I am home... I, am home... I AM HOME... in the US where some form of English is spoken most of the time...and yet I feel kind of lost. I feel like I would have learned the language if I had stayed just a bit longer. I was starting to get the hang of the the rhythm of the language, which tended to build my confidence while using phrases, which I think if still immersed a few weeks from now I would have grasped. I already started to dream with people speaking in Korean despite not knowing exactly what was being said.
On that note, I am home... in the US , in NY, where everyone is from somewhere. Yet when I paid for beer last night in the Bronx and thanked the guy in Korean automatically, he looked at me like he had thought he had seen it all until I showed my sorry looking face. Kamsahaminida is all I said as he handed me my change. You would have thought I WAS FROM MARS.
I have an exhibition in December...wait a minute, I have an exhibition in December...HOLY CraP!!! I HAVE AN EXHIBITION to prepare for...two actually... and I feel this need to be completely fresh...so I am scrapping everything, considering the baby and the bath water, which in both cases are too old and too cold. I find myself thinking of Tae Keun Yoo"s work and how I am so fond of POTASH Shino's especially when they look like FROSTING against a groggy clay (similar to a RED VELVET cake). I also find myself revisting the inuksuk's that Lovey introduced me to, and Pete and I saw the development of, and I witnessed a connection to with carvings for mountain spirits in Korea. It seemed every town had a tributary stone carved for its ancestors. I was even taken by the DOL Hareubang replicas at the porcelain festival the originals are found on Jeju Island. The reminded me of the heads found on Easter Island... think about 6 degrees here, and I am talking 1000's of years in the making not the present. I am overwhelmed. Maybe a day or two of rest?
When I think back over the experience, I am astounded by how much I saw, how much I learned, how many links to new learning I was left with and how many contacts I could use for resources AND... HOW I CAN NOT WAIT to return for new experiences. I would love to spend time collaborating with Korean artists in a residency situation and then firing... I only wish I was an artist who could invite artists at WATERSHED, I know exactly who I would ask... it would be an east (Korea/China/Japan) meets west (US/GB) experience, with a Middle East/Australian twist. We would WOOD FIRE and share...Oh the possibilities...Tyler is there any way? Late June/Mid August, I think I could fill the place. How do I ask, propose, etc?
I visited Hanna today, she looked better than when I had left. I was so thrilled to see this progress. Sweetie, I hope the next round makes you even stronger! You are an inspiration and I love you!!!
I am so tired today. Its 8:30 PM and I feel completely fried. I ate pizza today, NY PIZZA, the only kind, to which I added a TON of red pepper flakes and still found it bland. Dinner? I asked Kenny to cook anything American for dinner. He grilled a nice steak. I found myself asking for lettuce leaves and hot sauce... Surely I am impressed!
More another time...off to finish the beer that will cleanse me of the homogenous stuff I drank while I was away. Oh yeah, congratulations SCOTT and MEGAN !!!
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