11 posts tagged “school”
First and foremost - Thanks, Hillary. Your speech on Saturday was what I have always anticipated from you. Gracious and dignified. I am pleased that the first real female contender for the presidency was able to put a positive end to such a tremendous contest. Women, and most importantly, girls can now look at their lives so much differently than they did before. I'm sorry about that comment I made. You know, the "I'll believe it when I see it" one.
In other news, the couture show was Saturday night. I didn't win, but I was so pleased with the whole thing. Here is my entry :: A wedding dress constructed of repurposed t-shirts. The flowers were made from a painting I found in the trash at school. And my model! I think she was simply perfect!
As for my 'guest,' I know he won't be reading this, but you're a real piece of work. A different kind of work than this dress - of which I am extremely proud - but a major pain in the arse for which I have no time. Good luck to you.
What a weekend!
Yesterday I had the advancement review for my BFA. Thankfully, I passed. I would hardly say that I passed with flying colors, but I got through it, and I am now an OFFICIAL painting major. Much celebration was had by all.
I was not nervous about it, rather anxious. I wanted to get it over with, and now I have. I discussed with a friend going through the same experience how I got strangely emotional on my way to school - she got [not so] strangely nauseated. She passed also, but I had little doubt that she would pass anyway.
The studio where I had this review has an unpleasant odor, so I remembered to bring a nice candle to calm the environment a bit. I also brought scones and juice, and I am fairly certain it was appreciated more than it was seen as bribery - but whatever gets you by, I say!
There was something sad and uncomfortable about filling up a cart with three years of my life to have a panel critique it:
On the other hand, unloading the cart after the interview was fairly exhilarating.
I rode my bike to a friend's house for dinner and wine. By the time I rode home, it was raining and dark, but somehow relaxing. I slept well.
The semester is almost over.
I'm almost ready to start my summer classes.
It's almost tolerable in my makeshift office, into which I moved yesterday - the first of three moves by August.
It is almost possible to get through the day without eating some sort of chips.
It's almost June and I have two wearable art pieces to construct for my juried exhibition.
My BFA Advancement Review is in two weeks. I am almost ready.
I almost didn't wake up this morning (reference homework photos with Black Velveteens).
I think this weekend will be almost enough time to finish my final painting:
Yesterday, I was worried I had ruined it. Almost.
Weird, wild stuff.
I am happily slammed with work, schoolwork, artwork, kitty antic adjustments and general getting-up-in-the-morning responsibilities. Some notes on my week so far:
BARACK OBAMA continues to build my admiration for him. He also continues to cause fits of emotion I am still figuring out how to manage.
Yes, we can!
School is cool. After my spring break break, I am back at it and trying to coordinate my schedule with work (2 jobs now) and school, and getting homework and anything else that's necessary (including sleep) in the 24 hours I am alotted each day. Sleep isn't suffering at this point, but I am mostly going to bed early to be warm and to calm the critters down. When that happens, homework tends to suffer. We'll see... The news the other night said that lack of sleep makes you fat. THAT's the culprit! I knew it wasn't cheese and beer!
Blatant Begging. My etsy shop remains sparse, with the occasional order for a commissioned tiny painting. Yesterday, I found a fellow etsy vendor that really made my day. I am posting a link to her etsy shop here, and posting a picture of something I really, really want, but would probably not purchase for myself. That said, anyone want to get me an early birthday present??
Harold and Maude finger puppets! Are you kidding me!?! This gal's clearly a genius. She makes all sorts of finger puppet sets from her favorite movies, musicians, politicians, etc. I mean genius. I want to go to her house for puppet shows! Harold and Maude are currently on my imaginary wish list for any gift-giving occasion. Lloyd Dobler would be pretty nice, too (back off, Bossy!).
Late addition to my post: I want to see this movie as soon as it's released. The Visitor.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857191/trailers-screenplay-E38170-314
That's all for now.
As I was scarfing down a GI-NOR-MOUS salad for lunch (yes, I eat lunch at 11:00 am, sometimes even earlier), I realized I hadn't been over to the Vox 'hood in a while. I guess I could have more accurately entitled this post, "Vox! I Hardly Recognized You!"
I lamented to a friend the other day that I was increasingly disappointed that none of my friends had made themselves available to me socially on my 2.5 hours off each week. Poor me! I need some interaction with real people. While I enjoy the somewhat obtuse random comments from one of my professors, and I enjoy the company of friends who are in my classes, I really just want to have a beer [snob] drinking conversation. Back when I was nowhere nearly as busy as I am now, I was the Queen of Changing Plans. Now that I have no discretionary time at all, I have a bit of a meltdown if someone dishes out that very medicine, let alone miscommunication about going out to brunch or something. And please help the poor bastard who calls me during my Sunday Morning Political Television and Coffee Klatsch! For God's sake, bring over bagels and watch them with me, but don't even think I'll be chatting on the phone with you about anything! Someone had better be bleeding or have a limb missing - that's all I'm sayin'.
This Sunday I have pre-planned a hike with a friend and with Olive. Poor Olive really needs some Spring! It should be a great excursion to break up my painting time.
Exhaustion, back pain and insomnia continue. I was up self-chiropractoring myself yesterday morning and I caught TV's Craig Ferguson going on about Starbucks. I found it hilarious, but then again I was punch-drunk from exhaustion and over-the-counter painkillers. This clip leaves out his comparsion of Starbucks coffee to pudding, but successfully leaves in a reference to Kenny G just for cheekymonkey!
I am so happy to have a weekend. Too much is going on to mention everything here, but I will touch on two things.
First: I have a new niece. She was born at home this morning at 7:11. No complications to my Sister-in-law, the baby or my nephew. The jury is still out about my brother. Home birth had to be, at the very least, exciting!
Second: Work and anguish continues with regard to my schoolwork. It's nearing the end of the semester and I am getting that knot in my stomach that won't go away until after the grades are posted. Subjective grading is a really tough thing. My current project is coming along, though. Here are two photos to show my progress. How far I need to keep going is still a mystery:
I have always been a person who could live with inconveniences. My second car was a 1972 VW Superbeetle. You learn to compensate for things that no longer work and things that are a bit tricky, and you sometimes even appreciate the nuances of a cranky old car. The same is true of household appliances and the like. While it might be a stretch to say that I learn to appreciate a leaky faucet or a stove with no numbers on the dials, I can live with it for a long time before I am forced to actually deal with it.
Yesterday - Sunday, I woke up early and turned on the news. I got my sketchbook and returned to watch the news and sketch Olive in near darkness. By the time Olive was up and bored with a lazy Sunday morning, I got up, made some coffee and set up to work on paintings for a while. I do love painting in my pajamas, but somehow I am reluctant to show up in class with Hello Kitty pants and an old Pabst t-shirt.
Back to household maintenance issues... I have a bathtub faucet that seems to be original to the house. The hot water handle tends to leak as the washer wears out. I should replace the entire tub, truth be told, but I am in desperate of an entire bathroom remodel. Plus, ye old faucet would need to be cut out and re-plumbed to install a new one and I am waiting. Just what it is I am waiting for, I have no idea. It's simple enough to replace the washer every two months or so. Besides, when it does leak, I capture the water in a tub and use it to stretch watercolor paper, so all is not lost!
Last week, my kitchen faucet started leaking when I turned it on. It rapidly got to the point that more water was coming from the handle than the spigot, so I knew it would need to be replaced fairly soon.
I decided to go to the closest big-box hardware store and get a faucet, some plumbers tape, washers and, what the hell, I'll get a new sweep for the back door, plastic sheeting and furnace filters for the inevitable cold weather. When I returned home with my Big Bag O' Hardware, I was satisfied that I had everything I needed to get to work. Next weekend, I thought. I'll do it next weekend. It then dawned on me that next weekend was completely booked. I glanced at a clock and quickly calculated how much daylight I had left. I also considered that plumbing projects often involve additional trips for hardware and it was Sunday. I quickly set about to conquer my household tasks.
Door Sweep: Check!
Furnace Filters: Check!
Bathtub Drip: Check!
Kitchen Faucet: Check! (Mental Note: Get lime off the sink - Old Dutch not effective)
The kitchen faucet was much easier than the last time I did it - say 12 years ago. I remember when I replaced it then that it had been dripping and I had cramps. I was so distressed at hearing the drip onto the stainless steel sink that I called my Dad to help me. He lives an hour away, mind you, but he offered to come and help. He could get there until after 5:00 and that day was also a Sunday, so as I curled up on the couch with mind-numbing cramps, I started to think I had better look into trying to replace it while the stores were open. I remember clearly that when he arrived at 5:00, I was almost embarrassed to tell him I had already replaced it myself. He walked over to the sink, turned the water on and off and just grinned at me. He asked me for a beer and hung out for a while, but his plumbing expertise went untapped that day. Actually, his plumbing expertise was of service, as I was fortunate to grow up with him showing me how to do things, rather than just fixing them for me. Thanks, Daddy-O, that is one of the things I am most grateful for in this world.
Next up: Install ceiling fan in living room. The old fan works just fine, even if it is the ugliest thing ever... but, the light in it hasn't worked for at least a year. I'll be wanting some light as I am already in the stages of leave for work/school in the dark, get home in the dark. I bought a ceiling fan/light fixture in June I think, and it's sitting in the kitchen just waiting on me.
I am simply exhausted after a weekend of running around at school, upstairs and down, all crazy-like.
Lucky dog, that Olive.
Add to my exhaustion a rather non-inspiring critique in class yesterday. The satisfaction I gained from the critique is that the piece I was instructed to start over on (what did yew say? them thars fightin' werds, they are!) turned out to have the most impact of everything I had done in that class to date. I am having personal struggles with the medium, but I have that fairly under control. I think. Whatever. Sniff. Do you have a Kleenex?
Add to my exhaustion and non-inspiring critique a rather emotionally frustrating class today. I have no idea where I stand with the Professor, but I feel like I am doing better than average work. Thankfully, and sometimes not, the Professor has a mini-critique at the end of each class. The emotional frustration comes in when I feel like I am getting somewhere on a painting, the comments I get from the instructor during class are positive, then the mini-critique leaves me with the sensation that the boom has just been lowered. Onto my head. Oy! It's completely possible that I am expected to do more because I show motivation in the class. I ask what I think are very good questions. I just don't know.
Art school isn't the place for a person who requires constant compliments. I know that. It's just a bit of a struggle lately.
I'll get home tonight and take Olive for a walk. That should calm me down a bit. After that, I will stretch some watercolor paper (or maybe cop-out and use a sheet of 300-lb. paper that must certainly taste like ice cream, but it's so expensive I don't dare find out). I will then make myself a pot of tea and commence any painting for classes I can do, and work on some Tiny Paintings for my etsy shop. By the way, if anyone who is expecting a Tiny Painting has found their way over here to Vox, I assure you my student painting frustration has not tip-toed over to my Tiny Paintings. So, rest assured Mommies of Sam, Oscar, Woody and Ollie - the Tiny Paintings are coming right along! My goodness! Bailey's Mommy sure has lots of really nice friends!
People who know me know that I am a bit of a story collector. How great a storyteller I am, I will leave to the interpretation of my victims, er, audience.
So here is the thing about the shoes. I bought these Capezio ballroom dance shoes at the Goodwill store. Not just any Goodwill store, either, this was one of the stores where you pay by the pound. I am crazy in love with those stores. You just never know what you'll find. So. I found these shoes and they are at least two sizes too small for me. Buying shoes in a thrift store can be a little dicey anyway, but I thought these were interesting. Interesting to draw and/or paint, but not to wear. It turns out their more petite size makes them easy to cart around as the subject of a still life and whatnot, too.
I figured after I had exhausted myself with them as subject matter, I could either re-donate them to Goodwill, or donate them to the prop closet at school.
So here is my first attempt at the shoes in my watercolor class:
I am having issues with being tentative with watercolor - "precious" as many art instructors will put it. I'm not sure where it comes from, but I am just a little scared of the medium. I think it's because I want to be sure to learn something new, learn how to use it properly (which is an interesting thought to artists anyway), but I am definitely being too nervous. My other issue with watercolor class is my drawing skills are turning to crap - right before my eyes. I have to decide whether to spend valuable watercolor class time working on drawing, or whether to get things on the paper and start painting. I choose the latter mostly, and with watercolor that might be a mistake.
Shortly into the second class with this painting, my professor actually suggested I start over. Attempting to be democratic about it, I asked her if I might not learn more by continuing to work into this painting. She agreed (but still suggested I do another one for good measure).
After another two hours or so, this is what I have:
I have made some adjustments and improvements, and I think it's much more successful than I would have anticipated after the first two hours. This weekend I have set aside time to do work at home, so we'll have to see if I can add more to the shoes. We'll also have to see what I decide to use as subject matter for my do-over painting. Do-over!
This week has flown by. I have so much to accomplish over the weekend and I am hopeful I can get at least half of it done. Or started. Well, at least written down on a list. Please see after-the-fact notes in PINK.
The truth is that the cavalry will be arriving at Chez Moi tomorrow morning at 8:30. This cavalry will take the shape of my favorite handyman, my Daddy. I'm not exaggerating when I gush about him by saying that he can do anything. Everything. He's amazing. At any rate, the tentative itinerary includes, but is certainly not limited to; Good Coffee (I make it, he drinks it. His taste in coffee is pretty unrefined), Review of List with Marker, Quick Walk of Olive (she calms down so much when guests arrive and take a walk with her), Run to Hardware Store for Supplies (Handyman has oh-so-handyVAN), Outdoor Two-Person Chores, Indoor Two-Person Chores, Trip to Local Pay-by-the-Pound Thrift Store for Goodies, Good Beer (I buy, he drinks. His palate for beer is improving, but I am such a beer snob). I'll post separately about it soon (with pictures), but needless to say, THIS is not what actually happened. I can report that 5 intense hours were spent with both of us working hard (well, I did a little whining, too), and big feats were accomplished. Of note: NO beer was had, instead Dad brought me a bottle of his homemade wine.
As with any list I make, this one is subject to change. That's a fact.
Oh! And my fair city is chock full of happenings this weekend, so there's always traffic and other congestion to consider.
In an attempt to get some drawings stored safely before my Fall semester begins in less than a month, I took snapshots of some pieces so that I can roll them up for safe keeping. I still have to consider every piece to be included or excluded from my portfolio, as I have an advancement review in the Spring before I can continue on with my major. I have oodles of foundation projects, a small house and a pack-rat mentality, so you can imagine the dilemma. I actually made tremendous progress in converting my 3-season porch into a studio space yesterday. When it's completed, I'll post about it. With pictures.
I think I will stop somewhere and get myself a fancy hamburger to go on my way home tonight. That way I can maximize my productivity in preparing for Handyman Day tomorrow when I get home. I so stopped for that burger. I have been off chips of any description for weeks now, but the burger joint put SALT AND VINEGAR chips in my To-Go sack. I'm not turning those down. Don't be ridiculous!!
