Day 3

A hot day down the Gong. My last procrastinating moment before i have to fully knuckle down. Lunch in honour of my b'day & Jen gave me a Salt Box she had made from wood & painted, full of salt things.

I hit my head during extracurricular activity. Thinking back to where i was then makes me head ache again now.

Discussed the project, its good that everybody i speak to gives me another hint on how to do it. Eventually i will have the full story & that is good.

Tomorrow move into studio. I joke that i will take a chair & pair of scissors as really don't have much to take. Don't have a chair though so that joke ain't very funny.

Day 2

Work up in weird place. On the floor in Petersham. Though on the floor is correct since i still have no mattress. However the fact i still have no coffee there is a bit of a comedown. Cats try it on when i leave, attempting to sneak out. Their new hobby is the back yard.
Decided on a studio in Marrickville :) Move in Sunday.
Hacked at the model, tried to make it more 3d. Went & bought plaster.
Went to tea in Leichhardt with Tom's family, with the 2 maggotty little tackers throwing spaghetti about & bringing me rocks. Rode the bike over there. Discovered most of the engine is coated in oil. Argh it has always been implicitly dry as a chip this engine, clean as a whistle, dry as a bone. Tom reckons its cos i never ride it. Learned about the Case Study Houses. Got allergic to the dog & went home.
Gosh hope tomorrow is not as boring as this Blog..

Day One

Its day 1 of 6 months leave. I travelled 40 mins to see a possible studio... seems good, tho the 40 minutes is not ideal. Then visited the foundry, ordered a bust cast in bronze & they cut me a deal on it since i'm going to bring a fair whack of bucks thru their place in the next little while. And they hate doing fibreglass, & that was the other cheaper option. Planned out the next few months & deliverables. Pic of my sculpture is gonna make their photo wall when its been thru the laminators'. Makes me very proud i been staring at that wall for years.
Went home had a coffee & escape the heat.
Went back out test rode a motorbike for a mate & he bought it... flogged it around the back streets of Alexandria. Then i found a mattress & bought that... $150 off. Then got a phone call that my loan is approved. The yoghurt maker has arrived in the mail. Hellacious - seem to be Getting Stuff Done. Let's run with that!
No... sadly have come to a halt at home trying to explain things to a parental unit. Speed hump... amazing how they can kill your momentum innit.
Ash birthday. Nice nite out. Fun at the Trivia nite. They don't ask the questions they used to in my day though, the ones i know the answers to.

Last day of work

Hey so that was my last day of work. Think i got some stuff squared away like the DHCP changeover crapola but i guess the only people who will know the extent of my slackery will be the people in my team who get lumbered with whatever i didn't think of. But they would be used to that by now i imagine.
OK so now i have 1 less thing to worry about i.e. work & feel good about that. The RPM Challenge kind of intrigues me but i never did thing dot about it last year & highly unlikely to this year either. http://www.rpmchallenge.com/
Make an album in Feb.... yes highly unlikely. But still somewhat alluring concept.
We got mum back yesterday. In a massive effort managed to drop dad at hospital, pickup mum from airport & give her a cup of tea & some kugloaf, then pick up dad again & entirely spend only 22.90 on being screwed for parking. Walla a mighty mighty effort & success. Missed Judes farewell lunch but caught the pub after & dropped her home.

Cleaning up like i partied like its 1999

Cleaning up like i partied like it was 1999. Sadly there was no party but hey who's to know that. In spite of being moved out i'm somehow still here cleaning up for mum's return tomorrow. Godwilling & there is no disturbance in the force she should be touching down 7.25 tomorrow morn. Hard to believe after the amount of deliberate & accidental postponements over the past months. The house in need of a scrub with dad rattling round in it dripping tea all over the place & its getting another going over today, broke the mop, bucket leaks, washing machine won't wash, but carrying on regardless in order that mum don't spin on her heel to walk straight out again. Australia day - what could be more Australian than scrubbing the floor cos your mum is coming back from some heathen country, back to the cradle of civilization, back into the armpit of Maroubra.

DVD

Finally got round to putting on the DVD they sent me of this dude playing footy & surprised to find there was my man out there on the field. Having been making a semblance of the guy for a week i felt like he was mine when i saw him on tv! How silly is that, cos its not like i got it right or nothing. He has even bigger shoulders & his head is bigger. And his legs. Well everything i guess. How can you make this big fellow anyway? I guess 1.25x life size IS the correct size.

Annoying weather

Well i dunno who can do anything useful on a 40 degree day... so i went out looking at what is affordable in Sydney houses instead of trying to work. By golly what a total load... even these cheap ones are so overpriced. Went to see 2 in Bexley. They are falling down, smelly, badly fake wood lined, tinged with asbestos, and in need of nothing short of a bulldozer. Yet down the 'gong you get a semi-mansion for less, with a spa & a pool & a view. Argh Sydney - talk about a love/hate thing.
Look forward to cool day tomorrow. And no real estate.

No studio

My planned studio is now hosting a couple of printmakers. I foresee some problems as printmakers have to be even more anal about dust & dirt than painters. So looking for another spot now. Looks like Greenacre or Unanderra at this point. There's a huge building down Unanderra & could live there while i work, if they willing to let me have 6 months instead of 12 on the lease. Sounds like quite the getaway. Or Greenacre there's a big warehouse & they want artists, would be a long commute. Its only about 6 weeks worth of work to do tho so commute schommute who cares. Only 6 weeks. Yes i have to finish it in 6 weeks. Eeek.

great timing

Great timing - a DVD arrived of the game in question featuring the bloke in question. I can spend some of the 39 degree day thats forecast for tomorrow, sitting inside in front of the fan watching that & yet still be working. Now if only i can enjoy football. But it will be interesting cos i need to see this.
Meeting is lined up with subject, this a bit scary actually as never done a live one before & this guy is actually someone i heard of, and he's big.
Testing adherence of clay to polystyrene foam today, as well as repairing the arm that i accidentally smashed off old fumble fingers yesterday. that was a bit disappointing. But mainly cos i really shoulda known so much better than that, that its professionally embarrassing. Of course if you whack it there, really hard, repeatedly, where you have forgot that its reinforced, then its gonna break somewhere where it ain't. My excuse is the sun was low & in my eyes, but really... :P

Organizing

My organizin dude came over & we worked out on paper the timetable for the next 2 months for this big statue. Its going to be the biggest i ever made & the time is less than half the usual. So i better stop writing this & get out there & do some work :) Noticed one arm is too short so thats my first task. Its exactly like in the photo, but yet in 3d its too short. Hm. Well you do get that sometimes. 3d has the last word tho, since 3d is what the final product will be.

Letter from the ex-

Letter from the ex arrived yesty. they have finally worked out that i have gone near the tipping point from them owing me to me now owing them in their tiny minds cos hey look I'm still making stuff & they want a piece of it for doing fuckall. Hey, have i had a lobotomy since their last letter full of utter BS? If i have, then this letter must be true!

6 months to prepare for 6 months

trying to finish up work before i leave, don't want to leave a mess. Yet since i spend a lot of the day attempting to avoid making mess when cleaning up other people's mess its pretty likely i'll leave some when i go.
you need about 6 months to prepare for 6 months off.

Snowman

Little kids came to talk about the 1m high man i'm plastering. i gave them a hand sized ball of plaster to take, to make a snowman. Parents will be pleased.

Today i got a new 5" grinder... i like to think the old one committed illicide cos it nicked my finger the day before & felt remorse. Poor thing. That and the 1/2 kilo of plaster dust that it must have caked inside its guts. Its a Bosch that supposedly is low vibration. So of course with this new one i can feel every remote vibration in it as a sign, a precursor to its eventual death as with the last. Its the same model in spite of the last one only lasting 6 months, cos the vibe thing really buggers my hands.

Getting started

About to start 6 months off work to pursue my Art. Woo-hoo!