where'd that wall come from?

Whee! Seattle was fun. A little gray but overall really super. Saw some neat art, and some stuff that bored me.

I remember being told the bus leaves at 7:00am so my alarm went off at 5:30 and I was up by 6:00 and out the door at 6:35 or so. I was at PNCA and on the bus at 6:50. And no one was there. Justin was the next to show at around 7:00. Jason sat across from me and said something about 7:30. As the hour moved on more and more people showed up and I learned with great disappointment that Diana would not be there and we would be leaving at 8:00am.

The bus ride up was very...interesting. The combination of Jason next to me and Sean and Forest behind me lead me to overhear some really awesome guy-talk. They spent about 20 minutes calling Craig repeatedly asking for the definition of a term. They passed forward a note to a group of MFA girls and they got a note back. I'm not sure which was more vulgar and crude. Both notes were awesome.

The rain was horrendous leaving Portland but it cleared up bright and blue as we got to Seattle around 10:30.

We pulled into the UW to visit the Henry Gallery. Both when we arrived and when we left there were hordes of similar looking people coming and going on campus. I like PNCA because the people are really original and look different every day. Seattle University people, blimey...so boring!

The curator for the show at the Henry told us a little about the show and we were left to wander for a bit. There was some nice photography and a cool stop motion video of a guy traveling through a city laying on his stomach. Some of it was a little underwhelming but still well put together. There was a Kim Jones exhibit downstairs and outside of the rat army installation it seemed to be the same thing over and over again (this wood stick harness strapped to his back).

From there we went out for a much needed lunch. We wandered a group and slowly peeled off into littler eating groups. Craig, Nicolai(Nikolai?), Nicole, a nice guy whose name I didn't get, and I ate at "Yummy Bites". I had a teriyaki chicken wrap. It was indeed a Yummy Bite. Or maybe it was "Tasty Bites". Anywhoo, it was a very filling lunch.

Next stop was the Frye. A really well designed gallery, but with poor lighting on its important pieces. Some of the lighting cast really unfortunate shadows. Also they put a glare on some of the paintings which made them hard to appreciate up close.

The main exhibit was "Hug" by Patricia Piccinini. Disturbed all hell out of me. Wonderful sculpture of some really detailed and creepy half-naked mole rat critters. And the videos were none too sane either. I did love the fact the show combined a great variety of mediums and pieces and didn't limit itself to being just the sculptures. A nice variety is pleasing to more people, except I don't think most people would like "Hug".

The gift shop was severely lacking.

From the Frye we slowly made our way down to this architecture bookstore on 1st. Everything was $10 overpriced. Sure the copics were tempting, as was the toothpaste cap but overall it was a massive quantity of books I had no interest in. Except for the marine life diagram books and street fashion compilations (I would have bought something had they be $10 cheaper). Matt, Andy and I decided to walk around the block because the store was boring. The store was one block away from Pike's Place Market so we went down to there. Along the way I ditched Matt and Andy and went looking for a friend, and found him!

Lucky for me, Llyw was on break so we walked and talked for a wee bit before my bus took me away.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break (and Winter). It has been so long since I have seen family and friends. Traveling to and from Portland/Washington in one day is doable, but very tiring. It isn't really a bad ride; sure a few hours but once the Portland I-5 traffic backs up you are practically to Goose Hollow as it is. People are busy, I know I am.

We went to Western Bridge next, which I thought was going to be a bridge and not a building. As far as installations go, I actually enjoyed these ones. Except for the light clicking on and off for all eternity. And the constantly replaced melting ice cube. The fake snow falling on a Porsche was pretty and very majestic. Andy gave me a fake push towards it. There was also a 40 photo step by step of a block of wood being cut into a young mans head, an old mans head, a skull and then abstracted and then finally nothing. Symbolizing the decomposition and destruction and whatnot. They also had a cube of the wood carvings and saw dust collected from the photo series.

We were led into a room with a smoke machine and a slow moving light beam casting through the smoke onto the wall. It was very cool and we got to stand inside the circle of light and break the light beam up with our hands. Very sweet stuff going on there. I tried to exit the light area to the other side and found out very quickly there was a wall there. I was moving from a crouch position upon my exit so the extra upwards momentum combined with the wall bump caused me to fall backwards quite humiliatingly. I didn't mind getting laughed at and one of the super nice MFA's said she thought there wasn't a wall there either. I took some non flash photos of the scene and we all wandered through the gallery space.

At 6:30 we boarded and began the long ride home. I dozed for about an hour and then sat next to Matt and chatted with him, Andy, Craig, Nicole and the redheaded MFA dude for a bit.

Got back to PNCA at 9:00ish and rode my bike through the misting Portland night. I got home earlier than I normally do on Friday nights (regularly movie nights). I was expecting to be back by 11:00pm.

Visiting Seattle makes me so glad I choose Portland.

violet? what happened to purple?

What a bummer. Went all the way in for the evening Comic Club meeting only for it to be Jim, Taylor and I. Then fifteen minutes in a class came in and consumed our classroom (no class is supposed to be in that room at the time). We moved to the Foundation room (for general Foundation people usage) and that lasted less before a group came in. Taylor took off and me and Jim hung about. We tried to listen to the lecture but the woman was really stale so we went to the library and arbitrarily flipped through magazines and chatted. At about 8 we parted ways. It was starting to mist as I came back, no so bad but not so great.

I just finished watched Y Tu Mama Tambien. A lot better than I expected it to be (I was just watching it for that scene). A good portrayal about the power of friendships. I really liked the narration that would pop up and explain the back story/future story of events surrounding them. Not for everybody, but gosh Gael Garcia Bernal is bee-yoo-tee-full.

Digital Tools was spent with more piecing together a scene in photoshop. I like mine but it seems, I dunno...not the best way to learn photoshop. I'm just sort of learning one little aspect of it. I'll see how it goes.

Drawing was spent in part drawing textures and the other part doing crosshatch on a paper bag. I didn't get my bag finished but I am very proud of what I have accomplished.

I didn't get my bag finished because I had my review with Arvie. He complimented my work and liked the confidence in my lines. We also chatted about what to expect in his painting class. He suggested I play around with acrylics and get instructed on how to build a canvas stretcher. Thingie. Yeah. When it comes to building, I had to call the man.

Dad said to figure out what type of wood I would need and the lengths and types of the materials and he would help me make them when I visit home. He is awesome like that.

Also I didn't get my bag finished because lunch(and part of class) was spent taking the math exemption exam. Some stuff I was absolutely clueless on but I did have a good knack for the things Robertson taught me. Overall I think I am right around the point for passing. I tried everything and did lots of work.

Swung by Trader Joe's to get snacks for the Comic Club meeting. Rode home, switched my pants as I had forgot to put a bag on my seat and my toosh was wet. Then I went back to school to work on my color wheel. Got it all finished with some minor neatness issues (darn glue). Will have to put in some time Saturday or Sunday to finish up the value scale. Dang nabbit. Oh well.

Off to Seattle tomorrow morning. Bright and early.

color. bikes. comics. yoga. sleep.

Got my add/drop papers in, I'm on for printmaking! Yeah!

My color wheel is all cut out and ready to assemble into awesomeness. Need to cut out and make my value scale still...and paint my saturation one.

Went to a bike saftey lecture during lunch. Learned the districts where you can't ride on the sidewalks (I normally don't, but when traffic is heavy sometimes I do) and learned how much the fees are for sailing through stop signs (I don't do this either).

I'm a little stuck on my Time Arts comic. It is hard for me to think small, but I don't really have to. I can expand it out for my final project if I want. Into comics so much but this is tricky tricky.

Yoga was intense. The downward facing dog is really killing me.

the ol' switcharoo

House was pretty goog tonight. Kal Penn is the resident difibulator, bwaahaha! Loved that part. Then watched an episode of Spaced with Sean. I'm going to try to get a good early bed time tonight. So then maybe, maybe I will be totally on time tomorrow. I have paperwork to turn in anyway.

Digital Tools was spent part in critique. Mine was the second last to be reviewed and it went over pretty well. It was the anagulous one. Got some props about the range of color choices but the background was trying to pop forward a little more. Then we looked up clip art to piece together into a photoshop collage. Lotsa fun. I drifted off during one of his photoshop lectures but I think I know what Gordon is talking about so it's all good.

We took a field trip to some galleries in Drawing class. Looked at more Chuck Close prints and art by Robt A. Nelson. Both were phenomenal, though the PAM Chuck Close exhibit is more magnificent and on a larger scale. Course you couldn't buy anything at PAM either. Then we went back and messed around with acrylics creating texture. The texture paintings went into the second part and we hung them on the wall. I don't know quite the point but oh well. It was fun. I got acrylic on my jacket (it is white, the one I got at Goodwill) and I washed it in the sink and the blues faded pretty good. White just gets so dirty, bah!

For lunch I went to Yo's cart and got some curry. I ran into one of the MFA's, Nicole, and we ended up hanging out and chatting all through lunch. She's really sweet. The ping-pong tourney was delayed so now Craig has another week to prepare against Carlos and Yo.

After Drawing I met with Martin French, my Illustration advisor. We went over my schedule and my sketchbook and he complimented my work with the figure both in different styles and trying from reality. He suggested I postpone the illustration studio class for the next fall semester and take an elective. I do agree that flip-flopping is not the way to go when I'm a junior. I'm still taking 3/5 required Illustration courses next semester. I filled out my add/drop form and so I am replacing Illustration Studio I: Conceptual Techniques with Beginning Printmaking: Intaglio & Lithograph. So I'm not taking another basic drawing class; which is what I really did not want to do.

I still am coming out ahead even though I am delaying my studio courses. I am taking art history now, when means I won't be taking it when I am a Sophomore/Junior. I am taking beginning painting now and then when I take the second beginning painting in Fall 08 I'm done with that portion. Oh wait, shoot. Just looked it up and there is one more intermediate painting class. But that is still something I have a jump on. Experiments in Drawing will be done before I even start the studios as is one of my other Illustration requirements. Essentially I am getting a semester head start in all my classes outside of the studio, and I am super far ahead in terms of electives so when it comes to my Junior and Senior years I can pay more attention the reason I am at art school and not have to bother with art history or electives. Of course this is assuming I don't fail/drop any classes. Which I (probably)won't. I'm awesome.

I was in Safeway when mum called. I made a (bad)joke about biking and talking on my cell to her at the same time. Yeah, she didn't take it well.

So my schedule is still tentative. I'll turn in the add/drop tomorrow and hopefully they will print out a schedule saying I got into everything. I don't have much worry, it is a small school and my largest class has about 20 people in it.

overload? maybe. We will see.

I'm not all that tired today. Sure I had some good yawns but no drifting off.

Review was pretty painless, the test. Uhh. Not so much, I totally spaced on two names but they sounded like architects so I wrote down they designed the Parthenon. Wrote a shpeal about how great showing body movement in sculpture is and tried my best at diagramming some Doric Order Columns. I think I got more of the time frames right than the last one. We'll see. I'll see, you'll scorn me.

Hand was aching and I moved on to gouache design. Did my blue gray scale and cut out the blocks.

Registration begins today so I did some running around during class (Sally let us) and got the schedule to look over and my registration sheet. I filled it out and during lunch I sat waiting for half an hour to speak to Pearl only to be told that I was a transfer so I wasn't going to speak to her (this was foundation ONLY) and I'll have to wait till the 20th(when I had made my appointment). I filled out my registration and turned it in anyway. I can always swap things around when I meet with her. Have a meeting with Martin French tomorrow; that should be fun. Bring in what I'm working on now and my sketchbook. I think he will let me into Illustration, I have the credits anyway.

As of right now, my schedule for Spring 2008 is:
Art History: Renaissance to WWII with Libby Farr (M 11-3)
Experiments in Drawing with Modou Dieng (TTh 8-10:45)
Illustration Studio I: Conceptual Techniques with Kurt Holloman (TTh 11-3)
Illustration Painting Techniques with Sally Cleveland (TTh 3:15-6)
Beginning Painting with Arvie Smith (F 11-5)

So four artsy working classes and one literary class. Jim and Diana will be in my Art History class, so that will be awesome. Might be a hard work load, I don't know. See what Pearl says of it in a week.

OH! And I also found out that an Illustration degree is half painting degree. FUN. I so do not want to spend time working on one work, I would rather to printmaking. So if I wanted to take Illustration/Printmaking I would have to switch my degree to General Fine Arts. Which I don't want; every kid is a GFA and has a BFA degree. I have some transfer credits which act as a nice elective buffer so I think I will pad my electives with Printmaking courses. There is a Graphic Novel class (taught by Daniel Duford) but that is for 300 level only. Something to look forward to in a years time. So yeah, taking me some painting next semester. But it is with Arvie and Arvie is pretty awesome and a talented painter.

Cut out and picked out my colors for my color wheel for class. Need to figure out a creative way to piece it together.

Time Arts was super fun. Critiqued our little one panel comics. Most people didn't get mine but it was super nerdy. There was a miss-hearing about if I knew what "Raw" was and I said no, thinking they were talking about something called "Ra". Rose took away some nerd points and then I figured out they were talking about Raw. She didn't formally reinstate my nerd points. Gotta do some brainstorming for my comic now, hmmn. Also need to look into Persepolis.

Wasn't raining when I went home, was when I went to school.

Prison Break has really lost my interest, maybe it would have it more if I could see it. Heroes was pretty good but same for lack of interest due to fuzzy reception.

holy insomnia, Batman!

Oh dear. I'm up late on a Sunday night. This will not do well for tomorrow. Expect "an Oh gee, I'm tired. Why Why Why did I stay up?" post.

I got up before noon so really I have no idea where the time went. Around 6:30 I sat down and drew my comic for Time Arts while watching Constantine. That took an hour. Moved onto drawing my own little piece. Lindsay's friend Ashley was over tonight and we all sat about drawing.

Took some time off from my own project and read the Scott McCloud stuff I have to read for Time Arts. Scott McCloud goes blah blah about how comics are not a recognized medium of art. I could excuse that if he wrote the book in like, the 70's or something. But he didn't. He wrote it in 2000. AFTER Watchmen, AFTER The Sandman, AFTER Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Frank Miller, Alan Moore and an endless list of talented people well and truly established that comics are art and literature. I don't think I like Scott McCloud. I'm not even sure if it is McCloud or Mcloud (could even be McLeod) but I don't care enough about him to look it up and see.

Then I returned to drawing and oh gee whiz it became 12:30 am.

Here is what I am working on (with no attention payed to composition):

Color Theory via Illustrator

Grayscale, Monochromatic, Complimentary, Anagulous, and My Choice: Black & White and Cross Complimentary/Anagulous


Color Theory expressed through Illustrator. For Digital Tools.

The color doesn't seem right, like they warped between being files on my desktop and being uploaded here. Also some of the images are not working for me, are they working for you?

Noontime edit: I removed the individual files as they didn't look right at all. Enjoy a compilation instead.

relax? bored.

I am taking this weekend off from any tasks. To sort myself out and to asses where I am right now and what needs to get done in the coming month. I got a meeting with Martin French on the 13th, registration meeting the 20th, math exemption exam the 15th, Seattle the 16th and going home for Thanksgiving the 21st. Got comics to draw and gouache to practice.

Slept in with Ibanez. Slacked around then got bored out of my mind and went to PNCA to JPG some of my Illustrator projects. Swung by the PNCA library and picked up some VHS and DVD's to entertain myself while I drew. Got a Chris Cunningham collection, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Pulp Fiction and Seven. They have a pretty great selection. Think I'll pick up Eraserhead and the David Lynch Shorts Collection next. They had Twin Peaks but it looks to be checked out now.

Started watching Seven and set up a sheet of Bristol for drawing. Copying a pose from Lippi's Madonna and Child with Angels. Well not so much copying as being inspired by. I'm quite pleased with the face and body overall. I'm putting the woman behind a desk in the image but I'm having problems putting her behind it. The drawing took me into a double feature with Pulp Fiction.

Now it is late but I'm not really tired but I think I will still try to get to sleep, even though I have only been awake 12 hours.