Day 27- June 21th: Art Night, my poor feet!

There are many moments in life when pain is deeply entangled with pleasure and tonight a rare event will bring both of of them together and make them a enjoyable as a pair.

Every year Budapest throws a party for the Art- lovers. The Museums and Galleries in the city are open all day and night until 4am with a low one time entry fee at 1,200 HUF and it's good for all museum and galleries. A great bargain because that is the price for one Museum entry. The town became more alive than ever, people young and old, lovers and old friends are all around the city for this major event. Big parties, special events, and performances are scheduled at most museums.

I met up with my roommate Andreas at 8pm at the Ludwig Museum- Budapest and we started there and 5 museum and galleries later it was already 2 am and we were exhausted. The city transportation hours was extended but all lines were jammed pack with passengers. It was a wonderful city-wide event but I wish it would have longer hours or the entire week ended like The Pasadena Art weekend.

My highlights are the wonderful interior space at the Applied Arts Museum. The white classic interior and it's large Hungarian antique collection is contrasted with video displays and ultra modern art installations. It worked seamlessly and wonderfully! The electronic music echo through the space where modern and classic blends much like the attendees of the event; punks, metrosexuals and century old people.

The Contemporary museum's Roman exterior is impressive and the interior is massive. I wish LA could have similar places for modern art. MOCA is nice and the shows are good but having 3 different small to mid-size galleries just doesn't work as well as MOMA or the Hungarian Contemporary museum did for me. The art there is mostly good but with some weak pieces but it was a enjoyable experience.

We finally got back to the hotel around 2:30am and tired as hell but we slept happily after seeing so many wonderful work.

Day 22th -june 9th: It can be better

pic:
a strange mobile 3d ad truck running up and down the street.



I am coming down with a annoying cough and hope it will go away soon. We had a residency meeting today and it was very helpful as things are coming to an end on Wednesday. Other artists are rush to many culture sites in and around the city before heading home. I, on the other hand, have no rush what so ever.


I am about done on my last piece of art work and just a little minor gluing and cutting would do the trick. I can't believe I am more productive here in Hungary than in LA. This is the first time I have done 3 pieces of work in less than 3 weeks (2 weeks of that is just finding materials). Wow, I can seriously become an art factory if I ever get my act straight.



This evening I went to a bar because it's a “youth night” they have discounted entry for people under 30 y/o. I was there last week and it was 500 forints and this week the doorman is different and he insist me paying 1,500 forints. I showed him the ad in the paper and he gave me some bullshit excuses on how I have to be a member to be qualified for the 500 forints entry. I didn't want to argue with him because I know he will win any argument if we ever got into one. After a few hours there and came the time to settle my bill; he said only 500 forints. There is a god. I gave him a small tip of 150 forints.


You can't be sure of anything in Hungary..... they have local price and tourist prices on most goods and services (even this hotel have a discreet Hungarian price, I heard). I don't even look at things if they don't have a price tag because I know they are just fishing for tourist.

Day 19- june 6th: sort of uneventful

We had meetings on our residency for over 4 hours and went over our art work and statements as well as bio and pricing. Things are coming to an end in less than a week and i am still working on my last piece of art work, i hope i can make it in time before i got to Vienna.

I have talked to my boyfriend and decided to stay in Budapest for another month so it should be very interesting. I cant wait to do everything here in town and venture into other countries...

I work on my art for a few hours today and thought I would go down to the Danube for another wonderful sunset. It was sure amazing!!!! I didnt see the rent boy i winder what had happened to him. Later, I ventured into a bar and now sitting here .. why cant American bars have free internet access at the bars. it just make sense when they are no one but older men here... i guess I would pour myself another drink.

Day 18- June 5th: Music Of The Night

I worked a bit last night and finished one of my art pieces and went to the framer today. It cost 17,000 forient to get it frame (only 2,000 of that is labor and the rest material). This further confirm my theory that there is no mid price goods. The art works are finally coming together and I need to work more in the next few days.

I have been thinking about staying in Budapest for a longer amount of time, maybe a month more? I talked to my boyfriend about it and he is supportive of my decisions. He is always so encouraging and supportive of what I do. He is really good to me and it makes me so happy that he is my life and sad that he is far away.

The four of us and Beata went to a art opening tonight and mistakenly arrived 1.5 hour early so we made our way down to a coffee shop by Hero Sq. We all had a good time talking and waiting for our food which took about an hour.


The Art opening is in basement studio/ gallery space in a vintage building. The building is interesting but the quality of art work is spotty. There are several very nice pieces and a very strange 2 person band played; a loud experimental sound filled the windowless basement. Rudee wasn't feeling well so she left early; I think it's from climbing up and down the subway and building stairs. I hope she feels better physically so she can see more sights in the city before we leave the residency in just less than a week now :(.


I came back to the room and worked more on my art but had fallen asleep... it was 2:30am the eerie songs of the homeless woman awake me from the sleep. She sometimes sings in the park in early hours of the day from her drunkenness and her rusty off-key vocal resonated between the tall historic apartment buildings. It is surreal!

Day 17- June 4th: Lost and Found

Lost:
(I meant to write about this 4 or 5 days ago but haven't had a chance to)

It was one morning when I stated to plan my daily material hunt and site visits than I noticed my map is gone. I became frantic and started to panic because it became my perfect assistant and it was tattooed with notes, dots and routes taken. It's a young map but had aged gracefully with layers of tapes to keep it in shape. I felt this was personal lost, as if I have lost days of experiences. I than realized even the physical map is lost the mental map is still fresh in my mind.

Found:

I worked on my art today and did some writing. I spent a good amount of time in the park painting and prepping my art pieces for the next stage of production. I feel the sense of urgency to speed up my work as the residency is coming to an end. It has just over one week left.
Around 430pm I decided to take a break and visit the Terror Museum 2 locks away. It was a very unique experience and the museum is devoted to the history of the Hungary's Communist rule and Nazi period before the Communist occupation.

The museum is divided into exhibition “story rooms” and each room is design to reflect different historical events during the occupation. The museum is very well designed and modern. It really conveys the massage through its minimalistic design and color representation. It is so powerful it made me completely uncomfortable and I can sense the sadness and hopeless of these people of the time.
I had tears in my eyes as I walked through the exhibits, some imagery are too hard to watch and stories are too tragic to listen to.... this experience was nothing but the triumph of humanity and once again the Hungarian people found themselves.

This experience made me have a even greater appreciation for having been born in Taiwan, not China and for living in the United States.

Day 16- June 3rd: Dramagalore

The day starts around 5 am just 3 hours after I had gone to bed. My suitemate got sick from the paint thinners I left in the living room. It was overlooked mistake anyone could have made and is solved by communication instead I got slamming doors at 5am, a note in the bathroom at 9am, and dirty looks at 10am.

We did talk about the situation and came up with some sort of solution but I do not know if it will work because she constantly victimized herself in every situation. She wants to be heard so she talks about her life for hours to us and other strangers in the city. I think this entices her and makes her feels alive.

I understand and am sorry that she got sick from the paint fumes and it is my fault but she plays the victim's card so well it's a bit disturbing to me.

Maybe I should also leave her nasty note in the bathroom one day as means of “good communication”.

• Please turn down your terrible music at night.
  
• Please keep the windows closed so there are not 1000 bugs in the room.
  
• Please check the toilet after you have done shitting so the next person doesn't see your dinner from last night floating in the toilet (this happened twice).
  
• When you ask someone to turn the water faucets tightly make sure you do it too.
  
• Please keep your “group therapy, sob stories, personal experiences, and family drama” conversation to a min of 5 mins per day instead of wasting hours of other people's valuable time. (countless hours wasted; I have stood and listened to her talking about her life for 1 hour more than a couple of times and now I just make up excuses and leave but still I give her at least 10 mins to speak to about herself, daily).
  
• Please be respectful of other members in the group when doing a group activity.

I know I am just being mean now but I feel that she takes advantage of people's sympathy for her disability and use it for her constant self reinforcement of “being the victim” is simply unacceptable.
Of course I won't write her the note above and in many ways I still feel for her physical and psychological sufferings and I do hope she is able to get something out of this Residency by interacting with others in a social and urban environment before returning to her seclusions in South Dakota.

Good to get it out of my system and I do hope her a peaceful life.

oh, we also took a very wonderful roadtrip to a little artist village and visited a few art galleries with Beata.

Day 15- June 2ed: Working; Networking

It's another day filled with running around getting materials and some work at the hardware stores. I went back to the same shop where I had first got my plywood board cut. This time they recognized me and is very helpful and not much English was needed other than some sign language and easy phases.

I later ran to my friend Utilla's restaurant and had more Goulash soup and deep fried catfish with almonds. It was like eating at Coco's, a bit strange to be eating this in Hungary, I don't even eat this 'American' in the US, but hey it's free. He can definitely do this for a living in America.

Megan, Lisa and I went to a art opening that night and it was “interesting” because entertainment is planned. This just happens to be a crazy, singing, dancing and painting Clown!!! It's absolutely insane and he looked so scary and full of that 'Clownergy', I was even brave enough to have taken a picture with him. We met some local people and chatted with them; good times!

I than took off to a bar and met up with some Canadian friends visiting the city at a local joint and chatted with one of them. The other guy is Chinese living in Canada and he seems bossy and I didn't say much to him.

I got back around 1130pm and worked on my art for a bit before going to bed.