RCA: formal acceptance
Cranbrook: informal verbal formal acceptance
RISD: still waiting list
Pratt: who gives a damn? formal acceptance, but who gives a damn?
Can you tell which one I’m going to pick?
Thoughts on Traveling
Since traveling to all four grad schools, exploring new cities, and taking photographs, I have been reflecting on travel and space.
I really want to do more traveling on my own. The times that I’ve been in a foreign place alone are small but poignant. Space seems compressed and expansive at the same time. All one really has is the thoughts in their head and the items in their backpack.
an empty E train
Hardly anything could be more lonely and isolating, but while wandering down unfamiliar roads and talking to unfamiliar faces, there’s a sense of wonder and excitement that renders other thoughts void. I might feel insignificant, but I’m always so excited.
A John Singer Sargent at the Met
Saarinen exhibit at Cranbrook art museum
I looked out the window when flying home from Detroit and I thought, “This planet is so fucking huge.” It’s all a matter of perspective.
I took this photo of myself in the Queen’s Gallery in London. I can look at that photograph and remember my then current disposition. I had just interviewed at RCA, walked passed the Royal Palace, come up with an idea for a interesting product design, been rained on a little bit, and tried to figure out if there was any way to see the Vermeer before I left for home. To me, all of this comes through in my face and I had no way of seeing it for myself at the time. Maybe I should carry a mirror when traveling. This isn’t vanity, it’s understanding oneself.
Mucha’s Maud Adams poster at the Met
Part of the Heidelberg Project
I was fortunate enough to have great friends in all three locations of my journeys. They were kind enough to lend a little space for me to stay. Some spaces were very comfortable and more than I needed, others were almost non-existent. All I really need is a dedicated two square foot space to place my stuff, a place to sleep, and some temporary space to get organized (which often is just the sleeping space). It bugs me if I have to move stuff around day to day or even hour to hour.
The Globe Theatre
Considering the unique situations I was in, I am not upset that I didn’t get that required space every time, but I wonder if my hosts knew that I was not completely comfortable. I didn’t want to be vocal, as I was happy to have anything.
A Giacometti painting in the DIA
It’s nice being organized and tidy. I enjoy having space for people to be comfortable. What little space I will have in London will be completely available to my friends who wish to visit me.
Saarinen’s TWA Terminal plans
It’s so frustrating when you make a small mistake while traveling. Had I waited a few blocks, I could have purchased a way better take-away meal from an Indian restaurant in London. My meal was then bittersweet. Had I left my friends in London much earlier while they were sleeping, I would have avoided the alternate route that ended up with a stupid and hefty fine. But should I have been rude to my host and simply left them in the morning without saying goodbye? I wanted to do it my way even though they said to do it differently. But they gave me the travel pass that allowed me that freedom anyway. Traveling is difficult when all parties involved do not share the same priorities.
Carlo Bugatti desk at the Met
There is comfort in the familiar. Back in 2005, I had lunch in a place called Maoz. My brother took me there. I don’t even remember if it was in London, Germany, Spain, or Amsterdam, but it was damn good. It’s falafel in pita with an unlimited topping bar. As I was wandering down the street in Manhattan last month, right next to Union Square, the familiar sign caught my attention. I ate there four times that week.
Saarinen’s TWA Terminal in person
Artist studio space in Detriot
The current plan is to finish my job by the middle or end of August, wrap up my projects and other loose ends in Tucson, and then head out. I want to travel a bit before starting school in October. I’ve seen 20+1 Vermeers, and would like to finish up this goal. I think I can see them all by the end of this year, with the exception of the stolen “The Concert” and the disputed “A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals” that Steve Wynn has hidden somewhere (It might go on display when the new Wynn hotel in Vegas opens at the end of this year!).
Vermeer at the National Gallery, London.
It would be great to travel with Jake, as we sort of planned two years ago, but I think I need to do this traveling alone this time. But that’s not to say that I’m not open to traveling with anyone who might want to tag along.
Looks like a Vermeer, doesn’t it? (Woman Sewing, by William Paxton)
