Perhaps it is the summer heat or the endless disruption of our civilized democracy? Finding worthy reasons to write and carry on with a creative life has lately met with resistance. Fortunately, inspiration can be found all around. I stumbled upon some while listening to an interview with digital artist, Maya Man, on The Art Angle podcast. Her project, ‘A Realistic Day in My Life Living in New York City’ has been featured on the Whitney Museum’s ‘On the Hour’ program.
The takeaway from this…
The job of an artist (according to MM) is to sift through the ‘slop’ of our world to find the most meaningful or provocative content and point to it creatively.
She collects, curates, and generates bits of online content to present in her own way. Creator of a browser extension called Glance Back, a personal way of documenting daily life, her interest in how we experience time online is the view that the virtual world has become just as ‘real’ as offline time. Note: She dislikes the popularity of the IRL acronym.
I relate to this idea and much of what I make is idea collage. How is the minucia of one person can be fascinating (or simply boring) to others? This is put to the test here on Substack. Tim has referred to it as Spudstack. The potato is one of my favorite foods—potato salad, potato chips, mashed, baked and scalloped. I find myself liking many diverse approaches to writing on this platform too.
My inspiration for today is to follow Maya Man’s lead and document a couple days in my own way (always with images).
A Realistic Day in My Life Living in Angola, NY as a 73-year-old Woman
Friday
08:00…Look online, push button on coffeemaker, drink it along with a Rosales cracker and banana strawberry smoothie
09:00…Check emails and messages
09:30…Shower and dress in jeans, black strip tee, white Keds
10:30…Drive to The Comma Gallery, fix and adjust installation of three small paintings after one had fallen out of the frame
1200…Back home, heat leftover linguine with clam sauce for lunch
1230…Listen again to The Art Angle podcast about post-pandemic digital art, an interview with Maya Man
1300…Read Substack, scan through Facebook, coordinate appointment to check out restaurant for party plan a few months from now
1500…Quick lunch with Tim—Hebrew National hotdogs, beans, chips, lemonade
1530…Write
1600…Change clothes to black capri yoga pants, black tank top, white Keds
1630…Drive to Buffalo with Tim
1700…Stop at Charlie’s Boathouse to look at banquet room
1730…Check out Buffalo Bikes and Bottles where Tim will participate in an upcoming show ‘Art Versus A.I.’ as part of the Buffalo Infringement Festival on their spacious walls.
1800…Burchfield Penney Art Center Opening for ‘A.J. Fries: The Icing on the Cake’ and music from Eric Crittenden Band (and a little dancing)
The artist paints toys and food and all sort of curiosities—even Twinkies and donuts!. This is a painting, not a photo. As a fan of any fawnlike Bambi, this one appeals to me…
1930…Art Under the Stars on College Street in Allentown Buffalo
2000…Our favorite Coco’s Bar and Bistro for cocktail, pork belly appetizer and frites
2030…Fun conversation with another bar patron, Jason, a visitor from Toronto
2230… Home with brief view of Full Buck Moon before it dropped behind clouds
2300…Sift through online updates about more horrors of violence by masked federal agents against California protesters and farmworkers
2400…Goodnight!
Yesterday was busier than usual—fun now and then. Today is a different kind of day. After raining hard through the night, we awoke to ongoing humid heat, but the greenery got a good dose of hydration to perk up the wilted grass and flowers.
1000…Coffee and half a buttered bagel. Tim went off to errands. Home alone inside the cool a/c, writing and puttering.
1500…Made BLT and iced tea for lunch
1600…Finally dressed in a cool loose chartreuse shift
The basil looks especially good. Caprese salad for dinner…or make some pesto?
Take a walk in my neighborhood? Walk to the Lake Erie Beach for a swim?
Check the mail, instead. Tim received a box full of books for an upcoming book launch at FITZ BOOKS in Buffalo NY. It’s a fun read that can be done in an afternoon.
Available at your favorite bookseller and here
1700…Cool glass of Chardonnay and the latest of episode of And Just Like That. I do hope that Carrie comes to her senses and drops the Gramercy Park prima donna act.
1800…Tim returns with report of car problem messages on dashboard. Oh no!
1900…Prepare bowtie pasta with zuccini, mushrooms, ground beef and red sauce
2030…Watched The Sinner on MAX—starts out pretty good but the transition into vampireland was a no go and we did not finish watching
2130…Clean kitchen from dinner
2200…Coordinate plans for tomorrow
2300…Goodnight!
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