noise/noise

First full day off. Damn. It feels really good.

I walked down to PNCA in the morning with Jim. Helped him collect some of his stuff together (I am lending him my crappy portfolio for the time being). Beautiful day. Hot day. I bid him far well at the max and got home in an icky, sticky, muggy mess. Uhg. I can't take suddenly ninety degree weather, I just can't!

Rest of the day was spent doing nada. So great. I napped. I half heatedly read. I watched Black Books, QI, and some other stuff. Just did nothing for several hours. I don't know really. Uhg. I need this.

My first year is over. Three left. And now I am getting into the real core classes. Wow. I really like PNCA. It feels like a good fit for me. Most of the things I don't like are my fellow students and since I probably won't be seeing much of them in the future, that is no biggie! Whoo! What can I say about this year? I've grown. I'm more comfortable with myself. I'm away from home but I can take care of myself just fine. I haven't hurt myself on my bike. I've been to every class, every day. Turned in everything. Worked really hard. Did comics. Got a job. Met new people. Made new friends. Lost friends(that's okay though, they were...yeah). It is great. I can't wait for more. Actually, I can wait. I need like a month at the least.

I went to Safeway to get food for the rest of my time here (cheese steak supplies, mac and cheese, etc). I ran into Matt at the store. Really small world. He took a nice photo of me yesterday while I was hanging out with him and Andy. A nice little Polaroid. We talked Lost briefly.

Lindsay and I rolled about in the heat and gabbed and raved. So hot. I probably won't be able to sleep with anything beyond a sheet tonight. And my window is open all the way so it is noisy. That's not cool.

schools out!

Yaay! Schools out! No more till September. Whoo! I love it hear but boy do I need a break. I'm exhausted.

Comic critique went well. People seemed to like my piece and I got a compliment from Trevor on the beauty of one page. We got cake from the people who did a Sexy Chix chicken super hero comic. It was a nice class. I enjoyed taking it. The Robopocalypse people all did Robopocalypse comics.

I wore a short dress with short leggings on under. Nice and warm today. It got up to 90. Dang.

I actually worked the whole day at work. And now I am done! The trash cans were all full and some of them doubley full. All the toilet paper ran out. I started to nod off during my break so I dashed out to get some ice cream and treats. It was delicious and warm outside still. Once I finished with work I hung out with Matt and Andy upstairs. Andy lent me The Blot and it was a quick but beautiful read. Andy drew a moustache on my face and Matt took a Polaroid of it.

I hung around school for a bit. There was a big barbecue for everyone at school. It was big. I had some juice and a real hot dog that was tasty. Hung out and chatted with so many people. Ran through a sprinkler. Jen, Karen, Adam, Bebop, Robin and I went down to the waterfront. We got there by way of streetcar and max. Jen actually went back to the Goose. I did cartwheels and headstands in the park. We walked back to the party at school. I hung out for a bit and watched the water balloon fight.

Jim walked me home and now we be hanging out.

Ciao!

taking my top off

I walked with Lindsay to school today because I had to haul my portfolios back home and there was no way I could bike with two portfolios. Modou brought in some croissant and cinnamon rolls. Some of the croissant's had chocolate filling! They were delicious. The rest of class was filled with discussion. I found it odd that Modou didn't see art as healing. Lindsay told her Douglas Adams coincidence story that relates to how she knows she belongs her(her car was called Starship Heart of Toon and her last letter to everyone was titled "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" and then come Portland and she finds out her roommate is me, how divine). There was a knick knack slide show, I talked with Sarah about Allan McCallum(or whoever) and the mass production of unique objects. The box I had left at school by mistake was still in the exact same spot I had left it.

After class I ran off 20 more copies of my comic and resized it. Now they are all in nice and decent sized pages. I don't think I will load the whole comic here, but post my favorite panels instead.

I collected my things and started by trek home. In 70 degree weather, fast approaching 80, I had corduroy pants, a thick 3/4 sleeve shirt, a blazer, a leather jacket, two portfolios, a box, and my purse. I only had to lug it to the streetcar and from the streetcar to the Goose but uhg it was horrible. So heavy and so overdressed (had to be warm during my walk to school). So nice to get home and strip off all my clothes and relax. Eventually I put on my bikini top and my brown short pants. Sat about, ate some food, enjoyed the warmth.

I threw on a white tee and rode to school. I should have just brought the tee with me, the bike ride was so hot! The school was hot inside as well. Those poor librarians. I gave up some sardines in exchange for the removal of some of my books fines (they actually charge at PNCA).

The painting room did have some A/C. Erin was first with her beautiful cave painting/commune inspired pieces. They were massive and colorful and awesome. Charlie was overly humble about his fully rocking pieces. Karen surprised us with some nice text and portrait combinations. Ursula had a beautiful and meaningful family snapshot. And Joy destroyed the curve with her huge vanitas. Two people didn't show up so they are missing their finals. Uhm, okay??

After class I whipped off my shirt and rode home. Tra la la. I'm so pale. Need some sun something fierce.

sunny day, summer is here

It was hot today. I was making photocopies and I was getting really overheated.

Printmaking critique. I stopped by Safeway and got some cookies and chips for the potluck. Everyone else brought food. It took up the whole printing station. Amazing! Before the critique we cleaned up the room. Wiped it down, scrubbed it up, and generally made it look exactly like it did before. We took an early lunch so I hung out in the middle printing area and bugged Jim while he did screen printing. I went second in critique, after Rachel. Mine went fairly well. They liked how it was dirty (what?) and the boldness of it and the emotive quality. For some reason I felt really awkward talking about my work. I didn't quite know what to say. Wish I had made a variety of work, I just fell back on the figure in most of my pieces this semester (all five pieces). It was a nice little variety of work shown. I would love to return to Litho but apparently you have to pay a department fee to do so? What?

The potluck had strawberry shortcake, cheese, chips, juice, ice cream, rice thingies that Yoshi made, more chips, cookies, meat slices, crackers, just strawberry's, and pancakes. It was lovely.

Deanne(Deanna? actually that might not even be her name...damn she is in my comic class) asked me to write down a crush for a project she is working on. So I did.

I scanned my comic in the library. It was 82 degrees. Hot hot hot. It scanned in great once I figured out how to lower the brightness. I posted the cover right then and there while scanning. I only had time to make one smaller for posting. After that I figured out the arrangement for making photocopies and I set about making cheap copies to give out to people. After much trial and error trying to figure out how to get the feed tray to work and having alignment issues (I mixed up a 4 with a 9 and ended up having to recycle 10 pages worth of double sided copies). But much sweat and labor and dollars (it is just put onto my student account now, no longer is it change operated) I ended up with 10 actually legible photocopied copies of my comic! I plan to make a few more, nicer ones, tomorrow. It is great! Yay!

I don't have to make anything for the rest of the semester. Not really. Just more photocopies, return books, and tomorrow I am hauling the stuff out of my school locker. I will be walking to school for the first part of the day. Almost done. Two more days then it is summer time!

On the way home I saw a foot sticking out of a slammed car door. It was prosthetic but it startled me for a second. Someone must have left on their Halloween decoration.

Piercing Chapter Seven - Cover

Cover for my adaptation of the seventh chapter of Ryu Murakami's Piercing.

Watercolor, Felt Tipped Pen. 6"x9".

That's It

Done. With days to spare. Days to scan and print. But the main work, that is done. Finished. This comic required so much work. The longest comic I've done thus far(that isn't saying much). Trying new things. Doing things differently. Working hard. This is it. This is what I want to do. I feel great. So dead but so alive.

Brilliant.

I went first in Modou's today. Said my spiel, and it went over well. Modou asked me to elaborate on adaptation and the grotesque. I said stuff about how not showing things made it all so much more powerful and worse and that interests me (that concept appears in my comic, the not showing part). He said I was very good about being articulate. Aidan went. She appears to be prolific, humble, and a little be afraid/wary of the future. Karen went. She has changed a lot since the start of the year. For the better. Amina went. I just don't even care about anything she has to say anymore. It just isn't believable. Ingrid talked about how it is sad that not everyone does art when they can.

Pretty easy going final. Just talking about how we make art. It is nice to see so many different view points.

I went home and worked on my comic. Gone one page done in four hours. Start to finish, one page. Pencils, inks, washes, everything! A new record.

Jason's portraits were nice. The portraits of Matt and Greener had a nice combination of the elements in Esteban and Vanessa's. Kim had BEAUTIFUL skulls. Amazing. Just, woah. Amina painted little cakes. Erin had dynamic and colorful medical paintings that were just a little heavy in a few areas when it comes to gouache. I can't remember any of the other work. Leaving some out. Hnn. There was a lot. And a few people missing so we got out early. Next class will be jam-packed with critique. People just like leaving it to the last minute, huh? Not I. For I am the super Trillian.

Just worked on the comics at home. Work work work. Lindsay came home and some hugs were in order because of stuff. Worked some more. Worked into the AM's (as you can tell by when I am posting this entry). But I have it. The cover is all minimal and great. The comic is consistent, which is something I strive for.

I feel great.

Watched so much QI today. Did you know Russian's attached bombs to dogs and trained them to run under tanks to blow them(being the tank and the dog) up? The dogs couldn't tell the difference between the tanks and blew up a few of the Russian ones.

I Am and Art Is.

These printing days just leave me in a slump when I get home. Waah.

Turned in my Art History paper and we had bagels and looked at all our inspired art. I would say that a lot of pieces didn't fair as well because of the inclusion of the 511 building. Lots of shoved into the background and not subtle things. Yeah. My Fry portrait is smack dab in the middle at eye height. Pretty nice spot, if I say so.

Jim and I hung out for a bit and then we parted aways when it was time for Yoga. I got my neck nicely stretched out. Did me some good. The stress was starting to get to me in a way I rarely have felt before. Blimey.

From 1:30 to 6:15 I was in the print lab. For the first part I was just applying washes to my comic and waiting for Rachel to finish up. She finished up earlier than I thought but I still felt I got out late. I think I have enough correctly registered prints, as per the assignment. Sadly some of them got screwed up by the plate being funky and incorrect lengths of pressing time. Such hard work. Oh well. I tried.

Pedaled home. Slumped into my chair. Scarfed food. Watched Kingdom and House.

And now I am considering my final assignment for Modou. I have to talk about my ideas about making art, my process making, my ambition, where I want to go, concepts, etc. Hmmn. I have some notes about it. I see art making as expression of an idea, an image, a debate, anything really. Effort makes art good. I have stories and ideas and images in my head that I want to express, I don't like doing highly conceptual stuff. I'm trying to convey a single thought and not many or something abstract. I don't do pieces that say ___ means ___ because I find that very untrusting of your audience. It really narrows the field and doesn't let them come up with their own thoughts. Yeah. Stuff like that is what I will be talking about.

I think I am burnt out

Got another page done and another inked. So that makes the total finished pages eight and the ninth is in progress. Should get it finished no problem tomorrow.

Amazing how a days work can be summed up in a couple sentences. Well, my day isn't finished yet.

Forgot to mention that yesterday I met Adam, Karen's new boy(of sorts). He is a glass blower, really nice, and really tall. I like him, they make a cute pair. We hung about, I gave them my rendition of the lightshow, chatted, and he made some origami and showed us some wicked glass blowers work.

Got a call that dad is going back to work in Norway. So if I am going to be travelling this summer, I will have to meet him in Amsterdam. Seems doable. I think. I hope. Have to do it. I must. Must travel. Need a vacation. Need somewhere that isn't Washington, Portland, or hopefully not even America. Blimey.

I discovered a new show today: Kingdom. It stars Stephen Fry as a lawyer in a Norfolk town. He solves nice little cases and is dealing with the disappearance/apparent suicide of his brother, his a little bit crazy sister, his youthful intern-of-sorts, and some of the interesting townsfolk. It is a nice little British drama with the usual doses of humor and stellar acting. Mom, I think you would like it. It is rather along the lines of Hettie Wainthropp Investigates. Watched a few episodes of that along with QI (I am now keeping a list of QI episodes I have seen so that I don't repeat them).

Now I have an essay to write for Art History. This is more last minute than I like to leave it but the inking took longer than I expected it to. Damn it all.

Speaking of moms, Happy Mothers Day! This is the least I could do(really, it is the least. I haven't done anything for anyone since I left Washington).

museum cattle

Slept in. Way way in. Woke up at 6:45ish, in tune with my body clock. Went back to sleep. Woke again at 10ish, went back to sleep. Rolled out of bed at about 12:15. Very nice. Much needed.

Showered and got some nibbles and went to the museum to pick a piece to write about. Hard choice between a Bronzino-esque piece and this work of Cleopatra but I went with Cleopatra and the Asp because there was more I could find to talk about it.

I walked through the Dancer exhibit again but it was really crowded. Packed full of people with little headsets listening to the numbered exhibits. Every number had about five people gathered around it, staring blankly at the piece. I really just wanted to look at the Lautrec lithos, to see the number of colors and how they were made and layered. Most of them looked like they were just four colors, just arranged and combined in wonderful wonderful ways. That man is a genius and a talented artist. Blows my mind. I would love to do more litho after this class. Such a challenge but so fun.

Went home. Sat my bum down. And drew. I only managed to get one full page done. The washes went a lot quicker, but the sketching was a real pain. I get a real uneven feeling from the character design. She isn't all that consistent. Well, I'll just keep working. Trial and error, trial and error.

Watched about four episodes of QI (I am making a list of episodes I have seen so I don't rerewatch the same ones). And a few Doctor Whos.

I'm not feeling too good. I keep eating, hoping to feel better. Some of what I eat are sweets and some are like soups and rice and tuna(thank you again Tuna Claus) but still I feel ill. Stress and exhaustion probably. I'm starting to get burned out.