bending/packing/drawing/watching

Slept in so hard. So well. But a little too much. Rushed the portrait. Got to yoga almost right on time. Blissful yoga. Slow sustained stuff. Very relaxing and contemplative.

It was a rainy icky day. After yoga I worked on taking down my studio. Took so much longer than I expected it to. Unscrewed the shelves. Put the art in a flat portfolio. Rollyn is helping me move it tomorrow. I got it as ordered as possible. Once everything is out, I'll be repainting the walls. I don't have to be out of the studio for another week, but I figured it would be best to do it now instead of later, when everyone is rushing.

Got home. Went to Trader Joe's for food. Watched Fringe. Watched some Doctor Who. Watched some Supernatural. Yeaaah. Also worked on portraits. Need to get ahead of the game again. At least my portrait project will keep me drawing after school. And I'm enjoying drawing in the 11x17 format.

So yeah, tomorrow I'll haul the stuff out of my studio. And I'll clean my room. And have tacos. Yup.

Todays Portrait Is: Karen Carpenter.

done

Oh boy. Did not want to get up. Just wanted to stay in bed and avoid it all.

But I had to get up. Did a drawing of myself last night to turn into a little card that Kristen is going to print up to give to the guest speakers. She is so awesome. Promoting us to the people. Whoo! So we had a little discussion and then class was done. I got a burrito and then got to working on my paper. After two hours of editing and saving, I moved my files to the server and then restarted, because stuff was starting to slow down. And then the school servers crashed. Thankfully I didn't have anything open, but other people did. I know Chloe lost 8 hours worth of editing. It was a frustrating 20 minutes to wait for the servers to come back up (couldn't even log in). But they did come up and we were able to finish our paper.

So many edits! So much ordering and capitalizing of this and that. Probably got it wrong in places. But by 4pm I was able to drop my paper in the box and be free of it. Done. Done. Done. The last little tail of it all. DONE.

Chilled at home, not doing anything.

Had a lovely yoga session. Lots of energy. Lots of laughs.

Got some ice cream and some beer. Watched Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock with Kristen and Mark. Now I'm watching Wilfred. I made a master list of to do things to get done. Lots of things. But nothing that can't be done in its own time.

Now to get on with my life.

Todays Portrait Is: Matt Bellamy.

final edits

Uhhg. Got up a bit late. But I got to work. Finished up my edits. Ate some food. Went to school. Trapped myself in the library for like six hours finishing up the edits. I still have some bits here and there. It took me almost an hour just to place six images because Word on the iMacs had some glitch. Bleh. It was a nice day but I missed it all.

Went to Yur's for dinner with Dominic. Fish and chips.

It's all over tomorrow. Well not ALL over but that is the deadline.

Todays Portrait Is: Dick Valentine.

the most important page out of all my thesis research

Howgate, Sarah, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. David Hockney Portraits. Yale University Press, 2006. Page 43.

edit that bit out

Ohh what did I do today?

Oh right! I realized that if I hit my snooze button twice it will set the snooze for an hour, not just 9 minutes. Oops. I'm really not fond of this new alarm clock. ANYWAY. Got up. Showered. Washed hair. My skin has got to hell recently. Lots of pimples and stuff. I'm not even wearing makeup, it is just gross. Stress reaction. Lots of picking at my face. I should also wash my pillow cases.

Went to school to vote for the Sloth. Keep him as our mascot! The meeting took place in the commons and Drew was dressed as the sloth. He did a good job. Karen gave a spirited defense of the Sloth and its importance towards PNCA heritage and unity and stuff. A few of the proposed mascots didn't really have anyone speak about them. Kinoko made a good argument for the otter (which would be a good Pacific Northwest mascot) and Jenna promoted her pangolin. In the end the sloth was voted in. HURRAH! Campaigning and Democracy in action folks.

Sat and chatted with Mel and Karen. Went home. Watched some telly. Ate rice and seaweed. Drank tea. Worked on paper. Went to yoga. Relaxed. Damn good yoga. Went home. Watched more telly. Returned to working on paper. I'm almost all caught up with my current provided drafts. In the past half a semester I've had seven different edited drafts, some are very similar to others. So right now I'm almost through the seventh (the sixth and seventh came from Monday's optional paper exchange). It is shaping up. Just simply reading through it allows for greater changes. I'm cutting sentences left and right and the section about Tumblr was halved. I also added a seventh chapter just to conclude it. Seven chapters. 20 pages WITHOUT starting each chapter on a new page. 20 pages WITHOUT illustrations (there will be at least seven). So yeah. Going to finish up these last bits of edits. Tomorrow I have a draft coming from Heather (which I actually have right now, but I'm saving it for tomorrow). That will be the morning edit. Then Kevin says he will have my paper in my box by 3. So I'll go to school and work on his notes. And then Kirie will get a draft to me later. In between Kevin's edits and Kirie's drafts I will work on formatting this monster. It is a long day but it also doesn't seem so bad. It is just too bad that the drafts that they are editing are the Monday ones and not this one. Still, feedback is feedback.

Also knowing when certain drafts will come to me helps me structure my day.

ALSO I get so much satisfaction from deleting bits. I don't know what it is, it just feels so good to do so.

Todays Portrait Is: Lady Gaga.

upwards swing

Uhg. Alarm went off way early. Got up early. Worked as hard as I could to edit but it wasn't enough. Got to class. Printed off three copies. My printing bill is gunna be huuuuge. Well not huge but not cheap. Hopefully they are printing in black and white...uhhm. Yeah.

Anyway. Got to class in a dreary unfocused mess. We did class evaluations. Everyone was tense and stressed in various degrees, except Robin who accidentally got 12 hours of sleep. Jim and Justin and Bob Martin came in and those that showed edited papers together. Mine was getting good feedback! It may not be as terrible as all the mark ups are leading me to believe. And Joan was even saluting me. Tomorrow I will edit it further and browse my remaining research for content to add. I think I am back on the "I can actually do this" track. I have all of Wednesday to polish it and get it right as well, and Wednesday is when I am expecting some other drafts to come back to me, so that is perfect. So tomorrow I'll finish up the last of the edits I currently have.

Got home. Ate some pasta. Watched House. Going to tuck in even earlier than usual tonight. Gotta get to school to vote for the Sloth! And I plan to get up early anyway. My alarm is set for 6am for the next three days. Fun.

Todays Portrait Is: Gwen Stefani (sorta...)

panic setting in

Worked on stuff. Stressed about stuff. Still working. Still stressing.

Uhg.

Todays Portrait Is: Paloma Faith.

funs over

Woke up at weird irregular hours. Finally got up. Watched me some AWESOME Doctor Who. It is blowing the last season out of the water.

Worked on doing a new thesis paper outline. Better structure. Got some more research at school. Sunday will be all paper. Editing, writing, research, writing, all that stuff.

It was a nice sunny day.

At 7ish I headed to Bye&Bye on 10th and Alberta to meet Finn (aka the buddy formerly known as Jay) for drinks and food and hugs. Haven't seem him in mooonths. Missed my dear friend so much. Hugged and hugged and hugged. I almost felt awkward wearing my leather jacket at Bye&Bye, when I saw that it had one of those vegetarian menus. I feel awkward in a lot of Portland places because I'm not grubby/organic enough. Oh well. I ordered a veggie dog with chili and chips and a cocktail that came in a mason jar. We sat on the porch area and gabbed and caught up. Damn I've missed Finn. Like, really missed. Friends like that only come around now and again. We walked around a bit, rode our bikes, grabbed some fast food (well Finn did, I was still very full). And then parted ways. Now I'm going to go to bed and get up and be VERY SERIOUS about everything tomorrow and get stuff done so I don't fail my paper and end up at PNCA for another semester. That would be humiliating and awful.

Todays Portrait Is: Mark Sheppard.

my only friend the end

Oh boy. What a day. A day to final it all. We are done with OUR focus week. OURS. My class. Mine. No one elses. All that freaking jazz.

I decided to sleep through the first block of proposals. The 9am-10:30am ones. I'm still a bit sick and needed that time. But I did get up and get to school in time for the 11:00-12:30 ones. So I went to see Sivonna. Her thesis she made this whole product design line around this cyclops owl Muku. So she gave his story and detailed the process of collaboration to make the resin figures and the chocolate molds and she had a fashion show of her tee shirts. Zain, Samala's son, was totally fabulous.

Sivonna gave such a great thesis defense. It is weird how short these things seem when you go through the process.

Oh man, I'm tired. Okay, gotta keep writing.

Lunch was rice and stuff. Had some of it. It was good. Drew people who were at lunch.

Went to Heather "Tibby" McDowell's thesis proposal. It is funny how doing something like sport's photography is so foreign at PNCA. But she defending her proposal very well.

It was a packed house for Diana (the next proposal I went to). She is cataloging the type in the letterpress studio and doing pieces based around type and stuff. That will be cool. I gave some people some more posters and got some caramels in exchange.

After that I went to Jenn's defense. She did these paper dolls and focused on body image in women and DID SO WELL. She takes the awesome stance that acknowledged that stuff like "real women have curves" is just as harmful and how women are great instigators of negative self image and stuff. Anyway, she did great and I almost wanted to cry with how happy I was.

Afterwards there was a little going away party for Tom Mullowny in the commons. There was a band. And a keg. So I had some beer and sat and chatted with all sorts of people. Then we migrated to Yur's, where I partied more. Lots of great conversations and WHOOOOing and hugs and throwing of makeshift confetti. We may have made a bit of a mess, so I tipped well. Met Leo's lovely fiancee Kelly. Then some of us walked home. I dropped my bike off at home and met Beth, Leo, Danny, and Kelly at Muu Muus and had a burger. MMM! And now I am at home and I am tired and tomorrow there will be new Doctor Who. But right now I sleep.

Todays Portrait Is: David Bowie.

wiped

Uhg. So totally wiped out. Woke up at 1:30pm. Yeah. I think I might be getting sick. All the stress and underlying adrenaline that was pushing me forward is dissipating and now I'm totally exhausted. Gaaah. Got to school at 3:00 for Petra's thesis proposal. It is weird how short these focus week proposal and defenses seem now that I am done. No time at all and such short discussions.

Talked to DeAnn about traveling over the summer. Mentioned I might go to Utah and she suggested all these parks that I can't remember the names of. Then I went to Madeline's defense.

Her story illustrations look quite lovely. Lots of work. And she defended the work quite well. Got through her talk clearly and concisely. She had some pretty tough questions though. About pitching stories and the hard tasks of being a story book artist. Still, she did it! Her family was there and we all had a nice chat while waiting for the panel to deliberate. Chatted with her little brother Jackson about Doctor Who. Madeline passed. Whoo! Everyone is passing.

I returned home. Did some shopping. Ate a big salad and had a glass of orange juice and some salami. Need my protein and veggies. I've been eating so irregularly and poorly. Now I'm likely to pass out soon. Tomorrow is a full day of defenses and proposals and then CELEBRATION!

Todays Portrait Is: Martin Freeman & Benedict Cumberbatch.

I passed with astronautical colors

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

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

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

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

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

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HOOOOO!!!

YEAAH!

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no portrait today.

tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After years and years, my thesis defense is here.

It doesn't feel real, but it is.

Todays Portrait Is: Colin Firth.

'illian

It's only 7:30, but I am tiiiiired so I'm blogging now so that whenever my body collapses in on itself, I don't have to worry.

Focus week begins. Now all my lovely friends over the years defend their thesis. Our time at PNCA comes to an end.

I got out of bed at the horrid hour of 7:50am. UHG. Showered, got dressed, made myself pretty, grabbed the bread and hummus and set off to school. First up was Dominic's Defense. His work looked lovely all hung up, and he seemed relatively calm considering that I ran into him last night and he was mighty stressed. Anyway, he got up there and went through his speech. And he did super well! Every time he paused he took the chance to drink water. It gave a nice pace to his defense of his neurotic paintings. It was a room with friends and everyone was enthusiastic. He did very well. The crew waited with him after he defended, and naturally he passed.

Between his and Leo's, I went to Safeway and bought a Red Bull because with about two hours of sleep under my belt, I knew I couldn't survive the day with no assistance.

Drank that and went to Leo's defense of his wordless series of illustrations depicting a revolt in a society dominated by technology dependance. It was a nice little series, and he had pretty much eliminated all uses of the word "like". Good on him! He had a good little defense as well. Chatted with him after till he went in for questions, so then I went to get some food!

Lasagna! Sat with Acey and Arvie and David Ritchie joined us. Apparently Ritchie has met Douglas Adams. After that I went to BT's lecture thingy on setting up a screen printing set up at home. Dad, do you wanna make an at home printing set up with me? It will be fuuuun.

After that, I went to Matthew Miller's thesis proposal. He is proposing to do a series of photos based on gun culture and representing gun owners in their home. He laid it out there that his thesis isn't about if we should have guns, but why. Still his audience asked a lot of heavily biased questions. Probably a good thesis if it will spark such reactions. He is a quality photographer and will pull it off. It will just take a good sense of his argument.

Afterwards I went to August's proposal. He is doing several broadside comics in different formats. His room was packed and he was a bit awkward but he got through it with gusto.

And AFTER that I went to Danny's room to see his set up. His wife Mara brought their just turned one year old daughter Lillian along. OHHH what a cute baby! Just wandering about with big blue eyes and drooling and so happy. I picked her up and gave her tons of kisses on her little baby cheeks. Cutest critter EVER. But I didn't stay for Danny's defense, I went to Beth's. Which ended up being packed. She got through her information in a great manner. Argued it well. Her series of animal pictures based on the group nouns we assign them turned out so beautiful.

AND THEN I went to see We Buy Diamonds. I got my free shirt that they owed me for the printing and then went around school to generate interest. And interest was generated! The doors opened at 5:50 and in five minutes it filled up. And people kept coming. Unfortunately people decided to sit on the floor instead of standing and dancing. So the people coming in didn't really have space, even though if people scooted there would have been space, and standing would provide even more space. But Karen, Mel, and I stood in the back and hollared and hooted and cheered them on like crazy. We shouted the hooks to the songs and shouted responses when they asked questions. We three brought the WBD fandom!

And the show was PHENOMENAL. They performed with vigor and enthusiasm, and nailed the songs. The lights, the set up, the costumes, the everything was spot on. They did so well. They did it! They did it all!

And after that I went home. Kristen and Mark came by and I joined them, and Kristen's parents and brother Anthony for dinner at Sansai. Mmm sushi. Now I'm back and exhausted. So I think I shall wash my face and crash. Tomorrow is two pre-lunch proposals and then lunch and then I set up my thesis and then practice practice practice. I don't know if I'll go to any more things after lunch. I'll just see how I feel. Less that 48 hours till I defend!

Todays Portrait Is: Mark Strong.

do a lot, do a little, get it done

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

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Stephen Graham.

sloth spirit

my bruvver

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Dexter Fletcher.

henna is a fun process

Okie doke, the time draws ever closer.

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Dylan Moran.

our slothiness

Goody goody, Thursday. The best day of them all because I have to get up early and do stuff mostly all day long.

So I got up. Had a mediocre breakfast. Got to school a couple minutes late but didn't miss much. Class was filled with work time on a sort of thank you collaboration for the people who came in and talked to us during the semester. Kristen W and I walked to Quiznos and I got a sammich. Then we returned to class. After lunch Martin came in and fielded some questions about thesis week. Kristen RB brought us cookies and showed us some of her current work, which as cool to see. Then it was early out of class time. I went to the screen printing studio and printed some Save the Sloth bands. The Sloth is PNCA's mascot and there is a vote to change it to, like, a narwal or something. So Karen, Morgan, myself, and many others are lobbying for the continual presence of the Sloth. Tradition! Heritage! And it isn't that bad of an image, considering how long sloths have stuck around despite all the odds. Reason would dictate that an animal that metabolizes food so slowly and thus moves so slowly would have died off ages ago. But it still prevails! Sloths are almost against the laws of nature and survive. Just like artists. Anyway, so I cut up some old shirts and printed on them. Some of the bands were a bit short, but they work for arm bands as well. I printed 30 and by the time I left school, I had given them all away. Only one person wasn't in support of the Sloth. They were in the "everything changes" camp.

I wore my headband with pride.

Yoga had a very long final pose and I just went into it. It felt so very good. Last yoga till after focus week. Hung out with Karen afterwards. Then went home. Watched Community (which was FANTASTIC) and Parks and Recreation (which was adorable).

Now I'm extra tired and have a long day ahead of me. The thesis speech practicing begins.

Todays Portrait Is: Tamsin Greig.

you only need three toes to make art

Slept in. Felt pretty icky all day though. Stomach problems and exhaustion problems. Had another draft meeting with Joan. We mainly talked about the language of my paper and unpacking some of the ideas. Went back home afterwards and chilled. Ate lots of carbs. Worked on paper outline. Cut up some old shirts to turn into "Save the Sloth" sashes. The school wants to change the mascot, or rather some EVIL STUPID LAME FRESHMEN want to change the mascot because Sloths apparently are lame. So we seniors are going full force campaign to save the mascot (we have a costume and everything). Karen and Morgan and that one kid who is Morgan's friend have done posters. I'm going to print some sashes. Maybe make a poster as well.

Tomorrow is class, printing the sashes, yoga, home, finish the outline and maybe practice a couple times. Mmm hmmm.

I wonder what type face I should use for my save the sloth bands? Hmm.

Todays Portrait Is: Stephen Mangan.

uh huh

Okie doke. Today, I don't think I accomplished all that much but I guess I accomplished something.

Got up before noon. Hell, got up before 10am! Sort of. I mean, 9:55am counts? But yeah. Way earlier than normal, which is very good.

Uhg I'm so tired.

Worked on paper. Went to school. Printed it out. Turned it in. Talked to Karen in the studio. Went to yoga. Came out of yoga. Listened to Beth practice her thesis shpeal. Went to Yur's. Drank. Played pool. Chilled in print studio, and by chilled I mean sobered up. Now I'm just plain old tired.

Tomorrows a new day.

Todays Portrait Is: Robert Carlyle.

right?

Slept waaaay in. Didn't get up to much today. I deserved a rest? Except whoops I have to get cracking on my paper and my defense. Crumb cakes. But thats all I got to do now, but since it isn't drawing and tangible...it is hard to structure.

Talked to Madeline about how awesome Game of Thrones was. Had some oatmeal. And then later some pasta. And then later some salad. Went to Trader Joe's and got stuff. Watched tellie. Thought about all the stuff that I'm not doing and continued to not do it.

I'll do better tomorrow. I've been working really hard, right?

Right?

Todays Portrait Is: Ioan Gruffudd (yes, that is how you spell it, I checked).

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I finished printing all 17 posters for my Senior Thesis at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Y'all know how much labor this is. I wish I knew what my final project would be at the start, so that I could have had, say, 30 finished posters. Just show something really really epic. Just art and color and posters EVERYWHERE. But this amount is pretty damn awesome. I love it. I'm not tired of my thesis at all. In fact, I just want to do more art. But nope, have to do my speech. Have to do my paper. So that will be what consumes the next days and weeks of my life: paper and defense. But honestly, I'm not too panicked about my speech. As Martin says, I have all the stuff there. I just need to organize it.

Anyway. I got a slower start than I wanted. Woke up with my hands hurting. I need to be in better shape to get through all this printing. Got the portrait done. Had a little breakfast. Got the text done. Went to school, scanned and edited the text. Went to the studio and emulsified my screens. Went to the library and printed my text. Exposed my screens. While the screens dried, I went to Chipotle and got a burrito. Ate half that burrito. Then I got to printing! Listened to That Mitchell and Webb Sound, a very funny radio comedy sketch series. After I finished the four color layers, I ate more of the burrito and talked to Robin. Then it was back to printing! I did the drawing fluid for the second print layer and then the emulsion. This guy I didn't know spilled tons of emulsion while emulsifying his screen and then left. A big freaking puddle! I was really pissed. Why leave that on the ground? It doesn't exactly dry fast and no one wants to step accidentally in emulsion. Also, generally you shouldn't emulsify a screen if you don't plan to expose it the same day. But it was obvious by the guys screen emulsifying technique that he didn't know jack diddly about the method. I cleaned up his mess for him. Grrr boo. And it only took a minute to wipe down and wipe away the spilled emulsion.

Anyway. Continued printing and it all went really well. Switched to listening to Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (I finished Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest yesterday, the third in the Millennium Trilogy, the book made the least interesting of the three movies but as a book it was phenomenal, I think because the content plays out better in writing, where as with the first two it is told better visually, and also when it comes to the third movie they edited out some great moments from the book). But now I won't be listening to so many audio books. I won't be printing anymore.

I got out of the studio at 1:20am. Pinned up my posters. Now I am home and waiting for Game of Thrones to download. I don't care that it is 3am. I'M WATCHING IT.

Todays Portrait Is: Christian Bale.

defense is on the calendar

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

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

Hmm what else happened today?

Oh Kristen watched Spice World for the first time!

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

Todays Portrait Is: Ewan McGregor.

a day off

Even though I got a full nights sleep, I still felt exhausted all day. Just totally drawn out and not good at all. Every task felt like a chore, the only peace came during yoga. Had a good little mini meeting with Martin. Didn't have a defense to practice, but we talked about organization. We'll meet some time next week. Afterwards I put up some We Buy Diamonds posters and then went to yoga. So nice and relaxing. After that I got some thai food and crawled into bed and ate it and watched stuff. I continued to watch stuff, and didn't feel any better. Just tired and no enthusiasm for anything. And even though I'm tired now, I don't want to go to bed. I guess I'm a bit depressed. Tomorrow I design and print. Hopefully I'll feel better. Maybe I'll get a hug, a hug would be nice. A cuddle would be better.

I'm ready for this to be over.

Todays Portrait Is: Rufus Sewell.

I'm so close to being done

Every move I make is agony. I may have reached a limit and may spend tomorrow just with Martin, Yoga, and then in bed with books. It hurts. It hurts a lot.

BUT! Today started off being not in pain. Just very very very tired. Got to school at around 10:40 and scanned and uploaded my two pieces for Illustration. Madeline showed up and I got a ride from her to Pinball Studios, a place where we were having a field trip to today. First I got an energy drink and some doughnuts and we talked Game of Thrones. Then we picked up Kristen. We got there ten minutes late, but most of the rest of the people were a bit later, including the teacher. We got a little tour of the printing studio, which had a fat cat named Mimi, and some cool printing presses. None of which I'm the least bit familiar with. We got some freebies as well. Madeline dropped me off at the studios, I grabbed my paper and went to print!

Printed the first text layer on Diana and Morgan, and the color layer on Lacey and Asha.

We did partner yoga stuff, where we used each other to do some poses. It was interesting stuff. I was teamed with Nico. I felt revived, but then in about three hours I crashed.

Printed the color on DeAnn. Exposed the line art for Asha and Lacey. Printed the final text layer on Morgan and Diana. Folded and editioned those. Headed home, feeling utterly spent. I think I'll let my body recuperate tomorrow and bounce back for the weekend. Too many late nights.

Oh I also added a 17th poster: Madeline. So right now I have the first layer on DeAnn, Lacey, and Asha printed which are posters 14, 15 and 16. I have 13 finished thesis posters. I'm so freaking close. Saturday. I'll conserve my energy and go at it full force. Get a burrito. I also need to design the text sides for the remaining four posters anyway. Yeah, tomorrow I'll rest.

OH OH the first schedule for thesis week was released. And I'm not on it. Maybe my thesis has been approved for being so awesome that I don't have to defend it? But yeah, I emailed Linda about it.

Todays Portrait Is: Dara O'Briain.

nearing the end of it all

I've had over 1,500 blog posts now! Hurrah!

Woke up in a weird haze. Also my back hurt. A lot. Too much physical strain in the past few nights, but getting it done NOW opens next week up to getting my speech and paper tended to. And those are the things that need tending. There is the very real possibility that I will be done with all my thesis printing by weekends end.

At 7:10ish I went to school. Karen treated me to a slice of pizza. She, Robin, and I chatted about after school plans. It's rough telling people that I in all likelihood will be out of Portland come June. If the plan of moving back home goes through, I don't think it will hit till around school time. I spent most of last summer in Seabeck and no one was much fussed about it. I'll throw a going away chili party.

Anyway, it was raining heavily and I got quite wet. After pizza I scanned in my text designs and printed those out. Went to the studio and finished Eva and Karen's posters and finished the lineart on Morgan's portrait side. Basically three black ink layers, which are easy to get through because it is all the same ink. The printing, combined with a free screen from yesterday, opened up four screens. So I emulsified them, made the print outs of Diana and Morgan's text as well as the color layers on Asha and Lacey's posters, into transparencies for the exposure unit and exposed them. So between six screens I have: DeAnn's portrait side color and lineart, Asha color, Lacey color, Diana and Morgan text. The text layers are good because they only need one screen for both layers. Tomorrow the studio is free so I will be getting on that. Should have Diana and Morgan's finished, with at least one more portrait side done. WHOO! My thesis poster total count will be 16.

After printing I pinned up the finished Eva and Karen posters. It feels so great looking at the wall of my art and it really feels proper. I'm so pleased with myself and the work that I'm making. I don't hate it and I'm not yet tired of looking at it. And there are more on the way!

Back at home I watched my tellie and got to work on my illustration project. The one that is due tomorrow. Gaah. It looks good, it just will fall one piece short of the assignment (two instead of three). Oh well. I at least go something done.

Todays Portrait Is: Alan Davies.

the ache begins

Uhhhgnnn. My arm hurts. Too much over use. But now I am generating muscles!

Got up at 11. Showered. Ate a huge sustaining scramble. At 1pm I headed over to Lacey's to draw her. First we went for a walk and got a free cone at Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. Yum! We talked thesis paper. Lacey is already out of the school system, so she is a good one to talk to about the process of it all. She put on Twin Peaks and I drew her. Didn't have to draw oodles of her before I became satisfied with one of the images. We took another walk to Zupan's and she treated me to a dandelion and burdock root soda that was FANTASTIC. So delicious.

I rode home and drew and relaxed a bit. Went to school for yoga. Did yoga. Went to the studio and counted another reem of paper into 10 sheet stacks and also drew out some more text. Scanned and printed out the text. I didn't get to printing till 10ish. I got a layer on Morgan done. Got a layer on the text for Eva and Karen, though a lot of the text ended up blowing out. Don't know how those editions will look...I think I need to slow down a bit. Don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. And need to use less opaque inks because opaque SUCKS.

Started listening to Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Got three layers ready to print tomorrow. I can only print in the evening Monday-Wednesday. Thursday is an open silk screen studio day. Booyah. I'll knock out a lot then.

Tomorrow I'll work on all the other stuff though.

Todays Portrait Is: Rob Brydon.

new record?

Got up a bit earlier. Ate a scramble. Did a portrait using just watercolor with no pencil presketch. Went to school for this special lecture on speaking skills. It was informative, I guess. Helped Mel take some photos for her thesis. Drew Asha while she printed. At 6:30 I had a meeting with Joan about my paper. It needs so much revision, but I felt that would be the case. I agreed to have another draft in to her in a week, so that will be a good deadline to get that locked down.

After that meeting I grabbed some doughnuts and a drink and parked in the illustration lab and worked on some of the thesis poster sides and text. Kristen was working on a poster that I offered to print in collaboration for their thesis. As long as she got both layers done, I would print them Monday night (tonight). I wanted them done by 9pm, but she got them printed by 10:45. Got six screens emulsified, exposed the two We Buy Diamonds posters and four thesis portrait sides (DeAnn and Morgan). Kristen helped catch paper so in three hard printing hours we got 100+ (about 107...) two color posters printed. The colors started at pink and blue and went to purple and then blue and then green and then pink. Really freaking cool. Had some trouble with the black layer. I should have printed with process black. I just really wanted the rich opaque quality. Oh well. Some of them are really freaking cool. And got them DONE in the magic allotted time. We left right as the night guard was telling us the school was closed.

Now back to thesis! Tomorrow I am drawing Lacey. I could potentially be sitting on 17 thesis posters. Waiting to be finished are Eva, Diana, and Karen. On screens are Morgan and DeAnn. Designed is Asha. Scheduled to be drawn are Lacey and Tippi. If I get these done, that would be something damn amazing. I'll just be at school as many nights as possible in the next two weeks. I really want to show an EPIC AMOUNT of posters.

Todays Portrait Is: Sean Lock.

catching up and getting ahead

Damn my sleep schedule is screwed. Keep staying up later and sleeping in more.

So yeah, I slept in BUT even with a late to school start time, I still got much more accomplished than I was planning. Ate a sizable breakfast and went to school. Drew Eva in her studio. Scanned that sketch in. Did the color layouts. Printing out the two layers of that as well as the layers of the Karen and Diana posters. Went to the lab, which was a bit crowded. Emulsified six screens (found Lacey's and asked her if I could use it). While those dried, I went to Safeway and got some snacks and some face lotion, because I was out. Went back, exposed, and then realized that I had set up the power of the unit wrong and exposed it on a low setting, so the image on two of mine washed out entirely. Oops. Still, got four screens exposed. Printed the color layer on Evas. Picked a pink which shifted into a little more pinky taupe. Very nice. Then printed Diana with a royal yellow color. Then Karen in a rustic tan. Then I emulsified the two screens again and exposed the line art for Diana and Karen onto them. While those dried, I printed Eva's line art. And then Diana's line art. And then Karen's. And then at 1am I was done! I printed six layers in the time I thought I could only maybe print five. And now I have three more halves, which when completed will bring my thesis poster total up to 12. And I did that in one day. Whoo!

Back in the studio, I talked to this fellow Brian. Who was very enthusiastic about my sketches. He was also a bit drunk. But I'll take the compliments.

Back at the apartment, I chilled with Mark and Kristen. I'm doing some printing for We Buy Diamonds and the poster that Kristen is working on is AWESOME. I can't wait to print it. It will blow people AWAY.

But now it is beyond an hour that I should be awake at. I've set my alarm and will focus on some initiative to get up, mainly because I think I actually have some stuff to do before class tomorrow, and it will take some time figuring out what that is.

Also I got a really nice email from one of the people in Joan's class (Qathi, which is an awesome name). Nice and helpful. How great a term is "present economy"?

Todays Portrait Is: Phil Jupitus.

hoot!

Friday:

Oh boy. I slept in till noon after staying up till 5AM! Got a lot of good writing done. And when I looked up the formatting, I realized that the left margin, because my thesis will be bound, is 1.5". And that brought my paper length to 17 pages. When I was editing it and putting all the chapters on their each page and inserting illustrations, it came to a plush 19 pages. Perfect.

My meeting with Martin went well. We went over a rough outline for my thesis defense. I talked a lot about my experience with Joan's class. It was a beautiful brilliant sunny warm day. But I still went to yoga. Nice and relaxing and held poses. Out of yoga I spent a good two hours editing my paper and whipping it into shape. Printed that sucker out and plopped it in Joan's box. Talked to Daniel a bit. Went home. Had some pasta.

I thought the Odd Owl show started at 8:30 so I left at 7:45 to get there in time. I had never ridden up to Alberta street before. Across Broadway and onto Williams was easy. But then it was a long 20 or so block ride with lots of false "OH is THIS Alberta?" turns. But after a pretty tiring slightly uphill journey, I got to Alberta. And then I got to Alberta Street Public House. No one I knew, or Odd Owl, were there. So I grabbed a pint and settled in. After about 20 minutes Carmen, Phil (of Odd Owl, not printmaker Phil), and their manager Eric came. Yay! Hugs all around. I moved to the venue side of the place (which was a nice hall with movable seating and good acoustics I think) and chatted to them as they brought stuff in. Molly, who went to the Eugene show with me and will be a PNCA MFA student, and her boyfriend Todd arrived. A good crew. The first band had some good little diddies, though I didn't catch their name.

A good crowd came. I think going in the middle of a three band lineup is very much the best. You get the people who linger after the first show and those who come from the last band. It is the peak time.

Odd Owl hit the stage and they were amazing! I snapped pictures using Molly's camera. I boogied. They played new work and old work. I exclaimed "The Way Home!" between some of their songs and they said they would get to it. And when they got to it they said "this one is for Trillian" which made me very happy. That is the song that I did the short animation for. I boogied a little bit. They get better every single time. Just the songs and how they play them and stage presence and general aura of it all. So wonderful! Had a really great night. Had a few beers as well.

After Odd Owl's set Phil and I sat and talked on the other side of the pub (there was one bar section where you get drinks and can sit at tables, and then in another sort of room is the venue hall). Carmen joined us. Pretty soon it was time to pack up because the place was closing. Option one was to hug and part ways and option two was to load my bike in Molly's pick up truck and hang with the five cool people at her place. I went with that option. After some shuffling of people between cars and dropping one off in a lockable studio place we arrived at Molly's place. We popped open a couple more beers and chatted into the late hours. Another option was presented to me: ride home at 4am or sleep on the floor on a mat and in a sleeping bag. I went the the latter.

Friday's Portrait is: Stephen Fry.

Saturday:

Woke up early because people were shuffling about. The sleeping bag was surprisingly cozy and the ground wasn't all that bad to sleep on. I guess I spend a lot of time getting comfy on mats in yoga. Molly made tea and Carmen had some scones. Believe me when I say these were the best scones in existence. Fantastic. We went for a walk and enjoyed a bit of the bright beautiful day. Stopped in at a book store. Molly lives on Broadway and 20th or so, which is hella convenient for me. At noon we said goodbye to the awesome Odd Owl. I must visit Carmen in San Fransisco this summer. Take a week. I think that would be greaaat.

It was a perfect ride back. Not too hot, not too cold. And sunny. The shower I had when I returned home was marvelous.

I decided to allow Saturday to be a chill day. Take a breather. I did go down to the studios to try and catch Eva, but she wasn't available to be drawn. So I conversed with Mel instead. Then I went back home and prettied myself up. Rollyn picked me up at about 6:20 and we drove out to Tigard. His friend Aaron, who is also a director he works with frequently, bar tends at this Mediterranean restaurant. We sat at the bar, I had a kabob, and chatted with Aaron and his assistant director Caroline and other folks. It was a nice night. There was also a belly dancer that performed. I gave Caroline one of my posters. It's always awesome to meet super nice people. Chatted movies and stuff. Rollyn was a bit tipsy still, so I drove us to the theater to see Hanna. His Honda Fit has very sensitive breaks, and it is a small car like the Prius. And the roads out in Tigard are like those in Poulsbo and Bremerton. That is to say easy driving. None of the complex downtown stuff. It was fun to be behind the wheel again.

Hanna was a much better movie that I was expecting it to me. The great actors didn't outshine the main one. The soundtrack, which is by The Chemical Brothers, set the mood in a very pensive building manner. It wasn't standard action music which really gave the movie a special feel. The colors of the film were crisp and beautiful. The shot layouts were well conceived. And there were some impressive long shots. It was just really well made. Not the most original of plots by a long shot, but because it was so well made I ended up enjoying it a lot. That is how you do an action movie. Rollyn invited me to be an extra on a film shoot tomorrow, but I passed. Time to get back to printing!

Saturday's Portrait is: Bill Bailey.

Tumblr is totally thesis

I'll make this quick, because I have to get back to paper writing.

Got up early. Hate that. In class we went over the sketches. Mine were not so impressive, but there were some cool things happening. I left my wallet at home so I biked home during lunch and grabbed it and then got a burrito. Sat in the sun and ate it. The rest of class was a work time. I didn't get that much work done though...

Went back home and worked on my paper for a few hours. Found out that Joan won't be collecting our papers till Saturday morning, so I have a bit of leeway in the deadline. Yay! Still will get it in Friday, but I don't have to get it spot on the 5pm dot. Which gives me time to do pesky editing and citations and stuff.

Went to yoga, because I gotta have my yoga. I was asked to demo the head stand, because I'm so good at them. Whee.

Went to the Illustration Juried Show, which I neglected to enter this year because I am lame.

Went to the Spirit Animal Show that I am in. Karen set it up really good and some people were really responding to my work. Actually a couple started talking about my fat cat print right next to me! BT, Mel, and Phil left for a bit to see the Pony Club show. I stuck around to chat with Karen but she started talking to a cute guy and I didn't really have anyone to talk with for a bit. Boo! Chicks before...well you know. Anyway. Mel, BT, and Phil returned. At around 9:30, I returned home and got back to my paper.

Can't wait for tomorrow to be finished! And then it is TWO WEEKS TILL THESIS OH MY GOD.

And tomorrow there will be Odd Owl!

Todays Portrait Is: Indira Varma.

write away

There is road construction and every now and again you can feel a rumble through the apartment. It's a little bit off putting.

Had some nutella on toast and tea for a late breakfast, and followed it up with a frozen rice and chicken and egg scramble. Moved my computer to the kitchen desk, because then I'll be less inclined to waste time dancing to music in that silly stupid private way that I do. It's serious paper writing time! With maybe a little adventure in the evening.

Worked on my paper. Lots of editing and moving around of this and that. Rephrasing. Inserting longer explanations. I dunno, it still lacks big research holes, but I don't quite know how to back certain things up.

I took a beer break and met Sam at Tugboat for a couple pints. Nice to get out and get away from it all. Then went back to it. I'm not as far along as I would have hoped. There are some times I feel really good about what I am writing, and other times where I don't feel that good. The portrait section is the best and I can see how things are starting to get tied together. I'll also be sending my paper to Kirie for some editing, so that will get a nice fresh set of eyes on it. Once I get this paper in on Friday, it is PRINT PRINT PRINT till I collapse. All though not really because I can't print when there are classes. So then it will just be draw draw draw. I see a lot of late nights. 9:15-2am printing blocks. It is better than getting up early. Ha.

Just have to do this damn paper.

Todays Portrait Is: Paul McGann.

teaching the youth of tomorrow (all though I think many were my age and older)

Got up at a magic, not noon hour. And got lots of stuff done. Dishes, tidying up, showering, and all that jazz. It is good to set ones apartment affairs in order. All though my laundry is still in its basket.

Another nice day.

Before I knew it, it was time to head to Joan's Art and Design in Contemporary Society class. She asked if I would give a little talk about my thesis and we would have a discussion, and I agreed. I got all glammed up and wore my favorite Celia shirt (the red loud one with the great print) and headed down. Arrived right on time. It was a great experience, because I got to talk my experience and sound all educated and informed about the ways of education, all though I probably came off as a bit preachy but HEY I've yet to pull an all nighter so I must be onto something. I talked about physical art in the age of the internet and my theories, talked about community, talked about process. And the class had some great questions for me. Such as the nature of the relationship to the subjects (namely, will I get to know strangers for this project and I said no because the better I know someone, the more knowledgeable the drawings will be) and the vagueness of the word community and all sorts of good stuff. I think Joan tried to close down the conversation early a couple times but I kept going. It ended up being about 30-45 minutes worth of talk. And I felt I discussed it well enough. Honest enough is what I mean. And I gave away some more posters, and hopefully they will come to my thesis defense.

Back at home I worked on an outline of the conversation topics they brought up, worked on outlining the new research I'll put in, and generally worked out the game plan.

Then I went back to school for yoga and did a successful headstand! The kind where you are putting your weight in your elbows and arms and the head is sort of a kickstand, but no real weight is actually in it, and then you put the rest of the body up in the air like you just don't care. I got right into it on the first go too, and the class was delighted by the pitter patter of my steps as I got myself into the position. You basically put your head into your clasped hands, but not ON the hands, and have the elbows shoulder's width apart and then you straighten your back up and into your arms and then straighten your legs so your body is in a V shape with your butt in the air, and walk your feet in till you can feel your weight shift into your arms. Yeah. I did it twice up and down successfully but on the third I flopped forward. But no harm. HEAD stand, not hand stand.

Back at home, I encouraged Tabitha and Kristen on as they practiced their thesis performance. And showed off my headstand.

Tomorrow is a writing day. It will be long, but I have a good game plan.

Todays Portrait Is: Ruth Wilson.

not all that creepy, really

Got to school and checked my school email and then found out class was cancelled. Should have checked before I left. Duh whoops oh well. I took the time to scan all the David Hockney articles so that I could finally return the book to the library. I also scanned in some of the illustrations that I plan to reference in my text.

It was rainy. Boo. There is a new show called The Killing, which is an adaptation of a Danish show called Forbrydelsen. It is about a murder. The adaptation is set in Washington, which makes the show yet another in a long line of shows and movies that depict the Pacific Northwest as rainy, creepy, gray, and full of trees. And sure it is rainy and gray and full of trees, but not nearly as creepy as shows and movies make it out to be. I'm waiting for something happy to be set here. That would be nice. Anyway, I watched the first few minutes of The Killing just to see if its good. I didn't even know it was relocated to Seattle in the adaptation, but that became really evident just from the saturation of color and gratuitous shots of trees and rain. I intended to just watch a bit and get on with stuff but ended up sucked into the show. Now I have to wait A WEEK for more. Gaah. Guess I'll just have to work on my thesis in the mean time. Booo.

So I worked on reading. Went to Trader Joe's for some food provisions. They didn't have any seaweed snacks on the shelf. Booo.

Tomorrow I'm going to speak to Joan's Art and Design in Contemporary Society class about my project. I don't know what I'll say so I reckon that is incentive enough to get up early and plan my stuff. Sort of a practice defense. Get some good discussion. Give away some posters. Get the youngins interested in Focus Week.

Todays Portrait Is: Idris Elba.

thesis thoughts

I'm having trouble keeping my eye on the prize. My mind is in June right now.

But I did get down to reading and research. Watched some great Art:21 videos that had some artists talking about work and got me thinking of how to relate it to my own. Read a great interview with Ellen something. She was a bit condescending but there were some great bits to pull.

Had some rice and seaweed wrap for lunch and a scramble for breakfast. Accidentally took a totally unneeded nap while reading though.

I'm going to climb into bed and read.

I think I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle.

The full draft is due Friday. Wednesday is a writing day. Thursday is an editing/formatting day. The next two days are research, blurb, idea sorting out, editing what I have, and piecing it together days. I'm starting to formulate supplemental thoughts for my paper. I don't know what we are doing in class tomorrow, but I think I'll figure out how to get pictures into my paper, because I need pictures. I feel behind, but I also feel fine with where I am. Like, I know I'll get it done and I'll be happy with what I finish. I'm pretty happy with my paper, even though I don't think I'm answering the required ambiguous questions about what it MEANS.

Maybe I just feel guilty that I don't feel thesis is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Sure it takes a lot of thought and reading and piecing things together, but that isn't hard. It is just time consuming. You have to spend a lot of time thinking and resolving issues and it can be a challenge to do that, but it isn't the greatest challenge I've faced. I guess because it isn't an emotional challenge. Some of my comrades seem to be facing emotional challenges with their thesis. Am I not invested enough? Or am I invested the right amount because I know this isn't the end all be all. It is just the end of my stay at PNCA. And even then, it isn't the end of that. I'll be doing some little things after thesis but while I'm still at school. And you never really leave PNCA, you just become an alumni. What you do after comes back to PNCA, as you are a product of the institution, in one way or another.

I'm just sort of rambling right now.

Should thesis be the hardest thing? I don't think so. It should be a challenge, but it shouldn't be near impossible or unreachable. That is just a path to misery. But nothing ventured, nothing gained? I guess I feel that the art I'm producing, while I love it, it just isn't a great...triumph. The work comes easy. That probably comes from confidence in knowing what I'm doing. But it isn't that much of an artistic stretch. I'm just formalizing the casual. All though I guess the formalization is what I'm going for. I'm not over thinking final work. Alongside this intense thesises of my peers, there is this gentle kind poster series that is happening. What is that about? Hmmm.

Todays Portrait Is: Jeremy Clarkson.

saturday, what else can I say

Realized I left my camera at Karen's, so I went to school to scan my portrait. Also scanned in some of my thesis drawings at the same time. And edited them. So I have three portrait sides prepped. Hurray! So once I get back to printing, I have stuff to print! But first, it is the paper.

It was a nice beautiful sunny day. So nice.

Had a nice chat with Ma.

Kristen will be moving out in June, so I'll probably be moving out at the same time. Moving out to where, I don't know. Ahk, sort of scary.

Did my laundry. Did the dishes. Read a bit. Drew a bit. Lots of "bits". I really like the Ruth Wilson portrait that I did. But that won't be up till April 5th.

Todays Portrait Is: Richard Hammond.

oh bed, why are you so lovely?

Uhg. Gosh. It was horribly waking up. I was exhausted and sore. I even had my cell phone alarm set to 10am, and still that felt too early. I kept resetting the alarm at random amounts for an hour and a half and then I finally got up, showered, ate some breakfast. Drew my portrait.

I got to my meeting with Martin right on time. I just took my bag of posters and dumped it out on his table. He said "these look great". We set aside each of the nine and looked at them as a set. He was mighty impressed. Sort of a "yeah, you have the visuals down and it works" meeting. It felt really good. Didn't talk about much, just sort of established where I am, and where I am is "I have a bunch of posters done, HUZZAH". He said he will wait to have a complete set of posters, but that he wanted a Samala one for now, as that is his obvious favorite of the lot.

After the meeting, I wandered and gave out posters. Then yoga. I think I like the Friday classes the best. I slow down the most and it really resets my state of mind. It was a small group as the weather in Portland today was GORGEOUS. Sunny and warm enough to not need an oppressive coat.

I swung by the studio where Karen was stressed and finishing her print.

Oh also, I got a nice print from Dom in thanks for the print I gave him, that is to say the print of him that is a part of my thesis that I finished. Glad he dug it.

Back home I chilled and relaxed. Then 7pm rolled around and I left for the print exchange shindig. I didn't have time to make something, well okay I totally had time I just couldn't think of anything, so I just bought some booze on the way there.

Liz, BT, Phil, Morgan B, Jalissa, Lacey, Asha, Heather, Daniel, Karen, Mel, DeAnne, Diana, Me, Beth, Heather, and some others were there. Some stayed various amounts of time. I drank. I ate. I exchanged. The prints look pretty darn awesome. I even drew some people, and as I sobered up the drawings got better. I may have got art for two to three more posters! Hurray! Asha made a delicious pasta salad that I gorged on. Not all the prints were actually turned in, so I left my edition there to be picked up later when the rest of the prints are in. We didn't play any games or watch any movie, mostly just talked and consumed.

It was a rainy but inconsequential ride home. Now I'm pretty tired and I have a lot of work to do on my paper over the next couple days. Whee.

Oh and it is UK Month at Portraitoday. Whoo!

Todays Portrait Is: James May.

time tables

6:00am: First alarm goes off.

7:05am: Get out of bed.

7:25am: get dressed after shower.

7:45am: enjoy a scramble

8:20am: head to school

8:45-10:40am: print the final two layers of my spirit animal print. Unfortunately all of the pink layers were misregistered so my whole print is off. All in all, I'm not totally satisfied with the result. It isn't my best piece of printmaking. If I had another week, I would redo it. But I don't have another week. Oh well.

11:00am: CLASS! We went through our websites. The websites are looking good. Lots of different looking sites. We are doing another art director assignment. I was the odd one out, so Kristin Rogers Brown art directed me. I am to illustrate a word or term in three different ways. Color. Detail. No faces.

12:30pm: lunch! I got a sandwich and accidentally ate the whole thing instead of saving half for later.

1:30pm: back to class. Worked on stuff. I folded and editioned my prints. Finally finished up my text sides.

3:05pm: scanned the text. edited the text. printed out the text.

3:somethingpm: went to the print lab. Emulsified screens. Laid out supplies. Exposed three screens. Chatted with people. Printed the color text layer on Leah and Robin's prints. Did the reductive drawing fluid to get them ready for the next layer.

6:30pm: yoga! Leg work! Lots of great fitness stuff. Felt good to work out all the kinks that are forming. Lots and lots of kinks.

8:00pm: gave away posters to people after yoga.

8:15pm: back to printing. Emulsion. Exposure. Wash out. Drawing fluid. Printing printing printing. Folding. Washing out. Lots of Sherlock Holmes.

9:30pm: walked with Daniel to Safeway to get a snack. Chips, Perrier, sweets.

10:00pm: back to printing.

1:00am: finish printing the final poster of the day. Fold it.

1:45am: leave the print studios with three complete posters, which brings my thesis total up to 9 posters.
2:14am: leave the Stevens Studios after talking with Jon for a bit.

2:49am: finish blogging. Very tired.

Todays Portrait Is: Joely Richardson.

spring, I'm going to pretend that it is here

Same old same old "I'm bad, I didn't do jack what I ought" entry. Being hard on myself isn't willing myself into working harder so I think I'll stop it.

It was a beautiful day so I rolled up my pant legs and pretended it was spring. Not a freezing cold day either, so it wasn't too off base.

Had lunch with Karen, Mel, Lacey, and Phil at Yur's and loitered about with Karen and Lacey afterwards. Went back home and worked at the text side of my posters. Worked on portrait. Going to get back to the poster text side and the portraits. I want to get another poster finished tomorrow. So I'll be getting to school before my 11am class, and get my screens set up. And maybe print a layer on my spirit animal print. Then class. Then printing. Then yoga. Then more printing. Then slumping home.

Todays Portrait Is: Julian McMahon.

a year later, can't think of anything to really reflect on though

It's been a year since that certain specific day. A lot has changed. Place, people, stuff. It is weird to think that it has been a whole year. Time moves forward impossibly fast.

Anyway. Didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked. Ate a scramble. Got the portrait up. Went to school and got the third layer on my Spirit Animal print done right on time. A CE class came in, but I had yoga at the same time so it wasn't like I was planning to print curing the Continuing Education class. Yoga had some good stretches. It went by relatively fast.

After that I went over to see Rollyn. He has been living it up in Hawaii for the past two weeks. And before that he was in Vegas. So I haven't seen a whole lot of him. Plus I'm all busy with my thesis. We watched The Thomas Crown Affair, the one with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. Good little movie, except the music was annoyingly loud and didn't correspond too well to the mood of the scene. Also some of the composite shots were grating. But still, I enjoyed it.

On the way back, I stopped by the walk up McDonald's window (for those who can't go through drive through because they don't have cars, and the front of McDonald's is closed for the night). I've been craving cheap burgers lately, so I sated my craving.

Tomorrow is my wide open day. No obligations except my own effort iPublish Postnto accomplishing something.

Todays Portrait Is: Dylan Walsh.

teal and orange

I've yet to get ahead on portraits. Once I break free of some sort of assignment or requirement, I sort of go into a slack mode. This productivity stasis. Where I know there is a lot of stuff due soon, but it isn't due soon enough so I don't quite jump on it.

Anyway, spring break is over. Four weeks left.

In class we mainly talked about editing and different ways to cite this and that. I talked to Joan and she advised me on my paper. I need a lot more research but the writing is good. Need to read up on portraiture and the history of portraiture.

After class I went home. Went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on the basic carbs and apples and onions and meat. Had pasta for dinner. Mmm.

But yeah, like I said, project stasis. ALL THOUGH, I did work a bunch on my website. Got into the CSS programming and made the website block wider, so now my art has more content space. That is good. So I guess I was productive with practical stuff. I would say I'd almost call my website done. I just need to put more art work on it, and make some custom graphics. My website is trilliantrillian.com, in case you had forgotten.

Tomorrow is yoga day. I think I'll spend the time before it reading. I have a lot of reading that needs getting done. I showed Joan the Marc Quinn portrait that he does that is a mold of his head that is filled with his own blood, frozen, and the mold peeled away. The work has to be kept refrigerated. It is a really disturbing piece. Anyway, I need to make a longer list of portraits and portrait artists to research. The main body of my paper will be portraiture. Joan mentioned that the gift part of my project is what really sets it apart, so I will be keeping those other chapters.

There is an hour and a half block of time in the silk screen studio during which I may squeeze in some printing. Just one layer. And afterwards do the yoga thing.

I should get up early. All though I should stop saying that.

Todays Portrait Is: Laura Allen.

doing it twice

Cripes, it is 1:48am already? Time flies.

The alarm went off and I awoke to being very very sore. My arms hurt and my chest muscles that connect to my arms hurt. And my stomach hurt. So much muscle activity yesterday. But that at least means that I was pushing my body.

Had a slow start due to being so sore. I decided to spend the day with my print for the Spirit Animal Print Portfolio. Needed a break from thesis. So I went to Utrecht and bought paper and went so school and scanned. Finished listening to Hunger Games. The last book was very depressing, but a good end I think. Moved on to Sherlock Holmes for the time being. A Study in Scarlet took me through printing images, cutting paper, another walk to Utrecht because I didn't buy enough paper, to Cha Cha Cha for a burrito, to exposing my screen, to emulsifying a second screen because the exposure didn't work out on the first one as it turns out. I didn't notice that it had washed out more that it should have till I started printing. The set backs made it so I only got two layers done. Because between layers I had to do the drawing fluid emulsion resist stuff. My print will be three drawing fluid reductive layers, one spot color layer, and one line art layer. I'm really excited for the print.

Got home at 10. Ate some popcorn and cocoa. Watched tellie. Did my nails. Da Vinci's Inquest is on Hulu. I watched so much of that show back in Seabeck when I couldn't sleep. Okay not "so much" but it was always on at weird late night hours. It's a crime show set in Vancouver Canada. Sort of gritty and lacks the technology glamor that CSI and the like have. Which is why I dig it. So I've been watching it in order. I've only seen the odd episode here and there (and the same episode three times, which seems statistically unlikely for a show you don't watch regularly because it comes on at odd hours).

Spring break is over. Now it is final countdown time. DUH DUH DUH. FOUR WEEKS LEFT. CRAP.

Todays Portrait Is: Rockmond Dunbar.

way up high, two feet off the ground

Oh man, what a busy full exhausting day!

I got up at the magic impossible hour of 7:30am. Had a light breakfast. Showered. Got to the print lab at about 8:30. Got right to printing. Finished the Mel poster. I was three fourths of the way through the Beth poster when I was informed that there would be a Continuing Education class in the lab. BOOO. So I finished up the poster right quick and folded and editioned the two posters in the other lab. Robin was there as well. I was hoping to finish all four but it was for the best as I was starving.

It was one of those days that was both sunny and rainy. It came and went. Home from school it was sunny. I had some pasta. Home to the east side, it started to rain as I crossed Broadway. A thick mist of rain. The type that gets you damp all over, but you never really feel like you are being pelted. I am incapable of finding the Multnomah street turn off of Broadway. I've missed it about three times now, so I always overshoot and then have to get my way over towards Lloyd. It is weird to think that Lloyd is within a reasonable bikeable distance. Like 10 minutes off the bridge. I biked in a circle and eventually got onto 12th and rode that miserable, shoulder shaking, teeth chattering from the road construction road down to Burnside. I locked my bike up and spied Toon approaching. We exchanged an enthusiastic hug and got to catching up, but still had the same level of closeness like it hasn't been ages since our last hang out.

She invited me to a beginning drop in class for aerial gymnastic fitness stuff. You know, that stuff where there are large silk ribbons hanging and people climb up them and spin and stuff? Yeah. The class was her treat. I signed a lengthy health waiver and got my exercise clothes on. We did 30 minutes of stretches. Lots of leg work. I'm glad yoga has kept me spry. Still, this was a lot of core building stuff that...well I have no core. No arm strength, no abs. I have strong legs though, probably. Strong enough that I can bike a few miles and not have wobble leg.

Not being able to really lift my own body weight really hampered my learning, but I soldiered on. There were a couple ladies in their 40's who casually mentioned that they did parkour. It was about half and half beginners and experienced people. I didn't feel so self conscious about being bad. It takes a lot of strength and finesse. It is a lot of taking slack and wrapping feet around lengths of suspended silk and clamping. I would love to try it again, but only if I had arm strength. I did get the hip lock. And after lots of failure, I got the foot lock as well. There was this stuff that we sprayed on our hands to get a better grip on the silk as well.

The class totally...just wiped me out. And I was only really on the silk a third or forth of the time. I don't think I could take any more though. Needed the breaks. Much respect to the dancers who make it look so effortless.

Toon and I went to Fire on the Mountain for a celebratory wings lunch. We gabbed and caught up. I got on my bike and had only a slightly better time getting to Broadway. It is weird how I'm just now figuring out Portland on bike, after I've been here for nearly four years.

I decided to go to school and print instead of passing out at home. I was pretty exhausted but I got into the rhythm of it. Callouses are starting to form! I finished up Samala and Acey, but didn't have the energy to fold and edition them. I'll do that tomorrow. I finally went home and slumped into a chair and chilled and hydrated and enjoyed me some Advil. I watched this great documentary called Yank Tanks, about the lengths that people with go to in Cuba to keep cars from the 50's running. I also worked on my spirit animal for the spirit animal print exchange. Since I've been going full out on thesis printing, I think I'll just print the spirit animal and work on the text. Edition and fold, but no thesis printing. Thesis drawing, yes. Thesis reading, yes.

It feels good to accomplish something before noon. "Think of what you can get done if you didn't sleep so much, Trillian" my mind says. "zzzzzzzz" logic says.

Ma and Pa, I'll let you know when I get my Focus Week time slot. I requested early in the week though, so I can get it over with. But who knows.

Todays Portrait Is: Michael-Raymond James.