ConSTrucTiOnS

I love these long-light days. They make me feel like summer in nyc (right as i hear Regina Spektor sing "summer in the city" --beautiful moment).
Today was hot. Hot for San Francisco, really.
I love heat. Love, love, love it. When people say, 'well, you wouldn't like it if it were like this all the time (referring to a gorgeousfuckingday)' Uh, yeah, i would. I mean, hey, I love winter, too.....but, the heat, it's all about the heat.
I didn't own an a/c for the first 7 years of being in my ny apt. Up until the last year I was there, friends and family would BEG--"pleeeeease get a freakin a/c. Stop trying to be so tough!"

suuuure, that might have been part of it.

And then, they just started to straight up refuse to play at my place, "can we pleeeease go to a cafe with a/c?!"

But, usually my apartment had some winning attribute that got them all back there: an illegal roof (perfect for those hot summer nights of fantasizing and bitching simultaneously--hey, we'd say, pretend you're someplace else, like hawaii...and then, this serious funk would spew from this big vent! we lived above an old school restaurant that had a number of issues--when i previously wrote about a certain firehouse that saved my apt from burning to the ground, yeah, this restaurant was the cause of the fire--ooch.), an awesome view of 7th Avenue, Holland tunnel traffic (and when i say awesome, i mean close enough to the street that you could get caught totally nude, mid-shower-and-bedroom-crossing and a double decker tour bus thought they were at a raunchy Universal Studios--RK suggested curtains and I finally succumbed)

Which brings me back to the hot summer nights of NYC. I feel more creative when it's hot out, and stays lighter later and the days seem so, literally, much longer (yes, "day-time" is longer, but the days are still the same 24 hours--so, its a little trick I like to play on my own brain).

So, I'm finishing up this piece called "Phobophobia" for this upcoming group show called "Constructions". (I'm thrilled about being in the show--they're a great group of artists to share a gallery with. And I hope to have about four or five pieces in it. Christina is going to write about it on SFist & I'll make that link live when it happens.)

Sooooo, this piece: it's based on this idea that this man and woman, that were sorta self-made therapists, believed that they could rid people of fear if they just forced a type of "it's all in your mind" game to it. So, they made a prototype of this sort of parlor game/self-help product for the masses, in the early 1920's. You pick up a "card" (by the handle on the back) that has your greatsest fear (insects or childhood nightmares) and you put the oval box up to your eyes (like you're going to watch slides, blinders at your eye-sides) and bring the fear (card) in close. Right up to your eyes--it's closing in on you--you're breathing harder--it's getting closer-- and, then______________. It's totally black. There's nothing there. You can't see it.

See?

Your fears are all in your mind.

I'm not sure why my pieces seem a little strangely heavy...weird...
maybe I'm working some things out.

Wherever you are tonight, I hope your weather is something to enjoy.