back in my studio for a while

[Jon M Ryan]

Two weeks ago I came back to the US after spending the last year teaching English at a high school in South Korea.  It was a good experience and I'm glad I did it.  I had been thinking of teaching English in Asia for about the past 15 years, and I finally did it.  When I left for Korea last year I was totally burnt out working in my studio, and sick of the things I was making.  I thought taking at least one year off would be good for me and my work.  The year flew by and it was so good I decided to spend another year in Korea after a one or two month visit to the US, during which time I could make some new work. 

I was looking forward to being back in my studio till I actually got here.  One of the problems was the year in Korea seemed to go by so fast, it didn't seem like a year at all.  I came back to my studio and felt like I didn't have any break at all.  Another problem is coming back to the US has been kind of depressing for me.  In Korea I had friends, I did things on the weekends, I had a job, I was in a foreign country and everything was so different and exciting.  Here in the Chicago suburbs I only have a couple friends, no job, nothing to do, and no where to go. 

I have my studio set up in my parents basement.  I go down there to try to do some work and I work a little till I get distracted looking for a tool that's packed away somewhere, or decide I would just rather surf the internet, or play Xbox or read about traveling to anywhere but where I am at now.