It all started Thursday night, when I went after work to see Beats Antique perform at The Middle East, which is about a block from my apartment. These folks are by far my favourite musicians right now, and I was totally psyched when Meghan told me she'd bought tickets. It was our friend Lisa's birthday and she was going to be there too, so it worked out really well. Lisa is amazing at massaging the crowd into letting us move toward the stage, so by about the 4th song (in what was about a 100 minute set) we were standing immediately behind the people standing in front of the stage. Zoe Jakes is amazing. Robobellydancing virtuoso! We got out of there at about 2am, and for the first time this year, it wasn't freezing cold outside. I wasn't even wearing a coat and despite being soaked in dance-sweat, it didn't matter. Beats Antique rang in the Spring. Sweet.
Friday I had to work, and I knew the weekend coming up was going to be brutal, so I took it easy when I got home and went to bed early, around 12am, still slightly hung over from the previous evening, and nervous about the talk I was supposed to give the following night.
Saturday morning I got up early and did a little cleaning before going out to get my hair cut. That afternoon, Jarvis had a soccer game. I live in Cambridge, he lives way out in Hopkinton, and his game was in Framingham. So for those of you not familiar with the local geography, that means it was about a 45 minute drive to his house, 30 minutes to the game, 30 minutes back and then 45 minutes home again. Normally on a Saturday I'd bring him home with me instead of back to his mom's, but I had a show Saturday night that was going to run late and where there'd be drinking, so I didn't think it appropriate to bring him.
When I first got to their house, they had a little fire going in the yard burning sticks and leaves and so forth. Jenn's not great at keeping a fire going. It was mostly just smoking and smouldering, choking on itself. So I fixed it. After 7 or 8 years in the Boys Scouts, and of course just by virtue of all the time spent with my dad, I'm good at fire. But it'd been awhile since I'd had an opportunity to work with one, and it was nice. I taught Jarvis how to take tubes of Birch bark he was finding and stick them into the leeward side of the fire to create little smokestacks. In the meantime, I was getting the flame to smoke ratio back into a decent balance so that sucker could burn efficiently.
Then he and I went to his game. It was nice. I'm definitely the youngest dad at any of these games, so it's usually a little weird. As the game was about to start, the referee (a cute but very serious girl of all of maybe 16) had the boys all tuck in their shirts and knock on their kneepads to make sure they had them. One kid had one of those bracelets on like you get at the hospital or a nightclub, and she told him he needed to take it off. For a 10 year old kid, this is pretty much impossible, so he ran off the field to his dad who happened to be standing next to me and asked for some help. The kid's dad was having some difficulty and asked if anyone had a knife. So I pulled out my scissors and offered them. I've noticed it's always a little weird when people realize you're walking around with a pair of scissors in your pocket. The guy thanked me and his kid ran back onto the field, and the next thing I know, I'm chatting with a couple of these guys for the next hour about airport security and fine dining in Boston and the weather.
The Hopkinton team got crushed by Framingham 4-0. As far as individual players' skill with the ball, the teams seemed about equally matched to me, but the Framingham kids were way more coordinated as a group, and seemed to have hand signals they used to communicate formations. It was actually a little scary. Like an army of 4th-graders. Jarvis got nailed in the chest with the ball at some point and had to take a knee. He'd gotten the wind knocked out of him and seemed a little scared of the ball for the rest of the game, but then, he always plays better on defense, and the coach had him playing forward this time.
After I dropped him off at home with his mom, I came back to Cambridge to pick up Meghan and go to give my talk at The G Studios. The G Studios is in a sort of sketchy-looking section of Dorchester, but it's right off Mass Ave. and has tons of free street parking. The space itself is amazing, and Gio, who runs the space, seems like a really nice guy and is definitely very enthusiastic and passionate about bringing art to the community on artists' terms.
I have to say, I was a little disappointed with the turnout. There were only maybe 12 or 14 people there. But I didn't properly promote the thing, so I guess I can't really complain if no one else did either. Then again, there was a lot of stuff going on this weekend to keep people busy.
So the first band went on around 8:30 or 8:45 I think, because they were late, but they were pretty cool. I can't remember their name, but they were a South American Reggae group, and let me tell you, as fun and upbeat as the the music was it was also very, very dark. Meghan described it as Tim Burton meets the Beach Boys on Telemundo, and I had to agree. They were awesome.
After their set I gave my talk. My plan was basically that I had no plan. I knew that it would be totally boring for people if I spoke about my tools and techniques, so wanted instead to just tell a story, relevant to the work and under 10 minutes. I had a couple of drinks before going on, and so I don't really remember exactly what I said, except that I swore a lot. And I went way too long. About 22 minutes, according to my buddy Duval, who videoed the whole thing. But no one seemed bored. I got a couple laughs. A few people came up to me afterward and said they liked it. So I guess it was at least ok. Duval's digitizing the tape for me so I can watch it hopefully later this week and find out what I said.
Stroamata came up next, and they were good too. Good old-fashioned rock and roll. Guitar. Bass. Drums. The singer was amazing, but the volume on her mic was too low. You could tell she was really belting it out, but it was hard to hear her over the rest of the band.
During all of this, James Neville was doing a painting demonstration in a little alcove off the main performance space, next to the door leading out to the courtyard they have there. He's started using the Larcoloid I recommended to him, and his work is progressing very well.
The last band to play Saturday night was ParanoidZen, who were by far my favourite of the evening. Two DJs, wicked bass-heavy and chill. Sort of like Beats Antique with a morphine drip. Earlier in the evening, I had sold Gio on the idea of doing my own painting demonstration, and I found myself hoping that despite the tiny crowd (?) I could convince the guys of ParanoidZen to come play when I do it. I'll email them this week. They were fucking incredible, and kept the party going until a little after 1am.
Sunday morning I left the house at 10am to go pick up Jarvis. We came back to Cambridge and then hopped the Red Line up to Davis Square so we could catch the Somerville Open Studios Trolley. We ate lunch first at Mike's and then took the trolley to Joy Street, where we saw the work of a ton of artists. Jarvis especially liked Joo Young Choi's paintings. So did I. There's a depth of character to her work I find inspiring. It's unfortunate she was the very first artist we saw actually, because she was definitely the best.
After Joy Street, we took the trolley to the Armory, mostly because my friend Jason's girlfriend Eva was showing some photographs there, but also because, well, I've always wanted to actually go in there. I used to live literally right around the corner, but at the time, the armory, which is basically a castle, was all boarded up. They have turned that place into a fantastic venue. I'm not sure how I feel about the purple ceiling, but it's pretty cool in there. There was this one woman with these wooden tops she'd made from recycled materials. Jarvis and I both had fun spinning them for a few minutes, but by then, my legs were getting pretty tired.
It had been a long weekend. So we took came back to Cambridge, picked up some organic mac and cheese, organic milk and non-organic broccoli at Harvest Market and came home to eat supper, which was good. A ninety-minute round trip later, I'd brought him back to his mom and gotten back to my comfy chair here at home. I think Meghan and I watched an episode of Fringe on Hulu before going to bed. She'd been pretty sick all day and so she didn't come out with us, and I had to be up early on Monday morning, because I had a model scheduled.
I hadn't painted a drop in about two weeks, I think, when Jen showed up yesterday. I love that she consistently arrives 10 minutes early for every session we do. She's fantastic. We sat and chatted for a bit and then settled in to get some work done. While I was getting everything ready, I asked her if she'd be interested in a project I have coming up. This was the idea I'd sold Gio on Saturday night over at G Studios. Basically, what I'm going to do is set up my painting rig over on G Studios' stage (or right next to it), and have a model posing (probably on or near their piano- Gio came up with that idea and really likes it and so do I) for me to paint. I'm going to set up a camera directly over my painting rig with a feed to a projector so people won't have to crowd around me to see what I'm doing. While I'm painting, we'll have 3 to 5 bands play sets alongside us.
Jen agreed immediately, because she's awesome. I had thought of her immediately when Gio agreed to the idea in the first place- she's prompt and reliable, sultry and emotive, and can always find her way back to the pose. I was thrilled she said she'd do it, because I know there's no doubt she will, and that therefore the demonstration will be awesome.
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| "Wide-Eyed" Jason Burrell, 2011 Acrylic on Birch Panel, 11" x 14" |
So I got serious. I broke out the smaller of the two birch panels I bought last week, and painted this picture to the left here. I really love this painting. It's a good likeness, first of all. Check out Jen's site, and you'll see. Mostly though, I just love seeing so many techniques I've developed over the years coming together to create something so different from any of that work. Perhaps there is some magic in the birch. I didn't achieve the depth of field I was aiming for here, but there's an emotional depth in Jen's eyes that I think carried over into the painting, and I love that.
It's been a long fucking weekend, but I think it's all been totally worthwhile and rewarding. Great art, beautiful music, my fantastic son, and a job well done. Thank you, universe, for hearing my Birch bark smokestack prayers, even if I didn't mean it that way at the time.
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