alma

Wednesday:
History of Laughter. We covered the origins of some words. Again. It sort of had to do with laughter. Then we watched another episode of Fitzcarraldo. I've been pretty disappointed with this class. I don't know what I'm learning in class specifically and I don't know if Barry even knows my name. Oh well.

History of Print. It was field trip day! We walked down to Augen Gallery and checked out the show. Some photos based on celebrating artists known for being celebrities. Some cool stuff but nothing that felt new. There were some amazing woodblocks in the back section though. Beautiful huge prints with great detail. After that we walked over to the Jelly Generation show, or whatever it is called. Portland has a China thing going on right now. About 8 shows all within walking distance. The thing that pissed me off about the Jelly show was how many large images were printed at low resolution. That is, lacking crisp detail that printed work often needs to look presentable. The show looked cheap. There were some neat design things, but yeah. Cheap.

DeeDubs, DiDi, Rooner, and I went to get lunch. Or rather Daniel, Diana, and Cameron. They get nick names because of their average names. I get nothing. We went to the Blossoming Lotus, which I thought would be Chinese. Turned out to be overprices health food made up of ingredients I didn't know and special made for people with wanker diets. I had the tempeh sandwich. The bread and sprout part was good. The tempeh, uhh not so much. Not my thing.

We walked up to Utrecht and then over to the Portland Art Museum for the second half of our field trip. We checked out the China Exhibit on the first floor. A lot of building and architecture. Macaroon, aka Cameron, had a ladybug on his shoulder. At around 2:00 we wondered where the rest of the class was, and found them in the second floor chunk of the exhibit. The staircase we ascended had this red glass over the windows (a lot of the museum had redglass installed for the China show) but the glare of it was horrid. The second floor had pop culture things. And a Chinese typewriter that was insane. It was cool. Not something I'd consider Portland Art Museum worthy. Also at the museum was a Raphael. A portrait of a woman with a veil. It was all artsy and stuff. A great master painting, but since it was given the star treatment with its own guard and own room, it just seemed not special enough for the treatment. The Rijks Museum had many masterworks, but they were not over cared for (except the Night Watch, but that is the blood Night Watch).

Daniel and I started to walk back to school together, but then the streetcar was 2 minutes away so we waited. I loitered in the Library for two hours, while waiting for the screen printing class to leave. Distracted Madeline. Put up show posters. Finished up show. All that.

Printing was easy as pie. I got my 8 done in under 15 minutes and then just printed a pile of extras to give away to people. Lucky Lynch is the new Lucky Luna. I helped Natalie with screen printing. Talked to the people who were just learning. I think I oozed confidence or something. The piece looked darn cool. I am very pleased with it. I just wish that the second color hadn't been so difficult to print. I think I would have had a larger number of nice prints if I didn't fudge so many of that layer. Oh well. Live and learn and do yoga.

Gave Lynch prints to the yoga crew. Then went home and chilled because I was done done done. HA! It feels good to not have school work for a while. Next week is looking like a nice rest period. No finals due.

Made cupcakes for my show. Ran out of eggs and had to substitute butter for vegetable oil. Still edible.

Thursday:
Critique! We did it differently this time. We got up and talked about our method and ideas for five minutes and then it was opened up to questions and critique. There was a pause and then I went first. I talked about Lynch and how ideas are like fish, and how I conceived of the composition and image, and all that. It was a generally awesome critique. Lots of positives, and only some of the blue printing was commented on. Felt good, and the good art kept rolling. Danny's Hitler was very Bacon. Very physical and nice. Beth's tangle of wires was resolved and spectacular. Kristen's Roxy Music had great warps of anatomy. Well I could run through all the pieces but it would be the same Mad Lib: (name of classmate)'s piece was well rendered. It was very (insert generic positive comment) and had great (color/body party).

Kristen, Danny, and I went to Chipotle. Delicious huge burrito. Mmm. Sustain me all day. Mmmm.

After lunch, Martin gave us a lecture on the marketplace and the specifics of things like pricing, and jobs, and management, and all the stuff that is important to know. And what some words mean. All very important. Then we broke early. Martin and I had a meeting at 4pm to go over my progress. Check in and see how I'm doing, that old thing. We talked about being confident with lines and intelligence in image making. A good meeting.

After that, I saw in the library with my bowl of cupcakes and waited for people that were familiar. Bekka and I stuck around till the cupcakes were gone. It took about an hour (people actually refused free sweets).

After the library, I went to 12th and Washington for the Little Gods show. Katie was in it, it is also a part of the grand opening of this huge new condo building. At first I waited in the line to check out the penthouses, but it wasn't moving so I went to the show. Katie introduced all the work, except for Christopher's, which he explained himself. It was installation and animation things. Katie's was nice. I saw her work on it all summer and now I finally got a chance to interact with it. Some webcam thingie where you can cast curses on people. Then I went back to the penthouse line.

I must say the penthouses were disappointing. I expected better from the 23rd floor. Small bedrooms and tiny bathtubs. Great view, but that was it. Still, free food. Kenny and Zuke's. Mmmm. Chocolate as well.

It was rainy and miserable and my bum got totally wet from my bike seat. My bag had blown off during the day. Booo.

Got home. Ate sweets. Finished burrito. Watched TV.

The next illustration is totally open ended in terms of what we want to present. The theme is: Natural Phenomena. I have no idea where to start.