Adapt

Setting up Controlled Gym Environment, so as to film in a contained space. Ran into a snag. The structural skeleton of my studio consists of metal studs, not wood. They are thin and will not support my pull-up bar. Bummer. As an artist, especially as a performance artist, you need to be able to adapt; to make decisive changes on the fly. So, I'm thinking this equipment of mine could have a life next door in the once vacant lot that is now a social-fun-food-hang out place. I will write a proposal.

PechaKucha (The Story of The Cockle)

I had myself a holiday,
the sun was playing host,
no single cloud was in the sky
to cry on me and boast,
and this was strange because it was
upon the English Coast!

When standing on the beach, I felt
a tapping on my toe,
A Cockle looking up at me
while I looked back below,
and this went on for quite some time
till words began to flow.

"Oh pardon me," the Cockle Said,
all bashful and sincere,
"I miss the sound of seaside waves
that crash beneath the pier."
And this was rather odd, you see,
he had no ears to hear!

"I strain to see," the Cockle said,
"My way around this bay,
I don't suppose you have the time
to help me find my way?"
I tied some string around his shell
and pulled him like a sleigh.

"I thank you, Sir," the Cockle beamed,
"To lend your helping hand,
dragging me 'round this far and wide
and all across the sand."
You see, he couldn't walk himself -
he'd got no legs to stand.

"I'll introduce you to my friends
that live beneath the tide,
like dear old Mr. Langoustine
and Mrs. Shrimp, his bride."
I joked I'd like to dine on them
and little Cockle cried.

"We're almost there," I cheered to him,
expecting quite a yell,
but as I turned, he'd disappeared
to where I couldn't tell.
(A seagull came on swooping down
and picked him from his shell!)

- Ben Habbard

(each time I am descending from the 8th floor to the 1st floor in the Anderson building at UArts, where my studio is located, and then I am ascending the 8 flights of stairs)

Quesadilla

Having fun synced to Walk The Moon's Quesadilla.

Really?

Watching TV on treadmill.

Kid exercising while watching TV

Are we so averse to exercise that we need a familiar distraction? Or are we so addicted to said familiar distraction? I guess the silver lining is that at least these people are moving. In Ancient Greece they had open air gymnasiums where you not only exercised, but pursued intellectual pursuits,

"The ancient Greek gymnasium soon became a place for more than exercise. This development arose through recognition by the Greeks of the strong relation between athletics, education and health. Accordingly, the gymnasium became connected with education on the one hand and medicine on the other. Physical training and maintenance of health and strength were the chief parts of children's earlier education. Except for time devoted to letters and music, the education of young men was solely conducted in the gymnasium, where provisions were made not only for physical pedagogy but for instruction in morals and ethics. As pupils grew older, informal conversation and other forms of social activity took the place of institutional, systematic discipline. Since the gymnasia were favorite resorts of youth, they were frequented by teachers, especially philosophers.^[8] Philosophers and sophists frequently assembled to hold talks and lectures in the gymnasia; thus the institution became a resort for those interested in less structured intellectual pursuits in addition to those using the place for training in physical exercises" (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(ancient_Greece)).

This makes me think about how restless young boys can be in grammar school. They literally can not sit still. Maybe we need to run them into submission, like you would a hyper dog. Get them tired so they can actually focus in a classroom, or better yet, abandon the classroom altogether and get them out into the real world. Awaken their senses with rigorous exercise and periodic spurts of real world knowledge during their workout underneath the open sky. Those who don't want to be there, send away. Treat education as a privilege.

Craigslist Ad

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/act/3882358648.html

Talk Test

“In order to enhance endurance performance, some training has to occur around the lactate threshold intensity level. When subjects in the study had difficulty talking, they were very close to that lactate threshold intensity. Because of this, athletes could gauge their intensity based on ability to talk comfortably.” 

“If you are beginning an exercise program and can still talk while you’re exercising, you’re doing OK,” Quinn says. “But if you really want to improve, you’ve got to push a little bit harder.”

(excerpt from http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2011/sep/bp13exercise.cfm)

"Shut Up and Paint"

I cannot help the perfection seeking person residing inside me. The thing is, not everything I do has to be perfect, just the things I hold dear, like writing, painting, managing a restaurant and working out. I guess that's why I moved away from painting. The painter I admired the most was Alex Kanevsky. His paintings are perfectly incomplete. When I was painting, I failed to give myself the necessary failures to actually grow as a painter. Part of learning is failing and I wasn't too good at allowing myself to do just that.

With my body I can strive towards a more healthy, perfect body and that, for me, is art. Most importantly, I allow myself to make the art. I accept any failures or shortcomings due to sickness, injury or depression as obstacles that I must overcome, for my health and art's sake. In the past, when I was painting, perceived shortcomings stopped my whole practice. Now, moving forward is an absolute necessity. Failure to do so will negatively affect my health and my art. Failure is not an option.

The Tarahumara

Insightful to me. Another YouTube video to someone else.

Not Failing Awakened In The Moment

First Video: Still did not let my muscles fail me, there was more in the tank. Not much, but some nonetheless.
Second Video: Max pull-ups. Here I stumble over my words. Research would suggest I fumbled my words due to breaching the lactate threshold. Working out activates a dormant body. I want to retract a statement made in the video. I do think narcissism plays a role in my life. If my memory serves me correct, Narcissus was a Greek God who fell in love with his image in the reflection of a pool. I would be lying, and so would you, if I said I didn't care about my body image. However, what I find more important is what I'm able to do with my body. The positive side effects that an active lifestyle affords is of concern to me. Staring at myself in the mirror, not so much.
Third Video: I watched the Peaceful Warrior tonight with Nick Nolte. That should explain some things. Honestly, that movie will change your life, if you let it. I haven't let it yet. If that movie taught me anything is that I shouldn't dwell on the fact that I haven't let it.

Matthew Barney

"In his films, videos, and sculptural installations, Matthew Barney’s primary interest has been the transformation and metamorphosis of the physical body. In elaborate, ritualized performances Barney uses a highly developed visual language to address such themes as endurance, androgyny, autoeroticism, and spectacle. Drawing Restraint 7 is part of Barney’s ongoing interest in self-imposed restraint. He creates conditions in which it is an extreme challenge to draw on a surface, then attempts to do just that, stressing the notion that form cannot develop without resistance. Barney first experimented with this principle in Drawing Restraint 2, where he strapped himself to an elaborate harness and vaulted up to a pad of paper attached to the ceiling in an attempt to make marks" (http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artworks/drawing-restraint-7).

Matthew Barney Drawing Restraint 1 (1987)

"This early work was strikingly simple, ambitious, and desperate. The young Barney, who had been a star quarterback throughout high school, tapped an athletic vocabulary that had by then become part of his parasympathetic nervous system. The results—forms generated through the properties of repetition, physicality, and failure—held as true in his studio as they had on the playing field. Part video, part performance, Barney has continued to semi-autobiographically probe the body’s relationship to gravity, strength, architecture and desire" (http://dailyserving.com/2011/04/a-man-a-plan-an-award-matthew-barney-reconsidered-at-the-san-francisco-international-film-festival/).

Barney used the contraction of muscles, or resistance, to create form. The struggle to overcome said resistance took precedence over any kind of aesthetic mark. I too use resistance in my work. However, I'm not concerned with mark making, rather the struggle to overcome the challenge in front of you. Thereby making you physically and mentally stronger, and thus healthier. In the tradition of Allan Kaprow, I do not regard my art as removed from daily life, but rather as something that should create daily life. I'm trying to create healthy daily life situations for myself and the world.

Earlier This Week

Sunday Night Gym

My Sunday night gym. Push-ups to the left of the shirt. Fingers were slightly over the edge of the curb. This allowed me to grip the street. T'was an interesting sensation. Sit-ups were done on the shirt, with my coccyx on the bottom of the shirt and my bare back taking up the rest of the available real estate on the shirt (this shirt also leant itself to flutter kicks). Pull-ups were done on the fence. The top of the coated chain link fence had a bar running across it. It was not an ideal pull-up bar, but it got the job done.

My David

The next morning I did "My David." I did this pose on an off day (a day where I don't work out) because I felt the David statue, even though he's amidst a battle with Goliath, is in a somewhat relaxed position.

Sick and Tired

Sick since Monday afternoon. Feeling like crap and my body feels old and weak.

50

Warming up and then maxing out at 50 push-ups. I could have done more, but 50 seemed like a nice round number. This rounding I did counters the whole idea behind "maxing out" since I did not reach my full (max) potential. Next time I will give myself 2 minutes to empty all the gas in the tank. I need to feel that burn, that pain, more than I did today.