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| 01:38pm 11/03/2008 |
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mood:  chill/study/art
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Been excruciatingly busy of late, haven't had time to update, but now, on my semi-luxurious first few days of Spring Break, I have time to drop by and say hello. Midterms are over, it seems like this semester just flew by. I'm taking the break as an opportunity to catch up on my neglected Independent Study course by reading the required text in it's entirety - That's Word and Image by Norman Bryson, and it's been enlightening to the extreme. Intelligent, revolutionary discourse on art, and it's social mechanisms. I have discovered that our library has graphic novels, and I have been all over them. In my comics class, (Illustrated Story) we have been learning to analyze storytelling structure in comics, sort and label different panel layout devices, compositions, explore the relationship of the image to the panel form, of text to image. Though, not enough of that last, I think. We haven't done ANY comics with text, and it's something I've been hoping to work on. Hopefully they will offer a second level class. I have fallen more deeply in love with sequential work from doing so many of them, of late.. One a week, for the class. I find myself, in the middle of a dream, pausing to arrange the elements into panel transitions, considering timing, background, art style.
I've not posted much work because I've not had the opportunity to document. Here's a little free-time doodle of a character from an old webcomic of mine, which has been developing since early highschool, and has been cold for years, now, too, but still very much alive inside my own head.
I am in the middle of this excellent old b&w French film called "Children of Paradise" (in English) It's set at the turn of the century, in this theater which mostly does circus-like acts. It centers around a beautiful woman and the four men in love with her - a mime, a scribe/playwright/aspiring-murder, and a dandy/aspiring-actor, so far. That's only three, I assume another one will show up, from reading the back of the box... |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| V-Day |
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| 04:14pm 14/02/2008 |
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mood:  sleepy music: The Magic Flute
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I have not updated for a spell, in part because I have been sick, and trying to simultaneously rest, and catch up on lost time. I had a doctor's visit today, and got some antibiotics prescribed to me for my throat, hopefully that will pass, it's been lingering for a long time, and making me sort of blearily, vaguely miserable, if not out of comission entirely. No fever or congestion, thank goodness for that.
My apartment got a cleaning-makeover for Apartment Inspections: it's looking very shiny, on the whole, and it gives me some opportunity to think about perhaps putting up some decor/making it look nice, not just inhabited. That would entail finding ways to display the cool items I am in posession of on the walls, I suppose. I'll keep you posted on that. A friend of a friend of mine was getting rid of his 50" TV, and my friend wanted it, but doesn't have room for it at his place (since he's staying with his mom.) So he was going to move it to his storage, but then I suppose he thought of me, and offered to let me have it and use it while I was in town. So it's been moved in, and it's making my second room look a lot smaller (in scale comparison, I suppose), but once I get it all hooked up it'll be like having a home theater! I'm pretty excited. If it turns out the space is more valuable than the awesome TV, I'll just let my friend put it back in his storage.
Time to catch up on more homework~ |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| 08:13am 06/02/2008 |
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Yesterday there were tornado sirens wailing on and off for most of the evening. Severe Storm and Tornado warnings around Memphis, apparently. It was sort of War-of-the-Worlds creepy, in my apartment, with the sirens going in the dark. The last two days it's been warm enough to wear a tank top outside, and oppressively humid. Strange February weather.
I have begun to read 'Invisible Cities' by Italno Calvino. A fascinating, poetic book that describes itself on the back cover as "Dream-like story-telling at the twilight of an empire." Young Marco Polo reccounts one by one fantastic imaginary cities he's visited, to the emperor Kublai Khan. It's required text for my Illustration class, we'll be doing a project with it.
I'm excited about running my first screen in Printmaking, I imagine that will happen some time this weekend. |
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Read 7 - Post |
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| India Palace |
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| 09:04am 02/02/2008 |
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music: The Walk - Imogen Heap
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For my Friday Illustration class, our first assignment was to go to a resturant we had never been to before, and order food we'd never had, and create a visual review of a resturant. This meant drawing the interior, drawing the food, drawing our waiter, writing notes, perhaps collaging in some pieces of the menu/napkins into our compositions. Extra points for getting the bathroom and the kitchen.
I went to India Palace, for their lunch buffet, since not only have I never been there, I've never eaten indian food. It was very INTERESTING and the place was extremely authentic, when you got past the EXTREMELY tacky elephant murals. All of the waiters were indian, with heavy accents, and more than half of the customer base was indian, too. The food was not too hot, overall, but everything had a lot of colorful spice flavor to it. I set up my paints and got a lot of attention from both the waiters and the customers over the three hours I hung out there drawing and note-taking. They close early, and I waited too long to ask them to draw the kitchen - they said no, they were busy closing, I suppose.
Next Friday, we're having a visiting guest/model - a drag queen. We've been warned that she's friendly and outgoing, but pretty raunchy, so leave our delicate sensibilities at home. What delicate sensibilities? Anyway, she'll be coming out of drag, and applying the various nuiances of her process of transformation while we draw/document it. I think it should be pretty darned awesome. |
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Post |
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| Surrealist Films and other Mind Bending Phenomenon |
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| 04:59pm 31/01/2008 |
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music: Cabaret - Wilkommen
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In Surrealism and Film, on Wednesday, my brain had ample opportunity to melt and refry over the "optical" Dada films we watched, often interspercing swirling black and white patterns with nonsense sentences. Down with art, indeed, and down with the headache I steadily accquired. That aside, the ones that were not purely optical (and even those had their relative charm, they were clever) were suitably interesting. My two favorites were Man Ray's "The Starfish" which was punctuated with a Robert Desnos poem. Robert Desnos is a surrealist poet whom has won my heart, I have read and loved some of his work lately, and I imagine I will continue to do both. In particular, the poem "I Have Dreamed of You So Much" struck me as beautifully haunting and romantic, while still retaining it's surrealist edge. The other I liked was "Ballet Mechanique" by Leger. The collection is out on DVD, "Experimental films of the 20's and 30's" I think the title is.
In non-related news, I went to the mall today, and got bombarded by one of those middle-isle marketing guys. He was offering a variety of things, but one by which I was particularly impressed. It was some three-step nail cube/buff thing. For the top of your nail. Took about 50 seconds, first there was some sort of harder (finefine grained of course) sanding surface, then a smoother one, and then a super smooth sort of squeaky one.. and my nail is STILL shiny like glass. Crazy. Like clear nailpolish, but it's the surface of your nail? I didn't even ask how much it was though. It's the mall, probably like 40 bucks, haha.
It's been raining these last few days, and last night there was sleet - the little pieces of it were still on the ground in the morning. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Resumed |
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| 11:56am 29/01/2008 |
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First Transmission:
A brief recording of Artist Alice's first full week of the Spring 08 Semester.
Hello Earthlings.
Things have been going well. As of yesterday (Monday) I have completed the circut of my classes since they started Tuesday. I am very excited about all of the planned work I am going to be carrying out. I turned in my first completed assignment today, an instructional comic for my "Illustrated Story" class. I am also taking Illustration 2, Screen Printing (or Serigraphy) Art of Ancient Mexico, and Surrealism and Film. All of them seem to be brilliant and fascinating, and I am particularly excited about my topic for my serigraphy class (more information later) I am going to aim to keep these posts short and sweet so that I will be inspired to post with more frequency.
Over and out,
ArtistAlice |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Figure Drawing Madness |
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| 05:46pm 28/03/2007 |
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It's been a long time since I updated this journal - busy, busy, busy with college, and also, I just haven't felt like it, really. The other people I know who keep good blogs have quit, or were slacking off, so my inspiration was lacking. But it's back again, at least for this current moment right now, with the discovery of another art-college student's blog. Which was very inspiring.
Wednesday is Smother Me in Figure Drawing Day. I have a FD studio class from 9am - 3pm, and I oversee (monitor?) the evening figure drawing classes from 6:30pm - 9pm. That's like. A lot of drawing nude models.
Anyway, here's something I made in Metals, with the sandcasting technique. Basically, the objects are pressed into a bed of fine, hard-packed sand, and leave an impression, and then you pour pewter into the impression and press down with a block of wood. Then file all the edges, which takes the longest time, in an otherwise rather spontaneous process. I made something even cooler in the wax casting, but I haven't photographed it yet.
( Coat of arms. Small, about 4 inches tall. )
And ( here ) is just a little something I threw together in photoshop, for the fun of it. I have woodcuts, drypoints, and monotypes from printmaking to show off next time.. for now, off to workstudy! |
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| 08:39pm 21/01/2007 |
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Just a brief update - I am going to try to keep this thing posted more often by not aiming to write novels for posts.
My classes have been going great - I am, at the moment, reading Antigone, and doing line drawings for Printmaking, on Tuesday. On Monday, I will have Intro to Sculpture - I'm very enthused about all my classes this time around.
But what I really want to talk about is my new acquisition, late-christmas gift and pet, Escalator. Black, shiny, loveable, and with 248 more legs* than you or I, Escalator has been an ideal and beautiful pet. Millipedes are tropical and nocturnal, Escalator generally sleeps when I'm around to keep an eye on the cage, but wakes up and crawls around on your hands/arms when you want to take him out and play. They eat fruit and lettuce and such, so that elliminates the hassle of having to keep live crickets around, and going back for more, like I do for Daedalus, my pet jumping spider. Who, incidentally, survived Winter break alone, with a reserve of crickets. Maybe he fared better there than he would have had I released him back into the wild after all, what with it being warmer inside of the dorm, probably, and no pesky predators to worry about.
*Actually, 250 is just an estimate for now, Escalator won't stay still enough for me to get an accurate count of his segments.. Pictures later, probably! Along with much odd millipede-related art that I seem to have been inspired to.. |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Geta Sandals |
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| 12:52pm 02/12/2006 |
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music: clack-clack, clack-clack
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So, about a week ago, I had the sudden desire to make myself a pair of geta sandals. Geta sandals, for those who do not know, are a traditional Japanese footwear, made out of wood, with two ha, or prongs on the bottom, set back from the front, one about the middle of the foot, one back more than that, and a padded thong on top to hold it on your foot. Here's a picture.
Those look almost exactly like mine. Except they cost about $60 more than mine.. Mine only ran about $4 for materials, since I found the wood that I used in the woodshop's scrap pile. Anyway, walking in geta is both somewhat of a challenge, somewhat of an experience, and something of a mindset. First of all, it's a bit difficult to get used to. Second of all, they're very loud in enclosed spaces with concrete floors. But charming, I think. It makes me feel as though I've stepped from a past era into this one, and this concrete doesn't agree with me. After all, they were developed for practical reasons in Japan, walking through mud and fields and such, the ha keep your feet dry. They have various variations for different kinds of field working, too - I read an article on it, it's pretty easy to find information on online. But, most importantly, it makes walking fun, a sort of game, to match the clack-clack sound evenly with every step, and to walk gracefully (with all those people staring and wondering why you're wearing wooden shoes.) Also, it causes you to walk slower.. and therefore reap a greater appreciation of your surroundings. To compose haikus on your way to class. In conclusion: if you've never tried on a pair of geta, you're missing out. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| 09:53am 14/09/2006 |
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"What color was it?"
"What color do you -think- it was?"
"Uh..black?"
Hayley and Steven at Goth Night last night. My guess was pink!
Anyway, goth night was fun. I have been sucked into the world of SD/BJD. Ball jointed dolls.. "Super Dollfie" in japanese terms. I'll never be able to afford one, ever. Even if I had the money I still wouldn't be able to afford one.. they are ridiculously priced... in the 500 - 1,000 dollar range, generally. If I had money like that, I'd just spend it on something else, in all honesty. But they -are- gorgeous, and if I ever won the lottery, I'd have me a few of these. Supremely customizable, about 23" - 26" in height, stylish, made of durable, high-tech resin, there's a huge community of anime and japanese fans who own them, and a larger buisness community for people who have websites that do custom clothing/wigs/ect.
Anyway, I am making my own ball jointed doll out of synthetic urethane clay, (aka "sculpey") which bakes in the oven, and has a nice, durable finish to it. He's got a black mohawk right now, pretty cool stuff.
In other news, my Rosetta stone came in the mail, and I'm all ready to learn some Japanese. Watch out world!
And: Joseph Cornell is some awesomeness. I am making some boxes, myself. I got this block of beeswax, and a mini slow-cooker at the MCA yard sale for $3... that means.. batik! And I dipped these cool dried, curled up leaves in it, and it coated them really awesome.
I accedentally got up far too early this morning - got to school about an hour and a half earlier than I ended up needing to, in the end. Bleh. Got some breakfast out of the deal, at least. And I got my workstudy worked out, so it's all good. |
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| ..And we're back! |
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| 11:23am 29/08/2006 |
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The internet was down for days here at the dorms, but it seems to have returned! Yes! So. Yesterday I had Drawing Composition and Modern Art History. I am going to preservere through Drawing.. I'll make it work for me, that's the goal. My sketchbook is looking good already. Modern Art Hist. is going to cover from 1900 through 1945. I forgot how much I really didn't like that time period in art, for the vast majority. I do really like the teacher, however. And he likes Modern Art. Maybe he'll convince me. Again, I plan to try and make the best of it. It was, after all, the only open Art History class at the right times. Today I have Canfield for Text and Image. And now that my internet is back, I'm going to look into comparing online Art History text prices with the used ones at Burke's, for that Modern Art class.
In other news, I have been eating real food! As in... cooked food! Life is good when you have a roommate who cooks. Anyway, off to do some work before class. |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Whoo |
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| 11:37pm 24/08/2006 |
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Happy birthday to me!
Probably hello to months of "18..no wait, 19..."
I just got so used to 18. Awe. Sad to see it go, it was a good age to be.
But, it's all good. Exhausted. Did a LOT of moving today. Hauling stuff up stairs, down stairs up stairs up stairs...hours of it. And I walked to my storage unit in the heat and back again lugging stuff, and my bike...
It's all good. Storage is taken care of, compliments of Haylie's parents and their lovely van.
Sleep. |
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| Ninja! |
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| 11:57pm 24/04/2006 |
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music: Cole Porter - DeLovely
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This totally happened today. Or very nearly almost did. I was dressed as a pirate all day. And for those of you who are not familiar with the concept of pirates vs ninjas.. well. The dire irony may not be apparent. In any case, only hours after I dismantled my piratey accessories to go work on my instillation at the school, lo and behold, there is a NINJA walking his dog! I had to stop. I told him I was a pirate, and that he'd better believe Pirates kicked way more ass than ninjas. And he told me he didn't get "us pirates" Hah. Well, anyway, he was a shirt ninja (with shuriken in his pockets, apparently, though he found them only after the opportunity passed to wage some pirate vs ninja warfare..) and we struck up a pretty nice conversation there on the sidewalk. Exchanged info. I see some hardcore anime-dweeb-sessions in my immediate (after finals) future. Woot. He had a seriously fluffy white dog, too. |
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Read 5 - Post |
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| Saturday, ehh. |
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| 10:50pm 22/04/2006 |
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music: Alice's Resturant - Arlo Guthrie
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This post is yet another reaction to a mom-post. But I suppose she is mainly my inspiration for posting in this thing. Consistancy and quality and whatnot.
My Saturday stands in sharp contrast from hers. It was going okay untill I ventured outside. First off, the weather was atrocious. Monsterous. Blazing hot. I decided to brave it, anyway, and head to the school. I had lots to accomplish. So, on my way there, I get beeped at, twice. I think today is Earth day. I frowned. People, be nice to bicyclists. So then, by the time I get through the traffic on Poplar, a feeling of dread washes over me, as I realize.. today must be Take Your Whole Family in the SUV to Overton Park Day and Try to Hit Some Innocent Bicyclists on the Way. Geez! Overton Park was a madhouse. Flocks of people moving in groups everywhere, picnicking, zooing, museuming, whatnot. And giving me weird looks. Shiny SUVs glaring the already too-hot sun at me. And so I made it to the relative safety of the school, and picked up what I came for, a piece of my sculpture I intended to go to Home Depot to buy wiring for. On the way back, I made the questionably wise decision to pause and pick up some of these great dead branches and carry them, too. Uphill, through the throngs of SUVs and the 110 degree heat. Upon reaching the dorms, I decided to barricade myself inside until further notice. Then had some mild heat exhaustion taking pictures for photo 1 near large in-direct-sunlight windows. Geez. I miss winter already.
Friday, however, I got some exellent dumpster diving in. I had taken a wrong turn.. but decided there must have been a reason, a twist of fate, that put me on my current path, so I continued on, and looked for good luck to hit me. And it did! In the back of the (Something) Playhouse I found a rather impressive quantity of good-quality scrap wood, in a dumpster. I parked my bike, and started piling everything I could reach from the ground. Eventually, to get to the good stuff in the middle, I climbed on top, in true, dedicated, dumpster-diving style. People had started to filter into the parking lot, by now, and I had started to attract some attention. Scorn, strange looks, encouragement, scepticism. A woman who had been sitting in a rather nice car (Mercedes? maybe she was on her cellphone) watching me, eventually emerged, approached, and asked me "Do you need help?" I almost said "What, do you mean like, mental help?" Or "Just what kind of help were you thinking of offering?" Or "Sure, climb up!" But what I actually said was "No thank you, unless you've got a ladder in your car." Which was borderline witty, but not as impacting, I fear, as the first statements would have been.
Ah, well. One of the last, who saw my pile, and saw me start to pile it into my neat, deceptively small-looking wire basket laughed, and said something to the effect of "You think you're going to fit all that wood in that little basket?" I jutted my chin defiantly and said "Watch me." And he laughed, and I called after him "You don't believe me? You'll see!" I waved at him as I rode by with it all balanced in the basket. I'm not sure he saw me. But it's victory, nonetheless. |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Well, Mom is doing it.. |
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| 01:01pm 18/04/2006 |
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..So I guess I should update, before the world ends.
Close to the end of the semester, here, working hard. The weather's getting hotter, bugs are starting to appear. I've got a great pair of antennae that I'm wearing everywhere in lieu of my cat ears.. something of a new trademark. I made them out of bent zip ties, some electrical tape and a headband. Durable, cheap, and easy to make - I think it'll catch on. Surprisingly, I've gotten an overwhelmingly positive response.. people think it's cute, not creepy. Hmmm.
Me modeling my antennae:
Picture I took and developed of my roommate Christine for a narrative photo shoot I was doing for Photo 1:
Hmm, short entry, but I can't think of anything really substantial to report! Life goes on. I'm excited about coming back home and getting some down-time.. seeing old friends and such. I've been doing a lot of digital photography.. I'll upload those to my site, and link them up sometime in the future. My schedule for next semester is all done up.. I've got Drawing Composition (pre-requisite for the illustration classes) Digital Photo (Which I'm very excited about!) Text and Image (a humanities course with my current Southern Literature Proffessor - he's great) Modern Art and Architecture, and then Really Easy Math for Artists. Haha. Just so I can show Oregon I have a Math credit, and to get it outta the way.
That's all! |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Today, in downtown Memphis.. |
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| 06:07pm 14/03/2006 |
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..I took some photos. For Photo 1, so it was technically homework, but didn't feel much like it. I went up to these people - they're all strangers - and asked them if I could take their picture, doing whatever it was they were doing. I tried to "keep it real" haha. Or sincere, if you will. So, here they are.
>> http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7862/33ei.jpg << |
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| Snow Day! |
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| 04:55pm 10/02/2006 |
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So, today I spent mostly in bed with hot choclate and chicken soup - I have a cold, and am just kind of generally bleh, slept most of yesterday afternoon after class. At about two o'clock, I get up, and open my window... to see THIS.
Snow! So, I figure, I'm sick every once in a while, but how often does it snow? I grab an umbrella, bundle up overkill (It really wasn't that cold, surprisingly, I heard from Naomi, one of my roomates, that it warms up when it starts to snow. Who knew?) and go out with my camera.
Our side yard in the dorms.
Footsteps in the snow.
Me 'an Alfred Steiglitz. Yep. Haha, just kidding.
http://www.kodak.com/US/images/en/corp/events/stieglitz/NewYork.jpg
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/stieglitz/stieglitz_terminal.jpg
A few of Steiglitz's lovely snowy-street photos, New York. |
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artistalice's journal
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