one less artist

I found a dead mouse in the trunk of my car last night. It must have climbed in there before I left and died when the car sat in the sun at the airport. I noticed a horrible smell in the car, but I thought it was my cooler with maybe some old food smell. In fact I said to someone, "my car smells like something died in it." It was an expression! But when the smell didn't go away, I had to look and there was the poor critter in an empty Trader Joe's bag.

While I was away the troublesome artist was asked to leave. I won't go into what pushed the staff (and us) over the edge. We got an email from him that was a lot of "poor me" stuff, and I hope he doesn't cause problems for people here. He was here as a "refugee" artist- sfai offers studio space and a place to live for people who have lost their homes for one reason or another. I was told today that of 140 applicants, 29 visual artists were chosen, and some very interesting people looked at the work, so that made me feel good about getting accepted.

So we now have 7 artists and 4 writers: Adria Pecora, David Bratton, Jen Dohne, Michael Brohman, Jessica Maloney, and Kaili Chun are the artists; Ellen Schnepel, Nikki Louis, Christian Champagne and Alana DiGiacomo are the writers. I notice as I post these links that I'm one of the only people I know who couldn't get my name as my website domain name. And that other Donna Ruff doesn't even use it! (Grr.) It reminds me of Larry Miller, the Fluxus artist. His website is onlyonelarrymiller.com.

The documentary we saw last night was -eh.- It was an interesting subject, the dances of these indigenous people in Mexico, and the most interesting part was when people were interviewed. They are dancers for a period of three years and it's a major commitment to the community to do so. As is the case with Native American ritual dances, there is a lot of repetition of steps. I found myself trying to stay awake but I chalked that up to my vestigial Chicago fatigue. Then today several people said they had dozed off. I felt bad for the artists but really they could have done a more interesting film, it was such a rich subject- but then I think it was the first one they've done, and they did so much good work for the community that I have a lot of respect for them.

This morning three of us were interviewed for a radio program that will be available as a podcast- I will post when I get it. I think I sounded non-idiotic, but when I hear it I'm sure I'll cringe.