Welcome to day 30. I woke today thinking I’m ready to leave. The show is up and I’ve been here a long time. I guess I’m a little depressed. I’ve had some serious things to deal with back home while here that I haven’t written about that I’ve had to put on hold while working on the island, so that has been taxing. Anyway, probably shouldn’t write about that here, although I would really like to write about it, writing is helpful. I’m feeling self conscious about the blog too, like I did when I first started, but whatever.
I went to Gouverneur Beach this morning. I took this photo (above) on the way down the hill. I’ve only been there once since I got here, as I usually go to Saline beach which is very close to the house. I thought I’d go to Gouverneur for a change and to spend some time at another place on the island before I leave on Monday. I got there and swam for about five minutes and then left. I should have went to Saline, my routine. Routine would have been a better thing today. I was also driving on Empty, because I haven’t looked at the gas tank lately. Gas stations and everything else close in the afternoons for a few hours so they were closed. I made it home and I’m hoping I make it to the gas station later, coasting down the hill.
It’s a very sunny day today. The usual, weird birds are jumping in and out of the terra cotta bird bath to my left, just near the railing of the deck. I placed new water in there for them this morning. It needs new water every day, those birds use it a lot. There’s one of the large lizards walking on the path by the birdbath. I looked at it a few minutes ago and I thought about evolution and I thought, how can people not
believe in evolution, it was very clear to me that the weird bird in the birdbath at one time, was related (and I guess still is) to that lizard on the ground. Who knows, maybe that’s not true.I think I’ll do something constructive and wander around the house and start gathering my things that have dispersed around the premises during the past month. I’m going to have to pack a box and ship that separately. That’s the thing about having ROOMS.....you put down your glasses or your gum or your cell phone or your sunscreen or your diet coke or your shirt and whammo.....it vanishes into the ether of ROOMS. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to call my cell phone to listen for the ring to find it again. Back in the city, I have a one bedroom, so objects can’t travel far. My studio is one big room so that’s easy too. I think people who live in big places with ROOMS end up buying several of everything, because they lose them in the ROOMS. People that have the luxury of ROOMS usually have money, so if they temporarily misplace their hat or their sunscreen or their shirt or their shoe, they just purchase another one, eventually having doubles and triples of everything. That way if they misplace an item, there will be it’s twin or triplet ready to be found just by the sheer numbers of new purchases of twin items. I guess that makes sense, makes things easier, but think of the clutter and the funds needed to keep purchasing lost keys or chap-stick or socks or favorite books or sunglasses. Not to mention the lazy factor of just buying something to replace something you can’t find right away. Not to mention the TIME it takes to wander around the ROOMS to find misplaced items. It’s good exercise though, and it’s kind of fun wandering from room to room, except when you’re in a hurry and need to leave the house and your looking for a misplaced item.
ROOMS are nice to have though. I like walking from one room to another and that it actually takes me some time to WALK there. In New York, I get up and walk over to get something on a table across the room or in the kitchen and it takes a moment, here, walking from one room to the deck or from the driveway up to the kitchen is like a mini adventure.....you get to walk or stride or meander, depending on your mood, to get from place to place and you notice things about the ROOMS on your walk from place to place; the way a room has been painted, how the furniture has been arranged, the way the sun comes into a window during different’ times of the day, a plant enjoying a hallway all to itself, an abandoned towel that was dropped on the way home from an outing to the beach last thursday. I’ve seen some items never move even ONCE the whole time I’ve been here in these ROOMS....there’s a half spent candle on a coffee table I’m looking at right now that has never been lit while I’ve been here, but someone else enjoyed it on a previous evening. There’s a large, ceramic bowl or urn that was moved once when I got here, as it was used as a trash can until we bought a much needed new one. This bowl or urn isn’t necessarily in the most convenient or desirable place, sitting on the patio near the entrance to the kitchen, but there’s enough ROOM for it to sit where it is without someone being bothered enough to move it to a nicer spot, for instance over by the top of the stone stairs that connect the upstairs deck to the downstairs, or over in the sun by the steps that go up to the pool. Actually, when I’m done typing this, I think I’ll move it. And I think I’ll go around the house and move everything I can....a chair here, a lamp there, a towel over there, a plant here, the garden hose there, the birdbath over there. That will be fun, and I bet no one will even notice. If I moved any item in my apartment back in the city or in my studio, I know exactly where it is, when I moved it and why (well, for the most part).
ROOMS....ample......luxurious.....privileged.
Jonathan asked me last night what I was going to miss the most when I leave and I said the space (ROOMS) and the time it takes to get to the beach (six minutes) without the need to pack anything, just a towel, water, sunscreen, sunglasses, and optional shirt. I’m also going to miss the missed opportunity to finish the sewing/’outfits’ project I started and that I put in the show unfinished. I’m looking forward to continuing that project back in my studio in the city. I’m also going to miss wearing JUST a pair of shorts, every day, all day.
If I stayed here any longer and tried to continue with my work it would be interesting, some things would change, and it’s nice to explore new things, but you also lose a little bit of your identity that you’ve forged since day one of your birth. Which is interesting but also a little scary. This is kind of what I touched on yesterday when I mentioned Marlon Brando and Jim Jones, leaving urban environments and retreating to remote areas and letting eccentricities flourish, for better or worse. The city, even thought it’s jammed with thoughts and ideas, also gives you a set of self-imposed blinders and lets you work more in a straight, progressive line, with subtle and thought out discoveries played out in small, one bedroom apartments and conservative sized art studios vrs an eccentric loss of self that can happen on a remote island, with ample ROOMS.
That probably didn’t make much sense but it made sense to me. I’d like to go back and fix it a bit and try to write it in a way that makes more sense, but that would take the entire afternoon. I think it’s interesting though and important because where people live, wether it’s by their own choosing or more often by financial circumstance, and the objects they surround themselves with, effects every thing about them - their work, their well being, their interactions with people, everything. This is a pretty basic concept though, just ask Martha Stewart, but I think the differences between living in a remote area vrs an urban area and how that effects people is interesting.
It’s 2:28. I think I’ll go move some items around the house and find new homes for them. And then go for a swim and start packing just a bit so I don’t have to do it all tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing Jonathan. I wonder what it’s going to be like flying into NY and getting on the subway. Going from ROOMS on the island to the subway.
5:27PM I went over to Saline for a swim and I’m really glad I did. I swam nude too, one of the last nude swims I’ll get to do before I leave the island. It was so nice at Saline today. I love it there. Got back to the house (without running out of gas) and talked with Douglas and John. We’re going to dinner tonight for some seafood. That will be nice. The sun will be setting in an hour and I’m feeling much better than I did this morning, when I was rambling on and on about ROOMS.
Monique landed in Newark last night and today she’s in Manhattan for the day before she flies back to SF in the morning. She sent me this picture via camera phone, she was on 53rd and Park....it’s Damien Hirst again:
So there’s your semi-live shot of Manhattan, via sell phone to the Caribbean and then to the blog. Thanks Monique for the picture.That’s it for today. Jonathan, I hope you are having a good day in New Jersey. Mom, I hope you are having a good day in Maine, Liz, I hope things are going well in Florida.
