Living on $100 for 10 days: DAYS #5/6/7 (Weekend Recap)

After an exhaustive week at work, which included early mornings, late nights and an inadequate, unbalanced diet, I woke up up sick Friday morning (day #5).  This was probably the best-worst thing that could have happened at the start of the full weekend in my 10 day challenge.  I took a sick day at work and started the weekend on Friday by sleeping in until 11am.  My goodness did I need it.

Sneeze!

It is now Sunday afternoon and day #7 of my challenge.  I am still not feeling well, but in the midst of my challenge to live on $100 for 10 days, I am okay with not feeling well.  Being sick meant that I did not go out with friends.  I did not go out to eat.  I did not have the urge to go for any groceries (thank you leftover pasta, Cheerios and orange juice).  I did not even feel like leaving my apartment.  But I did.  Twice.

The first time I left was Saturday afternoon and to get two bottles of wine.  The second time I left was for a short walk over to the building next to mine where I helped to warm my friend Allison's new apartment with a bottle of wine.  Spending some of my remaining money was cause for this friend and celebrating her new place (not to mention a reason to get dressed and get away from my paintings for a bit).  I am now down to $39.45 for the remaining three days of my challenge.

Let me back up and recap the weekend, which was almost entirely spent here:

DAY #5

Once I came around Friday morning and felt like getting out of bed, I started with a light bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and coffee.  I think I have two or three servings of coffee left......I then spent the rest of the day painting.  Shortly after an awesome lunch (since I was home, I made a roast beef and swiss cheese PANINI), I finished my big canvas ahead of schedule!  Here are a few shots of the last few steps in the progress, and a shot of the finished piece.  I plan to hang it above my couch later today:

I am incredibly proud with this painting.  It was quite the undertaking.  I have never painted a canvas this large before, and it is not likely that I will paint one this big again anytime soon (except my friend Liz now wants one, so maybe).  It was also very hard to work with the size of the canvas when trying to maneuver it around and paint the black and white squares (over 180 total!).  I don't even want to think about how much a frame would cost for this painting...

As a side note, I have not signed any of my paintings.  I think it is because I cannot decide on whether to put my full name (i.e. "Trevor Sparks 2013"), my first name and date, or just my last name and date.  The reason I haven't yet decided is because I discovered a unique aspect of my fist name, which kind of gave birth to this whole style.

It was the summer of 2009 when I discovered that if you take the e, v and o of my first name, you can turn them into three shapes, which are now dominant in most of my paintings.  The e can become a square, the v into a triangle, and the o would, of course, be a circle.  So, if I can just come around to making my decision, it would likely be my first name with those three shapes and the year the painting was finished.

With Friday dedicated to painting, and not feeling up for doing anything else, I reheated some of my leftover pasta and watched Waste Land, an amazing documentary from 2010, which documents two years of work of Brazilian contemporary modern artist,Vik Munoz, who created art with the cooperation of scavengers of recyclables working in Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's largest landfills, serving the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  Highly recommended.

DAY #6

I woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit better, so I made homestyle potatoes, scrambled with eggs, spinach and onions for breakfast, and then for the six hours that followed, I began working on a new painting:

Note the circles drawn with graphite on top of the triangles below.  I am trying to create a second layer with a different shape and additional blue hues.

It was at this point where I took a break to get out of my apartment and collect my ideas away from the painting.  I ran to get some wine for warming my friend Allison's new apartment as well as for the rest of my evening (leftover pasta dinner + more painting + SNL with host Justin Bieber).

Here's the progress I made after a few heavy pours of wine:

As you'll see in the last two pictures, I introduced some watered down gesso to lighten it up and create another layer, although the first of triangles is still transparent.  Then, I painted a series of white circles on top of a third layer of triangles.  The picture, unfortunately, does not do the painting justice since all of the original layers and shapes are still visible.

Nevertheless, it was starting to get a bit messy and confusing, so I stopped here, watched SNL (which was just okay), and then turned in for the night.

DAY #7

Now Sunday afternoon, I am into the last stretch.  I have less than $40 for the last three full days.  I am also running low on milk, lunch food, and most importantly, coffee.  However, I have decided to finish my challenge by not spending any of my remaining money and instead be as resourceful as possible, so stay tuned for the last three days as well as more painting!

Happy Sunday!!