hi

hi

Friday, September 19, 2008

massive pollo

I only drifted genuinely off once today, and that was during the Goya documentary near the end of illustration. It was interesting but I just couldn't keep vertical. Didn't help that the room was really warm. My schedule for next week seems pretty light. I only have to watch and respond to Bladerunner and an interview with Ridley Scott, painting homework is light, figure drawing just has one thing that seems really fun, history of design reading of course, but that is light, and I think that is it. Last week was a tough one.

Two things were brought up in the discussion of Frankenstein: is Victor a homosexual and did he really create the "monster"? He really didn't care or pay much mind to women and he made a man that was intended to be big and beautiful. Also, the only people who saw his work ended up dead so it is possible that he cracked under the isolation and madness and starting doing people in himself. It is a very modern twist, if you consider that is the case with the book.

We critiqued our compositions in Illustration. I critiqued Tabor's, who had very dynamic compositions that had a lot of thought for the words (Bamboozled, Jubilation, and Malaise). We all picked someone else's compositions to write about and then decided which one they would work with for their final. Like a real illustration assignment. Some people were more decided on the quibbles in the compositions and others didn't seem like they knew what to say. A lot of the Jubilation (including my own) fell to star bursts and lots of excitement and Malaise featured sort of drippy, oozy things. I tried to focus on tension with Malaise. Bamboozled had most of us confused.

Chad started talking about burritos and it ended up that four of us went to Cha Cha Cha for lunch. Tabor, Sivonna(I have previously misspelled her named as Savannah), and I walked there and Kevin was not far behind. I had the chicken burrito. I could have finished it but that would have been too gluttonous a move. I need to get in the habit of packing lunches. And figuring out how to make filling ones as well. Any advice?

It was a nice lunch, there is such a hidden variety of people at PNCA.

We practiced with dip pens in class. I couldn't find a smaller container for my nibs so I just grabbed the old Speedball set that mom passed down to me. When I was looking through it, I noticed that there were about eight more nibs under the paperwork. Such a large number and variety! Most were on the rusty side but I found they worked with the best of them (if not better, one held ink for many many lines). Hey mom, how old are they? I couldn't find a date anywhere. I impressed Chad and Bekka with them, now I just need to apply it to art and real products. I'm loving learning all these new mediums and techniques. Like I said, I dozed off during the latter part of the Goya video.

I pretty much slumped into bed the instant I got home and slept for a very nice two hours. Then I watched The Wire and worked on my collage book. I'm cutting out the pictures I like from magazines and putting them in sleeves in a binder. Sort of a go-to sample for color, composition, faces, suits, etc. I only have a couple magazines to go and then I'm done with that for a while. It's a nice low impact project. Tomorrow I plan to read and paint. Need to work on getting ahead and getting on top.

first failure

I am really tired and a knot of tension has formed in my back during this past week. The exhaustion and pain combined have put me in a spot where I don't really care that I was unable to write up a ready response for Frankenstein. My first missed assignment in a year. The responses happen every week and the total is only a part of my grade so I'm not too worried about it having a really bad effect. And you all know how good I am about keeping up. This occasion, argh.

Figure drawing was figure drawing. Those of us that neglected to draw the model stand were forced to only draw it for a pose while those that did, got to draw whatever they liked. I escorted Lindsay to work. Jen and I chilled in the library while we worked on homework. I am copying some Kay Neilsen illustrations for class. Took me about three hours to do one and about three hours and fifteen minutes to realize I did it wrong.

We had Quizno's for lunch. I had the guacamole turkey and bacon sub. We also stopped in at Office Max and we both got some plastic sleeves to organize our inspirations. During lunch Robin and Kristen joined us at our library table.

Painting class was a very nice critique, in that it wasn't brutal or lengthy. My tie could have used more definition in the fold and the text was too small for the size of the image. Some of the other pieces were still in some transition between the computer and reality. I didn't want to mess with that. The rest of class was spent working on our homework. Our homework is to paint a shot of a movie in black and white and another shot in black and white with a spot color. I'm doing a still from Gattaca (chosen mostly for Jude Law) and a still from Paris Je'Taime. I'm liking it thus far.

Once home I watched Project Runway and ate supper. Karen stopped by and I showed her this catalogue thing I'm amassing. She stopped by to give me back my copy of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. She also bought be Naked but plans to read it before giving it to me. What a sweety!

Then it was straight to work. The thumbnails and redoing of the the Kay Neilsen drawings took far longer than I expected. I think I did a good job on the illustration homework and that is a more pressing assignment to complete than the reading responses. Also I feel that my reading responses aren't that good so probably no big intellectual fallout if I am unable to turn one in.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Elizabeth & Jen

Today I did two things: read Frankenstein and saw Dark Knight with Jen.

I woke up at 7:40 when Cecine left, woke up again at 10 and went back to sleep. Woke up at noon and nodded off before I could get myself out of bed and then woke up at 1:40 and jumped out of bed before my whole afternoon was lost. I pretty much we straight from getting dressed to going to Starbucks. I left the apartment so I could be free from distraction so I could really focus on my reading. I had the usual: tall caramel steamer. I sat reading for many many hours. I saw the after school Frappuchino crowd come and go. And for a while it was just me, the staff, and the plunky music. A lady came in wearing a halter top, a mini skirt that didn't cover her bits, torn fish nets, legwarmers and a headband. She had really beautiful tattoos but it was hard to get past the garb to notice them.

Cecine texted me with information that she was going to get a pizza so I joined her at Bellagio's. The extra tomato didn't go so good with the pizza but still it was better than Hot Lips.

I ate dinner and before I knew it, it was time to go to the theatre. As well as getting free tickets, Jen procured free popcorn and drinks. See, you be nice to people and guess what, they are nice back! Funny how that works out.

Now I plan to put on my jammies and read more Frankenstein.

what a bore (and then: fun!)

I think this is the first Tuesday where I am not saying MAN OH MAN I AM TIRED!! I got a restful night sleep, I went to class confident in all my work, and was being the awesome student that I am.

The model for my drawing class up and left for Seattle so we had to call in an emergency one. While waiting we reviewed our homework and talked about how to make installation more interesting (hint: water surprises). The model was only there for an hour and during that time we did a figure study and then we were told not to do shading because it shows that you have given up on the proportion. So we did a solely proportion drawing. Mine looked pretty good. I am improving so much. I am even finding myself able to doodle figures in no time at all thanks to Morgan's teachings. Whoo!!

Saw Lindsay between classes. Renewed The Wire. Returned my Shepard Fairey and Lucian Freud art books (down to just eight items now).

History of Design is a waste. I don't know why I bother doing the reading if we don't even get to discussing the first chapter. Well maybe it isn't a waste learning what led to the desire for design but if only I could decipher from her lectures what is a tangent and what is the actual lesson. It is all over the place and she keeps lecturing from websites. She did talk a little about William Morris, so I guess next class we will get into Victorian Design. But still, this is the THIRD class. I like things a little more structured. At least I am learning something from the awesome texts she assigned. Daniel, Jen, and I just spent the class drawing in our sketchbooks. Jen drew these phenomenal eyes from references copies. That girl, dang. Textures and value flow from her. Daniel was also doing lovely graphic drawings. Mine were more along the lines of self portraits. As in, me slumped over my desk, bored. Me leaning against a wall, bored. People sitting in chairs, bored. I also took notes when it seemed like she was actually talking about something relevant. This class better pick up or else...or else I'll spend more time reading and paying attention to the texts!

Lunch was squash enchiladas provided by the Student Council. There was much debate over why the Blazers game didn't pass. One woman went on a long rant about how she thinks sports are evil, don't promote good values, are not artistic, these people are payed too much for nothing, and some other things. Diana's job as facilitator is also in contest by Sohkuhn. Next meeting we vote who we want to facilitate. Clubs were discussed, enchiladas were consumed, my tube was returned to me, and before we knew it, it was time to return to class!

I mostly finished my CD Cover design in class. I think it has nice bold, bright colors and a good mix between solids and values. It will be interesting to put it up in critique. Also worked on some other painting pieces, including filling in the rest of the Powell's people. My observational homework went over well. I think I will have to do more of that. I loved the style and when I get off my bum, I will get around to scanning some of the work I am talking about. Our new homework assignment is to take a screenshot from a movie and to paint it in grayscale and then paint it in grayscale with a single color. Or was it to do solid black and white? Uhh. Probably grayscale. I'm loving this class. I love the homework and how it is always changing from week to week. And everyone else gets to work fully in the style that suits them best so all the variety is showing to its fullest. Even Farel does the assignments along with us, a sign of a good teacher.

Karen was home sick so I had to report some of the days happening to her. As I was talking, our smoke alarm went off so I had to cut the conversation short. Cecine has discovered just how sensitive those alarms can be. I made a little MSPaint tutorial for dad. I finished my painting when I got home so now I have no homework for Thursday. Go Trillian. So tomorrow I have plenty of time for my Friday homework (reading and drawing).

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

homework crunch

I went to 10 full TBA shows. That is twice as many as tickets are allotted to me from the school. Only four of my teachers gave me tickets and I payed for two of the shows I went to. So that is 8 shows on the PNCA's dime which seems worth what was paid for them. Yeah. Now I can enjoy my afternoons.

My prints were in the back, just a little tucked away. Silly me, should have looked harder. Chelsey didn't bring my tube. Saw Cidney again. Mel and Melissa are too cute a couple. Watching them interact just makes you go, "awww!!"

After school I went to Powell's to draw people for my painting homework. I did four pages of sketches, one was just this guy who had a dynamic nose and was reading, another was more of an interior scene of the coffee shop (I had an iced tea, it was a hot day), and the last two pages were just quick caricatures of the patrons. I wandered around looking for more spots to sit and draw but all I found was a Shepard Fairy art book for a great price. It isn't the Supply and Demand one that I have from the library. E Pluribus Venom has a strong focus in his recent design work prior to his Obama Hope poster. I love it. It's a good printing quality as well. Anyway yeah, I got that and then went home to do homework.

I popped in the Wire and that accompanied me in the many hours it took to copy the figure drawing homework as well as through finalizing the Powell's sketches with ink outlines.

I went over to Robin and Diana's so I could do the second half of the homework, which was to take the examples and use the stickish figure measurements for representations of real people. I drew Robin reclining and once Diana finished her drawings, she posed. I also drew Cecine later on in the night. Diana and I chatted about lots of topics. I also painted two of the coffee shop drawings in with solid washes. I am very pleased with how they turned out. Go me.

So yeah, homework TV and homework. I also did some reading from the design books. This is the first week without TBA so now I have more time in the evenings to spend getting a jump start on my assignments, instead of just a reasonable start.

Monday, September 15, 2008

maybe I'll miss you TBA

I have the worst luck at gauging how warm it is outside. Indoors it was pants and a thick tee shirt weather, out side it was shorts and a tank weather. The first TBA for Sunday was Third Angle New Music Ensemble: The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin. The two hour dance took place at four fountains in downtown. The performance started at the Keller Fountain. It was a beautiful fountain and it would have been a perfect day to take pictures, but alas I didn't think to bring my camera.

The Keller dancers wore turquoise blue. One of them I think was in the tEEth performance from last years TBA. The fountain is totally set up to play in and play/dance they did. They writhed in the shallow pools, jumped into the basin, pressed against the side, and did all sorts of dancey things. It seemed a little too choreographed and not really a representation of free movement within the terrain. As the performance went on, I grew more and more jealous of the dancers being able to cool off. The TBA dancers in general have been a wide range of people; not all of them are 20-somethings in the peak of shape. Dancers in white came in but didn't get in the fountain.

A bell was rung and we toddled off to the next fountain: Pettygrove Park. People in orange were frolicking and shouting lines from a poem as an eight member band played. There was a little confusion about where to sit. I was stepping back and all of a sudden I felt hands on my back shoving me forward. I trod on this ladies foot by accident. She gave me a really weird look and for some reason I didn't feel bad about stepping on her. Anyway, the next dance didn't hold my interest so much because it was near impossible to take it all in from my vantage point. It was even more forced movements with sparse music played irregularly. The program said it had to do with a tree growing. The Lovejoy Fountain performance provided me with yet another lady to not be happy about. This not-small lady was in the second row and while everyone was seated for the performance, she persisted to stand and blocked the view for many. She didn't even look behind her to see if her stance was a bother.

The music for the Lovejoy sequence was better organized and was even a little experimental. Some cymbals were clashed against chains and various pianos were played from various points. Bright yellow dancers played in the water and this was by far the most organic feeling dance of the four. The crowds squeezed together to reach the Source Fountain and the final dance was just four people around the fountain undressing and redressing in a dancerly way. We were all asked to join hands and walk around them. I found people to join hands with and at the end of it all, I got a pin that says PLAY. I left the performance feeling very happy, despite my massive heat induced headache.

Due to my ailment, I took my bike on the Max for the journey home. I even managed to hoist it up into the hook. Not an easy feat for a little thing like me.

During my break between performances I read my History of Design texts. They are both wonderful and easy reads.

I have heard a lot of positive things about Superamas, my second TBA for the day and my final TBA all together. I have also heard some warnings that they MEAN IT when it says for MATURE AUDIENCES. With a set up like that, I was expecting a little more than just some breasts. But hey, some people can't handle mammaries. The show had two scenes that were repeated. All of the dialogue was a voice over being lip synced by the performers. The first part was a band practice. The act was played several times, with it stopping and the actors freezing at various moments. I felt like it paused to sort of tell the audience, "See, this is a moment you are being given the time to dissect." The second part was a scene in a locker room and that one was acted over and over about 10-15 times. It was never really exactly the same. Some times the dialogue cut out and a clip from a movie was playing as a commentary track to what they were supposed to be talking about. Sometimes there was footage and audio of car crashing. There was a transition of the "band" singing Smells Like Teen Spirit and a group of girls dancing to Crazy and doing a dance-off. It was a wonderful set up and I wish I could describe it better. There was a short movie played about the Superamas getting the gigs to play in America and an odd little training video about love and opening up. There were many little elements but it fit together. Sort of like thinking the puzzle pieces in a box came from multiple puzzles but discovering that they do in fact go together once you work at it.

The Time Based Arts Festival gives me new ideas and gets me in a mind set to see things differently and odd ways to set things up. Overall I am really happy with the amount of shows that I saw and don't regret a single one. Sure it has been hard to juggle work and shows but I figured out a way. It all goes towards helping me be the better artist.

Cidney is in town and she, Karen and I chilled together tonight. We played this Scotland Underground game where we chase a Mister X. Nathan would clean up, I think I just got lucky. We also had a round of Munchkin Fu. Cidney wasn't quite following it but she still won. I had no armor or anything and only managed to get to three levels while they were neck and neck. After that I made popcorn, Karen made rice, and we all sat down and watching Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Good movie, and Rob Brydon is in it! Who knew?

Tomorrow I have to go to school and see about my prints, get my tube back from Chelsy, then sit in Powell's and draw people, go home and do my sketchbook and reading assignments.