muffins!

Feeling tired, so I think I might take the "read a chapter of Packing for Mars and go to bed early route" instead of staying up. I was pretty productive last time I woke early on a Tuesday.

Had some oatmeal and tea. Watched Bored to Death. Traded my alarm for one that worked at Ace Hardware. Now it reads time like it ought, and doesn't count forward in five minute intervals. It was cold and went and I was under warmed. Thankfully I have a coat in my studio for such under prepared occasions.

Dropped a DVD off in the library and went to the computer lab to work on my animation. The lip sync actually went pretty well. I think there might have been a way of doing it without having 28 layers of images, but I didn't know it. Then I wasn't sure what was due, so I exported all the frames as images, and traced over the outlines of the key images, and copy and pasted them into the sync of the animation and put that to the bit of Somewhere Over the Rainbow that I had to do. This is easily summed up, but it took a long long time to do for just four seconds worth of animation. But I'm happy with it. I'd like to show you but the video has the song in it, and the song is copywritten...yeah. I'll export a version without the song.

My stomach gurgling for food, I bid adieu to my illustration buddies and went home. Finished my leftovers, gnawed on some salami, ate an apple. Watched House and Lie to Me and worked on drawings to be put into my slide show. Little cartoons and title text. Gotta scan and color those in tomorrow. Also have to work on the proposal writing stuff. Feeling weirdly tired though, so I think sleep is the best option right now.

Oh, Tabitha brought over some great pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that her mother made. They are FANTASTIC! And the perfect thing to consume because my teeth are tender from all the sugar. Once agan.

grrr mad, but whoo party

Blogging now, because I'm going out later and don't know when I'll be back.

Set my alarm, but this magical 9:30am alarm never seems to register because I woke up, looked at the clock at 11:12 and went "CRAP!" and bounded out of bed. Showered, ate some toast. Then I was off to see the Animation Show of Shows at Cinema 21. A free showing of animation.

It was cold, but I had my mobius scarf. The animations were AMAZING. The show itself was put on by an animation producer, Ron Diamond, who travels the world and puts together a great "best of" animation roll. I didn't catch the name of a lot of the shorts, but there were some brilliant ones. One was narrated by Tim Minchin, I enjoyed that one. "Angry Man" was disturbing, sad, and so complex in its all together. There was stop motion meets Kent Williams piece that had my jaw dropped through it. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. A lot of the shorts were like that. So unusual and beautiful. Pure art.

Then it was over and the Brothers Quay short was cut. Boo.

Went back. Ate some scramble (eggs and ground beef). Chilled. Went down to get a drink for the party. Gotta bring something for the hosts, and I'm not feeling up to cooking something (seeing as how the brownies are a bit stiff). Then I went to the computer lab. And realized I had left my guide at home. Again. What a dummie. And again I tried to go it without. I struggled for a long time, getting more and more pissed off. I should have just gone home, and gone back. But by the time I realized THAT I was too mad to be much more productive. I'm not a fan of technology. It just wouldn't do what I needed it to, and it pissed me right off.

So I went home. I'm behind on my sacred list. A better Trillian would take a breather and not go out and resume work. However I am not a better Trillian and really want to have a fun night. So I'm going to do that. And Sunday and Monday will be work days. Be at school. All days. In the lab. Working. Listening to stuff. Slide show, animation, computer printing, drawing.

cabinet of curiosities

For most people, being done by midnight would be sort of a late night, but for me it is perfect! I can get up, go to school, and have a comfortable amount of time to do all my stuff (in theory). No worries. I'm so freaking set for things! Yeah!

I even accidentally slept in. I was awake at 10, even got out of bed to get a glass of water. And then I got back in bed...yeah. This non twin bed will be my undoing. Three years of just decent sleeping has been replaced by near perfect sleep. Yeah.

Had my standard four parter breakfast. I almost have the timing down perfectly. Turn on the kettle, put the bread in the toaster but don't put push the lever down just yet. Fry up the bacon. Beat the eggs while the bacon is cooking. The water should come to a boil some time, so make tea. When the bacon is almost done, toast the bread. Remove bacon and drain the fat. Scramble eggs. Put eggs next to bacon. Toast should pop up. Butter toast, put next to bacon and eggs. Remove tea bag. Enjoy and be sated for a long while.

Now I am out of bacon. And eggs. Blah.

I drew the cover for my portfolio, it could use some perfecting but it works as a better place holder for now. Wrote up the text as well, but I ended up not using it. Partly because Georgia worked fine once I tweaked it (unclear what the type Georgia looks like? Well it is what I use for my blog. I love it). But I didn't have time to scan it all in before the Print Portfolio meeting.

Every year the print department puts together a print portfolio. It is open to anyone who has (or is enrolled in) done a level 300 printmaking course, or honorary invitees like Lacey who makes beautiful reductive woodblock prints. Anyway, this year I decided to take part. The meeting was for size and theme. It was decided to be 10"x10". You can get six prints out of one sheet of standard printmaking paper, which is good when it comes to buying enough paper to do an edition of, say, 45. The theme was whittled down from cabinet of curiosities, aquatic life, chronology, body parts, and botany to cabinet of curiosities. A pretty good theme, really open to interpretation. Exciting!

Oh did I mention the rain? Yeah, I got nice and wet on the way down to school and not a minute later when I emerged from the studio, where I stowed my bike, it had stopped. Drat!

Anyway, meeting over I googled how to get from PNCA to Madeline's. Luckily the 77 stop was close. So I got on that, transferred to the 12 on Sandy. It was raining again and I got nice and wet while getting my umbrella out. Boo. I prematurely hit the stop button and apologized to the bus driver for jumping the gun. It had stopped raining for the walk to Madeline's. Last Movie Monday I went to, I was in shorts and my leg was gnarly from hitting the pavement, and it was sunny on my way there. This time it was dark, and cold, and three layers were not enough. Madeline made me a quesedilla. I wasn't expecting to arrive on time, but I did.

The movie was Aliens, which is a great action film. I nibbled on M&Ms and kicked back and enjoyed the film on her amazing television. Great great movie. Dried off. Madeline gave me a lift back to school (where my bike was). I also asked if it would be all right if I Trick or Treated with her on Sunday, and she said YES! Whoo! Yay for friends with younger siblings.

I scanned the portfolio stuff in, and dropped it into InDesign. Printed it out. Liked how it looked. Adjusted a couple things. Liked it even better. Left the library at 11:40. Talked to Jon at the front desk. Went home. Whoo! Done!

Tomorrow I'll go to student council, so that means getting out of the house before 1pm. This will make Wednesday a little easier because I'll probably be tired enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Whoo! These five days went by fast. Probably because I did something each day, instead of doing a lot of nothing. I need to list what needs to be finished for my costume. Glasses and spraypaint the Nerf for sure.

portfolioeeooeeoo

Daydreaming in the morning is my favorite hobby. I can doze for such a long time, just thinking. It is really nice. But then I have to get up and get on with it.

It rained pretty much solid all through the day. I miss the pitter patter of it on a roof, but it does make a nice sound on the courtyard outside. During my next free five days, I must swap out my wardrobe. It would only be a days chore. Need to get out my rain pants. And my winter coats. Bah. So yeah, I got waterlogged going to and from school. Thankfully the commute is half as long as it once was, maybe even 1/3's as long.

The heating system in my apartment is scary. It rattles throughout the whole place. More of a shudder really. I'm not used to it yet, so when it comes on it disturbs me for a few seconds before I place what the noise is. It also plunks.

Went to school around fourish. Documented my shirt packaging (which is now pretty mangled, it really wasn't built for longevity) and shirt. Went to the illustration computer lab and resized and reconfigured my portfolio. I got there realizing how much work I was actually missing that needed inputting into the portfolio. Background textures mostly. Need to do another 11x17 print out to see how it looks. But it is almost there I think. It looks a little informal though...and it feels very repetitive. Oh well.

Worked for hours, and my tummy got really rumbly. At 8:20 I packed it in, slogged through the rain to Chipotle (feeling lazy) slogged back. Packed up and rode home. Pants were pretty darn soaked. Bleh. Thankfully my apartment keeps warm and I have sweaters aplenty laying about. I'll have more once I swap out my wardrobe. Made a list of what I need to do for the next couple days. Right now I have to decide between relaxing for the next couple hours and being really productive tomorrow, or being sort of productive right now and sort of productive tomorrow morning. I want to finish up my portfolio design before the print meeting. It just needs stuff put into it at this point, so I need to make what needs to be put into it. Will it take an hour? Three? Hmmm.

Well, that is all I'll write for tonight. Time to watch Boardwalk Empire.

that that is is that that is not is not is that it it is

Oops looks like I forgot to update last night.

Friday:

Slept in. Way in. Crawled slowly out of bed. Just did the morning thing, killing time till yoga. Yoga came. It was only three people and Fawn, but it was some good stretches. Lots of peaceful structured breathing. Afterwards I talked to Cherish a bit. Went back to my apartment. Had the last of my breaded cod and salad. Then I remembered that there would be food at the illustration party. Darn. Oh well. Got dressed up slightly nicer. Put on my white boots and headed out to Martin's Studio. There was a show up of the teacher's work. Martin, Annie, Chad, Kurt, Ryan Bubnis, Zachary something something, and the others. There was soda pop and wine and seniors and juniors and freshmen. The latter two I barely recognized any out of. It was a little awkward. Lots of small group chit chat. I chatted with Kristin and Ryan and this kid Evan and Dom and Tippi and Martin and Chad and Annie. Lots of people. It was fun. I stuck around till 8:30 and went home. Then I was like "crap it is 9pm on a Friday night, I should go do something" but then I didn't. Staaayed in.

Saturday:

Animation day! Well, animation night. Anyway, got up a little earlier. Had my usual huge breakfast. Eat a big breakfast, and your metabolism gets started on a high note!

Puttered around till 5:30. Still need to tidy my room up. It is getting really crazy. Well not REALLY but it needs some tidiness in its life.

It was starting to rain when I left. I got to the lab to find the room locked (obviously, they wouldn't leave equipment that free to students, especially when there are not good cameras) so I went to grab my animating supplies. Got some tape, plexi, ink, put some mineral spirits in tupperware, and brushes. TJ had come by security and got it unlocked by the time I returned. Hurrah! I taped down my plexiglass, and got to work.

I did four failed starts (or was it just three?) before my final one. TJ also did a lot of play with moving sand about under the light. I did a face, but the movement was not fluid at all. I did another face and it was also not fluid, though it had some nice bits. Then I just started playing with abstract line, and that turned out pretty good. I did the animation and then thought about what it was conveying, and I came up with decay. I could have animated the different parts for a lot longer, but the textural quality I dug. Pretty happy with it. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Clean up was intensive. Wiped everything down with mineral spirits. Got lots of black smudges all over the place, and I rested my arm in the ink more than once. Still, it looks cleans. And TJ's animation is looking good.

It was quite wet when I emerged. Lots of rain. But I also saw the notice that the theme meeting for the print portfolio is on Monday at 5:15! I should so be there and get in on that. I'll get so much awesome art if I participate.

Went home. Tabitha and Kristen were preparing to go out on the town. They were all sparkly and stuff. They also called a cab to get to the club across town. Pretty smart, seeing as how the weather still sucked. Daring girls to go out with no sweaters.

What did I say I had to do tomorrow? Oh yeah portfolio work day. Go to school, work in InDesign, document my shirt. Monday is print portfolio meeting day and then movie night. Before that, maybe print my portfolio out, so I'll be pretty much set for Wednesday night. Well, still need to do thumbnails for the Bear Deluxe assignment. And maybe an illustration for the fold out for my portfolio. And stuff. But that can be done on Monday, because if it folds out again, that won't require any extra design....the other sides are what need the design. And I'll do that tomorrow. Yeah!

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.

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).

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.

the lesser of two fails

Blogging now so that I have no worries about it later in the night.

Totally failed at getting a jump on the day.

Because my computer failed. It turned on with an error saying there was no hard drive, and so I did the whole boot thing that I had no choice in the matter of doing. I didn't want to restart the computer from an iffy screen just in case something was wrong. It revived itself and everything seemed fine, but I know that my hard drive is obviously on the way out. I am taking preemptive matters and spent the day backing up. I slowly on USB sticks transferred files from my computer to Katie's. Took hours. I'm not even done yet. It sucks. Tomorrow, in between class and yoga, I plan to go to Best Buy and replace the hard drive. Once everything is backed up, I will replace the hard drive and reboot.

Bleh.

But it is working for now. I'm just expecting it to stop working every time I turn it off and on.

Pasta, cookies, oatmeal. Slacking off way too bad on the essay. I'm just not into this line of thinking. And the reading is impossible for me to wrap my brain around. Just not mentally into it. Oh well. Not like I have a choice. Well I have a choice, but that choice is failing. I'll take failing just a little less...

taxed or "I love you more than rainbows"

Set the alarm so my body wouldn't be adjusted to a 1pm wake up.

I was so very slow to start my day. Sort of read Cogito. Sort of sketched. At 4:15 I decided that I was better off leaving the house to work instead of sitting about avoiding it. So I took my sketchbook to Mission Theater and Pub to join the masses in watching the Oscars.

I first looked at spots on the balcony but didn't like it, so I went downstairs. I moved around a bit and eventually joined a nice lady at a table (she was waiting for a few friends). You don't go to an open viewing and not be social. I sketched Odd Owl and some of the stars on the red carpet show. Bought a burger and a pint of Porter.

It was really fun watching the Oscars with a huge group of people. We booed and hissed at the woman who won for Costume. She was so ungracious! There were claps for Waltz winning best supporting actor. No one cared about District 9. Sharlto Copley got so little screen time (about a second). I thought it was funny how Kathryn Bigelow was seated right in front of her ex husband James Cameron. It was made even a little be more funny how her film Hurt Locker won awards that Avatar was nominated for. Every time there was a shot of her happy, there he was in the background. She even won for director and Hurt Locker won best movie. Girl power! I teared up a little at the John Hughes tribute, and wondered why Twilight was in the horror montage (and why they kept THAT SCENE from Misery, you know the one I mean). The sentiment in one speech that practicing the arts isn't a waste of time was wonderful. Sandra Bullock had the best speech overall, and it was really surprising she won. I didn't understand the musical number. Popping and locking does not go with Hurt Locker. I got a few pages of sketches and had some good time to think.

Then back home and time to do my taxes. I filled them out entirely twice in the deluxe version by accident. It is supposed to be free but it kept asking me for $66. I eventually figured out how to get into the free section and finally filed my lovely pitiful taxes.

Now to draw more owls and start another school week.

four day weekend!

I had a super productive day! Thankfully I didn't find out Existentialwhatever was canceled till late in the day. Had I known I could sleep it, I might not have been as productive. As is I got to a really good place with my piece for the figure. It needs a little something extra, I just don't know what. But I dig it. Sorta. Not really that complex of an image but oh well.

Watched Go on Netflix. I'm really into movies that take place over a single night. It was a little better than good but not all that great. Nothing I'd write home about (even though this blog is technically me writing home about all that I do). Also watched a few more episodes of Quantum Leap on Hulu and Being Human on Megavideo. Loving Quantum Leap so much. Sad Hulu only has about three seasons of it, still plenty of good watching to be had while working on art, which is what I do while watching tons of stuff.

Also got a good chunk of the art done for Homeland. All the place name cards are done, and the borders and back side of the cards. I'm doing a cardgame, didn't I say? I'm going to screenprint the cards to make them all uniform. So all I need to have ready by Tuesday is the designs to put on my screen, and I am halfway done with that. AND the drawing for Figure. So tomorrow will be sleeping in, again, going to school on my own time and working on digital stuff and then yogaing it up, and then coming home and working on homeland. Yay for being totally on top of things!

baby!

At least on days where I dominantly do two things, I don't have to write much when it gets late.

I went to Starbucks (closest coffee shop) at around 2 to focus on reading. I didn't want to get distracted or doze off at home. I was there for about three hours and only got through about 40 pages of Sometimes a Great Notion. I hate being such a slow reader! It is a good book thus far, the words just take forever to get through.

Went home. Ate some food. Started sketching for the Figure piece. I've spent the majority of my time thinking about it, and the minority actually doing it. So now I am doing it. And I am pretty happy with the progress. Relatively simply scene. Just people in a subway. I'm sketching it and filling in the detail with pen as I go. I don't know how I will finish it up.

Watched Quantum Leap on Hulu while working. How come Al was late so much when it was time travel? He doesn't have to be on time when it comes to going back in time.

Thankfully I know exactly what I will do for my Homeland art project. Now I just need to find time to do my illustration piece. Need to have that sucker printed out Wednesday morning, because otherwise I run out of time to do it after that. Lets see.

Tomorrow: finish drawing figure piece. Maybe not color it in, just add pen details. Read more.
Monday: Class. Digital work on illustration piece. Go home. Design piece for Homeland. Yoga!
Tuesday: Turn in figure piece. Screenprint homeland piece/start on poster project. Illustration piece possibly?
Wednesday: Print illustration piece. Homeland critique. Yoga!
Thursday: Turn in illustration piece. Be awesome.

Baby Elliot stopped by with his ma. Here are some photos:

merleau ponty is HARD

This Existentialist Phenomenology reading is bloody difficult. And I have a whole pile of Homeland readings on top of that. I wish I had dropped one of these (probably Homeland, to be honest, it isn't up my alley at all and I'm not being very successful in branching out into it). It is a whole lot of reading...and I am very very slow at reading. Bleehh.

Bacon and eggs for breakfast! My favorite. I have no bread. Really must get bread. Without it I can't make sandwiches, which are a staple part of my diet. Also no pasta.

Watched some Project Runway Canada. I need to get some buttons and zippers, so I can sew stuff. All the fabric I have has no stretch, so I can't just free style some tee shirts. Need to figure out how to print patterns at school using the epic huge printers they have. JP said he could discount the cost based on the fact I won't be printing quality. I want to make this tulip skirt so bad, but I need to get a lot better at sewing first. Don't want to muck up the nice fabric I bought.

A pretty do nothing day, aside from reading.

This coming week is fairly low impact. Reading for Phenomenology and Homeland, sketching for Figure and Illustration, and editioning my print for Intermediate Screen. Nothing major due. It is a nice feeling. Last week SUCKED. I still don't feel recovered from it.

gotta get it done, have no choice otherwise

Blogging now so I don't have to write it when I'm more dead tired in two hours.

Figure: check. The majority of the class was spent doing five minute proportion drawings. We looked at Euan Uglow and Stanley Spencer art books for the last half hour of class. That was good.

Emulsified screens.
Bought paper.

Talked to JP and turns out he had paper to print on right there, so I didn't have to run and get some. Nice! Printed out illustration pieces. They look pretty good side by side. Happy I got to check all that off my list early.

Went to student council for lunch.

Got back and pretty much printed for the next three hours, and I got three colors done! It is turning out pretty good. I'm going to do another three layers over the weekend. It needs greater depth of color. I got a pink layer, a red, and a brown. The next will all be progressively darker browns. I'm excited to work on it more, and that is a good feeling to have when it comes to art. Generally I have that feeling with screenprinting pretty much all the time. The lab was very crowded, but what are you gonna do when they put 9 people in a class that only has 12 tables to work on (and you need more than one table to work on most of the time). Time passed fast.

Spent about thirty more minutes in the library looking up artists. Finally got a great book: Land and Environmental Art. Perfect resource to browse through and find artists. Ian Hamilton Finlay and Christo's Umbrellas are being added to my paper on gardens. I was silly to think this would be easier because of growing up around the damn things but nope, it sure isn't.

Got home. Drank some caffeine. Read some articles. Now I'm just writing.

save Natalie!

Saturday:

Slept in a bit. Not much but still a bit. Lounged around. Ate food. Adobe crashed on my computer for some reason and absolutely refused to open any of the .pdfs. Which sucks because I need to read .pdfs for class, the majority of our assignments are not in purchased texts.

Nikki came over with Baby Elliot. Oh my god he is the cutest baby ever! And so mild mannered and adorable and expressive. I played race horse with him. That is I held him in my hands and jiggled him like I do with Luna and other cats. He loved it. Great baby.

Karen and BT were having a house warming party, emphasis on the party. The theme was "your high school self". I didn't go for the casual self, more the mismatch assemblage of black clothes self. I tied back a bunch of my hair to replicate the 'do I had and put on some legwarmers. It was pretty silly. Rode my bike to 23rd & Stark on the other side of the river. I brought them a caution wet floor sign as a house warming gift. I was also super early so we got our pre-party drink on.

Leah showed up with her three metalhead roommates, who were pretty cool dudes. Didn't break anything. Jay, Tabitha, Sandra, Anthony and his lady friend, Evan and Holly, Agnes, Ursula, Phil & Andy, Taylor, Katie, and a few other people I'm obviously forgetting showed up. It was crowded and awesome. I had a great time, but I was also really tipsy. The booze was free flowing so the party got loud quick and then everyone bottomed out really soon. No sense of pacing at all. Karen and I both went to woozy tired mode at about the same time and went into the bedroom, closed the door, and fell asleep. I mingled like crazy, which wasn't hard to do because their apartment is small and there were tons of people. The porch was happening, the living room had head bangers, the kitchen was full of drunk people kissing, and there was even a slapping competition. It was pretty off the wall but no one called the cops because, like I said, the party pretty much ended at midnight.

There were some great outfits. Karen had a blue wig, Katie was mall gothed out, Evan had a flannel shirt and an over sized The Tick shirt under it, Agnes put in more of her piercings, Tabitha had her hair done in a mohawk. It was fun. I can't wait for pictures to start showing up on the internet.

Sunday:

I didn't drink that much, enough to keep me going and I drank a good deal of water, so I'm not hung over. Just tired. BT, Phil, Katie, Karen, and I met Evan and Holly at Pine State Biscuits for breakfast. The biscuits place sells biscuits that are made up of these Louisiana biscuit makers grandmother's recipes. They combined them to make the ultimate biscuit. Apparently there is always a long line, but it was so worth the wait. I had the standard biscuits and sausage gravy. Katie had this fried chicken, bacon, cheese, egg monstrosity, as did Evan and BT. I managed to eat about half, and saved the rest for left overs.

It was a nice day to ride back. Not too hot, not that cold. When I got back I pretty much got situated in front of the computer, downloaded a new Adobe reader which fixed the problem (whatever it was), and read readings about Olmstead and Anti-Olmstead and Arcadia under Glass...stuff. Pasta dinner.

I heard some people had less fun at the party, which is a shame.



On a serious note, my friend Natalie Abulhosn might be getting deported. PNCA wouldn't allow her to register and then reported her to immigration. She has 60 days to leave the country unless she is allowed back into school. Natalie is one of the most hardworking students I know. She lives for the school and the art scene. The petition to keep her with us is here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-natalie-in-america

return to work

Had a good sleep after that late and most horrid return. Mom even made me breakfast! Poached egg, muffins, bacon, and orange juice. My ideal morning meal.

Uncle Rolfe and Aunt Alison stopped by in the afternoon for a catch up chat. Talked about drains and ditches and hot tubs. Basil melted for Alison’s pets. She wasn’t so pleased with me. Oh well.

Soon it was time to depart and pick up dad at the airporter drop off in Silverdale. He was there when we arrived. He had a spoon and fork salad set for mom and myself. I picked the cat one and mom received the giraffe set. There was also a decorated (hollowed out) ostrich egg to put with our collection of around the world goodies. The three of us went to Skipper’s. Hurray for fish & chips!

Once we got home, we all promptly hopped in the hot tub. Dad tested all the different seats. Mom floated over the main powerful jet. I just soaked and relaxed. It is such an excellent way to relax. I wish I had one in Portland. So easy to hop in for a few minutes and rest.

Then it was time to get dry and dressed and head to Tacoma again. Mom tucked a tired and weary dad into bed and then the two of us set into the descending night once again. It was dry and a delightful drive. Arrived with time to spare.

My seatmate was a young girl in a cookie monster hat. Worked on typing up the poetry that is due tomorrow. The train movie was Julie & Julia.

The 506 (or was it the 509?) arrived fifteen minutes early in Portland and I just managed to catch the Green line. The red took a while, so all in all it took me thirty minutes to get in my front door.

Katie said she missed me.

I got right to homework. Did two stencil images for my reading response to Dylan Dog (it was a free choice this week). I don’t like construction paper for stenciling. Newsprint cuts so easily. Then I did some character studies of people in out of my poems, including myself. Cut them out and put them on blue paper then cut that out and put some lettering to indicate which poem they are from. And I think that is it for things that are due tomorrow. Now all I have to work on is screenprinting.

the scent of ripped out perfume ads

Another late Sunday night.

Got up at noon three days in a row. It's nice.

Katie came back from her wedding. We watched Misery together and ate breakfast. Good movie. Very tense. Kathy Bates was perfect as a deranged fan. While working on homework, we watched The Good Son. Early Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin movie. Not very good. High points in creepy though. Then I watched the new AMC remake of The Prisoner. Decent enough premier. I shall watch more. All in all, a lot of weird and creepy things watched. Best of them was Misery.

My painting is okay. I don't like bristol paper for watercolor, but it isn't worth it to buy better stuff. The poetry packet was interesting, though I mistook some of the descriptions as poetry (but maybe they were, oooohhhh). Did some drawings.

Yeah. My eyes hurt. I want to go to sleep, even though I have been staying up late. Another week. Then it is So You Think You Can Dance! Then Thanksgiving break! I have to get on top of things NOW because if I don't before next weekend, I'll run out of time, yeah.

work and classes (or trillian is getting in way over her head)

Got up slightly before noon. Folded my new clothes.

Did homework. Touched up painting. Did a sketch that isn't to par with what I normally provide. Oh well. Yeah. I worked and read. Not much to say. Mad Men season finale was spectacular, as expected.

Tomorrow morning I will go into the registration office and try to sign up for: Intermediate Screen, The Figure, Illustration Studio II: Cultural Marketplace, Phenomenology & Existentialism, and Theory and Practice: Homeland. Dumbed down respectively it is: fun studio to advance my skills, technical class to advance my drawing skills, core class for major, probably way out of my league lecture class, and something with Duford to improve my thinking skills. Actually it is looking to be a pretty intense line up, if I follow through with it. And three 8am classes, two of which are immediately followed by a studio. But it would be three day weekend again.

Dad: No matter how good a seal I get with the bike pump, it will not show me the proper pressure.

Mom: When is a good time for me to be picked up in Tacoma? Should I come up Thursday night the 19th or Friday morning the 20th?

short post

It's 1am. I get up in 6 hours. Lets make this quick.

Printed. Did 6 prints, tried to be abstract. Didn't really think that hard, I was out of it and sat in the other studio by myself.

Put up show. Bekka and I arranged our pieces in the single case. Looks nice. Needs a title and posters and blurb, but we got it.

Silk screened. At 4, I switched techniques. The first color went down smooth. I had to rearrange my screen and mylar three times to fit the long image. It was really hard to print it. Thankfully I don't need perfect registration. The second color isn't as presentable as I would like it to be, but I think once I apply the final image it will all come together. I'll be able to go home tomorrow and get some good rest. After Yoga of course.

Worked on paper. Then took a break and watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which is about how insanely arbitrary the film rating system is. Also the people who rate films and decide the appeals of filmmakers are all kept very secret and hush hush. The film hires some investigators to find out the secret identities of the raters. It's cool.

Fire alarm. It went off. Again. Stuffed Luna in Grandpa's suitcase.

Essay finished. Not really great but I don't really care. I don't understand what the guidelines are and even though he tries to play loose and breezy, it will still get red penned. Whatever.

working through it all

Sweet, it is 1am and I am ready to go to bed. That's a good feeling.

David Lynch: drawn. I've been staring at his face for so long that it doesn't look like him anymore though. The hand looks small. The eyes feel crooked. It's hard to say, but I'll bring my supplies and work on it some more tomorrow. I have time.

Reading Response: done. It was super short and a little confusing, but a much needed rest from some of the heavy stuff she has had us read.

Illustrations for Short Story: Done. Like the portrait more than the table, but I think they will both go together nicely.

Short Story: Edited and finalized and I like it so much more. Has a nice length and a sense of completeness I feel. I'm very proud of it, I just wish I could have illustrated it more the way I would have liked. But if I sign up for advanced silkscreen, then I will spend that time making comics and make this story into a comic.

Meetings begin next week and registration is soon to follow. I can't believe it is already that time again. I have to take the second part of Illustration II. Everything else is up in the air. I want to take Le Fig part two, advanced silkscreen, and maybe another lit seminar. I'll just see what's what on the list.

I woke up sick and that persisted. I had a feverish, almost delirious night sleep. No good at all. I had toast for breakfast, goldfish for munching, and made an early pasta dinner which I ate through the night. Drank plenty of fluids and stayed warm. I think with having about 8 hour to devote to bed time, I'll be in good shape for next week.

Next week is busy. I have printing to do and a possible date on Tuesday, if I can get my essay sorted in enough time.

Today's watch list included four episodes of the Avengers, two episodes of New Amsterdam, and Goodfellas.