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    Buried in art supplies


    2010 - 08.16

    Posted in Art, Crafting, Socializing | No Comments »

    It was decided that this week I would host Art it Out night, a weekly gathering of my friends where we dedicate the evening to art and girly chatting. It’s delightful. I was absolutely thrilled for this…except when I remembered the state of my studio (or what is really just the south end of the basement at my aunt’s house where I live). I started cleaning off the tables that were covered with huge pads of paper, canvas boards, unfinished paintings, collaging supplies, sketchbooks, watercolor paints, feathers, yarn, pencils, pens, fleece, catnip, crochet hooks…and all other manner of creative things conveniently forgotten and tucked away in the basement… I’ve made the startling realization that I could hermit away in my studio for well over a month and barely put a dent in all the art supplies I have…

    Projects started but never finished, books purchased but barely read, supplies bought on a whim because I want to try everything… Coming from a family of pack-rats, artist and overachievers, I’m doomed to drown in art supplies! It’s overwhelming…

    Cleaning makes me want to start working on something…anything…Josh’s painting, another ATC, crocheting, more catnip toys…the mannequin…oh my poor neglected mannequin, will you ever forgive me as you lay in pieces throughout my studio? o.O *sigh* but I should continue cleaning…maybe this happy little realization will be another reminder that I don’t spend enough time down here…

    I may need to reinstate my art day… Just claim every Thursday for myself to work on projects… mark myself as busy and stick to it… It’s like someone carving out time in their schedule for working out (which is another thing I need to do >.<)

    Too much to do…not enough time in the day… back to work…

    Graduation Come and Gone


    2010 - 05.16

    Tags: , , , ,
    Posted in Art, MCAD, Socializing | No Comments »

    The ceremony was lovely yesterday. It was exciting to see so much talent walk across the stage to receive the recognition that they’ve worked so hard for. The student speakers did a fabulous job of delivering words of wisdom that didn’t sound too cliche.

    The guest speaker was Stephen Lundin, author of “Fish”, “Cats” and “Ubuntu”. I just looked him up and it turns out he actually went to the same High School as I did…not that that really means a whole lot, but it’s kinda cool all the same. My favorite quote that I was able to remember long enough to get a whole of pen and paper was, “Life is too precious to just be passing through.” It struck me because I’ve found myself getting swept up in the motions of life, getting overwhelmed by the to do list, the planning, all the things I say I have to do. He said something to the effect of when you see your life planned out on paper, it’s no longer your life, it’s someone else’s expectations. Because not only can you not really plan your life, but your expectations of yourself change over time. You can’t turn down possibilities just because they aren’t part of your plan. He also said that when you start to feel the edge of change, don’t resist it because change will come no matter what. But if you move with it and work with it, you’ll have the advantage over the ones that resisted the change.

    So my BS: Viz degree is officially completed, soon I will have my piece of paper that says I know stuff. I don’t feel terribly different or considerably more valuable but it does feel pretty awesome to have achieved a huge goal in my life. I’ve been looking back on my college career, wishing I had done more with it, pushed myself harder, focused less on relationships that ended up failing anyway, and gotten more involved with campus activities…but I can’t change what I did. I’m the person I am today because of what I did (and didn’t do) and that will guide what I chose to do in the future, what I place value in.

    So, congratulations MCAD class of 2010!



    Jerry Allen and I

    Jerry Allen, Myself and Abbi Allen

    These two changed my life

    The Facebook Revelation


    2010 - 05.15

    Tags: , , , , ,
    Posted in Journal, Media, Networking, Socializing, Tech | 4 Comments »

    Okay, I remembered what it was that I forgot during yesterday’s post. Kinda glad I momentarily forgot it because it deserves it’s own post. I need to get better about separating what I write about and try and stick with themes so my posts don’t turn into tangled messes like it was yesterday.

    Anyway…

    For the month of May I’ve banned myself from Facebook. Taken it off my phone, off my bookmark tab, cut it out of my internet routine entirely. Big whoop-di-doo right? Yeah I know, sounds super silly.

    My problem with Facebook is that I’m a very compulsive person and Facebook presents all this seemingly important information on the people I know, events going on in my area that it thinks I should care about and gives me an opportunity to broadcast my mental goings on. It’s a very dangerous time sink for me. The thought will cross my mind, “hmmm…I wonder what’s going on in facebook-land?” and I’ll check. Of course, 9.8 times out of 10, it’s clutter, something I didn’t need to know or don’t care about. Sometimes there will be an interesting TEDTalk posted, or a friend invites me to an event I’m interested in, or an update really catches my attention. But usually it’s just mental clutter, extraneous information that I’d be better without.

    Furthermore, my compulsion was turning into an OCD. Five minutes would go by and I’d wonder “Hmm…I wonder what’s going on in facebook-land?” Guess what…nothing new! But I’d check anyway, multiple times a day, just because I could. My new phone didn’t help either. Running Android and rocking all the applications that go with it ment I had easy access to unlimited distractions right in my pocket. I was taking pictures and uploading them from my phone, updating on the go and reading people’s statuses anywhere I had signal. Although I’m making a bigger deal out of it here than it probably was, but my compulsions were starting to bother me.

    So when my friend Alex challenged his friends to give up Facebook for the month of May, I took him up on it. So far, I can say that I haven’t missed much. The people that matter to me know my number so we’ve kept in touch as much as we needed that way. I’ve had time with fewer distractions to do more things that do matter to me, like planning my trip, getting ready for graduation, taking dance classes and getting back into the studio (after I cleaned it, go me!). My productive time has felt less segmented and my attention span has improved. yes the impulse to check is still there, but it’s going away. The extra information that I didn’t realize I didn’t actually care about isn’t getting in the way of things I do care about. It’s kinda spiffy.

    So while none of this is probably new to anyone else, it’s interesting to me. Some people use Facebook religiously, some people can’t imagine life without Facebook even though a few short years ago (which is like dog years in technology) we didn’t have Facebook, it wasn’t a mass marketing tool and we weren’t delusional enough to think that what we had for breakfast is really all that interesting to the 200+ people we call “Friends”.

    They say it takes 3 weeks to form a habit, I wonder how long it takes to break oneself of one like this. Come June I’m hoping that I’ll be broken of this obsessive curiosity and stick to this limited intake of social information. I’m also hoping that my social calendar gets a little more under control and I make more time for myself. We’ll see.

    Scratchboard: The Peacock


    2010 - 05.05

    Tags: , , ,
    Posted in Art, Blogging, MCAD, Socializing | No Comments »

    Okay, I’m going to be a little lazy and just copy paste a post I wrote for another blog detailing this latest project that I finished. But to Preface it I’ll explain what it’s for. A few weeks ago my friends Mike and Megan decided that we missed art classes so we started meeting at a cafe in St. Paul once a week to devote an evening to doodle, sketch, experiment and get the creative juices flowing a bit. The first night we challenged each other to do something we don’t usually do. I was told to do a landscape with pastels, Mike was told to do a landscape with inks (red, teal and black only) and Megan got to do a self portrait with charcoal. Thus, the assignments were born, we immediately began writing down as many ideas as we could think of, themes, mediums, locations, subjects, anything that could be mixed and matched as we saw fit. We had a great time and came up with assignments that could last us well through the summer. This endeavor also got a name, we’re calling it Art Pandemonium. Last week we created a wordpress blog in order to keep track of our work and our thoughts on it. This post is about our second assignment, I’m hoping to scan and write about the first assignment tonight or tomorrow. But for now… here’s the scratchboard assignment:

    Two weeks ago we chose scratchboard as our assignment and I think we were all a little nervous yet still excited to try a medium that was rumored to be completely unforgiving. I was inspired by a woman that works at The Wildcat Sanctuary where I volunteer every other saturday. Trista Campbell is a very talented artist and an incredibly wonderful woman, she works tirelessly for the cats at the sanctuary!

    Lately I’ve been thinking about peacocks a lot, partially because of a performance that I have coming up that I might end up incorporating their feathers into my costume. While bumming around flickr, looking for ideas. I came across this image by dee_r and instantly knew it was perfect.

    My process involved changing the image to black and white and making sure the levels were just right on photoshop, gridding off the image and creating a sketch on regular paper, tracing the image and then finally using transfer paper to get the image onto the scratchboard. Then the real work began…scratchboard is definitely a labor of love, but it felt like a medium that was well suited to my line quality (read: “I can’t draw a straight line to save my life!”).

    I learned a lot about  line work, cross-hatching and how to treat foreground, middleground and background with this assignment. I think next time I do scratchboard I will be using a picture of my cat Midnight Moon and do a portrait of him. He is the Prince of Darkness after all and deserves his own personal portrait artist to catch him an all his glory…or at least he thinks so…

    The PeacockFor my first scratchboard, I’m exceedingly happy with the results. I owe it all to wonderful inspiration and a very talented photographer.

    Midnight Retros at Willow Creek, Plymouth


    2010 - 04.22

    Posted in Baking, Media, Socializing | No Comments »

    Hey kids! I wanted to quickly get the word out there for this week’s Midnight Retros at Willow Creek Theater in Plymouth. Show times are Friday at Midnight, Saturday at 10:30am and Midnight and one more on Sunday at 10:30am. Recent shows have included Beetlejuice, Batman, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club, Princess Bride and all kinds of other amazingness. This week…get ready for this…*drumroll* Indiana Jones and the Temple of DOOM! <–Facebook event link

    And next week…even better, Jaws… I’ve never seen Jaws, so the fact that the first time I get to see it will be on the big screen is super super exciting. Also coming up is Breakfast Club and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fact, stay posted on everything Retro here.

    But more to the point… the main reason why I’m posting this is to try and get the word out because Retro Movies at Willow Creek are in danger of being canceled because the attendance just isn’t what the owners of the theater want it to be. I stumbled onto Retros one night while looking up show times for Shutter Island (which was a disappointment in my book) and when I looked at Willow Creek I saw a showtime for Fight Club. My heart skipped a beat and I thought I was seeing things…I love that movie! so I got to see it on the big screen and learned about the fact that Willow Creek was having these Retros every week. I went to more shows and eventually learned that they were on the cutting board if attendance didn’t improve. So I’m trying to do what I can to get the word out and encourage people to check it out (even making cookies for everyone when I’m able to, I’m weird I know…). I have to say that it’s far better than the Uptown theater midnight retros and isn’t getting the attention it deserves. The theater is more comfortable, parking is less of a nightmare, tickets are cheap (honestly, you can’t beat $6.50 for movies these days. The Uptown theater even charges $10 for the same thing…) and the employees are super cool and friendly. I could go on, I love what Mr. Retro is doing and I really hope that the movies don’t go away. I only wish I knew about it sooner so I could get more people involved. This could be too little too late…but it’s worth a shot.

    I don’t know if blogging about it will help at all…but it’s just one more thing I can try to do.

    As Mr. Retro himself would say… “Save the Retros!”

    Long overdue update, Job, Travel and Zoos


    2010 - 04.10

    Tags: , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Art, Design, Internship, MCAD, Socializing, Volunteering | No Comments »

    So, as I’m sure you have noticed, I’m not a very consistant blogger. I get so darn caught up in the activities that I’m doing that I forget to write about them…I think I have a lot to talk about…like a lot a lot…Tons of great things have been happening and I can’t remember what I’ve written and what I haven’t.

    I may have mentioned this once before, but in case I haven’t I should say that I found out a few weeks ago that my bosses at the company that I’ve been doing my externship at for the past few months have decided they want to bring me on full time after graduation. At EatonGolden, I’ve been learning more about Information Architecture and Usability for websites. It’s been really exciting being fully immersed in the projects and I’ve had fun getting to work with real clients with truly talented professionals. I was so lucky to have John as a professor at MCAD where he could preview my work ethic and personality. When he knew I was looking for an externship we both felt I would be a good fit for EatonGolden. I love having a job that motivates me to work harder, learn more and improve my skills constantly. Plus everyone there seems to like me…always a plus! My official start date should be sometime early June. I’m still working as an intern until I graduate, but it certainly feels good to know that I won’t have to worry about the whole job hunt thing after school…

    Speaking of graduation…hard to believe it’s almost here…I’ve spent roughly 75% of my life in school…Now it’s time for the “real world”. Luckily the transition will be super smooth since I’ve been working full time for 4 months and not taking classes anyway… but still…weird. Although I’ll never stop learning and pushing myself to try new things, it will feel strange not being in a formal education system anymore… but the lasting impression of student debt will no doubt keep me company for years to come…

    More exciting news…after graduation I’m going to spend 11 days in Guatemala with a group of fellow MCAD students. We will be working with the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy to paint a mural and do some community outreach work with the students. I can’t wait! It will be so nice to get out of the country for a bit and do something good for other people. I was so happy when my bosses at EG encouraged me to take some time off for travel after commencement because that was one of my main concerns about going on the trip. I didn’t want that to be a hinderance to my hiring potential at all. (I seriously can’t count all the ways that I love my job, but the primary thing is the people I work with).

    In other news, went to the MN Zoo, compliments of MCAD this afternoon. Took TONS of pictures, hopefully some of it will inspire art soon. The sea dragons were particularly awesome and beautiful, so was the Amur Leopard (I was amazed to learn that there are only about 30 Amur leopards in the wild!!! holy crap! that’s ridiculous!!! and I thought I was amazed by there being only about 4,000 tigers in the wild…). If you want to see all of the pictures I took, I’ve posted them on facebook and you can see them here and here. But here’s a preview…

    Be expecting more art from me in the future, I just dropped entirely too much money on new art supplies to play with and I can’t wait to test them out more. I have that mural for my friend to make some more progress on, the mannequin is getting lonely, these new zoo photos to play with and I’ve been making feather fascinators like crazy. I should post those soon, they’re super awesome.

    For now, I’m going to wrap this up so I can get ready to go to Balls Cabaret at Midnight. Good times!

    Dr. Sketchy’s 3-28-2010


    2010 - 03.28

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in Art, Socializing | No Comments »

    Warning…gallery contains content that may be unsuitable for young children or close minded adults… that said, if you can’t handle nudity you probably should ignore this post.

    Every month, the 331 Club and the lovely Ophelia Flame of Lily’s Burlesque Review hosts Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. They have dancers of various fame and infamy model for artist who are bored with standard figure drawing. Drinking, Drawing and Dancing occur for all who attend, there are contests for the best art (decided on audience cheers and gauged by Dick the bartender’s cheer-o-meter).

    Today was a very special session. Being the 5 year anniversary of the 331 club, we celebrated in style and sequins. 5 dancers graced us with their presence and acted as our muses. The following gallery is the result, my 5 favorites. I have to say that switching between so many models was a little mind boggling. You get used to one and then she’s switched with a new one right away. But it was fabulous fun anyway. I’m mostly happy with what I did. My personal favorites are Ms. Tomahawk Tassels and the lovely Coco Dupree.

    My Sunday was well spent in the company of my good friends Christine and Mike, drawing the afternoon away and sharing laughs over good drinks. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

    Mannequin Progress and other Adventures


    2010 - 03.07

    Tags: , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Art, Design, Socializing | 1 Comment »

    Sorry for the blur...they're just too fast!

    Went to my first Roller Derby last night at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium with Mike. I thought it was crazy awesome and can’t wait for the next bout. The seats might have been less than awesome but we definitely got a birds eye view of the action. Next time it might be nice to have ringside seats to see if any derby girls fall in our laps (but they say that we can’t take them home with us if they do…darn) Knowing very little about Derby before coming I was really excited to figure out the rules and see how it all works. I also didn’t know who to cheer for so I randomly chose the Garda Belts (based on their intro that featured bag pipers) and the Dagger Dolls (based on the fact that some of them were wearing tutus). Sadly they both got trounced by the Atomic Bombshells and the Rockits (respectively) but that’s okay…they played really well… The game was all sold out so I was really glad Mike got tickets earlier this week. Super Win.

    Base coats are pretty much all done!

    Started to paint the Constellations into the torso

    Left (Silver) will be a mechanical arm for the concept of technology, Right (Black) will be splatter painted for the concept of Art

    Just in case you thought I was slacking off on the mannequin I thought I’d update with some pictures so you knew that wasn’t the case. It’s been a little dull because I was determined to get the base coats done on all of the limbs so that I could paint on them simultaneously and make sure things came together alright. Have a little bit of touching up to do but I’m pretty much at the point where things will get interesting! yay!

    In addition to the Mannequin project, I’ve taken on a collaboration project with my graphic designer friend who wanted a series of paintings for his newly painted office. He designed the layout and the subject matter, I’m going to paint it…should be interesting…especially with the crazy tree he decided to throw at me…jerk… Just started griding off the canvases based on the photoshop file he sent me last night and can’t wait to get started! :D Cause you know…I need a new project like I need a hole in my head… oh well…it should keep me out of trouble. :p

    ahh, blank white canvases...time to change that...

    Good times…very good times…

    The New Year: Some Goals for 2010


    2010 - 01.01

    Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Art, Blogging, Journal, Networking, Socializing | 1 Comment »

    I hate the idea of making New Years Resolutions. The stat that I found said that 78% of people who make New Years Resolutions fail to follow through with them. The quarter that do, use tools like journaling their progress, asking their friends for support, rewarding milestones and focusing on all the benefits of achieving their goals. (Resource Link)

    But regardless, the idea of making goals for the upcoming year is very appealing. A new year feels like a fresh start, the chance to make changes for the betterment of your life.

    With that in mind, I have made goals for this year. And I’m asking any readers I have out there for help and support. Comments, ideas, recommendations and whatever else you feel like offering, heck, just showing me numbers on Google Analytics is enough to make me happy. :p

    The First goal is to start doing a drawing a day. A concept made known to me by a lovely blogger named Daisy. I attempted this last year and made it about 30 days in before I let life get the better of me. I’m hoping that by making it slightly more official, making daily updates here and getting feedback from readers, I will start making art more a part of my daily life. Currently, I’m working on covering up a journal I wrote in a year or so ago, some therapy for covering up past demons. The journal itself is beautiful with a deep dark blue slip cover and heavy cold-pressed watercolor paper. It was a joy to write in but now I think I can make something more beautiful out of it.

    See! Darn Purdy!

    Some Extra Credit, pages I did about a month ago:

    This is the one I did today:

    The Second goal is to follow the concepts in the book I’m reading at the moment called “The Four Agreements” by don Miguel Ruiz (full book review to come when I finish it). I think Ruiz makes very valid points in this book, providing ways to destress and improve your own life, creating your own heaven. The four agreements you choose to make with yourself are:

    1. Be impeccable with your word
    2. Don’t take anything personally
    3. Don’t make assumptions
    4. Always do your best

    Sounds so simple when it’s just those four ideas written on paper but already today I have felt myself stress out about things I took personally and I made assumptions that put someone in a negative light (I asked for clarity and my assumption was wrong, I felt silly, but was really glad I made the effort to get clarification.) If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it.

    Third big goal is to reconnect, get together with friends more often and build stronger friendships based on trust and good experiences. I lost touch with a lot of people over the course of the years I’ve been in college and it’s proven to be a great disservice to me.

    And last but not least, the Fourth goal is to really start working on my career. I start my new job on Monday and it’s going to be amazing. The doors that it will open and the experience I will gain will be limitless. It’s time to put all that hard work done at MCAD to work and start building on it.

    Life is good… very good. I’m blessed with a close family that’s helped me through a lot of hard times and a core group of friends that has stuck by me, I also met some amazing people last year that have welcomed me into their lives with so much joy. 2009 was a really hard year that taught me a lot about myself. I am determined to grow more this year and learn more about what I’m capable of achieving.

    Happy New Year everyone! May 2010 bring you great happiness and success in all your endeavors!

    The Monster inside us all


    2009 - 11.29

    Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Art, Journal, MCAD, Networking, Socializing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

    Just finished Season 2 of Dexter this evening. I know I’m a little behind the times and just trying to catch up with this amazing show. But wow, what a ride. If you haven’t seen this show, get on Netflix and watch it all…right now. I’m actually a little grateful that the 3rd season isn’t on play instantly because if it was I’d start it and not get anything done… This way I have to wait until I get the next disk. For those who haven’t seen it, I’m not going to spoil anything, suffice to say that the characters in this show are amazing, the plot is intense and the show never stops giving you little twists along the way.

    Plus, it makes you think about the monsters inside all of us. Sure, not everyone is a serial killer in their free time, but we all make mistakes, do bad things, hurt people we love and keep secrets when we are afraid to face the truth. It’s interesting to think about how there’s a good and bad side to everyone. I have personally been facing a lot of my monsters lately and it certainly isn’t a pretty thing. Ultimately, I’m working on being more honest with myself and the people I care about, learning how to trust again and remembering the value of owning up to mistakes and seeking forgiveness in due time. With any luck, the new visual journal I’ve started will help with this process while also easing me back into the habit of making art.

    I’ve just realized that there are two weeks of classes left. Two more weeks to wrap up projects before I’m off to work on my own. Time to prep for my new job, get back into old hobbies, earn some extra money and spend time with people I’ve been neglecting. I’ve gotten so wrapped up in my own issues lately that I forgot the people that were most important to me.

    Time for bed, just wanted to reflect on some thoughts swimming through my head. Goodnight everyone

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