hi

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Friday, February 26, 2010

helper

It was raining, but not too heavily. My ride into school wasn't so bad. It was a strictly granola and tea breakfast.

Christy, Robin and myself were the helpers today. It took a lot of setting up and the first color was too light and dried on the screen. My job was to help pull the squeegee and hold the screen upright during prints. It was a lot of back and forth and hoisting using an arm that has no muscle. Still, it was fun work. We had an awesome mix tape and I didn't have to fuss with the registration. A lot of the prints looked good, and some were a tiny bit off, and some were way off or didn't pull right. Still, we got through our pile of a hundred in good time. Robin even pulled a couple with me. I stepped in a glob of red ink but I didn't slip, I just slid. Not fun.

It is a great experience to help an artist in residence print. Something to put on a resume, no matter how short of a time I helped. Type of experience that is good, if I decide to pursue a printing career of sorts.

It was raining more when I departed, thankfully I had my trusty rain pants. Got home. Made myself a big late breakfast. It was awesome.

Loafed away the day. Wasted more than I should have but I had a lot of early mornings. Time to pass out and then be productive for 48 hours.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

bowling!

This will be a week pretty much filled up of 8am mornings. IT SUCKS! Ahh oh my god, can't wait for Saturday morning. On the plus side my health seems to have improved. Barely any snuffles and I haven't coughed in ages. Hurray!

We had two models today. I need to get better paper to do ink on. The newsprint just absorbs ink so I don't get to play so easily. Morgan read to us some more from World Lit Only by Fire. I'll so have to finish this book if he isn't able to by the end of the semester. So fascinating all the debauchery the popes and their bastards get up to.

Oh, I cut my bangs again. They look super cute. I am amazed at how fast they grow out, though this time I didn't wait for them to really get into my eyes.

Today was an all day web site demo. We spent an hour and a half looking at sites and figuring out how to represent ourselves. What we want to say, who we are, how to get traffic. And so on.

Lunch was Safeway microwave food. Sat with Michaela, Dominic, Kristen, and Robin in the library. Oh and Tabitha joined us. Got back right on time. Unfortunately at about forty five minutes into my progress in the quick website template he was having us do...my computer froze. So I turned it off and on. And I got and error message saying that I couldn't be logged in because I was logged in on another computer. I kept trying and got the same error. I waited for a while, because I didn't want to miss the guest teacher's lecture about CSS. Then when I had an opportune moment I went to find a system administrator. He tried logging me out remotely, I thanked him and went back. Still didn't work. So I had my meeting with Martin. He liked my concepts and commented that the steps I took between the stages were good. I had resolved the idea nicely with the icon image. Some of the line work needed tweaking, but in general it was a thumbs up. Went back to the Admin fellow. He fiddled with computer stuff and tried all these different methods and it still refused to let me log in. I said that it wasn't totally pressing today and I'll wait and see, and if it doesn't resolve we will take more extreme measures in the next couple days (not extreme, just backing up all my stuff and restarting my account).

So that sucked. I sat around listening to his lecture anyway. Magically at 3, the problem solved itself. I got my website sorted. It still looks like a hideous template though, but I have an idea for how I would want to construct a professional site. Need a domain name though...

I ended up sticking around till about 5:40 chatting. Then I realized I didn't have to be there anymore and went home. Chomped on a cucumber and then I went to join some people for bowling! PSU has a bowling alley and the Goose Hollow people had rented it out for us and got us pizza and stuff. They even shuttled us there. Robin, JP, Jess, Mariah, Sam, and Alice tagged along. It took a while to get started because the only open lane was totally jammed up. A nice guy gave us his lane when he was finished. It took a while to understand the lanes. They were not really sensitive so we often had to hit reset or send extra balls down the lane to get it going. I got about two strikes, and many gutter balls. Ate pizza, cupcakes, and drank soda and had a generally good little night with pals.

Now I am going to sleep. One more early morning and then I am free!! Free to work really hard on stuff that is due. Next week is a big chunk of stuff to turn in: the figure, illustration, and homeland all have things.

Trillian's Sketchbook - Volume 1





Silk screen on flimsy paper. Images pulled from my sketchbook.

I don't know what it is about 3:45pm

Had one of those weird nights where I wake up at 3am totally convinced it is time for me to get up. At 4am I figured out I could spend another three hours in bed and went to sleep.

Helping Anthea and Christy was pretty easy. I mostly counted paper and helped carry things around.

For being 11-5, Homeland actually moves pretty fast. We had a half hour discussion about what we are thinking about doing once school is finished. My answer was "make comics along side a job job, travel the country promoting myself, met nerds and be all "heeey!!". Nothing major. Travel. Printmaking. These things are what I want. Joey gave a little talk about some artists. Then we discussed how massively horrible the readings were. Just in content, not writing. So brutal.

Stapled and cut my new zine during lunch. Bought a burrito. Ate half. Went back to class.

The first critique was for Travis' thing. He played a video from a scene of Walker Texas Ranger and had us haul wood back and forth. All of us. He just told us to disassemble the pile of wood on one side of the room and haul it to the other side and reassemble it, and when it was all collected we were to do it again. From the start of the clip to the end was how long we had to work. At the start we just walked back and forth but when it became apparent that the clip wasn't short, we formed two lines and passed the wood like that, from person to person. This whole performance lasted about 20 minutes. Seriously. There were a couple moments when it seemed like the clip would end, but it didn't (the clip was projected on the wall behind us). Actually, it was pretty well thought out for a performance. It drew up the symbolism of the every day worker versus the media focused hero, and the forming of groups to make the work easier, and how we just kept with it because there wasn't really another option (if someone stopped, they would be the jerk for doing so).

Then Bryan had some photos of zoo scenes without the animals. It was a reference to constructed habitat for creatures that we wanted to look at safely and think we were being good by protecting them in the habitat. The photos were taken in such a way that they really felt like they were missing animals. They were not shot like landscapes. It was a really thoughtful piece.

We talked some more about the reading. Daniel's friend from his college days Rafael came in to present his work. Poetry, collaboration. Barry Sander's class joined us for his presentation. Unfortunately I nodded off in the dark for no good reason and missed a lot of what he explained. I had two cups of green tea prior. No reason I should have suddenly become so massively tired. I have almost never had this problem with class before (with some Friday 8am exceptions). I felt bad about it, but I just couldn't stop myself! Thankfully Madeline nudged me awake.

A clip of Necessary Monsters finished our class. 30 minute power nap and then yoga! It was a small class, and we did lots of hip openers and breathing. It was nice. The lunges are really difficult for me.

Went home. Finished burrito. Started a TV show queue and jammed out my illustration work. I'm really pleased. I didn't expect to do as much as I did. I'll scan and post my cover concepts tomorrow, promise!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

NOT anita blake

It is nice when long days don't feel long.

Figure drawing: We moved on to longer poses. A couple ten minutes, then fifteen, then a break, then Morgan read to us more from World Lit Only by Fire. Amazing book. Makes me darn tootin' interested in history. We did a forty five minute pose for the grand finale. Long pose. I felt really good about my drawing, though a lot of it was tweaking the lines when really I should have spent the majority of time nailing the proportions. I need better paper to draw on. Bond is crap and does not work well at all with charcoal.

Anthea Black is a printmaker in residence for the next couple weeks. We are helping her with a poster project in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Craft...or Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. One of those. So she showed us a slide show of her work and the work it operates in context with. A lot of poster work and the like. Did I mention she is Canadian? She has a totally adorable accent.

Went to student council. Not much happened. Photocopied my sketchbook. For an hour and a half we talked some more about our projects. We are doing a poster project with the potential of wheatpasting it. I am going to do celery, peanut butter, and raisins. Simply because I like it and would rather make work that adds to the scenery than make some poster that people will more than likely just walk past. Very few posters have really made me emotive about causes, so I'm less inclined to do ones of that nature. Not that there isn't great work in poster form.

Oh, forgot to mention that when I first entered class, Palmarin pointed at me, called me by name, and told Anthea that I did the cat print that she liked so much. Great first impression.

During tea time I photocopied the layouts for my next zine (I had pasted them together during the discussion). I also fetched a cat out of my locker, but Palmarin had one left over aside from the one posted in the office, and we agreed to trade that for a poster. The cat print I wanted to trade was I guess too nice or something...

Rest of class was a work period/help Anthea time. I signed up to help her tomorrow before class and Friday morning. Got my next 'zine exposed on my screen. I decided to stay late and print, cutting into my reading time but getting a jump on my projects. It looks really nice. Printed a lot better. I went with blue and red for the colors. The theme was portraits from my sketchbook. I need to sketch more to have enough material to print a third zine.

Karen swooped in and we chatted. And ended up chatting in the commons for about an hour. Daniel showed up as well. Free food was set out and I ate a bit of it. Mmm free food.

It was raining today, and still was when I went home. Not so bad. Watched Lost. Ate dinner. Read depressing book about the slaughter of Native Americans.

Monday, February 22, 2010

tulip take two




I managed to speak in class today! Twice even. We were talking about experiencing reality based on a preconceived notion of what we are supposed to feel and how only later do we arrive at our real emotions. I think that was what we were talking about anyway.

Went home. Made a skirt. I put the zipper in real good like. I opted for fewer larger pleats as well. It all went real smooth. Learned a lot just in between the two skirts. Same pattern. Got it all done in about three and a half hours. The first skirt took like...six. I just want to sew more! Instead I have to draw and illustrate. All that crap. Boo!

Thursday yoga, which I can't attend anyway, was canceled and moved to Monday 5-6:30. There were a lot of new people and Fawn gave a good gentle class. I highly enjoyed that. Far less stressful than the lunge heavy classes. I put up corrected posters and went back home. Two bike trips in one day. Exercise is good. Ate dinner. Worked on sketching some stuff for Morgan. Wrote up a new proposal for screenprinting. Sleep time! So happy with my skirt.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"this isn't our first rodeo"

Man, I am addicted to Six Feet Under. Best show I have seen in a long long time.

Katie and I went to Grocery Outlet today. It is quite an expedition. We had to bring a suitcase and all our durable Trader Joe's bags. The max came with no waiting. It was a brilliant beautiful day again. And not the type of day where it is really sunny but totally cold. Grocery Outlet has such great discounts. Picked up eggs and bacon and lots of other stuff. Tidbits and snackums. Having one of those wheeling shopping carts would be classier, but a suitcase does just fine. We also filled two bags. It was quite a haul.

Watched more Six Feet Under. Sat on the couch and read a chapter of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. So very depressing. The couch was so soft, I sort of fell asleep. Now I've woken up again and am going to get more reading done.

My tooth hurts. Whenever I floss my teeth just feel numb and brutalized. My teeth are crammed really tightly together, so it takes some effort to get the floss in between them. I should really go to the dentist. Haven't been since I started at PNCA...

live plant LLLIIIIIVEEE

Read a bit of chapter four of Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. I'm depressed already. Just read and relaxed. Tidied up the apartment a little bit. Watched Six Feet Under. Ate food. Drank tea. Read some more. Three day weekends are totally wasted on me.

My jade plant fell apart. I was about to toss it but some friends suggested I try sprouting it in some water or something... grow roots. So I am trying that. I was fairly devastated that it wasn't working out. So here is hoping... I want my beloved jade to live!

Phil and Katie went to hockey. They came back and we watched The Hangover. We drank wine and stayed up till, well, 2:45am chatting. Now it is time to sleep. Tomorrow is a day for more hard core reading.