“Hucka D., any more on Story Room tonight? The blog keeps chugg’n chugg’n along. Need to write a 2013 year summary.”
Hucka D.:
Why don’t you do it now. We’ll have a chat about 2013.
—–
It was an amazing year. A 2 week trip to England in the summer, contact with woodsy style aliens at the first of the year. New collage series, first in 5 years (42 collages I believe!). Huge year for carrcasses, one of the best ever, best since 2007. C-8, 9 , 10 all created. Great hikes during the year, ending with the unique Sharieland information of October. Alone at my work space for most of the year, with a new co-worker quickly relocating out of my building. Dependent on student workers alone now. New database. New friction with co-worker. Then at the *very* end of the year, somehow Mythopolis mythology reared its head again after an absence of, oh, 30 years or so? So much stuff going on it’s difficult to pick a starting point. But let’s start with the beginning of the year — simple enough.
Aliens.
Bill Mtn., Frank Park became the scene of what appeared to be an open contact with “something” out in the woods. A new type of toy happening was brewing, and following the Billfork Agreement, I knew I had to use material found in these woods for the more permanent parts of it. I was rushing headlong toward an exploitation of Rust Spot and its cache of (mainly rusty) objects. But bizarre things happened, then. Prime objects were inexplicably rearranged. *Someone* seems to know what I’d be taken pictures of. *Someone* was in the woods making noises *specifically designed* to draw my attention to it. The someone who rearranged the objects and the someone in the woods — thickly bushed woods I might add here, and nowhere a proper human being would be wandering around in (save me!) — making noises to attract my attention were *the same*. So right at the first of the year we have a confounding mystery, the contact at Bill Mtn. By the way, the Bill part of Bill Mtn. doesn’t really have any connection to Billfork except in name. What *was* I being warned off about? It was almost as if the contactees were telling me that this was their stuff (thinking along the lines of Cat from Red Dwarf and his stash of shiny objects that he didn’t like people messing with), even perhaps they had their *own* Billforks and such toy happenings to make, with the objects in question already earmarked for such plans. I think this is a correct theory at its base. This contact was caused by similarity — I was coming into alignment with someone who was doing the same thing on the “other side”. Ah heck, I still haven’t quite got it.
England, Part 1: Collages
So anyway, right after the Bill Mtn. contact I decided to join Edna and Cammie in their summer trip to England. I was going to fly! I was going overseas! I had *never* flown in a plane. I’d never made it further west than Memphis, further south than Jacksonville, further north than NYC. I was not an experienced traveler. I had a *condition* (sound sensitivity). Yet here I was, staying *alone* my first week in England while the wife and best friend traipse around glorious London. The plan was for them to join me during the second week in Wiltshire, where I was based the whole trip. I’ll get to details of the trip in a moment. But almost simultaneous with this decision (mid to late Jan.) I start collages, partially inspired by my use of GoogleEarth to do some preliminary exploring. GoogleEarth Streetview oddities were found around Avebury primarily (reminding me of more recent Shining finds of a similar ilk). Collage quickly followed collage in a working style I was familiar with now through the Art 10×10. But this was my first collage work in 4 years, after creating a new series each year for the 5 years prior to that (2004-2009). And they were different style collages at the same time, rougher in composition but more flowing in story, perhaps. Eventually not 2 but three *sub* series unwound in a 2 month period from Jan. to March. I was quit absorbed with their creation at the time: Gila, Latona, and then Lis, with a topping or culminating 4 part *quad*rtich called Falmouth. In a virtual sense, the 4 parts encircled the viewer, who figuratively stands in the center of Avebury, then. This was new. It was just as akin to the “Baker Bloch in England” art work/story from 2009 as the Art 10×10 collages. Second Life had a strong influence on it; the Power Tower Gowlery developed directly alongside the series.
Second Life.
In Dec., 2012 I had what was probably my last lengthy stay on the Jeogeot continent of mainland, where I create *New* Pietmond from the ashes of the old ones (2 in number). The move of New Pietmond in name and context to the unique Sikkima sinkhole at that time signaled my return to the Heterocera continent, perhaps for good — what I mean by that is that I might be virtually based on this continent for the rest of my Second Life enmeshment. The Sikkima stay only lasted about a month and a half itself, although I would have retained that land if possible. A failed start for VWX Town on the *northern* border of the Rubi Woods for several days in May was followed by (after my return to *rainy rainy* Blue Mtn. from England the first of July) another, much longer attempt at this new style of town in July-October on the opposite side of Heterocera. Then starting near the first of Nov., I moved VWX Town to its current location in Rubi, on the *south* side of the same forest I formed it next to in May. My tier had jumped up yet another level in the meantime, to 75 dollars a month. I knew I couldn’t continue with this expense — *can’t* continue — but at the same time I realize my Rubi town is the culmination of Second Life experiences so far, a type of summing up, even. Just recently, I’ve determined that the Rubi Woods are themselves *alive* — Edwardston has even seen an impossible human-type eye within the branches of one of its eucalyptus trees recently. Presently I’m trying to determine how to downsize my Rubi existence while retaining the essence (Essence) of VWX Town. Difficult decisions to make just ahead. But for now I have all the land I purchased in Nov. Old avatars have come back to life, climbing out of their unlogged tombs. A new one has been added (Edwardston Resident). Just exciting times in Rubi for me.
Carrcasses.
As mentioned, this has also been a very good year for carrcass creation, perhaps the best since the heyday of this artform in 2006-2007. As with the Gilatona-Lis series (my composite name for the directly related Gila, Latona, and Lis series described above), the 2013 carrcasses were a little different from anything formed before in this vein. 3 primary ones were created, started before my trip to England and finished in Sep. after my return. The smallest of the 3, Carrcass-10 — also the last chronologically — has just recently been declassified by Hucka D. and me, with the work’s guts illuminated on this blog. Now I just have to figure out the story of Story Room (smiles). Partnered Carrcass-8 and 9 formed a twinned relationship, with 9 directly continuing 8. This is very similar to the continuous flow of Carrcass+0 into Carrcass-0 to start the whole audiovisual synching/carrcass process in 2007. But *here* we have the addition of Carrcass-10, which can be inserted either in the *middle* of the 2, or at their end. Add in an overture created in Jan. actually (directly about contact with aliens appropriately!) and the whole rises to Carrcass+2 proportions (2006), and I consider Carrcass+2 to be the best one I’ve been able to tape, and probably one of the best two overall along with the unfilmed Carrcass+1 (2007). So we’re talking about some important work for me here. And The Shining research I’ve been involved in recently directly stems from Carrcass-10, as I’ve been trying to explain on the blog the last several days. Work on The Shining will continue into the new year, apparently.
