new record of three

I completed my sketchbook zine. Well, I am printing a facsimile of my sketches from thesis, because people like them so much. My final silkscreen project. I'll have to print a lot because A LOT of people want one. It is exactly 16 pages, so it should print well. And I have the cover drawn (which is actually the last to be drawn so it isn't a true facsimile). Anyway, I went to four defenses today.

Bryan's robot mythology was good. Got through the points quite clearly. His thesis reflected the more literary consideration than an immense body of work. The panel for thesis always include a non-department person. And Bryan's had a few weird questions. Like "how do you want me to see this" and Bryan's "I want you to see it right here, right now, like this" was perfect. And not snarky.

Afterwards I called Ames and Big Giant about internship stuff. Ames wasn't too enthused about my questions about what I should send them, but Big Giant was friendly. I had my sketchbook out and Martin approached me to see what more I had drawn. BT even did a little hand motion to represent seeing what I had done. I like that.

Anyway, Madeline went to Rachel's with me. She did four large digital pieces about mother earth (though really it was mistress of the animals or something). Four specific American terrains and man did she have research. Lots of science and creatures. At first they were large pictures of animals, and half woman/half something, but damn...it must have taken ages. Rachel was nervous and had a few second pauses, which must have felt like minutes to her. But she got through it.

It was soup day. Not that great. I like sandwich day better. Sat with Madeline, Kristen, Amanda, and Rachel (other Rachel, no the other other Rachel). Karen and Daniel joined us and we gave Karen some harmless poking about her drunken antics. Robin won the people's choice award in the BFA Juried Show. I didn't get into the Voorhies/Carey prize, but I got three out of four pieces into Illustration Juried show AND a section of my Odd Owl poster is on the flier for the show. Whoo!

Erin McCarty's thesis was next. She had spent the week painting the small illustration room and installing her painting. The white walls were largely black with silhouettes of Alaska trees and Arizona cactus. Her six pieces were beautiful and grotesque and represented feelings that she saw as the root of many problems, feelings of defeat (cowardice, carelessness, dependency) and feelings of aggression (envy, selfishness, pride). The room was dark and close in and there was very limited space. It all culminated into this glorious experience. Erin's work really...yeah. I wish I had pictures. She also had these reoccurring skeletal figures that I think mom would really like.

Between Erin's and Ursula's I got my resume tightened up and edited out a page from my portfolio and sent it off to Big Giant (along with a cover letter). Now just gotta wait through this weekend...

Ursula's road trip memory installation was huge. She did these massive drawings over digital printouts and hung them and had artifacts below, and beverages and cheese potatoes. It was a full experience. Really cool and professional for being just her first installation. She went to all 50 states. She had about 12 large drawings as representations of some of her experiences, and a wall of remainders from the drive. It was just almost overwhelming and ultimately very effective. She had a wonderful humor about it, but knew what she was doing and had a pure passion for it. It was a great way to end the whole week. A real positive note.

After, Karen and I bet Annie and Chad (illustration painting and beginning illustration teacher respectively) at Rogue Brewery. Chad offered to pick up the tab after we ordered! So nice! It was actually really amazing to hang with them. I never doubted they were cool but having a few beers and hearing Chad's wrestling voice...really amazing. They also drew stuff in my sketchbook. Really awesome things. We then out arted each other "where is Michelangelo's David?" and all that. Yeah, it was fun. Nice hanging with people. I like PNCA because they encourage friendships with teachers, and having a beer with the is totally acceptable. And calling a teacher Mr. This or Professor That would be a form of mockery, not respect.

Parted ways. Karen and I went to Laughing Planet. I gorged on a burrito while I finished up my sobering up. Mmm.

Went home. Talked with Katie for a bit. Watched some teevee. Tomorrow is puppet and assess just how behind I am day. And probably clean up my totally trashed room. Mmm.

Spring 2010 Thesis Sketches - Batch 1

Pages from my sketchbook. Drawn during the Spring 2010 Thesis proposals and defenses at PNCA.

Micron in floppy moleskin.

the party begins

Showed up at school at lunch. The water in my building was off so I was without shower. Boo! At least I had water in the fridge, like a good Pedersen.

Today was sandwich day! Deceptively simple sandwiches are totally tasty. Met with Martin. Stage One illustration review. I'm doing two Ravenous posters. He had good advice.

Only two defenses today: Taylor and Jay's.

Oh forgot to mention that yesterday, during Alfredo's thesis, the lady I sat next to remarked that she had the exact same Swatch that I did.

Taylor did a music video for the band Wizard Rifle. It was pretty awesome. A lot of animation and thought went into it. Personally I felt the aesthetic style wasn't cohesive as a whole, but it was still cool.

Jay's thesis was about the relation between queer culture and deaf culture. She had some neat illustration to accompany it. Some of the questions posed to her were a little tricky, but she did well. Whoo!

Afterwards, the crew went to Yur's. The crew included: Jay, Chloe, Karen, Daniel, other Daniel, BT, Heather Birdsong, Taylor, Michaela, Dom, Janessa, Sivonna, and a couple others. We took up two tables and were there for hooours. Well, like five and a half. People came and went. Tots and cheese fries were ordered. I only spent 11$ with tip. Yur's is so cheap and lovely. Some of the talk got a little too relationship heavy. But then it went back to drunken fun. It was a good night. I sobered up and rode my bike home. No rain!

Three thesis defenses tomorrow and then down to hard work!

big big head

Felt so good to get that extra hour of sleep. Tomorrow I am not coming to school till lunch time. Don't need to roll out till 11, oh yeaah.

Heather Birdsong's proposal first. Her slide show was rather short, but no one questioned her allegorical etchings. She later bought a bandana! Whoop whoop!

Then came Miles Brown's. He is doing paintings based on memory. He takes old photos, projects them, then photographs them again, and then paints that. Someone in the audience asked "why painting" and he replied "because I'm a painter". Great response.

Lunch time! Enchilada day. Sat with Madeline and Kristen and Tabitha later joined us (Melissa too for a little bit). Mmm. After that, I chilled with Karen and Kristen and Tabitha in the library and BT and Phil in the commons. Ate candy.

First thesis was Alfredo's. He did several highly composed contra posto nude photos. Most of the people were PNCA people, but seeing my peers naked doesn't register anymore. There are boobies and bums everywhere on campus. Who cares? Anyway, poor thing. Alfredo was so nervous. He clutched the podium quite tightly and read from a paper. His defense was also in an open gallery, so he had to compete with the noise from the commons. If it was an actual room, he probably wouldn't have had as much trouble. He got asked a lot of questions about how much he reflected his model's personalities even though it was constructed space and pose and all that. Nervous as he was, he did quite good.

Not seemingly nervous was Anthony Roberto's thesis defense. He made a series of amazing engravings about the absurdity of the apocalypse. He was clear in his explanation and his research naming was effortlessly expelled. It did run long though. A lot of chatter about different things I can't quite remember. But damn his prints looked good. And to accompany his talk, the thunder and rain rolled out.

Tabs, Kris, Karen, and I all got pizza after. Mmm, pizza.

We parted ways and Karen and I went to go see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at Cinema 21. Unfortunately the times appeared to have changed, so it wasn't at 7:00, but 7:45. So we chilled at Coffee Time. I got an Italian Soda and we girl talked. A guy was inking a comic page. Nice art in the page.

The movie was a true blue nail biter. I got so tense. The cinematography was amazing. It was a compelling murder mystery as well. It was also very graphic and VERY VERY DISTURBING!! Not for the weak hearted movie goer. I felt almost bad that I dragged Karen along with me to see it. Good thing it was a well crafted movie and while violent, it wasn't needlessly so. Graphic but damn did Lisbeth get her awesome revenge (a few audience members cheered). Afterwards was just a "woah" feeling.

Wasn't so cold on the bike ride back. Popped on the new episode of Justified and set about cutting and rigging my puppet head:

banner year press has a banner year

Need to get on track with final projects. I just get so wiped out by the end of the day.

Rachel Stark's thesis defense was this morning. She constructed two infomercials and studied that culture through it...or something. I didn't quite follow what she was saying, but her work was entertaining.

Met Madeline at James' thesis. He was proposing a post-apocalyptic game board. Morgan was on his panel but got stuck in his questioning on this one example for a single card game he presented. James did fairly well with his explanations.

Karen killed it at her thesis. Her little room was packed! Yay! Lots of people showed up and she pretty much nailed it. One uhm through her whole presentation. Adam was there. Her proposal is about American Mythology and making posters to get the interest of the cynical youth. Yeah. She did really well. So proud of my darling Karen! Hung around with her while waiting for panel. One of her visiting friends for the panel was actually a friend she had signed up for ballroom dancing with. I remembered him, once he said "we've met in dance class". Karen and I have met three times: drivers ed, dancing at Olympic College, and then PNCA. After waiting and finding out that she was eating lunch with her visiting friends and Adam, I went to get some sandwiches before they were all gone.

Ate with BT and Madeline and Matt and assorted illustration crew. Walked to this vintage shop with Jay after. It was closed. Then went back and got a second row seat for BT's thesis. I saved a seat for Madeline, but she never showed. Oh well.

Even though they brought in extra chairs, BT's thesis was standing room only. Easily 60 people. Probably nearer to 80. And he killed it. Got through all his information nice and clear, and while he read from his book, he paused to CUT HIS BEARD! He has been growing it out for about five months, and cut it off in chucks to illustrate styles, and finally waxed his 'stache with his homemade moustache wax (called Man's Face Stuff). People clapped about three times through his thesis. Amazing. He answered questions with ease. Ah, just amazing. After I bought B is for Beard (he was selling that and Bear Fight after his defense).

I chilled with Tabitha and Kristen for a bit, but exhausted, I went and passed out in the library till 6pm, at which point I went to Yur's. Had a quiet drink with BT, before he left for Beulahland on the other side of the river. The weather gave me enough of a break to escape home.

Macaroni and cheese. Glee. Flash Forward. Treme. Mmm. Get to sleep in till 9 tomorrow. Nice.

I'm so proud of my friends, I can't even really say

I'm so exhausted. Writing now (10pm) instead of right before I go to bed (11pm, most likely).

Daniel's thesis defense was first thing in the morning. I debated sleeping in, but I'm glad I went. He did clothed/naked portraits to represent the different sides of a person. Something like that. Really beautiful large full figure portraits, drawn in pairs. Jay, Heather, and Lindsay all posed for him (Lindsay our figure TA). I did some fun little drawings of him. It was a good presentation. He was nervous be he got through it in detail and talked about his material with confidence. Sat next to Jay, who I think got another haircut.

Afterwards, I went to the library and sort of napped. Well first I got a pastry and hot chocolate because I was starving. Chocolate croissant. Mmmm. Then yeah, rest. Then lunch. Discount chili and salad. Mmm.

Chilled in the print lab with Junko and the print crew. Then helped Karen put up posters that promoted her thesis. Then fiddled on the computer.

Danny! Danny showed up in the lab briefly and I was like "OMG YOUR BABY?" and he said her name was Lillian and she was the second most beautiful thing next to his wife and that he has never been more exhausted or happy. Awwwww.

Then I listened to Karen practice her proposal till about 4:15. BT stopped by and gave feedback. We gave lots of feedback. She is really good though. No uhms. Still semi note dependant, but getting better all the time.

Lacey's thesis was six reductive woodblocks. Large ones. Each took about 40-50 hours to carve. So a lot of work. It was a narrative about coping with and accepting depression. It was intense but she presented it with ease and compassion and just this aura of comfort. It never felt like she wanted pity or a sob story. It was so comforting and uplifting, while also really emotional. I teared up at her practice yesterday, but I didn't today. No notes, no stumbles, she was magnificent. She is an amazing person, I'm so happy she is a part of my life. The work that she does...wow.

Hung out in the studio with BT, Karen, and Jay afterwards. Sort of stared into space. BT left for an interview. Karen left to read and relax and then study. I hung back to catch up with Jay. We walked to Kinko's and back. Just chatted and walked arm in arm like two buddies. Need to hang with Jay more. It was raining but whatever, it rains.

Jay had to catch her bus. I hung with Karen and listened to her practice a little bit more. I could practically give her thesis for her. It is good to experience this step though, because I'll be going through with it in about eight months. AHHH!

I love my friends. They are awesome people. Very supportive and caring. Jus' saying.

Now I am home and dry and about to drink lots of fluids because I am feeling sick. Going to watch Breaking Bad and then sleep! Rachel Stark's defense is tomorrow.

Stumptown 2010 or "enjoy your debt"

Ahh man, I just want to sleep, but I gotta update. Stuff went down. Gotta update. Not as much stuff as last year, because I was largely confined to my table, but stuff none the less.

Saturday:

Karen offered me a ride. She said she was going to arrive at 9:30, but was running late. This was fine because I was late getting my outfit together and making myself all pretty for the nerds. She arrived at about 10, and we got to Stumptown at about 10:30. We most assuredly did not get out half table. Oh well. The PNCA table and Duford were in almost the same position, so I beelined it for there. I still paid for a weekends admission as I didn't have an official pass for the table.

A fourth of the table was occupied with Continuing Education information and half of the rest of the table was Daniel's stuff, and then there was my comic, bandana, and sketchbook zine. It wasn't that impressive, I felt, but more than last year. The table was more of a "representing PNCA table" anyway, and I introduced myself as such. Mostly put forward that this was the PNCA table and I was a student and here is my massive comic that is over a year old and looks dated to me, but still buy it? Please? Sales overall were a lot slower. I spent a lot of time at the table by myself, which sucks. Daniel was helping at Aidan Koch's table, where he had prints, and he also had a panel. He did relieve me, but most of the time it was the situation where if I was there, he would be gone. But if I asked for time, he gave it. Like when I realized it ended at 6, not 4, and that I needed a sandwich badly.

The first day I only spent what I made or had in my wallet already. So I didn't buy a lot. Two for $15 volumes of Octopus Pie and some spectacular volumes from the Rabid Rabbit collective. When I was buying Octopus Pie, Kate Beaton was talking to the creator. She introduced herself and I did likewise, but didn't break out into OMGYOUKATEBEATONOMG!! fits. She is rad. Rad rad rad.

I was next to the same people I was last year, and this Luchador in Space dude. Really nice and complimented me heavily on my enthusiasm. I was across from the CloudScape people. Nice folks them as well.

There are so many vertical displays. That is, large vertical supported banners that people prop up behind them to support themselves. Can't even see half way across the room.

Saw Farel, Sivonna, Jim, Matt G, Daniel H, uhm...lots of people. A couple people remembered me from last year. Some were wowed by my comic, but I didn't get as many "wow I must buy this NOW" reactions.

BT was all dressed up like a vintage bartender. Karen had work to do, so she wasn't tabling. Lacey was finishing up her thesis so she wasn't there either.

Paul Pope was at the convention. I don't know his work that well, but I know he is truly awesome.

I spent a lot of time at the table.

After the show, I went to Rose & Thistle with Jim, Dave, Matt, and BT. Got a lift with Matt, stored my box of stuff in his truck, and whoo beer and onion rings after a long long day. Mostly convention chat. Indiana(or was that Indigo?) and his ladyfriend joined us. That was the after party. The after after party was at Cosmic Monkey Comics. There was an awards ceremony, voted on by the people at the convention. You self nominate. Categories include best art, best writing, DIY, small publication, etc. BT's press Banner Year Press's work Bear Fight (which I am a part of) was nominated in Do It Yourself and Small Publication. And it won BOTH AWARDS!! Whooo!! He looked so dapper on stage. The place had free beer, but we (Matt, BT, and I) were not sticking around, so I only had one. I was dropped off on Naito & Morrison and ran and caught the max back to my place. I came home at about 10:30pm, but it felt like 1am. Doctor Who beckoned and then I passed out.

Sunday:

Maxed it to the Lloyd Center Double Tree today. Didn't have time for breakfast and I forgot mascara. Blar! Arrived on time. Ate the apple and granola bar I had stored. Daniel showed up with his wife and daughter, Devlin, but those two didn't stay. His daughter is a cutey. Three year old, I think? There were a lot of babies at Stumptown. Lots of cute babies, that didn't cry all that much. Had to remind myself that they DO cry and that I DON'T want one.

I sold less comics, but I did sell two bandanas! Those two made me more money then pushing my comics did. I wonder how pitching the school affected my sales. Oh well. Because I was lonely at my table with minimal display, my enthusiasm was not where it was last year with Lacey.

I spent more money also. I did take some money out of the ATM, but when I totaled how much I made and how much I took out, I only really spent about twenty bucks. AND since I did it through PNCA, I didn't have to pay for the table (which I got the refund for, hurrah). But I'm happy with what I bought. Mostly higher end publications. Some sets of comics. Theo Ellsworth's Capacity (which he signed with a cute doodle) and a story by Ken Dahl, which may or may not be a pseudonym (say his name out loud and think about it). Lots of stuff. I went a little buy crazy in my last thirty minutes. But it was mostly picking up stuff I passed several times over and it still stuck in my head.

Went to the Kate Beaton/Dylan Meconis lecture. They talked about history and art and comics and why history comics. It was hilarious. Oh, I was with Madeline at the lecture, who was there and we hung out and walked around for a bit and she showed me some stuff. But yeah, it was a great little chat. I wish I had a chance to talk to Beaton in person, but she had a solid line of people every time she was at her table. Next year...

Luke was there, but I only saw him once. Karen watched my table while I ran to make change. Lots of people paid in twenties.

I got a lot more time to walk about, away from the table. Didn't really talk to many people though. I always wanted to keep moving.

Keenan, a tabler from last year, was there and he remembered me. Total nice guy.

Spent money, made money, spent more money.

One person came up to my table and after I introduced PNCA he said "wow you must be really rich" and after I asked what he meant, he rambled about how much art school costs and how if you are not rich, you are in horrid debt for the rest of your life. REALLY RUDE. My reaction, while not rude in return, made it quite obvious that I did not like his, and the lady he was with, comment. Serously people. I am here promoting myself and my school, don't be an ass.

It was a good second day, though my enthusiasm to promote was waining. My voice was going like it was yesterday. Need more work to sell...

Lots of stuff happened, I am clearly forgetting portions. Oh well.

I got a ride back into town with Karen, BT, and Lacey (Lacey and Karen came from PNCA to pick up BT). We all ate victorious at Hot Lips (for the girls) and Laughing Planet (for the dapper boy). Then it was print lab time. BT took a nap. I read some of my comics. I helped Karen print. I helped Lacey eat her cake. We listed to Lacey practice her speech. Chatted girl chat. BT left to catch the max to the other side. After printing finished, we found a room to practice. Lacey's first full run through was really good. A couple pauses, but very smooth with minimal ums. Karen's proposal improved vastly in between the first and second run throughs.

Big week next week.

For a picture of Daniel & I at our table on Saturday, go to this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oceanyamaha/4550395734/in/set-72157623801923951/