Monday, November 23, 2009

return to work

Had a good sleep after that late and most horrid return. Mom even made me breakfast! Poached egg, muffins, bacon, and orange juice. My ideal morning meal.

Uncle Rolfe and Aunt Alison stopped by in the afternoon for a catch up chat. Talked about drains and ditches and hot tubs. Basil melted for Alison’s pets. She wasn’t so pleased with me. Oh well.

Soon it was time to depart and pick up dad at the airporter drop off in Silverdale. He was there when we arrived. He had a spoon and fork salad set for mom and myself. I picked the cat one and mom received the giraffe set. There was also a decorated (hollowed out) ostrich egg to put with our collection of around the world goodies. The three of us went to Skipper’s. Hurray for fish & chips!

Once we got home, we all promptly hopped in the hot tub. Dad tested all the different seats. Mom floated over the main powerful jet. I just soaked and relaxed. It is such an excellent way to relax. I wish I had one in Portland. So easy to hop in for a few minutes and rest.

Then it was time to get dry and dressed and head to Tacoma again. Mom tucked a tired and weary dad into bed and then the two of us set into the descending night once again. It was dry and a delightful drive. Arrived with time to spare.

My seatmate was a young girl in a cookie monster hat. Worked on typing up the poetry that is due tomorrow. The train movie was Julie & Julia.

The 506 (or was it the 509?) arrived fifteen minutes early in Portland and I just managed to catch the Green line. The red took a while, so all in all it took me thirty minutes to get in my front door.

Katie said she missed me.

I got right to homework. Did two stencil images for my reading response to Dylan Dog (it was a free choice this week). I don’t like construction paper for stenciling. Newsprint cuts so easily. Then I did some character studies of people in out of my poems, including myself. Cut them out and put them on blue paper then cut that out and put some lettering to indicate which poem they are from. And I think that is it for things that are due tomorrow. Now all I have to work on is screenprinting.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

dance / snow my god

Ma's mini barn was completed. She is going to put a framing workshop and sewing station in their.

Took a hot tub soak before getting dressed for the show. It was so very very cold. And wet.

Put on a skirt and tights and grabbed the big coat. Don't know why I didn't bring more layers. Oh well. It was fairly dry heading over, just cold. Picked up Rubie in Tacoma and then headed to Everett. Left at 3pm, arrived around 5:45. Long long drive. Ate a meal at McDonald's. Something easy, ya know.

There was a line outside the Comcast Center but it was assigned seating, so you didn't have to show up that early. Rubie had an umbrella, I had a hood. Mom waited outside for Averie and we went in to get our seats.

We were a ways back, but there were screens so we could see the show. Seats were uncomfy and the place was cold. Oh well. Averie and Mom came in at around 7:15 and then come 7:30 it was time for So You Think You Can Dance season five tour!!

The top 12 were there: Jeanine, Janette, Randi, Caitlin, Kayla, Evan, Brandon, Ade, Kupono, Jason, and Phillip. I hooted and cheered and clapped plenty. In between dances, they hammed it up. There was a narrative about that unfortunate Russian Dance that went through the whole show. And every now and again they would switch things up. Other dancers would come in during the numbers or they would mix up their outfits. It was soooo much fun. Saw a lot of the numbers that I loved so much over the summer. All our favorites were there, and Averie who had not seen much of the show also had a good time. Oh oh and there was Bollywood! The lights were bright and the sound was loud. It was great. Made me wish I could dance...

It was hell getting back. It was pouring rain, the roads were pooling water and ma did her best not to hydroplane. Dropped Rubie off and then off we went into the dismal night. It was horribly slow going and when we got to Seabeck, there was SNOW. Actual snow coming from the sky. It as only a slush and it wasn't at our house, but for a few miles it was bonafide snow.

Tomorrow I return. Then I am in Portland for three more nights, then I am back in Washington for Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

blue underwater lights and bright stars

The water heaters were being replaced, so I had to wait a bit for my shower. Piled all my things for the weekend. I am almost getting better at pairing down the supplies I think I need for visits.

Katie was cleaning hardcore. Apartment will be all nice and shiny. For a week.

It was raining as I departed, but it wasn't so bad. Waited for streetcar, got to the station at a good time. Didn't have to wait around forever to board. Got an aisle seat. I read a chapter out of Dylan Dog, bought my standard train hot dog with mayo, mustard, and ketchup. Then I took a nap for a couple hours. I didn't think I napped for that long, but I woke up to mom calling me at 4:30. Train ended up getting into Tacoma a bit late.

Mom took me, Nate, and Rubie out for dinner at a nice little place in Tacoma. It was uhh some dude & some dude. I don't remember the name. Fish and meat mostly. Rubie and I both had Mojito's, ma and brother stuck to water. The mojito was tasty tasty. My grilled steak salad was enjoyed, except for the steak which took too much effort to cut. The onion rings and salad part was quite good. My portion was gigantic compared to the others, and I think mine was the cheapest. After eating, we played some Wii. I mostly lost, except at Wii Golf.

After the drive home, mom and I got in the hot tub. Just perfect. It is a really fabulous unit. Huge and better than the one at the Bremerton athletic club. And it has a great view of the stars. Mmm, nice.

Friday, November 20, 2009

I'm so ready for that hot tub

Ohhhh man, yoga really ran me over. I felt so sore and beat the whole day. Anyway.

Got my images ready for class like a good girl. We had a run down of where we all are, and we are all pretty awesome. Loaned Madeline my copy of Raw Shark Texts. Gave her a little drawing for her birthday.

It was a work day. During lunch I put emulsion on my screen and loitered in the print lab while it dried. Katie came in and we gabbed. I showed her the exposing room. Cool stuff. I left my screen to dry and returned to class. Worked on digital stuff.

Finished my digital version and printed it out. Martin ordered me to do another illustration, seeing as how I had the time. So I worked on finishing up the other one and printing it out. Ha.

At around 5:20 I returned to the print lab and found Mark and uhh oh dang I forgot his name. The boys working in the lab last night. They were in the lab and Heather was showing them how to stretch a screen. So I jumped to get a piece of that action. Ripped the silk off the screen that had the razor accident in the drying room. The stretching process is a combination of hydraulics, metal bars, silk, and glue. It's pretty cool and the hydraulic operation box looks like cheap sci-fi with it's two knobs and two gauges. And it is all sky blue. So yeah, I inhaled some intense glue fumes and we three got our screens stretched. Looks all shiny and new. Now I have three proper screens, and one wooden one. Heather was talking about how she has so many screens because she just takes old frames and stretches them. $10 for a great screen, versus the $30-$40 it costs to get one ready made. Whoo whooo!

Then I printed the first layer of my rain piece. There is so much printing to be done on it. Heather even gave me some of her left over mylar so that I could use it for registering the small details (otherwise I would be hefting a big piece of mylar back and forth for each print, and that just bogs down the process). It pays to hang out and be friendly in the print lab. I had a great time talking with Heather, who told me the origin of the Christmas tree. I made sure to reuse some of the left over ink for my printing (she was going through all the ink and sorting through it).

I got out of there at around 8pm. Went to Safeway to pick up dinner and train snacks. Theatre size candy was one for a dollar. Runts, Gobstoppers, and Nerds oh my! Got Sushi and Perrier and cheese puffs and tried to find corn nuts but had no luck. Outside the store, I had a chat with another biker about how awesome helmets are.

It is really believable how tired I am. Lots of roaming, lots of bumping into things, lots of work, and biking here and there.

Oh, I also collected a file of the best of my kitten and cat photos for Samala (she is doing a plague of cats piece). Sent them to her for reference. Afterward I thought "oh crap, there are pictures of my family members in there, she will realize we all are crazy, not just me." I hope I can see a little bit of Basil in one of her 30 cats.

Just relaxed. Ahh. So nice. Sushi was good, even though it was just Safeway.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Rain - Red Umbrella



Photoshop.

if both knees are bad, do they both become good again?

Moved on to the Lenny Bruce segment of History of Laughter. First there was some discussion about the breakdown of communication due to technology (I agree on the idea that the easier it is to say things, the less important those things are). Discussed...more stuff. Yeah.

Today, I wore this shirt Celia gave me way back around 8th grade. Red with wild prints. I love it. It is loose and stands out, which you think wouldn't happen in a place as wacky as art school. But there is a set system to how to combine prints, and big floppy actual 90's shirts are not in that system. Normally it is a boho dress or some torn tights under a patterned skirt. Flannel everywhere, but not old school flannel. Just as a print, not the real deal. Anyway, I love the shirt and got many comments on it. I took them for compliments.

Lacey and her blues dancing crew were giving a demonstration in the commons. She brought cute boys and one, Andrew, asked me to dance. I sort of moved through one song then went for Quizno's. Diana really cut a rug on the cement floor. She danced with all the boys (all three of them). It was a jolly lunch.

Some prints from the Schnitzer collection were on loan to us for today. 60's minimalism mostly, with some Josef Albers thrown in there. Really top notch stuff in name; only about half the pieces held my interest. But it was productive and insightful. Some of the other printmaking classes joined us in our learning. Morgan told a story of how some guy he met in the gym said that he looked like an artist and this led to Morgan meeting him at his place to look at his art work. The guy lived in a purple house with no floors and they had to line his huge paintings outside along the fence and the peacocks came out to be fed. All the while it was snowing. Morgan says that experiences like that are why you should 1) say yes and take a chance and 2) be an artist. He said that things like that just seem to happen to artists. Maybe because we pay enough attention to realise what is going on? Or maybe we would appreciate it more. There is more to the story buy I can't disclose it here.

I had to loaf around for two hours waiting for the print lab to be free enough to print. In the downtime I cut my paper down. I'm doing a huge edition to make up for the fact that I'll probably lose a few just to me not caring enough. Well I do care. I need to get good practice, but registration is such a bother.

In an hour and a half (between the class getting out and yoga) I: applied emulsion, put an image onto the screen, exposed the screen, washed the unexposed emulsion off the screen, let it dry, mixed a color, set up my station, and printed the some 40-50 prints. About 30 are at 8"x10" and 15 are 8"x6" or whatever. The image I was printing today is 8"x8". It is on tan paper and I used a transparent brown. I will layer the brown and make a nice soft toned image in keeping with the aesthetic I utilized with the Katie with Jade Plants piece. I didn't get an exact count of the numbers. 6x6=36. Ohh. Wow I should have just bought five sheets of paper. Ha, oh well. 36 8x10 and (lets see, 3 8x6 a sheet, 6 sheets, 6x3 is...) 18 8x6 prints. That's a lot of art. Whoo! Enough for the edition, and if I am lucky, I'll get some stuff in the Holiday Art Sale for the first time.

The Holiday Art Sale is an annual sale where students put their work in the commons and people can buy it right on the spot. The paintings are crowded on the wall and there are tons of cool prints and goodies to purchase. Good for last minute gifts. I've always slacked on getting things in it, but now I actually have a reasonable stock of things.

I think I forgot to mention that I slipped in the print lab yesterday. I was wearing my Romeo's and those shoes have no traction left on the bottom. There are tons of puddles of water around the studio left from people moving wet screens about. I stepped in one and my foot went out from under me and I hit the cement floor with full force on my good knee. It hurt but I got up and went back to what I was doing. The bruise isn't so bad, and it isn't really all that injured. Just when yoga came around tonight, it kicked my butt. I couldn't do anything that required strength in my left leg.

I can bike just fine though. Caught a little bit of rain coming back, but nothing too hostile. Relaxed. Ate food. Drew a little something something for Madeline's birthday. Drew the stencils for my silkscreen project for illustration. I drew them at relatively small scale, and I will see how they look blown up. I'm excited for this project. Just sucks that there is a print class in the studio on Thursday. Boo!!

And I can't print Friday because I am going home for So You Think You Can Dance! Yaay! I haven't watched the elimination episode, no spoilers.