Día 8

Reporting 8 June 2009:

Jon and I didn't sleep much last night- we were both restless from processing an exciting weekend. I think we were also anxious for the week to come, fore today we commenced the building stage of our project. Our visual research and materials searches will never come to an end, but now our main focus is on building the installation. Our day was a bit rickety, as we became acquainted with the tools, materials, and each other. Improvisation and intuition are often key components to the artistic process, and have been crucial on this trip. As you can see (in the photo above) by our improvised ¨sawhorse¨, we are learning to make art in situations that don't offer the accessibility (and excess) of resources of say, the Home Depot.

For the days to come, Jon and I will be working with Richard from 10am to about 6:30pm (with a lunch break somewhere in there). In studio time this evening, Jon created a "sketch" model resourcefully using our broken tape measure as his material. I worked through some sketches, contemplating recurring shapes that I've taken note of recently. As Jon and I have been working so closely with Richard and his artistic process, it is inevitable that we are influenced by his aesthetics and philosophies. I have the sense that our installations will be very representative of our "apprenticeship" with Richard, and may also demonstrate a further discovery/development of our "artistic sensibilities" as we digest the visual/cultural magnificence of Santa Cruz.

Even though I am acting as translator for Jon and Richard, there is much about the Bolivian Spanish language that I am not accustomed to speaking in the U.S. or in México. The primary example is in the use of "vos" instead of "tu" when you adrress somebody in a personal manner (where one may say "como se llama vos" instead of "como te llamas"). I am trying by best to adopt the use of "vos" to avoid offending the local Bolivians who may see the "tu" form of speaking as an insult. I will be stumbling with my Spanish for a while, but I crave to blend in the best I can, plus "vos" sounds beautiful!