S.R. Wild: Artist and Graphic Designer

It's Been Awhile

Good gawd, has it really been a month since this blog was updated? Someone should really do something about that. Oh right, that’s me. I’m such a slacker — my eight week old niece’s blog is updated more than mine.

Soooooo… yeah… um… what’s been going on the past month? Work has been crazy, but I don’t mind. I’ve been keeping myself busy outside of work, trying to fill every spare moment with some sort of creative endeavor: art, design, writing, and music. I haven’t been too excited with anything I’ve produced lately, so I’m not putting any of it on here.

I guess I don’t really have anything in particular to report, so I’ll just spew whatever mundane tidbits come to mind and post some unrelated photographs from the past month…

I met up with a friend for drink. Everyone in the bar was in their twenties or thirties except for an 80 year old fella wearing an engineer’s hat covered in train buttons. Curious, I asked if he was an engineer. He pointed to his ears to indicate he didn’t hear a damn thing I said. He slammed his hand on a folded stack of paper in front of him, tore off a piece, and slapped it on the bar in front of me as I pulled up a stool.

I wrote what I had said earlier on the paper and gave it back to him. He wrote he wasn’t an engineer, just really into model trains and lamented how it’s mostly a yuppy hobby now. I told him my father has always been into trains and he became an engineer on a tourist train after he retired. I also mentioned I drove a train once and it was quite a thrill. Then he wrote something about wanting to ride a train through nudist colonies. I don’t remember the entire conversation (he kept the conversation paper), but it was really interesting communicating like that.

I was sick for over a week, sickest I’ve been in decades. I forced myself to go to work in attempt to ignore how crappy I felt, but I only lasted about an hour. I didn’t even have to tell anyone I was sick because I looked as bad as I felt. I felt guilty about leaving because it was so busy, which is silly. I had a lot of fun puking my guts out, lying on the couch, staring at the wall, and being so exhausted I couldn’t do anything but moan. I hate being sick; it’s so boring — although, having a fever was mildly entertaining.

I went to the Art Hop. It was effective in distracting me from the fact I still wasn’t feeling well. I wish I tried harder to get some work in it this year. I was part of someone else’s work because somehow I ended up in a skirt and blazer, marching in a nihilistic parade.

Hmmm, what else? Hang on, I’m going to go for a walk, get a coffee, and get some food. Don’t go anywhere. Here’s a book to peruse while you wait. I promise I’ll be right back…

(28 hours later)

Sorry about that, I took a little longer… okay, a lot longer than I planned. You know how it is. You’re walking, you see something interesting down the street so you go to investigate, then you see something else on another street, and the next thing you know you’re a mile in the opposite direction of your original destination. When you finally get home you start looking at a book, you see something that gives you an idea, you work on that idea, and all of sudden it’s 3 in the morning.

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Magpie just brought her tattered catnip eyeball to me so I can throw it across the room. She loves that game. She usually sleeps on one of her two beds, her chair, or under my bed at night, but last night she slept right next to me all night.

I got some Chinese food takeaway. They gave me two fortune cookies and the same fortune was in both of cookies: “A friend is a present you give yourself.” That’s nice, but it’s not really a fortune.

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I received a message the other day that said, “I FEAR YOU.”

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I really want to go to Montréal soon. If someone kidnapped me and brought me there I would not object.

One of my plants was blown of my porch during the night. I saw the pot shards and dirt on the pavement the next morning, but didn’t have time to pick it up because I had to get to work. When I got home I was surprised to see it on my porch in a new pot with a note. One of my neighbors was kind enough to pick up the mess for me, repot it, feed it, and give me some tips on how to save it. Most people are kind to one another in my neighborhood, except for the guy that must have been on something who threatened to kick my ass for no reason.

The other night a potential music collaborator and I went to a showcase of local bands. We were only there for about 90 minutes, but it was benefit for a radio station I like. We only saw a couple bands and they were good. It was disappointing because the whole thing seemed like a big advertisement. I talked to a “comedian” who didn’t have a sense of humor, but he was really good at being annoying.

The lease on my apartment is up for renewal and, just like every other year, I agonize over whether or not I should move. I look at apartment listings and arrive at the same conclusion every year: I’m either going to pay a lot more for the same amount of space or pay what I am now for half the space. As much as I like change, moving is too much of a hassle. I really wish I had a garage or basement because I need an area where I can make a mess — throwing paint around and using power tools in an apartment is difficult, yet I still do it. My dream domicile is a warehouse with a small living area and the rest for making a mess and noise.

I’ve been living in Vermont for almost five years and I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon because I have a job that I like and I still like it here (that’s a big deal for me because I get bored quickly). I should probably think about setting myself up permanently: get married, buy a house, join the Rotary Club, and have a few kids. Ha, I don’t think so — a house maybe.

I should go to bed. I can’t stay up until 4 in the morning tinkering again because I have “band” practice tomorrow. If anything good happens with that project I’m sure I’ll put some of it on here. Then again, I might not post for another month.

Gmail instead of Gmail

If you email me at my gmail account, please use scott{at}srwild.com instead. I’ll still occasionally check my gmail account, just not as often. I just noticed a few people have recently emailed me there, so I figured I’d let everyone know.

A few weeks ago, I installed Gmail on my domain to manage all my email at this domain — it’s great. It works just like a regular Gmail account except I can use my srwild.com email addresses, I have 6 GB of storage, and I can customize the look of it so it conforms to the S.R. Wild Industries corporate branding — in other words, I can make it brown and black. I was using my Gmail account to check my email for the past year because I could check it from anywhere, using a web-based client that was far better than the one my domain used, and also use Google’s spam filtering. Now, I can do all of that without using my Gmail account.

Also, the few of you I had on chat may have noticed my name disappeared from your list. Don’t worry, I haven’t deleted you from my virtual life, I just moved. If you’d like to chat, feel free to invite me (invite me using my scott at this domain email), but I can’t promise I’ll always respond.

New Coat of Brown Paint

In case you haven’t noticed, I finally finished redesigning this website. I’ve been working on it here and there for the past few months, started over numerous times, but finally just dove in. I have a difficult time working for myself — not only am I my own worst critic, I’m also my own worst client. After many late nights and a few all nighters; large amounts of coffee and tea; very little human interaction (aka business as usual) I finished — almost.

Redesigning this website is Phase I of a multi-phased operation to get my shit together and my work out of my apartment. Basically, I don’t want to end up like Henry Darger, the reclusive artist who created an epic illustrated book that no one saw or knew about until it was found in his apartment after his death.

Phase II is going to involve putting more work on this site. I need to rephotograph old work, photograph new work, and finish scanning my old journals. I plan to chip away at it over the next few months because I can’t spend all my energy on old work.

I could get so much more accomplished if I didn’t have to work or sleep.

Embracing the Virtual

A couple months ago, I freaked out and tried to delete myself off the internet — a virtual suicide attempt I suppose. I won’t bore you with my reasons, basically I felt like I was getting sucked into the internet. Now, I’m rethinking that. Sometimes I destroy things so I can build a stronger version (of course, that doesn’t work with everything).

Just like I’ve learned to embrace my mental issues, I’m doing the same for my virtual ways — why fight it, just run with it. It’s a great way to get one’s work out into the world, especially if one lives in a small town with few creative venues. Plus, it helps semi-reclusive individuals keep in touch with the outside world. Although, it’s not a replacement for in-the-flesh contact, more of a companion. I digress.

I’ve started recreating my virtual self:

Facebook

I undeleted my Facebook profile and started a fan page for S.R. Wild Industries. If you’d like to be a virtual friend (perhaps again) and/or fan, you know where to find me. I’m still not totally into social network sites, like this and MySpace (which I deleted and have no intention of recreating, unless I do one for my audio work).

Flickr

I’m leery of putting work on here because it can be stolen so easily. I’m only going to upload images I don’t think are worth anything and my journal pages (on yet another site) because there are a few journal groups I’d like to join.

Ma.gnolia

I’m always finding websites that are interesting, useful, a complete waste of time, etc. and now I can share them.

Twitter

I’ve already written about my twittering.

1001 Journals

One of the many places my journals can be viewed (I’m in the process of scanning the other ones). I also started a collaborative journal, The Vermont Journal. I’ve asked on here before if anyone wanted to participate. It’s open to anyone who lives in Vermont and can draw, write, use glue, or whatever — hell, rub your feces on it… er, maybe not that. You don’t have to sign up for it on the site, you can also contact me directly

I have many things in the works. One of them is an online store that will sell t-shirts, junk cards, inkjet prints, and other visual objects. I’m still figuring out how to go about it (Etsy looks promising).

(Sort of) Recent Work

I’ve been meaning to put up some of my recent work, but it’s a chore that I haven’t gotten around to (one of many). Tonight, I dug up and uploaded a few things from a few months ago that I’ve wanted to get up here.

First, is the poster and website I did for the Vermont International Film Festival (VtIFF) back in September and October. I also established the branding that was used on everything for the festival. This included the logo, which I didn’t exactly redesign. Bill Simmon let me borrow a metal disk with an old VtIFF logo cut out of it that was used for projecting (think Batman symbol searchlight). It was burnt and lovely. I scanned it, reworked it, and added some modified type. It’s funny, there was an article in a local paper about the festival and they wrote “The VIFF has a hip new logo designed by artist [not my name]….” Oh well, it’s not a big deal — although I would have liked to get some ink. It’s not the writer’s fault (her writing is top-notch by the way) or anyone else’s, there was just some confusion in festival’s press release.

Way back in July, I designed a t-shirt for Seven Days’ t-shirt design contest. I didn’t win, but my design was one of the clever designs that did not make the final cut.

That’s all for now. I’ll have more up soon eventually. Right now, I’m focused on redesigning this site instead of adding more stuff. When it’s done there will be tons of stuff to gawk at.

Yeah, About This Blog Thing

Dearest Reader,

How have you been? You look lovely this evening. I love the way the light from the monitor glistens in your eyes. I’ve really missed you. Stand up. Let me take a good look at you. Wow! You look amazing. Do you want some coffee? Hang on. Here you go. Careful, it’s really hot — and so are you. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Sit down, make yourself comfortable. I want to talk to you.

I’m sorry I haven’t written to you in a while and stopped returning your calls, emails, and comments. I could just say that I’ve been busy, but that’s a lame excuse — and untrue because I always have time for the ones I care about. The truth is, I thought we could use some time apart. I know it was cold of me to disappear like that.

Every since my blog… sorry, our blog started I’ve been lukewarm towards the idea. I’ve thought about ending it many times. In our time apart, I’ve had a lot of time to think. I decided that if I’m going to continue doing this, things need to change.

I don’t want to bore you with pointless posts about what I’ve been doing. Posts like how I saw Gogol Bordello in Montpelier and it was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen, that I’m going to Le Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal, or that the other Scott Wild I wrote about contacted me (my foot is firmly planted in my mouth as usual) and asked when are we going to start our design agency. No, I don’t want do that. I want to do something that’s more interesting — for both of us.

I don’t want to write about such things because when we talk and I tell you what I’ve been doing, you usually already know because you read about it here. That, and I don’t want the people I don’t talk to knowing what I’m up to.

I have a few ideas, but I’m open to suggestions and would love to hear what you think. If you have a moment, please tell me what you like and/or dislike about this blog — email, call, fax, telegram, scribble on a napkin and leave it under my doormat, or whatever.

Sincerely,
S.R. Wild

P.S. I’ve heard that you’ve been reading other blogs. I’m OK with that. To be honest, so have I. We all have needs that must be attended to.

One-Legged Tap Dancer

As I mentioned before, I’m as busy as a one-legged tap dancer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to squeeze in a post or two soon. Just wanted to let everyone know that neither this blog or I are dead.

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