet, or did. The damming of the Klamath for irrigation water for farmers around Klamath Lakes and electricity has had an adverse impact on salmon populations, and thus on our traditional way of life and local economies. There has been a movement to get the dams removed. PacifiCorp, the owner of the dams, has grudgingly agreed to take down the dams by 2020, I believe.
MLPA, or the Marine Life Protection Act, is a newer phenomenon that was just signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger. It prohibits Indian people in California from gathering food and regalia material on the beaches, but it does nothing to stop problematic industries like wave energy and oil drilling that helped push the Act through. News from Native California published an article in their last issue about a Pomo response to the Act that seemed fairly pessimistic. Yurok Tribal Chairman Thomas O’Rourke, however, has threatened passive resistance. I quote from News from Native California: “We will continue to exercise our right to harvest seaweed and fish as we always have. You will have to take us to jail until you go broke and you fix this law.”
The Klamath River is the ancestral homeland of my people, as well as the Yurok, Shasta, and Klamath peoples. Unlike Indo-Europeans, who came to Europe and the Americas from somewhere else, and who seem to take migration for granted, we have always lived in our villages on the Klamath River until a minor diaspora around the 1930s and 40s. This was nothing of the magnitude of the Trail of Tears, or the Long Walk. It was individuals and individual families moving away from the River to pursue better economic opportunities elsewhere, primarily in the Bay Area. Salmon have been and still are part of our subsistence. In fact, where jobs are lacking in Northwest California, salmon make up a substantial part of the diet, or did. The damming of the Klamath for irrigation water for farmers around Klamath Lakes and electricity has had an adverse impact on salmon populations, and thus on our traditional way of life and local economies. There has been a movement to get the dams removed. PacifiCorp, the owner of the dams, has grudgingly agreed to take down the dams by 2020, I believe.
MLPA, or the Marine Life Protection Act, is a newer phenomenon that was just signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger. It prohibits Indian people in California from gathering food and regalia material on the beaches, but it does nothing to stop problematic industries like wave energy and oil drilling that helped push the Act through. News from Native California published an article in their last issue about a Pomo response to the Act that seemed fairly pessimistic. Yurok Tribal Chairman Thomas O’Rourke, however, has threatened passive resistance. I quote from News from Native California: “We will continue to exercise our right to harvest seaweed and fish as we always have. You will have to take us to jail until you go broke and you fix this law.”
Oh Janus, two-faced God of Grants, hear my plea…
Friday morning I went to a grant proposal writing workshop sponsored by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook; I still haven’t decided whether it was worth missing a class for or not. I suppose it was… they kind of pulled a bait and switch with this workshop; the speaker who was supposed to speak couldn’t make it and a substitute was brought in at the last minute. She talked for a few hours about PhDs getting fellowships and mentioned lot of different sources and the differing types of fellowships, but I had hoped the workshop would focus more on writing grant proposals for the rest of us who weren’t PhDs. She was, however, very personable, knowledgeable and interesting to listen to, even though her subject didn’t quite pertain to what I was after.
She did provide copies of a proposal that was ultimately unsuccessful in receiving funding and how it had to be formatted different ways for the three grants programs it was submitted to, but I would like to have seen examples of winning proposals.
Some things I came away with:
1. The economic climate for grant funding has become dire in the past 2 years.
2. Funding is now tailored towards serving community needs and employment, as opposed to the interest in environmental issues from a few years back.
3. The tone and language you use in your proposal is as important as the object of your study; if you use the language of activists you may alienate the panel. (Such as “ my approach as a Marxist feminist is to blah blah blah…”)
4. Don’t get jargony with theoretical work you want funded. Your proposal must be understandable to the range of people in the panel who are assessing your need.
5. Cultivate relationships with the program managers of foundations. They are usually approachable. Ask them what field you should apply in, or rather, if you can apply in a field different from the one you think your project falls under. Let them help in that decision.
6. Get someone you trust to get feedback on your proposal before it is submitted.
7. If illustrations are allowed in your proposal, make sure you use them. Make the structure of your proposal clear and provide real examples of what you are going to do– it does make a big difference.
She did provide copies of a proposal that was ultimately unsuccessful in receiving funding and how it had to be formatted different ways for the three grants programs it was submitted to, but I would like to have seen examples of winning proposals.
Some things I came away with:
1. The economic climate for grant funding has become dire in the past 2 years.
2. Funding is now tailored towards serving community needs and employment, as opposed to the interest in environmental issues from a few years back.
3. The tone and language you use in your proposal is as important as the object of your study; if you use the language of activists you may alienate the panel. (Such as “ my approach as a Marxist feminist is to blah blah blah…”)
4. Don’t get jargony with theoretical work you want funded. Your proposal must be understandable to the range of people in the panel who are assessing your need.
5. Cultivate relationships with the program managers of foundations. They are usually approachable. Ask them what field you should apply in, or rather, if you can apply in a field different from the one you think your project falls under. Let them help in that decision.
6. Get someone you trust to get feedback on your proposal before it is submitted.
7. If illustrations are allowed in your proposal, make sure you use them. Make the structure of your proposal clear and provide real examples of what you are going to do– it does make a big difference.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Jose 1 - LIFE POINTS
I've been slacking with my blog posts. So let's get in the groove already...
I love social media. I have been on Facebook since 2004, when it was just a network between the Ivy's. Back when it was "THE"Facebook.com, fancy that. I had a myspace at one point, but never really enjoyed my experience. In fact, the account still lingers out there somewhere -- because it has proven itself too difficult to delete.
The reason I bring up social media is because the idea of "life points" popped into my head again. It was a term that a friend or two back in college used to describe the number of Facebook friends you had. Almost more important than the quality of connections that you had (especially since at the time, you saw all of those people on your campus) was the number of friends. It was a raw indicator of how "popular" you were, based just on the number of people in your network. There would be short lived competitions between friends, the loser quickly admitting defeat, but wondering how he/she could get more friends...
It was all in good fun and jest. Clearly we knew our lives weren't validated by any number.
I currently have 1367 facebook friends. Is that a lot? It's all relative. I certainly know a bunch of people with a lot more
"But Jose, are all of those people REALLY your friends?? I bet you dont speak to half of them"
I dont speak to nearly all of them, on any frequent basis. But the way that I have come to understand it for myself (or come to terms with my addiction?) is that it is... a NETWORK. At some point or another, I met, knew, loved, was friends with, was a friend of a friend of.., worked with, stalked, was stalked by these people. They say, "Don't burn your bridges." So, why delete any one of your friends? Who knows when a reconnection, or mutual opportunity could arise. Especially for myself, who is an artist trying to get his work out there in the world...
And that's where LIFE POINTS came up again... I started using GoogleAnalytics with my artist website www.joseojeda.com . It's so cool! It tells me not only how many hits I have... but where they are coming from in the world. So it gives me this map of the United States (the world too, but those ambitions are for later...) with different States filling up with gradients of green. Now it has turned into a little game for me... I want to see the entire map colored in.
The map is interesting because it also lets me know what gaps I have in my network.
Has the game element started to become more important than the dissemination of my information?
Gotta make some friends/points in Kentucky...
-Jose
I love social media. I have been on Facebook since 2004, when it was just a network between the Ivy's. Back when it was "THE"Facebook.com, fancy that. I had a myspace at one point, but never really enjoyed my experience. In fact, the account still lingers out there somewhere -- because it has proven itself too difficult to delete.
The reason I bring up social media is because the idea of "life points" popped into my head again. It was a term that a friend or two back in college used to describe the number of Facebook friends you had. Almost more important than the quality of connections that you had (especially since at the time, you saw all of those people on your campus) was the number of friends. It was a raw indicator of how "popular" you were, based just on the number of people in your network. There would be short lived competitions between friends, the loser quickly admitting defeat, but wondering how he/she could get more friends...
It was all in good fun and jest. Clearly we knew our lives weren't validated by any number.
I currently have 1367 facebook friends. Is that a lot? It's all relative. I certainly know a bunch of people with a lot more
"But Jose, are all of those people REALLY your friends?? I bet you dont speak to half of them"
I dont speak to nearly all of them, on any frequent basis. But the way that I have come to understand it for myself (or come to terms with my addiction?) is that it is... a NETWORK. At some point or another, I met, knew, loved, was friends with, was a friend of a friend of.., worked with, stalked, was stalked by these people. They say, "Don't burn your bridges." So, why delete any one of your friends? Who knows when a reconnection, or mutual opportunity could arise. Especially for myself, who is an artist trying to get his work out there in the world...
And that's where LIFE POINTS came up again... I started using GoogleAnalytics with my artist website www.joseojeda.com . It's so cool! It tells me not only how many hits I have... but where they are coming from in the world. So it gives me this map of the United States (the world too, but those ambitions are for later...) with different States filling up with gradients of green. Now it has turned into a little game for me... I want to see the entire map colored in.
The map is interesting because it also lets me know what gaps I have in my network.
Has the game element started to become more important than the dissemination of my information?
Gotta make some friends/points in Kentucky...
-Jose
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Postcards, books and other examples
I've been reading up on writing grant proposals since it is a brand-new thing for me. I've checked out some of the Stony Brook Library's offerings, but being a lazy sod, I turned to Amazon and downloaded a kindle version of this: The Only Grant Writing Book You'll Ever Need which, so far is great reading.
I've also been looking at sample grant proposals from theatre groups and interdisciplinary artists that have been awarded and have saved quite a few of them to my hardrive for future perusal.
One thing that gives me the willies is coming up with things like mission statements, mostly because the majority of the ones I've read are hyper-hype bullsh*t. Is there really anything wrong with wanting to do honest work? Or is veracity in writing a thing of the past?
Okay, I'll try to subdue this rant. On a more positive note, Overnight Prints is having a postcard sale; 65 percent off - just use this code: POSTCARDSALE. In Seattle, theater companies do a lot of canvassing of areas close to little theaters and place postcards on parked cars; they also send them through the mail to audience members on their mailing lists, post them on billboards at colleges, grocery stores, schools, churches, and anywhere we can get the message out. For the most part we use postcards because:
1. They're small.
2. They're fairly cheap - you get a lot of bang for your buck if you can get them on sale.
3. You can mail them out.
4. They're collectible.
The last item seems a bit odd, but it is true. Some of them are so good you want to keep them around.
Here are some from two separate companies: one was for a show that premiered at the Seattle Fringe Fest in 2002 called Cannibal the Musical; the other for a company that specializes in cabaret shows and featured a variety of freak performers (Louis/Louisa the half-man half-woman, The Chicken Girl, and Countess Lucretia Crustacea, who was born with lobster claws for hands).
Incidentally, Cannibal the Musical was put on at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest last year, but by a different company.
I've also been looking at sample grant proposals from theatre groups and interdisciplinary artists that have been awarded and have saved quite a few of them to my hardrive for future perusal.
One thing that gives me the willies is coming up with things like mission statements, mostly because the majority of the ones I've read are hyper-hype bullsh*t. Is there really anything wrong with wanting to do honest work? Or is veracity in writing a thing of the past?
Okay, I'll try to subdue this rant. On a more positive note, Overnight Prints is having a postcard sale; 65 percent off - just use this code: POSTCARDSALE. In Seattle, theater companies do a lot of canvassing of areas close to little theaters and place postcards on parked cars; they also send them through the mail to audience members on their mailing lists, post them on billboards at colleges, grocery stores, schools, churches, and anywhere we can get the message out. For the most part we use postcards because:
1. They're small.
2. They're fairly cheap - you get a lot of bang for your buck if you can get them on sale.
3. You can mail them out.
4. They're collectible.
The last item seems a bit odd, but it is true. Some of them are so good you want to keep them around.
Here are some from two separate companies: one was for a show that premiered at the Seattle Fringe Fest in 2002 called Cannibal the Musical; the other for a company that specializes in cabaret shows and featured a variety of freak performers (Louis/Louisa the half-man half-woman, The Chicken Girl, and Countess Lucretia Crustacea, who was born with lobster claws for hands).
Incidentally, Cannibal the Musical was put on at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest last year, but by a different company.
Waylon 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/business/15prices.html?_r=1&hp
This article puts me in mind of what my cousin and his fiancée are doing out on the Little Applegate in Oregon. They’ve started a communal farm with the goal of becoming totally self sufficient and independent of, basically, the United States. If it sounds like a combination of hippie and survivalist, that’s because it is. But there’s nothing pejorative about the way I think of their project. In fact, I think it’s absolutely crucial, and every time I go out there or talk to him, I try to learn lessons for my own life.
They’ve gone to the extreme, living in the country off the land, and relying as much as possible on the barter system with their like-minded neighbors. I don’t have that option travelling around the world getting degrees at academies and making theater. In fact, I need the population centers that they’ve eschewed if I’m going to have an audience for my work. The question that I ask is, “How can I be as independent as possible from a culture that prefers short-term personal gain and the acquisition of commodities to human well-being?” It’s a question that Autumn has never been able to verbally answer to my satisfaction, so I’m left to looking to his and Erin’s example for helpful hints.
What I’ve come to is that, as much as possible, we should grow and gather our own food. That means plant a garden and hunt if you’re in a location suitable for that. As long as we depend on the corporations that sell us processed food (which often crosses the line from food to poison) for this basic necessity, this dehumanizing consumerist culture has us by the balls. I believe it’s possible to grow at least some of your food anywhere. It’s easiest in the country, of course, but even if you’re an urban dweller, you can still put some potted plants on your window-sill. It’s even possible if you life a semi-transient lifestyle like me: a contributor to my Farmer’s Almanac writes about how she used to travel a lot, but she grew a few potted food plants and packed them up and down the Eastern seaboard with her. All it takes is recognition that, as habitual as our corporate culture has become, it is far healthier to start moving away from it. Few of us can go to the same extreme as Autumn and Erin out on the Little Applegate, but we can all begin the process towards health and independence.
This article puts me in mind of what my cousin and his fiancée are doing out on the Little Applegate in Oregon. They’ve started a communal farm with the goal of becoming totally self sufficient and independent of, basically, the United States. If it sounds like a combination of hippie and survivalist, that’s because it is. But there’s nothing pejorative about the way I think of their project. In fact, I think it’s absolutely crucial, and every time I go out there or talk to him, I try to learn lessons for my own life.
They’ve gone to the extreme, living in the country off the land, and relying as much as possible on the barter system with their like-minded neighbors. I don’t have that option travelling around the world getting degrees at academies and making theater. In fact, I need the population centers that they’ve eschewed if I’m going to have an audience for my work. The question that I ask is, “How can I be as independent as possible from a culture that prefers short-term personal gain and the acquisition of commodities to human well-being?” It’s a question that Autumn has never been able to verbally answer to my satisfaction, so I’m left to looking to his and Erin’s example for helpful hints.
What I’ve come to is that, as much as possible, we should grow and gather our own food. That means plant a garden and hunt if you’re in a location suitable for that. As long as we depend on the corporations that sell us processed food (which often crosses the line from food to poison) for this basic necessity, this dehumanizing consumerist culture has us by the balls. I believe it’s possible to grow at least some of your food anywhere. It’s easiest in the country, of course, but even if you’re an urban dweller, you can still put some potted plants on your window-sill. It’s even possible if you life a semi-transient lifestyle like me: a contributor to my Farmer’s Almanac writes about how she used to travel a lot, but she grew a few potted food plants and packed them up and down the Eastern seaboard with her. All it takes is recognition that, as habitual as our corporate culture has become, it is far healthier to start moving away from it. Few of us can go to the same extreme as Autumn and Erin out on the Little Applegate, but we can all begin the process towards health and independence.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Waylon 4
I went driving around the area today, interacting with the Island to get material for my next video. My first stop was Walmart – the Centereach Walmart. Now the Walmarts in my area each have a different personality, and I think the difference has to do with the average income of the clientele. The Walmart on 347 must draw a crowd from the 25A region – the people who could stand going to a more expensive store every once and a while, but we’re thrifty and go to Walmart. Centereach seems to draw a crowd whose economics, for whatever reason, need to shop there.
While I was driving around, I popped on the public radio and listened to an Expert talk about how great cities are. I can’t remember his name, or where he works, or what his book’s called, but he spoke with an authority that exuded Expertness. He posited that urban poverty is actually a good sign. He argued this by saying that impoverished people move to the city for greater economic opportunities. The part he leaves out is whether the people were poor when they got here, or were born here into poverty and stay poor. I don’t know what the case is in Long Island, but it would be worth finding out.
I could even expand the question to ask, “Where do all these people come from? Are they really just overflow from NYC, or is there something else going on here? What is it, exactly, that makes Long Island such a desirable place to live?” I’m here for Stony Brook University and the proximity to the City, but I’m a non-permanent visitor. How does one become a Long Islander, and why does one start the process?
While I was driving around, I popped on the public radio and listened to an Expert talk about how great cities are. I can’t remember his name, or where he works, or what his book’s called, but he spoke with an authority that exuded Expertness. He posited that urban poverty is actually a good sign. He argued this by saying that impoverished people move to the city for greater economic opportunities. The part he leaves out is whether the people were poor when they got here, or were born here into poverty and stay poor. I don’t know what the case is in Long Island, but it would be worth finding out.
I could even expand the question to ask, “Where do all these people come from? Are they really just overflow from NYC, or is there something else going on here? What is it, exactly, that makes Long Island such a desirable place to live?” I’m here for Stony Brook University and the proximity to the City, but I’m a non-permanent visitor. How does one become a Long Islander, and why does one start the process?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
A Feminist Nation
Our discussion about feminism in class today got me thinking about how the lives of women have changed over the years. The woman's right movement clashed with the liberal movement. This lead to women acting out in ways never accepted before. They were labeled "sexual deviants" by their elders even got pills to prevent pregnancy. This was an outrage because not only was sex supposed to take place only in marriage, but the purpose of it was to procreate. Woman have become liberated.
Previously we had to obey our husbands no matter how badly they treated us, because without them we would have been old maids with 20 cats working as a secretary if we were lucky. The husbands were out in the public sphere working and interacting with others. Woman were stuck in the private sphere bored to tears. I should not speak for all of them because I am sure many felt very fulfilled cooking, cleaning and providing comfort for their families. I assume that I would be jealous of my husbands adventures outside the home. Yes, being a lady of leisure would be very stress free, very different from the world of woman today, who work full time and continue to do the work a housewife in the 50s did. However when a person is in a state of "idle" for a long period of time, depression is likely to occur.
A lot has changed in the lives of woman, but the double standard still exists. Yesterday at work I learned about the "red lobster whore". A girl I work with apparently sleeps around. Everyone, including myself were gossiping about her lack of virtue. Why is it that we did not bring up the guys she was sleeping with? What about one guy I work with who slept with two people we work with that I know of..why doesn't anyone call him a whore? I do not think the double standard will ever change because it would have already.
Previously we had to obey our husbands no matter how badly they treated us, because without them we would have been old maids with 20 cats working as a secretary if we were lucky. The husbands were out in the public sphere working and interacting with others. Woman were stuck in the private sphere bored to tears. I should not speak for all of them because I am sure many felt very fulfilled cooking, cleaning and providing comfort for their families. I assume that I would be jealous of my husbands adventures outside the home. Yes, being a lady of leisure would be very stress free, very different from the world of woman today, who work full time and continue to do the work a housewife in the 50s did. However when a person is in a state of "idle" for a long period of time, depression is likely to occur.
A lot has changed in the lives of woman, but the double standard still exists. Yesterday at work I learned about the "red lobster whore". A girl I work with apparently sleeps around. Everyone, including myself were gossiping about her lack of virtue. Why is it that we did not bring up the guys she was sleeping with? What about one guy I work with who slept with two people we work with that I know of..why doesn't anyone call him a whore? I do not think the double standard will ever change because it would have already.
Creative Live Workshops - Annika deGroot
I wanted to turn you guys on to a great online education-oriented company called Creative Live. On their website are offerings for free webinars on how to use software programs like Adobe's Creative Suite and learning photography stuff like studio lighting techniques and how to photograph children. The one catch is you have to tune in when they are actually giving the webinar; if you do, it's free. If you can't, you can always buy their webinars later.
Tomorrow is a workshop for mastering the Canon T2i. If you've been thinking of purchasing a Canon Rebel T2i, you might want to tune in, but remember to register first by going to FREE Workshop: Canon Rebel T2i / 550D - DSLR Fast Start
. I'm a big fan of these people and have learned some great stuff from them over the past few years, namely how to create iPhone applications, a refresher course on CSS, and how to up my skills in Photoshop and InDesign. I even sat through a weekend-long workshop on Studio Lighting techniques because my knowledge of studio lighting for still work was woefully outdated. I took 56 pages of notes during that weekend!
I've been thinking of giving back to them by teaching a jewelry-making course with them if they think there is a big enough audience world-wide for such a thing. I know they've done workshops in watercolor...
Tomorrow is a workshop for mastering the Canon T2i. If you've been thinking of purchasing a Canon Rebel T2i, you might want to tune in, but remember to register first by going to FREE Workshop: Canon Rebel T2i / 550D - DSLR Fast Start
. I'm a big fan of these people and have learned some great stuff from them over the past few years, namely how to create iPhone applications, a refresher course on CSS, and how to up my skills in Photoshop and InDesign. I even sat through a weekend-long workshop on Studio Lighting techniques because my knowledge of studio lighting for still work was woefully outdated. I took 56 pages of notes during that weekend!
I've been thinking of giving back to them by teaching a jewelry-making course with them if they think there is a big enough audience world-wide for such a thing. I know they've done workshops in watercolor...
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Annika1
I'm possibly the oldest grad student in this department at Stony Brook University. Yup, older than God. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t blissing out creating something or another. I’m passionately intrigued by glassblowing , holography, pinhole photography, marbling paper and silk, calligraphy, watercolors, bookbinding, medieval illumination, and jewelry design; it took me a couple of decades to realize I was an interdisciplinary artist. Who wants to wallow in artistic monogamy anyway?
I've been through several incarnations career wise, from film producer/editor to Website Manager at Microsoft, to jewelry crafts book author and now as a candidate for the MFA in Dramaturgy at SBU.
Yup, still leading a remarkable life.
I've been through several incarnations career wise, from film producer/editor to Website Manager at Microsoft, to jewelry crafts book author and now as a candidate for the MFA in Dramaturgy at SBU.
Yup, still leading a remarkable life.
Lately I’ve been fascinated by spool knitting thin-gauge copper wire (28 to 32) and have been cranking out jewelry pieces and household items like beaded wire lampshades. I’ve got this current obsession to create new fabrics in my life, stringing elements together in a continuum that keeps going and going.Thinking about using this wire mesh fabric for the inset panels down the front of Elizabethan gowns, or perhaps using freeform lace like this panel:
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Waylon 2
And I got to see the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers annual winter concert again last night! It was as good as last time, and pretty similar. I’m pretty sure Louis Mofsie can moderate it in his sleep. But what were new (at least to me) this year were the storytellers – Elvira and Hortensia
Like a painter can learn about her craft by looking at paintings, or a musician about his by listening to somebody else play, I love to see other people tell stories. It seems like here in the SBU theater department there’s a huge focus on strong and exciting visual staging. But, when I see other storytellers perform, I’m reminded that a good and charismatic performer with a simple and subdued backdrop is really all you need for compelling staging. Elvira and Hortensia’s strongest visuals came from their acting out their stories on stage. They did have some augmenting staging from their Mexican dresses – indicative of their people, and the Northwest-patterned blanket hanging in the back, left over from the Caribou dance at the top of the evening.
So I’m not as drawn to vivid visuals as many of my colleagues here at Stony Brook. But I do wonder what all my options are in terms of the subtle staging that I prefer. That is the major reason that I’m in Philip’s class: while I may not be sold on his affinity for the internet and other new media, I do see in it a potential to strengthen the theatricality of my own storytelling. Last semester I used backdrop projections of old family photos from the
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Waylon 1
I just got started looking at grants on COS this morning. This grant-writing aspect of the course is a surprise for me – a welcome surprise. When I was in San Diego with “Stories of Our People,” my collaborator Julian Lang said something that I’ve been thinking about since. He said, “Every artist needs a business wing to their operation.” It makes sense, I’d just never thought of it that way before. Julian’s an expert, or course – he’s the one that wrangled up the funding for our airfare to get to San Diego, and he’s an expert on finding grants to fund his various projects. But where am I to learn these lucrative skills?
I got on to Solar this winter and thought about changing my schedule around to take a small business start-up class here at SBU. But they didn’t offer that exact thing, and the closest alternatives required me to be a business student. So no dice there. Then I got a little frustrated at our program. Don’t get me wrong, the theory and practice classes are useful, and they get me started on some neat projects like “Stories of Our People.” But if we don’t know how to fund ourselves then we’re going to end up folding sweaters at Bloomingdales, and then what’s the point of grad school? I thought, “What our program really needs is a business class.” So imagine my delight when Philip tells us that we’re going to learn how to write grants in his class!
But, returning to COS, I did my initial searches on “Native theatre,” and “Native theater,” and “Native (or) Native American (or) Indian storytelling,” and “folk (or) ethnic performance.” There’s a lot of interesting possibilities, but one in particular looks pretty enticing. It’s an “Expressive Arts” grant through NMAI for collaborations between Native artists for up to $10,000. If Julian and I decided to continue with “Stories” and start dramatizing other families’ oral histories along California State Highway 96, this could just be the dollars to do it.
I got on to Solar this winter and thought about changing my schedule around to take a small business start-up class here at SBU. But they didn’t offer that exact thing, and the closest alternatives required me to be a business student. So no dice there. Then I got a little frustrated at our program. Don’t get me wrong, the theory and practice classes are useful, and they get me started on some neat projects like “Stories of Our People.” But if we don’t know how to fund ourselves then we’re going to end up folding sweaters at Bloomingdales, and then what’s the point of grad school? I thought, “What our program really needs is a business class.” So imagine my delight when Philip tells us that we’re going to learn how to write grants in his class!
But, returning to COS, I did my initial searches on “Native theatre,” and “Native theater,” and “Native (or) Native American (or) Indian storytelling,” and “folk (or) ethnic performance.” There’s a lot of interesting possibilities, but one in particular looks pretty enticing. It’s an “Expressive Arts” grant through NMAI for collaborations between Native artists for up to $10,000. If Julian and I decided to continue with “Stories” and start dramatizing other families’ oral histories along California State Highway 96, this could just be the dollars to do it.
Waylon 1
I just got started looking at grants on COS this morning. This grant-writing aspect of the course is a surprise for me – a welcome surprise. When I was in San Diego with “Stories of Our People,” my collaborator Julian Lang said something that I’ve been thinking about since. He said, “Every artist needs a business wing to their operation.” It makes sense, I’d just never thought of it that way before. Julian’s an expert, or course – he’s the one that wrangled up the funding for our airfare to get to San Diego, and he’s an expert on finding grants to fund his various projects. But where am I to learn these lucrative skills?
I got on to Solar this winter and thought about changing my schedule around to take a small business start-up class here at SBU. But they didn’t offer that exact thing, and the closest alternatives required me to be a business student. So no dice there. Then I got a little frustrated at our program. Don’t get me wrong, the theory and practice classes are useful, and they get me started on some neat projects like “Stories of Our People.” But if we don’t know how to fund ourselves then we’re going to end up folding sweaters at Bloomingdales, and then what’s the point of grad school? I thought, “What our program really needs is a business class.” So imagine my delight when Philip tells us that we’re going to learn how to write grants in his class!
But, returning to COS, I did my initial searches on “Native theatre,” and “Native theater,” and “Native (or) Native American (or) Indian storytelling,” and “folk (or) ethnic performance.” There’s a lot of interesting possibilities, but one in particular looks pretty enticing. It’s an “Expressive Arts” grant through NMAI for collaborations between Native artists for up to $10,000. If Julian and I decided to continue with “Stories” and start dramatizing other families’ oral histories along California State Highway 96, this could just be the dollars to do it.
I got on to Solar this winter and thought about changing my schedule around to take a small business start-up class here at SBU. But they didn’t offer that exact thing, and the closest alternatives required me to be a business student. So no dice there. Then I got a little frustrated at our program. Don’t get me wrong, the theory and practice classes are useful, and they get me started on some neat projects like “Stories of Our People.” But if we don’t know how to fund ourselves then we’re going to end up folding sweaters at Bloomingdales, and then what’s the point of grad school? I thought, “What our program really needs is a business class.” So imagine my delight when Philip tells us that we’re going to learn how to write grants in his class!
But, returning to COS, I did my initial searches on “Native theatre,” and “Native theater,” and “Native (or) Native American (or) Indian storytelling,” and “folk (or) ethnic performance.” There’s a lot of interesting possibilities, but one in particular looks pretty enticing. It’s an “Expressive Arts” grant through NMAI for collaborations between Native artists for up to $10,000. If Julian and I decided to continue with “Stories” and start dramatizing other families’ oral histories along California State Highway 96, this could just be the dollars to do it.
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