Jason, How The Hell Are ya!? Long Time No See.

Yeah, I hear ya!

Well, life has been running it’s course and I have been playing catch up, but not having too much success at it. Since the Mother’s Day weekend we have been making some serious life changing decisions about our family’s future. After many discussions, some crying, and some arguing we have decided to move back to Columbia South Carolina to raise the girls as true southerners. I had always said that if we were going to move back, it would happen if it was supposed to and it looks like it is supposed to.
When the girls were born the possibility of us moving this summer was brought up, but the state of the economy in S.C. and the fact that we both had good jobs here in NY made it hard to justify moving back down. However life has a funny way of running its course. Faith started applying for jobs and we decided that if she got a job we could move and I would try to find a job when we got down there. I knew ultimately it was the best choice for the family for a lot of reasons, child care, bills, insurance etc…All these pros out weighed the cons of us staying. Since the girls were born, I just don’t have the time to go to the studio. It’s frustrating and sad sometimes but spending time with my girls as the grow-up has become my top priority without any regrets.
This past Thursday Faith got the call that she had a job at the same elementary she went to as a child and Friday morning I was told that my old high school was looking for a new Head Swim Team coach and would love to have me fill that position.
So………we’re “Southbound”. So by July 8th I’ll be a resident of South Carolina again. I will always be a New Yorker at heart but the southerner is in my blood.

I am still training and will continue to do so and I’m struggling with the decision to bag the Timberman race or wait to see if I can fit it in even with the move. Either way I will be doing the SC Half Ironman in October if it can be worked around the new job schedule.
I will also be doing my best to keep the blog updated more regularly, just don't forget about me out there.

Roxy... Thanks For The Support, “No Really Thank You!” Grad School and the Reason I Tri

This morning on the way to the pool, I pondered the comments on my last entry. Until last weekend when my wife mentioned her name, I hadn’t ever thought about writing about her here. I think of her often and when the girls were born, she was the first person I wished I could have called. She would have loved them!
Roxy…
She was the most influential mentor I had ever had before going to graduate school. Roxy Thomas was one of my undergraduate sculpture instructors who gave selflessly her advice, love, generosity, criticism, and patience to me up until she passed away from ovarian cancer in early 2007. (Wow, has it been that long!?!) She was a mother, artist, printmaker, teacher in art, yoga and life.
She was the single person who encouraged me to follow my dreams, move to New York, and do what so many young artist dream of doing. She is the reason I sew. Yes Mom and Granny but she was the one who told me to go the store buy a pattern and fabric and “make something good, damn it!” She encouraged the tender caring side of my identity to come out in my work and ideas. She taught me not to worry about what would happen to a piece of work after it was completed, “just kick ass and make it!” When I’m in the studio I often think about the look she used to give me when looking at an unfinished process and smile to myself.Tthat look used to piss me off so bad, because it would only make me think harder about what I was trying to say with the work. Through her I understand that making art is a life long journey that never ends even after you’re not around.
To say I miss her is an understatement. A part of myself is no longer here feels more right.
I miss you Roxy,
and I know you’re around me somewhere.
Thinking about Roxy got me asking myself a question that seems to hanging around me till I answer it, honestly.
Why Do I Triathlon?
From an art world perspective I feel like it is viewed as a bit extreme, crazy and maybe doesn’t fit into what an artist does, but I don’t feel that way.
While in graduate school, I had the opportunity concentrate on only making art, completely indulging in my creative process. Now that I am a full year past graduate school I can say that doing that nearly killed me, physically and emotionally. Before grad school I was in the best shape of my life and in the best head space of my life, after I was in the worst shape and in the worst place.
Yes, Roxy’s passing played a part in my slide into despair but it wasn’t to blame. What caused it was a lack of sleep, late nights, parties, partying, drinking, fast food and generally no exercise. By the end my body was depleted of all the natural chemicals that made one a happy person. So, I turned back to training for a triathlon to see if could get me back to that place and it has!
Triathlon is, in a sense a savior for me. It lets me know exactly where I stand with my self. Yes I love the way my body looks when I’m in shape and my confidence level is where it should be when I’m in that kind of shape, but it gives ME purpose!
And now, I’m in a place that I am trying to combine my purpose as an artist and my purpose as an athlete into a balanced expression of both. It will be a life long journey, I know, but I feel more than ever it will be well worth the effort no matter where I live.
I also want to say a sincere Thank You to my Wife, Faith for taking the majority of the shifts last night so I could get up this morning and swim before work. I hope that I can help you find time for yourself in the mist of the storm we’re going through.

“-You can lead a horse to water, but “Faith” is another matter, but don’t you surrender because sometimes salvation is in the eye of the storm.”
-Sometimes Salvation (The Black Crowes)

Being that I believe Ol’ Warren Haynes is somehow my derivative alter ego here is a version from the Mule with the boys from the Crowes.

Riding in the rain, the failed aero helmet paint experiment and the changing future

The start of the May training cycle.
This month marks the first month of crunch time for the training. All the base stuff is done and my body seems set to start of the serious work involved in getting ready for a 5 hr plus race.
So……………
This past Sunday was the 2nd progressive long ride of the season. I did a 70.5 mile to Nyak NY and back. I went out to the first real incline, climbed it then turned around and headed home. To say it rained the entire ride would be an understatement, but I am very used to training in the cold wet spring of New York. At least the green of the hills have fully come in, which made it feel less cold.
I felt really good during the ride. It is nice to have juice back in the tank. The only bad thing about the ride was how my left knee felt after. During some of the climbs my pedal stroke technique got sloppy, which caused some irritation on the inside ligament of the knee, but by yesterday evening it was back to normal.
Yesterday, I did swim/ bike where I pushed my intensity on the bike really high after swimmming hard. I felt strong!
Well, I went to the studio on Wednesday to work on painting my aero helmet and by Friday evening I had all but ruined the helmet and the original paint job. The long short of it is…. because I rushed the drying process it started to flake off in spots, so I rushed to fix it before it was ready to be fix and made it worse.
BUT!
I learned a lot about a process that I have always wanted to get better at and now know that patience is key, when doing a project like that.
My plan now is to turn this helmet into my first triathlon sculpture and buy another helmet to race in. Some may say I wasted the money, but I think I invested in my creative process. Now, the question is, do I take what I’ve learned and attempt to paint the new helmet? The jury is still out…….
As the girls get bigger by the day, older by the minute we have been discussing our future here in NY and asking, what would be better for the girls during the coming year. The prospect of packing up this summer and moving south is incredibly frightening for me, but I am coming to terms with the fact that it is a possibility. As I rode through the hills in the rain I thought about what this would mean for me. I know what it means for the girls, but I have worked so hard here for so long and I feel I would be starting again.
However all things happen for a reason and if it is meant for us to move then it will happen. If not, it won’t.