Julianna Yau’s blog

Today, I finally visited the Children’s Museum of Waterloo with Adriana, my partner in 2Picas. Going through the museum, I felt like a kid again (and wished there were places that cool when I was younger).

Their exhibit, Andy Warhol’s Factory, was totally worth the price of admission. Although not all of the appropriated work was good, we were both amazed by Devorah Sperber‘s After Warhol, which is comprised of 698 spools of thread and viewed through an acrylic globe. Sperber’s thread spool works are superb examples of appropriation at its best, where the impact of the original works are integral to the new work, but the appropriating artist brings her own artistic brilliance to the recasting of the work.

What was absolutely awe inspiring were Warhol’s Details of Renaissance Paintings: Sandro Boticelli, Birth of Venus works. We only saw 5 of the 18 works, but both sank into the couches across from the display from the sheer impact of the silkscreens. The colour, detail and highlight variations showed obvious intention. I couldn’t get over how neither of us knew these works existed, and they are some of Warhol’s finest work.

After seeing Sperber and Warhol’s artwork, I’m dying to take a trip to Pitsburgh to visit the Warhol Museum. I also want to visit the Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary art that I’ve started following on Twitter and is doing awesome things with social media tools like Brightkite.

Photos from our visit:

Today, I met with a fantastic woman who will be subletting my studio and had a somewhat startling realization that I’m finally doing what I want to be doing. During the meeting, we were sharing ideas for starting another artist building in the Waterloo Region, and I was saturating her with resources for commercial Realtors, people to contact and events she should attend. In a fleeting moment, I saw myself at work and understood why people see me as a bit of a networking nut. Somehow, my natural desire to help others, interest in everything and developed skill of storing resources in my brain’s RAM (BRAM?) have merged and the result is starting to feel a little bit magical.

During 2Picas‘ launch weekend, Adriana told me I would make a mint if I could ever teach other artists how to do as much as I do. The secret isn’t really big: I just have so much going on that even when I’m procrastinating, I’m still doing something. If I’m not sculpting, I’m working on 2Picas clients. If I’m not working on 2Picas clients, I’m putting in volunteer hours with Technology in the Arts or Globe Studios. Even my “down time” of movie-watching is a mini-project for me, as I’ve been casually studying movie remakes and getting my fill of the classics and must-see movies.

So why was I still startled that I’m doing what I love? Things moved extremely quickly last year, and with everything I was doing, I didn’t leave myself much time to step back and look at what I had accomplished. The only down time I have for thought is when I’m sculpting, and lately that’s resulted in more ideas for how I’m developing my sculptures rather than reflections on what I’ve done. I’ve just been forging forward, chasing dangling carrots and having a ton of fun getting there.

Because I’m also still doing some things that I don’t enjoy, it doesn’t quite feel like I’m where I want to be yet. And getting rid of some of those final ankle weights will be difficult. I’m constantly grateful for having wonderful, supportive friends who appreciate that I need to be a little reckless and more daring than usual right now. The people I’ve met through Twitter have also been both inspiring and supportive, reminding me both directly and through simply living and sharing their lives, that jumping is like skydiving: you just need to be prepared and have a parachute.