Artist Update 6.24.2018 – Dry Tortugas and Files & Film
Here I am, blogging late on a Sunday night on 6/24/2018. I spent yesterday taking out my dad’s machines to be run, photographed, to be sold. Today I spent the day half at the pool and half working out the details of my parents in a meeting with my aunt and uncle. I am in the process of selling my parents car, their house, and all my dad’s machines. If this wasn’t going on this weekend I would’ve been on a kayak somewhere. It’s ok. I have the rest of my life to go kayaking. The bad part is this is me getting ready to lose my personal artist studio and my workshop where I have been working from for about 5 years. The house I grew up in. The house I helped my dad work on my whole life. I remember one summer he bought me a harness to paint his Juliet balcony. I had recently started smoking cigarettes. I was 15 years old hanging from a rope in a harness by myself with a paintbrush, paint, and a cigarette in my mouth painting my dad’s house. Cool summer job. I think that was the same summer I burnt my hands with xylene. The memories.
As an artist, my big projects I am working on right now are traveling to Dry Tortugas National Park (island 70 miles west of Key West in the Gulf), which includes a new gear purchase I don’t want to talk about because I feel so guilty spending the money. No no, because I feel STUPID spending the money right now. O well. My work that will be exhibited at the Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist show will be from the trip I just got home from ‘The Grand Circle’, and Dry Tortugas. The other HUGE project is the ‘relaunch’ of my show Files & Film Annual Juried Photographic Art Show which is going to be at MIZE next year.
I went to Dry Tortugas in 2016 with my friend Richard Auger.
https://xinascuderi.com/off-the-grid-dry-tortugas
Richard and I are headed there again to camp 2 nights and kayak the 3 miles in open ocean to Loggerhead Key. Last time I was on a Dicapac bag and Richard had the right gear, an Aquatech housing. I don’t want to go all that way again without the proper gear! Drive me crazy!!!
The relaunch of Files & Film is super fabulous exciting. I am collecting feedback from some of the artists that I have worked closely with over the past 5 years on this project. I am so grateful for the artist mentors I have thanks to Files & Film. Looks like we are changing the type of juror we want and the way prizes are tiered. We already have a sponsorship from St. Pete Arts Alliance to get Files & Film on www.callforentry.org which is AWESOME. I could write a whole blog about this. Thank you John Collins.
Even though life is super tough for me right now, these are the things I do to keep me going, to keep me sleeping at night. My art projects! To make me tired enough to be able to go to bed. I keep so busy. Too busy. I have to be careful not to take on too many projects because of living in real space and time, having responsibilities to get my parents whole thing figured out and done and me still be ok with my life. I am taking on mentoring kids in the juvenile justice system. I am buying this new piece of gear (new project will come out of this). I am working full time job might I add in case anyone is wondering. The job has to be a priority. The photos don’t pay for themselves! It’s just crazy. But almost perfect at the same time. Crazy / perfect. No one else could do what I am doing right now. Only I could do this. My aunts never shut up about ‘God always gives you the problems you can handle’. There is a story my mémère used to tell about people sitting at God’s table. They all tell each other their problems. Then they all realize they don’t want to leave the table with anyone else’s problems. They all leave the table with their own problems.
<3 Xina
