returning and finishing

Friday:

Party!! Karen arrived at around 2pm. We went to school and cleaned out my locker and drawer. She swung by my place so I could grab a belt, and then we drove to the end of year party at the park up on 24th & Raleigh or whatever.

Hot dogs! Beer! No open bottle laws so Daniel was sharing his own stuff! But I paced myself really well.

Did a lot of sitting on the ground. Ate a hot dog and a half. Drag some soda. Talked to people. Ran around pretending to be an airplane. Fell down a couple times.

There was a bouncy castle! Twice as big as last years bouncy castle. And because of the liability the school would have, the little children in the park were not allowed to jump. They just had to watch while drunk adults had lots of fun. I went in a couple times. It was awesome.

I drew a little bit as well.

Sat at the ukulele circle. Chatted with Heather.

Stood with the design majors.

Ran around more.

There are not many great stories, I just really hung out and talked and drank and ate food and had an overall good time.

Karen got "sleepy" and went to her car for a "light nap". So I didn't go home with her.

Continued along with the design majors. Chris, Drew, Taylor and I swung by Panda Express first. Then Low Brow Lounge, where I sobered up. It was a design major's birthday so we cheered him on. Catherine, Jim's girl, was there. But no Jim. Jim did show later on, with his two former roommates. A bunch of us migrated to Ground Kontrol, the local barcade. You got arcade games on the first floor and pinball on the second, and all of them have cup holders. Taylor bought me a drink and gave me some quarters. We played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together. Then I played Batman Forever pinball. Then played House of the Dead with one of Jim's roommates. Fun!

Eventually it was time to call it a night. Taylor gave me a lift back, like a good designated driver. Fell asleep really good.

Saturday:

Only hung over for a few hours. Got into a slow gear and tidied the apartment. Wanted things clean and sort of put away before I packed. Two loads of dishes. Karen returned my art.

Packed relatively light. There is some room in my bag.

I brought Jade Pinkett-Smith, my jade plant cutting, home with me. I didn't want the water to run out and the root to dehydrate while I was gone. The last chunk of the plant is doing really well, I don't want to risk it. It was a lot of hassle to bring the plant with me, but it is my luck and I want my luck with me. I caught the max perfectly, and only had to wait a few minutes for the downtown transfer. I got to the station about an hour early. Checked bag and waited.

The train was about half full, and no one sat next to me, so I stretched out, read, ate a hot dog, and relaxed. Mmm.

Nathan was at the station to pick me up. Played Wii at his place while mom and pop came from Seabeck to pick me up. Wii! Rubie offered me buckets of food.

Wii is fun. I did some Wii fitness and some Wii fencing.

Then back to Seabeck before it got dark. Dad microwaved me a delicious cheese steak. We looked at stuff on Internet, and then it was bed time.

My bed here is so big. Mmm.

AWESOME!

I had an awesome day and an awesome night. Now I need to go fall asleep and pack in the morning. More details tomorrow.

"what was that again?" "a mobius strip!"

AHhhh oh my god my Junior year is DONE! I'M GOING TO BE A SENIOR! THESIS! DIPLOMA! REAL LIFE! AAhHH!!

For some stupid reason, I decided to bike my puppet to school instead of getting up 20 minutes earlier and walking. I had a death grip on the opening in the top and my handlebar, and even then the nose skinned some paint. Dang. Still, I arrived, and people dug it.

Nigel's puppet was one of my favorites. He attached a marionette to his guitar and sang and played for us and went in a circle and made the puppet dance as well. It was amazing. Leah dressed herself up as one of those inflatable tube people. There were a lot of puppets dancing to music. Music provided by Justin on the ukulele, Andrea on the bass, Kevin on the drums, and Nigel on the guitar. Robin volunteered me, and I just danced with my head flopping about. It didn't stay secure all that well. The rigging was terrible. But it was fun. I also played Kevin's drums a bit with the big head. It was a fun final all together. I don't have any documentation of it sadly.

Beautiful day. We had to have our pieces on the wall at 11am, but the meetings were one on one and I had mine scheduled at 3 so I could get stuff done. Unfortunately I got it done all too well and had to kill a few hours. But the weather was prime for time killing. Just lazy and sunny. Mmm.

My meeting with Martin went really well. He had high compliments for the Ravenous posters. He seemed thrilled that I was still stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things that were still me. He said for the summer to think about concepts, to sketch sketch sketch, and play with typography.

I was having trouble getting a hold of Karen, who was supposed to help me take my flat file and locker home, but her phone was off or something. Through Lacey and many room changes, I caught up with her in the print lab. Tomorrow she will help me move out my stuff.

I ended up hanging out with BT, Daniel, and Heather in the print lab for an hour. Justin and Phil stopped by as well. Just a lot of chat and joking. Karen and Lacey returned from their test and we went out for ice cream! Ice cream crew: BT, Karen, Lacey, Heather, Daniel, Phil, Tabitha, Sarah (I think)... whoo! I had a root beer float. We all sat at Jameson Square Park and looked like a real cool bunch. We played with the wig I made for my puppet, Daniel found his way into my bag because I turned around and he was wearing my scarf and put on my helmet and sunglasses. Hahah. It is a good scarf.

We parted ways into a couple groups. BT, Lacey, Heather, Karen and I went to Low Brow Lounge and got various forms of fried potatoes and fish. I just had a sprite. Mmm. The night was really nice.

Walked Karen to a Max stop and rode home. Took a shower because I was really warm and I was wearing dark constricting pants. Tomorrow I break out the pale legs and shorts! Day after tomorrow I go to Seabeck!

ONE MORE DAY

Oh man, I can see the light! It is almost there. Freedom!

So mom and pop, how about Saturday for my return to Portland? Call me!

Homeland. One final day. One all day critique. I got up early and assembled my slide show and got to school in perfect time.

Daniel was not there in perfect time. Oh well. He brought pastries.

Heather went first with her tart and brownie and community recipe zine.

Hanna brought out a catalog of beet growth.

Joey had a mini installation about the American backyard.

Travis documented four posters tacked to wood that he left places.

Phil stabbed a plant with a circuit and measured the output.

Tabitha pasted paper to different sites and documented its disintegration.

Kristen...I forget what Kristen did.

Sandra grew out her lawn and suffered allergies to document its growth.

Bryan planted a public space and documented it along with a similar space that he didn't plant.

Kirsten made a window box of clippings from her building's lawn.

Matt did an audio of an outdoor space and combined it with a scent and some clippings.

Maddi documented different walks she went on, in a really beautifully composed video.

I think that is it.

My critique went well.

Nap time!

Last day of yoga for months time. More leg work.

Then it was finish my puppet time. This time thankfully does not take too long. It's done. It seems pretty darn done. Finally.

So Saturday?

energy crystal fading

Last night I decided that sleep would be better than pushing myself awake. I was crashing at 10pm. I couldn't even get the energy to make myself some tea.

In the morning I woke up at 9:35. I have class at 8am. I let out a series of swears, took quick shower, stuffed on some clothes, and rode to school with all my might. I think they were doing a single long pose, so I only got the last 40 minutes of it. Oh well. So I missed the majority of one class. I still arrived. Turned in my documentation disc and a couple pieces.

Then it was silk screen final critique! Well, had to pick up some cheese. We were having a burrito potluck. I got a small brick of cheddar and mozzarella. I brought my shredder so my cheese was different from Tom's packaged shredded stuff. A lot bigger chunks of cheese with mine.

The potluck came at lunch, so there were some critiques to get out of the way. Mine went first (for the bandana and final zine). And it was a pretty smooth critique. People liked the zine a lot. I talked about making work to share and having enthusiasm for your work. There was a craftsmanship question on the sewing of the bandana (there were some threads) and I agreed that yeah, it was a little bit of laziness on my part to not clean it up. It was a good critique.

Casey followed. She screen printed edible art. Seriously. First she made peanut butter cookies, then she put dollops of white chocolate on them, and put wax paper of that to make it flat, and then she put the screen over them and put cinnamon on the screen, and rubbed it through the screen and onto the cookie. And it turned out really well. She also went through massive trial and error. Peanut butter, liquid chocolate, just about everything sort of viscous went through the screen. Awesome!

Then it was potluck time. We combined our stuff with the Tom's class, so it was an epic spread. Cheese, meat, biscuits, veggies, beans, rice, vegan gluten free something, enchiladas, flan, lemon squares, soda, and other vegetable medleys. It was an awesome feast. I got well stuffed.

Junko made these beautiful little silkscreen monotypes.

Robin made a third house at night silk screen. Even more complex than her previous one. Breath taking. Gorgeous. Each one improves on the last vastly. She is so great!

Chelsey did these combination monotypes.

Patsy did this nearly life size California Condor. It was mixed media. Cut foam board body with combination printed head and legs. It was supposed to go up on the wall in the commons, but it fell down. It was really striking. I want a Patsy bird tattoo. Maybe a heron.

Ali followed with two beautiful drawings of an abandoned school reclaimed. Really nice line art. It totally fits with the car aesthetic from her last critique. Rad.

deAnn did a little mini installation. She had a metaphor figure with lots of symbols, and behind it was a hanging printed scroll, and there were some propped organic shapes. It was pretty neat.

Tabitha's 90's nostalgia work had a lot of nice variety. I told her she got too good at CMYK because she didn't have the unplanned errors that appeared in the Weird Al piece that made it so striking.

Finally came Diana. She whipped out an awesome couple pieces that really spoke about her and her aesthetic. It was a supreme combination of all the different types of work she has been doing. Beautiful drawings, nice text, experimentation in layers. And just masterfully done. Beautiful!

Then class was out! I had to print my illustration posters, so I dashed to Utrecht and got three sheets of arches paper (to allow for potential errors in printing) and a new three pack of sketchbooks and some pens. All I need for summer sketching!

With JP's help, we put both of the posters on one sheet to print as large as possible. The Carlyle one looks great, but the printer decided to have a fit just an inch into the Pearce poster. I've written Pearce so much that it doesn't look right anymore. So now I have a full sheet of paper and a couple scraps. The posters look great! I'm really pleased with the printing. They are also a slightly new technique for me. The posters improved once I gave up on my original composition, that wasn't working at all.

After printing, I swung by Yur's for a little drink with BT, Craig, Jay, and others. The design kids came in right after me, but they occupied their own nook. I had my usual and then ordered a grilled cheese. They left, and Jim and Mel came over to replace them. Catherine joined us after Mel left. It was a lot of trading of people. We drew and chatted and had general fun.

I went home with the intention of unwinding with Glee, then I started feeling really nauseous and sick and couldn't keep upright. So I allowed myself to sleep with the intention of absolutely getting up two hours early to work on stuff. And so far, so good.

Ravenous Posters

Finished posters for the film Ravenous.

Robert Carlyle and Guy Pearce.

Acrylic paint with digitally composed text, that was originally hand drawn.

Ravenous Paintings

Paintings to go with a poster design for the film Ravenous.

Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle.

Acrylic on paper.

8 1/2"x11".

web cam, I dub thee Vroomfondel

Didn't say a word in class. Just sort of sat there and tried to follow what the teacher was saying, but I was totally lost all together. I've been lost for a while.

Helped deAnn chop some copper.

Ate soup and bread for a late breakfast/early lunch. Finished Vampire Loves. Talked to Dom and Heather. Wandered over to Office Max and picked up some burnable CDs for documentation and spent some of my juried show money on a web cam. I want to do a vlog about my senior thesis process. I think it would be fun and would take this whole chronicling thing I've been doing for the past few years to another level. The web cam was also on sale, whooo!

I ended up not taking a nap at all. Had to do a lot of documentation (most of my work for The Figure) and playing around with Ravenous (finally got the text to a place I like) and getting all my files sorted out (lots of scattered documentation on my school computer).

Yoga break! I was really warm all through yoga, but it was good to decompress.

Then back to documentation and burning of discs to turn into teachers.

Swung by Trader Joe's on the way home. Salami! Bread! Apples! Bananas! Pasta! I really needed food.

Then I played around with my web cam for way too long. It is late, but my semester sum up essay for Intermediate Screen is almost finished. Tomorrow I'll sleep in.

the end is in sight, but finals are still in the foreground

I woke up at 6:47 and was convinced I had slept 15 hours. Thankfully, it was just the am and I went back to bed.

I actually ticked off my to do list! I'm behind a couple small illustrations, but I got these new Ravenous poster paintings that I am really excited about.

Finished the hair wig cap thingie, and it is about half covered with fleece right now. It is really shaping up. I couldn't have done it without my trusty Brother sewing machine (thanks Grandma!).

I'm almost out of food. I couldn't decide if my Raisin Bran was moldy or sugary, so I threw it out.

Yeah, just sat about and alternating drawing with painting and sewing. Now I need to write. Busy three days ahead of me, and then FREEDOM!

nice weather is here!

Totally sluggish start to the day. Alarm went off at 9:20, and I kept hitting the 10 minute snooze. Eventually I got up and texted Karen telling her no hurry.

Fabric Depot trip!! BT tagged a long.

I just needed some brown polar fleece for the hair. Fleece would have enough body and would hold up to being shredded without unravelling or leaving lots of little threads. Plus you wouldn't get the under color. I found a great color for 8.99 a yard at 20% off, and bought a Crunchie and Curly Wurly to go along with it. BT bought some buttons and interfacing. Karen found some cloth as well. Whoo!

Then we got lunch at a Mexican restaurant on 82nd. I had a chimichanga. It was quite delicious. I treated Karen in exchange for the car ride (better than pitching in for gas or whatever).

After lunch we headed to Scrap, a place where people donate left over supplies, out dated this and that, or overstock. It is resold on the super cheap. It is a pretty cool place, I haven't been since the pre-college program I attended in 2006. Has practical stuff like fabric and yarn, and then it has piles of thank you stickers with people's names on them, miscellaneous crayon buckets, and things you pay for by the handful. I got four clothing patterns for 1$! I got two shirt patterns, a jumper pattern, and a romper pattern. Some summer projects. They had collected patterns you could get for a buck, but I bet a lot of them were not very good at all. Whoo!

Today was sunny and lovely and so we went for ice cream. Sat out side and chomped on delicious Ben & Jerry's. Finally the weather is behaving like May. It was March for too long. April never happened.

I was driven back and then it was work time.

Got to painting my puppet head. Had to give it a face. Took about two hours and I still have more to do. Also started work on the wig cap. Instead of gluing the fabric to the head, I decided to make a cap that fits the head and sew the fabric onto that. Then I can rig the wig to the head and not have to worry about chunks getting ripped off or falling off due to poor gluing. Got about a third of the cap pinned into place. A lot of work, but it is quite fun to sit and listen to This American Life and put the pieces together.

Also did a drawing of my jade plant. Still behind on work. Have a big essay to write tomorrow. Some Ravenous sketches to sort out. More little illustration stuff to assemble...ehh yeah.

puppet progress

Me wearing the head (and new shirt).

In progress painted head. Redoing the eye makeup.

Lots of fun! Got the fabric for the hair, so that should be on tomorrow.

the best (silver!)

Friday:

Best day I have had in a long while. Just feel great. Revitalized!

Morgan had the sketchbook zine in hand when I showed up to class today. He held it up to show to everyone and said that this was...I forget the exact word he used but something that implied beyond A plus plus work. He also said that he wished I would stick around at PNCA and do the same thing for every Focus Week.

After my great day, I came home and blogged and in the process, my computer became encrusted with spyware. This happened while I was blogging so the above is the only part that was written before I was prevented from posting. Damn. Well I'll try to write it all up again. It was a busy day. Now back to figure drawing:

Last ink day. I had a large leftover sheet of paper from a prior drawing project, a nice toothy yellow sheet. So I drew all my figures on that. But before we got to drawing, we had to seek our revenge on the audio class. We share a wall with an audio class and they constantly soak our class with their work, which is quite distracting. So we massed in a little figure drawing choir and in unison, we projected the Flintsones theme song at their wall. Ha! Brilliant.

Then it was time for ink drawing. Morgan read to us an essay about Cubism by Jon Berger. Quite fascinating to actually put art in context, as opposed to just learning about the pieces.

Illustration was an open work day. It started with Martin thanking us for the artistic energy we have had this semester. He left for a few minutes to sort something out. In his absence, Beth whipped out some ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. Delicious! We love Beth. Martin loved the ice cream.

My letter shapes got a good review. I totally messed up inking the picture of Guy Pearce though. It looks ugly and...sloppy. But I still used it for a rough composition. I was having trouble making it look like the image in my head. Now I'm not quite sure what that image was...

After class, we went to Yur's for a little pre-First Thursday drinking. Just beer and friends. Danny, Leo, BT, Karen, Josh, Janessa, Jon, and Dom namely. And a few MFA's and their friends occupied another table. I wonder if PNCA students constitute half of Yur's revenue? Every time I am there, we tend to dominate. BT gave me a drawing. A wonderful drawing of Hercule Poirot! A few months ago he revealed to me that his mustache was fake. It broke my heart! In the drawing, Hercule is saying "It's always been real for you Trillian xoxo Hercule Poirot". Love it!

Karen got Danny to draw her a sandwich.

Josh, Janessa, Jon and I wandered down to the 13th Street First Thursday booths. Mostly overpriced knick knacks and large ugly sculptures. Then it was time for the Illustration Juried Show!

There was free cheese and crackers and wine! Whoo! The show looks pretty good. A lot of variety. You can really see how different and varied we all are. Martin mentioned earlier today he will be showing our portfolios to some higher ups at companies. Exciting.

The winners of the Juried Show were announcer. Winners were picked by the Jury.

Bronze- Sally Jablonsky

Silver- Trillian Spencer

Gold- Kevin McClain

That is right. I won silver. 300 entries, 50 picked for the show, and I was SECOND! SILVER! WHOOO YEAAHHH! The prize was cold hard cash. Nice!

Janessa and I went to Life of Riley afterwards. I had a soda because I wasn't ready to drink more. Josh showed up and said he saw a ghost in the bathroom. He said he saw someone enter the bathroom and he followed and then there was no one in the bathroom... probably a secret agent.

Cupcake also showed up, I don't know her real name, well I do but I just prefer Cupcake. Anyway, we wandered over to Everett Street to check out that stuff. I got separated from the crew when I locked up my bike, but I found them outside Igloo. Craig Wheat and his lady Olivia were also there. Craig had a piece in the igloo show, but the place was packed and it was impossible to see any of the art. Booo!

I wandered with my friends and wandered straight into a strip club with them. Cupcake, Sean Carney, Olivia, Craig, Josh, Janessa... the place was called Magic Garden. I broke a little of my prize money on a drink. Spent most of the time catching up with Craig and talking about how good friends don't care if you haven't really talked in a few months. Also talked to Olivia about tattoos. I've been thinking about getting ink a little bit lately. I think a Patsy Gelb designed great blue heron would make a good one. Hmmmn. But I need more of my own money, and I just don't have enough of my own money to get one. But yeah, it was fun. Also one my classmates turned out to be a stripper! I won't name her name, but she isn't illustration. After one of her sets, she saw me and waved and came over and I commented that it was nice to see all of her tattoos. Turns out one of her good friends Craig knows...from Montana. It is a really small world, as it turns out. Or maybe just small for artists. Ha.

Lots of fun. At 11 I parted, got my bike, and road back to Life of Riley and caught BT and Karen right as they were finishing up their dinner.

Walked Karen back to her car and then rode off to Pionner Place to see Iron Man 2! The ending was a little anti-climactic, but the effects and characters were good. It was quite funny. Scarlett Johansson was very attractive in her little outfits, though a little on the thin side. Kicked a lot of butt she did. But yeah, it was good just not great. Very much a middle movie, and not all that stand alone.

Today was great. The weather was also fantastic. Got home at around 2:45am. Went to bed at 3:30 after blogging which ended up being unbloggable. Woke up at 4:30pm...

Saturday:

Woke up really late, so I got right to work. Painted my puppet head. Started to tidy up.

My computer was infected with spyware, but thankfully only the Marvin account was unusable. On the Arthur Dent account I was able to download a spyware remover and clean my computer. Nathan helped.

Did laundry.

Jay Lee is going to come over in a few, we are going to get food. I'll update again in the night time, I just wanted to get last nights happenings written up. Whoo!

Update!

Jay came over and we went to Thai Chili Jam, the nearby Thai food place. I had the something something something noodles and Jay had the pad thai. Mine was sooo delicious. Perfect meal to have after not eating a lot for such a long time. Got totally stuffed. In return for the meal, I mended her pants! She needed some patch work done and she thought of me and my sewing abilities. So I looked up a video online of how to patch, I practiced on a pair of my own jeans, and then did hers. And they look great! Legitimately patched up! Whoo! She had to catch the bus at 11:30 so she took off a little early.

I watched the new episode of Community. It was so good, I watched it twice. Yall should watch it, it is on Hulu.

Tomorrow morning I go to Fabric Depot with Karen to get fabric, and then I draw draw draw because I am way behind in draw draw drawing.

I can't bother talking, just going to leave notes

I can't stop being exhausted. But I'm plugging along.

Good ol' Homeland class.

Kristen and Matt gave some presentations. The theme of today's class was banquet. So lots of reading about good food and genetically engineered food. Whee! Duford brought up a good point about how food is sort of the new cause that people fight for. Or something.

Karen got me a slice of pizza for lunch because she owed me a pizza debt from a few nights ago. Went to the post office after that.

For her project, Kristen made a sort of country fair display featuring corn and corn food and corn products. The smell of the popped corn was nauseating. All the food was yellow or beige and when it was piled together, it looked gross. Bleh.

Hannah on the other hand made flax seed bread loafs and made her own butter and brought in jam she made and one her husband made. It was so delicious, all of it. Perfectly sweet and salty. I told her that my mom always said that a man who makes jam is worth marrying. Okay in truth my mom never said that, but it seemed like a good comment to make at the time. And why wouldn't a jam making man be worth marrying? My mom just never urged me to go after boys and make one my husband, jam maker or otherwise.

Finally Gabi (Gabbi...Gabby) made a quilt referencing the 7000 years of agriculture and how it is beneath us...and stuff. Uhm.

Then we all watched Food Inc. Goddamn I don't think I can eat any meat for...like 19 hours. Uhg. Really depressing and eye opening to learn where it comes from. Meat and grain and all that. Really informative, if only I hadn't nodded off in the last 15 minutes of it.

Had a final chunk of discussion then it was done!

Cut and stapled my zines. Got a 10 minute rest on the couch and then it was yoga time!

Just me and one other student. I should have requested more shoulder work. Mine are in terrible shape. Bleh.

Last night I went to get some ibuprofen and noticed the 180 capsule bottle I bought last semester was three-fourths gone. So I left a passive aggressive note simply staying that Katie should get her own because these were mostly gone and I barely had any of it. Big bottles of pills are expensive, that is why I bought a lot so that I wouldn't run out any time soon. She wasn't pleased about the note, but I can't be bothered to be confrontational anymore. I just need to finish this semester and get home and more importantly: away from here.

Had some pasta. Watched The Pacific. Then I put on Ravenous and worked on my illustration stuff, which is a two part poster for Ravenous! In the full length of the movie I only got the text done. I'm doing two posters, same title text. One will feature Carlyle's character, the other Pearce's. I'm excited for this.

week has barely started...

It is only Tuesday but I'm totally dead right now. Blehth.

We only did two poses in The Figure. Two loooong poses. One hour each. Took a while to get started and had a longish break. I'm pretty satisfied with both of the drawings, it just is exhausting to draw that much. My legs were paining and it was only 11am. I had a full day of printing ahead of me.

JP was sick so I had to figure out the printing on my own. Well, Matt (other Matt) helped me a lot. And it worked perfectly! Got some nice quality prints of my sketchbook drawings, just ready to be put on a screen. Which I did. Two screens with emulsion and exposed images ready to be printed by 1pm.

Went to Safeway for lunch. This guy got the last of the baked potato and bacon soup right before me. He just greedily poured it all into a large container and was all "ha ha, that is the last of it". Boo! But turns out the corn dog, plus potato wedges, plus small soda meal is only 1.99. So I gave that a shot. I was surprised at the size of the small soda. Looked more like a medium. The corn dog was tasty as well. Mmm chomp chomp.

Cut down my paper. Got some nicer paper from Christy, stuff that was leftover from the poster project. Cut it in half by accident. I needed to cut it into 11" slices, but when I cut it into 20"...well I went from getting six zines a sheet to four. Damn. Oh well. I'll think through it more next time.

The printing took about an hour longer than I had expected. 100 two sided zines takes TIME. Lots of it. Lots of time on my feet. My legs hurt so bad, and I got quite hungry. I folded and stapled a couple, but saved the rest for later tonight.

Ordered some hot wings when I got back. Really need to go food shopping, I keep eating out. Ate them while watching Glee.

Folded my zines while watching Treme and Lost.

Listened to This American Life while painting my puppet white as a base coat.

So very tired...

The zine looks great though. Can't wait to staple and hand them out.

swoon! find your people!

I like Monday. I don't have to write as much. It is pretty much way over my head, computer, food, nap, yoga, go home. All though, I did do something different after yoga. But first:

Way over my head. Damn existentialist phenomenology. I started out almost having a grasp of it, now it has all gone to hell. Kind of just sit there and try to focus. I'm so screwed on the final project. I'll do it...but if I get a B in the class I'll totally be please. Computer. Scanned in my sketchbook and created two 11"x14" 300dpi files ready for fancy printing tomorrow. Did a mock up to make sure the layout is correct, and it totally is. Posted some more sketches. I just want to print print print, don't want to do anything else. Blah. Food. Got soup. Didn't have the good bacon and potato soup though. Meh. Also got a pity parfait because I didn't get the Big Giant internship. Oh well. Keep at it I guess. Nap. Got a good one and a half hour one. I didn't nap that much for the longest while, and now I really look forward to them. The library couches are that good. I shared the long one with Sivonna. Two napping illustration majors. Yoga. Did some modified, assisted bridges. The sun was out and I was positioned right in its path, so I was warm and toasty. And then... Swoon. Swoon is a street artist turned installation artist turned "I'm going to make a boat with a bunch of people and sail down the river in it" artist. Totally rad lady. Her art is phenomenal. Just exquisite figure drawings. Some are cut paper, some are wood block. They are quite individual as well. She talked for about 45 minutes, and then answered a few questions. Her main advice was to "find your people". Find your group. Find your collaborators. Find those people that make art and will encourage you to continue making it. I think I have a lot of these people. For the boats, check out: http://www.swimmingcities.org/ Home. Well first, Karen, Lacey and I went to Pizzacatto and got some slices. Mmm. BT, Chloe, Ursula, and Agnes were also at the Swoon lecture, but they went their own way. Now I am home. So tired. Tomorrow I get to print!

Spring Thesis Sketches 2010 - Batch 2

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

Micron in floppy moleskin.

●retail therapy

Saturday:

●Kick Ass. A movie. Went to the late showing at Broadway Metro. It was fun. The violence was varied, and it had some good silly moments. Enjoyed watching it, don't know if I'd feel like watching it again.

●Puppet. Applied another layer. Constructed the nose.

●My room. I tidied it a little. But some stuff away. Looks better to me, but still needs a lot of work.

●Sleeping. I did a lot of it.

●Eddie Izzard. Started watched Dress to Kill on Netflix. Started dozing off so I shut it off and went to bed.

●Exhausted. I am so very very tired.

●This semester. Really has kicked my butt. Two weeks left.

●Enthusiasm. Gotta get it.

●Doctor Who. AWESOME!

Sunday:

●Clothes! Went to Forever 21 and bought some. Two pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts, and a western shirt from the sale rack. Came it at an amount that is equal to the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

●42$.

●Some of my older pants have trouble fitting.

●Should pick up some regular cardio and a better diet this summer.

●Just five pounds should be enough. I like being able to fit into my clothes. I look the same, just a little softer than I was a few months ago.

●Got some more layers on my puppet.

●The nose is all on and it is really shaping up.

●Almost time to paint!

●In the next week I gotta go to Fabric Depot and get some brown fleece for the hair. I should be able to shred it, and have it stay together enough. Not sure how I'll attach it just yet.

●Tidied a little bit.

●Didn't draw at all.

●Really need to draw.

●Need enthusiasm.

●Breaking Bad just keeps getting better.

●Gotta stop watching television.

●Work. Work.

●Work.

●Sleep.

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.