countdown: 14...13...

Katie gave me a ride to school! What a sweety.

Terry's thesis was set up in the new illustration room. A grand christening. He had half a wall full of his concept sketches and several competed character illustrations. He worked on designing an adaptation of The Tempest and his interpretation of the story. His defense was long and really showed how well thought out his work was. Most of the questions were about culture. It was quite good.

Madeline and I chilled in the library till Bryan's. I checked out these really cool books about mythical beasts and they were all illustrated and the like. Really neat.

Bryan's proposal was full of charisma and had almost no ums. He was really smooth. His final project is about illustrating his created robot mythology. Tis good and it ran long, but it didn't run into Katie's.

Adam came to the proposal. She got through her information pretty well. Some ums, but she managed to pronounce anthropomorphizing three times. It ran right up to lunch, grabbed some food and went to the mandatory holiday art sale meeting. The training session to learn how to sell people my work. Hope I earn some money!

After that, I sat with Adam and Katie and Robin for a bit. Then we went home, popped a bottle of champagne and celebrated Katie's well doing (well not Robin, she stayed at school and printed). Then it was nap time. Then it was second round of zitti time. Heated and wonderful food for us all. Afterward, Katie left for the studio. Adam and I sat around and talked and then we watched Community. Love that show. Karen called and we both talked to her. Miss my sassy lady!!

Then it was finally time to sleep and start finals. TWO WEEKS LEFT!

champagne: the choice of 310

Adam is in town for the night so he totally bought us Champagne and we had a great night so keep with me for a minute here, kay?

I took the shuttle to school this morning. Just didn't bother touching my bike at all. I'll deal with it later, not now. Deal with it when I have the time. The shuttle got to me to Jay's proposal in time. She is doing her thesis on the world of ASL. She is doing some larger illustrations and a book to accompany them. She got through her presentation okay, a small case of the uhs but in general it was good. I like seeing all the different ways Illustration majors illustrate their thesis presentation powerpoints. It is amazing to think how this blog will, hopefully, cover my whole four years at PNCA. Step by step, day by day. A whole college education in one blog (all though not quite because I don't go into the best of detail).

After Jay's, I went to the library.

Oh I think I forgot to mention yoga yesterday. I did yoga, yeah. It was just Bonnie the substitute who sounds line Winona Ryder and myself for the session. She left the window blinds up, so I just waved to the passers by I recognized. It was a good session as I got a lot of help from her.

So I found out that in the library I would have to review with Martin(during lunch) my stage one for the final project. The final project is a biography of someones life, so I am going to work on Stephen Fry because he is awesome. I was stuck so I admitted to him I was stuck and he helped. It was nice.

Oh, before that I saw Anthony Roberto's thesis proposal. I knew he was an amazing artist, but by god is he truly spectacular. An amazing etcher with just this depth to his work. Wow. I have one of his pieces on my wall, bought from the last Holiday Art Sale. I was so happy to find something of his for $15. He is doing something about the apocalypse. It is cool.

After lunch, I spent the rest of my hours in the print lab. I kept quiet and did my drawing fluid final layer and my emulsion and washed it out with a sponge. Other people used the power washers and that I found to be really disrespectful. Seriously? I behave and you guys use the noisy stuff while someone is doing their thesis? Or maybe it wasn't even in the room that was above the washout room. Anyway, yeah. Got my final layer printed and it looks GREAT. I am finished with my printmaking thesis. Go me. One down, threeish to go.

Waited with Junko for the shuttle but it never came so I took the streetcar home. Adam and Katie arrived right as I finished making myself dinner, which sucked because Adam then made dinner. Katie left to go to a friend's birthday, Adam and I watched the new episode of QI and then we walked to Safeway. At Safeway he bought Champagne and orange juice and we went back to my place. We drank flutes of delicious bubbly, watched Hulu, then Katie returned and we all stayed up and drank and chatted. She also gave us a run through of her thesis. Should be good.

I slept with my hair in braids and I used hairspray in the morning and it stayed big and poofy and wavy and all that goodness. I'm a big fan of big hair (on myself).

bike misery

My bike tire went flat at school again. So I borrowed the student services pump and filled it, but it was flat when I got done with Agnes' thesis. So I had to streetcar it home. Once home, I couldn't get a good enough seal on the nodule to fill my bike tire with air. I tried for an hour, but no matter what, it would either not inflate, or go flat again in a minute. I can't keep an inflation to tell where the leak is, and I can't inflate it because the bike pump I was given is totally crap. It cannot get a seal, no matter how much I am told it is a quality pump. It isn't. It's crap. The school one worked perfectly and told me the pressure and everything. I'm afraid the horrid pump mangled the little inflation node and that is where the leak is coming from. I do not want to buy my third tube this year, nor a new pump. Though I think I will have to do both. I did not need this right now. Some time this weekend, I'll wheel my bike to a shop and talk to them. See if something in the tire is damaging tubes or what. Gahhh.

I wore aunties shirt today. Got lots of compliments. First proposal was... uhh. Oh I got to school for lunch first. Enchilada day. Sat with Liz while some girl did some horrible thesis defense that was her public speaking awkwardly and introducing a band. I heard she failed last year's thesis as well.

Lacey's proposal was amazing. She is doing a small, wordless comic about dealing with depression, it is called Dealing With Dealing With. Her proposal was just, wow. No words on the slides and no cards in front of her. She didn't stutter or anything. Nailed it. We (Robyn, Rachel, and her friend Liz) waited with her while the panel deliberated and then talked to her. We were there when she was all happy after because hers got accepted. Whooo! Go Lacey. You may remember her as my partner in graphic novel crime last semester.

Loitered around school. Inflated my tire. Photocopies.

Agnes, formerly Amanda, had her defense. She was dressed quite nice. Her illustration thesis was five large oil painted pieces which depicted the childhood horror she saw in fairy tales. Her paintings were massive and quite well executed for only having had minimal practice with oil before. As usual, reading from the notes made her a little stiff but when she got into the discussion she was splendid.

As said before, returned to find my bike flat. I just shrugged my shoulders in defeat and headed to the print studio. Morgan was finishing up his print and Danielle was cutting paper. She was still cutting paper when I finished my third color. It looks okay, hard to tell without the final color. I went a little more red than I was planning.

Walked my bike to the streetcar and walked it home. Struggled with it. Took a break. Struggled some more.

Katie was working on an electrical piece and the apartment was full of current and I felt funky.

proposal x 2

Still ill, mostly just nauseous.

BT's B is for Beard was the first proposal of the day. 125 was stuffed with people. Not Jason Powell stuffed, but still really full. There may have just been more room. His thesis project is that he is making an alphabet book about facial hair. It was a great presentation with wonderful design. Half of the followup questions were about facial hair, and the other half were more productive.

This year I am participating in the Holiday Art Sale. For a weekend, the commons becomes a selling place for artwork. In exchange for three hours of minding the sale, you can put as much properly labeled and packaged art as you want. It needs to be put on cardboard boards with cellophane, which is time consuming. I put in about sixty things, but 25 were the comic which I did not board. It took a lot of time to wrap my prints. If it all sells, I will make over $300. I don't think it will, but I should sell something. I have a wide enough net and David Lynch is always a crowd pleaser (as is Luna). Took a break to eat, and apply emulsion to my screen. After that I resumed packaging.

At 2pm was Taylor's proposal. He is designing merchandise and a music video for local band: Wizard Rifle. He said "uhh" a lot, but in general he got his point across. It is amazing to me the difference in what different majors present. The concepts are different and what the artist wants to refer to changes.

Back to packaging. Finished at around 4pm, and tired and icky feeling I just went home.

Watched Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and her Lover. It was colorful but weird.

Now I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance. Colorful and delightful.

illin' again

Woke up with a tickle in my throat. Gargled some salt water.

This week is Focus Week, which is when all the thesis people either present or defend their senior project. First up was Ursula's Road Trip. She is doing ten large illustrations that represent her 6 month cross country journey through the lower 48. I arrived just at the start. It was a pretty good presentation. Good concise graphics, well put together.

Lunch was sandwiches. I had two halves, which make a whole. Sat with BT, Kim, Lacey, and a few others. BT was wearing tan pants that made him look pantsless out of the corner of my eye. I was still feeling sick, even though I ate a lot.

Drew in my print for the portfolio. Water resist yaay.

Still felt sick.

Went to Erin's proposal. Pretty nice slides for her proposal. Some of the questions she got were weird and off topic. Mostly weird suggestions and not questions at all.

Meghan's defense was good. Beautiful work, even though they drilled into our beautiful magnetic wall to put it up. I guess they didn't know it was magnetic. She did prints about the creation and destruction and reincarnation of life. Mumbled a little bit but overall it was good.

After that, Diana and I went to Yur's. I wasn't starving but I knew I needed a good meal if I wanted my health to hold. Fish & chips makes a good meal, right? Yeah, I'm sure it does. We sat and chatted. She had a shot of gin, like a classy lady.

I opted out of yoga because I felt so weak and terrible. You know it is bad when I don't do yoga. Think it is just a cold, I'm not too worried. I think if it was the swine flu, I would have gotten a lot worse by now. Fluids, sweaters, rest.

Sorted out things to put in the holiday art sale. Got a fair pile of things. My comic. My card. Old prints.

Started watching Better Off Ted episodes on Hulu. Mom, you should watch it. I bet you would like it. It is charming.

Bed time. Have to get up for BT's proposal (thankfully it is at 11, so that gives me a good time to rest and be healthy).

box

I set my alarm so that I would get up early and finish my box with dad. Unfortunately the time on the clock was twelve hours off. Still, I managed to get up to the garage by 10. We got the pieces sanded and planed the places where the hinges would go. When it was glued, we took a food break. Waffles! Dad made waffles.

Pa and Ma puttered around outside while I watched the second half of the Nazi Art Theft documentary. Soon it was time to finish the box. Sanded down the edges and sides, drilled holes and then nailed the side panels in. Did more sanding. The box for the portfolio looks great. It is a delightful mini briefcase. Now I want a larger one for some purpose. It’s very light and charming.

We three took a fifteen minute hot tub soak and then it was time to hop and scoot to Tacoma. Departed at 4:59 and arrived a little after 6. I don’t like cutting things short, but I got on the train safely. It is a booked one, but they often are. Pretty uneventful ride. Worked on editing my short story. The movie was Julie & Julia again.

The green max was about an 8 minute wait, so I just strolled to catch a red or blue one. If I am going to wait for a max, I'm going to wait for the one that takes me directly to my place, not the one that takes me to a transfer where I have to wait again.

There was some Ecoli found in the water on the west side of Portland, but apparently it has been taken care of. The first thesis proposal I go to isn't till noon tomorrow. Sleep in!!

art spy!

Got downstairs before noon today. Dad made me breakfast. Digested a little, and then it was off to the garage to work on my box for History of Print.

Dad had gotten a jump on it, but I helped measure and sand the pieces. He lost a piece to his table saw and had to use a magnet in the pile of sawdust to fish it out. He never recovered it, but found a nice drill bit. There was a replacement part, so all was well.

Our break turned into finishing for the day. Hot tub. Burger. Internet. Then Celia came over and we went in the hot tub again. Then she, mom, and I played Settlers of Catan: Seafarers. The expansion makes it really hard to get a few items needed for settlements. Mom won, with me second and Celia third.

After Auntie C left, mom and I watched two episodes of QI. The Families one and the Film & Fame episode. The latter is particularly funny. Then it was bed time. Have to get up early to finish the box. Not that I am going to bed at a totally decent hour either. Watched a neat documentary about Nazis looting art and Rose Valland, who kept a record of all the theft right under the nose of the Germans.