It's sunday night. the bathrooms are clean. the floors, swept. the kitchen floor, mopped. The kids are in bed. Our household is ready for the week. I figured that i should lay out my goals for the week and that may help clarify my path:
1.) Order nails at Fisher-Lumber
2.) Get possible options for space from 2 City of Santa Monica folks.
3.) Define space needs (over a 15 month peroiod) on one sheet of paper.
4.) Get in contact with anyone familiar with Rwandan natives in LA.
5.) Complete 2nd revised wing drawing.
6.) Write a new song.
That's enough. I feel like i made $ 7,000 on Saturday, when I got an estimate for the nails from a local Santa Monica hardware store that was $ 5,000-7,500 cheaper than 3 previous estimates. I want someone to sponsor (pay for) these nails.
Before i dive into the rest of February's goals, I wanted to thank a few people whom i've sat with recently, to turn over ideas:
--Stevo L. A former co-worker. We've worked our tails off together on past feature films. He and I have exerted energy over film sets that make me exhausted just remembering them. We both know the depths of hard, hard work. Long hours. Aching backs. And lots of laughs. Stevo looked at my wood pile and drawings and we brainstormed on how to connect the panels together and how to lay out the wood so as to best bring out the details of a bird's wing through wood.
--Bill S. A production designer/mentor who i worked for on many a motion picture when i first landed out here. A great guy all around. Over too many glasses of wine (and a few shots of tequila) he expressed how compelling the idea of one woman pounding in the nails is to him and how "there's nothing more important to do in this world than make art like this. what else is there?" He's an incredible folk artist himself. His own pieces are kinetic, tactile, raw, fascinating.
--Debbie M. A fine friend. She and I sat on her deck in the sun last week. We ate soup and stared at my wood/nail/thread sample. I'm about to give birth to this. She's about to give birth to twins. Our lives will change. As an architect and artist, she helped me plot out a few ideas over structure. She will be a good source for seeking out a structural engineer, when the time comes. The sheer scale of this is going to require some metal armature work, definitely...in order to stand firmly upright.
--Nery. I had another incredible sit down meeting with him. And, I told him that he was right, about the machetes. My museum friend, Chris, had given me a copy of his catalog from the "Orphans of the Rwandan Genocide" project from a few years back. The catalog features the words of many children speaking about putting their lives back together and moving forward in an uncertain, traumatized world. One of them said this:
"I think memorial houses should be built up, books written, churches in which people died should be used as memorials, weapons used to kill people should be put in those memorials. All this in order to help people never forget what they have been through and let our next generations know that."
I shared this with Nery. We talked about the importance of that. I suggested that, if machetes are going to be imbedded into the tips of the wings feathers, then, i want to bind them in something. red cloth. red thread. something.
--Others who expressed support and/or ask me about my progress. Thank you:
nancy, margie, vpdp parents, danah, debbie b, ericka, chris and the kids, nina, chris y ilda, grace, john s, jon s, jennifer, deniz, laurie l, martha r, ashly, marjorie m, lori, lynn, rosa, linda, dave and liz, celeste, marion and chris, julie, rebecca, sarah, ronnie and more. thanks so much. I move forward with your encouraging words.
