David Petersen Artworks

These residencies are really quite a trip, no pun intended. A vacation from real life, one gets to ditch out on their home, work, and any other responsibility so they can go ‘make art.’ Or whatever one is supposed to do while on holiday - I mean as an artist-in-residence. Because I do not really know what this is, I somehow wound up making two videos. Have I mentioned this already? Since when do I make videos?
However, there is plenty of down time when ‘in residence.’ Remember the inflatable pool project? Or how about the bike ride to the baseball game. Of course, with no money in the budget for tickets, there is always the free view from the right field corner and the friendly fans who don’t mind telling you the score or the count of an at-bat.

At least this time I didn’t spend hours on end watching countless episodes of The Family Guy.

Yesterday morning I finally put on my ‘community event’ which was quite a hit. Not as formal as planned, I cooked up about 50 pancakes for the other residents and staff that were around on the Sunday morning. But I forgot to use the fancy plates I found in a box on the third floor. And there was not one snap shot for documentation. So it goes. I guess you had to be there.
That, I suppose, is what these residencies are all about. Being there. As long as you can suppress all the guilt of abandoning everything back home, it’s totally cool. You have a ton of free time to do whatever you want, to actually focus on making something (what a trip down memory lane), to meet a bunch of other creative and focused artists and to have a clean conscious to boot.
But now it is all over, or at least this is my last full day, one that will be mostly tying up the myriad loose ends frayed by my having no idea how a residency really works. There is no pomp and circumstance, no going away party, not even a certificate of participation or a ribbon. You just exchange email addresses or business cards, shake some hands and leave. And go back to real life. And that ain’t half bad.

Saturday Night Arm Wrestling @ AOT! Tonight Tonight Tonight!!! Get there, shirts off and Over the Top!

In the news from Elsewhere…

So the powers that be at the all-mighty Elsewhere would like to come down like Draco for my impunctuality with the blog. And for making up words like impunctual. Eat it.
There is revolt in these here hills, the anti-blog revolt. It’s like Shay’s Rebellion, Harper’s Ferry and the Haymarket Riots all wrapped up in one. Except we will win. Win big.

In news with less potential for violence, the Electric Elsewhere video is nearly complete. Eat that. I cannot believe that of all the things in the world to do here at this junk shopper’s paradise, all I could come up with is two stinking videos. Sheesh, I am lame.

How will I ever protect the barricades with two lame videos?
Vive la Revolution!

Another day at the office. This is not a complaint, just an observation like the one out the back door this afternoon (see above). Projects are moving right along and anticipation is building for Sunday’s Pancake Brunch. George and Steph may even go so far as to declare it the annual ‘Elsewhere Pancake Day.’ Which means I will be back next summer to do some cooking. How’s about that for a community project?

Did I mention there is now an alternate David Petersen website? No? Well it’s not exactly the artworks, and of course my heart will always be here. However, part of the Elsewhere fun is being in the ‘neighborhood.’ And that means having one of these Vox sites. I started mine the other day so it doesn’t have much on it yet. However, I just posted a video about navigating this giant, stuff-filled building. Take a looksee, but no staring!

Another development has been the improvements made to my desk. As you can clearly see, some toy trains to remind me of Ruby, a photo of Ruby, and an Evonne Goolagong tennis racquet. It’s a Dunlop, just like back home.

One of the many things that are taken for granted here at Elsewhere, at least by incoming residents from places far and wide, is the immense and complicated amount electricity required to keep this place powered up. If one were to ‘turn on the lights,’ it would easily take a half hour to power everything up. That is, if you can find all the right switches. This morning I have begun compiling all the power strips and other small, multi-headed extension cords that I can find here at Elsewhere.

Just when the opportunity arrives to get a bunch of stuff done, so does the inflatable kiddie pool.

Uh huh.

This morning most of the ‘family’ took a vacation to the coast of North Carolina. They went to the beach. Which has left a few landlubbers, such as myself, to the solitude of a closed and empty Elsewhere. To further the amazing stillness that has befallen the usually frantic, activity-filled building, everyone else has now run some errand or other.

I am here all alone.

This is of course an immense responsibility. As a whole, this cultural center of art and oddity is priceless. Besides all the technology that the artists themselves have with them (for every desk this is a MacBookPro), the amount of ‘things’ in this place is boggling (although I have yet to see a game of Boggle). There is so much stuff here that things have glommed onto things, with more things glomming onto those things. Books and boardgames are stacked to the ceiling, pennants and banners are strung from everywhere, a tree has been made alongside the ’skyscraper’ (Lineberry Tower) and the refrigerator (unnamed) has a picture of itself on the front door. No shelf nor rack nor drawer nor cupboard is free of space. And the signage. As if there already wasn’t enough visual stimuli here, there are more signs, notices, warnings, billboards, refrigerator magnets, postcards, and posters here than should be allowable. Even my desk, which I declared a ’sign-free zone’ has a sign that says it is my desk. As if I might forget that my desk is my desk! It’s time to make some changes around here. I guess it’s a good thing nobody is around.