When the News comes to your studio...

So Brooke and Eric of Fox News "Better" Portland TV, along with a fairly large fancy camera and microphone clip just left my studio.
The marketing/advertising guy at the Saturday Market set it up to come look at my work and how I do what I do. He says I'm an asset to the market, isn't that sweet, I'm sure he says that to all the vendors...
It was an interesting interview. Not REALLY interesting, but a funny experience for sure.
They made some strange choices as to what to talk about in my opinion, but they are the editors, so I let them to it.
It's funny to see "TV" in action. They really know that they need to make a 'story' and to have an 'angle'. So they ask you to do things, and you say 'oh, okay yeah, i can do that I guess'.
I wish I had known when the camera was off or on, and when they were asking a question that they wanted to record or were just fishing for a line or something.
We had a lot more interesting things to talk about when the camera was off its tripod in my view, but, that's perhaps not what 3 minute afternoon news segments are really all about.
I'm glad I didn't make any large gaffs though, except for a stutter or two, and generally not being my best fluid self.
I'll be as intrigued as anyone to see how it all edits out in the end.
I think in the end, it will just be another 'lets poke the monkey making art, ask him questions and see if he flings poo in response' type of thing. It's what the masses want. Not most of my customers mind you, just the 'masses'. The people who just walk around waiting for entertainment to hit them in the face.

Oh and Mike, they MADE me play the book on tape I had which was Metal Swarm, book 6 in the Saga of Seven Suns series.
-sigh-
I told them 'we could just put on OPB?', but they wanted the dorky fantasy novel going while I worked. Great. But damnit if I can't say that I didn't have it right there, so I suppose I am to blame.

anyway, I make it sound like it was awful, which it wasn't, I'll post a link here when it airs and is put up online!

Ah Portland, let me count the ways...

Let me set the scene for you -
I'm chatting with another vendor in the aisles of Saturday Market today. It's a beautiful Fall day actually, a little bit of chill in the air, but nice. People around are the normal Market flair - a mix of middle class tourists, young college kids out checking out the town, local people aimlessly walking...
We are talking about the slowness of the day and how we can't wait till closing bell; a guy walks by about twenty feet away with a fairly pronounced limp and seems, by casual glance, a bit worse for wear, but I think very little of this, it doesn't stop conversation, just a background half observation.
We continue with our probably typical 'any office co-worker' conversation, when one of the tallest men I've ever seen comes blazing past us moving as fast as he can with arms outstretched and legs stiff as boards, in an outfit torn and covered in blood with the most vacant yet hungry stare.
A zombie.
It was humorous, and I'll admit a tad bit scary to come out of nowhere really. Conversation resumes, only now talking about how Halloween IS only a week away; 'are you gonna dress up? go out somewhere?'
'Hey do you hear something?'
A strange low noise in the distance, outside of the Saturday Market boundary.
It gets a little louder but still low and ominous like a moan. Or maybe many moans...
It gets loud enough that you know it must be within the Sat Market boundary now, and coming this way. You can hear lots of shuffling steps, odd rhythms, definitely moans, groans, 'ArrRGhS' and 'rrraaaAAAAA's.
Holy Crap, the Zombie Apocalypse has landed in Portland!!
And it's fairly true, at least A THOUSAND zombies paraded themselves, in a very odd, yet very coordinated zombie way, across the Market grounds today.
All were quite done up in blood and gore and pasty body paint (or just pasty w/o paint) and torn clothing. There were handicapped zombies, zombie pets, half naked zombies, zombies in pajamas, doctor, nurse, construction, and office zombies. It was quite the scene.
My favorite part was how our local security official in charge of taking care of such 'ruffians' was trying to herd the hundreds of zombies, who are in full 'act brain dead' mode, away from the market grounds.
Just a simple waving of "Move along zombies. Keep over there please", and if one 'shuffles' over a little close, push them back to the main line. Quite amiable really, zombies. I thought you would need a baseball bat or something, but a simple push in the right direction works just fine. Like their really just drunk, not undead.
Love it.

I am not an Internet Browser

While I am in my booth selling at the Market, I often get people asking questions, which is, of course, a very very normal thing.
But sometimes you get someone quite happy and excitedly comes in, asking something like "Where ever did you come up with a wonderful idea like this?", I begin to tell them my story, but not fifteen seconds into it, they ask another question as if the answer I was giving them was not only too boring for them, but also didn't happen to be coming from a human being that might possibly take offense. I will shake it off and simply start answering the second question, where they do the same damn thing, and even start simply pointing at pieces of jewelry and other shiny things saying "Ooh" and "Aah". At this point I know they will be turning away any second to leave so its really not important to address them with anything that resembles a conversation. They say "Bye" with a smile, and I say "Thanks" and that concludes the experience. Not bad, just weird.

This has definitely happened enough to begin to wonder, and in my wondering I have decided that these people are on the internet, in their mind,, all the time.
They came to my "website" aka booth, clicked on a topic, skimmed the info entirely too quickly to call it reading, clicked on a different link or headline, but none seem to offer a place to settle down in, or give them the necessary sound bite to make them happy, so they simply click on images and other "sparkly" pictures until they realized that there is another "website" just a couple steps away.
I'm sure there is something going on in the brain that sparks a neuron or dopamine hit when we encounter something new, but that learning about it does not give the same hit. So without knowing it, they are simply going from new thing to new thing like a drug or gambling addict.

This might be taking it a little too far. I mean I could just say that they get distracted easily and that's all.
But honestly I just really like the idea that the are on the internet in their mind a lot more. :)

Air, Work, and Plants :)

With 90 degree temps recently, and with three 100 degree days on the horizon, I thought it was finally time to break down and put my air conditioner in the studio.
It took a couple hours this morning to kludge it into place, but its stable and will do its job efficiently - if perhaps a little ghetto.
Totally worth it.
Also worth it? Making milkshakes for dinner with friends!

Without sounding too much like I'm complaining about bruises when its raining gold nuggets - with the recent success I've been having at the market I realized that I have not had a day off since the last weekend of June. That makes roughly thirty days of at least 5 hours of work a day, and many 8-10 hour days. And with the heat we are having, I'm just kinda feeling a bit tired O_o
But, work goes on! I refuse to let sales go by when the iron is hot as they say!

I thought, as usual, I would post some more garden pics while I'm here.
Enjoy.


New Stonecrop Matrona, in front of Agastache - the peachy orange flowers behind it that smell like mint... you can't smell it?

Ornamental Pepper plant 'Purple Flash'

Mountain Fire Pieris - the new growth begins as a bright red, in the spring it has little creamy yellow bell flowers.

This is a Dahlia actually! Doesn't look like one, but its a hybrid perenial, and has multiple color blossoms in one plant! You can just barely make out another flower starting to bloom behind the peachy one that will be a fuchsia purple. Amazing what meddling in genetics can do.

Purple Coneflower Echinacea with Bee. There are so many bees in my garden, its great. And so many varieties of bee! Mostly they love the Wallflower pictured below this pic, and the Salvia around the garden. It's so great to see bees and butterflies and hummingbirds around. It's sad ever since I drained the pond (too scummy) that there have been less birds. Or the birds come around, land on the edge of the pond, and just kinda wonder where the water went.
Sorry birds! I promise to fix it soon! Just kinda busy right now... :(

African Daisy (only annual I planted) with Wallflower

Agapanthis! Yay! Came back from near death this winter. Such a pretty color to accentuate almost anything I put next to it. I'm so proud of it. Live Strong and Rock on Agi'

Yet more market weirdos

I don't generally try to keep track of the weird things people suggest that I should do with my art. It's something, as an artist, I've gotten used to, that the public likes to look at your work and say "oh, you know what you should do!" As if what you're doing isn't really worth all that and could be better if it had their favorite sports teams colors or the name of their baby on it.
Sometimes they will have an interesting idea, but only a handful of times is it both a good idea and something I am interested in pursuing (these ideas coming almost exclusively from other artists I know and respect).
The majority of the time, its something that makes me question the value of peoples brains and the thoughts within them.
Such as the doozy that I got today.

A tall man with a fanny pack and pony tail (this is not going well for him already) was very kind when he actually asked "can I give you an idea?" I was pleased with his graciousness since, as stated above, it usually comes out of the mouth with a squeal of great pleasure of their own genius, along with a tiny bit of spittle. But this man kind of leaned back, put his finger to his mouth in thought, kept a few seconds for dramatic pause, then announced:
"Swimsuits."
-
-
I beg your pardon?
"Swimsuits! You should make these things you have into swimsuits."
I then explaned how that would be impossible because that I am not actually making fabric here and that the thread I use needs some sort of hard base to wrap around. He leaned back again, looked around, obviously in hard thought, but not confusion. He then informed me that he once saw a bikini made out of guitar picks.
...
Okay you've got me there, I must take back my statement that it's an impossibility, I'm sorry. Yes, I could attach multiple pieces of my work to each other into some kind of form that a person could slip on. But why would I want to? What would posses someone to wear it? And why a swimsuit? I mean my work doesn't exactly lend itself to the thought "oh I really want to immerse this in water!!" No.. No that would be bad. Thank you creepy fanny pack man for showing me your seedy obsession.
He took my card and said he might get in touch with me to get this project going.
Please don't.

Oh I almost forgot! I also got the oddest, most backhanded compliment today. And what makes it worse, is that its the second time I've heard it.
Someone told me that my work looks like something that someone who was incarcerated would make.
Seriously!?! I was told my work looked like prison art a few years back and I've always told people it was the weirdest thing, and now I got it again!?!? WTF
I mean, you're telling me that it looks like work done by murderers, drug addicts, and rapists? Or is it just that my work looks like a form of punishment for those people?
I think it's just an odd offshoot of the comment I get alot "You must have a lot of time on your hands."
Yeah, its just my full time job is all. Look at the crazy artist honey! Give him some bread, see if he talks!
Fuckin Zoo down there.

more market weirdos

If anyone doubts that our emotional responses to specific yet subtle differences in exterior stimuli don't have big psychological differences I pose this to you:

At the market, I have a business card with multiple contact options including my personal cell number. I give out all kinds of information about myself and my product on an hourly basis to anyone who asks, and even to many who don't ask. All this access to semi-private/communal information is not all that distressing once done thousands of times

However when a lady who walks into my booth does not make eye contact with me and goes to my business card and begins to audibly speak my name and phone number and email and such while writing all this down into a notebook, then leaves, without having even acknowledged that I even existed.... well that is a might bit disconcerting!

Oh well. When you start to wonder about your co-workers, just feel glad you don't work with the public. And if you do work with the public - I'm sorry. We are weirdos.

Just in case...

So just in case you ever thought you were "out of the loop" as it goes - maybe you just found out what "twittering" was, or that you still don't know what this FaceBook thingy is all about - worry not, for I met someone today more lost than you or I!
A vendor at the Sat. Market was talking to me about fairly normal everyday conversational things when she told me about a "new" restaurant called McMenamin's (which for all you non-natives around my parts is a Portland mainstay with maybe ten very popular restaurants around) where, and here's the kicker - has something called a "Happy Hour" (and she gave this mimed bunny ears in person) where before dinner time you can get cheap beer and little appitizer like plates of food!
-
-
!
Seriously!?
There was no indication that she was pulling my leg, or that this was some sort of brilliantly subltle sarcasm. In fact she told me that she has been telling all of her tourist customers to go there tonight to experience it first hand.
I asked her how well she was doing today.
Not too well was her response. The customers just aren't that willing to part with their money...

hmmmm. you don't say.

the people I work around.. sheesh.
at least they make me feel like I have a life in comparison.