its got layers

I woke up at 9:30 as per body rhythms, and decided to go back to sleep. When I woke up a second time and looked at the clock, it was 2:20. Hopped right out of bed, ate leftovers, drank tea, watched stuff. It was a sunny day, which kills all forms of productivity for me.

Once the sun went down, BAM I was on it. Whipped up some wheat paste glue, tore up some newspaper, and got right to some papier mache! My paper lantern, which is acting as a base for my puppet head, is rigged up between two chairs. A string runs through the metal thingie on the top, and doubles back keeping it in place. It keeps the lantern suspended and in its shape, so I can keep it fairly spherical and work from all angles easily. I got three fourths of it done before I ran out of glue, so I let it dry. Last time I did papier mache, it just was soppy and got moldy. I did too many layers too fast I think. Anyway, this time it dried like a champ! It clings to the bamboo holding up the lantern a bit, but that will be smoothed out when I apply more layers of paper. I did another layer and put on an episode of This American Life to listen to. Went through two more batches of glue. I'm getting better at making it.

Recipe:
-Put two and a half cups* of water in a medium sized sauce pan, set it to boil
-In a separate bowl, put in three tablespoons* of flour. Add enough water to make it a consistency between pancake batter and very liquidy. Add three* more tablespoons of flour. It shouldn't be clumpy or really viscous. A little more fluid than pancake batter is ideal. Add water as necessary. Whisk that sucker till you can't see clumps
-When the water in the sauce pan is boiling, slowly pour the flour mixture into the pot. Stir it in as you pour, so that it doesn't sit at the bottom and not combine.

-Turn off the stove

-Stir stir stir, making sure it doesn't clump

-Pour into bowl, this bowl you will dip the paper strips into so make sure it is wide brimmed

-Wait for it to cool a bit

-Use!!

*you can easily double, halve, or quadruple this recipe. Just keep a 1(ish, a little more is better) cup:3 tablespoons water ratio.

sleeeeeep

Oops, it got late and I haven't summed up the day.

Same wacky male model. Not wacky really, but interesting poses. I was out of it, but did some work. Morgan gave us a little mini art history lesson on the Pre-Raphaelites. Amazing bunch.

Illustration, Rose Bond came in and talked for an hour about animation and the more artistic applications of it. She is starting a moving image arts BFA and also wanted to pitch that.

Registration for next semester is opening up soon. I only have to take two classes, but three costs the same as two so I might take a third, just to not waste a penny. Plus I can probably manage a third with my thesis work pretty easily, as I've taken three years of five classes, and have a 3.82 GPA. So maybe take the beginning moving image arts class, just to get more technique under my belt (the more technique and programs I know, the better, as it enables me to apply to more places and boast a wider range of skills). I'll have to look at the full class schedule when they print it. If I take the animation course, it is before my illustration night class, which means I'll only be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday. Whooo!!

We broke for early lunch. I grabbed a soda and some mac n cheese from Safeway, then came back and geeked out with Madeline (who got a totally cute short do, it is way way cute and they did a really good job on it).

Martin gave us a run down of the plan, which was sketches and internship discussion. He said the sketches would take 30 minutes, and it ended up being about 2 hours. But I sat and chatted with Samala, Leo, Danny, and Dom. Speaking of Dom, he dislocated and broke his ankle while skateboarding. He is working on constructing a benefit show to pay for his hospital bills, so I think I'm going to crank out a 8 1/2x11 sized print for him to sell. Blow up some sketchbook drawing, really easy printing. I did the sketch while talking to him after class, so that is done.

My chat with Martin went well. After that he chatted about internships and how many of us are serious about it. I need to think about where I want to go and what I can get done, there is some potential for it. I think I'd like to go to a silkscreen studio, possibly poster design with an illustrative quality. Hmmm.

Hung around drawing and chatting with Dom. Went home. Watched stuff. Drank water. Went out with BT and Karen for some wings. Mmm delicious wings.

Now to finish Project Runway and finally sleep in.

Oh and I got an appointment for a massage on Saturday. I'm excited! She also does cupping therapy...

I can haz sleep?

Totally restless night sleep. Kept waking up. But I stayed awake all through the day. No dozing!

We watched Grizzly Man first, which was good because I was totally awake for that. Normally when a movie comes on after lunch, I just pass out. Grizzly Man is a Herzog movie about Timothy Treadwell, this guy who spent 13 summers camping with grizzlies in Alaska. Totally mental fellow. No knowledge of bear behavior. Just thought that if you behave and be strong, they won't harm you. Which they didn't. Until he came up when it was some of the unfamiliar bears and one of them chomped his head and attacked his girlfriend. They got the audio recorded, but didn't play it in the movie. Herzog narrated, and with his thick German accent and the way he filmed some of his narrators, it was a really odd film in general.

Fiddled around on the computer. Phil helped me put my piece up. Mine was the only non bear piece, but there were only three pieces. Kristen did a painting, we suggested sticking with her medium and pushing that. Sandra did a scratchboard. Really tiny piece, made even tinier by being across by my three foot by probably nine foot piece. That sucker was huge. They agreed it conveyed some of the feeling, but the craftsmanship was poor (I agree, it was). Tried something new. Oh well.

Then we had a long, good discussion about wildlife and bears and the feeling of folklore. The class goes so much smoother when we are able to get to our readings! Even got out a little early.

Yoga was a lot of leg work and some shoulder openers.

Karen chilled out with me afterwards back at my place. Watched some of Sherlock Holmes. Ate toast. Drew. Chatted. It was nice. Hopefully I can get a solid few hours of sleep tonight.

rookie mistake

I've been wasting so much time with StumbleUpon. It pretty much gives you sites based on preferences you enter and it gives such a great variety of things. Like:


More model stand today. Morgan had a piece of plexiglass and was tracing the stand and holding it up to people's drawings. When he came to mine, he held it up, and said "that looks okay" and started to walk off. I said "that's it?" so he came back and gave me a little more advice. Booyah for getting the stand right! Today we learned about Magellan. Good stuff.

Screenprinting was critique. Long long critique. I went second. Robin put out another beautiful house at night print, this time it was monotype. Chelsey had some brush word. Diana put up some monotypes with some lovely flowers that I very much appreciated. Casey had a kitty. DeAnn had printed in reverse on plexiglass. Impressive! Junko had layered pieces over each other and had this three dimensional quality, but the material quality itself was low. Ali had a poster for social change.

9 people takes forever. 11-4ish. But we spend a lot of time talking. Paul something from the print something sat in on our critique and gave us good feedback from a fresh perspective. After that, I set about constructing a pattern to print on various materials, like wrapping paper and posters and fabric. Whoo! Accidentally exposed it at 60 units on low power, instead of 60 at high, so my whole screen started to wash out. Ooops.

Went home. Ate the rest of my lunch burrito (damn you Laughing Planet, you know I can't resist your Mr. Green Jeans burrito!). Then got to work on Homeland. My piece is 3 feet by about 8 feet, and is a cutout with the rest being charcoal. I need to vacuum and hope it comes up. It should. I don't know how I feel about it. It is HUGE, and will probably look different when I put it on the wall. Tack that sucker up. Mmm.

Katie and Miranda went out, I stayed in and worked. So tired. 8 hours of sleep tonight!

week starts

Wowie zowie, anti histamines are great but it doesn't do a busy person good to be knocked out.

We got into Heidegger, unfortunately I am currently behind in the Existentialist Phenomenology readings. Apparently one way to irk a biologist is to ask them to define life. It was a class spent talking about defining Is and how the definition of Is Is isn't a good one because it needs a definition to define the word so you can't use the word because there is no definition. Also we talked about how no one field is better than another, the only difference is exactness, and so people in more exact fields like math may think themselves higher up than artists. Or whatever.

Then I went into the library and dozed on and off for about two and a half hours. Every time I woke up, I shifted so I was facing the other way, and nodded off again.

Then I finished BOTH of my Homeland readings. Both were about bears. And I finished Far Arden. Good comic, though it took a different turn than what I was expecting.

Yoga took place at 5:30 today. Not retaining as much of the tension in my back as I did a few days ago, and the pain in my leg went away.

Hovered around Lacey when she was working on her thesis. Went home. Colored eggs. Made a list of my final projects for the semester. Can't believe it is final projects list time already! AHhhhh!! Drew out something for Homeland. Tomorrow I'll see if I can get it printed. There will be a lot of coloring in tomorrow. Bye bye all my charcoal.

sunday

Longest week ever comes to a close.

Finally got a chance to sleep in. It was nice. Got to school at 2, forgot my watercolors at home so I just played with ink on my screen and printed 18 monoprints. They are okay, I guess. Cut them out in the library while waiting for the rain to stop.

Got home. Tidied up a little. Ate food. Watched The Pacific and Breaking Bad.

There really isn't much more to say.

Need to write out all I need to get finished in the next three weeks. It is a lot.

blue green blue

Woke up with a pain in my right leg. But no sniffles.

Mum had been awake for a few hours when I finally rolled out of bed. She seemed to have tidied up a little. Apartment looks so bad. I'll get on that if I ever get some not busy time.

I did my laundry, we read our books, and then off to Ikea!

We caught the blue and traded over to the red. Someone managed to poo under one of the benches at the Max stop.

Ikea was crowded as it was Saturday, but wasn't totally bad. We walked through the show room, gathering ideas. Mom mentioned needing some proper frames for the beds upstairs. When I eventually move out, I will need to get a bed, a desk, chairs, a table, and a couch. Picked up a new bath mat (our current one is mildew city) and two shower curtains. They will be layered and colorful. Also finally got funnels. A new towel. A base for my puppet final for Morgan. Whoo.

Then meatballs! Delicious after shopping meal. Mmm.

It takes an hour almost exactly to go either to or from Ikea, with or without transfer.

We got home and put up the shower curtain and relaxed for a few, then headed out early. I had to swing by Utrecht and pick up paper for my printmaking project. Got mom to the station at 5:45 and hugged goodbye. It was a short but sweet visit.

I brought my bike with me, so I rode to school, talked to Diana and JP, cut paper, and touched up my screen with emulsion.

Elizabeth showed up right on time, so we got right to it. The library was closed, so we took a chance and oiled up her print outs. It wasn't a big chance, it worked perfectly. The screen got emulsified perfectly. We had some trouble with the ink on the first layer, but we got it printed in a really nice fashion. And the second layer printed beautifully and much easier. She just wanted some text and detail on a little handout promoting her music and thesis stuff. Turned out quite nice. She seemed to have fun and was psyched about silk screen. Whoo!

My payment was cookies.

There was a break in the rain when I came back.

Watched the new Doctor Who with the new Doctor. Such a great episode, totally perfect start to Matt Smith's part. They even showed all the previous doctors. Really brilliant way to introduce the new one. Then watched Project Runway. Sort of lack luster results for a big challenge.

Some good television. Now to rest. Tomorrow I print.