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Saturday, January 26, 2008

eye of the tiger

I plungered a toilet in the studios today. It wasn't really stopped up for long so it wasn't totally disgusting. Sort of an average day of work, a little dustier and dirtier than normal, but it didn't take me long to get in the swing of things. And I finished most of one of my new "textbooks" during the downtime after I completed my tasks but still was hanging around.

My Illuminating Manuscripts class, which was the shortened title, is nothing about actual Illuminated Manuscripts. In fact the full title is: Illuminating Manuscripts: Comics, Strips & Graphic Novels. It is a class in which I buy and read comics and talk about comics. Huzzah! Booyah! And it is 300 level and there are some cool comic people that I know of in the class. The teacher seems really cool and the selected readings are pretty cool. A couple anthologies, Understanding Comics (of course), a work published by a PNCA grad, Persepolis and the very awesome From Hell. I am really excited for the class. We will also be doing a comic of our own in the end. Very cool.

As Trevor, the teacher, was sick we were let out early. I went to Powell's to get the books that would be mass printed and probably cheaper as it would have used copies. I picked up Understanding Comics and Sexy Chix(a female anthology which I read today). Also I picked up a paperback I have always been meaning to read and at the price of laundry, I went for it.

Went home and ordered From Hell used (very expensive tome) and the PNCA one I ordered direct from the source. I emailed Jason at Floating World Comics and put in an order for the remaining ones. Have to support my guy.

Sexy Chix had some great shorts but some of them just seemed caught up in girly novelties. As if being a lady you HAVE to make lady stories and you can't just write a story. I will probably form better opinions about lady writers as the class goes on. I look at my bookshelf of comics and out of all the Western ones, and out of 25-30 writers(not including the Flight anthologies where surely there are more ladies) the only females are Becky Cloonan and June Kim. I haven't even read June Kim's one. Is it bad that I have so many male written comics? Am I required to support my gender or can I just enjoy a story?

Anyway, after work was time for relaxing and then Karen, Robin, Chelsea, Kristen, and I went to see Persepolis. Today is the first day it was out. We got there about half an hour early and it was good that we did. It didn't really sell out but it was super full. I must say I loved the movie. I was taken in and moved and I even cried a little. It was simply beautiful and it really did convey the comic well while still leaving parts out. The comic is a must read if you decide to see this movie and I think everyone should see this movie.



Rose Bond mentioned if a movie bores her, she notices the cigarette burns. Ever since she said that I have seen the cigarette burns in the film and the shake as the movie transitions to the new roll. Only No Country For Old Men and Persepolis have brought me so in that I did not see them.

After the movie we hung out at Karen's. Robin made fried bananas and we played Apples to Apples. Chatting went long. Like till 3:15 am long. Sleeping in time.

I know how Art History is and looking at my schedule I am sure I can do this semester no problem. I have three art classes that require work and two reading classes. One is mostly done in studio (Printmaking) and the Painting class seems along those lines. I have no idea what to expect from Experiments in Drawing.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

a theory about free will (and probably not a good one)

Painting Techniques is off to a running start and that is grand. The class has one person too many and so Jason and I shared a desk (it worked out because he is left handed so we were not bumping elbows at all). We made little transition squares where we went from complimentary color to complimentary color with a gray in the middle. It took me the better part of class to get it to work but I didn't feel really rushed. After we finished we were to do a still life where we mixed colors to get it on the first try as opposed to layering. The skin color for the doll turned out nice but after the collar, it fell apart. It looks to be a fun class, fast paced and lots of work and getting use of the materials I pay so dearly for. Jason and I whispered back and forth at our desk. The rest of the class was stone silent for whatever reason. Also the classroom had a heater WHICH YOU COULD TURN ON!! And get this: it worked. That is really rare at PNCA.

We had a little synopsis of our drawings in Experimental Drawing class. We just gave a brief rundown of which each one was and how we came up with it. There was no critique and no one laughed at me choosing Robert Downey Jr. for chaos. Boo. No critique followed. I think it was mostly because Modou didn't like the assignment that the other guy had given us (clearly not his assignment). Then we talked and talked. Talked about Art History, Art, and History. We introduced ourselves and we had trouble understanding some of what he said because of his accent. I feel sorry for the German exchange girls, they don't speak English that well and neither does Modou (well he speaks it, just with a thick thick accent). And next class we are going to his studio. Rock on. The classroom was freezing cold. I had all my layers on and still I was shivering.

Between classes I went home, ate some MORE gyoza, relaxed, watched the rest of Kill Bill vol. 2, read a little, and then scooted off early so I could buy still more art supplies. I had on leggings, pants, legwarmers, 3/4 length tee, tee, hoodie, pea coat, and a scarf...I was still cold. The only time I was warm enough was when I was in the class with the working heat.

I forgot yesterday was Michael's birthday. We Aquarius' have to stick together.

I finished Persepolis and have moved on to Epileptic by David B. It has a great style and lots of French theories about stuff. One of them was Raymond Abellio talking about free will. He (is quoted as having said in the book) said, "Our free will is circumscribed, it accounts for 1% of our deeds. Great political men or artists manage to achieve a higher percentage of free will." That bit got me thinking about free will and choice.

I define free will as choice but when you think what we have to choose from, our options are still limited and decided based on needs that come from situations beyond our control. We can choose what we eat, but we can't choose eating as a requirement. We have to consume something or we will die. And even then we have to choose based on what our body needs: protein, vegetables, etc. We are restricted based on the needs that just being human requires. I can pick out what I wear but unless the fabric and piece was made just for me, someone else picked the design and style and replicated it on mass. I can choose, but the selection, however massive it is, was already picked out so how much choice to I really have when there is still some limit? To have complete free will you have to reject everything that would be required. Having something required means there is something expected and mandatory about ones existence and then how much free will does a person have if they are born with all these things they have to do to maintain their human body. To reject everything you are required to do would mean you would die. Free will is compromised by just being human.

Or is just having a choice enough to be considered free will, even if what you pick from is predestined?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

my apologies to Mr. Fry

Done with my 9 drawing conceptual experiments in drawing assignment before midnight. Booyah! We had to draw what our idea of 9 words was. Sorta like the final collage for 2D design but with only two days to do it and 7 more things to do. Here is what I did:

Strong: a picture of Dad's hands because hes an awesome dude who is very strong in many ways.
Bright: a portrait of Stephen Fry
Elegant: a fashionable lady with pearls
Subtle: drawn words that read "everybody makes misteaks"
Chaotic: Robert Downey Jr. in ink that I've blow to make it run all over the place
Smart: some contour drawings of eye glasses
Beautiful: an assortment of colors because color is beautiful
Formal: a stencil outline of a man in a suit (taken from a photo of Peter Sarsgaard)
Expressive: just some crazy ink lines

So yeah, it is sort of obvious stuff right now but my mind isn't warmed up enough to say "this dot here shows the intelligence that makes up smart". I am most happy with the Robert Downey Jr. picture.

Fun and filled day. Got out of bed perfectly okay but I did not enjoy the lukewarm shower (probably the water is chilled from the subfreezing temperatures). Bike ride there wasn't so bad but the elevator halfway up the hill is broken so that first morning climb up is horrid.

I only have Printmaking: Intaglio & Lithograph on Wednesday, it also runs from 11:00-5:00 (with lunch). Class started a little late as we were waiting for people to show up. Yoshi, the teacher, chatted with us a bit and I talked with Rachel (who was in my digital tools class). I showed off my switchblade comb. And then we got down to it. He went over the syllabus and talked about objectives. We breaked for lunch early (but still it was only an hour). I sat with Karen and...tall dude who I met in the comic club's last meeting..uhh Matt maybe. Oh and a nice lady who is in my painting class, she was there as well. I shared my banana bread with said dude and we talked about stuff and comics. Before I had gone to pick up a package mom had addressed to the school AGAIN. The package was filled with awesome art goodies which were oooooed and aaaahhed over during lunch. And as it was the last of my gifts, that means it is time to make thank you cards!

Class restarted on the dot and he explained how to make and prepare plates. We cut up a couple 6"x9" plates and got to work buffing and smoothing and removing the scratches from them. That process, which still isn't really finished for most of us, took us the rest of class. I will just have to work around it. I think I will really like this class. We are allowed to pick whatever we want for our images that we print so I will finally be able to produce real work in my classes.

After class it was getting dark but I had errands to run. Swung by and bought some brushes, watercolor paper, and etching tool and some sketchbooks from Art Media. My eyes bugged when it rung up as $81 and they were kind enough to let me void the transaction and trade the brushes for ones that DIDN'T cost $30. The $40 supply run then seemed cheap. Bah.

Swung by Safeway and got some soap and sandwich bags and then went home. It was now fully dark. Relaxed when I arrived home, made the Internet rounds and ate dinner with Lindsay at our table (something we have never done before). After dinner she put on a shuffle of her music library and we got to drawing our homework. About four hours of fun and drawing later we were done. Whooo!!

Awesome second day, I must say.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

exciting/exciting/bummer

Had my first day as a Sophomore. First day after turning 20. And Heath Ledger is dead. I can't believe he is dead...it doesn't seem that long ago I was watching him for the first time in 10 Things I Hate About You. Blimey.

I woke up at 5am and for whatever reason I thought it was 5pm and I got out bed ready to start my day. Then I figured out what was up and promptly went back to bed.

Regular morning. Made myself a peanut butter sandwich and rode my bike to school. CRAZY COLD. Saw some people I knew and some people that looked lost.

Modou, my drawing teacher, had some flight delays so he wasn't there to instruct us the first day. A sub of sorts handed out an assignment and then at 8:15 we were off. I bought some supplies at Office Max and hung with Lindsay and Karen for a bit before eventually riding home again. Kicked up my feet and watch Late Night with Conan O'Brien online. I was browsing a forum when a thread popped up announcing the death of Heath Ledger. Just...how?

Ate some more gyoza for lunch and headed off a little before 3:00 for my painting technique class. The class was full up with some familiar and new faces. Karen is in my class, as is Jason, a Junior who transferred from CCAC. The teacher switched from Cleaveland to Annie something. She seems nice, even if she doesn't enunciate. It seems to be a fast paced course so that is good. It lasted twice as long as the drawing class and afterwards I picked up some things from the library and headed back to Goose Hollow again.

About six miles I rode today, and it will probably be a regular Tuesday/Thursday distance amount.

I worked a little on my assignment for Experiments in Drawing but I am really tired so I think I am going to curl up with a book and go to sleep early tonight. Watched a little Kill Bill vol. 2 earlier on. Yeah, I like the first better but this does have some fun moments.

I wore longjohns under my jeans, my new waffle knit shirt under a tee shirt under a hoodie under a peacoat. And even with my awesome mobius scarf, I was still cold. BLIMEY!!

Monday, January 21, 2008

new years resolutions: 2008

(A little late for this but I have now decided what I want to achieve this year in which I am starting my Twenties)

1.) Read more. I want literature back in my life.

2.) Accept myself and have friends that accept me.

plaid & orange

Went shopping with the girls today. The girls being Robin, Diana and Mollie. Very chilly. Cheek numbingly chilly. Blimey it was cold today. I don't think it broke 40, and if it did it didn't feel like it.

We met Diana at the library and grabbed some warm eats. Then the shopping bonanza began! Gap had an awesome sale rack, it was affordable and had an extra 20% mark down. I bought a flannel frilly button up and an orange waffle-knit undershirt. The total: $15. Awesome! J. Crew and Fossil just had overpriced and ridiculous stuff so we left. We stopped in at Ray's Ragtime but it was just funky old time stuff. Mollie left us then and went to the library and we continued on to Buffalo Exchange. I saw some nice colored things but when I tried them on they were overly lowcut or sort of see-through due to cheap fabric. Diana found a fab plaid shirt-dress that looks great on me and was a very reasonable $13. We hung around in Anthropolgoie for a while. It had a great amount of really cute clothes that were sadly way out of our range, unlike J. Crew and Fossil which are out of our range and don't really look good either (well J. Crew did have a great pair of skinny leg canary yellow jeans).

We braved the cold and Diana and I got something to eat and we shared a little with Robin. Next was loitering in the Pearl Room at Powell's. There was a book of vintage mugshots that I really loved; such variety and intrigue! Eventually we parted ways with Diana and briskly made our way back to Goose Hollow.

I dropped off my stuff, changed into my shirt dress, and went down one floor to Robin's and we hung out making stuff. The most productive I have been all vacation and it is the final day. We lost our steam when it came to making things and we watching The Red Violin with Kristin and her boyfriend (actually fiancee now). I only remember one part of the movie, and that part wasn't the beautiful shots it contained. Some great little bits of time changing and sets. Beautiful film. All I remember when I first saw it was how the Red Violin was made.

My last day and night of vacation. Tomorrow my second semester of my first year begins at PNCA. My first semester as an Illustration major and my first semester as a sophomore.

force feeding the sugar


As it is midnight, I have officially become 20. Go me.

Woke up early to get everything cleaned and tidied up. Felt like I had a wee bit of a late start but in the end no one showed up till around 4:00 so it all worked out just fine. Watched a couple episodes of Twin Peaks.

Mel came over first and we sat and ate chips and discussed nerdy things. Robin came not too long after and then things really got cooking! Sort of. Diana walked all the way over from Burnside. Robin brought up her iPod dock and we started listening to some tunes while snacking and chatting. The Jones soda was a moderate hit. Very sweet. In need of some real food, I cooked up some Gyoza. It was quite delicious and Chelsea showed up as we were finishing the first batch so I made another. Both went quickly.

We played Apples to Apples. At first we played till 8 green cards and then Mel got 7 so we upped it to 10, Mel still won. During the middle of the game, I whipped out the brain mold Jello.

The mold itself was a larger hit than the actual stuff which was really really thick. I might try it with less Jello...the thickness is very icky. I didn't tell anyone it was brain shaped so it was a big surprise. They got a kick out of it.

After Jello and Apples to Apples we played a few rounds of Old Maid. The rotation got a little confusing at times but fun was had. Things dissolved into chatter and munching on food. Ibanez was also much adored by all the ladies present. We winded down with Two Truths and a Lie. Everyone emptied out at around 9:00pm. But then about 20 minutes later Mel, Robin, and Chelsea came back. Haha. We watched some Conan and tried to do some dance moves and we talked about what the next fashion trend would be. My vote is on bright solid colors mixed together. It combines the layering trend as well as sort of hipster and mod. I'm all for color. Robin made us tea and during my company break I cleaned up a little.

But all good things must come to pass and they left. But all in all it was a wonderful Birthday. The perfect amount of people and great company they were. A good long shindig with lots of treats and talks. Not so much a Birthday party but just using it as an excuse to gather. It was wonderful. My 20th is starting on a great note. Whooo!!!



Fun Party Tip: When serving cupcakes, don't ice them. Have a couple kinds of icing and many types of sprinkles out and let your guests decorate it how they wish! Much fun will be had.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

cops

Last night while I was trying to sleep, the boys in 410 were having a party. At around 3:30ish there was an exceedling loud drunk guy yelling and shouting and stomping about. They are normally loud but this guy was just excessive and sort of scary...I didn't want to go up there.

Thankfully, not too long after I heard a cop car. I could see the lights from my window. The people up stairs got really quiet and there was one loud, authoritative voice I could almost make out. A little while later it was just one guy stomping around upstairs.

Hurray.

blood sugar

So I made the Jello and I had some left over. It was 12oz of Jello powder mixed with about three cups of water and a can of condensed milk. I had some left over so I decided to drink it. It was sooo thick. Like...I could feel the sugar slide down my throat. It would have made great mock fake blood. Uhhg disgusting.

I had a late start today. Just could not get out of bed, I was so comfy and relaxed and warm. But it didn't really affect my cooking schedule. Made a run for groceries and made banana bread. Mel came home so I visited with her a little bit while the bread baked. Then as I made cupcakes I prepared the gyoza. I have about 35-50 ready for the party tomorrow. I packaged and froze the remaining filling and made a batch to eat for dinner. In the past 24 hours, I must have eaten about 50 gyoza. Blimey. Fixed up the Jello and then made a late night second run for drinks. Jones Soda in a can! WHoo. From about 4:00-10:00 was spent in various stages of shopping and preparing.

At about 10:45, Lindsay and I walked around our apartment banging the ceiling with sticks.

Got caught up watching Lasagna Cat and Twin Peaks. Uhg, I am SO SICK OF JAMES!! And what, what is Billy Zane doing in the show? Huh.

Party party party tomorrow. Then the next day, I am 20.