catching up on the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

before i left for the bahamas, i knew i needed to make a jellyfish.
at least i thought it was a jellyfish. none of the jellyfish pictures
i found looked like the one in my head, so i just went with my gut.
this was my preliminary proposal to my friend, cal:

some initial concerns:

1. shark bait
2. death trap
3. ridiculous
4. that we may have to buy glow sticks for this thing, which might
involve contact with former ravers.

i came to my senses and quickly eliminated #3.
#4 sort of eliminated itself as the project progressed. (occam’s razor)
#s 1 and 2 were actually legitimate concerns.

whenever i’m dealing with something that is potentially dangerous,
i think it is important to have a back-up plan, so i submitted this to
my friend, cal, as well:

i made some minor alterations while i was on the island, including
flashing it out with some scraps of batiked fabric that were local
to the island. i knew i wanted to videotape it underwater, but wasn’t sure where.
we had lots of options, and decided on the day of the shoot that since it was too
windy to sail, that we would take a skiff to one of andros’ amazing blue holes. i’m
working on a video of the underwater shots, which were pretty amazing, but here
is a still photo of the final form on land, featuring myself and good ole cal.
(thanks to scout for taking the picture, to richard for shooting the pending video,
and to pete for driving the boat and supporting this incredibly important research.)

the night we got back to the city, we ran into a friend who told
us that the andros blue holes were home to cryptid animals.
(presumably this is why pete said, in his characteristically
understated way, that “oh, the locals don’t go to the blue holes”.)
we researched when we got home to find that that the blue holes are
believed by some to house the “lusca.” according to wikipedia:

It has been suggested by cryptozoologists that the lusca is a gigantic
octopus, far larger than the known giant octopuses of the genus
Enteroctopus. Many reports of the creature are from the blue holes,
off Andros, an island in the Bahamas… Although the general identification
of the lusca is with the colossal octopus, there are those who disagree.
Others have it as a multi-headed monster…

hmmm… multi-colored flower headed, maybe?

the captain from tintin

bluto

karl

the atheist

um… i don’t want any trouble.

this is the third in a series of postings attempting to catch up on
the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

catching up on the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

arriving at *the pink house, we were greeted by the reception committee-
3 gorgeous rhode island red chickens that live under the house and in
the yard. i adore them. they purr like kittens when you pet them, and
peck at your feet gently, so it’s more like kissing.

thanks to david “scout” mcqueen for both photos on this posting

every morning, they woke us with all the audio hilarity of a live comedy show.
they chased us maternally to the street as we left for the beach, “did you put
on the spf15? the 8 is not strong enough this far south… put on the 15. …
please… for me?”

and when we came home, they met us with such a finely synchronized and
optimistic waddle, our evening conversation always involved the types of
chicken-keeping that might work in our brooklyn apartment. (pete replaced
all the glass in an old vw bug in his yard with hardware cloth, so the ladies
sleep in retro-glorious style.)

the day we got back to new york, i received the following email from pete:

a chicken was stolen today while annie watched
she took down the cars plate and looked hard at the people
fearing the neighborhood watch
the chicken was returned hours later

i theorized that maybe she wasn’t a revolutionary at all, but
had just gone to get her nails done. but i have to admit, there
is something radical in the yellow of her eyes…

*pete never refers to his house, or any of his belongings, really, with possessive
terminology. he’d never say “just leave those at my place.” it was always referred
to as “the pink house.” this is very much in keeping with pete’s complicated
anarc-hippy philosophies.

i left the u.s. for andros still reeling from what i guess was the flu.
i haven’t been that sick since i was a little kid. fever and coughing
and aching and general (very relative) misery. (if you are at this
time experiencing any genuine discomfort or suffering, please forgive
my ridiculous wimpering. and i hope your life is better soon.)

i’m actually not writing to complain, but to celebrate the
wonders of the green weed that made me feel better. my good
friend, pete, who has founded the maritime arts and inspiration center
on andros, picked some leaves from a “serasee” plant in a
neighbor’s yard and advised me to steep it in hot water.

botanical drawing by Setsuko Murayama

he said i would sweat all night and have very weird dreams and feel
great in the morning. all of this proved to be very true.

here is some information about momordica charantia from what i’m sure is the
surgeon general’s primary botanical reference, the dancehallreggae.com website:

Some consider Serasee to be a sacred plant and thus it should not be
bought or sold, only given. (Something given in return may be accepted,
however.) It should be used in its natural form; nothing should be
isolated or synthesised from it.

This is for informational purposes only. Most of this information is
obtained from oral and traditional sources. No medical claims are made
here. If you have a medical problem you should see your doctor for
treatment. As with any herb, use cautiously, and note any possible
allergic reaction.


one of my serasee dreams

one of sarah sze’s

what is going on? no postings for a month?!? how completely un-disciplined.

but i was sick – really sick – for like – 2 weeks. i couldn’t do anything.
and then… and then i was on vacation for a week – out of town – completely
offline. i swear. i mean, i could check email, but i certainly couldn’t post.
i was in the middle of the caribbean… it was very primitive – they only had a p.c…

to catch up… i’ll be posting every day for the next several days, rather
than once weekly-ish (the posts are already written, so you can trust me on this…)

anyhoo... the last thing i did before i fell ill (and “fell” is really
the right word here. it was definitely a falling of sorts; a losing to
a force as determined as gravity) was pick up a new statue to restore -

Our Lady of the Snow:

i usually work on the marble statues on site, but this one needed
to come back to the studio, which was another maneuver for the
dreamteam (scroll down to the giant jesus .pdf). this is my big
summer project. the statue will need to be cleaned and have
the paint removed. (oddly, lots of white marble statues i encounter
have been painted white, presumably to mask the carbon staining
from auto emissions or to mask repairs. this is no good for stone.)

i’ll also be reattaching the broken parts (the statue fell over
during the church’s previous attempt to clean her) and rebuilding
the missing ones.

people often ask me how the restoration work affects my studio work.

sometimes it’s more obvious than other times.