Round Up @ the Museum of Contemporary Native Art & Santa Fe

So, Saturday came and went, quickly. My artist talk went well, though nervous and worried, it went well. Two new pieces were added to the exhibition, which were initially lost to the hard drive crash, but they were resurrected from memory, maybe not 100% of what they once were, but none-the-less they were resurrected! Seven of my friends from the Boulder community attended, they all now live in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, except one who had flown in for another event, but Nicole made it in time to catch the tail end of the talk and view my work in the gallery. My young friend (cousin) Sylv works in Santa Fe and I had him as my guest at the hotel since he's been couch surfin' in Albuquerque, somewhat without a home, so we hung out and caught up, which was nice to have company. The food was great, you can never beat authentic southwest cuisine and New Mexican green chili, which I am already missing the morning I left it began.

The exhibition looks great and is running with four other exhibitions that are wonderful. The museum is beautiful, right there on Cathedral Place.

Next up another talk about a PBS series from the 70's at ArtRage this Friday evening.

Round Up - Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM

U.S. premeire of Round-UP to open Santa Fe, NM August 2nd 2010.

Well, I can say it's been an adventure, after attempting to export media files for DVD authoring of my latest new works my external HD decided it didn't want to stop spinning somewhere in the middle of exporting and thus has not been accessible. So, four new pieces sit somewhere in a spinning HD unable to be located for writing. Although, after taking some time off of work I was able to reconstruct two of the four pieces for my upcoming exhibit in Santa Fe: Round-UP (originally established by the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg in October of 2009). I always like to get new pieces out there and thought this new showing of Round-UP would be a great opportunity were it not for the rejection of technology.

I hope to get the other two and another possible piece reconstructed by end of August and sent back to the Museum of Contemporary Native Art first thing in September so they have what I intended to be shown. The two pieces I was unable to reconstruct in time are Kemosabe version 2.0 (with additional title) and an as of yet untitled F-Troop piece and another piece I was working on that's a bit of a departure for me entitled, Cayuga. So, I have a month to re-access my brain and reconstruct what/how I remember the pieces to be. My job has afforded me a G5 tower and 20 inch monitor to bring home, now I can wake up or come home and power it up and create without having to head into the office at all hours after working 8 hours just to use a more powerful machine than my PowerBook G4 from 2005--I love this little laptop (it's served me well traveling with me through the country and internationally), but it's time for a new Intel powered device, sometime when I have the money.

It's been a difficult month struggling after attempting to author my DVD for the exhibit. I was right there. I sat on the pieces for a month and came back to them to tweak them where I thought necessary, and then moved on to export them for the DVD and then the doomsday scenario hit. Now I can get some rest, recoup and come at the work from a more focused, less stressed mind.

May (NAISA) and June (SuperFly), 2010

So we are into May already! Wow, time has kinda of snuck by me and the Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference is closely upon us. In just over a week I head to Tucson for the conference and a meeting with a few scholars, most importantly a meeting with Dr. Philip Deloria to discuss the American Studies PhD Program at the University of Michigan as well as with Dr. Vince Diaz, it'll be nice to see Vince again. I will also get to meet with Dr. Joanna Hearne from the University of Missouri, busy time. I need to remember to schedule sometime with the sun! I think I'll have plenty of time on the 19th since I'm getting in at around noon. Currently, I am working on my presentation for the conference as well as getting some new video works in the fire for my upcoming exhibit at the Museum for Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe in August.

Next month will be my fourth year returning to mentor at Longhouse Media/Native Lens SuperFly program, this is hands down my favorite event ever. I'd take this over winning awards any day. I think the youth are the ones that make this event special for me, they amaze me every year. It will be a busy upcoming three weeks, but I look forward to it all and am excited at the prospects.

That is what's on the plate for the next month, aside from my daily grind! See you in Tucson and Seattle, Lummi Country!

RoundUP, NAISA, NAICA, FLAB MAG, Athens International Film + Video Festival, and Terrance Houle

As any day starts out this one has been no exception. The click of my dog's nails on the hardwood floors woke me from sleep. My dog likes to sneak in my bedroom and check to see if I'm awake. Sometimes, I greet him and welcome the day, other times I just cringe to know it's time to wake up. Thankfully, I knew a fresh pot of coffee was just minutes away from being brewed. That would definitely lessen the impact of an early rise on Sunday morning.

So the near future has been plaguing most of my waking minutes. The uncertainty of it mostly, and the somewhat seemingly directionless wandering of my days. I have the Native American Indigenous Studies Conference (NAISA) to attend in Tucson at the end of May, which I recently found out I was presented to NAISA as an affiliate of Native American Indigenous Cinema and Arts Organization (NAICA), which I am, but NAICA has somewhat shape-shifted into the more encompassing FLAB MAG and now I see my future assignment for FLAB being coverage of NAISA. Too much usage of acronyms in one paragraph, time to move on. Needless to say, I am excited for this opportunity.

At the end of April, I am fortunate to have been accepted into the 2010 Athens International Film and Video Festival, which is 37+ years old. This festival is in Athens, OH a sleepy, quaint, little town snug in the hills of south-central Ohio. It is also home to Ohio University. I am ecstatic to attend this festival, and to be honest, I usually don't get excited, but I am feeling a little excitement already. I normally reserve my excitement a couples days prior to an event. I have three short pieces in the festival: The Mechanics of Being NDN, The Ecstasy of Indigeneity Or the Passion of Billy Jack, and Technical Difficulties: a Fraud and a Fake. The last two pieces subvert famous "representations" on Un-Indians in American media, whereas the first piece comments on the objectified Native, literally. These three pieces originated from a past exhibit entitled, Round-Up, at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg, MB Canada in October 2009. Round-Up is traveling to Santa Fe, NM August 1st, 2010 - January 1st, 2011 at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts thanks to curator, Ryan Rice. I am already excited for this too.

Lately life has taken on the quiet hum of the mundane. Somewhere the routine infiltrated my life and pushed out creativity. It seems to have been a silent coup, no warning, no stirrings of unrest just the slow realization that something different is at the helm. Fortunately, friend and fellow artist, Terrance Houle has been able to talk me down from the ledges I find myself climbing, even as he himself has been enduring a change in his life. I am fortunate to have been asked to take part in one of his upcoming exhibits. In the fall, Terrance and I will be heading to Germany to collaborate on a video piece together and currently I am in pre-production on a feature length documentary that will utilize Terrance as the interviewer. Stay tuned.