I passed with astronautical colors

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

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

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

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

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

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HOOOOO!!!

YEAAH!

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no portrait today.

tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After years and years, my thesis defense is here.

It doesn't feel real, but it is.

Todays Portrait Is: Colin Firth.

do a lot, do a little, get it done

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

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Stephen Graham.

my bruvver

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Dexter Fletcher.

henna is a fun process

Okie doke, the time draws ever closer.

Was late to my meeting with Martin, later than I intended but I thought I had an hour (because I asked for a spare hour, and he said at regular time, he may not have noticed that I said hour). But he gave me a fair amount of time. Anyway, I ran through my speech for the first time before meeting and it was more bumbly that I expected. Ran through it again. It still needs organization and depth. Just a lot of work. And more practice.

After class I tried to meet with the thesis paper help guy in the library, but he wasn't there. Still, I worked on my own paper a bit. It is amazing how much a simple read through can edit and break things apart. I didn't even read through the whole thing. Blimey. Anyway, did that. Then I went to Safeway and got some conditioner and took out some cash to change into laundry quarters. Changed the dollars into quarters. Went to Lush and got another brick of henna (each one is good for three henna treatments) as well as some other Lush treats. Mmm Lush, it is always all so good. Anyway, went home and slathered my hair up with henna and wrapped it in saran wrap and got to doing what needed doing. Laundry, dishes, trash, writing, that sort of stuff. I left the henna in for a long time, because you can do that with henna. Right now I can't tell the difference. I'll see how it is come morning. I pick the subtle auburn shade, because I just want that extra red oompf as opposed to BAM RED. I like that it gently fades, and so no roots show. Also that it is more a healthy hair treatment than a damaging awful chemical one. Yaaay.

I'm feeling pretty tired because I got up early. So I think I'll go to bed and try to get up early again. Nathan and Rubie are in town, so I need to be productive if I'm going to hang with them.

Todays Portrait Is: Dylan Moran.

defense is on the calendar

Woke up feeling refreshed and ready to print. Ate a scramble. Got my affairs in order and headed down to school to print. Emulsified two screens. Printed the lineart on Lacey, and that went wonderfully. The Asha layer didn't go so well. A lot of them overflooded. I think it has something to do with the tension of the screen that I'm printing on, because that one isn't all that taut. The DeAnn layer printed fabulously. Then I got a nice slate color and printed the color layer on Madeline, and then the lineart. The lineart went really well. And then at 9pm I was done printing the final four portrait layers of my thesis! Only four text layers to go and then I'm done with the art. Whoo! The posters are looking so good.

After class Dominic in the studio gave me his old Verizon Samsung. Apparently if I go to Verizon, I can ask them to add that phone to the line in place of mine. Or something. So I'll give that a try.

Hmm what else happened today?

Oh Kristen watched Spice World for the first time!

OH I also got my thesis time. Wednesday the 27th. 9am. WHOO! Now I know. T minus 11 days. Egads. But I'm not worried. It is the paper that is the hurdle. But once the art is out of the way, I can focus on just that.

Todays Portrait Is: Ewan McGregor.