decay

animation - decay from Trillian Spencer on Vimeo.

deer tick: their tee shirts had poor designs

My ears are ringing. Whoo. Anyway, slept in. Way way in.

Had my usual huge breakfast of toast, eggs, bacon, and tea. That is the way to go, don't you know? So I had that, watched some stuff, put up my feet.

Tabitha came over for her and Kristen's usual Thursday Thesis day. Tabitha got signed with a modeling/acting agency! And something else as well, but yeah! She is all signed and stuff! How cool is that? Hopefully she gets cast into Leverage and then I'll have an excuse to watch that show that films in Portland and calls in Boston and holds me up in traffic with their filming from time to time.

Norman Klein was giving a lecture about the history of the moving image. So I went to school for that. Got some books from the library and sat with Cotey and Tippi. It was a good lecture and he was much more accessible to listen to than to read. It was a little too short and he couldn't quite delve the depths of his content.

Went home. Ate some pasta. Watched Community. Mel called me and said she had an extra free ticket to see Deer Tick at Crystal Ballroom. I'm not familiar with Deer Tick at all, but a free show is a free show, so I changed and put on some makeup and scooted out the door. Biked past Harmony and Peter and said hello. Parked outside Mel's place and off we strutted.

We arrived during the first act, so I treated her to a beer in thanks for the invitation and we chatted about stuff in the little balcony area. Second act was good enough. Lots of shaggy long hair and plaid. We moved down to the floor and got closer to the front of the stage. It wasn't crowded, but it wasn't empty either. I draped my coat on a side bar thing, and kept it in sight.

Deer Tick was fantastic! No idea who they were. Sort of folk, sort of rock. The singers had great voices and the songs were well varied. There were two guitarist, a pianist who was also able to play the sax and the lead singer/guitarist could also play the piano. There was also a drummer and bassist. And most of them were very cute! And very talented. I bopped and moved and whipped my hair about. I'm close to finding a signature Trillian dance move, even if I dance like a dork. There were two tall gingers that hit on Mel, which is totally barking up the wrong tree in more way than one. Neither hit on me, so that was fortunate, I guess? Anyway. It was lovely. Lots of variety in music. We departed during the last song to avoid the crowd. Got home at 1am.

Whee! Tomorrow is yoga and then illustration party. Whoo whooo!

b is for broadside, and breakthrough

In Yur's, talking with Karen and Dom about the immense struggle that is thesis, I had a format breakthrough, and it was this: it isn't the zine that is attracting me, but the act of unfolding a piece of art work. There is something about interacting with art in that way that really makes me go "whoo!" It stirs something in my thought process, much in the same way that the knowledge I'll be silk screening something makes me look at the art I'll be doing in a different way. So a broadside is a type of large printed poster that is used to proclaim something. It is a nice format that is getting use in stuff lately. I need to do more research, but this falls in line with that massive comic I did two years ago, but also speaks to the small printed projects I've been doing. But it is a poster, and posters command authority. And on the OTHER SIDE I will print something that is more image centric. So it will fold out and one side will be a large image poster and the other will be more text, with image. Or something.

But this format has got me excited. I think I might have backed off from doing a poster because it will be so close on Karen's posters. But it will be totally different materials and use of the format. But that is getting ahead of myself.

A breakthrough. I had one! AWESOME! Now I need to take another wave of research.

But back to the start of the day. Horrible night sleep. Woke up at 8am, and pondered getting up, enjoying a breakfast with several cups of tea. But then I managed to fall asleep and then I got up at 10am and rushed and grabbed a pop tart and left. Yeah.

We watched some Caroline Leaf animations. Beyond talented lady. For lunch I had a corn dog and some nibbles of potato wedges. I mostly sat in the studio and tried to stay awake. Bleh. Loaned TJ my PVA glue. Back in class we split and critiqued. Mine went well enough. Tippi and Emily's were insanely spectacular though. Tippi went to town with cut outs from Vogue pattern catalogs and old home and gardens, and Emily made tea bags shuffle like no other. Really good stuff.

We took a break. Came back. Finished the Hedgehog stuff. Got our next assignment, which is animating painted movements. Like pushing a malleable material around and animating that. Sand, clay, paint...there are a lot of options. I think I'm going to hijack some monoprint ink. Cherish gave me some plexiglass so booyah. It is a big thing of plexi, but I have it. For some purpose now. Whooo!

After class, I worked on my portfolio a little bit and the portfolio assessment. I went and printed it out on just the standard 11x17 copier/printer in the library. Returned. Class started. Our next assignment is actually from real art directors! And if they like our work, we might get legitimately printed in Bear Deluxe, Park City Magazine, or some doggie blood donation thing that I don't really care about because I'm going for the article in Bear Deluxe that has to do with this FDA official. Karen is doing the doggie thing because she gets to do some wiener dog art. Dom is also doing FDA. Competition!

Anyway, break time. I got some Safeway Sushi and Pellegrino sparkly water. Then we came back and critiqued portfolios for an hour and a half. That went well. And then class was over.

Karen and I went to Yur's and girl talked about stuff. I had a soda. Dom joined us and we thesis talked. Then we left Yur's. I went home. And now I am home.

Tomorrow there is a lecture at school that should be about something, then Friday there is yoga and an illustration party. Saturday I booked time in the animation lab. I booked time later in the evening, but I'll probably show up at like 4. All well fed and ready to work till I am done. Sunday is open. Monday is Madeline's movie night. Aliens! Then Tuesday comes around again.

Have to finalize my portfolio, so Sunday will probably be a "I'm going to school to work on my portfolio and won't leave till it is printable" day. But yeah, have the next five days pretty squared away, which is nice. I'll be productive, instead of lame, but there is ample time to kick back.

tumbling along

Joined Tumblr. Because I can. It is image sharing and stuff. I'm at: trilltrillian.tumblr.com It won't be art specific, just images I like and all that. Yup.

I was about to have oatmeal and tea for breakfast, and then I remembered I could have three slices of bacon, three eggs scrambled, tea, and two slices of toast. So I had that. It was so filling and good and I ate at the right time, that I was sated for most of the day. Hurrah!

Went to school in nervous, but high, spirits. For the first hour Martin gave us the run down of our next phase. Basically the next phase is working on getting the slide show together to present at the end of November/early December so that we can propose. This is in part nailing down the blurb, and figuring out inspirations, and ordering it, and all this stuff. It is a lot of stuff. And this is it pretty much. We need to start deciding. Then it was optional one on one meetings. I opted to meet with Martin. I wanted mostly to talk about how to connect the depth and the art. He encouraged me that, when it comes to talking about the thesis, to start with the meaning and message and then go into the medium. "I wish to reflect the dynamics and intricacies of friendships through non precious posters and zines" as opposed to "through non precious zines and blah blah blah". Keep it in the front. Also we talked about how best to example my art, and the idea that zines might be a bit low rent (my words) for how brilliant (Martin's words) some of my work is, and can be. Martin encouraged me to work large, like posters and tabloid format. It might be a better direction, because then that opens up wheat pasting and public dissemination, instead of personal distribution. I could still do zines, but larger work commands more authority. It was a really good conversation, and Martin's enthusiasm for the quality of my work brings me up.

He has been a very good encouraging teacher these past three years. Do I want him for thesis mentor? I don't know. Maybe. Way back when, somewhere in my blog, there is a recording of our first meeting and initial impressions. Over time there is some documentation of whatever teacher/student relationship has formed. And this holds true for pretty much everyone I've met in college. Teachers, students, MFAs, alumni, and so on. It is all here and can be tracked. Chronicling things keeps me in a more positive mind about people, because if I am going to interact, I might want to report, and I want to report something good. Obviously I can't like everyone, and just because you are not here doesn't mean I don't like you. But I want to like you and talk about how much I like you. I want to promote positivity the best I can, because it helps me be positive. But some people just grind my gears. But my thesis isn't about gear grinding.

Yeah.

After class I went and got a 4GB USB stick for thirteen bucks. What a deal! Can't find my other one. Not lost, just misplaced. Talked to Daniel Williams and Heather. Someone wrote up an "I saw you" about Daniel, trying to fish for a coffee date or something. It was silly how nice they thought he looked. Daniel is nice, but also isn't nice. In his own Daniel way. Not an insult. He is a self admitted ass.

Yoga was full of people. 15 may not seem like a lot, but when everyone has to lay out on a mat, it gets full. Good stretching. Good posing. Good yoga.

Went back home. Chilled. Snacked. Joined Tumblr. Now to do some homework and then get to sleep. Or try to get to sleep. Stupid one day a week I HAVE to be out of bed before noon.

monday blues

Picking at my skin. Argh. The ocean salt scrub is still keeping it really nice, save for the occasional breakout every couple weeks.

Another lack luster day. I really fail at productivity. I continue to fail at it. Who thought part time was a good idea?

I need more tasks. I need to assign myself stuff. Get to the ideas that I have, because I have them.

Oatmeal. Left overs. Yum. Didn't tidy. Didn't organize. I'm having clutter Stockholm syndrome.

Watched my telly. Talked with Kristen. I need to make a list of research points and the ideas that I want to connect my art to. It just doesn't seem as complex as it should be. Like...it needs more. My thesis I mean. I'm not in the depths enough and the project isn't so intense. Martin did suggest posters. Expanding is an option. I like hitting it on multiple fronts.

If only people didn't keep bring up how awesome the Odd Owl poster is. It's like "you did really good, so keep doing that" and I know I did, but honestly I didn't plan the design out too intensely. It was luck that the feather on the leg lined up in a blank area of text, and I knew for contrasts sake that one layer should be fine lines and the other thick. You just can't replicate certain kinds of thought.

I just need to read some literature on the ideas I want to go on. Ideas of friendship, and why women can be so evil and bring other women down, especially friends. I still love my friends. A whole bunch. But friends can also be worse than enemies. Or something.

I dunno. See what Martin says tomorrow.

poor faye

I woke up to a text message sent from someone I don't know. It was an image of the figure I have on my keychain in the bark of a tree. I got this keychain from Japan. It is a keychain from the show Oh! Mikey, and the figure is Mikey. Anyway, I didn't recognize the number. All I knew is that someone who has my number has my Mikey and sent me a picture of it. Quite the mystery.

So I had some poptarts and some water and got to wasting my day, like usual. I glanced at stuff I needed to get done, but I didn't do it.

Took out the trash. Popped some fish in the oven for a late lunch.

I later found out that Mark and Kristen had found Mikey and it was Mark's number that had sent me the image. I got my Mikey back. I need to superglue it to its fastener. This isn't the first time he has come off.

I decided that, instead of watching it like I usually do, I would catch the Mad Men season finale at Gypsy, which is a bar one block away. I arrived and had a drink and sat in the corner. I moved to a table when it came on and during the commercial breaks I chatted with a ginger and a well suited man (who won a costume contest that I missed). I ordered another drink and some dinner and put my feet up and enjoyed the heck out of the Mad Men finale. It was good. Not as gasp inducing as the previous episodes have been, but it was good. The people filed out when it was over and the well dressed costume winner came over and asked to buy me a drink, and I said sure. So we stuck around through the encore and talked. His name is Christian. At midnight we were kicked out so we migrated to Coffee Time and talked some more. A really nice fellow I must say.

Anyway, as it was Sunday Coffee Time closed at 1am. I gave him my number and called it a night. I hope he calls. There was that other fella I was seeing but there wasn't a spark and so that didn't really develop. You know how it is.

A really good night. Made a new contact, watched a show with some people, ate some good sushi (bar sushi was better than sushi place sushi, though not better than Origami Sushi).

Tomorrow I shall crack open a book or something.

hamburger helped

Rolled out of bed. Made myself some delicious bacon and eggs and tea for breakfast. Watched Terriers.

Went down to school and hung out with Karen for a bit. Girl talked. Went down to Chipotle for lunch, but I didn't order anything. After that I did my animation for class. I'm on top of it! No rush or worry or having to find a station to work on later in the week. Hurrah!

So I got to animating my rings and watch. In terms of objects that represent me, these mementos do a pretty good job of it. I kept pretty solid to the drawn increments that were part of the assignment. Which helped keep the speed the different rings rotated at constant. I dig it. Listened to The Strain some more. Onto the 7th disc, out of I think 11. Sweet!

Went back home. Went to Trader Joe's. Got some beef. Did the dishes. Made Hamburger Helper. I was curious and wanted to try it out as I never had it growing up. It wasn't anything too special but it made for a filling dinner. I wanted to make brownie mix as well but we are out of butter. I'm real healthy tonight. Ha.

Got caught up on QI. I really want to watch Vanishing Point.

I should have gone out and done something. Decided against going to Matt's birthday. Ho humm.

Time to eat an apple and crack open Packing for Mars. Space travel is interesting but it is spending a lot of time on psychology and gravity. I just want to know how they poop in space!