eat all day

Today's plans revolved around going from place to place and eating.

Nathan gave me a call 10:30ish informing me they were by my dorm. I had planned to meet them at their hotel but oh well, day got an early start. Ate my breakfast and we decided to just walk down 10th, towards the Pearl District, and see what happened. We checked out a couple shops, but no buyables were present. Looked into Polygraph, as part of TBA but decided against asking the performer any questions. Had an early lunch at the Tea Zone (mmm panini) then we trekked up to 19th and Marshall and I got the photo supplies for my next class. We looked at the spinning thing at the Corberry Press and I got caught in it, and came quite possibly close to destroying a piece of art had I not unhooked myself.

I drew on the sidewalk for a chalk thing going on. A self portrait of myself as a flower. Then we went to the mall, and had some free sweets that were given out. Tired we went back to Goose Hollow and relaxed and ate some of the Graham Cake that Rubie had made last night. Quite tasty. After that we walked to the freezone and got on the max. Stopped by their hotel for a bit and flipped through the channels (so much nothing). Rubie tried to get a Zune tax free at Sears (with her Sears discount because she is an employee) but it didn't work out so well. Then we had dinner in the food court.

Even though I bought a ticket for the max, no one was around to check it.

On the way to Pro Photo Supply we passed a man walking in a square from crosswalk to crosswalk on 11th & Lovejoy. He had chalk attached to his shoes and made a square design as he made his way across the street. I remembered seeing the white crosswalk square on 11th & Johnson and put two and two together and figure out that he was Stan Shellabarger, and his walking in squares was part of TBA. I remember seeing a note in the TBA book; something that said "Try and find Stan Shellabarger" and I'm excited that we did.

I like the way you say "graham"

Met Nathan and Rubie at the train station today. They are visiting for the weekend, originally they were going to stay at my place but dad set them up at the Holiday Inn. I just caught the streetcar going to the station, and we just caught the max to the hotel, and we caught it nicely on the way to 10th and coming back from PNCA. Had to wait a few minutes for it at Goose Hollow.

Met them at the station and we walked to the max so they could check into their hotel. When we got their they said that the room wouldn't be ready for another 45 minutes so we went to Burgerville. I had fish & chips, they both had burgers. The room has a sort of really ugly view, oh well. We hopped on the max again and went downtown. Walked around Powell's and then went to PNCA. Showed them about. Ran into Daniel, Kat, Arvie and a few other people.

We stopped by Safeway to get fixings for dinner, fettucini and a graham cake. Num nums! Rubie is fantastic, wonderful person. Ate the food and relaxed a bit. The day went by really fast (met them at 2:00 and then six hours just melted away). They got on the max at about 8:00 and headed off to the the Holiday Inn. Pretty convenient, you walk three blocks to the max, get on, and then walk about 7 blocks to the hotel.

No major plans tomorrow, probably Saturday Market and visit some of the free TBA events.

I can draw trees!!

Had to go to Reed College to see a lecture for Drawing Class. Had to get there at 11am, after my 8:00-10:45 class. I don't know where Arvie got the idea that we could make it to Reed in 15 minutes, which is in South East Portland (PNCA is North West, you have to cross Burnside and the Willamette). I hitched a car ride with Hayden and his tall friend (Sam?). We spent 15 minutes walking 12 blocks to his car, and then about 25-35 minutes driving to get to Reed and another 10 minutes finding parking and going "aww hell no one remembers where the lecture is?" It all added up to us showing up right as the few classmates that made it were leaving. Lots of people came late/got lost so we didn't feel to bad. Though a lot of energy wasted only to show up and then be told to go back and meet in class at 1:30 after lunch. Hitched a ride back with Michael (who unlike the people who I rode with, he doesn't smoke in his car with a window minimally put down).

We got back just in time for lunch so I went to another TBA lecture. This time by some people from a blog competition, Hooliganship, Slappe(PNCA professor) and Andrew Dickson. A lively discussion about the Internet and blogging and doing collaborative art. I didn't take notes so I have forgotten most of what they said (I was to busy eating my egg salad sandwich).

Returned to drawing class and for the rest of it we were in the park on Part Street drawing trees. I was very pleased with my tree drawing, I want to mail it to my old art teacher with a note saying "look! I can draw trees, OKAY!!" The work that I have been doing, a lot of it is just producing work to show that this is where I'm at and that I can do this. And I am finding that I can do it, and that is great. I'm excited for when I get to the point of being able to use these concepts and apply them to my work for me.

In Digital Tools I drew over a photo of my choosing (Ibanez) with lines and whatnot. I'm starting to really like Illustrator, gives a good look. Can't get a screenshot of either of my projects, don't think I can open them without the program.

Picked up my film I had developed earlier and rode off home. When I got home I was reminded I need to find and buy my Art History text. Powell's one 11th edition copy was gone so I had to go to PSU and drop $95 on a used copy. I have till the fourth to return it, so I'm going to try and order a cheaper version and then return this one. That's only if the text wouldn't be used for the next Art History (Gothic onwards) class, if I use it all the way through I am keeping it.

Today was cold, so biking was refreshing, there was also a whisper of rain that felt really good at the end of my bike trips.

Met up with Mel to go see Andrew Dickson's Sell Out at Wieden + Kennedy. A really excellent lecture on how to sell out (there are 27 steps) and how it isn't so bad. I'm not to concerned with selling out and all the people I walked and talked with after (Phil and Mike were also at the lecture) also didn't despair about it. One of the steps was to say you are not going to sell out. I am at about the step concerning college. I'm on the right track. Whoo!!

Andrew Dickson "sold out" when he was employed by Wieden + Kennedy. The Time Based Arts Festival is put on by PICA. PICA is located in/funded by/a part of Wieden + Kennedy. Wieden + Kennedy is one of the world's largest ad agencies, they did Nike's, "Just Do It." Andrew Dickson's lecture on selling out was a part of TBA. So in short: Wieden + Kennedy funds PICA who puts on the TBA Festival who had Andrew Dickson as part of it, giving his lecture in an auditorium located in a building of the company he sold out to, who must have a distinct knowledge that he believes that working for them is selling out.

Nathan and Rubie visit tomorrow, yay! Also sleeping in.

a grape only needs yellow

My imagination has recovered from tEEth. Now the only thing on my mind is the legs of one of the male dancers.

After the show I hung out with Mel, Mollie, Daria, Cidney, and the two girls from Silverdale (why do I have such trouble with both their names?). Sat about and chatted and ate pudding. Lindsay was up late working on her art project, she has so illustrate "the pompous socialites laughed at Judy's small head". She did a lettuce theme.

Today I slept in. And it was good. Rolled out of bed at 9:00, leisurely got prepared for the day. The bike racks were stuffed, but I managed to find one with enough space. Cool how many people commute by bike, James said his bike was stolen because he used a cable lock and not a Krypotonite one. So now I feel better about dropping some pretty polly on my U-lock. Some times it is a hassle to thread through but ultimately worth it if it saves my transportation. I don't like walking to school, takes far to long.

2D design was figuring out how to get three colors to look like four and four colors to look like three (one day I'll figure out the scanner at school and start posting art here). Cidney gave me $20 so we split the cards between us. I only cut a little bit off and I taped it on, not glue. I got my colors to work pretty early on so I left to run some important errands. Printed out my assignment for Digital Tools. The teacher had us draw over this photo, experimenting with line and the brushes. Never used Illustrator before but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Excited for tomorrow. Digital Tools and Time Arts are what I look forward to (Drawing I is good but a lot of the stuff I'm familiar with already, 2D design is sometimes fascinating but it doesn't feel like we have started yet, and Art History is still to soon to tell).

Time Arts got more into performance art and a discussion about "what is art?" I didn't say my art=effort idea, but there will be time for that later. Next class will be spent in practice and we will perform on Wednesday. We have to use a box, have a surprise appearance, use some words somehow, a 5 second silence, and a repeated motion. No plans to meet up before Monday to practice and brain storm, we are leaving it to our lonesome until then.

Saw Daniel Duford, who shaved his goatee. I waved and he smiled back, I think he remembered me.

Walked about with Sean and shot a roll of film for 2D Design. I don't remember all that I learned about exposures in my photography class from years ago, I hope enough turn out. Have to leave early to see if Rite Aid has film development.

Tomorrow I am going to Reed College for a lecture of sorts instead of Drawing class (it is through Drawing class, I'm not ditching) and seeing Andrew Dickson at 6:30. All this TBA stuff is cool, but it is really overwhelming my schedule when I am trying to get my bearings. All is working out, I'm no where near being late on anything.

my imagination has been broke

Okay. tEEth like, broke something. My ears, my eyes and some part of my brain. My ears from the noise. So sudden and constant and woah. The eyes, the strobe show at the end. It was intense to say the least. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but it was good. Spectacular. Surreal, horrific, scary, and just a little bit sticky. It all felt so unreal, I've never been so sucked in to something. Sitting far above the performers, the dead center of the last row on the third level. Overseeing it all, the struggle and pain. Amazing in a way I can't describe.

Sitting there, it sunk in.
I am at art school.
I am.
At art school.
Art school.

*ding* laundry is done

I hope that my laundry looks a little less ravaged by the machine. Stupid heavy duty mechanic monsters. Grrr. Well it seems warm and fluffy. Should be good then.

Road my bike again. Slowly getting easier to get up the hill. Don't know what I'll do when it rains. Everyone else has a city bike, mine stands out a little. I don't need to join the popular crowd, with their pastel artsy bikes. I'd stand out more if I had a Ninja or something. Just calculated the distance to school: 1.21 miles and round trip (slightly different round) makes it 2.39 in total. Kinda wishing I could brag about it being all "OHhhh I bike five miles to school" But nope, just a mile. Well, that's a mile I don't have to walk.

Digital Tools we got right into it. We turned in our Photoshop assignment and then we were introduced to Illustrator. I'm not familiar with it at all, but I'm picking it up pretty quick. Working on a line vector piece that I will print out all pretty like on Thursday.

Drawing was more gesture and contour, near the end we got into shading and doing subtraction by way of highlighting, instead of addition by way of shadowing. Rather neat. There was also lots of hair fluffing going on between me and a few of my classmates.

Lunchtime I went to Utrecht to get the color aid cards and some vine charcoal. AHHHGG! I hope the color aid cards will be used extensively for ever and ever! $40! For a bunch of colored screen printed cards!!!!! There are not enough exclamation marks! Grrr. Might have James of Cidney gimme $20 and we will share the cards. Still the $40 came from my account. And I know all the photo gear I will have to get will run me at least that amount.

Yup. Trillian is going to have to get a job. Booo!!

Going to see tEEth tonight with Mollie and Mel. The remaining TBA events I will be seeing are: Cartune Xprez, Andrew Dickson, and Some Cats From Japan.

speech is BAD

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with that picture?

We were reading a paper in Time Arts about performance art, the paper came from a grad school book for people getting a masters in performance art (why would they need that?), anywhoo the paper went on and on about how speaking is bad and how every time you hear speech in a play/movie/TV/whatever it is all dumbed down and fakey or whatever. And how performance art is the only thing trying to reflect reality. Everything else is fake. And how a sentence in performance art must be treated as an object, like it has to be on equal par with the chair in your piece. chair = sentence. It was hard to follow. Earlier Diane had found a sticky note on the floor that said "this guy is a jerk" and we were wondering who it was talking about. I think it was the writer of this paper (actually it didn't say jerk but if Liam reads this I don't want to teach him bad words).

Lindsay's joke she got from her painting teacher:
How many performance artists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
I don't know, I left early too.

Rode my bike to school today. Nabbed a lock-your-bike-to-this pretty easily, and was only mildly sweaty as I went to my first class.

My Art History class left early, as we couldn't have done any reading so a lecture wouldn't have been so good for us without a reading warm up. The Silverdale-girl and Mallory are in my class, as well as a wide variety of other people from varying levels of education. I like being a transfer student, more variety in your classmates. We wrote a little essay and were allowed to go when we were done. We had a half-an-hour so Silvie-gal and I walked to Powell's to see if they had the text. They had it, but it was 11th edition, the complete book (not paperback or split into the two segments) and hardcover. Oh and $65. Going to shop around a little. I was peckish so I picked up a scone.

We got back with plenty of time to spare before our next classes. 2D design was uneventful, a lecture about color and how crazy it is. Sat about during lunch and chatted with Tabitha and Rainbow.

We had a special speaker talk to us about color after lunch. He was Spanish and had great hair and a lovely accent. Every now and then he would pause and say "is that a word?" All this color stuff, sort of intense. How you can combine four blocks of color and get three colors, or three blocks and get four. We will get into learning how to manipulate colors like that on Wednesday. I am part excited, part terrified. Need to get those color aid cards and burnable discs. All this stuff I have to buy, starting to feel like I don't need any of the stuff I brought with me.

My triptych for Time Arts seemed to go over well. Most of the class was consumed by the "what is performance art?" discussion. I still don't get how performance art isn't supposed to be seen as a mixed medium.

IT HAS ONLY BEEN A WEEK!! AHHH!!

And Nathan and Rubie are visiting Friday-Monday. That will be cool, need to take note of all the places I want him to pay for me to eat at.

fabuless trill

You know the barber scene in Police Academy? Where Copeland and Blankes sit down and get a buzz cut because they thought that is what they were supposed to get? And Martin comes in and requests a little off the sides (or off the top, I forget) in front of them, making them aghast at the fact they just had their manes shaved off for no reason.

Before I left to get my hair cut, I ran into Mollie and another girl who had their hair done by children yesterday. Mollie's hair was short, really really short. Almost unstyleable short. But it looked good on her, and she said something about requesting it that way. The other girl had a sort of Kelis-esque side half-hawk with a line design cut into it. Sean, Mike, and David were tagging along to see the possibility of my hair being badly ravaged by a 10-year-old. I arrived early and saw some of the work being done. One guy looked like he had a word shaved in the back of his head, it didn't really work but it was fun and a conversation starter at the least. Some of the hair cuts were not so good, sort of shaky but as I just said all would be good conversation starters. And if the worst happened to me I would just shave my head, something I've wanted to try out anyway. I got into my chair a little earlier than 1:00 and it began! I was asked what I wanted. I had the choice to go crazy or to be sensible and not push it. I just asked for bangs and the back to be trimmed up a bit.

It went well! It went really well, my cut seems perfect actually. The bangs are jagged, which I wanted and the back is nice and neat.

Afterwards we went to Larry Bamburg's exhibit on Northrup & 18th. A beautiful piece, little bits of paper and feathers were suspended and spinning slowly. Very serene to look at. We had talked about seeing it and the timing was right so my little quartet from floor three went so see Paprika. Actually it made me a little more confused the second time (such as the physical manifestation of Paprika in the beginning) but I enjoyed it immensely. And Mike and David, who aren't really familiar with Japanese cinema, let alone animation, seemed to enjoy it as well. Might have even blown David's mind a little as he was sort of "woah" when we got out of the theatre.

We were starving so we went for Thai food after that. Medium priced but extremely tasty. David and Sean got into a debate about should art be dumbed down for the masses. I made a point about how many people have prints of fine art in their home versus how many people have ceramic gew-gaws, and how really stupid movies do well at the box office even though everyone should know they are stupid. Sort of a "if you don't care you aren't aware" type of thing I guess. Mike and I just sort of listened as they fired back and forth, a very heated debate. One of many I will hear and be a part of in the coming years.

We, plus many others, are going to the William Kentridge show tonight. Bound to be spectacular.