Shuttle run training, mid winter, Vermont Studio Center

Remember the shuttle run? We used to do it in grade school where you would run down to a line and grab an eraser on the ground and then run it back. We were timed; only the obviously fit kids really ever made the cut, and those of us who weren't physically inclined were made to feel like failures once a year thanks to the President's physical fitness tests. Last night felt like we were doing an exagerated adult version of that game.

We were playing asshole the card game last night, or Reagan as we dubbed our version, and the president made a rule that whenever 3 of a kind gets thrown down, which should be a rarity, we all have to run outside and run across the bridge near by. It's cold, it was night, we were getting really buzzed, and so at first it was just hilarious. And then it kept happening. We probably ran across that bridge, which is about a 200 yd. dash, at least 7 or eight times. During one of the last ones my 180 lb. frame got checked into a chain link fence as I made a move to pass this girl Mary who is about 5 feet tall and weighs a buck ten. That hurt. I got bandaged, had a numb hand, and it was kind of a sober moment. Still we didn't stop, and we proceeded to play some more. Another drop of 3 5's about 15 minutes later had us up and out again and as this girl Tatiana rounded the corner of our ice sheet walkway, she dropped on her knee and onto a rock. Quote of the week,

"I'm a wuse. I just haven't seen the inside of my own body for a while." She said this laying on the studio floor as we cut off her pant leg to clean her wound and apply bandages.

Fun times here at the studio center. Tonight, for a change of pace, we might have an AA meeting for all of us regulars at the firehouse. Something different, ya know?



Tatiana and I showing our war wounds.

Vermont Studio Center Begins

Driving through horrendous weather, I finally arrived at the residency I've been waiting for since last spring. The Vermont Studio Center welcomes us as the first group of residents in the year 2010. It's cold, and when I say that, it's about 15 or so degrees out and it's only going to get colder, at times maybe reaching 30 below zero. I hope my car survives. Already, one day in my computer has died, not due to cold, but just my over-taxing of its systems. Quite a fate when much of my research is done with my computer, with photos, and many of those draw from the database I've collected over the past three years. Gone, at least for now. I hope to see improvement, and hopefully work will go well here. Things are always an adjustment in a new setting like this, but it's inspiring as well and the people are better than the food, which is pretty awesome so far. Loving those little green sprouts. More as it develops, but enjoy a picture of my storm that I drove through for 13 hours, and also a video which dizzyingly depicts my studio setting in the midst of becoming a work loaded space.




*Warning: this video can make you sick if you watch it too much.