Christopher M. Lavery

There is this spider that has been on my desk that for almost 3 weeks and is keeping me from doing my work. Yesterday Ariel tried to get rid of it but it just hopped around everywhere. I’ll wait for Barry the Vegan to get here tonight, he’ll get rid of it humanely
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I think it is time that I take over my own blog for a while.  It has been quite some time since I have actually used this blog.  I wonder how many people with blogs begin writing in their blogs this way.  Anyway here goes I’m getting restarted.

Just returned from Dallas where I attended the College Art Association (CAA) convention. These are my candid journal notes from this experience:

Day 1:

I’m off to DIA Denver International Airport. Ariel dropped me off at the bus station and I am now on the bus. The only thing that I am looking forward to right now is seeing the Luis Jimenez Mustang. I’m really interested in the height of the piece since I am trying to figure out how high to make the piece that I am proposing to DIA in less than a month!

Currently driving by “Mustang”…much more visible from a distance than I thought…it’s 32 feet tall…I’m guessing that I won’t need to “Supersize” my piece for an extra .69 cents. I think that the estimated 42 feet that I want to make should shrink to meet material standards and costs. Anyway this is boring talk….the big horse is crazy as you can see from the links that I connected…I’m hoping that my piece will play well with Denver’s public art scene (Blue Bear, Dancing White People, and others….)

Day 1: Evening

In plane to Dallas, uneventful but nice. I have the entire row to myself. I think that there are only ten people on the plane. I’m listening to classical music from my iPod and reading Art in America from May 2007 about art education in the US. Preparing for interviews by also reading my artist statement and teaching philosophy.

Just got off the plane. Called Casey, no answer. No internet. No idea where to go or what my hotel is that Mike booked for all of us.

Rick called and told me to take some trains and busses. I’m calling a shuttle or a kayak. Rick suggested I pick up a kayak along the way since he had taken every from of transportation to get to his hotel, including the brontosaurus car from the Flintstones.

Called the shuttle. $17.00. Expensive but at least they will take me where I need to be in one vehicle.

My first mistake was to trust a cabbie driver. He drove me around to all of the concourses at Dallas/Fort Worth while screaming at someone on his cell phone and CB radio. I thought that maybe by accident I said that I wanted a tour of the airport and he was getting in a war with another driver about my request since he dropped me off at the place that he picked me up at. (45 minutes of travel time) Upon my arrival back at the beginning another driver scooped me up into his van (it felt a bit like a kidnapping). I met a woman who had been “sightseeing” around the airport as well with a very similar story as mine.

She pretty much told me her life story on the way to the hotel (after another 20 minute tour of the airport). She worked for a company that ran conventions on boating safety. God how boring and mind numbing! She was also from NYC and complained a lot.

Ok so now I am arguing with the driver over the cost of the ride….I really think this ride is worth nothing since I called the service they said 20 mins to hotel and he took close to one-hour and a half. I get the business card and decide I will call the company.

As I enter the lobby of the hotel I immediately see Vernon Minor, a former professor at CU in the Art History Department, then Lisa Becker. I avoid her and head to the right and call Casey. She never answers her phone, so I call Rick. He answers and I can’t really understand what he is saying except that they (Casey, Mike and Dave) are in an incredibly boring lecture about blah blah blah…. He says he will meet me at the hotel in a while.

I’m pretty much in an anxious mood since I have no idea where I am staying, the hotel that the conference is in is not the one I am staying at and Mike has booked out hotel clear across town! I have 11 interviews to fulfill and I need rest. My bags are heavy and I need a beer.

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