New York Mills: Day 20

I don’t have many days left.
My progress here is all right, but I feel that I am 3 to 5 days behind.Most likely I can nail down another piece in next 48 hours, so I am all right. And I came up with a couple of fine ideas for next projects. So, I am content in general, however another part of me saying “You, poky monkey!.” I have to say that choosing my avatar as a possum for a few days was not brilliant. I was poky. Now I am a black panther.By the way, I seriously recommend you to imagine yourself as wild animal. I am aware that you might think I am wacky, which I don’t deny, but this animal thing can bring you positive attitude and make you happy.

Yesterday, I left the studio at 4am after done with the green piece at 3, left studio at 4am. I spend about 15 minutes to look up the sky to see Leonid Meteor Shower. I did not see the metro shower, I saw metro drip. I went to bed at 5am. It seems like I am shifting one hour every day, go to bed one hour late, and wake up one hour late than day before. I wonder what my true nature of sleeping pattern is. In Brooklyn, I go to bed 12, because I turn in to pumpkin at the midnight.

Finished 3:32AM 11/17/09.

And another piece I finished other day. This is #3 of my elements series. This one called "Air and Water."
Scale: 8"w x 24" h
Media: Acrylic on canvas

close up

close up

Other day I did my laundry.
$1.50 the total amount of my laundry, here in New York Mills, MN. Yes, that's included dryer! By the way, I tell you one of many my secrets. I wear leather pants, so that I have less laundry to do. (Well, very fortunately, my East Asian body does not creates odor in general.)
They have a lot of machines at this place. But I wonder who would use this facility. I have not seen the people using this place yet. (Not like I am monitoring them. However in my neighborhood, there were always people at anytime of the day or week.)
The following is the profile of people who would use this place: hunters whose partners refuse to let them use the home machine for their dirty soiled hunting gears, sexually active teen ager who need to hind the evidence from the parents, cheating spouse who need to hind the evidence, a serial killer with a spouse at home who need to hind the evidence, Us, the artist in residents at the center.
It is located right next to the center, so it was super convenient for me. Also, you can get a number for friendly Guinea pigs to purchase.

Today's Food

My own Tarako pasta.

This salmon pate in tube from Sweden contains salmon, cod roe, saithe roe. (Those of you, who do not know what Tarako is, watch this video.) (All though you may be still puzzled more after watching the video.)
The center sells some food items from Finland because this town is proud of its Finish heritage. But I guess the center also sales other Scandinavian stuff. You can get his tube at Ikea, if you are curious.

New York Mills: Day 13

New Configuration of my studio: I can just move stuff around. I like "adding new table method."

Today's food

Today's drawing

Yesterday's sky

I taught kids today. I conducted a little painting session. I asked them to make colors from primary colors, and asked them to make different valued mixing with water, and asked them to paint what they really like. Some kid painted an i-pod, some kid painted a basketball. I think they enjoyed.

New York Mills: Day 12

Today was very sunny outside. Gee, it's been 13 days I came here, and today was 12th active day.

My progress has been slow until today. 17 more active days left. I have clear objectives now.


Things I learned today about country life.

#1 You do not use white toilet paper when you are on a field during hunting season.

#2 You do go around woods wearing white.


Don't worry about me my dear friend, I don't go beyond two points, my house and studio. As I said before, first thing I do in a morning is to cook my meal for lunch and dinner.

This is what I made today for food.

And this is what I made for this afternoon.

New York Mills: Day 8

My own private prairie home companion show:

The NY Mills Regional Cultural Center is the active place.

They have some kind of activity in every other day.

Monday night is the knitting night, Tuesday and Thursday have dance classes, and they have a concert on Saturday.

So, the last nigh there was concert with a folk group duo named “Still on a Hill”, Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna from Arkansas.

Website: http://www.stillonthehill.com
My space: http://www.myspace.com/stillonthehill

I was at upstairs during the concert but it was as if I was at the balcony area in a theater, so I could listen all music while I was busy working on my piece.

The duo was very engaging on the stage. There were audience participation and seemed to have a lot of visual aids. (I was listening but was not looking.) They have a lot of stories to tell.

Here is some song they played that I found on youtube. They meet up with local characters and they write song about them. This was a song about a man in Houston.

What most intrigued me was the story about an old man, Mr. Ed Stilley, who decided to make installments and give them to kids after having the vision in near death, being a giants tortoise with kids on his back and the god told him that the god will let him go the other side of the ashore if old man promise to do good for others. The duo met him, and they made a song. They played with this old man’s installments that he made. Here is the image of this old man from the duo’s webpage. (This page did not show in Mozilla, so use explore.)

http://www.stillonthehill.com/pictures/edstilley/intro.html

I came down after the show and chat with the duo a little bit. They projected their warmness. I told them some unknown reason, my 2/3 musician friends are blue grass, neo-county people. They mention their friends’ name who sounded like have music joint in Dumbo.

While I was hearing audiences’ laughter, I was thinking that “wow, this is like my personal prairie home companion show.”

I am enjoying my stay.

Here is the image of #2, a study piece for my #3.

Mixed media on paper

I enjoy the silence surrounds me in town.

New York Mills: Day 7

I take the pink souped- up bicycle from the cute yellow house to the studio at the center every day. (Look at photos on Day 4) I have a very short commute, and I make lunch and dinner in a morning and stay at the studio till I am no longer functional to continue to do anything. Here is the documentation of my commute in this morning. I encounter to the train which I am enjoying hearing the sound.



Normally I wake up in between 7-9, and spend one hour for making lunch and dinner while also making breakfast and having tea and coffee. Today, I made pasta.



And I stay at my studio until very late. I enjoy riding back a bike home on the totally silent road with absolutely no car.

New York Mills: Day 6

Today's free style haiku: MMs are not nuts , yo! anyone wants them?

I conducted my first outreach workshop to about 28 of 10th graders. I ask them to do a several drawing projects, include the classic methods such as a blind drawing and not pencil lifting drawing. Kids responded well, but I noticed that their attention span is rather short, so I needed to assign new projects in short period of times. Patient is virtue in creating visual art. Repetitive activities give perfections. I have to convey this concept to kids to make them better artists.

Anyway, I enjoyed doing my workshop. I will work with them 3 times more. And tomorrow I will teach at another school.

After my class, the coordinator lady from the center took me to the bigger supermarket. I bought some bulk stuff. One of them was (I thought) nuts mix. A minute ago, I popped them into my mouth and I discovered they had a lot of MMs. I had to remove them. And I also notice that they are only peanuts and raisins, no other kinds of nuts. So, that’s the story behind my haiku today. She also took me to her house to show me her flock of hens and she gave me still warm eggs. (See image and Video below)

I tried to send out some mail today. I went to the post office crossing a big parking lot from the center. But it was closed. 1-2pm lunch hours. The place must be run by one person or two crews. Rain started hard, so I don’t think I will go to the post office again.

Yesterday, I finished a very first piece; a small painting. I actually feel not comfortable with this piece as wearing new shoes. The subject matter is not new, colors are mine, but mannerism is not typical of my works. This piece can be the new departure. This can be one shot mutation. I don’t know yet. What I know is that I am happy that this happened.

My very new piece:

A babe I met (bottom)

New York Mills: Day 5

My New York Mills, MN, Studio

Free style haike of the day: Found cat hairs on my gears, I miss my kitty

I was actually very nervous about coming to this residency because I would be alone here. I have done solo residency before and I did not enjoy so much. At my last solo residency, I did not get to know people there until last 3 days of my stay. I was at off season in the summer vacationing village. 2/3 of businesses were not even operating. It was so cold. No one was on a street. Only person who talked to me was a village drunk guy who hanged around near a bridge. (He said, out of blue, he would beat up guys who would mess with me because they don't like my kind.) I was not quite sure what he meant by my kind, but I think he meant by Asian. I was 98% white place. I enjoyed his friendship. Without him I had to talk to frogs. And they would only talk to girl frogs anyway. (It was very cold, but in my 3rd week, they started to come out.) There was no cell phone reception. I had to go walk about 35 minutes on a hiking trail to get reception. I had managed to create many good pieces, however I was not happy, in fact I was rather miserable till the last 3 days that I finally met nice people. I also have to mention that I had a worst burger in my life which was a crime against the cattle that died for me at a restaurant in this village. It is rather difficult to screw up making burgers.

But this time, I am totally cool, cool as a cucumber. And I have to say the main reason I am cool is that I have a lap top with internet connections. Face Book probably only existed in Ivies' Net works when I was in a last solo residency, but now I can see what my friends are up to. I can write blog and tell you my tales. I have good cell receptions. I don't have to go walk for 35 minutes or standing in a rain in a particular spot on middle of the road which I have done in a different residency. I am still connected.

Point two is that I had met people already. I was invited to join the card game called 31 at the municipal run bar and liquor shop. The young waitress did not know what I was asking first, but she managed to find Guinness for me. (I was not sure if she did not understand my accent or she was just too young to know all products, but first she said they don't have Guinness.) And a lady in our group bought my drink and she paid $5 with her drink and received changes with paper bills. I was amazed. I had never played this game called 31, so two people in our group helped me up. I was still not sure what I was doing, but I lasted for while. (You have 3 lives to play and person with lowest hands loses one at an each round.) At the end, every one offered me a ride back which first I declined as I just need to walk 3 blocks anyways, but since it was raining, I accepted from the same lady who bought me a drink. I had a bit of trouble opening the door since it was the second time I unlocked the door. She waited for me to make sure that I entered a house before she drove away. I appreciated that I was taking care of.

Let's get back to the mine subject that I was talking about; reasons I am fine with the situation.

I also have a great space as well here. (As you can see on the top of this page.) Once I read or heard that Picasso bought a castle, and he just filled up one room to another when he ran out spaces. At this residency, I can just add one table to another if I run out the space. Compare this with my work space in Brooklyn! You see, why I am so chilled.

My Brooklyn studio