SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
4.19.12
Welcome to the other side of my work room.
My bleached eyebrows are growing back with a vengeance. I’m only a few days away from having salt and pepper brows. Oh, well.
My week has improved. And, hey, that’s great. I just can’t function in a gloom-and-doom mindset. Some people can.
It’s not my style.
This morning I decided to only sleep naked from now on.
xo
craig
It was a long, sometimes fun, sometimes stressful weekend. One of those kinds that starts with my head in a toilet and ends with my head hiding in a pillow.
It happens.
Now I’m ready to think about murals on my workroom walls. I’d like to paint one that’s reminiscent of the backdrops in The Wizard of Oz. You know how the road goes off in the distance?
Something to liven up the place.
I’m reminded of the drunken mural I had in my living room in Texas. My friend Andrea G. and I stayed up late drinking and getting our hands all messy and drawing/painting on my wall.
I believe my sister said this was the beginning of the end for me in Texas…
But maybe a mural in Brooklyn would mean something else.
xo
craig
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
4.12.12
I’ve been working a lot lately, so I was really looking forward to yesterday, my first day with the apartment all to myself. I was going to be super productive. I was going to clean up the apartment, download and put new music on my iPod, and I was planning on starting a new knitting project—something to work on when I get home from work or if I’m just watching TV.
But I found myself pacing yesterday, not really sure what to do with myself. I pulled out tons of yarn, but I wasn’t feeling any of it. I wanted to work with cotton, but I don’t have enough of it to really make anything. (Plus I can’t really justify going out and buying a lot of new yarn when I have a ton of unused yarn just sitting here.)
I think I wasted a lot of time. (I mean, I did vacuum the entire apartment, but that’s only slightly satisfying.) It’s frustrating when you sit down to work on a project and you’re not excited about it. Or nothing comes to mind.
I think that’s been my problem lately. I think my mind has been so busy trying to figure out other things (life stuff, etc.) that when I finally sit down with things that make me happy (like knitting), I go blank.
It’s a phase, I know.
But I always hate waiting to get my groove back.
xo
craig
PS
Don’t you know that most of my self portraits require a shower and a shave first?
I am still thinking about my article for xoJane that was about whether being a fan of Dance Moms or Real Housewives was undermining my feminism. I’ve especially been thinking about it these days since I recently began watching Mob Wives, which is quite the task. Leaves you confused (“Why am I watching this?”) and exhausted (“Well, that was an emotional roller coaster.”).
Ben and I were discussing this the other day. We were unsure if TV and television audiences really wanted to see women destroy themselves and others. Is the world really that messed up? Really?
My conclusion for the moment is that the success of one reality television format that pits women against each other —was it the original Real Housewives (the Orange County one) that started all this?—has obviously inspired many spin-offs and knock offs, all trying to cash in on this women-behaving-badly fascination. And that it’s not a hatred of women necessarily.
It’s just that people love spectacles.
Hey, I do. I’m the first one to stop and rubberneck if there’s an accident or if two people are about to fight. And I know that if people are arguing in the hallways of my apartment—which happens often actually—I always tiptoe to the door of my apartment, put my ear to the door, and listen to what they’re complaining about. Real nosy shit. I always feel really guilty, but I’m always so interested that I can’t stop. (Well, I can stop, but I don’t want to.)
And a spectacle involving ladies is a lot more interesting to me than a spectacle involving men. Not to say men are stupid or worth less than women. They’re just not usually as interesting to me as women. To me.
I had to say it ’cause I’m that real with it.
xo
craig
PS
Notable pictures from the past couple of days.
For dinner the other night, I had a samosa and a cupcake:
And the next photo is of me peeing—gross, I know—but I really want a mirror situation like this in my bathroom. Maybe for my whole apartment. Multiplicity.
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
4.5.12
My seafoam green hair makes its debut on the blog! Isn’t it pretty? The only drawback is that I feel like all my outfits need to be a bit grunge to really do the hair some justice. But that’s a very, very small drawback because I’ve always liked grunge outfits. (Wasn’t “glunge” aka glam-grunge a trend in fashion last year?)
I also am finding it difficult to listen to Grimes while having this seafoam green hair. This color and other pastel colors are on trend enough as it is. And Grimes is pretty trendy right now, too. I think I’ll take a break from her. (Also a little tired of hearing the name Grimes and knowing it’s not about that one Simpsons episode about Frank Grimes.)
Finally, I know I’ve been a bit silent on this blog. I apologize for that. Going through some transitions and such. And I feel like there’s always something else to be done other than blogging.
Which is why I’ve been tweeting up a storm. So, follow me on Twitter for my little tiny micro-blogposts. I consider my Twitter to be my musings column.
xo
craig-hunter
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
3.29.12
This is what I look like in the morning, as I sit in my workroom and eat my oatmeal and sip on my coffee. I’ve begun drinking my coffee black again. As black as our souls. And as black as my fleece robe.
Happy Thursday,
craig
PS
That clown portrait I did a couple weeks ago was for my latest piece about the Cindy Sherman retrospective for xoJane. I forget if I shared that with you.
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
3.22.12
Today is my 4 year anniversary with Ben.
We are going to spend the day at Lillian G.’s houseboat. And then come home and relax and eat food and spend time together.
The weather is great today!
xo
craig
We recently came across this mixtape/album called “Boss Chick” by Nicole Wray, who’s worked with Missy Elliott and Timbaland. And it’s quickly become a cult classic with us two. I play it at Seagull at least once a day.
But the bad thing about this album is that there’s not much information online about it. And we had trouble finding a (free) download link for it, so we actually had to, like… buy music.
Also, nobody we talk to knows about it, so there’s none of that communal music sharing enjoyment going on. It’s just Ben and I saying to each other, “This is a good song” and “Oh, that’s a good song.”
It’s an R&B album, but it incorporates a lot of different elements, such as pop, noise, and opera, that have made us call this album “conceptual R&B”.
I love it.
Listen to some tracks I’m digging from “Boss Chick”.
Like “He Must Know”
and “Eye Candy”
and “Money”
and “I Like It”
Enjoy, friends!
xo
craig
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
3.15.12
I’m channeling Cindy Sherman’s clown portraits for a piece I’m working on.
Turns out it’s not very easy. But it’s pretty fun.
xo
craig
This has been the background on my cellphone for a couple years now:
When I first saw this piece, I fell in love. I thought it was dirty and cute and funny. It spoke my language. I didn’t know who made it for a long time, but eventually I learned it was by queer artist Mark Aguhar.
Last night after having had a great day outside, enjoying the city and nice weather, I came home to find out that Mark had committed suicide.
I’ve never met Mark, but we had mutual friends and I followed her Tumblr. (She even graduated from the same high school my parents graduated from.) I’m very upset about this. I could tell Mark had a hard time relating to the world around her, but I applauded her nerve and her vision.
I feel empty inside. I don’t really have many words to share. I just wish there was something that could’ve been done.
-craig
