Label Your Life

This is Who We Really Are

One of the art projects/experiments that I've been trying to do at work is to collect pictures of my co-workers as small kids. I believe that if everyone knew what everyone looked like as a small child it would profoundly affect the way we interact. Most of us are coming from a little kid place anyway--especially during conflict. How would we change the way we interact with our co-workers if we saw them as small children. What if you looked at your boss and saw this:

If you were angry that someone lost a report or did something annoying or even spilled coffee:

What if you had observed someone having a bad day and was grumpy or they said something rude to you how would you react if you looked over and saw not how they look today, but this:

What if you said good morning to the man who runs the mail room, and this is who you saw:

And you knew that he saw you like this:

Because this is who we really are on some level--beyond the titles and the things we own. We started like this and somewhere this little person continues to exist, as we go out into the world and make plans or do nothing. What if we had to wear this image around our necks as a reminder? What would change? Who would you see and who would everybody see when they looked at you?

I Wasn't Kidding

I am SO THRILLED about all the requests pouring in for The Artist In the Office. Now I know why Oprah gives things away--it feels AWESOME! There are still some left, so request away! Be sure to include your mailing address!

One of the things that has helped me immensely in coming into an office job is making my work life a series art projects. I will admit that this is a delicate balance. I do make sure to get my work done (it's part of the agreement I made when I came here), and as long as I take care of that, I allow small doses of creativity through my day. The key is SMALL. Don't do it so much that it becomes an issue, but do it enough that you feel the presence. The result is that I am happier to come to work, and I don't feel I am dividing my real life from my job life. Plus, once I started looking, there was SO MUCH MATERIAL!

I can be a technophobe, and was very reluctant to get a digital camera, but I can't believe how much it has created in my life. The beauty of its instant gratification, plus deletion capabilities, has led to me taking it almost everywhere I go. I do believe in (and ENCOURAGE) taking it to work and using it as a medium for creation. There are SO MANY things you can do that aren't disruptive or take much time. Even if it's a self-portrait every day at 9:33 am for a week--at the end of the week you have a series.

The above pictures are a series I want to do for the next year. I was so inspired by my photo series with Jose, I DIDN'T WANT TO STOP THERE. So I started to ask other co-workers, "Would you mind posing for a picture with a sign that says 'Hi my name is _______'?" After I read about the photographer Bill Waldman this week (at 52 Projects), who wants to do a portrait a day for the next year, I thought, I want to do the HI, MY NAME IS series with EVERYONE I KNOW. How cool would that be? It connects me with the world I live in, and it engages me artistically. All from a lunchtime lark I did with a co-worker!

So much of job life is like going to sleep--we lose days to activities that don't have much meaning to us. Suddenly 8 hours or 5 days or whatever time is gone and you can't account for it--and as a society we ACCEPT this. Don't ACCEPT this! I wasn't kidding! Take your artist to work! You will be a HAPPIER employee!

I Highly Recommend Doing This

Take some chalk and write on your walls~ It comes right off and it has the possability of giving you a NEW PERSPECTIVE on your home! On Sunday, I was at home alone, preparing dinner for a small dinner gathering, when I looked at the walls and thought, I wonder what it would be like to chalk on my walls? I tested it to makes sure that it would come right off--when you live with someone you kind of have to consider it their home too, and if Graham didn't like it, it needed to come off. Once I realized that it took VERY LITTLE to wipe the wall clean (a damp rag will more than suffice), I went NUTS! It made me feel SPARKLY in that way when you feel when you realize there are REALLY NO LIMITS.

By the time Graham and guests arrived home, there were secret messages lying in wait in EVERY ROOM.

Price of chalk: $1.00. Discovering your home is a living canvas: priceless.

Four Things I Find Beautiful in the Work Place

At work, every sunny morning, the light comes through and leans heavily on all the cups that sit on the dishrack ready for use. There is something so warm and comforting about it--and I look at them every morning I go to get coffee. This morning I stood looking at them and thought, what else do I find beautiful in an office environment--something I don't always associate with beauty. It took some DEEP looking, but I found a number of things, which teaches me (AGAIN) that once you look, the pleasure can be found. skirt.

cups.

lemons.

plant & buildings.

The Weather Report

Greetings from the ice pelted streets of New York City! This is what one should not do, when running late, and there is a "winter mix" of ice and snow: believe you can save time by taking the express to Grand Central and walking to the office. I stepped outside and literally almost fell with my legs in the air from the SLIPPERY SIDEWALK.

As we were leaving the apartment, I made BROAD pronouncements to Graham about how lucky we are to be living in the city and not driving in this weather. I remember a terrifying commute to work when I was living in Vermont during a wintery mix, and my windshield was icing over and people were sliding sideways across the roads. This morning, I saw a woman standing waiting for the traffic light to change, and as she shifted her weight slightly she literally GLIDED sideways (luckily AWAY from the street). It was HARD going on foot. Scary, actually. I am a little sore.

I actually really love weather. As Annie Dillard said, "If you came to our house, talking about the weather, you'd be welcome." I moved back East from California because I so missed TEXTURE in my climate. A snowstorm in New York is welcome, even ice, but this all comes hot on the heels for GREAT PLANS I had for better weather. First, I got some new chalk that makes the chalk I got last week look like GIRLYMAN CHALK. Check it out:

In YOUR FACE Staples! I actually didn't know there was something called SIDEWALK chalk. I think this is beefy enough for the rough and tumble asphalt jungle that is New York.

Other adventures, I plan on doing are to find the wild parrots of Brooklyn. I knew about them, but my stepdad Gary sent me the link and now I am DYING to find them.

As it is, with the weather so frightful, I am taking my chalking messages to a different, INSIDE version:

Can you tell where it is?

Important Moment

Yesterday, in a momet fo needing desperately to get out of the house, I had a brainstorm. Why don't I act on something I've been wanting to do since I moved to New York? Take chalk and write messages on sidewalks. Suddenly, on the subway, I felt very GIDDY indeed. I went to Staples and bought a box of chalk. Note to THE THRONGS who want to buy a box of chalk: before purchasing the box, LOOK INSIDE. I came out of staples and opened my box up to a bunch of little tiny nubs. The ENTIRE box was broken into bits! DANG! I emptied the box into the small plastic bag it had came in and managed to find a couple of pieces worth using.

Here's a couple of factors that I didn't consider when this idea bloomed in my mind like a GREAT IDEA: It was literally ZERO degrees out. I had no hat or any gloves. Smart cookie. The other thing was that I was frozen with emberassment. It was HARD to suddenly drop to the sidewalk and write KINDNESS or LOOK UP in front of a bunch of people. Like anybody cares, on the frigid streets of New York, but STILL. I held my breath each time and DOVE. It was THRILLING.

I think it's good for me to step out of my comfort zone. It felt like a REAL adventure. Plus I like the idea of writing simple messages in the world. I am literally MAKING MY MARK. And then, when it was over, and my face hurt from the wind, and my hands couldn't hold chalk anymore, what was I to do? Go the the City Bakery and have the best hot chocolate in the whole world.

Take Your Art to Work Day: People's Shoes

I am always trying to figure a way to bring my real life with me when I go into the office--it keeps me sane. I've written about this in many posts. There are a million things you can do to shake up the way you view your world--one way is to study one ordinary thing and collect it. Here's this week's collection: people's shoes.

What can you tell about the people you work with by looking only at their shoes? There's something that's engaging about asking co-workers on a cold Tuesday morning if you can photograph their shoes. Something in them PERKS UP. Something in me perks up too. We suddenly become CONSPIRATORS. And behold:

Kim's shiny boots

Evrod's Loafers

Adrienne's brown buckles

Ronnie's blue notes

Carmella's Black Points

The Things I Carry

A few months ago, Graham and I were walking down a rainy 3rd Avenue, when we spotted a large pocketbook. It was filled to the brim with a young woman's life--not just her money, but all her identification and various paraphernalia. Here's a bit of advice: put your "if found, please return to..." information in your wallet! After her license proved fruitless for an address to mail it back to her, we were forced to dig deeper. It was very uncomfortable, because I wanted to be as respectful as I could, but I also wanted to get this thing back to her as soon as possible--as it obviously HER LIFE in there! I was amazed at how much the things she carried in her pocketbook painted a picture of who she was.*

I've been making lists the last couple of days for ideas of things to do when in need of a new way to look at the world. I was inspired to draw my lunch box yesterday and to note all the things I brought for lunch--which made me think, what else do I bring with me everyday? What story do they tell all on their own?

I carry a bag with me everywhere I go. I switch off sometimes, but my favorite bag is one my friend Jenny Sue made me for my birthday two years ago, out of a tablecloths she bought at the Santa Cruz flea market. I love the fabric and how it reminds me of her. It has ink stains on the bottom from when my pens come loose. I recently started carrying a smaller purse that my friend Meg gave me years ago inside the bag, because I got so sick of never being able to find my keys or wallet or phone. I love this purse because it's fuzzy like a stuffed animal, and it's a good size for the smaller things. Graham always asks me, "Why do you need all this stuff?"
"Just in case." I say.
"Just in case of WHAT?"
"If I get stranded anywhere."
"Are you really going to want your JOURNAL if you are STRANDED?"
"Absolutely."

What are the things you use every day and what are the stories they could tell? Your phone, or your keys or even your glasses. Where did you get your coat and where have you worn it--what streets has it seen and in what cities? The essential things that we carry with us, all live with us. What do they look like and what would they say, if they could speak?

*By the way, we got the pocketbook to her at last, completely in tact. She called us and asked, "How did you find me?" In your pocketbook.