goats

Ahhh sleep. It is good. Lay in bed for about an hour before I got up.

Liz crashed here after Katie and she got their after art show drink on. Together we went to get our burgers. Liz had the veggie. Our regular booth was occupied and Shelly noticed this. She was very chatty and has almost got our names down (well Kate and Trillium, but that is close enough). It was a good meal, as usual. It's good to have a habit.

Afterwards I contacted Jaymee and Robin and we decided to meet at 7:00 to go see the 7:40 showing of Men Who Stare at Goats. Jaymee brought her roommate Caroline, who is very nice and from Spokane (like Jaymee). It was a cold night but I was feeling all right. Robin has learned a couple songs on her ukulele. I heard her play earlier, she is quite good and sings along with it.

Most was $10.50. Dang. And they made it so students can't get discounts on the high income days. That's bull, but the movie was good. It was charming. Less goofy than I thought it would be, but the movie didn't suffer for it. Ewan McGregor was good, as usual, even if he didn't have his accent. Clooney looked very good in the flashback scenes with the shaggy hair and mustache. I would recommend it, maybe not for the cost of a ticket but defiantly worth checking out down the line.

We walked back. I showed Caroline where it echoes in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Goodbyes were said and I vegged. A perfectly acceptable Friday.

To do list for the weekend:

• Narrative Image reading + response
• Narrative Image flash fiction rough draft
• Flash fiction sketches
• Think about "natural phenomenon"
  

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.

down down down

Internet went down right as I was trying to get into blogger. Dang. Oh well. Don't have time for a full entry right now. See you guys tonight!

Character Creation

Character Creation
A show by Bekka Hannesdottir and Trillian Spencer
Up for the month of November in the Charles Voorhies Fine Art Library in PNCA

short post

It's 1am. I get up in 6 hours. Lets make this quick.

Printed. Did 6 prints, tried to be abstract. Didn't really think that hard, I was out of it and sat in the other studio by myself.

Put up show. Bekka and I arranged our pieces in the single case. Looks nice. Needs a title and posters and blurb, but we got it.

Silk screened. At 4, I switched techniques. The first color went down smooth. I had to rearrange my screen and mylar three times to fit the long image. It was really hard to print it. Thankfully I don't need perfect registration. The second color isn't as presentable as I would like it to be, but I think once I apply the final image it will all come together. I'll be able to go home tomorrow and get some good rest. After Yoga of course.

Worked on paper. Then took a break and watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which is about how insanely arbitrary the film rating system is. Also the people who rate films and decide the appeals of filmmakers are all kept very secret and hush hush. The film hires some investigators to find out the secret identities of the raters. It's cool.

Fire alarm. It went off. Again. Stuffed Luna in Grandpa's suitcase.

Essay finished. Not really great but I don't really care. I don't understand what the guidelines are and even though he tries to play loose and breezy, it will still get red penned. Whatever.

same old, and not the same

Decent enough critique. My work needed some work. Some stuff was good, some stuff was bad. Same old.

Had Quizno's for lunch. Did reading response. Same old.

After lunch we split in half again and read our short stories out loud. Danny had some lovely mood language, Cassi's was long but had some great descriptions of a punching bag, Bryan's had it's usual charm, Robyn's had me thinking of Lutefisk, and Nicole's blew us all out of the water. She had voices and it was just lovely and a joy to listen to. She was shy so we all turned our backs to her while she read, and she knocked it out of the park.

Mine was fairly well received. The main comment was that it needed a little more, but in general they dug it.

We took a break. I photocopied my Lynch and turned it into a silk screen transfer. Unfortunately all the woodblock/silk screen classes have become silk screen (they do one technique up until midterm and then switch). Now the studio will have more people in it, and if I want to print I will have to wait till after 5.

After break, we learned about flash fiction. That is what we are doing next. Easy enough in appearance. We were all handed different ones to read and mine was from the point of view of someone with dementia. I didn't know how terrified I was of it, until I read that story. It really disturbed me and that feeling stuck.

Then I put emulsion on my screen and worked on making the other Lynch transfers. A razor was bumped in the drying room and it slashed my screen. By that I mean, the taught screen was torn from top to bottom rendering the screen useless until it becomes re-stretched. Thankfully I have two backup screens (and the one that was busted was the less favored of my larger ones). Still, that sucks. Oh well. Applied emulsion to my other screens and let them dry.

Yoga. My right hip and foot have been paining me. I rocked at yoga but in one seated forward bending pose, my leg suffered immense twinges and tweaks and general agony.

After yoga, I exposed my screens and washed them out. They look great. Hurray! Can't wait to start printing. It will be generally a small edition, for the purpose of the assignment. With time I can make more.

Went home and read Barry Sander's very depressing essay about how The Daily Show makes us passive to the horror that is the news. And all that.

Mad Men had the Kennedy assassination episode. It was intense.

working through it all

Sweet, it is 1am and I am ready to go to bed. That's a good feeling.

David Lynch: drawn. I've been staring at his face for so long that it doesn't look like him anymore though. The hand looks small. The eyes feel crooked. It's hard to say, but I'll bring my supplies and work on it some more tomorrow. I have time.

Reading Response: done. It was super short and a little confusing, but a much needed rest from some of the heavy stuff she has had us read.

Illustrations for Short Story: Done. Like the portrait more than the table, but I think they will both go together nicely.

Short Story: Edited and finalized and I like it so much more. Has a nice length and a sense of completeness I feel. I'm very proud of it, I just wish I could have illustrated it more the way I would have liked. But if I sign up for advanced silkscreen, then I will spend that time making comics and make this story into a comic.

Meetings begin next week and registration is soon to follow. I can't believe it is already that time again. I have to take the second part of Illustration II. Everything else is up in the air. I want to take Le Fig part two, advanced silkscreen, and maybe another lit seminar. I'll just see what's what on the list.

I woke up sick and that persisted. I had a feverish, almost delirious night sleep. No good at all. I had toast for breakfast, goldfish for munching, and made an early pasta dinner which I ate through the night. Drank plenty of fluids and stayed warm. I think with having about 8 hour to devote to bed time, I'll be in good shape for next week.

Next week is busy. I have printing to do and a possible date on Tuesday, if I can get my essay sorted in enough time.

Today's watch list included four episodes of the Avengers, two episodes of New Amsterdam, and Goodfellas.