my only friend the end

Oh boy. What a day. A day to final it all. We are done with OUR focus week. OURS. My class. Mine. No one elses. All that freaking jazz.

I decided to sleep through the first block of proposals. The 9am-10:30am ones. I'm still a bit sick and needed that time. But I did get up and get to school in time for the 11:00-12:30 ones. So I went to see Sivonna. Her thesis she made this whole product design line around this cyclops owl Muku. So she gave his story and detailed the process of collaboration to make the resin figures and the chocolate molds and she had a fashion show of her tee shirts. Zain, Samala's son, was totally fabulous.

Sivonna gave such a great thesis defense. It is weird how short these things seem when you go through the process.

Oh man, I'm tired. Okay, gotta keep writing.

Lunch was rice and stuff. Had some of it. It was good. Drew people who were at lunch.

Went to Heather "Tibby" McDowell's thesis proposal. It is funny how doing something like sport's photography is so foreign at PNCA. But she defending her proposal very well.

It was a packed house for Diana (the next proposal I went to). She is cataloging the type in the letterpress studio and doing pieces based around type and stuff. That will be cool. I gave some people some more posters and got some caramels in exchange.

After that I went to Jenn's defense. She did these paper dolls and focused on body image in women and DID SO WELL. She takes the awesome stance that acknowledged that stuff like "real women have curves" is just as harmful and how women are great instigators of negative self image and stuff. Anyway, she did great and I almost wanted to cry with how happy I was.

Afterwards there was a little going away party for Tom Mullowny in the commons. There was a band. And a keg. So I had some beer and sat and chatted with all sorts of people. Then we migrated to Yur's, where I partied more. Lots of great conversations and WHOOOOing and hugs and throwing of makeshift confetti. We may have made a bit of a mess, so I tipped well. Met Leo's lovely fiancee Kelly. Then some of us walked home. I dropped my bike off at home and met Beth, Leo, Danny, and Kelly at Muu Muus and had a burger. MMM! And now I am at home and I am tired and tomorrow there will be new Doctor Who. But right now I sleep.

Todays Portrait Is: David Bowie.

wiped

Uhg. So totally wiped out. Woke up at 1:30pm. Yeah. I think I might be getting sick. All the stress and underlying adrenaline that was pushing me forward is dissipating and now I'm totally exhausted. Gaaah. Got to school at 3:00 for Petra's thesis proposal. It is weird how short these focus week proposal and defenses seem now that I am done. No time at all and such short discussions.

Talked to DeAnn about traveling over the summer. Mentioned I might go to Utah and she suggested all these parks that I can't remember the names of. Then I went to Madeline's defense.

Her story illustrations look quite lovely. Lots of work. And she defended the work quite well. Got through her talk clearly and concisely. She had some pretty tough questions though. About pitching stories and the hard tasks of being a story book artist. Still, she did it! Her family was there and we all had a nice chat while waiting for the panel to deliberate. Chatted with her little brother Jackson about Doctor Who. Madeline passed. Whoo! Everyone is passing.

I returned home. Did some shopping. Ate a big salad and had a glass of orange juice and some salami. Need my protein and veggies. I've been eating so irregularly and poorly. Now I'm likely to pass out soon. Tomorrow is a full day of defenses and proposals and then CELEBRATION!

Todays Portrait Is: Martin Freeman & Benedict Cumberbatch.

I passed with astronautical colors

Ohh man, I did SO FREAKING WELL! I got through my defense with good timing. Sure some nerves, but I knew what I was talking about. I knew the subject matter. I knew how to navigate the conversation. And I answered the questions honestly and with insight and damn I did so well.

Got up at 6:50am. Showered, did my hair, did my makeup, all that. Time ran out quick though. Got to Trader Joe's. Bought some orange juice and cookies. Got to my room. Ma and Pa arrived shortly after. Got things all set up. Lindsay arrived. Madeline arrived. I printed out my abstract. I ran through my writing real quick one more time, but found that I knew it. People trickled in. Daniel and Heather. Terry and Colin. Jenn Hayes. Auntie Celia came, but a bit late. Karen, Lacey...around 25 people. A good number.

And so it started. Martin introduced my and away I went. I went through my outline. Talked fluidly. I might have swayed a little. I did go back to my notes but found I knew what I was talking about. I gave the defense as it was yesterday. Didn't add anything about the influences. And the panel asked questions about my influences so I was able to articulate the inspiration that came from David Hockney fluently. I addressed how the folded reduces the formality. And some of the reactions. I also used a David Lynch quote, which I should put in my thesis paper, AND AND AND I managed to get illustraquacious into my defense as well. Boo to the ya. And so in a bit under an hour, it was done.

Everything I've worked towards. The culmination of my learning. My ode to my friends. My senior year. This final project. It is done. Except for the paper.

I waited for about 10, 15 minutes with my family and Lindsay, waiting to get called in by my panel (everyone leaves, the panel talks and then they bring you in and talk to you). They talked to me more about some suggested artists to look up. Asked about the text side a little more. It was the sort of discussion that doesn't happen during defenses (which is just the panel and audience asking questions of your project). So yeah, I passed.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HOOOOO!!!

YEAAH!

Yeah. Just gotta do that damn paper and then I'm holding my Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree from Pacific Northwest College of Art. And now every question I get is "so what is next?" STOP ASKING ME. I DON'T KNOW.

Anyway. Afterwards, Ma, Pa, Celia and I went to Laughing Planet and got lunch. I got the Governator quesedilla, which is mashed potato, broccoli, and cheese. YUM! Then we returned to school, I showed them the print studio set up. Ran into Yoshi and Christy who both congratulated me (the latter even gave me a hug!). And then we took down my show. Folded it up. Hauled it all back to the studio and then back to my apartment. There we all laid down and took a nap. It was very nice.

Celia left to return to Washington (she did a round trip in one day! insane! love her!)

Ma and Pa and I went to school to see Jon's defense. He did WONDERFULLY. Once he got into the discussion of the journey that his pieces represented, he got into his Jon mannerisms and it was wonderful. Packed house. Mom got some good laughs and Dad remarked how his piece really captured the Louisiana swamps. I like having parents who actually get what I'm doing and the world I'm in.

After that we got some pizza. Yum! Then we went to the Art Spiegelman lecture at PNCA. He is a Pulitzer prize winning graphic novelist. He was interview by Joe Sacco. The commons were full of people. I keep forgetting the vulgarity of some of Art's work. But it was a good conversation. I parted ways with Ma and Pa. Loitered in the print lab. Then when it stopped raining I rode my bike out into the night and spent the rest of the day with Rollyn. A perfect day.

Now to finish up this part of my life and then think about the next one. JUST STOP ASKING ME WHAT I'M GOING TO DO, OKAY?

There is no portrait today.

tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow

OKAY. LET'S DO THIS! Oh wait, blog about today.

Got up nice and early. Showered, got to Robin's defense. A packed crowd for the front of the Stevens Annex. All the printers were there. Robin's defense was eloquent, well spoken, concise, and beautiful. She really brought out the time and depth she spent on her works. She did this photo graveure prints based on these graphite drawings of contemplative moments in her parents house. She was so well researched and thought so in depth about it. Ahhh so good. I helped her take it down after. Whipped out my power tool to undo the screws.

Then I headed over to Samala's defense. Her short animation was lovely. She did a wordless (well dialog less) animation about going to nature after the loss of technology. All hand drawn stop motion beauty. She did so good and her parents asked good questions. Not typical parent questions that normally just indicate their lack of knowledge in their offsprings choices. There is a certain decorum and dialog expected at Focus Week.

After that I wolfed down two sandwiches and went to see if my room (815c) was available. Will was in there talking to his panel, so I went and got tacks and supplies to put my show up with. He was still in there so I loitered and talked to Karen. When I packed up my posters in a box and went back to the room, he had gone. Will's work was still up but it only blocked a small part of my set up. I strung a string from one side of the wall to the other and made sure it was level. Much easier than leveling each piece. Then I started tacking the posters up. I organized them in a manner so that the one straight forward facial position piece (Madeline) was in the middle. And the pieces that gradually looked left went to the left, and the ones that went right to the right. It looks really good. I couldn't have been more pleased. I was half way through tacking them up when I realized that I should use a regular thumb tack (not a flat headed one) to start the hole. My thumbs were so happy when I clued into that. And the posters went up much faster. I hauled my studio table down and piled my distribution posters onto it. Looks so good. Simple, not fussy. Just like my work.

I practiced my speech and worked on making the notes for my actual defense (no reading straight from pages allowed). Martin came in straight from James' defense and so I told him to chill for a moment. I got him a single serve ice cream from Safeway and some cups and napkins for snack time tomorrow. Got him the ice cream in thanks for being such an awesome mentor, and also he is at thesis all day everyday. He deserves a treat. We talked a little and then I got into my defense practice. He was pleased with the progression and order of it and how far I've come since last meeting.

I finished committing my words to notes. OH and Will came and took down his piece as well. In talking to people about potential questions that might come up, I've found I've been able to construct good responses.

I practiced from my notes with Samala and Morgaine and noticed there were places where I wasn't clear what my notes were. So I'm going to go through it one more time tonight and get that all sorted for tomorrow. I'm up EARLY! Food! Hair! Clothes! Makeup! Trader Joe's! Practice! Defend!

After years and years, my thesis defense is here.

It doesn't feel real, but it is.

Todays Portrait Is: Colin Firth.

'illian

It's only 7:30, but I am tiiiiired so I'm blogging now so that whenever my body collapses in on itself, I don't have to worry.

Focus week begins. Now all my lovely friends over the years defend their thesis. Our time at PNCA comes to an end.

I got out of bed at the horrid hour of 7:50am. UHG. Showered, got dressed, made myself pretty, grabbed the bread and hummus and set off to school. First up was Dominic's Defense. His work looked lovely all hung up, and he seemed relatively calm considering that I ran into him last night and he was mighty stressed. Anyway, he got up there and went through his speech. And he did super well! Every time he paused he took the chance to drink water. It gave a nice pace to his defense of his neurotic paintings. It was a room with friends and everyone was enthusiastic. He did very well. The crew waited with him after he defended, and naturally he passed.

Between his and Leo's, I went to Safeway and bought a Red Bull because with about two hours of sleep under my belt, I knew I couldn't survive the day with no assistance.

Drank that and went to Leo's defense of his wordless series of illustrations depicting a revolt in a society dominated by technology dependance. It was a nice little series, and he had pretty much eliminated all uses of the word "like". Good on him! He had a good little defense as well. Chatted with him after till he went in for questions, so then I went to get some food!

Lasagna! Sat with Acey and Arvie and David Ritchie joined us. Apparently Ritchie has met Douglas Adams. After that I went to BT's lecture thingy on setting up a screen printing set up at home. Dad, do you wanna make an at home printing set up with me? It will be fuuuun.

After that, I went to Matthew Miller's thesis proposal. He is proposing to do a series of photos based on gun culture and representing gun owners in their home. He laid it out there that his thesis isn't about if we should have guns, but why. Still his audience asked a lot of heavily biased questions. Probably a good thesis if it will spark such reactions. He is a quality photographer and will pull it off. It will just take a good sense of his argument.

Afterwards I went to August's proposal. He is doing several broadside comics in different formats. His room was packed and he was a bit awkward but he got through it with gusto.

And AFTER that I went to Danny's room to see his set up. His wife Mara brought their just turned one year old daughter Lillian along. OHHH what a cute baby! Just wandering about with big blue eyes and drooling and so happy. I picked her up and gave her tons of kisses on her little baby cheeks. Cutest critter EVER. But I didn't stay for Danny's defense, I went to Beth's. Which ended up being packed. She got through her information in a great manner. Argued it well. Her series of animal pictures based on the group nouns we assign them turned out so beautiful.

AND THEN I went to see We Buy Diamonds. I got my free shirt that they owed me for the printing and then went around school to generate interest. And interest was generated! The doors opened at 5:50 and in five minutes it filled up. And people kept coming. Unfortunately people decided to sit on the floor instead of standing and dancing. So the people coming in didn't really have space, even though if people scooted there would have been space, and standing would provide even more space. But Karen, Mel, and I stood in the back and hollared and hooted and cheered them on like crazy. We shouted the hooks to the songs and shouted responses when they asked questions. We three brought the WBD fandom!

And the show was PHENOMENAL. They performed with vigor and enthusiasm, and nailed the songs. The lights, the set up, the costumes, the everything was spot on. They did so well. They did it! They did it all!

And after that I went home. Kristen and Mark came by and I joined them, and Kristen's parents and brother Anthony for dinner at Sansai. Mmm sushi. Now I'm back and exhausted. So I think I shall wash my face and crash. Tomorrow is two pre-lunch proposals and then lunch and then I set up my thesis and then practice practice practice. I don't know if I'll go to any more things after lunch. I'll just see how I feel. Less that 48 hours till I defend!

Todays Portrait Is: Mark Strong.

do a lot, do a little, get it done

Oi vey. Sleeping in I think is my form of panic. It is my safe space. I get all cozy and I know once I leave, I'll have to start working on stuff. Instead of panic attacks and freak outs, I just ignore it with plenty of bed rest. For better or for worse.

So yeah, took a while to get started. And transcribing my speech took a long time as well. about 2 and a half hours. Didn't get to school till 7:45. Got some bread and hummus and a fizzy drink and practiced with Karen, Leah, and Mel in the print studio. They all agreed that it indeed sounded like something, not nothing. My big fear is spending half an hour talking about nothing. I just need to add a bit about observational drawing and figure out exactly what I'll say about my pieces. The break between lunch and the 4:30 proposals on Tuesday is uber practice and figure stuff out time. And then after that proposal, more practice and stuff. Might miss the practice, if it seems like that might be necessary. I listened to We Buy Diamonds do a run through of their performance. They rock so hard. I printed up some more sloth bands. Then headed home.

I feel pretty good about where I am. I need to stick to my schedule pretty dead on for the next two days, but that is just two days. And it isn't the hardest schedule.

Spring Focus Week 2011 begins. My final semester at PNCA comes to an end. My four years at PNCA are almost over.

Todays Portrait Is: Stephen Graham.

sloth spirit

my bruvver

Ohh boy. The stress is destroying my appetite. Could only eat about a third of my scramble. It was a bit oily. Nathan and Rubie are in town, Rubie was off doing whatever but Nathan was able to meet up. We met at my studios at 2:30. I printed my outline out. Showed Natey around the studios. Introduced him to Eva and Mel and Dom and others. Practiced my speech. Got some good feedback. We walked down to Cool Moon and got some ice cream. I got mint chocolate chip and he got kulfi and lychee flavored. Nate is daring like that, I suppose. It was a beauuuitful day. Sunny and just warm enough. Nathan has a jump on the family freckles, but I'll catch up.

We parted ways and I organized 20 complete poster sets, now I just need to tie them up. I found some friends and listened to Dom practice but I headed home to work some more. I can't tell if I am saying something or nothing. And it is so bumbly. I think I need to read less from an outline while practicing, because it is too much improv. Tomorrow I'll transcribe the recorded speech I have thus far and add to it and practice practice practice. I'm running out of time so fast! Where did it go?

Watched Doctor Who (which was FANTASTIC) and cut up more scraps for Save the Sloth bands. Gotta have some non thesis task to do every day.

Todays Portrait Is: Dexter Fletcher.