Saturdays tho

Saturday: I wake up around 6:45; music, coffee. I fill three, 8 ½ x 11 inch pages with stream-of-consciousness, non judgmental reflections and ideation, a discipline picked up from The Artist’s Way over two decades ago. Next, Pilates. I dress and head out. I immediately look around to see how S Broadway has transformed overnight. The boarded up storefront across the street is plastered with posters on its tattered facade and I see that a chunk has been torn away, leaving the word FRIEND, a pair of lips, and a colorful paper array. I open Instagram, snap, and share the image to my Stories. I continue towards the Los Angeles Athletic Club, my route determined by the changing lights, scanning my environment as I walk. I notice a swishy new Heavy tag. Snap, share. The marble corner of the building on Hill and 6th has a crack that has been “repaired” with blue tape. Snap, share. 

Pilates class is challenging (it never gets easier, but I get stronger). l head home, my endorphins are pumping, the neighborhood is too—businesses are opening and people are milling about. The exercise has sharpened my perception. I marvel at the beauty and banality of this neighborhood I love so much. I proceed down an alley and notice the buildings create negative space in the sky. Snap, type “Hi.” in the sky space, share.

My #DTLAWalkabout (as I tag it) is studio research. And it will be a busy day in my home studio. First up is continuing a collage project that reimagines ancient marbles using images extracted from a Sotheby’s auction catalog. As I’m cutting and shuffling paper around I reflect on the problematic nature of the sculpture. My reworked configurations place it in a new context without silencing its fraught origins. A Janus coin in the catalog has me thinking of Janus words. I switch my attention to a series of diaristic paintings (begun this winter) focusing on language. Just as my collages combine paper to create new forms, in the paintings I combine disparate words, exploring and construing perception. 

I pause to make notes on a new project that encompasses various aspects of my practice: the extensive DTLA photographic archive, collage, and word paintings. I sketch ideas for life-sized collaged monuments on downtown photographs, using the language of my journals and paintings as context and a backdrop. My love of publishing also enters the mix: incorporating studio documentation and finished work into a zine or book. 

It’s early afternoon. I wrap up and transition to the remainder of the day: hopping on the 60 bus to catch an artist’s talk on S Santa Fe and visiting exhibitions. Later I’ll go to a couple of openings, which includes celebrating the work of friends and peers. This too is studio research. Both in its parts and as a whole, this Saturday is the embodiment of my practice: it is my way of seeing, making, and being in the world as an artist.

This 500 word essay was written for my application to the Quinn Emanuel Artist-In-Residence Program. Instead of proposing a specific project or using art speak to describe my work, I opted to share my Saturday (which happened to be the day before the application was due.)