Sometimes I don’t know the difference between thorough and obsessive…or the line between obsessive and just repetitive….and between being stuck and progressing.  It’s strange being a young artist recently out of art school.  I no longer have the confines of extremely short amounts of time for vast projects.  Instead I have my own projects, my own time frames, with the occasional gallery & freelance work thrown in.  I can research and obsess as much as I like, although sometimes it can get a little dangerous.

With my post-death images of silver screen stars thesis project, I got sucked into research, and epically so.  It’s hard to ignore Marilyn Monroe with that subject matter, and unfortunately or fortunately, with art I am not someone who can jut gloss over something. When so many tackle her only on the surface, I decided if I was going to deal with her…I was going to it right.  So….60+ Marilyn books later (I started to lose count), and I am just starting to get a hook on her.  Dead people can be crazy confusing, but it’s fascinating how you can build a connection with someone post-mortem.  Digressing.  In my free time I am still occasionally working on the project.  I have the goal of it all coming into fruitation for the 50^th anniversary of her death in summer of 2012.  I like having symbolic dates, it’s how I get shit done.

Like the 90210 show, on…9/02/10.  It’s rockin.  It’s closer.  I am going hardcore.  I have watched all 10 seasons of Beverly Hills 90210 ore than once. I have hundreds of screen caps.  I have a critical theory book on the tv show.  I am getting my professional academic friend to make a pop culture and trauma/teens reading list for me.  I have expanded to analyzing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, new 90210, and My So Called Life. I started Freaks & Geeks, and thought about Dawson’s Creek, but I decided I needed to cap it there. Priorities!!  Enough is enough, and I have enough.  I tend to enjoy overloading my brain with more than enough information, and eventually wading through it to create something poignant…hopefully.  There comes a time when you just don’t need anymore, where you just work with what you have, and fill in any gaps that might come up.  If you were to add up the amount of hours of teen tv I have been watching and overanalyzing, I think it would spell “STOP”.

John Waters’ recent promotion for his new book Role Models has made me full on adore the man.  In the past week, I have read two books of his, and rewatched two of his films.  In one of his books, he is asked if he has any hobbies. He replies “Do I look like someone who has hobbies? I have obsessions”. I hear that John.

…and look at the large and brilliant body of work he has.  I think I’ve decided that it’s fine to obsess, if you possess it (and not vice versa) & you create with it.

You seem a lot less crazy if you make paintings of Shannen Doherty, rather than just have a studio wall of her