July 31, 2012
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Everything Smells Like FREEEEEEEDOM!!!!
And so ended both the easiest, yet needlessly stressful job I’ve ever had. With a handshake and a punch of the clock. My co-workers and managers tried to get one last “let’s make RaeRae our slave” weekend out of me, and for that reason I almost didn’t show up to my last night. But, my work ethic won out in the end, and all the cleaning I did seemed more final, more real. “This is the last time I’ll have to mop this floor” “This is the last time I’ll get a second-degree burn from this grill”. I think the weird part about it was that people kept asking me why I was leaving, and I said “I’m moving seven hundred miles away” and it was like I was speaking Greek. No one quits a shitty restaurant job. No one moves out of state. No one tries a brand new life.
Paring down my things has been kind of hard to do. Not because of so many things I want, but so many things I want to throw away, but that need to be stripped down first to become art supplies. Old textbooks. Notebooks. Pretty booze bottles. Clothing. Things that were dumpster-dived but that are too big to fit in the jeep. Being a found-art artist means that everything has potential. I have three boxes full of silk flowers that need to be cut down further. But, I will make this work. On the brightside, there’s little to no furniture, and four months ago we got rid of the bulk of our domestic trappings. So, now, the rest of everything goes in a few suitcases and trunks and fits in the back of the jeep. This all makes me feel like a gypsy, or a refugee. More like a gypsy, as I’m hitting the road by choice.
Comments (4)
I know that found art is probably not a new thing for you, but I didn’t know you were into it. What are some of your influence/inspirations? Do you post pictures of your art anywhere?
@preposterousimagination - Actually, it started several years ago when my friend Jessica and I shared a room at my parents’ house. I was tacking up random things on the walls, just to get rid of all that boring white space. At one point during the summer, I started piecing together collages. From there, I started making “inspiration notebooks” for my writing, and from there it just exploded. Where I actually wound up getting into found art was about two years ago when my boyfriend and I were trying to make do in Russellville with no car. I would run errands with my backpack strapped to my back and pick up all kinds of random things along the way. I have three pieces centering around business sign letters (right after a storm they would just go everywhere in parkinglots and yards, a painting with a mosaic of broken mirror pieces, and a few other random discard-collages. The closest thing I have to a place to display my work is a page on facebook for my “museum”, which is where I am listed in my profile as “working”. That was an inside joke between a couple of friends and I, because as I was adding to the collection in my apartment, they would treat it like a Friday Art Walk, and stroll around asking me questions about the art.
The part about the boxes of silk flowers are because I’m making possibly the world’s most thrifty decorations for my wedding in December.
You’re getting married! Wow, congratulations – thrifty is nifty, esp. when it comes to weddings. I’m not an artist myself, but I enjoy looking at mixed media work in magazines, etc.