It’s odd. Karen and I never really had sides of the bed early in our relationship. At some point it just sort of evolved that I slept on the left and Karen on the right. In our new house that means that Karen is always next to our door. The problem is that we leave the door open so we can hear Teagan. On top of that Teagan listens to music all night which can easily be heard with our bedroom door open. But wait there’s more— outside of the window that faces Karen’s side of the bed is a rather large, bright orange street light (that was burned out until recently). All of this has, in Karen’s eyes, resulted in her getting significantly less good sleep than me. So last night we spun our bed around (which we had to do because our mattress has a different firmness on each half) and I slept on Karen’s side of the bed. Needless to say I slept horribly and woke up feeling less rested, slightly grumpy and reluctant to get out of bed. Maybe Karen was right.
I wonder how I’m going to convince her to switch back?
Filed under: family, life, personal., random, thoughts
February.27.2008. • 5:40 PM
Despite the rough beginning to our week, when we woke to a house with no heat as a result of our aging boiler igniter and motor,progress on the house is marching on and its beginning to look like a whole new house. The siding on the front of our house is done, replacement windows are in and despite the 4” of new snow last night and the on and off snow/rain all day I came home this afternoon and was greeted with a view of our new metal roof on the addition (2nd pic).Now work is beginning on the inside— tomorrow the studio gets a skylight and the lower roof gets finished. We have just about a month and a half before its all done and I can’t wait!
Filed under: family, kevin + karen townsend, life, maine, personal., pics, portland., thoughts , home, home improvement, life, personal.
November.14.2007. • 11:40 AM
Lately Teagan has been having some “potty issues” and our life has been way too focused on poo so this is my way of venting.
Filed under: family, life, personal., random, thoughts , family, fun, personal., poo, toys
November.4.2007. • 3:49 PM
I love the idea that graffiti artists are thinking greener and as a result raising new questions about the line between vandalism and artistic expression. By using a glorified version of the “wash me” graffiti usually found on the back of dirt and dust covered 18 wheelers, artists like Alexandre Orion (see a video of him in action here) or Moose, of Symbollix, make their art by cleaning surfaces covered in dirt, dust, grime and soot or power-washing dirty side walks. This kind of graffiti raises questions in the minds of the anti-graffiti activists. Questions like: Is the selective cleaning of a dirty surface vandalism? or Is it possible to fine or otherwise penalize someone who has done no damage to public property?
The practice of reverse graffiti is not new, just think of all of the times you drew on a dust covered surface with your finger. But these guys are stepping the concept up a bit and using it to produce work that is evocative on both the aesthetic and social level.
Then there is Edina Tokodi, who I learned about on Inhabitiat and whose work is pictured above. Edina employs a different method of green graffiti that is literally green in both form and content. Her method seems less like graffiti and more like site specific installation art that relies on the contrast between her medium, her imagery and the setting in which they are displayed to draw attention to the insufficient relationship between its city dwelling audience and nature.
This is the kind of thing I used to love to talk to my Humanities classes about when asking them: What is the role of the artist in contemporary society?
Filed under: art+photography, artsy., pics, random, thoughts , art, graffiti, green
November.1.2007. • 11:29 AM
I am sitting on the couch, unwinding after class, watching a new show on Discovery called Last one standing. The show is focused on 6 guys who are immersing themselves in tribal cultures from around the world, from South America to Africa, in order to learn how to fight or compete in each tribes traditional style. Before the actual show begins a warning crosses the screen “WARNING:Viewer discretion advised This show contains scenes depicting indigenous nudity and and graphic content.”
Really?
Indigenous nudity.
Interesting— I regularly experience indigenous nudity in my shower as well and my bedroom.
Filed under: random, thoughts
October.6.2007. • 9:00 AM
October.5.2007. • 10:41 AM
Last night I had an anxiety dream, this is the second one I’ve had in the last 2 weeks and before these it had been years since I had one last. Both of these dreams involve losing a tooth. I know that this is one of the archetypal dreams that Freud talks about, meaning that it is a fairly common dream occurrence. I have read and heard all kinds of interpretations of this kind of dream ranging from being concerned with appearance, potency or finances— but none of these make sense with my dream.
In my dream I am in my studio, frantically working. A large digital clock with glowing red numbers ticking backwards towards zero is hung on the wall. I specifically remember the time remaining as being 90 minutes and forty three seconds (90:43). Although I am alone I am aware that I only have this amount of time to finish the work for a critique— apparently I am in grad school in this dream. I look around my studio and there is nothing that resembles finished work, only sketches and ideas on paper litter the tables. I remember feeling nauseous and anxious with my heart thrumming wildly in my chest. I hear a knock on the door and standing there are my wife and daughter. My feelings of anxiety are replaced by a feeling of guilt, they are coming to get me… I am supposed to be done and ready to go do something with them.
The dream jumps at this point and I am walking Karen and Teagan to the car, Karen is reassuring me, telling me to take my time and not to worry. As they get in the car I feel a pain in my right top molar and realize I am clenching my teeth (both in the dream and in my sleep). When I realize I am clenching my teeth in the dream I stop, feeling my tooth loosen from my gums as I release the tension of my jaw muscles. The tooth falls slightly in my mouth and clicks as it touches the corresponding tooth under it, still clinging slightly to the upper gum. A feeling of panic returns as I reach in my mouth to pull out the tooth. In order to extricate it I must almost tear it out, the action is accompanied by a brief searing pain. Once out, I stare at the tooth and notice a fragment of red gum tissue adhering to one side of the tooth. I immediately feel flush, and can feel blood in my mouth. As I walk alone back towards my studio I stop every few feet to spit out the blood and gently probe the void in my mouth with the tip of my tongue. After the third or 4th stop I feel something sharp in the void, causing me to examine the tooth again. This time when I look at it I notice that it is missing the roots. Instead of being a whole tooth it is just the cap of a tooth, hollow inside with almost architectural supports that are distinctly untooth-like. As I keep looking closer I feel a jolt of current running through my body. I am looking at the tooth that has come from my mouth and I am seeing the shapes and structures that I am currently using in my work (outside of the dream)
Again the dream cuts and I am back in my studio the clock now reads 60:13 and is still counting backwards. The panic is back and I feel like I am sweating. I actually feel like I am on the verge of tears feeling in adequate as a father and as an artist and it is at this point that I wake up, soaked with sweat, heart throbbing and feeling as if I am on the verge of gushing tears.
One of the things I learned in the dreaming class I took in college is that the way you feel in the dream is often more important than what is actually happening. In this case: anxiety, fear and profound lack of confidence and competence both as a father and as an artist pretty much sum it up. The definition of the word ‘tooth’ combined with my feelings and the scenario in the dream make me feel like this dream is mirroring a situation in my waking life. The loss of tooth would leave me at a disadvantaged to process food and get what I need to sustain myself. If the metaphor extends outside the dream maybe my fear is literally that of not being able to do something that I feel is necessary to me. In my class I also learned that teeth dreams are often about transitions, as we lose our teeth as part of our transition to adolescence and ultimately adulthood . I think this is ultimately all about my decision to pursue a grad degree beginning in the summer. I guess somewhere inside me I am afraid of failing, afraid that I may not have what it takes to do what I need to do. It seems that I am concerned about having time, confidence and resolve to be able to be the father I need to be and the artist I want to be simultaneously. I noticed that I also used the word ‘guilt’ to describe my feelings at one point in the dream, and I do feel a bit of guilt/selfishness when I think about grad school— especially from a financial stand point. For me this dream is reassurance in an odd way. If this situation has made its way to my dreams in such a strong way it makes me more sure that it is something I must do, and these fears and anxieties are important things to not only acknowledge but also to address as I move closer to making the dream of grad school a reality.
Filed under: artsy., family, life, personal., random, thoughts , anxiety, art, control, dreams, fear, grad school, interpretation, teeth
October.4.2007. • 10:50 AM
So we’ve had our Deisel bug (see earlier post) for just over a week and a half and I am having fun driving it. But the thing that is surprising to me is just what 45+ miles to the gallon feels like in practical usage. I filled the car up on the night we bought it (11 days ago) I have driven it about 230 miles in and around town as well as on the highway and I still have half a tank of gas left. I must admit, my inner geek is eager to calculate the actual gas mileage when I refill the tank.
Filed under: life, portland., random, thoughts, travel
So I was gently surfing last night and happened to catch a glimpse of something that might make my dream of owning a mini cooper much more realistic and practical.
Filed under: art+photography, family, life, personal., random, thoughts
It has been a while since I took the time to post or for that matter to write anything. For the last few weeks we have been running around and traveling— and it has been exhausting. Over the last few weeks we spent so much time in the car with 2, 14 hour round trips to NJ and then 30 minutes in the car to go anywhere or do anything while we were there. Every trip back to NJ just reaffirms our decision to move to Portland and reclaim OUR lives.
Filed under: family, maine, personal., portland., thoughts
