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/

I will sum up Stumptown 2010, I promise

I'll do a full two day sum up of Stumptown tomorrow. Just let it be known: I'm having fun though making less money.

two days: one short post

Thursday:

Ink day was ink day. We learned a bit about Balthus. Watched a puppet video. Whoo.

Critique in illustration. The work had less volume to it than last projects, with the exception of Josh and Janessa. Josh printed out a skateboard design to scale, which was rad, and Janessa made pillows and shirts with screen printed design. Very cool. I had a good critique. There were words about text as usual. Martin either really likes us or has gone soft. I had soup for lunch.

Danny hasn't been at school all week. He must have had his baby. Well his wife must have had his baby.

More critique. It didn't last all day, but it wasn't quick either. Martin bought us milk and cookies again. After critique it was open work time. I showed him my bandana, and he made a noise I had never heard him utter before. An excited noise. He really, really liked it. Even bought one! Whoop whoop!

I finished up my .pdf portfolio for internship stuff, and then met Karen in the print lab and helped her print for a few hours. Mostly took prints and put them on the rack and exposed and washed out screens. She exposed two more layers backwards. TWO! Silly Karen. But her print is looking great. I went home with Lacey on the streetcar. Poor tired Lacey.

Friday:

I like days where I can sleep in.

Then I have to go to school and document art and submit more to the Illustration Juried Show (four pieces total). Which I did. Then I helped Karen print some more. Good to be out of the house. Karen was printing a five color poster to promote her thesis. A beautiful poster with clouds and split fountain layers. Really nice.

We had Laughing Planet for lunch. Mmmm.

Left at about 9:30. Whooo!!

Tomorrow is Stumptown Comic's Fest. I found out just today that Karen will only be there for a small portion of the day, and Lacey will probably be sleeping off her sleeping stress. I wish I had found out sooner about this. I might have space at the PNCA table. I'll have to wait and find out. It will be a busy day tomorrow. Mmm.

Joe Simpson

Joe Simpson. Mountaineer.

Silkscreen.

blah

Tired. Don't feel like writing tonight. Will sum up tomorrow.

Thinking that I'll get a webcam and start a vlog for my senior year. Focus specifically on my thesis process. Hmm.

naked ladies - 4/22/2010

Ink wash drawings from The Figure with Morgan Walker.

another day ends

The thing I like about Homeland, is that the class has a lot of variation in each day, so it passes fast. It isn't some long one subject/topic class.

Man, I love sleep. Didn't sleep during class. Didn't even come close. I had soup and bread and an Odwalla for lunch. Mmm protein disguised as chocolate milk. Sat in library next to Patsy.

First bit of Homeland: watched Commune, a little documentary about the Black Bear Ranch commune. Interesting, though it didn't make me want to join a commune.

Then Phil gave his presentation about artists that do "social practice" type of work. Namely they make art to draw in not art people, or make art for not gallery. He had good things to say, wasn't totally in favor of his artists work all the time. We then got into a discussion about if elitism isn't all that bad of a thing. Basketball fans are allowed to get into it, so why do artists have to behave and try and be all accessible and stuff?

Then it was project time! Joey had a photo collage of all the things he loves about America that are typically regarded as unseemly. Like the Budweiser twins, big burgers, pizza, grills, motorcycles, etc. Travis did an installation where he played video from Google Earth and pretended like it was voice activated, and he gave us pizza and doughnuts. Mmm! Gabi also had an installation. She had a stationary exercise bike and a looping video of this utopia drawing of hers, so it simulated like you were cycling towards it, but it would vanish.

We were left only forty minutes left for Ecotopia discussion, but it was a good one.

Yoga had breathing and then leg work.

Got home. Chatted with Madeline on the phone for a while. Mmm.

voorhiiiiies

Figure drawing was long poses again. We had two models, both of them fidgety.

Watched a video about these puppets playing the ukulele. Uhhhg so much to do on my puppet! I just noticed the shrinking of the papier mache made it go into a oval shape, not a circle. Damn. Oh well.

Had a productive silk screen day. Got my four color leave behind done in the 11-3pm block of time. Three colors on the front, one on the back. I'll scan them later.

For lunch I went to the Frying Scotsman. Splurged on some halibut. Went back to the print lab and scarfed it.

After that, I printed on two more bits of fabric. So now my bandana, once I sew t, will come in brown, blue and red! The latter two will be white ink. White is hard to print with. It dries really fast. I removed the stencil all together because it was clogging my screen. Easy enough to redo.

Finished at five. Karen and I went to Yur's. I just had a couple Sprites, didn't feel like drinking. Girl chatted. Ya know, girl chat. Messed around on the internet.

Went home. Glee! Lost! Justified!

Now time to read Ecotopia.

Semester be over please? No? Arrgghh.

Oh, I also entered two drawings into the Carey's prize and one into the Voorhie's. If I win, I get money! And not scholarship money, cold hard cash money. Whoo!

mmm dreams

Not quite sure what we talked about in class. My mind wandered, and every time I tried to focus it wasn't in a place that I understood. Yeah.

Documented my bandanas in the library. Sorted through the pictures and resized a few. That took a while.

Sat on the couches and finished off my burrito. Talked to Dominic. Read Ecotopia. Took a nap. The nap turned into sleep, with dreams and everything, and I slept through the first half hour of yoga. Oops.

Still went to yoga. Got some stretching, but none of the good warm up stuff. Oh well.

Went back to the computer lab and worked on a basic art resume. Shows, collaborations, experience, etc. I know I'm forgetting some shows, so as I remember, I'll add (I have a print out).

Bought some flour for more papier mache and some soap.

Watched House and an episode of The Inbetweeners. Laundry. Drew stencils for leave behind (that is, an image I leave behind at art interviews, as a memento). Tried out my new ink. It dries light, but it seems like it will be good for washes.

The problem with sleeping during the day, is that when it is 1am you don't feel all that tired. Bah.

baby's first chemical burns

I think I accomplished a lot today? There is a lot that I can't do without word. Tomorrow, during the existentialism/yoga break, I will put together my artists resume and stuff. Wheee. And document. Which means I gotta document that damn tall David Lynch piece. Argh.

Got to school. Brilliant beautiful day. So no one was in the print lab. Whoo! Well Heather was there.

I'm fairly satisfied with my print. I'm not sure how intentional some of the mark making looks. It looks like him, but a lot of the specific detail was lost. I should do a black ink drawing as well. Hmmn. It is also very blue. I'll think it over.

I felt like taking my touch to DeAnn's screen of death. Someone has used her screen without permission and left a thick coating of emulsion on it. Really thick, and it had air pockets. Whoever did it really maimed her screen, and she had left it for the print lab to claim it's purple carcass. I inquired Heather's expertise and she said to use the auto haze stuff. It has a more impressive title. Anyway, it is store in a black tub and has several danger toxic corrosive labels. I put on the special shirt and gloves and got to it. I spread the gunk all over the screen and let it sit. Some of the chemical still got on my skin, but I was able to get it off before it did any damage. Still, ouch. So the chemical ate away the caked emulsion. Then I took the pressure watcher to it. At first, nothing. The edges scootched away. And then: miracles! Chunks came off, more and more area was cleared. I sprayed it with EZsolv, and it pretty much all came off! Whooo! It only took about 20 minutes, but that is a screen that was left for dead. Now it is revived.

Got a burrito because I was starving. When I got back I remembered there was a meeting with the RA, and we were getting free food. Oh well, lunch for tomorrow (the burrito I mean). It was just an exit chat. My lease ends end of July. Need to sort out my summer plans. And find somewhere to move out to. Err.

Anyway, ate three servings of the free thai food, as only three other people showed up. Hurrah!

Crossed things off my to do list. Mellowed out. Watched Pacific, paused that to watch Breaking Bad, went back to Pacific, then Treme.

Another week begins.

three fourths

Took forever to get out of the house. Just had to stick around till the new Doctor Who came out...

Finished my Joe Simpson sketch:

I dig it!

Had to ride from Utrecht to PNCA one handed, because the other had to hold the paper. I rode very slowly.

I got through three of the four layers! The first went pretty well. The paper kept sticking to the screen and making the flat ink layer inconsistent. The color is good. I won't have an edition of prints, but that is okay. The second layer went down without any qualms. The third, well I totally mucked up the emulsion, which made it very difficult to remove the water resist. A lot of my detail was lost. But it took a new look. It is a more scratchy, imperfect piece. I'll have to see how the final layer brings it all together. The lineart layer. I've learned some things about reductive printing. Not the piece I had in mind, but still a good piece.

Afterwards, Lacey came over to my place and we watched the first two episodes of the new Doctor Who together. Totally geeked out all over the place.

Need to check some stuff off my check list! Feels good to do that.

cheesesteak & trilltrill

Ahhh glorious sleep.

Took it easy during the morning and early afternoon. Set out to do some shopping. Namely for unmentionables. I was either going to get cheap top unmentionables and some bottom unmentionables, or a really nice top unmentionable. Unfortunately the lady gave me a properly fitted and extremely nice top unmentionable, so I ended up going with that option. It is really nice, and supports so well.

Anyway. Picked up some mac and cheese for the pulled pork potluck at Karen's tonight. The pulled pork sandwiches were the main attraction. She was nice and picked me up for the shindig.

Jay, Tabitha, BT, Gabby, Hollie, Evan, Ursula, Agnes, Phil, and the glorious being that is Cidney were there. Cidney stops by in Portland every six months or so. Cool cat.

There were chips and beer and smoothies and the pulled pork was beyond delicious. Soooo good. I didn't stuff myself, I was perfectly fed. Sat with people and chatted about stuff. When there were just seven of us, we posed for a reference picture for Ursula. I really enjoy these "get out of the house and relax" nights. Now the rest of my weekend is to be occupied with screen printing and resume updating and portfolio sorting outing.

Anyway, after food and the leaving of most of the people, we played Munchkin. Gabby won with some help (namely my divine intervention which made her force win). She left. Phil, BT, Karen, and I played a round of Carcassonne. Phil and I tied for second, BT won. Then we laid about for a while and talked about nick names and Phil's roll of being the new Alpha Male print student.

Time came too soon to leave. Now more sleep. Doctor Who. Drawing. Then printing!

hoot hoot hoot!

Took a long nap that was interrupted by a fire alarm. Now I am awake enough to blog.

Wednesday:

Daniel was half an hour late to class. Some of the people calculated how much money we were spending to sit there, by dividing the amount a credit at our school costs by the number of hours were at school. I think they figured that his lateness cost $15. Oh well.

He did arrive and we got right to presentations. Sandra and Brian. This weeks theme was the watershed.

Ate with Karen in her studio during lunch.

We critiqued Brian's photography, then Matt's little aquarium installation, then Heather's needle point map, then Lana's performance.

It was such a nice day that we held the rest of class down by the river! There was a sandy spot right next to the Steel Bridge that was nice. I made a little castle while we talked and all that.

On the way back from school, I stopped at Trader Joe's for a snack run. I over did it with the snack purchases, but better to have taffy and trail mix and cheese puffs then nothing at all.

I only got about 15 minutes between getting home and heading out with Molly to go to Eugene. Molly is Carmen's friend from college and was a perfect driving companion. We talked about school and art and Portland. Way rad lady. The ride down went really fast, but it was raining and horrible. I thought it would continue to be warm. Oh well.

Luckey's was a place with history, according to the newspaper clippings on the walls, but it didn't stand out that much to me. Pool and a narrow bar with poor service. Carmen and Phil were there and we chatted over a beer. Molly ordered some food. Phil (the guitarist, not my friend Phil from Portland) and I talked about Garth Ennis comics. Once we found out we both liked Preacher and The Boys, well we talked a bunch. The sound guy apparently quit and they venue had to track down someone else, or something along those lines, I don't quite know, but it all worked out. They were the only ones playing.

Adam even showed up! Yay! One of Molly's friends was there as well. And that was pretty much it, but the people at the bar cheered them on with lots of interest. Loved the music, great tunes. Wonderful to hear them live. Doo doo doo do dooo doo do do doooo. It was really nice to just get out of Portland, relax with a friend and some family and make some new friends. To just sit with a drink and relax.

I came back into Portland with Carmen. Tried to stay awake so I wouldn't just doze while she drove on in silence. 3am when I crawled into bed. 6:30 am when my alarm went off. Totally worth it.

Thursday:

Thank god for ink day. Sat and played with ink and kept from nodding off. After the break, Morgan told us some more history but then we had story time and we just went from tangent to tangent. French fashion dolls, peacocks, what snake tastes like, and so on. It was fun.

Illustration was a little more stressful. Stage 2 review, I didn't have much to show him. I had print outs of my pieces and we talked about putting together a portfolio and how to set up an internship and stuff. I need to get really good documentation of my pieces, construct a leave behind, update my resume... So many things to do right NOW instead of next month. Bleh. It was an open work day, which meant another day of listening to people yammer about their schedules. This will probably continue for a while. I need to bring headphones to class. Especially when I'm tired and have no patience.

Went back home. Sort of did nothing. Ate food. Then I started watching Princess Bride and I began to fall asleep, so I just allowed it to happen. Then fire alarm went off.

Tomorrow is clean up this wrecked room of mine day, papier mache time, and plan out internship time. Wheee.

highly productive! hurray!

Kate was our model in figure drawing today. Normally I don't like her because of how much she moves, but as we were focusing on the model stand, it didn't really matter what she did. Morgan finished World Lit Only By Fire. Damn good history. We got another lesson about the Pre-Raphaelites. We got to Burne-Jones, my favorite!

We had a thirty minute project proposal quick fire. I was pretty much all "yo, I'm going to print on this fabric and turn it into bandanas and print on these diecut flat boxes and make them all promotional packaging and stuff. It will be awesome, yo." And that was what I did. While the others mingled, and Robin and Junko learned how to mix ink, I printed away.

The fabric was roughly 44"x130", and I printed it all. I made a print by taking imagery and text from my sketchbook and cutting and taping it all together in a really condensed image, one that would blend at the edges hopefully seamlessly. Which it did! I printed once on the table, and put tape around the outline. Then I put the fabric down and felt where the tape was under it, and that was how I lined it all up. I printed and just moved the fabric over, and kept going. It only took about an hour to print it all. I made some mistakes, but it looks great all around. I showed off my bolt of fabric to tons of people. I was quite proud.

Then I ate lunch.

I scanned in a flat box to use as a layout for the print to go on the box. I turned it into a template and dropped that over some scans of my sketch print in photoshop, and with JP's help, I got it printed and all that jazz. Looks great. Right to scale. On the front it says "Bandana by Trillian 2010". My spellcheck keeps saying it is bandanna, but that just looks wrong to me, and the internet seems to indicate both are correct.

So I got that printed on all 20 boxes. Whoo! I was working hard from noon till four. Go me! Went home, and cut up the bolt into 22x22 squares. 12 of them! I heat set them in the oven, I'm sure it worked... While they were heat setting, I watched The Pacific (so sad) and folded up the boxes and put brads in the sides to keep them secured (so fun). Then I sewed up the sides on the bandanas. Not the best sew job, but it works. Then I stuffed them in the boxes. Hurray! Then at 9pm, I could relax. Lost! Glee! Hurray!

$15 or more generous offer. Bandana. Bandanna. Both are acceptable.

Tomorrow I go to Eugene to see Odd Owl perform. Hoot hoot! I will be back late, so I probably won't blog.

five weeks left?

So apparently an email went out that said class was cancelled. I would have liked to have recieved that email before I got up, and went out in the rain (and it was only raining in the morning, it cleared up about an hour later), and got to class. Suuuuck! So I sat around and talked with Deanne for an hour and a half. Then migrated up to the library for nap time!

Met with Martin for our semesterly advising meeting. He liked the progression of my work and was really favorable towards my growth. It was a good meeting. We talked about internship. Basically I should narrow down where I want to go, and then we'll talk about making up a portfolio and all that. I think I'll go for it. Need to focus on something this semester, and making real word connections is a good direction.

Lounged in the library with poor doped up Dominic and Sivonna. Looked at art books. Chatted.

Yoga went really fast for some reason.

The weather maintained so nice. I documented some of the stuff I did last night. A bit of it came off, so I need to put it back up. Will do that this weekend.

Went to Paper Source in their last few minutes of being open. Got 20 die cut flat boxes to print on. They are going to be printed on with some brand design and bandanna's are going to go in them. They look like little mini take outboxes. I got 10 white, 5 yellow, and 5 pink, with 25 red closure thingies and 25 blue ones. I'm really excited! They are the perfect size too, fit my test bandanna just right.

Finished my burrito (tomorrow I will pack a lunch: tuna fish sandwich, whoo whoo!). Watched House. Drank water. I have the bad tendency to under hydrate at school, so I make up for it by being at home. Also those Propel water thingies make it sooo tasty.

Mom: Treme is awesome. Great music, great feeling of setting. We should totally watch some together next time I come home.

Because I have credits out the wazoo, I was able to register today instead of Wednesday like all the other Juniors.

Tuesday: Professional Practices with Martin French. 6:30-9:15 pm.

Wednesday: Beginning Animated Arts with Rose Bond. 11-5:00 am. Advanced Illustration Studio. Teacher TBA. 6:30-9:15 pm.

Night classes, will find out how those are. Class only two days a week, yeah yeaaah. I also get a studio in my senior year, so I can sort of shift my working practice there instead of my apartment. Will also move out at the end of the semester. I WILL MOVE OUT. MAYBE GET JOB AND STOP BEING TOTAL LEECH. YES.

treme or the pacific/mischief managed

For only being out of bed about eleven and a half hours, I got a lot done. Well I got a fair amount done.

Traded comics with Jim at school, I've been holding on to Hard Boiled for a while, and he has had my Invisibles. Then I got to printing! Emulsion applied like a champ, photocopied my stuff on the big new shiny photocopier, and got it exposed and all that good stuff. My next in class silk screen project is going to be a bandanna! I will also print a design on a box for the bandanna to go in, because I will be selling it. I have a nice bolt of tan fabric, that should yield about 10-15. Karen said you can buy little flat boxes at Paper Source for 45 cents, so I'll check that out. This project also buys me time to think about a larger, more complicated final project.

Today I just printed a print for Dom's The Art of Broke Off thingy. A little fundraiser to cover his medical bills that he incurred while skate boarding. It is nice to balance ones artistic life with things not done for school. And it was fairly simple, just text and image. Sort of done in the same tune as the Odd Owl poster (bold text, line work). You can see the print in the post below this one.

Came back from printing. Organized paper into a four by four foot sheet. At first I was going to write the letters on the sheet, then paint on separate paper and cut out and place on, and then pain straight on the sheet. I ended up cutting out the letters in white and just having those to put up. Put up where and how? Well I can't rightfully do that, so I'm pleading the fifth. But it looks really good and I hope it lasts. It is my final Homeland project. The words are: "If you love someone, let them know". So if you see that somewhere in Portland, it wasn't me. Someone ripped me off.

Came back, put packing tape over the ridges on my puppet. I'm using it to bridge the ribs, so that it won't dip. I also only need a small area to be smooth, the rest will be covered in fabric which will be the hair. Also, probably the bottom four inches will be cut off so I can get my head in. It is really taking shape. Steps next to do: papier mache over the tape, do about two-three more layers over that. Cut off the bottom and fit my head and shoulders into it (it will rest on my shoulders, with some supports). Once that is sorted, probably another three layers of papier mache to reinforce those cuts. Then figure out the eye hole, which will be where the mouth is, which will indicate where the nose will go. Construct a nose. More papier mache layers...Figure how to rig it on my head. Once all that is sorted, then I can start painting. I don't want to paint until it is sturdy and stays on my shoulders.

Didn't check off all the things on my weekend check list, but the things I didn't were not as important as the things I did.

Now, I think I'll watch the new HBO show Treme. It is about New Orleans and stars Steve Zahn. I'll tell you how it is mom, I know how much of a far you are of Zahn (and I'm a fan as well).

The Art of Broke Off - Dominic

Print for Dominic's The Art of Broke Off zine and show, all proceeds go to paying off the medical bills he incurred from dislocating and breaking his ankle. Details here:

http://kungfutoast.blogspot.com/2010/04/broke-off-art-off.html

8 1/2"x11".

Silk screen.

me want more massage

Got up early because if I didn't, I knew I would sleep right in till 12:45 and miss my massage.

Toast, water, internet.

The massage was fantastic! Hallie was a very nice lady in what I guess was her 60's and she was working out of Salon Shibumi, which is right across from the Goose Hollow max stop. Super close. She was really nice. I had an hour massage which was, apparently, a combination of Russian and Swedish massage. I just feel so loose and without tension. My arms were the parts that ended up needing a lighter touch. Don't know why they should have hurt so much. Getting all that kneading and rubbing and human contact. Ahh, so wonderful. Now I want more! But I'll wait, I guess. She also does cupping I believe, that might be an experience...

I did two more full layers of paper mache. Well, two and a half. Or was it one and a half...either way, it is coming along and each layer goes faster and faster. It is getting quite sturdy now. Now I've got to drape the paper over the ribs to smooth it out. Do a couple layers of that. It needs to be really solid before I cut a head and shoulders hole, and an eye hole. Well, sturdy enough, because once I do that, I will probably do some more layers, just to smooth it out. I might have to get more flour soon.

Worked on that, read some comics, had a good Saturday all around. Lots of work tomorrow though. Typical Sunday.

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.

release the mother!

Thursday:

Ink day! We had a male model for once. He was pretty good. Did a lot of poses with his butt in the air though... We are almost done with World Lit Only By Fire. We are to Magellan and Elizabeth now. Did some good work.

Illustration's critique was short form. Martin had good words for most of the work, sometimes I didn't agree with him though. Some people (Dominic and Madeline) put out a lot of work for this assignment, and some seemed to not try as hard. But there is consistent pushing forward and upward towards being awesome and much, much better. Pow pow pow Martin went through the pieces and revealed how awesome they were. My Odd Owl got a good review and high praises. Felt good. Carmen said that if I didn't get an A, she would have a word with him.

Had Quizno's for lunch. It was a nice day, but I remained inside with some of the girls. My nose started running for no good reason, now it is totally chewed up and sore from cheap tissues.

After the critique, Martin announced that we were being given a show in his gallery. All of us, well all of us in the class. We voted down including other classes. It was also a benefit show, with proceeds going to one of three causes: homeless youth, the poor PDX Metro school system, or sex slavery. We voted on the schools. It took a lot of discussion and argument to get there. The sizes of the pieces will be around 11x17 to 30xsomething, but that will change when we find out about cheap frames. Martin also has the right to void any piece he deems unworthy. A lot of pressure, and the theme of the art has to tie in with the charity. I'm not too worried. I'll probably do a reductive screen print portrait of one of the students or something.

Then class time was opened up. Whoo!

Went home. Tidied. Blogger wasn't working so I was unable to blog.

Friday:

Mom is visiting for one night, and one night only. It was raining when I went to meet her at the train station, and the rain came and went all day. We met her friend Sylvia at Andina on 13th and Glisan. Lovely place. Peruvian food. I just had a soda and mooched, as I wasn't starving.

I departed from them early though, as I had to meet Bekka at Tea Zone for one last goodbye. She leaves for Denmark on Tuesday. I'll see her again though, I have no fear our paths will meet. We had a nice little conversation about art and trying hard and working hard and moving about and travel. She got a haircut and it looks good. We walked to Powell's together, met up with mom, and I hugged my dear friend goodbye.

Mum and I walked to my apartment in the sun. Karen stopped by to pick up some stuff she left behind. Mom and I went shopping because I'm low on food and miscellaneous stuff. Pasta dinner with chips and dip starter.

Then we went to see Clash of the Titans! It was opening day, but I guess everyone was seeing it in 3D because the audience wasn't all that full. It was fun. The effects were not up to snuff I felt, but there were a good moments.

No rain, but be took the Max back anyway. Early night. Zzzzz.

Odd Owl - Lady Layer Lineart

Lineart and detail for the Odd Owl poster.

11"x17"

Micron pen

Odd Owl - Venue Poster - Spectacles

Drawn at 5.5"x8.5". To be printed at 11"x17".
myspace.com/oddowl
Micron on bristol paper, with photoshop simplification.

the other, better, Joe Simpson

Another day, another dollar. Except I didn't make any dollars...but I will once Carmen sends me a check for my percentage of the posters sales. Booyah!

Got up early, had a slow morning. Stepped on a piece of glass. Heel didn't hurt too bad when I wore my Romeos though. Still, ouch.

Daniel is pretty miffed that our conversations in class are often lacking. He said he didn't have the energy today to prod us. For the first hour, this bio psychologist talked to us. He incorporates nature into his practices. He was Irish and very very much a ginger. Cool guy. Lana gave a little presentation.

Ate with Karen at lunch.

Gabby gave another presentation. Then we critiqued Kirsten and Phil's pieces. Kirsten had this illustration sort of representing the connection in people's minds. Phil constructed this sort of diorama with all these stand up trees based after air fresheners. Really neat, and we all got trees after!

We watched about an hours worth of video. I was awake during the Joseph Campbell thing, but passed out during the other one. I just couldn't keep my head up. Oh well. Afterwards, we had a nice talk about the readings. Next week is Wilderness! My head is just not in it to make a piece, but I'll figure something out.

Yoga was just me, so I got one on one help! We did some meditation first, and then back work because my back is hella paining. Afterwards I hung out with Karen and BT in the studios. Then I returned!

I'm doing Joe Simpson, the mountaineer, for my next Illustraton project. If you don't know anything about him, just know he is a badass. Broke his leg and still climbed down one of the most difficult faces in the world. Crawled within 20 feet of basecamp even. Took him days.

my arm is sore for no reason

The rain persisted. Bleh.

We returned to drawing the platform in The Figure. It is really hard trying to get four lines to match up to how they are in reality. And if one is off, they all are. And trying to fight the brain and draw what you see and not what you believe you see. I think one of the new lessons was "think like a fish, paint like Cezanne".

Then screenprinting! For the first hour and a half, Christy and Diana talked about Southern Graphics Conference, which is this really rad print expo that happens every year. This year it was in Philadelphia. Cool beans. Apparently there are five art colleges in that city.

Went to Student Council for the free food. Went back to class. I was pretty scatter brained for the day. Got two screens emulsified. I'm doing a monoprint using the lineart from my Odd Owl poster. Don't have paper, just have the screens ready. I'll be printing this weekend. Yay.

After class, I documented my posters. Scanned about 17 of them. Took forever to figure out why the scanner was cropping the image. I had the thumbnail box checked. Argh.

I managed to catch a break in the rain on my way home. Whoo! Robin and Diana invited me over for stir fry. Junko stopped by as well. We gabbed and girl talked. It was a nice evening. Now to sort of what I have to do tomorrow. Mmm.

back to it

I hard a hard time sleeping because my nose was totally clogged. Couldn't breathe through it at all.

But got up and got out the door all right. It was pouring rain. Heinous rain. Thankfully I have my rain pants!

Prof. Adam took forever to get to the reading. He did a lot of summing up and explaining. We really only chatted about the reading, and the last three paragraphs of it at that, for about forty five minutes. After class, Leo and I had meeting with him. I went first. I got an A- on my essay! He said that it was very coherent and most of the questions were about the content and not my lack of writing ability. Some of the papers were barely over a page, double spaced. Insane!

It was still pouring down rain, so I relaxed in the library. Scanned some stuff. Interneted. Got some food. Read Swamp Thing for class. Napped hard for two hours. Read more. There was a thesis class in the library doing a video chat with some other people. Pretty rad.

Yoga! I did pretty well, considering it has been a while. Held the lunges and my body didn't feel so bad.

Tried to scan some stuff but the scanner wasn't writing the stuff to the stuff and argh stuff.

Wasn't raining so hard on my way back.

Hung out at Diana and Robin's for the rest of the night. Just have reading to do. Nothing too major.

you won't take me alive Mary Kay! okay maybe a little...

Looking at my over a thousand blog posts still amazes me.

I set my alarm for 9:30. I hit the snooze a couple times but still ended up sleeping in till noon. Darn.

Helped clean apartment. Sanitized and wiped down the kitchen counter and kitchen and bathroom floors. Need to borrow the vacuum again. Rolled the borrowed lounge furniture back into the lounge.

Harmony was having a little Mary Kay shindig and I remembered it just in time. Brought her a housewarming poster. She lives on the 22nd floor in this building on Harrison. Beautiful view.

It was fun. I have never had a proper facial before, so testing all the products and getting a really good scrub on my face. It was nice. One of the exfoliants was beyond amazing. We tested it on the back of our hands and man on man did it make that sucker soft. So many beautiful products. I did get a 3 in 1 cleanser though, because the stuff I've been using doesn't seem to do anything to my skin. I still break out and my pores are still clogged. And in the little demonstration, you only need a little bit of the stuff to work, so it should last. I want great skin and to age wonderfully. If I'm going to spend my youth pasty, I'm going to spend my thirties flawless.

Couldn't stay long as I had to homework it up. Read more of the essay. Well, trudged through it.

Then Katie and I watched Breaking Bad. And I watched The Pacific. Late night television double feature.

I just realized I have another Homeland piece due in two and a half weeks. Shoot. I thought it was later in the month. Oh well. Need to think about wilderness I guess. Think tomorrow I'll loiter at school during the 11-5 break and read. And nap. As it is 1am and I have to get up in six hours.

something something

Sat in Starbucks for an hour and a half struggling to read Eye and Mind. I got through about 3/4's of it, but had to stop when it just seemed to be going in circles. It is about painting, but it is written in I think the 1950's, so a lot of what he is talking about in terms of art has changed a lot. Still, fascinating.

Katie and Cody were filming some stuff for Katie's thesis at our apartment. She is doing a mock 90's infomercial about her fake company Trypanon. Phil and her friend Ali were playing the Asian couple in her video. It was about 20 minutes of Phil saying the same line and Ali and he staged a fake fight. I kept to my room mostly as the lighting equipment took up what space remained in the living room.

Our apartment looks well trashed right now. So much shifting about and the kitchen isn't looking too proper. Tomorrow will probably be a day of cleaning.

Watching Schindler's List. Only about 2/3 of the way through it. Last day of Spring Break. I did so little. I should have been brought along to Hawaii.

what a spectacle!

I drew another Odd Owl promo flier today. This one featured a spectacled owl wearing spectacles and smoking a pipe. A lot of detail in the feathers and branch. Took about two and a half hours.

I've been pretty consistently getting up at 11:57 or so. Before Noon.

Need to write up an invoice for Carmen. She agreed to cover my cost of materials and whatnot. Pretty awesome as we never discussed that possibility when I started (which needs to be something I need to get into the habit of asking for).

Friday is gone. Now I just have Saturday and Sunday. Wrote out my next week to dos. Mostly just reading stuff. Need to get on that.

Mom and Pop and Nate and Rubie are enjoying Hawaii right now.

post office blues

Got the posters sorted out. Picked 8 to go to Luckey's in Eugene and 16 for my own private collection. The first trip to the Post Office contained buying a box to put the large posters in, and mailing the tube. I got booted out of the line on the first pass because I didn't have the tube taped and since the box wasn't big enough, I had to find stuffing for it. On the second pass I got the tube mailed and box paid for. Then, in the pouring rain, I returned home to use the left over packing peanuts and wadded paper to secure the posters. The box got soggy on the trip, but the posters were fine. It took forever to find the packing tape. The ride back to the Post Office was clear.

On the first pass, it turned out I wrote the TO and FROM on the top in the wrong places and was booted to rewrite them on a piece of paper that the lady taped on. She was really nice about all my mistakes though. Now I know better. Some 250 posters are on their way to San Fransisco right now. Hurrah!

Spent the rest of the day doing nothing. Figures the sucky weather comes when I don't have to work. Now Thursday is gone. Friday..then Saturday...then Sunday. Then my Spring Break is over. Dang.