To The Old Country!

Guess what? I'm going to England this summer! My brother is getting a multi continent flight which allows him to go to North America (DeKalb, obviously), South America (Peru) and Europe (England and Spain). I'll be joining him and his girlfriend, Laura, in England where I hope to see my grandparents, my uncle and aunt, and a plethora of sheep. Right now I've only got like, $300.00 to my name, but I've got commissions coming so I should have at least 15 hundred dollars by summer. I was saving up for a car, but who needs a car when you can go to England with your brother who you haven't seen for a year and a half?

Listening to: The Decemberists--Picaresque

Getting There

Layer 5. I predict two more layers. The highlights on the clouds are too white right now, I have to add some subdued yellow brown purple? in there. The mountains just need a bit more specificity in them, but not too much or they'll lose their beauty. Anyway, it's fast and its fun. Would be believe I started this less than a week ago last Monday?

In other news, my material itch is dying to be scratched by this FAWESOME bike designed by Jorg & Olif. Sadly, I really have no need whatsoever for a new bike because I just got one a bit over a year ago. I suppose it's also worth noting that this bike costs about $600.00 not including shipping and handling. But look how pretty! And it comes in red! Oh well. I'm sure the company will still be there in a few years when I'll need a new bike and if I got this one now, it'd just get stolen or ruined anyway because drunk college students are morons. Trust me, it's homecoming weekend and I'm at a big 10 school. Speaking of which, I've been thinking about living in Urbana next year rather than Champaign. I like how close my apartment is to the painting studio, but really most places in Urbana would only be a 10 minute bike ride away. I also went out to visit Christine who lives in Urbana and its so pretty where she is. There are brick sidewalks and vibrant orange leaves all over and a pretty little church. It felt like a whole different place. There was a place rented by the same leasing group I'm using right across the street from her, actually. And it's so ruddy loud out here, even during the week. I guess we'll see. I need to check out the places first.

Listening to: Jon Brion--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Soundtrack

Foreign Landscape

Layer 4. Also, I finally have the paper with my idea and internet in the same room, so here it is:

1) Romanticization of a place I have never been based on the name and my own perceptions of the country it is located in. For example, Yellow Mountain, Spain would be different from Yellow Mountain, China.

2) I am physically removed from China. I am orally removed from Yellow Mountain because Yellow Mountain is the English name. Even if I go there, I am removed from the landscape and population due to my extremely different way of life. To say you understand a culture is an attempt to control the culture.

3) How does Yellow Mountain differ from the Rocky Mountain peaks or other mountains I have physically experienced?

4) In my mind, Yellow Mountain is beautiful. Yet when I consider China, I think of huge polluted cities where the locals spit all over the streets. I wonder if China's newfound industrialization will, like a tumor, swallow the beauty of Yellow Mountain. Also I think of damn commies.

So yeah, I guess I'm thinking about a lot of stuff. I just need to really convey it on the canvas because you can think till the cows come home and if the work doesn't back it up then the work falls flat. I'm thinking of doing the White Cliffs of Dover next, which I think will be a big contrast because I've actually been to England. I haven't seen the White cliffs, but still I'm a LOT more in contact with that culture than Chinese culture. Hell, I'm drinking tea imported from England right now.




I'm getting there with the tea cozy. I think I'll start decreasing in a few more rows, which means getting the double pointed needles out which is the grossest, but at least it means I'm almost finished.

Wood shopping with Kelly and Christine tomorrow! I'm going to make like, five stretchers!!

listening to: The Cardigans--Life

Layer Layer Layer

Okay, so this is actually layer # 3. I forgot to take a picture of layer # 2 until layer #3 was almost done. I actually really enjoy working like this, though, because the paint is so thinned down that it dries quick and I can work two layers in on the same day. Sometimes I do get a bit distracted if other people are in the studio though . . . last night turned into a trip to Steak & Shake and Walmart at 1 am with Kelly and Hector instead of a really productive working time. Oh well. At least it was fun!

Anyway, once again I can't write down my complete ideas associated with this project because I forgot my whole notebook in the studio when we were leaving last night! If only we had wireless in the studio. I am irritated that it is taking them so ruddy long to do it. What do they think we do? Internet would be most beneficial to a studio artist because we could use it for research or looking up images and the like, things I often really want to do while I'm in the studio but can't. I guess its just one of the downsides of going to a huge university whose bureaucracy often doesn't understand art students specific needs. This would never be a problem at an art school, but then I couldn't take creative writing classes at an art school so its a switch off.

Oh, and ridiculous story: Yesterday morning I was going to fill up my water bottle and go to the bathroom in the basement of the painting building but the girls bathroom (which only has one stall, btw) was being cleaned by the janitor so I decided to use the boys room because there are like, 6 guys in the painting program and its usually empty. Also, I've never really thought boys and girls sharing bathrooms with stalls is a big deal. Also, the guys bathroom has THREE stalls + two urinals. I mean, come on! Anyway, I go in and I'm about to shut a stall door when I realize that Frank, the guy who is like, fifty in charge of the woodshop and is really nice, was at a urinal.
"Aren't you in the wrong bathroom?" he said.
"I'm so sorry! The girls bathroom is being cleaned!"
I just about died! Oh, and in case anyone was wondering *coughHectorcough* he was not still using the urinal while he was talking to me. Anyway, he left and I went to the bathroom and came out and was filling up my water bottle at the drinking fountain when he walked by me and said, "They just had to be cleaning the girls bathroom at the wrong time."
"Yeah."
And that was that. It was so awkward. If it was any of the guys from my class I wouldn't have cared, but I just guess it was cause he was older or he was Frank or something. Seriously though, what kind of girls bathroom only has one stall??

listening to: Iron & Wine--The Shepard's Dog

The Calm after Midterms

The first layer of my newest project, Yellow Mountain, China. Its 5' x 2'. I painted the background butter yellow with a mixture of gesso and ink and then, in a technique that my lovely studio mate Christine invented, thinned some oil paint down with turpentine until it had the consistency of milk and squirted it on the canvas on the floor with a turkey baster. I then blotted it with some brown paper, waited for it to be almost dry, and turned it on the side so parts of it dripped down a nd created highlights. I won't be working this way the whole time, just initially to get my shapes. Its a piece about my perceptions of China, a piece about romanticization through distance, a piece about stereotypes and my inability to truly understand the culture of a foreign place. Hell, I barely understand American culture sometimes. Anyway, I have this whole thing I wrote about my idea that goes pretty in depth, but I left it at the studio so I'll do that with the next layer post.

I had my conference on my short story (My God) today. The good news is that my prof thinks I've got a really good start and that my use of language is really working. I just need to make things clear about the character and such that weren't before, which I can do through more interaction with her parents and school mates. I'm actually really excited about this story. It's definitely the best thing I've ever written. My prof is really helpful and understanding, too. The class got off to a shaky start, but I'm really enjoying it now. We watched a movie based on a short story the other day--Away From Her which is based on The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro. It was really amazing. It was about this couple dealing with the woman's Alzheimer's and how they ended up putting her in a home and she all but forgot her husband and fell in love with another resident. It was so unsentimental and cutting but beautiful at the same time. I highly recommend it and the short story.

I've started on a tea cozy because it's getting ruddy cold now and I want tea every minute of every day. I'm knitting it like a hat only I've added an extra 24 stitches so it'll fit a bit better around the pot.


Listening to: Band of Horses--Everything All the Time

Good News!

So it appears that Stephen Colbert is running for president. He appeared first on The Daily Show to announce his intention to announce, and then later announced on his own show.





Since I'm not really attached to any of the candidates at the moment and Mr. Stephen Colbert is one of my favorite people, I would have to say he defiantly has my vote.

Hmm. A New Direction?

Okay. So crit didn't exactly go as I'd hoped or planned. I was told some (very little) helpful things and then a lot of things that made no sense. One guy complained that my narrative was hard to follow even though the first bit (the bit I expected him to follow; the 2nd bit is hardly a narrative yet) is simply exposition and fairly clear. He mixed up which character had the baby (if it was the main character, Waverly, or her mother) even though I clearly wrote that it was the mother who had the baby. It was overall just really frustrating because we only had 15 minutes and the graphic novel, even at only 16 pages so far, is a fairly complex thing to look at. And then there was the complaint the style was very different than the normal graphic novel, which I had actually thought was one of its strengths. Not everyone agreed on this, but ultimately because of the way the crit happened I felt a bit like I was being attacked and that nothing I had done was working or was right and that it never would be right because I'm just not capable. It's a horrible horrible feeling to have, especially after you've worked so hard on something. I think there were some legitimate comments but we didn't even end up getting into the content of the work and it was just overwhelming. So what did I learn? Not to put a graphic novel in a crit. It's too complicated. I think I need to step back, start a whole new project, and not even ink another page until I have the storyboard for the whole thing drawn out. Right now I just kind of feel like crap.

Anyway, I have another project in the works. I'm going to start a more abstract painting series where I take this technique that Christine invented where you thin down the paint and and just plop it onto the canvas in drops and then do all these layers . . . anyway, when I start I'll upload photos of the process because its a bit hard to explain to non oil painters. The process creates these odd landscapes and my idea was to take a place I've never seen like Yellow Mountain in China (my brother was just there) and paint an abstract landscape based on what I think it looks like because of the name. So no one send me pictures of Yellow Mountain!! I'm doing this because it will be more relaxing and fun and it will allow me to explore and it's really what I need right now after this morning.

I have to be at class by 8:00 am on Friday. We've had to be in an hour early for a 9-11:40 am class all week. I hate crit week.

I'm Over It. And Also? Three More Pages!!

Who is that whiny bitch from before? I'm so over it. What was I going to do with another art degree, anyway? You don't need a degree to write a novel, just skill and creativity. Now I won't have to write a bunch of academic essays for all the extra english classes I was going to have to take.

In other news, more pages. I'm getting faster, I think. 15 down, only like, 90 more or so to g o. Anyway, here is 13. Mother is buying a dress.


Aww. Look at the baby. I think the snot bubble will become a running gag.

Annnnnd *drumroll* . . . my first word bubbles! I debated for a really long time how to do these, and I ended up deciding that they should be done by hand and written by hand. I think it was a really good choice. Doing it on the computer would have looked to perfect and out of place.

I should have another page done by Wednesday because thats when I have midterm critique. In the meantime, enjoy Mother's cleavage.

*Sigh*

Well, I guess I'm not going to get a double degree after all. I talked to an advisor and he said that only my UIUC gpa has to be 3.25, not my UIUC gpa + my Kish gpa. So instead of getting a 3.30 by the end of this semester like I thought I would, I would have a 3.00 or something because I got a stupid D in physics and a C in another class and stuff. In order to have a double degree you have to have been in the other college (my case, Liberal Arts & Sciences) for at least two semesters and you've got have a 3.25 in order to apply at all. I could get a 3.25 by the time I graduated, but by then it would be too late. He said he would make sure that I could take the classes and stuff, it's just really disappointing because I've worked so hard and I took three classes this summer to make sure that I could get a double degree and still get out in four years. I mean, I guess this takes a lot of pressure off, but . . . yeah, it just sucks.

I guess I'll just take the writing classes and try to improve myself and focus on my artwork.

Fuuuuuuuck (A Rant)

Okay, so yes, I can still graduate in 2009 with a double major of Painting and Creative Writing. It is technically possible. However, I'm not so sure it's going to be fun anymore. In order to graduate I need to take at least 16 hours each semester for my remaining three semesters. However, having three hour long studio classes twice a week can really muck things up. I have to take 13 (I have no idea why it's not 12) more hours of outside studio (i.e. not required for my painting degree). When you take a studio, it has to be a studio you like or else you're not going to want to do the huge amount of outside work required and you're not going to get a good grade. As someone who wants to leave college with at least a 3.5 (grad school ain't cheap) this is hard because the one studio I really wanted to take--Book Arts 1&2--is taught by a professor who is not only leaving after next semester, but isn't even teaching book arts next semester. I've tried for 2 1/2 years to get into that stupid class but it was always filled up by I was able to add classes. So that leaves sculpture (sculpture 1 is about making shit with cardboard. I don't want to make shit with cardboard), photography (no way), ceramics (yes, but it's way off campus so it has to wait until i get a car), and printmaking (already did, last semester).

Anyway, the reason I'm bitching and moaning is that there is a painting techniques class next semester taught by Ros that I would like to take. Problem? Both M/W/F Intermediate Studio (always 9-11:40) and that class (M/W 1-3:40) intercept with the three possible sections of my Intermediate Narrative Writing class, which I need to take in order to take Advanced Narrative Writing, and finally Creative Writing Tutorial. Also? I need to take english classes as well as art history but the english classes I want to take all intercept with the art history I want to take. It's so frustrating because bio majors would never have this problem because there's like 20 sections of every class they take. I just don't know what to do. Am I really going to have to take classes with subjects I'm not really interested in just because the others are at a bad time? I've paid my dues! I don't want to do that anymore!

It's still early. It's still possible they'll add more sections. They better.

listening to: Rilo Kiley--Under the Blacklight