The first was Yuba Buena Commons near 3rd and Harrison; a subsidised, low-income SRO (single residence occupancy). The apartments are really nice, close to the POD (studio) and well-priced, but it’s reminiscent of some elaborate human storage operation. I went to ask a few residents what it was like living there and got mixed responses. And by mixed I mean “Seems good, everyone keeps to themselves” from some people and no response from others. Literally. No response. Just empty stares. I’d be halfway through saying “Hi, can I ask you a-” and they’d turn their heads and look at me with absolutely no emotion, then just continue on their way. This happened more than once. And by more than once I mean twice. But still, I only talked to 4 people so that’s a 50:50 split!

It’s kind of like an alternate reality where there’s even a ‘nuisance’ condition stating you’re not allowed to disturb other tenants in the building. I can see its purpose but maybe this frightens people into submission, or maybe there’s something else going on. Either way, it’s the kind of place you go only to sleep and nothing else. However, this could’ve suited me just fine, and it’s really cheap with a month to month contract! So the prospect of having my own place was quite appealing until I started thinking about how much I liked hanging out with the hostel folk. And then I went to meet the occupants of a share house in a slightly less central location, Haight.

I arrived in Haight and felt overwhelmingly safe. People were walking around at night!.. People with homes!

So I rocked up to the house and met with Lily, Jimmy (+his bf I assume), Ilyce and one of their other friends. They all seem really creative and were really welcoming, funny and down to earth. I totally warmed to the environment and the thought of going back to the Zombie Commons became less appealing despite its convenience. A 2 minute flat ride vs a 10-15minute hilly ride. I did set a goal to get regular exercise while in the States though.

As I said to the housemates when comparing the options; I could either be an insanely good, insane artist or a pretty good, socially-adjusted artist. And I think it’s really important for artists to do things other than art sometimes. Not including sleeping and eating, which are also valuable activities.

So here I am a day later, residing in the house in Haight. At this stage it’s temporary, so I’ll be at this place until the end of July.

Here’s my room.

Looking through to the kitchen + entertainment/dining room from the hall.

The awesome fuschia tree outside the dining room window.

Plus the house is filled with little amusing notes and drawings. One of the residents is a school teacher and has acquired a lot of pictures from students.

The first character I met was Katherine at the airport. She worked in the lost baggage department of American Airlines. I don’t have a picture of her unfortunately but she was really nice and warm. Because my baggage was actually on the flight I originally boarded it arrived ~3 or 4hrs before me and I had to collect it from her. There was a lot of baggage in their little office, as well as a dog in a cage. As a sidenote; there are lots of dogs being walked in urban situations here, and not really any cats.

Anyway, I picked up my bag from her and then went to try and find a hostel, but had no wi-fi. The airport was virtually deserted at this hour and I didn’t know what I was doing so reapproached Katherine with my lack-of-accommodation dilemma.

She was in tears.

Despite this, she was very responsive as if it was business as usual. I’d actually seen her struggling earlier and shouting because the baggage handlers were putting all the bags on the wrong carousels and they were getting totally overloaded. She was trying to remove them. Anyway, she relayed it was tough because people shout at her for damaged/lost bags and I sympathised. They’ve got to blame someone, right? She was really nice to me though and called a bunch of hostels with no luck, then a few hotels, and booked me into El Rancho and organised a shuttle. What a star.

So cut to the hotel. I got off the shuttle with a guy with a chihuahua.

This was his service dog. The weight of the world is clearly heavy on his shoulders. Even the dog looks sad. They’re a perfect reflection of one another and I felt bad for him. The airline had lost his bags which contained the service dog papers. The hotel had a no pet policy and asked to see the papers, I can only hope empathy prevailed in this instance. This guy could barely muster a smile.

After a night at El Rancho I’d found a host, at least for the next night, and shuffled over to Green St to a tiny apartment.

That sleeping space housed 4 people last night, with 2 more in the bedroom. ha

The view from the roof. The guy pointing is the host, Emmanuel, with Charisma in the dress and Robin in the hood. In the hood.

After hanging out at the Fillmore Jazz Festival (being July 4th) for the afternoon Charisma and Emmanuel went off to a party and Robin was going walking around the city to run errands. She said she’d appreciate the company but I wasn’t obliged. I didn’t really know how to get back to the apartment though, so my choice was made.

We wandered and met up with a friend of hers, then went to the hostel they cook at. It was a pretty uneventful afternoon but when the sun went down we had a really low-key Italian meal over a pitcher on the way back to the apartment. We were both exhausted and not particularly interested in partying.

Yes, the sign reads “Ass” from where I was sitting (Pizza backwards), which was what instigated the photo, but it’s a nice record of the evening.

Anyway, we caught a little bit of the fireworks on the way back to the apartment.

Some things I’ve noticed about people here:

• People talk to you. Wherever you are you can start a conversation with (most) people. Back in P-Town it seems more awkward to talk to strangers. I like that about Americans.
• People in San Francisco have been really generous. I’m not sure whether it’s just because I’m awesome or what, but I just met a girl on the bus (while moving from the apartment to the Hostel I’m currently in) who said her and her sister were thinking about hosting couch surfers at their new place. She promptly got off a few stops later but has my number. Potential accommodation! Maybe she felt sorry for me, lugging around all my clothes and stuff on a bus. It’s as awkward as it sounds.
• People in San Francisco are very eclectic. Plus there are a lot of crazies here. I feel like it doesn’t matter what combination of clothing I take out of my bag in the morning, because no matter what I wear I’ll fit in.

Well, I’ve never been good with conclusions, and here’s another conclusion-free post.

Then a few minutes later an announcement came over the speakers requesting 8 volunteers go on a 9pm flight in exchange for a $500 travel voucher. Anyone who wanted to take the offer was to make their way to the front of the plane.  I was quite comfortable in first class but was considering it. It didn’t appear there were any takers when another announcement upped the voucher to $600. I went up to the guy and requested a $600 voucher with the condition I retain my first class seat. He was all like “Noes” but I said I’d talk to my other TAD buddy on the same flight (Jarrko from Finland) because I was considering it anyway. I went back and talked to Jarrko, who hadn’t been upgraded to first class, and he wasn’t sold on the offer. Then on my stroll back to my seat I thought I might as well make the most of first class while I have it. The announcer asked what my decision was and I said I’d rather just stick with the current flight, and went to return to my seat. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were in first class. We can give you first class then.”

Now I’m sitting in Dallas airport waiting till 9pm, with a US$600 travel voucher and a first class ticket.

A later note in San Fran:

Unfortunately, having taken the flight the first class seat wasn’t as good as the original one (smaller plane), but hey… I’m sure I’ll get a bit of leverage out of the voucher. And I also met an SF resident while waiting for my voucher. It all works out.

Anyway, I thought this was a good photo to share.

People are crowding around to watch Mark English work his magic on Niko’s painting (which is pretty awesome, he may eventually post it on his blog). For reference, Niko is standing on the left, obscured by the guy with the hat.

Also, if you’re not familiar with Francis Vallejo’s work, check him out!

Sometimes you just need to let adversity fuel you. Don’t give up. Some people see defeat and abandon all hope, but it’s really opportunity in disguise! You are now the underdog! There are no expectations placed on you, so when you surpass expectations you can be all “Check it out! I’m balancing 24 plates on my head!”

I guess to me it feels like a test – people saying no makes me want to shoot fire from my eyebrows. Hair-seeking fire that will hunt down and incinerate the nay-sayers’ precious hairstyles. It’ll be of little significance that my eyebrows will also be gone. I have a full facemask or two which can be used for special occasions like Sans Eyebrow Day.

Anyway, regardless of the lack of funding I depart for next adventure (studying at TAD) in less than 2 weeks! Let’s make it 25 plates!

It was only just now, after watching the whole clip on youtube that I realised it actually does have a coherent message. Every time I’ve seen it on TV I see a massive robot walking along and transforming into a train while the voiceover saying the amount of CO2 is drastically reduced by catching public transport. I’d be left frustrated thinking “Surely that train robot releases a LOT more CO2 than a train! This advert does not make sense!”

But I was right, that’s what they’re trying to say! And here’s the flaw in their advert: The giant robot was originally made from cars, but because the start of the advert is so familiar and boring (peak hour traffic in Perth? Don’t see that everyday…) I only tuned in after seeing the giant, attention-grabbing robot.  I completely missed the fact that it went from cars -> robot -> train and assumed, like most of the transformers I’m familiar with*, it only had one vehicle state and went from train -> robot -> train. Consistency is important. When people recognise a concept don’t break the rules.

So… The team/person responsible for this advert actually had a fairly pertinent idea, but it could’ve been structured more effectively for the TV advertisement context.

The ad needs to start with something attention grabbing, and then get to the point, because the first detail is so crucial to the message.

In spite of all this… The robot looks great, as does the animation. I’m sure it’s a great folio piece for whoever made it. Plus I’m sure they learnt a lot in the process.  I just find it interesting that this little sequential issue can totally invert the viewers’ comprehension. And the reaction is harder to predict since it needs to be considered from the viewpoint that the audience isn’t actually paying attention to commercials on TV when yours comes on.

Edit:  I’ve  storyboarded a restructured ad in my next post.

*I know there are a few outliers that have 3+ forms, but most have 2.

Constructive critique can be a great tool for improvement, but I’ve received a lot of horribly unproductive crits in my time and it’s generally due to a lack of awareness. There’s a lot more to critiquing than people realise, and little comments can have more impact than people realise. One of my old art directors had a “No driveby critiques” rule in the studio, which should be implemented in any studio. A lot of it comes down to communication skills and problem solving, which are both distinct from technical skills.

Anyway, I’ve compiled artists’ pointers from the video as a series of notes:

Only critique if you can offer a solution.

The professional artists talking are pretty opposed to brutal critiques. “Any jackass can burn down a barn, but it takes a great carpenter to build one up.”

“The worst thing you can do is to damage someone’s ego enough where they’re afraid to make a move, or afraid to do something.” – John English

Marshall Vandruff likened it to bringing up a baby. When someone’s at the ideation phase their ideas need to be nurtured, and in the latter stages you need to be firm, not brutal. Brutal critiquing is unproductive. Shutting down someone’s ideation is like spanking a baby.

Filter critiques you receive. Listen to people you trust and have your best interests at heart. Seek out people who have something to offer. Recognise when someone’s trying to steer your work towards the type of art they enjoy as opposed to improving the actual artwork. ie. Opinion vs constructive criticism. eg. “I think it would look better in green” is not constructive.

Consider what level the person the delivering critique is at. In the Visual Literacy Program if someone’s going to comment on another person’s work they need to post some of their own work as well.

Also recognise what’s right, or ‘working’, with the piece.

In a later question Brad Rigney (Cryptcrawler) talked about the ‘layperson’ opinion. I guess there’s some distinction to be made  here between getting advice and ‘testing’ your artwork. His wife is not artistic at all but she’ll often say when something doesn’t look right and he finds that invaluable. My personal opinion is that’s probably more applicable to professional artists, as a newer artist may become disheartened if told “That doesn’t look right.” It pretty much directly contradicts the other artists’ thoughts, which is why I think of it more like ‘testing’ your artwork than getting critique. ha

The rest of the workshop consisted of fashion design with a focus on recycling and combining old clothes. Creativity and craziness was encourage. I started work on a ‘pant hat’, and will likely publish the final result after the final session in 2 weeks. I’m totally reinventing belts as headwear though. Remember where you heard it first – I’m the next fashion pioneer.

I’m thoroughly amused – thought I’d share.

Eating/rambling aside, this is a colour study referencing my Vue De Monde photos. I might actually refine it a little and get it printed… I like it. It’s efficient.