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Monday, August 16, 2004
Dysfunction
Many of you have heard me complain about work. It is a strange environment, almost like a big dysfunctional family. Actually it is a lot like it: that emotionally-charged-make-a-huge-deal-out-of-everything-for-no-reason feel to it. Many people have worked here for over ten years, contributing to the high degree of ownership that makes folks really dig in on their side of an arguement or resist change. I personally have no experience with dysfunction, so am unequipped to properly handle what goes on. I had a fabulous upbringing and supportive, loving family and my recent job experiences have been in very professional environments, that were nowhere near this emotionally taxing> have also almost always worked directly for a CEO who didn't have time for too much involvement in office politics, or in my day-to-day functions, so I am used to pretty much being left alone to get my work done. That is not the case here.
While everyone in my deaprtment seems to take a turn at getting wrung through the system, lately it seems my boss is at the center of things. Apparently the same Principal who told her a week ago that she brings no value to the firm, sent her some e-mail this morning about how he could handle all of the materials himself that we had to turn in for a proposal (she had pushed for more of a group effort). So she called to tell him how we should get the tasks done, and he told her "Look, I don't need you to be my mother" to which she replied, "Look, It isn't my fault you have issues with your mother." He hung up on her after that. She thinks his "don’t be my mother" comment was sexist. Not sure if that is what really was upsetting- he could have easily said "probation officer" or something and it would have ticked her off just as much. (Funny thing is, she once WAS a probation officer, but isn't a mother, so perhaps it would have hit even closer to home ha ha.) So she wrote an e-mail to the Area Manager refusing to work with the guy ever again, listing all of the occasions he has been rude to her (there are many, it is not just this incident). She read me the e-mail after she sent it. I was unsure of what to say (especially after the fact). There are only so many Principals in our entire region we have to work with, some with larger clients that we deal with more often. This Principal's projects represent 20% of the work done in my department. So my boss not working with him is a big deal. I cannot imagine refusing to work with one of the key sales people in the region- what could you have to gain by that? At least this eposide has totally and completely nothing to do with me. But oh the drama… it is like watching a cross between the "Jerry Springer Show", the sitcom "The Office", and the part of the muscial "Grease" where they sing "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee". Only it isn't, because that would actually be entertaining.
Speaking of entertaining, I'm getting ready to go to Arizona for an artist retreat. Not this weekend but the next- can hardly wait! I'm attending three seminars:papermaking using raw silk, xerox transfer techniques, and printmaking using a xerox print as a plate. I've already purchased most of my materials, including the raw silk which is very cool stuff... I feel like buying even more of it ASAP. All the seminars sound very interesting, especially the third one: apparently you use the xerox copy in a similar fashion to a lithography plate, "etching" the toner with gum arabic and inking it with linseed-laced oil paints. I wonder if it is a real offset technique, or more of a monoprint approach using the toner areas as a guide? Either way, it sounds fascinating, and if it works, I should write my old art prof about it. She loved monoprints and other quickie ways of getting an image onto hand-made paper. She also liked using dual density brayer techniques for layering color, by mxing oil-based pigments with different amounts of linseed oil. By creating two different viscosity inks, she could roll a brayer through one and lay out the color on a glass plate, then erase some of that layer and "fill in" the gaps with a second brayer inked with the second viscosity. You could do this directly onto a monoprint plate and do more drawing and print from it, or, using a huge, clean brayer, roll the "image" onto it and transfer that directly to paper or a plate. It was a really cool effect, but man, you had to do short runs. She often had blends on one or both of the layers too. Wow! I am actually applying some of the crazy stuff I learned in college- imagine that. This technique I'm going to learn also uses a hand-crank pasta machine as a printing press, which I have read a couple of articles about already. You can use a roller press for soft plate printing (like linotypes on battleship rubber) so that should work well. It should work really well printing from acetate too, if you use a lot of padding and do not overink to prevent "splooge" from the small diameter rollers. I love my Atlas (a steel pasta machine from Italy) too much to use it for that, so if I like this technique, I may have to purchase a cheapo one to make art with. Printmaking with oil-based paints just seems a bit too messy for work outside of a studio, however, and the linseed oil doesn't work well with water-soluble ones. Hmm... we'll have to see what happens- very exciting!
My plan is to make a bunch of small pieces that I can easily bring back on the plane. I have a few sketches and images to play with, but still need more before I go. Especially for the xerox transfer, I'll need a lot of black and white images, so I am going to try to take some photos this week and do some sketches. Laura is sending me some of her poems to inspire me, so I'll have to print some key phrases from them backwards, in case the words work with the images. One of the photos I have ready to go is one of Megan's confirmation. Hope her other daughters do not get jealous, if I end up using it- I only had the image of Megan handy.
Lunch is over, back to the grind. Thanks for "listening" everyone.
.: posted by Zemlet 1:52 PM
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