gummybears!

Left the house today. Again. Twice in a row. Amazing!

So today was when this big haircut extravaganza was going on in Pulali. Didn't know until today when Dorothy called us asking if we were going to be there. Mm yeah. We had already made plans on the other side of the water.

It was lovely in Seabeck but as we got into Tacoma it got a little chilly. We managed to sneak in to Nathan and Rubies apartment complex and we went up to their floor only to get a call about our whereabouts. They had probably gotten out of the elevator just as we were going in the other one. Ha!

We walked from their place to the Tacoma Art Museum. Nate and Rubie got in free, mom and I were students and got a discount. The museum looked a great deal bigger on the outside. There were four exhibits going on. One was local artists that features some decent sculptures and paintings.

A collection of Renoir prints was up. I explained to Nate and Rubie the etching and litho process that went behind the prints. They were a little repetitive in subject matter. Lots of bathers and girls fixing hats. Nice though. I wish my plates had as much creativity and skill to them.

The third show was from the private collection. The theme was pieces that told a story and some of them had little quotes from various people about what they thought the stories were. Some of the kids ones were much more creative. There were some more fantastically detailed etchings that blew my mind.

The show we came to see was a Chuck Close exhibit. It had two of his trademark paintings along with some of his photography and larger tapestries made from the photos. The tapestries were easily ten feet tall and five feet wide and looked photo realistic. Amazing to behold and get close to. Some of the photos had been printed with poetry by a man whose name I forgot. Some nice little poems about artists and musicians. It was a small exhibit; just filling one room and a few put in walls.

We went to a sushi restaurant for lunch. At first we were wondering about the name of the place and how it was pronounced. We kept calling it "tuhwoah koi". We eventually figured out that it was an English name; Two Koi. My udon was decent. They kind of mugged up the egg part, the sushi was delectable, Nates Two Koi Tower was tall, and Rubie's Katsu looked delicious. A nice little meal but maybe not worth the price tag. Not the udon at least.

Back at their apartment we looked at the Tetris games Rubie and Nate were working on for class. Rubie's featured a nice Banksy image in the background. Nathan keeps demanding more graphics from me. I shot him with some Nerf suction cup darts.

I refilled my gummybears and we went home to Seabeck. As it warmed up, I dozed off on the way home.

My downloads are really going fast now. I am running low on ideas on what to search for. Just as well I will be taking a break from them soon.

Mom and I finished watching The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Beautiful imagery. Mom didn't find Bauby very sympathetic. To round off the sad cinematic theme of the night we made cupcakes and watched the second half of the Manic Depression documentary. It seems unreal how much sorrow Fry feels and how low his esteem his.

I'll be staying at Abba Hotel in Amsterdam. It seems in a good location but it has tiny rooms. But that's okay, who needs space when on holiday?

falling like little L-shaped pieces

The sun finally came out today. It has been cold and gray and unpleasant ever since I arrived.

Mum and I decided to go for a swim and some shopping.

First we stopped by the dump and recycled some glass and miscellaneous paper. We went to Walgreens and got some shampoo. I wanted to pick up some shirts and maybe some pants at Old Navy. There were plenty of nice simple shirts perfect for summer. There was only one pair of pants that really interested me. I bought the pants with my own hard earned custodian money. They fit like a dream. Amazing. The shirts were snazzy as well. Mum got a nice haul as well. She just hemmed some of her pants.

Swimming was quick. Just hot tub, some laps, and hot tub. Good old Bremerton Swim and Tennis Club.

We went to a bakery in Silverdale for lunch. I got a little pastry with cheese and bacon in it, mom got a quiche. We ate them on the beach at the marina. First time I have worn short sleeves (and my new top and pants) since I have been back.

Arriving home I rested in the hammock for a bit and then went for walkies with mom and Holly. We sort of vegged around for the rest of the day.

Watched the first part of Stephen Fry's documentary on Manic Depression. Watched a pretty bad Brittany Murphy movie on tv. Little Black Book or something. Not that good.

I'm helping Nathan with his homework. I am doing some of the graphics for his Tetris project for a programming class. I drew little people in Tetris shapes and now I am doing the background. All for free(until I start demanding something from him for my efforts).

the island

Lost had its two hour finale tonight. That was...just wow. It had a lot of action and drama and I spoke to the television a little. It only has two seasons left. Just, wow. I think it has almost managed to pull itself back. The next season will have to confirm it. The third season was just horrible and slow and pointless. Damn. And there was a preview for the American Life On Mars! I'm probably not going to watch it because the guy they hired is no John Simm and it looks bad. Lots of TV today. As usual. Finished The IT Crowd. Watched some more Nip/Tuck.

Read some parts from the Frommer's book about Amsterdam and Brussels. Quick facts and the like. I have two mini guide books to bring with me. I'll just have clothes and some sketchbooks I guess. Nothing major. Won't need much. Shouldn't be much of a hassle to pack. Yeah.

Talked to Grandma Spencer for a bit. Called Celia.

A delivery man brought us our mailboxes. Mom ordered some of the heavy duty ones for the end of the road so that Methheads would stop screwing with it.

I'm really tired all of a sudden. Well it is midnight.

sign here

The big date inches closer. Not sure how prepare I am. Packing shouldn't take that long as I already have a suitcase full of clothes with me. Just have to read up on things. Yeah.

Cleaned off a bunch of my stuff from the old computer. Some video and images that have been sitting on there for years mostly.

Scanned in these drawings I did for Nathan for use on a computer project. He is programming Tetris and needed some graphics so I drew Tetris people. I corrected them in Photoshop and added some color. Hopefully they will do the trick.

Two packages came today. One from FedEx and the other from UPS. Both were full of books for mom. You would think she has read enough by now.

And yeah. Watched TV for the rest of the day. I'm a lazy bum right now. I think I'll go read before bed though. I brought a pile of books, I should at least crack open one.

Watched The IT Crowd season two(not all of it, about five episodes worth), the new episode of the new series of Doctor Who, episode 9 of Nip/Tuck, and three episodes of what has to be the best show to come on television in years; Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston is amazing. So powerful in just three episodes.

Showed mom my paintings and she asked why I didn't sign them. I felt I didn't have to and she seemed really shocked by it. I don't see why I need to. People know I did them and they have my name on the back. I'm not selling them or anything. Hmmmn.

boosh! boosh!

Mum woke me up early to inform me that she had acquired tickets to and from Amsterdam for me. Hurray! She uses her airline miles and it is a one stop flight from Seattle. Only about 10 hours. Shorter than my Japan flight (and that had the LA transfer). Don't think it will really sink in till I get off the plane in the Netherlands. Woaaah!!

Couldn't get back to sleep after mum woke me up. Ate a poached egg on toast with melted cheese and sat in bed for a few hours watching TV and surfing the net. Eventually got up, showered, and moved to sit on the couch and continue doing the same thing. Also read up a bit on the culture and habits of Belgium and the Netherlands. Hand gestures are not OK apparently.

Finished up The Mighty Boosh. I think I liked the second series the best and the third after that. I love how British shows have less episodes. Less episodes but infinitely more rewatchable and with better writing. Now I am watching the IT Crowd. Noel Fielding is in it. Really adorable little sitcom. Great gags.

I switched torrent clients from Azureus to Bittorrent. Now my downloads are just flying! Doctor Who, Nip/Tuck, Breaking Bad here I come! If I have time I might get files of Mighty Boosh just to watch without having to load on youtube.

Mum watched a couple episodes of Mighty Boosh with me. She had a giggle.

Watched a documentary about red ants vs termites. The ants totally kicked butt!

Amsterdam. Brussels. Wow. Have to go to the Hard Rock in Amsterdam so dad can pick up a pin for his collection.

Amsterdam and Brussels

I leave for Amsterdam on the 3rd of June, a Tuesday, and I come back Friday the 13th.

Somewhere in those ten days I will go to Brussels and back.

folklife festival

Long long day. Went really quick. A good portion of it was spent in a car. Now I need sleep again.

The clock in my room is permanently set on 9 so when I woke up I thought I had many hours to rest (we planned to meet Nathan and Rubie at noon). Turns out it was about 11:30. Errr.

We got to Tacoma around 1:50ish. Met up with Nathan. Hugged Rubie. And then we all hopped in the Prius and went to the Folklife Festival in Seattle.

We opted for the parking at the Center instead of driving around for cheaper parking. Some loud cliche American guy was wondering about not paying because it looked like people hadn't. We payed.

The Seattle Center was crowded with lots of the usual Washington folk. Mom said a few were smelly but I didn't notice. There were a few hula hoopers but Lindsay can do much better.

We hit up the food stands. Chicken skewers, chocolate covered strawberries patina, and bananas, hot dogs, and a HUGE MOUND of curly fries. Just huge. The line for the fries was split up between people paying and people receiving. Some were not aware which line was which and ended up going to the other one after waiting for a while. Teach them to get all snooty about where I stand in line.

There was an amazing acoustic guitarist at one stage. Crazy good. We sat in on some Gospel singers as well. Folk isn't really my thing. We were mostly there for Averie.

On the way to seeing my cousin perform we ran into Jeanette and Liam. She looks adorable and he is growing so fast. We went as a group to the center where the Irish Dancers were performing. They had door people being very careful about the numbers of people let in and out so we had to wait for a few to exit before we could get in. Ran into Uncle Dan there and Auntie Brynne on the other side of the seats. Mom, Nate and Rubie sat down in the back and Brynne and I vultured our way forward and managed to get second row seats.

The first group were traditional Irish dancers in fancy costumes and standard dancing. Averies troop had more choreography and more people. She is so talented and strong. Wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley, I'll tell you what. Takes great posture to keep so level through that dancing. Kudos!

We all gathered after to wait to bestow hugs upon Averie. Liam ran around in circles dancing and all that. We had eaten so much so after Averie came out we left. Everyone else went out to dinner after. I'll see everyone again. I'm here for a while.

Napped on the way back. Long long drive. Mom told a joke that she told me not to repeat here.

Ate some TV dinner and twix. Fixed the problem my Torrent downloader was having (sort of). Now, I don't know. Sleep? I'm really tired. Yeah.

Basil still loves me

Welp. I'm home now. Sort of in the same state as I left it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Very dreary morning. Such a labor to get out of bed. Ibanez was extra loving as well. Probably could tell I was going to horribly ditch him for a few weeks.

Finished packing the little tidbits like a toothbrush and snacks and my computer. Left earlier than planned, just to leave extra time just in case. The max was fairly clear of the usual creepy and smelly vagrants. It was to my dismay that it was raining viciously when I got off in Old Town. I was drenched and miserable when I got to the station (the walk seemed to take twice as long as it usually does). Purchased my ticket no problem and checked my suitcase and my portfolio. Sat down to wait. I bought a hot dog and a chocolate milk because I didn't have much in the way of a breakfast before leaving.

Took a nap for the first half of the train ride. Read The Exterminators for the rest of it. Amazing work. Just love it and now it is getting to the meaty part of the story. The build up has come and gone and now it is man versus ancient Mayan bug!

Mom was there waiting for me in Tacoma. We hugged. Got my stuff. Went home.

We stopped by Barnes & Noble to pick up some travel guides for Amsterdam and Brussels. I really hope I make it there this summer. The guides have got me so excited. Want to see all the Herge and comic stuff in Brussels (as well as Art Nouveau and the architecture). Just wow.

Holly tried to climb on me when we were laying in the lawn chairs. Basil purred and was very happy to see me. She doesn't hate me at all for going away.

We just vegged out for the rest of the day. Watched some QI with the ma. Tomorrow we are going to Seattle to the Folklife festival. Will see Averie, Rubie, Nathan and a few others. Whoo!

burnt tuna and bright skies

Okay. I am ready. On top of things. Good to go. Yeah.

Couldn't sleep last night so I was up late reading comics. All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (spectacular). Coward by...some dude (nice shadows). First chapter in Exterminators (love it so completely). Eventually fell asleep and even though I rolled out of bed at noon I got a lot done with time to spare.

Had to leave the comics I borrowed from Daniel at the comic shop. Got some lunch riding back. Really hot and sunny.

Tidied and cleaned my room. Excavated some sketchbooks and drawings. Reorganized some piles. It looks really nice. Wish I was capable of keeping it like that all the time. Maybe I'll try harder in the future. HA right. Good one.

Did the dishes probably about twice over. Did a load of them and put them away and cleaned the ones that wouldn't fit. Washed the ones that I used. Tidied up the living room and kitchen. Tidied the almost empty fridge. Dusted some of my shelves. Sorted through my knick knacks. Put up a couple posters.

Packed my suitcase. It isn't even full even though it has all my clothes and books in it. I think I am much better at packing. Much more practical. Also it is the Summer and I don't need so many coats and pants and whatnot. Got my portfolio sorted. This time around I will be showing prints (but not all of them because Yoshi has the pick of the prints for grading) and paintings. No charcoal drawings but a big yes on naked people.

I feel like I am missing something. Forgetting something. My passport is stowed away. I have my external hard drives. Have my comic. Have reading material. Cell phone. Hmmn.

Last time, I left a wake of mess in my departing. This time I am making sure everything is clean before I scoot off.

Chelsey came by to observe the HUGE thunder and lightning storm we were having. Massive. It lasted about an hour with lighting going off pretty much every minute. I could see it come down as well, not just the clouds becoming bright. Lovely rolling thunder as well. Spectacular. We chatted about apartment searching. Shared some tea. Then she left.

Karen also stopped by later on. We looked at creepy vintage valentines cards and enjoyed the rest of my tea. I accidentally burnt my tuna melt sandwich. Bummer. Oh well.

I'm not much of a cleaner but I think I did quite well today. A lot of work and effort but the results are noticeable.

Such an interesting shift from hot hot heat to scary scary night.

oh joy?

Yesterday:
Did the usual lazing about. Then I looked around my room, made a list of things to pack, and things that needed doing before then and set about doing that.

Made my last comic run for a while. The new Exterminators is out! Yay! No Tony Moore but Darick Robertson instead. That rocks. New issue of The Boys and Black Summer. I'll be bringing a pile of stuff home to catch up on. Yay.

It was raining when I left the shop. Not so bad though. Suffered up the hill on Jefferson. Went to Safeway for detergent. I was in the express lane behind some very slow girls who were all confused about where the sticker was on their cake. They clearly had 16 items when there was a 15 item limit. The lady behind me had exactly 15. She knew the rules.

Put my stuff away and did two loads of laundry. Two, count em two! That is a lot of clean stuff.

I started reorganizing and sorting through the clothes in my closet. I'm starting a Goodwill pile. I don't have any solid rules of what goes and stays. I think I will do another go-through once Summer is over because things like shorts and tanks haven't been worn much since I got here but that's no reason to chuck them now. Just silly that I brought them in the Fall.

Karen stopped by for a quick hello and chat.

Then Jim came over for another dinner and date (of sorts). I made a nice little cheese steak dinner and then we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I didn't have any expectations so I wasn't really disappointed. All the movies you can't take too seriously and this one was pretty much the least serious of them all. Still a little fun and goofy. Had the old charm and moderate CG use. Worth a rent, I'd say even though it is getting pretty horrid reviews all around (Matt I think has disowned me because I said it wasn't shabby).

Then we went back to my place and I didn't have time to blog.

Today:
Jim and I sat about till around 2:30; eating poptarts and talking comics, movies, and all that. He left for work, Lindsay went to the bank, and I wasted hours and hours.

I am so hooked on The Mighty Boosh. It is really, really bizarre. I am almost, for sure all caught up with QI. Thanks to Jim, I have a good list of shows I haven't seen before (Dark Place is next I think).

Finished reorganizing my closet. Looks really nice now. Will tidy the rest of my room tomorrow. And pack. Last time I was in a rush and left things all crazy like. I don't want that this time. All my shirts are in nice piles. My pants are neatly folded. My hoodies are in their drawer. My dirty cups are in the washer. Yeah, it is good.

I'll be in Seabeck again soon. Then maybe all over the world. Huzzah.

Flanders, Quimby, and Lovejoy

Another day of summer. Mmmm. This is nice. I like having time off. Don't have any real obligations till September. Mom told me I should try to find a job during the summer. BAH! Yeah, right. HAHAHAH. Oh wait, I like money. Damn.

Left the house today. Went out to lunch with Michael. Actually I ate lunch before so I just had cocoa. We went to a nice little place on 23rd and Quimby. They were filming something in there, dunno what but it involved MASSIVE pancakes. Like a foot in diameter each. Possibly bigger. We caught up, chatted, has a dialogue, engaged in discourse, and generally talked.

The 23rd and Nob Hill area is really pretty. Some magnificent houses and apartments there. I would really like to live in that area. It is close and seems quiet.

I stopped by Trader Joe's to get some treats. Such great deals they have!

And then I sat down and watched like four episodes of The Mighty Boosh. Lindsay and I hung out for a bit, but does it really count if you are in your house and they are your roommate? Gavin came over and showed off one of his new lights (for the light show).

Right now, hundreds of people are watching the new Indiana Jones movie. I am probably going to see it on Saturday.

I need to think about doing something artistic. Don't want to totally loose my momentum. Maybe draw some illustrations based upon what I am reading. Or adapt the rest of Piercing (it would actually be fun to work on it more). Maybe I should watch less TV and read more? There's a thought.

these are my cupcake days

Spent all day inside. It was gray and not so pleasant so whatever.

Cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. Did a load of dishes. Made cupcakes for dinner and a cheese steak for lunch. Love those cheesecakes. I make them real good like.

Technically I just got up about fourteen hours ago but like I mentioned before, my body must be realizing it is time to rest so I'll be retiring to bed soon. I'll probably read some though. Cuddle with Ibanez.

Watched QI on mass, like I normally have been doing. Now that I am keeping a list of episodes I have watched, I'm seeing some new QI content! And learning lots of useless facts like uhm well...I can't really think of them right off the bat! Watched the rest of Nathan Barley. The third episode was brilliant but overall it was an okay show. Funny but only slightly my cup of tee. Now I am moving on to The Mighty Boosh.

I'm a little bit bored and a little bit lonely. Lindsay was only home for about five minutes before whisking off to Keesee's. Called Robin but she was out and about.

I registered my ticket today. I'll be coming home this Sunday afternoon.

on again off again

Ended up crashing at Jim's last night. Good times were had. We watched Nathan Barley and The Mighty Boosh, both of which were most assuredly after the grand tradition of British television. Like British tellie, groups of comedians and actors band together and go through different projects together. These shows featured a lot of people I was not familiar with. Thankfully youtube has the rest of the episodes so I can watch the rest.

Today was much cooler but I was still sweating like crazy when I made it home in the morning.

I took two couch naps today. I am really suddenly very tired. I think my school stamina has worn off and now my body knows it is time to rest.

Picked up my pieces from Annie at school. I got a 91% in my painting class.

Took my second nap.

Sort of dazedly watched more QI. Then to get out of the house, exhaustion, and supreme boredom, Lindsay and I went to see Prince Caspian at the Metroplex.

Good movie. Lovely effects. Lovely...actor playing...Prince Caspian. Mmmmm. Sort of an anti-climactic ending. I enjoyed it even though it was a little long. The Biblical overtones were stronger in this movie. It was a nice rest from the heat of the day.

Walking back we ran into Matt. I waved but didn't stop to chat.

I'm still really tired so after another episode of QI, I'll be tucking in.

clouds at last

Rather boring, but relaxing day thus far.

Slept in. Not as warm as yesterday. Had a cheese steak for lunch.

Lindsay and Keesee saw Barack Obama speak this afternoon. It was packed beyond packed.

Watched QI. Played this online psychiatric game where you try to cure patients and stuff. I cured two of them, killed a third, and then got bored. Ha.

Tomorrow I think there is a beach trip planned. Right now I am going over to Jim's to hang out and watch movies and laze about.

When do you guys want me to return home?

noise/noise

First full day off. Damn. It feels really good.

I walked down to PNCA in the morning with Jim. Helped him collect some of his stuff together (I am lending him my crappy portfolio for the time being). Beautiful day. Hot day. I bid him far well at the max and got home in an icky, sticky, muggy mess. Uhg. I can't take suddenly ninety degree weather, I just can't!

Rest of the day was spent doing nada. So great. I napped. I half heatedly read. I watched Black Books, QI, and some other stuff. Just did nothing for several hours. I don't know really. Uhg. I need this.

My first year is over. Three left. And now I am getting into the real core classes. Wow. I really like PNCA. It feels like a good fit for me. Most of the things I don't like are my fellow students and since I probably won't be seeing much of them in the future, that is no biggie! Whoo! What can I say about this year? I've grown. I'm more comfortable with myself. I'm away from home but I can take care of myself just fine. I haven't hurt myself on my bike. I've been to every class, every day. Turned in everything. Worked really hard. Did comics. Got a job. Met new people. Made new friends. Lost friends(that's okay though, they were...yeah). It is great. I can't wait for more. Actually, I can wait. I need like a month at the least.

I went to Safeway to get food for the rest of my time here (cheese steak supplies, mac and cheese, etc). I ran into Matt at the store. Really small world. He took a nice photo of me yesterday while I was hanging out with him and Andy. A nice little Polaroid. We talked Lost briefly.

Lindsay and I rolled about in the heat and gabbed and raved. So hot. I probably won't be able to sleep with anything beyond a sheet tonight. And my window is open all the way so it is noisy. That's not cool.

schools out!

Yaay! Schools out! No more till September. Whoo! I love it hear but boy do I need a break. I'm exhausted.

Comic critique went well. People seemed to like my piece and I got a compliment from Trevor on the beauty of one page. We got cake from the people who did a Sexy Chix chicken super hero comic. It was a nice class. I enjoyed taking it. The Robopocalypse people all did Robopocalypse comics.

I wore a short dress with short leggings on under. Nice and warm today. It got up to 90. Dang.

I actually worked the whole day at work. And now I am done! The trash cans were all full and some of them doubley full. All the toilet paper ran out. I started to nod off during my break so I dashed out to get some ice cream and treats. It was delicious and warm outside still. Once I finished with work I hung out with Matt and Andy upstairs. Andy lent me The Blot and it was a quick but beautiful read. Andy drew a moustache on my face and Matt took a Polaroid of it.

I hung around school for a bit. There was a big barbecue for everyone at school. It was big. I had some juice and a real hot dog that was tasty. Hung out and chatted with so many people. Ran through a sprinkler. Jen, Karen, Adam, Bebop, Robin and I went down to the waterfront. We got there by way of streetcar and max. Jen actually went back to the Goose. I did cartwheels and headstands in the park. We walked back to the party at school. I hung out for a bit and watched the water balloon fight.

Jim walked me home and now we be hanging out.

Ciao!

taking my top off

I walked with Lindsay to school today because I had to haul my portfolios back home and there was no way I could bike with two portfolios. Modou brought in some croissant and cinnamon rolls. Some of the croissant's had chocolate filling! They were delicious. The rest of class was filled with discussion. I found it odd that Modou didn't see art as healing. Lindsay told her Douglas Adams coincidence story that relates to how she knows she belongs her(her car was called Starship Heart of Toon and her last letter to everyone was titled "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" and then come Portland and she finds out her roommate is me, how divine). There was a knick knack slide show, I talked with Sarah about Allan McCallum(or whoever) and the mass production of unique objects. The box I had left at school by mistake was still in the exact same spot I had left it.

After class I ran off 20 more copies of my comic and resized it. Now they are all in nice and decent sized pages. I don't think I will load the whole comic here, but post my favorite panels instead.

I collected my things and started by trek home. In 70 degree weather, fast approaching 80, I had corduroy pants, a thick 3/4 sleeve shirt, a blazer, a leather jacket, two portfolios, a box, and my purse. I only had to lug it to the streetcar and from the streetcar to the Goose but uhg it was horrible. So heavy and so overdressed (had to be warm during my walk to school). So nice to get home and strip off all my clothes and relax. Eventually I put on my bikini top and my brown short pants. Sat about, ate some food, enjoyed the warmth.

I threw on a white tee and rode to school. I should have just brought the tee with me, the bike ride was so hot! The school was hot inside as well. Those poor librarians. I gave up some sardines in exchange for the removal of some of my books fines (they actually charge at PNCA).

The painting room did have some A/C. Erin was first with her beautiful cave painting/commune inspired pieces. They were massive and colorful and awesome. Charlie was overly humble about his fully rocking pieces. Karen surprised us with some nice text and portrait combinations. Ursula had a beautiful and meaningful family snapshot. And Joy destroyed the curve with her huge vanitas. Two people didn't show up so they are missing their finals. Uhm, okay??

After class I whipped off my shirt and rode home. Tra la la. I'm so pale. Need some sun something fierce.

sunny day, summer is here

It was hot today. I was making photocopies and I was getting really overheated.

Printmaking critique. I stopped by Safeway and got some cookies and chips for the potluck. Everyone else brought food. It took up the whole printing station. Amazing! Before the critique we cleaned up the room. Wiped it down, scrubbed it up, and generally made it look exactly like it did before. We took an early lunch so I hung out in the middle printing area and bugged Jim while he did screen printing. I went second in critique, after Rachel. Mine went fairly well. They liked how it was dirty (what?) and the boldness of it and the emotive quality. For some reason I felt really awkward talking about my work. I didn't quite know what to say. Wish I had made a variety of work, I just fell back on the figure in most of my pieces this semester (all five pieces). It was a nice little variety of work shown. I would love to return to Litho but apparently you have to pay a department fee to do so? What?

The potluck had strawberry shortcake, cheese, chips, juice, ice cream, rice thingies that Yoshi made, more chips, cookies, meat slices, crackers, just strawberry's, and pancakes. It was lovely.

Deanne(Deanna? actually that might not even be her name...damn she is in my comic class) asked me to write down a crush for a project she is working on. So I did.

I scanned my comic in the library. It was 82 degrees. Hot hot hot. It scanned in great once I figured out how to lower the brightness. I posted the cover right then and there while scanning. I only had time to make one smaller for posting. After that I figured out the arrangement for making photocopies and I set about making cheap copies to give out to people. After much trial and error trying to figure out how to get the feed tray to work and having alignment issues (I mixed up a 4 with a 9 and ended up having to recycle 10 pages worth of double sided copies). But much sweat and labor and dollars (it is just put onto my student account now, no longer is it change operated) I ended up with 10 actually legible photocopied copies of my comic! I plan to make a few more, nicer ones, tomorrow. It is great! Yay!

I don't have to make anything for the rest of the semester. Not really. Just more photocopies, return books, and tomorrow I am hauling the stuff out of my school locker. I will be walking to school for the first part of the day. Almost done. Two more days then it is summer time!

On the way home I saw a foot sticking out of a slammed car door. It was prosthetic but it startled me for a second. Someone must have left on their Halloween decoration.

Piercing Chapter Seven - Cover

Cover for my adaptation of the seventh chapter of Ryu Murakami's Piercing.

Watercolor, Felt Tipped Pen. 6"x9".

That's It

Done. With days to spare. Days to scan and print. But the main work, that is done. Finished. This comic required so much work. The longest comic I've done thus far(that isn't saying much). Trying new things. Doing things differently. Working hard. This is it. This is what I want to do. I feel great. So dead but so alive.

Brilliant.

I went first in Modou's today. Said my spiel, and it went over well. Modou asked me to elaborate on adaptation and the grotesque. I said stuff about how not showing things made it all so much more powerful and worse and that interests me (that concept appears in my comic, the not showing part). He said I was very good about being articulate. Aidan went. She appears to be prolific, humble, and a little be afraid/wary of the future. Karen went. She has changed a lot since the start of the year. For the better. Amina went. I just don't even care about anything she has to say anymore. It just isn't believable. Ingrid talked about how it is sad that not everyone does art when they can.

Pretty easy going final. Just talking about how we make art. It is nice to see so many different view points.

I went home and worked on my comic. Gone one page done in four hours. Start to finish, one page. Pencils, inks, washes, everything! A new record.

Jason's portraits were nice. The portraits of Matt and Greener had a nice combination of the elements in Esteban and Vanessa's. Kim had BEAUTIFUL skulls. Amazing. Just, woah. Amina painted little cakes. Erin had dynamic and colorful medical paintings that were just a little heavy in a few areas when it comes to gouache. I can't remember any of the other work. Leaving some out. Hnn. There was a lot. And a few people missing so we got out early. Next class will be jam-packed with critique. People just like leaving it to the last minute, huh? Not I. For I am the super Trillian.

Just worked on the comics at home. Work work work. Lindsay came home and some hugs were in order because of stuff. Worked some more. Worked into the AM's (as you can tell by when I am posting this entry). But I have it. The cover is all minimal and great. The comic is consistent, which is something I strive for.

I feel great.

Watched so much QI today. Did you know Russian's attached bombs to dogs and trained them to run under tanks to blow them(being the tank and the dog) up? The dogs couldn't tell the difference between the tanks and blew up a few of the Russian ones.

I Am and Art Is.

These printing days just leave me in a slump when I get home. Waah.

Turned in my Art History paper and we had bagels and looked at all our inspired art. I would say that a lot of pieces didn't fair as well because of the inclusion of the 511 building. Lots of shoved into the background and not subtle things. Yeah. My Fry portrait is smack dab in the middle at eye height. Pretty nice spot, if I say so.

Jim and I hung out for a bit and then we parted aways when it was time for Yoga. I got my neck nicely stretched out. Did me some good. The stress was starting to get to me in a way I rarely have felt before. Blimey.

From 1:30 to 6:15 I was in the print lab. For the first part I was just applying washes to my comic and waiting for Rachel to finish up. She finished up earlier than I thought but I still felt I got out late. I think I have enough correctly registered prints, as per the assignment. Sadly some of them got screwed up by the plate being funky and incorrect lengths of pressing time. Such hard work. Oh well. I tried.

Pedaled home. Slumped into my chair. Scarfed food. Watched Kingdom and House.

And now I am considering my final assignment for Modou. I have to talk about my ideas about making art, my process making, my ambition, where I want to go, concepts, etc. Hmmn. I have some notes about it. I see art making as expression of an idea, an image, a debate, anything really. Effort makes art good. I have stories and ideas and images in my head that I want to express, I don't like doing highly conceptual stuff. I'm trying to convey a single thought and not many or something abstract. I don't do pieces that say ___ means ___ because I find that very untrusting of your audience. It really narrows the field and doesn't let them come up with their own thoughts. Yeah. Stuff like that is what I will be talking about.

I think I am burnt out

Got another page done and another inked. So that makes the total finished pages eight and the ninth is in progress. Should get it finished no problem tomorrow.

Amazing how a days work can be summed up in a couple sentences. Well, my day isn't finished yet.

Forgot to mention that yesterday I met Adam, Karen's new boy(of sorts). He is a glass blower, really nice, and really tall. I like him, they make a cute pair. We hung about, I gave them my rendition of the lightshow, chatted, and he made some origami and showed us some wicked glass blowers work.

Got a call that dad is going back to work in Norway. So if I am going to be travelling this summer, I will have to meet him in Amsterdam. Seems doable. I think. I hope. Have to do it. I must. Must travel. Need a vacation. Need somewhere that isn't Washington, Portland, or hopefully not even America. Blimey.

I discovered a new show today: Kingdom. It stars Stephen Fry as a lawyer in a Norfolk town. He solves nice little cases and is dealing with the disappearance/apparent suicide of his brother, his a little bit crazy sister, his youthful intern-of-sorts, and some of the interesting townsfolk. It is a nice little British drama with the usual doses of humor and stellar acting. Mom, I think you would like it. It is rather along the lines of Hettie Wainthropp Investigates. Watched a few episodes of that along with QI (I am now keeping a list of QI episodes I have seen so that I don't repeat them).

Now I have an essay to write for Art History. This is more last minute than I like to leave it but the inking took longer than I expected it to. Damn it all.

Speaking of moms, Happy Mothers Day! This is the least I could do(really, it is the least. I haven't done anything for anyone since I left Washington).

museum cattle

Slept in. Way way in. Woke up at 6:45ish, in tune with my body clock. Went back to sleep. Woke again at 10ish, went back to sleep. Rolled out of bed at about 12:15. Very nice. Much needed.

Showered and got some nibbles and went to the museum to pick a piece to write about. Hard choice between a Bronzino-esque piece and this work of Cleopatra but I went with Cleopatra and the Asp because there was more I could find to talk about it.

I walked through the Dancer exhibit again but it was really crowded. Packed full of people with little headsets listening to the numbered exhibits. Every number had about five people gathered around it, staring blankly at the piece. I really just wanted to look at the Lautrec lithos, to see the number of colors and how they were made and layered. Most of them looked like they were just four colors, just arranged and combined in wonderful wonderful ways. That man is a genius and a talented artist. Blows my mind. I would love to do more litho after this class. Such a challenge but so fun.

Went home. Sat my bum down. And drew. I only managed to get one full page done. The washes went a lot quicker, but the sketching was a real pain. I get a real uneven feeling from the character design. She isn't all that consistent. Well, I'll just keep working. Trial and error, trial and error.

Watched about four episodes of QI (I am making a list of episodes I have seen so I don't rerewatch the same ones). And a few Doctor Whos.

I'm not feeling too good. I keep eating, hoping to feel better. Some of what I eat are sweets and some are like soups and rice and tuna(thank you again Tuna Claus) but still I feel ill. Stress and exhaustion probably. I'm starting to get burned out.

unceunceunceunceunce

Face. Melted. Oohhh. Lindsay ran the light show tonight. We invited Jen, Robin, and Karen but only Robin could make it. But that was great because she could give the completely new to it reaction. The full thing is just. woah. Mind blowing. The colors with the fader switches is a nice touch. And after Lindsay did her set, she let me run lights! It was fun though really complex. And after I did it, Robin did it! So cool! We ate brownies and talked and lounged and melted away. Whooo. I really need to sleep now.

Class was short. We had a couple nice little presentations. I gave out rice crispies (Flemming really liked his first one and asked for seconds, I obliged). We sort of wrapped up From Hell and talked about how our comics are going.

I finished From Hell. Well, I haven't finished the end part about the Ripperologists but I am finished with the massive body of work. HOLY CRAP. The last few chapters were amazing but I don't know if the killer(har) first 8 were worth it.

Gave some crispies to Jake, Matt, and Tricia. They liked them. Cleaned like I always do. Picked up my paycheck. Deposited my paycheck. Walked with Lindsay to Fred Meyer. Ate A LOT of food. I had a huge appetite today. Ate rice and used these little seaweed wraps that Jen gave me. Nice little salty treats.

Drew six more panels today. This weekend is go time for comic making. Will go to the museum and write my paper, sure, but otherwise I am sleeping in, staying up late, and drawing drawing drawing inking inking inking erasing erasing erasing washing washing washing. And then scanning scanning scanning and printing printing printing.

crispy and treaty

Made two batches of rice crispy treats today. Maybe I should have saved the second batch. Uhh. I'll bring them to class tomorrow. Maybe. They go stale quick I think? Or not? Ehh, I dunno.

I don't even want to get into the Experiments in Drawing critique. It was way too early for shemales.

Harrell Fletcher came in and talked to the class about his work. He does a lot of work with getting other people's artwork out there over his own. A lot of collaboration stuff. He does Learning to Love You More with Miranda July. He brought in his kid to class and she was cute stuff. It was great.

I stopped by art media and got and had cut my backing board and spray. It took less than 10 minutes to spray and affix my pieces when I got home. They look really nice. I think I will do more of the spray+foam core presentation in the future. Simple, cheap, it doesn't transport well but it looks nice.

I went to Safeway and got rice crispy treat making supplies. I only had time to make and cut one batch. I tossed them out before my critique. Literally. I stood in front of the room and tossed them to whoever held their hand up. While my audience was eating, I put up my pieces. The Karen one is simply FANTASTIC. I am so pleased with myself. It and Robin are so colorful. I wish I had taken photo references of Llyw because his was worked on from memory and isn't as vivid as the other two. But go me! I grew so much in just three paintings.

Not many people went today so we got out a little early. Maddison did a painting of Inferno, James painted Castles, Daniel did a cool letter and a lady piece, Kenneth did an amazing and challenging pixelation self portrait, Mallory did portraits of peoples expressions, Robyn has fluffy stuffed animal portraits, and Lacey made a friggin' book with beautiful character illustrations. It was a nice critique. None of the over analytical crap I am sick of in Experiments in Drawing. Sometimes a puppy is despair, SOMETIMES A PUPPY IS A PUPPY. One week...one week.

Got home. Made some change. Did some laundry. I thought Keesee and Gavin were hanging out so I made some rice crispy treats but they left. Affixed a couple more paintings to the left over board. Made myself a double poached egg and cheese sandwich. I got my art history painting turned in with the very short artist's statement.

Tomorrow I will be going back to the grind of comic making. I had a nice break but now I have a week to do five pages, scan them, and make some print out of the comic (maybe, not really required).

ink under my nails, but not under my skin

On my feet all day. When I sat down to read I just went, "ahhhhh" and yoga helped unkink me further.

Printed my reworked plates. Did four (five if you count the test) of the Bigfoot one, four of the swampy lady one, and one test of the two people one. The bigfoot one looks great. The ghost image part left over from the first sugar lift turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Huzzah! The swamp lady got really abstract. It looks spooky but it doesn't have the face quality anymore. Weird. The two people one looks so screwed up. I don't have time to work on it more right now.

I also repressed my second litho color. I will be printing on Monday. Worked all through class. All 11-12:30 and 1:30 to 5 of it (and about fifteen minutes more).

Ate my Quizno's with Morgan during lunch. He was so jovial and talked about the manly methods of moustache growing (it includes smoking a cigar and standing with one leg on a chair and one elbow propped on your knee and the other on your hip). He will be in my figure drawing class next semester. Yay!

Read From Hell during my break. It does move a lot faster in the second half. Did "the crow" in yoga. So much balance stuff.

Lindsay has never seen The Triplets of Belleville! I think they have it in the Library's dvd collection. Can't believe she hasn't seen it. And she calls herself Toon! Bah!

Tomorrow is my painting critique. Have to finish the pieces up during my break. And make rice crispy treats for the class (because I am nice like that). Then all I have left are my Art History artists statement, my comic, printing, and a paper.

Seven class days left. This year sure went by quick.

I've got the sniffles

Another rather boring critique day in Experiments in Drawing. Modou is so determined to critique all that we do. I prefer the, "if you want credit and your piece critiqued, bring it to CLASS" line of thought. Not the, "we shall use up class time and look at everybodys work" reasoning. We spend the class critiquing a few new work (rave reviews on Karen's work) and half re-critiqued work that has been worked on since the class critique (the kitten and puppy thing has been played out now). We got out early so I thought I would go to Powell's and see if I spy and deals on paperbacks.

And I did! I got Ryu Murakami's Almost Transparent Blue. I now have all of his work in English, my numero uno favorite writer! They had a whole pile of the books and were all on cheap cheap sale. Sweet deal.

Worked on Karen's portrait a little. Ate some udon. Took it easy. Petted Ibanez.

Finished the portrait of her in class. Probably my quickest portrait to date. The red of the background is so vivid. Rather stunned at how much I grew between the three portraits. Now I just need to make them presentable.

I had a lot of ice cream today. Had a cone during my painting break. I hung out with Jen tonight (she has a nice room, lots of cool stuff) and we polished off 3/4 of my AmeriCone Dream pint. She gave me some Korean treats. Awesome person that Jen.

Tomorrow I will be printing. Don't know what kind of printing but I will be printing.

All that is left is printing and the comic (and the Art History paper). Week and a half left. Woah.

chocolate milk makes my day

Turns out the painting for Art History is due any time we want this week. Well, it is good that I have it done now. No worries while I work on the rest of it.

We had a test. I flubbed up the definition of odalisque, but I think my essay was in depth and I wrote enough about the pieces. I'm not too worried. I have no test anxiety in that class. She wants us to learn for us not learn for a test. One class remaining. We will look at our paintings and turn in a paper next class. And that is it for Art History.

Yoga was a lot of balance work. I'm not good at balance. Keep tipping all over the place.

It was a really beautiful and warm day today. Just had on a tee during my bike ride and all through class. Normally have a hoodie or a light jacket. Put all the windows open when I got home.

Took it easy.

Made a juice and ice cream run.

Today is Ibanez's birthday. He is four. Tomorrow is Jeanette's birthday. She is fabulous.

I watched David Lynch's Blue Velvet today. Kyle Maclachlan sure is a cutey but that movie made me really uncomfortable and weirded out. Really strange and horrible. Not made or performed badly, just the people and situations within it are quite...yeah.

Got about halfway done with my portrait of Karen. I don't know if I can get four done. I will have to finish that one tomorrow and start on a fourth but I don't get home till late on Wednesday. Hmmn. Oh well. I'll see how it goes.

Lindsay let me have some of her chocolate milk. She is wonderful like that.

I'm making a good working pace. I just need to make time for printing.

I've been reading Hugh Laurie's The Gunseller. I'm only about a chapter and a half in and I am loving it. They haven't changed the lingo in it to the American versions so that is great (IE: changing Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone). Lovely little story. I'm keeping up with my New Year's resolution to read more.

a little something from Fry

Stephen Fry from a Bronzino

The assignment was to take what you have learned in Art History, find inspiration from a piece, and create a new work from it. Also a part of the newly acquired 511 Building had to be included.

I did a portrait of Stephen Fry inspired by Bronzino's Portrait of a Young Man.



Watercolor. 10"x14.

(I will eventually take good pictures of all my work).

where has all my ultramarine gone?

Mm yes, another missed post. It happens. I'll post some artwork to make up for it.

Yesterday:
I worked on my Art History painting a little in the morning. Got a few generic washes in on the suit and face and background. Fry looks a little like a corpse.

Jim came over around 3:20ish. We had a date(ish?) to see Iron Man. It almost was a double with Lindsay and Keesee but she opted out of it. We caught the 4:15 at the Metro. Wasn't as full as I was expecting. Got great seats. Iron Man was...well they showed some of the best parts in the trailers but it was great seeing them all big like on the screen. Robert Downey Jr. was spectacular, the effects were amazing, and the bit with Nick Fury after the credits was all WHOOO. It was in between good and great. It needs another movie (and it had a huge opening weekend gross so there should be more). It had a lot of trailers before the film. My sum up of them is as follows: Indiana Jones 4 looks actually really cool and seems to keep in spirit with the older ones, Dark Knight just gets better and better and now we see more of Harvey Dent, Incredible Hulk looks as cool as the first trailer, Love Guru...just looks horrible, what is Mike Meyers doing? and finally Don't Mess with Zohan looks just awful. Terrible. So a yay on the block busters, a nay on the comedies.

Afterwards we wandered about trying to figure out where to eat. We didn't get too far when Jim noticed he didn't have his cell so we went back to the theatre to check. It was under the seat. We went with Cha Cha Cha. Or...Ole Ole. Uhm. One of those. I had a quesedilla, he had one of those massive burritos and got about 3/4 of the way through. It was nice. It was fun. I probably won't get to hang out and go out for the next two weeks. I'll be doing the art stuff nonstop. Brilliant!

Today:
Got up. Walked about enjoying the sun. Then went inside and worked.

And worked.

And worked.

Paint paint paint. Watched the rest of Memento. Watched A Scanner Darkly. Watched some Doctor Who. And got my Stephen Fry painting DONE. Not sure if it looks much like him though. I'm not totally keen on it but it is what it is.

I talked to Ellie today. Long time to chatty. Talked with Briana as well. Double dose of old friends!

Karen returned my lightbox. She gave me tons of cookies in thanks for lending it too me.

Robin stopped over for some night time tea and cookies. We chatted. I showed her my small photo album. Chatted some more. We all need a little company, or else we will go crazy and talk to our cats and have conversations about how you(the cat) are TOTALLY spoiled and have WAY too many toys. Yeah.

Trillzino

Got up at a semi-reasonable hour and went to work. The studios were dark and mostly vacant. Had to locate my broom and dustpan. The smaller one is missing again. They were giving away free sandwiches at school so I got one for lunch and chatted with Jim and Robin a bit. Put in an order for more large bags. I got a cheer when I came around a corner with my arms filled with toilet paper to replenish the bathrooms (they were seriously depleted).

Mostly uneventful day of work. Sat and read. Only two more shifts I have to work and then I am done.

It took me a long time to get into working tonight. A long time. But I think I accomplished a lot today. I have my sketch of Karen done for my portrait. All it needs is paint. I think she might be a little low or centered in the composition, but it needs to be painting before I can tell. Hmm. Also got my Art History piece all sketched out. The assignment is to create a piece inspired by something were learned in class AND to incorporate a part of the new 511 building. So I was inspired by Bronzino's Portrait of a Young Man. It is a portrait of a man of books and intellectual society. And with further description it led me naturally into what I am going to do: a portrait of Stephen Fry based on the pose of Bronzino's work. I'm VERY happy with how the face is looking. The pose is a good copy, considering I had adapt it for Mr. Fry's figure. The book his hand is draped on I will try to make into one of his, and I changed one of the carved faces in the piece into Hugh Laurie's face. The background is the 511 building. It fits...decently enough. I can't wait to start painting it. Which will happen tomorrow as it is due way too soon, but I won't rush it. I have faith in my ability and speed(thanks to Annie).

Finished watching Requiem for a Dream. The ending is so horrible. So tragic.

Watched a bit more Black Books. That series is so amazing. So hilarious.

But I don't wanna

Today became sort of a rest day. Oh I worked, but not as hard as I have been working. Tomorrow I will be right back at it, starting work on one of my final portraits. Or my art history final. One of those.

Went to Mia's final thesis proposal. She made a book containing illustrations pertaining to the recovery and situation of youth being diagnosed with cancer. It was inspired by a friend of hers. Really beautiful work. I saw her outside the room and she said, "Oh good, you came," and when I went into her presentation room it was packed full! I tried my best to keep my lollipop opening quiet, but I still got a dirty look from Matt. No one else though.

After the lecture I went about printing. Which ended up being a total flop. Somewhere along the line I screwed my plate up and when it came to printing, it ended up being one big mess. I think it had to do with too little lithotene. I worked from 10 to 1:30, with a little break for food. I still did two prints, but they look like crap. I have about 8 of the first ones left so I can't really flub up the next time. Sucks! I don't like being set back like this. And that was a lot of time used up. BAAAH!!

I went to another thesis proposal. It was a series of illustrations about Detroit done by someone who has only spent three weeks there. Lindsay was going to make sure the person did it right. She says he did. Saw a lot of the comic people at the lecture. Daniel was there are both of them. He shaved down his beard into a HUGE moustache. It...is huge.

Walked home with Lindsay. I felt really tired so I took a nap while she went out to First Thursday. Ibanez napped with me. Ibanez, however, did not join me for dinner. Then I loaded up some youtube, popped in Requiem for a Dream, and set about finishing my sequential narrative piece for painting (not at all finals related, just a piece I haven't finished but it isn't due till the end so that is alright).

One thing I was watching was this show called Black Books. It has Dylan Moran as a book seller and general loaf with his accountant and friend from the shop next door. It is British and hilarious. I watched about five episodes tonight while painting. Great work that.

Got an email from mum suggesting I stay in the dorms another year.

mmm fish

Six pages done. I am now taking a little break from the comics and will be working on the finals that are due much sooner (like the portraits, art history final, and printing). Six means I am halfway. Halfway in three days. A lot of work gets done if you sit and work work work.

I met up with Pearl to talk about my schedule. Actually I signed up correctly. Took the right Art History class and as for Science F(r)iction, well I needed to take a liberal arts class as well so that doesn't count as an elective. I also asked about the internship my Sophomore year and she said that I need to talk to Andy about it. I'm responsible, I can do it. One of the reason's I am here, so I am totally going to do it. I'm way ahead anyway. So all I added to my schedule was: The Figure, taught by Morgan Walker. Tuesday is a really long day, but I get a three day weekend and Wednesday off so I think that works out just dandy. Another full semester. I am taking three 300 level classes (The Figure, Science F(r)iction, History of Design) and two 200 level (Illustration Studio I, Painting Techniques II). It will be difficult, but hey what can I say, I am awesome.

Returned some DVD's and swung by Trader Joe's to get the rest of my needed groceries (milk, eggs, bread, frozen breaded cod, lollipops). Then I settled in for another round of comics! Whee! Even though there were less backgrounds, the anatomy I had to draw was tricky. Hard to make up positions with no reference. Got it drawn and inked and started in the wash but I took a break for yoga.

I really got into the final corpse pose. I just oozed into my mat. So peaceful. It was a much needed rest during this nonstop week.

Finished up the page. Looks consistent to the rest of the comic. Awesome! Watched Kill Bill volume 1, Gone in Sixty Seconds, and Spaced. I'm running low on things to watch.

Had a delicious early dinner of salad and breaded cod. For coming out of the freezer, they are not half bad. Portland lacks good Fish & Chips. Really needing some Ivar's right now.

name pun #324

Going to call it an early (midnight) night tonight. Didn't get as much work done as I would have liked, but still I am keeping on with it all.

Went to Charley's thesis. He did a great job. I can't wait for the final product. When I came in he said "my audience just got a Trillian times better". Hee hee. He is doing an illustrated novella. Seeing more of his work blew me away. It is amazing! I can't see how he is so self-defacing all the time. Boo Charley, boo!

Returned some comics to the library and checked out a neat little pile of DVD's to watch while working.

Outside of a trip to get desperately needed groceries, I stayed in and worked on my comic. It keeps getting slower and slower. But I am working. Still working. There was a lot of weird shading to be done today. Took me a while. I also was watching movies I haven't seen as much and so couldn't as easily ignore.

Comic standing as of this moment: five complete pages. One page 5/8ths of the way pencilled. It is only Tuesday and I am at almost half way. Movie/tv watched: Art School Confidential (oh dear god, it is so very true). More QI. Spaced. Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Oh speaking of that, mom did you like Hedwig?

Tomorrow I meet with Pearl to discuss my upcoming classes. After that I work and if yoga isn't cancelled, I am going to do that in the evening. Have to make a second grocery run as well, for eggs, milk, bread, and juice. Nighty night all!

2am trill

You know, when I am just working all day on the same thing it doesn't make for that interesting of blogging.

Anywhoo, got up for Mikayla's thesis proposal. Really funky uneven sleep. Not so grand. Oh well. Her thesis went well. Really complex and heavy idea about art as social practice. I don't think I quite got it, but I trust that she knows what she is doing. The print lab is occupied during the time on Wednesday when I thought I would be using it. Dang. Yoga was cancelled so after talking to Tabby-Sue, Soh-kuhn, Leah, and Matt, I went home.

I read That Salty Air by Sievert. I got through it really quick. The art is lovely. Great water and character designs. The octopus truly did rock. So after that, I buckled down and sat my bum in front of the computer for another round of what I like to call: Trillian draws a comic that gets progressively weirder and harder to draw. If I do two a day, I will be done on Friday. I have other finals to consider so I am not quite assigning a "two-a-day" goal. One plus is more reasonable. Yesterday I got two one and one pencilled, today I have just two done. I had to include more objects and thus more variations of color. Really tricky. Thankfully comics are not intended to be read from a distance. Huzzah! The text is near illegible unfortunately. I need to work on that. I am not a text person. I wouldn't include it if I could think of a way not to. I am amazed at the variation that is coming up in the panels.

Today I watched: about four-six episodes of QI. Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). Shaun of the Dead. The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2007.

Lindsay and I got pizza for dinner. Out fridge is looking really sparse these days. I really must go shopping.

pretty fan-damn-tastic

I've been sitting in almost the same spot since noon.

I have two pages of my comic done and a third mostly pencilled in.

Today I watched: Ghostbusters. Stardust. Three episodes on QI. The Christmas special that started series 2 of Doctor Who. Cowboy Bebop The Movie.

I didn't do much else besides eat and shower and shove Ibanez out of my lap.

I'm pleased with how the comic is shaping up. I have some great panels thus far. Go me! This next week is going to be filled with getting up, going to some presentations, coming home, and working for hours and hours. It isn't so bad, actually I am having a lot of fun. I am feeling challenged but not over worked. It isn't a strain, I just have to keep at it.

I need to get some more food. I'm down to carbohydrates again.

it was a sunny day and I was inside

Stumptown Comics Fest was fun. Not as fun as the last one but still pretty fantastic.

Panels:
Started off with Nicholas Gurewitch's one. Really good considering he winged most of it. And he had a robot. Always badass. Went to the Craig Thompson panel as well, despite the lack of me reading any of his work(no clue why I haven't, but now that I have some I can!).

Meeting Cool People:
Didn't interact with as many people as last one either. It was so crowded, it made it really hard to. Didn't really meet many awesome people. Just sort of remet a few old ones. Actually I was disappointed by a lot of the artwork, and that is what I come for mostly so bah. Disappointment! Did remeet Nicholas Gurewitch and the end of the day (when his line had almost vanished). He remembered me! How cool. I met Tim Sievert at the Top Shelf table. He was really sweet(and easy on the eyes) and when I flipped through the comics I was in awe of his octopuses (again with the Stumptown octopuses...)and his art in general. So his comic was the first that I bought of the day. He didn't know how to spell my name(I asked him, "what kind of a nerd are you?") so I wrote it in the book and he signed it. And DREW AN OCTOPUS! He rocks. And asked me to please enjoy it. Awww. I saw Kazimir Strzepek from a distance a couple times but I never approached him. He was just visiting and didn't have a table. The Robopocalypse people had a table. It was a pretty badass spread that they had.

Spending Money:
I am being a good American and am spending my refund. It is my money and I earned it! And this only comes around once a year. I'm very good. I didn't really buy anything from the people selling. Well not the lonesome sellers. The prices were suddenly more expensive than last one. I can't randomly buy a lot of $15 comics! Even if they look good, that is still a lot of money and if I buy a couple of those then my budget gets killed fast. I bought a story/illustration collection, the comic from Tim Sievert, 3 scuffed comics for $10 from Oni, a grab bag of cheap comics ($1), a half off anthology of autobiographies, and I went back to the Top Shelf table and said "I have this much money left, any sweet deals you can give me?" And the guy who wasn't Sievert said, "I can give you Blankets for that." And I said deal. Now I have Craig Thompson's 500+page tome in my collection and I got it for a fairly good deal.

Friends:
I rode the train with Michal and Blair. Interesting ride. I met Matt pretty much the instant I entered the building. Nicole was manning the PNCA table. Andy was there looking tall. Karen was looking fabulous. Jim was also there being tall. I ran into Danny and that really surprised me. As evidenced by my, "I thought you were a dork, I never knew you were a nerd!" comment. Philip was there with awesome hair. It is cool now that I am getting to know more of the community. But damn there were some nerdy people there. Karen, Jim and I went to Lloyd Center and got lunch. I set off the alarm at Macy's a couple times but no one came running. The books I had acquired were not desensitized.

The Afterparty:
Karen parted ways from Jim and I. After I spent all my money there was little point to me sticking around. Also it was ridiculously crowded so meeting people was mostly a bust. So I hopped on the Max and headed back to the Goose. And Jim tagged along. There were some crazy shouting people on the Max. And a guy named "Ace Venom" that used to work with Jim. He looked exactly like you would imagine a guy who changed his name to "Ace Venom" to look.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Jim, fighting off a killer headache, sorting my new finds into my shelves, eating spaghetti, coughing, and generally not doing a damn thing about my finals. Whatever. I need rest. I am going to be getting exactly that in a few. Tomorrow the game starts.

dressed like a villain

Feel much better, my cough is even starting to subside. That is good.

Even managed to get up early and get to school on time to print out the handouts for my presentation. I rock! I had extra time in fact so I called mom and we chatted.

My presentation, I think, went well. Stuttered a little bit but I always do. Had lots of material and knew what I was going over and showed a nice bit of Mirrormask. This was one of the few classes where we were there up until the last minute. Squeezed a lot out of it.

Left my keycard at home so I had to go get it. I am getting sick of my commute. I love biking and totally plan to continue to do it, I would just like a break. Or not have so many double bike trips.

Work went really quick. Had to locate my OTHER broom. I left out extra toilet paper because I'm sure there will be more people coming and going in the studios than normal over the weekend and coming week. Matt gave me a scare when I was changing the trash. I was in my head not paying attention and he went "boo" and I said a swear and he laughed. JERK FACE. Chatted with Andy who is doing these spectacular abstract paintings. Morgan is up to his normal Morganity. That dude is awesome.

Almost done with Rent Girl. Mostly reading it just because I heard so many females loathed it. It just seems like a sort-of cut and paste story. Nothing too original or ground breaking yet. Has its moments but meh.

Took yet another nap with Ibanez when I got home. I don't think I am low on iron, just low on sleep.

I didn't have much motivation to work in the evening. I am giving myself this time to recover from illness. And to ponder how to wear my trench to optimize awesome.

REFRIDGERON - DISASSEMBLE!

I met Nicholas Gurewitch, the creator of Perry Bible Fellowship. He was doing a signing at Floating World Comics so I stopped by. He signed my copy of The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories. We chatted a little but I was really jittery and starstruck. Waaah! So exciting. He dug my name and my bike helmet and was eager to show me the hidden 42's in his work. Tee hee. When I asked about taking a photo with him, he asked if he could wear my helmet. Hee hee. I love his work so much. He was sweet, more soft spoken than I thought. I'll see him again at Stumptown. Maybe then I will have calmed down.

Critique went smoothly. As in it was a pretty recognized fact that my big blue mess wasn't all that successful. But I had my little drawings up as well so some nice dialogue was started. Sara called my work "Illustrator-y" and "conventional". As in, drawing figures in outlines and with washes is conventional. Seemed like she was suggesting I find a whole new way of drawing figures. Uhm okay? Modou said it was more classical than conventional, which I took as a compliment but it sort of wasn't? I guess maybe because I wasn't being Avant Garde or "new" with how I presented them? Eh I don't really care. My critiques have never really been in depth into the structure of them and Sara always mentions something about it being hard to critique my work because I am an Illustrator. I think she doesn't like Illustrators. Well, if she likes my work then I might actually be worried about it. She can be closed minded. That's okay. She can keep to her highly conceptual work that is just a big mess of cute and I'll keep to my comics.

Ibanez and I took a three hour nap when I got home.

Painting was a brief critique of our final pieces thus far. I don't think I will tweak the one of Llyw until I get everything done. If I try to make it as good as Robin's and then the next ones blow Robin's out of the water then I'll have to do more reworking. I'll just see where they are when I get the portraits done.

Didn't get much time to rest at home before going to Floating World Comics. Due to the amount of bike riding I have done today, my hair is so wind blown and cool looking. I finished my little report on Neil Gaiman for Comic Lit tomorrow. Now I am going to make myself some dinner, try and digest as much From Hell as possible, and then write about it. If it wasn't for the nap, I would be so dead right now.

Tomorrow I have my presentation and work. After work I might print, just to get it out of the way early. Saturday is Stumptown Comics Fest. Then it is Sunday and next week is Spring Focus Week. In two weeks time I have to: paint two portraits, draw up more comic pages then I would like to admit to, paint something for Art History, and finish up my printing. Focus week is the cram week. And by cram I mean hunched over drawing and painting and printing week.

the list shortens

I am covered with the blood of printmakers. Ink everywhere! But I am now half way done with the mostly final project in printmaking. Just have to run off some prints of my reworked plates and then that is it.

So yeah, long long day in printmaking. I got my aluminium. Photocopied both my images. Put the first image on. It went on without a hitch. I was very worried too. Seemed like it could have easily gone horribly wrong (it did for another person). But it didn't. Came back from lunch and etched it. Cut my paper. Rolled up the ink. Prepared everything. And I printed. From about 2:30 to 4:30. Which really isn't all that long but it is two solid hours where I couldn't stop because stopping would mean the plate might dry out. Can't have that. The red ink went onto the paper much nicer than the black. It was also my own mix of red and not straight from the can so that made it extra special. It was a rich and bright red. A lovely one. Vibrant. So I got all the prints done and they look great stand alone.

I now see the wonders that litho present to me. The variety of colors I could combine...the images I could apply to the metal... oh dear oh dear. I want to do more! I went from image on paper to 10 prints in five hours. And the second round to finish the print should go quicker. Damn I'm loving this. I must do more!

Comic club was cancelled due to no Karen so no paper for Jam. Also not that many people were in the commons, the posters went up late, there were no tables in the commons, and with no food it is hard to draw a crowd. But I had a good lunch anyway. I sat with Jim and Daniel and chatted comic stuff and ate my sandwich. Was a very good lunch.

After being hunched over printing for hours, it felt so great to recline in a chair. Unfortunately I had to read From Hell and that killed the fun of relaxing. I think I would enjoy it more if I had more time to spend with it. I find the history interesting but it is going on and on and makes for slow reading. Get on with the murdering already! Blah blah blah I'm tired of the character portrait of London.

Yoga was brilliant. It unkinked my back. Got me out of my slouch. I even got my heels down during Downwards Facing Dog. I don't know what I would do without yoga. Helps me unwind and keep me loose and upright. I think I would be a bundle of tense if I never took the chance.

A wee bit chilly and windy going home. Made myself a bit plate of frozen stir-fry (very bland but warm) and some hash browns. Conversed with Lindsay. Finished my big blue mess. It is still a big blue mess, just with a big blue lady over it all. Meh.

Portrait of Robin

Portrait of my friend Robin for my Painting Techniques for Illustrators Final.
Watercolor. 10"x14"

Lollipop (candyTrill)

Whoo I win twenty bucks! I'm not all that sore from yesterday. I woke up creaky and the first bike ride was hellish but I'm not so bad right now. Just tired. But it is 1am so that is understandable. But I don't have to roll out of bed till 10 so it's all good!

The first part of Experiments in Drawing critique. I brought my big blue mess of a drawing but we didn't critique it. Yeah I don't like it. I don't like having to redraw figure drawings. Plus I'm not trying ot say anything with it and Modou asks that of us. The drawing isn't me. It isn't how I do things. I'm not looking forward to having to defend it. But enough about me.

The critique went decent enough. Same old good analysis (though a little lack luster this time around). No one cried. Same old negative comments. Sort of the same "this would be really nice on a wall" suggestions which are USELESS. Ohh I'll draw on the wall, okay. I'll work on that at home and bring that in. Mmmhmm. I was starving during class (ran out of granola bars). Karen was nice enough to lend me some chips after I elbowed her in the face.

The first ride home is always the worst of the two. So sore and tired and still waking up.

There are ants that are crawling about one of the pieces in the student show. Part of the piece has sunny side up eggs on plates on the ground. Real eggs too, they have been there for about a week with no replacement. It is rather disgusting. And now there are ants. Bleh.

Rewatched Mirrormask to figure out what scene to show the class on Friday(for my presentation). Rob Brydon is in it! I knew he was in it but I never really knew how awesome he was. Now I am a QI educated gal and I can say he is quite cool. I liked it much more the second time around.

On the way home I swung by Trader Joe's to get some granola bars, juice, a multi-vitamin, and some lollipops. They have the best lollipops. So delicious.

Didn't do much during my break. Really needed the break. Need it. The little list of things to do looms over me. Actually right now I feel totally on top of things. It is all doable. A little while ago (about 10 hours?)I was worried. It seems like so much. But now my mind has wrapped around what I need to do and when. I'm good.

Finished the painting of Robin in class. I propped it up and stepped away and was blown away by it. Things just suddenly fell into place with the painting. I have improved so much, I almost can't believe it. Was I once wary of this class because I feared the medium? I can't remember. I have gone beyond the expectations I had of myself.

I passed by a syringe on the ground on my ride home. Not so fun. Also not fun was the heavy rain expelling itself from the underbelly of the clouds.

I did my laundry. It was much needed. Two loads. I almost never do two loads. But now I have clean towels and undies. It's a good thing.

I'm up so late because it took me so long to rethink of a lithograph idea and to draw it out. I didn't have the time to do what I wanted, but what I changed it to I am excited about. Just a face, but if the color lays how I want it to, it will be fierce. I like the art of the design just as is. Thankfully I will be working from photocopies and won't be destroying the original. Tomorrow is a work day. If I can manage to run off the first printing of the piece, well that will be rad. That is sort of what I am shooting for.

The rest of tomorrow will be spent reading From Hell, thinking about my Art History design, and working on my Experiments and Drawing piece. I don't think I'll get it to a point where I like it. Like I said, just sort of looks like a big blue mess.

the magic number

Wow. Twenty bucks says my next entry starts with "I'M SORE AND HURT ALL OVER."

The Art History test was delayed so that Libby could teach us more more more. We got up to Manet and that is about it. So much info that was so generally covered. I must have more! Thankfully I have to take two art history electives. Whoo!

Yoga was standard yoga. It cut a little into class time though. Oh well.

The time to register for next semester is upon me. So begins the "I signed up for this, then this, then I changed it to this after talking to Pearl" season. I could only figure out four classes to take. I really need to talk to Pearl. Three of them are pretty certain though. So what I am taking (which will most likely change) is:
Illustration Studio I: Word + Image (with Chad)
Painting Techniques for Illustrators II (with someone that isn't Annie)
History of Design (there's a Art History 1945-1970 option but this works better with my schedule)
Science F(r)iction (the most temporary class right now. Just something I signed up for as an elective. It is another lit class with Trevor).

So yeah, that will most assuredly change. I'd like to take five classes but I have no idea how to fill it up.

I helped Karen put up posters for comic club and went home. Lousy weather. I only had a short amount of time to relax and put another layer on my drawing before it was time to go.

Go to Melanie's 30th Birthday Sun Salutation Extravaganza!! Melanie is my Monday Yoga teacher. She was doing 108 Sun Salutations in honor of her big day and invited people to join her, so I did. Sun Salutations are a cycle of movements in sync to breathing. One rotation is: prayer, swam dive down, flat back, hop to plank, scoop down through chutarunga and go into cobra, back into downwards facing dog, hop your feet to your hands, flat back, sweep your arms up, and come back into prayer. And that is one. I did 27, then I drew for a bit (I asked if I could ahead of time, the results were actually nice for being really quick). I did about five more in the middle, and finished the whole 108 with another 10 or so. A grand total of about...

42 Sun Salutations. Ha!

It was intense and nice. I have never gone over the Burnside Bridge on my bike before. Going across was worse than coming back, but coming back I had that final stretch with the hill. Stopped by Ole Ole and got a mondo burrito which I scarfed about 3/4 of when I arrived home. I did another layer on my drawing. Not sure how I am going to take it to school tomorrow. Hmmnn. Now I am just relaxing. I know I'll be sore tomorrow but it was so worth it.

return to productivity

It was a productive day but I don't feel like it was.

I have all my pages thumbnailed. It is 11 pages which is a lot to do in a couple weeks, but a lot of them have rather simple panels. I also have the first page mostly drawn out. Once I figure out how I want Chiaki to look, then I can get started. Thumbnailing doesn't look like much but now that I have it, I can just get into the actual meat of the comic.

Added another layer to my Experiments in Drawing piece. It is coming together slowly. Looks better with one more layer and the entire piece filled in with some sort of line or value.

But ehh, only two things? The next two weeks will be a busy time spent playing catch-up. At least my health seems to have returned.

the beauty of paper

Hoo boy did I sleep in. It was nice. My voice is doing a lot better. Still strained but I can talk without it going out or having to change the tone.

Walked down to Art Media to get some paper and a new brush. On the way their I saw an amazing coat in Goodwill. I stopped in my tracks when I saw it. It was cheap and it fit when I put it on. So I got it. Damn you window display! I would have walked right past without you there. As I was ringing it up, the lady behind the counter noticed a shop lifter and had to go into pursuit.

So yeah, after that I went to Art Media. Got a lovely new round brush, a beautiful piece of Arches paper, and a block of 6x9 paper for my final comic.

The potential a blank piece of paper has is so amazing. Anything could come out of it.

So I did a few layers of wash on it. Still needs some work. Just going for abstract I guess. I'm having fun. Started thumb nailing my comic as well. It is going fairly well. Excited to start. I'm staring with Chiaki's introduction. If I get that done, I may do more, but that is my goal.

Not so bad, but not so great. Tomorrow will be work filled.

Ibanez got a new toy. Right now he is sprawled on my lap, except I have my knees tucked up so he is laying across my legs (which are at about a 60 degree angle) with his head on my knees. He is sort of sandwiched it. Very cute.

I read about two "edgy" artists today. One of them, Aliza Shvarts, is staging a hoax performance out of Yale. She says she has had several abortions for art and blah blah blah. But she doesn't have documentation and expects us to believe her. Pfft.

Another guy, Guillermo Vargas, took a stray dog out of the streets and tied it up in a gallery to starve to death. He said it would have died anyway and it represented how people just watch things like that happen every day and do nothing. That makes sense to me(the people standing by part, not the killing animals for art part). People don't stop and ask if a homeless man is alright, they just walk right by. And if the people were really outraged they would have shut down the show and tried to save the dog as it was happening. They just let it die and then later said how horrible it was. He is trying to do it again and now people are trying to stop it from happening all together. Really to make a point they should let him start it and then save the animal. Because then he would be proved wrong; people do care when such atrocities are going on in front of their eyes.

Just a cool video of a couple dancing

sandwich x3

Voice is still squeaking along. Getting worse and worse. Had a nice talking break during work and I didn't say much in class so it worked out.

From Hell was a meaty class. Sort of. It is a really hard comic to digest. Hard to break the skin, let alone devour it. Next class will have four presentations (including mine on Neil Gaiman) and a segment of a documentary. We got out early so I went to work early.

I FINALLY found the missing smaller broom. Some studio jerk had stashed it in their studio, but I saw it and retrieved it. Makes my job so much easier to have the proper broom. The studios were very vacant today. I was full enough so I just had some cookies for lunch. Sat in my supply closet and read Invisibles on my break. Such a good comic even though I can barely comprehend what is happening and all the little changes.

So I decided to just stay in the dorms for the summer. Much cheaper, you can pay in a lump sum, and then I can travel! I filled out the form and turned it in. Saw Jim and we chatted a bit. We parted ways and I saw Michael and I rode my bike along side him up to 19th and we parted ways there.

Made myself what will probably be my last cheesesteak for a while.

I went to movie night at the school (my first in a while). It was Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don't think I have ever seen the movie in full before. I wonder how that happened. It is awesome! I blame my parents. The film night had sandwiches instead of pizza. I had two.

This weekend I have a lot of work I need to get a jump on. Comic layouts, drawing for Modou's class, Litho drawings, art history planning, portrait painting. I can do it!

mute point

Yup. My voice is mostly gone now. I still forced myself to talk and utilize my new voice to creep people out.

Another day of figure drawing in Experiments in Drawing. I used ink washes again but this time I did the drawings on my left of strips of paper from printmaking. The layered drawings turned out really well. I have them pinned on my wall right now. I'm actually excited to start work on the large drawing. One of the many things I have to do this weekend.

After class I went to Trader Joe's and picked up a couple things. I deposited my refund check (whoo! money!) and swung by the Bel-Aire Apartments again. They are actually closer to nicer areas than I originally thought.

Another option has arisen in my quest of escape from the Goose: a summer lease. They have leases that last a couple months. Then I would be looking for a place in July instead. It gives me more time and when I find a place the lease would expire in time for me to (hopefully) study abroad in Belgium during the first part of my Junior year. It would be cheaper and it would enable me to travel with the parents during the summer. Hmmn.

Wasted my break being sick. Well I called home and talked with mum, that wasn't a waste.

Worked on the painting of Robin. We signed up for our final critiques and I took a spot on the first day. Better to get it over with early. Get it done right and not squeezed in at the end when everyone is burned out and/or gone. But it also means I need to finish Robin and do two more paintings in the next couple weeks. Yipes!

I rode past a guy in a reclining bike. I barely saw him. I'd be afraid of a Hummer running me over in one of those things.

Went home. Read From Hell. Ate food. Was sick.

illness shared by one

My voice is going out. I can't hit high notes without going silent and my regular voice is strained and creaky. I also have a dry cough to go with it. But I'm not tired or achy really, so that is good.

Printmaking was only somewhat productive. I am trying to flatten out my litho prints...it isn't working out that great. Etched and hardgrounded my bigfoot plate. Sprayed and etched and hardgrounded my duet plate. I think I did more but there was a lot of sitting around and looking at presentations. I stuck around for the full class though. That is always good.

Karen and I went to Urban Grind for lunch. I had a caramel steamer and a panini. Very filling and warm. Mmm.

Sort of sat in a daze for an hour and read a little of From Hell. Yoga was good but I couldn't relax enough at the end because of the pain in my chest (from my body wanting to cough).

I did the dishes and cleaned my room. I made a formal list of the order I have to work on my assignments. It isn't that long, but the projects are big.

my day as a model

Whoooeee I feel like crap. I have a tickle in my throat and a bad consistent cough. Almost got to the point of thinking about not going to class today. But I still went. I just felt horrid. Bad night's sleep.

Modou noticed that I looked like crap. I guess that was nice? He asked if I was well or sumfink. He was in a very good mood. We looked over our drawings briefly and talked about what our pieces are going to be. Then it was time to either work on our concepts or draw each other if we missed class. I volunteered to pose as I didn't have good paper to draw on. I whipped out my yoga skills in a series of about six five-minute poses. They were awesome ones as well. Lots of fun things. I liked the attention, I must admit. Lindsay and I posed together and then she did a couple more while I relaxed and drew her. Then it was time for break!

For the rest of class we has a special speaker come in, a one Samantha Wall. She showed us slides of her work and talked about it. One of her pieces is in the library and it is HUGE! The scale she works in just boggles my mind.

Rode home in a sickly delirium. Took a nice nap with Ibanez. Very nice. Had some pasta for lunch. Felt a little bit better but still generally bad. Bleh.

During class I started painting the portrait of Robin. I'm surprised at how seemingly easy it was to paint. I started with the photo references and then I came up with what I knew was there and it blended wonderfully. Her face needs some work but it is coming together nicely. Go me!

A much easier ride home the second time around. Sort of sat about in a daze and watched more Naked. Yeah I'm still not so keen on that movie. So many intolerable or pitiful characters.

Earlier, impressed by my skills, Karen asked me to pose for her later tonight and so I obliged. I just wore a tank and a pair of leggings. It wasn't that kind of modeling. Did some more poses, and some longer ones. Wore my heeled shoes and my yukata and had a good time. I used up a lot of my creative ones during class so I had to think some more. The results were wonderful, and they look like me! Go Karen!

Then we watched the light show.

can't stop, won't stop (when it comes to litho printing)

Oh wow. Really long day.

I left my slide printouts for Art History so I had to write them on the back of the next slide notes. Actually it might have been better as I had to pay attention more. As usual there were less people after lunch. They just go any don't come back. Really odd.

Yoga was jam packed with sun salutations. Melanie, the teacher, is turning 30 in a week and she plans to do like 108 in a row. I get sore after 8(and we did 15 today). Blimey! She is awesome. Yoga felt really good on my body. I was so creaky and sore and tired and it really needed the bending into shape that it did.

After class, at around 2:30, I went into the print lab and I didn't leave until about 7:45. And that was pretty much working straight. Worked on my plates. Etched my stone. Inked my stone. Did about eight prints. Didn't stop for non-printing break. I sort of staggered out of the lab, grabbed some munchies, and rode home at dusk. So much work just to be on top of things. At least I think I did it all right. My stone is even prepped so that if I want to do more prints I can.

I got home and pretty much made myself dinner and plopped down in front of the computer. I've been browsing the net and on occasion watching bits of Mike Leigh's movie Naked. I mostly checked it out from the library because it was mentioned on the back of Ryu Murakami's Piercing so I thought it might be up my alley in terms of theme. Ehh, it isn't. David Thewlis is amazing in it, but I don't know. It is a lot of him wandering around from place to place and generally being a theologizing jerk. Mmnn.

Can't wait to crawl into bed.

can't be cooped on a day like this

I've spent most of this weekend out and about. Or hanging out. Or being Yogafied. Been away from the Internet, but now I'm back! Whoo!

Yesterday:
I had a great and much needed sleep in. I rolled out of bed around noon and was greeted by an amazing day. I had committed myself to printing so I got all geared up and went to get my paper by Art Media. I only made it to the top of the hill before I had to remove my light sweater and continue on. It was really really hot. I was in a tank and short pants and I was still overheating a little.

I got my paper and went to school. The lab was closing at 5 due to a big gala at school. I knew I wouldn't be able to get my printing done so I just worked on my plates instead. Mel called me with an update on a video project I was helping her out with. So yeah, I only worked at school until 3:00 and then I was out of there! But I got a lot done. I sugarlifted and hardgrounded my big foot and I did a first etch on both of the other plates. They look a little funky so I have to see how they print.

The ride home was spectacular. My arms are so pasty.

I loafed around until it was time for my part in the video project. Mel, Jim and I went up to Karen's to use her nook for our scene. I only had one line (Jim is the star). We had about three or four takes and that was it. I hung around my place for a few and then Jim came over when he was done helping them with the project.

We sat about and talked about comics and the like. We went for a walk up to the park and the overlook bridge. Lots more comic nerd talk and school talk. I cooked up some dinner and afterwards we took part in the face-melting experience that is Lindsay's light show. Now that there is more on it and black light and a red colored light...oh wow. It boggled my mind and I got so caught up with it. Afterwards I had a good lay down.

Today:
Didn't sleep so well but I have tomorrow to sleep in. And it is needed. Probably going to retire early and just sit up in bed reading comics for an hour. From Hell is still slow going. It will always be slow going.

I walked around Portland with Karen and Robin today. Not as beautiful as Yesterday but still lovely. Karen was taking pictures for an assignment and I was just there to be out of the house and whatnot. We went to a bakery for lunch. My sandwich needed to be toasted but it was still good. Lots of roaming. I got some cheesecake brownie ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. We looked at Portlandia. Then we returned home.

I kicked up my feet for all of ten minutes before going down a floor to draw Robin (for my final). I am very pleased with how she turned out. We took a short break where I read more of Mark Millar's Kick Ass (ridiculous comic) and then we went to Yoga! We walked all the way to school, which isn't really that far but I had done a few miles worth of walking earlier so I was fairly tired. Tricia showed up almost late for Yoga and we had a quick little private lesson. A little shorter than usual but damn I am feeling it anyway.

We picked up a burrito from Cha Cha Cha to share and went back to Goose Hollow. The burrito was delicious and very filling. I am oh so stuffed and sore and tired. But I feel good. The time for finals is upon me and I am ready for it.