Um...Paro

Saturday, January 31, 2004
Beautiful

There is a street lined with eucalyptus trees on my way to the SPC. When the morning sunlight hits the curving branches, they have an almost magical silver glow.

posted at 1/31/2004 by Amparo |

Thursday, January 29, 2004
Spotting

I've been thinking how much I miss my days of spotting prints for Michael Kenna. I would wake up sometime between 9-10 am and go through a leisurely morning ritual of showering, eating, and checking my email. I'd get my brushes and dyes out, make a pot of tea or coffee, and sit down at a little table in the sunny living room with a view of my neighborhood. The next 4-7 hours would be spent meticulously placing little dots of dye on Michael's prints while listening to books on tape. Prudence, my roommate's cat, kept me company as she followed the patches of sun on the floor (I called her "the sun patch kitty"). This methodical process of cleaning up prints is called spotting and the little dots would cover up dust spots and unwanted light areas. It was very meditative and peaceful. I loved sitting in the sun and feeling completely autonomous.

posted at 1/29/2004 by Amparo |

Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Life and Death

What a busy weekend! I started my volunteer training at the
Suicide Prevention Center on Saturday and then had my first catering gig that very night. Then my friend Cynthia dropped by after spending the last 4 months travelling all over the world. Whew!

Some sad news...Helmut Newton, the great fashion photographer, died on Saturday. He was an influential figure in the photography world. Rest in Peace.

...The other day I saw what looked like an old bird's nest sitting atop a no parking sign. There was even some grass sprouting from it. I had the vision of a little bird being resourceful with its survival tactics. I saw a determined and unstoppable creature. Life pushes on.

posted at 1/27/2004 by Amparo |

Friday, January 23, 2004
A List

One of the places that I submitted my art to required that I come up with a list. I wasn't too happy about doing it. Isn't it enough work to have to send a resume, statement, bio, slides/jpegs, and a photo of yourself? In the end, it was a bit entertaining for me. Here it is:

The stuff that is all over my computer desk at this very moment:
-Crumbs
-Tape measure
-Orange earplugs
-Photographs
-Hairclip
-Pens
-Bubbles, the Powderpuff Girl talking doll
-Magazines
-A large, dried leaf
-Padlock
-A tattered San Francisco Muni Map
-Darkroom keys
-A fortune from a fortune cookie
-2 film canisters with beach sand from Thailand
-Unpaid bills
-Video arcade card
-Sticky notes with miscellaneous information stuck onto everything
-An ever-growing paper pile of all sorts of stuff that I continue to ignore

posted at 1/23/2004 by Amparo |

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Oh my god, I am swamped! I am busy sending off art submissions in the hopes of getting somethig wonderful. I'm trying to do too much and my desk is a gigantic mess!

We are having mold removed from a wall so there is now a "negative airspace container" in our living room. A danger sign is taped to the front of it and the sound of a loud fan is roaring from the inside. During the day, men are working inside the space with full protective suits and respirators. Eek!

I'm also wondering why a lady stared at me in strange disbelief when I applied some contact drops to my eyes. ???

While eating some rye crackers, I found a little, dried out, dead bug on its back on one of them. I placed the bug-cracker on top of the bag and left a note saying that I found a bug inside. I was going to make an arrow pointing to the cracker...but didn't. When I came home, I noticed that the bag was more empty.
Amparo: "Didn't you see my note?"
John: "Yeah, but they looked alright."
Amparo: "Where did that cracker go?"
John: "Which one?"
Amparo: "The one that was on top...the one with the bug."
He sees the look on my face and then his calm face turns to shock.
John: "I ate it!"

posted at 1/22/2004 by Amparo |

Wednesday, January 14, 2004
What to Do

I am constantly struggling with either working less while having lots of time to work on my art projects, but being broke or working more and having more money, but no time to work on my projects.
The working less always wins sooner or later.
.........
I must also mention that I saw the Lee Bontecou retrospective this weekend. An amazing artist who achieved fame in the 1960's and 70's (which was no easy feat for a woman back in those days). She ducked out of the public eye for the last 30 years to rest, explore, and expand. The show at the UCLA Hammer museum displays the last 50 years of this woman's work that touches both the darkness of humanity and the lyricism of dreams . What I also found was a passionate individual unable to stop creating despite being out of the public's eye. A true artist.

posted at 1/14/2004 by Amparo |

Thursday, January 08, 2004
My Ass

Why must everyone make references to pop culture for everything? I was talking about my big latin butt and someone asked, "Like J-Lo?"
No, not like J-Lo, like MINE! Big Latin asses have been around a lot longer than she's been around and I hate to have any aspect of my life compared to some pop icon. Eeesh.

posted at 1/08/2004 by Amparo |

Yum!

Tonight I had fish guts and all kinds of other yummy things for dinner at Palms Thai Restaurant complete with a Thai Elvis impersonator for entertainment. Oh what fun! I do need to get out more often with my friends. I think that LA may have more to discover than I think. One must always keep an open mind and make no assumptions after all.

I'm also wondering when I'll get back to eating healthy and moderately again. I definitely couldn't do it tonight when there was so much to enjoy!

posted at 1/08/2004 by Amparo |

Sunday, January 04, 2004
Back

I'm back from San Francisco. I had such a great time with what seemed like too little time. I couldn't fit in seeing everyone. NYE was awesome; got together with my old party crew with a couple of my best SF friends Pete and Jessie. We went to an underground warehouse party but ended up hanging out in the hallway most of the time. We just enjoyed talking to eachother. Pete had a friend who live there so we all used his room as the chill area later on. I feel a little disappointed that I didn't get my groove on too much, but it was nice to catch up with everyone instead. I was also having such a great time that I forgot to take photos of that night so I can't post any as planned.

As the night wore on, the music became hard and scary. What is up with that? And what happened to feel-good music that isn't trancey? Perhaps I am just growing out of the scene and I am okay with that since it is almost completely dead anyways. I am also okay with moving on because I have other priorities in life and other things to explore but dammit, sometimes I just want to dance all night and I haven't found anywhere to inspire me to do so in a long time.

We all started commenting on what it was like out there and John said something like, "This room has become a shelter, like a shelter from a storm...We are being sheltered from the techno storm!"
My God, that was hilarious and that was what it was like!
But I was among wonderful people so I had a beautiful time. Lots of laughs and hugs.

Now, I am restless for something more. I don't want to return to SF, but I want to live somewhere (just for a little while) like NYC, Tokyo, Paris, or even London. I love the energy of world-class cities. I feel that so much can happen. I'll just have to continue making things happen at home in the meantime.

posted at 1/04/2004 by Amparo |