IN
THE EYE
I
really am remarkable. I’m quite proud of myself. It’s not
in my nature to feel or say something like that, but then again, I’ve
never been in my nature.
Nonetheless, I have come to a threshold, a quiet moment of reflection.
This is a petit mort of no return; a mad moment where I can sit in the
eye of a cyclone and calmly observe the howling winds from a place of
stillness and solitude. Not a hair on my head is touched. I can relax
for a bit.
The
artwork is not done. There is more to do. I look at the long bloody path
behind me and wonder, slack-jawed, “What in the hell just
happened?”
This moment of solitude is a natural part of the process. Several days
ago, I released my hounds. The ball is in play. The barrel has gone over
the falls. There is no way to stop it.
In a minute, I will need to leave the eye and walk back into the hurricane.
All artists have been there. The paint is dry. There is no time for revisions.
You make peace with God. The show has to be hung.
A SILKY SIREN
My
screw is a bit looser. Over several pressured years, the 24/7 work
schedule has pummeled me into a very vulnerable, obsessed
state. Obsession
is one of those concepts that are hard to comprehend unless you’re
standing in the boiling water and nervously liking it. The voodoo sneaks
up on you. Obsession boils its lobsters slowly, always starting with
a cool pool.
Now
I am the man who has mortgaged the family and the home for the sweet-smelling
siren who leans into his crotch and whispers, “But
Daddy, baby wants a lil bling.”
Creation is a drug.
LOOK WHAT I MADE
The piece is about finding Joy and Beauty in all things. How wonderful
is that?
When completed in six weeks, it will comprise over 3,100 images,
five books, sixty essays and articles, seventeen videos, six websites,
over
500 Web pages, over 200 objects, four galleried shows and everything
that was stuffed in them. If Malcolm Gladwell is a standard, then
this effort qualifies as an “Outlier.”
To accomplish this feat, I required a specialized team of technically
trained artisans with a wide range of talents, from html coding to
pottery glazes to cocktail mixology, costume design and photography
tricks. The
project required a lean budget of $1.5 million.
Unfortunately, I was able to obtain neither capital nor a labor force.
(It seems there are less art lovers and forward-thinkers than I thought.)
I
needed to find a patsy. I required someone who is gullible and easily
led, yet one who can make a decision and complete a task.
Someone smart
enough to learn programming but dumb enough to obey. I needed a gung-ho,
rah-rah type who’d work for free. Pathologically idealistic.
A patriot. A revolutionary. One who would abandon all in the name
of the
cause.
A Craigslist ad provided few leads.
I was forced to recruit myself.
Like an ugly slavemaster with a bullwhip, I worked myself hard. The
long drive has brought out the best and worst of me.
Always
a loner, I’m afraid the isolation has turned me into
a lost man with a cache of arms, a foil beanie and reams of tightly
penciled
pages. I can barely talk to anybody anymore. Lately when I speak,
common words are uttered unnaturally, as if I have been without human
contact
for a thousand fortnights. Me, Dingo.
I
used to respect money. I honored the work that produced every dollar.
Now I throw it away and laugh like a drunken sailor who thinks he
just fell in love and is asking for “One mo’ time!”
I
have always been unafraid to fight for an idea or a principle. As a
temper, I had the good sense to pick my battles wisely. Now
I no
longer
assess risk. I’m the kamikaze who just shoved the control stick
forward bringing the plane into a dive. The velocity increases. The screaming
wind shrieks an octave higher. Adrenalin rallies a “Bonzai!” Glory
is mine and the heavens shall open.
My work habits used to be seasoned and balanced, like American management.
Every hour, I would stretch the limbs and pepper my lungs. Today
I live like a frantic bodybuilder who needs to add sixty pounds of
mean muscle
in four days. Steak, chocolate cake and anabolics.
IT’S BEEN WORTH IT
In
this moment of reflection, in the eye of the hurricane, I wonder what
the future will bring. Will the champagne cork fly high into
the starry
blue? Or will it pop and smack me in the eye? For once I don’t
worry about either outcome.
In
the moment of battle I am fueled by these dreams and nightmares of
possibility. Each, in its opposing way, stokes the fires and
combusts the engine. To glory! To victory! To success and acclaim!
Champagne
and
passed hors’ d’oeuvre!
On the other hand, to defeat with integrity! To a beautiful death!
However Luck may swing, to a job well done! Beans and a forty-ounce!
THE DOWNSIDE
This fourth show can effectively end an art series that I really
adore. I like making it. I have fun. Should nothing come of it,
I will carefully
wrap the project for storage as a young widow folds a wedding
dress. I will document all of the elements and produce an eleven-piece
limited-edition book, a scrapbook to eulogize the effort. I will
place a copy on
a bookshelf of prominence and hide the others in a box in the
attic.
I’ll have to scramble to take a job, one I probably won’t
like. Then I will need half a decade to pay off the debt that the project
has bled. To do this, I will have to remain hermit’d and
alone because people cost money. Pleasures will be few. This
misery will
surely produce an addiction to something unbecoming.
In time, I will start to diddle and draw. A new series of work
will slowly emerge and again I will follow that journey to its
inevitability.
I did my very best and I gave this effort my heart and soul.
I shall find solace and acceptance in the fact that God looks
out
for artists,
drunks and fools.
Someday,
against a golden sunset, a fresh art school grad will sit in an Echo
Park café and excitedly tell his comrades of a treasure
trove that he found in the attic of the ruin that they’re squatting
in. Found are ten copies, all produced back in Twenty-Ten. The colored
pages required a leather spine five inches thick. Words. Images. Ideas.
Maybe it’s a discovery! Maybe it’s worth something!
Over coffee, they will think of the maybes.
THE UPSIDE
On the other hand, the fourth show could mark a new beginning.
If it gets some play, my hunch would prove correct and the
blood loss
would
be justified.
According to plan, it would support a whole new artistic and
philosophical effort in a variety of media applications to
an ever-expanding
audience. The cosmology would be allowed to flower, revealing
a highly intricate
web of purpose, comfort and universal relevance. According
to plan, the work would do nothing less than change the way
humanity
looks
at Life.
The phenomenon would actually evolve our species. According
to plan, the work would become a portal to the new Age of Aquarius.
Personally,
it would give me the escape pod that I need to survive. Buried deep
in an abandoned subway tunnel of my mind,
I have
been building a
craft, a self-contained and self-sustaining galleon that would
afford incredible speed and brilliant light. The polymorphic
arc is an artist’s
toy chest of unlimited resources manned by a skilled and eager
crew. I can do as I please, dependent upon no one. I can make
anything I wish, regardless of demand and function. I can fly.
_____________________________
GORDY GRUNDY is a Los Angeles based artist. His visual and
literary work can be found at www.GordyGrundy.com