cheesesteak & trilltrill

Ahhh glorious sleep.

Took it easy during the morning and early afternoon. Set out to do some shopping. Namely for unmentionables. I was either going to get cheap top unmentionables and some bottom unmentionables, or a really nice top unmentionable. Unfortunately the lady gave me a properly fitted and extremely nice top unmentionable, so I ended up going with that option. It is really nice, and supports so well.

Anyway. Picked up some mac and cheese for the pulled pork potluck at Karen's tonight. The pulled pork sandwiches were the main attraction. She was nice and picked me up for the shindig.

Jay, Tabitha, BT, Gabby, Hollie, Evan, Ursula, Agnes, Phil, and the glorious being that is Cidney were there. Cidney stops by in Portland every six months or so. Cool cat.

There were chips and beer and smoothies and the pulled pork was beyond delicious. Soooo good. I didn't stuff myself, I was perfectly fed. Sat with people and chatted about stuff. When there were just seven of us, we posed for a reference picture for Ursula. I really enjoy these "get out of the house and relax" nights. Now the rest of my weekend is to be occupied with screen printing and resume updating and portfolio sorting outing.

Anyway, after food and the leaving of most of the people, we played Munchkin. Gabby won with some help (namely my divine intervention which made her force win). She left. Phil, BT, Karen, and I played a round of Carcassonne. Phil and I tied for second, BT won. Then we laid about for a while and talked about nick names and Phil's roll of being the new Alpha Male print student.

Time came too soon to leave. Now more sleep. Doctor Who. Drawing. Then printing!

hoot hoot hoot!

Took a long nap that was interrupted by a fire alarm. Now I am awake enough to blog.

Wednesday:

Daniel was half an hour late to class. Some of the people calculated how much money we were spending to sit there, by dividing the amount a credit at our school costs by the number of hours were at school. I think they figured that his lateness cost $15. Oh well.

He did arrive and we got right to presentations. Sandra and Brian. This weeks theme was the watershed.

Ate with Karen in her studio during lunch.

We critiqued Brian's photography, then Matt's little aquarium installation, then Heather's needle point map, then Lana's performance.

It was such a nice day that we held the rest of class down by the river! There was a sandy spot right next to the Steel Bridge that was nice. I made a little castle while we talked and all that.

On the way back from school, I stopped at Trader Joe's for a snack run. I over did it with the snack purchases, but better to have taffy and trail mix and cheese puffs then nothing at all.

I only got about 15 minutes between getting home and heading out with Molly to go to Eugene. Molly is Carmen's friend from college and was a perfect driving companion. We talked about school and art and Portland. Way rad lady. The ride down went really fast, but it was raining and horrible. I thought it would continue to be warm. Oh well.

Luckey's was a place with history, according to the newspaper clippings on the walls, but it didn't stand out that much to me. Pool and a narrow bar with poor service. Carmen and Phil were there and we chatted over a beer. Molly ordered some food. Phil (the guitarist, not my friend Phil from Portland) and I talked about Garth Ennis comics. Once we found out we both liked Preacher and The Boys, well we talked a bunch. The sound guy apparently quit and they venue had to track down someone else, or something along those lines, I don't quite know, but it all worked out. They were the only ones playing.

Adam even showed up! Yay! One of Molly's friends was there as well. And that was pretty much it, but the people at the bar cheered them on with lots of interest. Loved the music, great tunes. Wonderful to hear them live. Doo doo doo do dooo doo do do doooo. It was really nice to just get out of Portland, relax with a friend and some family and make some new friends. To just sit with a drink and relax.

I came back into Portland with Carmen. Tried to stay awake so I wouldn't just doze while she drove on in silence. 3am when I crawled into bed. 6:30 am when my alarm went off. Totally worth it.

Thursday:

Thank god for ink day. Sat and played with ink and kept from nodding off. After the break, Morgan told us some more history but then we had story time and we just went from tangent to tangent. French fashion dolls, peacocks, what snake tastes like, and so on. It was fun.

Illustration was a little more stressful. Stage 2 review, I didn't have much to show him. I had print outs of my pieces and we talked about putting together a portfolio and how to set up an internship and stuff. I need to get really good documentation of my pieces, construct a leave behind, update my resume... So many things to do right NOW instead of next month. Bleh. It was an open work day, which meant another day of listening to people yammer about their schedules. This will probably continue for a while. I need to bring headphones to class. Especially when I'm tired and have no patience.

Went back home. Sort of did nothing. Ate food. Then I started watching Princess Bride and I began to fall asleep, so I just allowed it to happen. Then fire alarm went off.

Tomorrow is clean up this wrecked room of mine day, papier mache time, and plan out internship time. Wheee.

highly productive! hurray!

Kate was our model in figure drawing today. Normally I don't like her because of how much she moves, but as we were focusing on the model stand, it didn't really matter what she did. Morgan finished World Lit Only By Fire. Damn good history. We got another lesson about the Pre-Raphaelites. We got to Burne-Jones, my favorite!

We had a thirty minute project proposal quick fire. I was pretty much all "yo, I'm going to print on this fabric and turn it into bandanas and print on these diecut flat boxes and make them all promotional packaging and stuff. It will be awesome, yo." And that was what I did. While the others mingled, and Robin and Junko learned how to mix ink, I printed away.

The fabric was roughly 44"x130", and I printed it all. I made a print by taking imagery and text from my sketchbook and cutting and taping it all together in a really condensed image, one that would blend at the edges hopefully seamlessly. Which it did! I printed once on the table, and put tape around the outline. Then I put the fabric down and felt where the tape was under it, and that was how I lined it all up. I printed and just moved the fabric over, and kept going. It only took about an hour to print it all. I made some mistakes, but it looks great all around. I showed off my bolt of fabric to tons of people. I was quite proud.

Then I ate lunch.

I scanned in a flat box to use as a layout for the print to go on the box. I turned it into a template and dropped that over some scans of my sketch print in photoshop, and with JP's help, I got it printed and all that jazz. Looks great. Right to scale. On the front it says "Bandana by Trillian 2010". My spellcheck keeps saying it is bandanna, but that just looks wrong to me, and the internet seems to indicate both are correct.

So I got that printed on all 20 boxes. Whoo! I was working hard from noon till four. Go me! Went home, and cut up the bolt into 22x22 squares. 12 of them! I heat set them in the oven, I'm sure it worked... While they were heat setting, I watched The Pacific (so sad) and folded up the boxes and put brads in the sides to keep them secured (so fun). Then I sewed up the sides on the bandanas. Not the best sew job, but it works. Then I stuffed them in the boxes. Hurray! Then at 9pm, I could relax. Lost! Glee! Hurray!

$15 or more generous offer. Bandana. Bandanna. Both are acceptable.

Tomorrow I go to Eugene to see Odd Owl perform. Hoot hoot! I will be back late, so I probably won't blog.

five weeks left?

So apparently an email went out that said class was cancelled. I would have liked to have recieved that email before I got up, and went out in the rain (and it was only raining in the morning, it cleared up about an hour later), and got to class. Suuuuck! So I sat around and talked with Deanne for an hour and a half. Then migrated up to the library for nap time!

Met with Martin for our semesterly advising meeting. He liked the progression of my work and was really favorable towards my growth. It was a good meeting. We talked about internship. Basically I should narrow down where I want to go, and then we'll talk about making up a portfolio and all that. I think I'll go for it. Need to focus on something this semester, and making real word connections is a good direction.

Lounged in the library with poor doped up Dominic and Sivonna. Looked at art books. Chatted.

Yoga went really fast for some reason.

The weather maintained so nice. I documented some of the stuff I did last night. A bit of it came off, so I need to put it back up. Will do that this weekend.

Went to Paper Source in their last few minutes of being open. Got 20 die cut flat boxes to print on. They are going to be printed on with some brand design and bandanna's are going to go in them. They look like little mini take outboxes. I got 10 white, 5 yellow, and 5 pink, with 25 red closure thingies and 25 blue ones. I'm really excited! They are the perfect size too, fit my test bandanna just right.

Finished my burrito (tomorrow I will pack a lunch: tuna fish sandwich, whoo whoo!). Watched House. Drank water. I have the bad tendency to under hydrate at school, so I make up for it by being at home. Also those Propel water thingies make it sooo tasty.

Mom: Treme is awesome. Great music, great feeling of setting. We should totally watch some together next time I come home.

Because I have credits out the wazoo, I was able to register today instead of Wednesday like all the other Juniors.

Tuesday: Professional Practices with Martin French. 6:30-9:15 pm.

Wednesday: Beginning Animated Arts with Rose Bond. 11-5:00 am. Advanced Illustration Studio. Teacher TBA. 6:30-9:15 pm.

Night classes, will find out how those are. Class only two days a week, yeah yeaaah. I also get a studio in my senior year, so I can sort of shift my working practice there instead of my apartment. Will also move out at the end of the semester. I WILL MOVE OUT. MAYBE GET JOB AND STOP BEING TOTAL LEECH. YES.

treme or the pacific/mischief managed

For only being out of bed about eleven and a half hours, I got a lot done. Well I got a fair amount done.

Traded comics with Jim at school, I've been holding on to Hard Boiled for a while, and he has had my Invisibles. Then I got to printing! Emulsion applied like a champ, photocopied my stuff on the big new shiny photocopier, and got it exposed and all that good stuff. My next in class silk screen project is going to be a bandanna! I will also print a design on a box for the bandanna to go in, because I will be selling it. I have a nice bolt of tan fabric, that should yield about 10-15. Karen said you can buy little flat boxes at Paper Source for 45 cents, so I'll check that out. This project also buys me time to think about a larger, more complicated final project.

Today I just printed a print for Dom's The Art of Broke Off thingy. A little fundraiser to cover his medical bills that he incurred while skate boarding. It is nice to balance ones artistic life with things not done for school. And it was fairly simple, just text and image. Sort of done in the same tune as the Odd Owl poster (bold text, line work). You can see the print in the post below this one.

Came back from printing. Organized paper into a four by four foot sheet. At first I was going to write the letters on the sheet, then paint on separate paper and cut out and place on, and then pain straight on the sheet. I ended up cutting out the letters in white and just having those to put up. Put up where and how? Well I can't rightfully do that, so I'm pleading the fifth. But it looks really good and I hope it lasts. It is my final Homeland project. The words are: "If you love someone, let them know". So if you see that somewhere in Portland, it wasn't me. Someone ripped me off.

Came back, put packing tape over the ridges on my puppet. I'm using it to bridge the ribs, so that it won't dip. I also only need a small area to be smooth, the rest will be covered in fabric which will be the hair. Also, probably the bottom four inches will be cut off so I can get my head in. It is really taking shape. Steps next to do: papier mache over the tape, do about two-three more layers over that. Cut off the bottom and fit my head and shoulders into it (it will rest on my shoulders, with some supports). Once that is sorted, probably another three layers of papier mache to reinforce those cuts. Then figure out the eye hole, which will be where the mouth is, which will indicate where the nose will go. Construct a nose. More papier mache layers...Figure how to rig it on my head. Once all that is sorted, then I can start painting. I don't want to paint until it is sturdy and stays on my shoulders.

Didn't check off all the things on my weekend check list, but the things I didn't were not as important as the things I did.

Now, I think I'll watch the new HBO show Treme. It is about New Orleans and stars Steve Zahn. I'll tell you how it is mom, I know how much of a far you are of Zahn (and I'm a fan as well).

The Art of Broke Off - Dominic

Print for Dominic's The Art of Broke Off zine and show, all proceeds go to paying off the medical bills he incurred from dislocating and breaking his ankle. Details here:

http://kungfutoast.blogspot.com/2010/04/broke-off-art-off.html

8 1/2"x11".

Silk screen.

me want more massage

Got up early because if I didn't, I knew I would sleep right in till 12:45 and miss my massage.

Toast, water, internet.

The massage was fantastic! Hallie was a very nice lady in what I guess was her 60's and she was working out of Salon Shibumi, which is right across from the Goose Hollow max stop. Super close. She was really nice. I had an hour massage which was, apparently, a combination of Russian and Swedish massage. I just feel so loose and without tension. My arms were the parts that ended up needing a lighter touch. Don't know why they should have hurt so much. Getting all that kneading and rubbing and human contact. Ahh, so wonderful. Now I want more! But I'll wait, I guess. She also does cupping I believe, that might be an experience...

I did two more full layers of paper mache. Well, two and a half. Or was it one and a half...either way, it is coming along and each layer goes faster and faster. It is getting quite sturdy now. Now I've got to drape the paper over the ribs to smooth it out. Do a couple layers of that. It needs to be really solid before I cut a head and shoulders hole, and an eye hole. Well, sturdy enough, because once I do that, I will probably do some more layers, just to smooth it out. I might have to get more flour soon.

Worked on that, read some comics, had a good Saturday all around. Lots of work tomorrow though. Typical Sunday.

its got layers

I woke up at 9:30 as per body rhythms, and decided to go back to sleep. When I woke up a second time and looked at the clock, it was 2:20. Hopped right out of bed, ate leftovers, drank tea, watched stuff. It was a sunny day, which kills all forms of productivity for me.

Once the sun went down, BAM I was on it. Whipped up some wheat paste glue, tore up some newspaper, and got right to some papier mache! My paper lantern, which is acting as a base for my puppet head, is rigged up between two chairs. A string runs through the metal thingie on the top, and doubles back keeping it in place. It keeps the lantern suspended and in its shape, so I can keep it fairly spherical and work from all angles easily. I got three fourths of it done before I ran out of glue, so I let it dry. Last time I did papier mache, it just was soppy and got moldy. I did too many layers too fast I think. Anyway, this time it dried like a champ! It clings to the bamboo holding up the lantern a bit, but that will be smoothed out when I apply more layers of paper. I did another layer and put on an episode of This American Life to listen to. Went through two more batches of glue. I'm getting better at making it.

Recipe:
-Put two and a half cups* of water in a medium sized sauce pan, set it to boil
-In a separate bowl, put in three tablespoons* of flour. Add enough water to make it a consistency between pancake batter and very liquidy. Add three* more tablespoons of flour. It shouldn't be clumpy or really viscous. A little more fluid than pancake batter is ideal. Add water as necessary. Whisk that sucker till you can't see clumps
-When the water in the sauce pan is boiling, slowly pour the flour mixture into the pot. Stir it in as you pour, so that it doesn't sit at the bottom and not combine.

-Turn off the stove

-Stir stir stir, making sure it doesn't clump

-Pour into bowl, this bowl you will dip the paper strips into so make sure it is wide brimmed

-Wait for it to cool a bit

-Use!!

*you can easily double, halve, or quadruple this recipe. Just keep a 1(ish, a little more is better) cup:3 tablespoons water ratio.

sleeeeeep

Oops, it got late and I haven't summed up the day.

Same wacky male model. Not wacky really, but interesting poses. I was out of it, but did some work. Morgan gave us a little mini art history lesson on the Pre-Raphaelites. Amazing bunch.

Illustration, Rose Bond came in and talked for an hour about animation and the more artistic applications of it. She is starting a moving image arts BFA and also wanted to pitch that.

Registration for next semester is opening up soon. I only have to take two classes, but three costs the same as two so I might take a third, just to not waste a penny. Plus I can probably manage a third with my thesis work pretty easily, as I've taken three years of five classes, and have a 3.82 GPA. So maybe take the beginning moving image arts class, just to get more technique under my belt (the more technique and programs I know, the better, as it enables me to apply to more places and boast a wider range of skills). I'll have to look at the full class schedule when they print it. If I take the animation course, it is before my illustration night class, which means I'll only be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday. Whooo!!

We broke for early lunch. I grabbed a soda and some mac n cheese from Safeway, then came back and geeked out with Madeline (who got a totally cute short do, it is way way cute and they did a really good job on it).

Martin gave us a run down of the plan, which was sketches and internship discussion. He said the sketches would take 30 minutes, and it ended up being about 2 hours. But I sat and chatted with Samala, Leo, Danny, and Dom. Speaking of Dom, he dislocated and broke his ankle while skateboarding. He is working on constructing a benefit show to pay for his hospital bills, so I think I'm going to crank out a 8 1/2x11 sized print for him to sell. Blow up some sketchbook drawing, really easy printing. I did the sketch while talking to him after class, so that is done.

My chat with Martin went well. After that he chatted about internships and how many of us are serious about it. I need to think about where I want to go and what I can get done, there is some potential for it. I think I'd like to go to a silkscreen studio, possibly poster design with an illustrative quality. Hmmm.

Hung around drawing and chatting with Dom. Went home. Watched stuff. Drank water. Went out with BT and Karen for some wings. Mmm delicious wings.

Now to finish Project Runway and finally sleep in.

Oh and I got an appointment for a massage on Saturday. I'm excited! She also does cupping therapy...

I can haz sleep?

Totally restless night sleep. Kept waking up. But I stayed awake all through the day. No dozing!

We watched Grizzly Man first, which was good because I was totally awake for that. Normally when a movie comes on after lunch, I just pass out. Grizzly Man is a Herzog movie about Timothy Treadwell, this guy who spent 13 summers camping with grizzlies in Alaska. Totally mental fellow. No knowledge of bear behavior. Just thought that if you behave and be strong, they won't harm you. Which they didn't. Until he came up when it was some of the unfamiliar bears and one of them chomped his head and attacked his girlfriend. They got the audio recorded, but didn't play it in the movie. Herzog narrated, and with his thick German accent and the way he filmed some of his narrators, it was a really odd film in general.

Fiddled around on the computer. Phil helped me put my piece up. Mine was the only non bear piece, but there were only three pieces. Kristen did a painting, we suggested sticking with her medium and pushing that. Sandra did a scratchboard. Really tiny piece, made even tinier by being across by my three foot by probably nine foot piece. That sucker was huge. They agreed it conveyed some of the feeling, but the craftsmanship was poor (I agree, it was). Tried something new. Oh well.

Then we had a long, good discussion about wildlife and bears and the feeling of folklore. The class goes so much smoother when we are able to get to our readings! Even got out a little early.

Yoga was a lot of leg work and some shoulder openers.

Karen chilled out with me afterwards back at my place. Watched some of Sherlock Holmes. Ate toast. Drew. Chatted. It was nice. Hopefully I can get a solid few hours of sleep tonight.

rookie mistake

I've been wasting so much time with StumbleUpon. It pretty much gives you sites based on preferences you enter and it gives such a great variety of things. Like:


More model stand today. Morgan had a piece of plexiglass and was tracing the stand and holding it up to people's drawings. When he came to mine, he held it up, and said "that looks okay" and started to walk off. I said "that's it?" so he came back and gave me a little more advice. Booyah for getting the stand right! Today we learned about Magellan. Good stuff.

Screenprinting was critique. Long long critique. I went second. Robin put out another beautiful house at night print, this time it was monotype. Chelsey had some brush word. Diana put up some monotypes with some lovely flowers that I very much appreciated. Casey had a kitty. DeAnn had printed in reverse on plexiglass. Impressive! Junko had layered pieces over each other and had this three dimensional quality, but the material quality itself was low. Ali had a poster for social change.

9 people takes forever. 11-4ish. But we spend a lot of time talking. Paul something from the print something sat in on our critique and gave us good feedback from a fresh perspective. After that, I set about constructing a pattern to print on various materials, like wrapping paper and posters and fabric. Whoo! Accidentally exposed it at 60 units on low power, instead of 60 at high, so my whole screen started to wash out. Ooops.

Went home. Ate the rest of my lunch burrito (damn you Laughing Planet, you know I can't resist your Mr. Green Jeans burrito!). Then got to work on Homeland. My piece is 3 feet by about 8 feet, and is a cutout with the rest being charcoal. I need to vacuum and hope it comes up. It should. I don't know how I feel about it. It is HUGE, and will probably look different when I put it on the wall. Tack that sucker up. Mmm.

Katie and Miranda went out, I stayed in and worked. So tired. 8 hours of sleep tonight!

week starts

Wowie zowie, anti histamines are great but it doesn't do a busy person good to be knocked out.

We got into Heidegger, unfortunately I am currently behind in the Existentialist Phenomenology readings. Apparently one way to irk a biologist is to ask them to define life. It was a class spent talking about defining Is and how the definition of Is Is isn't a good one because it needs a definition to define the word so you can't use the word because there is no definition. Also we talked about how no one field is better than another, the only difference is exactness, and so people in more exact fields like math may think themselves higher up than artists. Or whatever.

Then I went into the library and dozed on and off for about two and a half hours. Every time I woke up, I shifted so I was facing the other way, and nodded off again.

Then I finished BOTH of my Homeland readings. Both were about bears. And I finished Far Arden. Good comic, though it took a different turn than what I was expecting.

Yoga took place at 5:30 today. Not retaining as much of the tension in my back as I did a few days ago, and the pain in my leg went away.

Hovered around Lacey when she was working on her thesis. Went home. Colored eggs. Made a list of my final projects for the semester. Can't believe it is final projects list time already! AHhhhh!! Drew out something for Homeland. Tomorrow I'll see if I can get it printed. There will be a lot of coloring in tomorrow. Bye bye all my charcoal.

sunday

Longest week ever comes to a close.

Finally got a chance to sleep in. It was nice. Got to school at 2, forgot my watercolors at home so I just played with ink on my screen and printed 18 monoprints. They are okay, I guess. Cut them out in the library while waiting for the rain to stop.

Got home. Tidied up a little. Ate food. Watched The Pacific and Breaking Bad.

There really isn't much more to say.

Need to write out all I need to get finished in the next three weeks. It is a lot.

blue green blue

Woke up with a pain in my right leg. But no sniffles.

Mum had been awake for a few hours when I finally rolled out of bed. She seemed to have tidied up a little. Apartment looks so bad. I'll get on that if I ever get some not busy time.

I did my laundry, we read our books, and then off to Ikea!

We caught the blue and traded over to the red. Someone managed to poo under one of the benches at the Max stop.

Ikea was crowded as it was Saturday, but wasn't totally bad. We walked through the show room, gathering ideas. Mom mentioned needing some proper frames for the beds upstairs. When I eventually move out, I will need to get a bed, a desk, chairs, a table, and a couch. Picked up a new bath mat (our current one is mildew city) and two shower curtains. They will be layered and colorful. Also finally got funnels. A new towel. A base for my puppet final for Morgan. Whoo.

Then meatballs! Delicious after shopping meal. Mmm.

It takes an hour almost exactly to go either to or from Ikea, with or without transfer.

We got home and put up the shower curtain and relaxed for a few, then headed out early. I had to swing by Utrecht and pick up paper for my printmaking project. Got mom to the station at 5:45 and hugged goodbye. It was a short but sweet visit.

I brought my bike with me, so I rode to school, talked to Diana and JP, cut paper, and touched up my screen with emulsion.

Elizabeth showed up right on time, so we got right to it. The library was closed, so we took a chance and oiled up her print outs. It wasn't a big chance, it worked perfectly. The screen got emulsified perfectly. We had some trouble with the ink on the first layer, but we got it printed in a really nice fashion. And the second layer printed beautifully and much easier. She just wanted some text and detail on a little handout promoting her music and thesis stuff. Turned out quite nice. She seemed to have fun and was psyched about silk screen. Whoo!

My payment was cookies.

There was a break in the rain when I came back.

Watched the new Doctor Who with the new Doctor. Such a great episode, totally perfect start to Matt Smith's part. They even showed all the previous doctors. Really brilliant way to introduce the new one. Then watched Project Runway. Sort of lack luster results for a big challenge.

Some good television. Now to rest. Tomorrow I print.

release the mother!

Thursday:

Ink day! We had a male model for once. He was pretty good. Did a lot of poses with his butt in the air though... We are almost done with World Lit Only By Fire. We are to Magellan and Elizabeth now. Did some good work.

Illustration's critique was short form. Martin had good words for most of the work, sometimes I didn't agree with him though. Some people (Dominic and Madeline) put out a lot of work for this assignment, and some seemed to not try as hard. But there is consistent pushing forward and upward towards being awesome and much, much better. Pow pow pow Martin went through the pieces and revealed how awesome they were. My Odd Owl got a good review and high praises. Felt good. Carmen said that if I didn't get an A, she would have a word with him.

Had Quizno's for lunch. It was a nice day, but I remained inside with some of the girls. My nose started running for no good reason, now it is totally chewed up and sore from cheap tissues.

After the critique, Martin announced that we were being given a show in his gallery. All of us, well all of us in the class. We voted down including other classes. It was also a benefit show, with proceeds going to one of three causes: homeless youth, the poor PDX Metro school system, or sex slavery. We voted on the schools. It took a lot of discussion and argument to get there. The sizes of the pieces will be around 11x17 to 30xsomething, but that will change when we find out about cheap frames. Martin also has the right to void any piece he deems unworthy. A lot of pressure, and the theme of the art has to tie in with the charity. I'm not too worried. I'll probably do a reductive screen print portrait of one of the students or something.

Then class time was opened up. Whoo!

Went home. Tidied. Blogger wasn't working so I was unable to blog.

Friday:

Mom is visiting for one night, and one night only. It was raining when I went to meet her at the train station, and the rain came and went all day. We met her friend Sylvia at Andina on 13th and Glisan. Lovely place. Peruvian food. I just had a soda and mooched, as I wasn't starving.

I departed from them early though, as I had to meet Bekka at Tea Zone for one last goodbye. She leaves for Denmark on Tuesday. I'll see her again though, I have no fear our paths will meet. We had a nice little conversation about art and trying hard and working hard and moving about and travel. She got a haircut and it looks good. We walked to Powell's together, met up with mom, and I hugged my dear friend goodbye.

Mum and I walked to my apartment in the sun. Karen stopped by to pick up some stuff she left behind. Mom and I went shopping because I'm low on food and miscellaneous stuff. Pasta dinner with chips and dip starter.

Then we went to see Clash of the Titans! It was opening day, but I guess everyone was seeing it in 3D because the audience wasn't all that full. It was fun. The effects were not up to snuff I felt, but there were a good moments.

No rain, but be took the Max back anyway. Early night. Zzzzz.

Odd Owl - Lady Layer Lineart

Lineart and detail for the Odd Owl poster.

11"x17"

Micron pen

Odd Owl - Venue Poster - Spectacles

Drawn at 5.5"x8.5". To be printed at 11"x17".
myspace.com/oddowl
Micron on bristol paper, with photoshop simplification.

the other, better, Joe Simpson

Another day, another dollar. Except I didn't make any dollars...but I will once Carmen sends me a check for my percentage of the posters sales. Booyah!

Got up early, had a slow morning. Stepped on a piece of glass. Heel didn't hurt too bad when I wore my Romeos though. Still, ouch.

Daniel is pretty miffed that our conversations in class are often lacking. He said he didn't have the energy today to prod us. For the first hour, this bio psychologist talked to us. He incorporates nature into his practices. He was Irish and very very much a ginger. Cool guy. Lana gave a little presentation.

Ate with Karen at lunch.

Gabby gave another presentation. Then we critiqued Kirsten and Phil's pieces. Kirsten had this illustration sort of representing the connection in people's minds. Phil constructed this sort of diorama with all these stand up trees based after air fresheners. Really neat, and we all got trees after!

We watched about an hours worth of video. I was awake during the Joseph Campbell thing, but passed out during the other one. I just couldn't keep my head up. Oh well. Afterwards, we had a nice talk about the readings. Next week is Wilderness! My head is just not in it to make a piece, but I'll figure something out.

Yoga was just me, so I got one on one help! We did some meditation first, and then back work because my back is hella paining. Afterwards I hung out with Karen and BT in the studios. Then I returned!

I'm doing Joe Simpson, the mountaineer, for my next Illustraton project. If you don't know anything about him, just know he is a badass. Broke his leg and still climbed down one of the most difficult faces in the world. Crawled within 20 feet of basecamp even. Took him days.

my arm is sore for no reason

The rain persisted. Bleh.

We returned to drawing the platform in The Figure. It is really hard trying to get four lines to match up to how they are in reality. And if one is off, they all are. And trying to fight the brain and draw what you see and not what you believe you see. I think one of the new lessons was "think like a fish, paint like Cezanne".

Then screenprinting! For the first hour and a half, Christy and Diana talked about Southern Graphics Conference, which is this really rad print expo that happens every year. This year it was in Philadelphia. Cool beans. Apparently there are five art colleges in that city.

Went to Student Council for the free food. Went back to class. I was pretty scatter brained for the day. Got two screens emulsified. I'm doing a monoprint using the lineart from my Odd Owl poster. Don't have paper, just have the screens ready. I'll be printing this weekend. Yay.

After class, I documented my posters. Scanned about 17 of them. Took forever to figure out why the scanner was cropping the image. I had the thumbnail box checked. Argh.

I managed to catch a break in the rain on my way home. Whoo! Robin and Diana invited me over for stir fry. Junko stopped by as well. We gabbed and girl talked. It was a nice evening. Now to sort of what I have to do tomorrow. Mmm.

back to it

I hard a hard time sleeping because my nose was totally clogged. Couldn't breathe through it at all.

But got up and got out the door all right. It was pouring rain. Heinous rain. Thankfully I have my rain pants!

Prof. Adam took forever to get to the reading. He did a lot of summing up and explaining. We really only chatted about the reading, and the last three paragraphs of it at that, for about forty five minutes. After class, Leo and I had meeting with him. I went first. I got an A- on my essay! He said that it was very coherent and most of the questions were about the content and not my lack of writing ability. Some of the papers were barely over a page, double spaced. Insane!

It was still pouring down rain, so I relaxed in the library. Scanned some stuff. Interneted. Got some food. Read Swamp Thing for class. Napped hard for two hours. Read more. There was a thesis class in the library doing a video chat with some other people. Pretty rad.

Yoga! I did pretty well, considering it has been a while. Held the lunges and my body didn't feel so bad.

Tried to scan some stuff but the scanner wasn't writing the stuff to the stuff and argh stuff.

Wasn't raining so hard on my way back.

Hung out at Diana and Robin's for the rest of the night. Just have reading to do. Nothing too major.