Summer camp is almost over, and i'm already looking forward to winter. How beautiful is that balloon/postcard performance? Ready for sweater weather, though.
that reminds me..
http://writing.calarts.edu/blog/2011-may-11/adventures-perversity
i want to do more of these readings.
making mistakes, fucking up, and figuring things out the hard way.
Tonight i went to Skate Video Night, part of the Geffen's new show. There was a panel made up of: Spike Jonze, Stacy Peralta, Lance Mountain, Ed Templeton, Greg Hunt, Ty Evans, Rick Howard, Aaron Meza and Tobin Yelland.
When asked about why skate videos have kept footage of the riders falling and goofing off, Stacy Peralta said,"We had the power to wreck skateboarding or empower kids."
I think a lot about the importance of making mistakes, fucking up, and figuring things out the hard way. I guess that's why I like skate videos; yeah, you're going to see amazing tricks, but you're also going to watch the same athletes goofing off and falling down. Getting it wrong is not just acknowledged, but celebrated as an integral part of learning.
As a kid, I remember focusing so hard on getting the right answer, and pushing myself to never make mistakes. I definitely feel those moments when a skater pushes himself to the point of breaking his board. But the fact that those moments are documented and put into a sometimes totally polished video is not just refreshing, it's illuminating.
It seems like the more I think about something, the more it tends to pop up in random places. Here's a link to this TED lecture trent and i watched on being wrong:
http://www.ted.com/talks/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong.html
During camp last year, I realized how debilitating it is for a kid to always feel the need to find the "correct" answer to a problem. For one of our projects, we made our own islands and used craft materials to furnish them according to what would comprise our ideal island. For many of the children, it was difficult at first to use the materials as something other than what they knew the objects were. As the project progressed, imagination took over, and the fear of "misusing" the objects was thrown aside. I noticed one little girl cutting blue circles out of paper and sticking them onto stretched cotton balls. I said, "Are those polka-dotted clouds?" (my adult mind was totally having a hollow-face illusion moment!) The little girl replied, "No, I tried to cut holes but it looked stupid, so I made the holes in the clouds where the sky pokes through!"
By fearlessly working against herself, practicing and experimenting, the girl figured out a way to represent the part of clouds that she found interesting. It reminds me of the shots in Yeah Right! with the invisible skateboards; with anything there's a lot of hard work and practice involved, but it's good to get it wrong and keep going.
adventures in perversity
I've been working with Maggie Nelson to create a reading at the Center, above is the poster I made for it. I am so excited to work with Maggie, as she was one of the most invested CalArts faculty members, and a real guide in helping me shape my practice. If you haven't read her work, I encourage you to pick up Something Bright, Then Holes..or any of her work really. here's an interview.
and, to contribute to today's poetry theme, here's an excerpt from some robert creeley i've been reading..
This early still sunless morning when a chair’s
creak translates to cat’s cry a blackness still
out the window might be apparent night when the
house still sleeping behind me seems a bag of
immense empty silence and I feel the children
still breathing still shifting their dreams an
enigma will soon arrive here and the loved one
centers all in her heavy sleeping arm out the
leg pushed down bedclothes this body unseen un-
known placed out there in night I can feel all
about me still sitting in this small spare pool of
light watching the letters the words try to speak.
(from Helsinki Window)
Morning Playground
I lay 4x6 photographs down next to each other until I feel like i've found the image. I'm not actively trying to create stories. It's funny how the brain intuitively wants to make a story though, right?
The top photograph is from the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic.
The bottom photograph I took of a child playing under a tree in Prague, Czech Republic.
images from winter camp
Winter camp went so well this year, it was the first time we sold out and the kids (and faculty!) had the best week ever. Here's some pictures:
Our fantastic teaching staff!
Such a great project.
During the final performance, campers acted out a play they wrote about nature and the city, based on one of the thematic days. Above, the boys are being cranes.
Campers built all their props, like this miniature city.
Showing off our new volcano dance.
Jemima Wyman and Brooke Sauer led the camp this winter, can't wait for them to return this summer!
One of the campers next to his sunprint.
Bethesda
The comic book I made at my Hambidge Residency last year is available online at:
Myth & Infrastructures: Miwa Matreyek
photo credit: Scott Groller
Myth and Infrastructure 4 minute excerpts from Miwa Matreyek on Vimeo.
and an interview:http://larecord.com/interviews/2010/08/09/miwa-matreyek-illusion-and-non-illusion
Miwa responding during a Q&A after one of her 3 performances at the Center
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