kip fulbeck

I know, I’m lagging on the blogging scene. Sorry. Here’s the scoop.

Eight days and counting until the JANM opening. If you don’t know about the show, here’s the info.

We’ve got 40 prints done, 40 to go. Of course, the 40 to go are all new prints that aren’t in the book, which means compositing out the backgrounds, composing the overall composites with their statements, test printing, master printing, building frames, ordering archival window mattes (express shipping of course SINCE I LAG), cutting plexi, etc.

No problem? Add on mastering two compilation DVD’s with cover layouts/artwork for sale in the museum store, and do that on a Lacie harddrive that bites it every other time you try to use it. Add to that it’s bought from “Best” Buy in Ventura which is a store which bites in a city that bites worse.

Then have the museum store cancel the t-shirt idea after you spent forever designing the artwork. Fine, it’s a money thing and they might not all sell and they might get stuck with a box of shirts I get it I get it. So Plan B — put the designs up for sale on cafépress … and actually start selling some. Great! Things are going good. Then have some j*ckoff post a complaint on your myspace page saying $22 for a black t-shirt is too much for his cheap *ss when the company charges you $18 for the shirt to start with. Fun.

No one complains when their plumber fixes their toilet for $200 or a surgeon charges them $4000 to take out their appendix in half an hour. But when it comes to art, it’s all about the wallet sometimes. I mean it’s not your job or anything, right? God.

Oh, and speaking of self-riteous youngsters, got a new one for the all-timer list. Read on (from actual email … the writer is a student is in my 150 person “Introduction to Artmaking” class … which features one 2-hour lecture per week):

“Dear Professor,
I missed lecture this past Monday and was wondering if you can send me the notes and let me know what I missed and what I need to know for the final. Thanks ____.”

Wow.

And how’s this? I give a comic sequential narrative assignment in same class. Talk about a fun assignment that isn’t a neck-breaker. Make a comic … how hard is that? I would have LOVED this assignment. And what do I get? Some undergrad copying a comic verbatim off the internet.

Not only that, it was a bad original comic. Poorly drawn. Poorly written. Taken off some random chat thread and done by some randome chat thread guy. This is what you steal from?

Worse still, THE COPY WAS WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL. If you’re gonna plagiarize, at least have the pride to do it well. God. One more student off to the Dean.

Then, today I find out one of our students has been stealing bicycles to use as “material” for his sculpture project. He gets cited by the police and released. Not good, but fine. We make mistakes. THEN THE GUY GOES OUT AND DOES IT AGAIN. He ends up getting arrested in the sculpture yard of my own building. Nice. I love being Chair.

Meanwhile, why do some students sleep in my class? It’s not as if I’m not an entertaining lecturer or the work I’m showing isn’t interesting. Can you at least fake being awake? I’m fine with that concept, because at least they’re trying something. I mean, last week I watched a girl sleeping with her head laying back and face straight up to the ceiling. I stopped the lecture, asked her to wake up, and she looked at me for a second groggily, then layed her head back and went back to sleep.

In my day, I wore sunglasses to hide it. How hard is that? Yes, the academy of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato is alive and well.

(Random racial note. Of the four times I have watched students blatantly sleep in lecture this quarter, three times the student has been Asian. So, the silver lining of the story is they’re doing their part to break the model minority myth. I mean, 75% is pretty solid I have to admit.)

But, I digress. The JANM show is gonna rock. The staff at the museum have been wonderful and supportive. And it’s gonna be the biggest Hapa art show in history. I hope everyone can come out to the opening party on Saturday, June 10th from 7:00-10:00. It’s free and features some amazing spoken word performers/comedians, great deejays, food & drink, and of course Hapas as far as the eyes can see. What more could you ask for?

And for you laggers, the show’s up for 5 months. That means NO excuses!

I’ll be more on the blogs once this show is cruising. Thanks, K