Title Goes Here

2009-02-02T16:11:00.002-05:00

So I was away for 8 days on a trip to Italy. It was amazing. I will post more on it later once I get a card reader for my camera and have a chance to go through everything. But until then you can have this tasty little morsel from my other camera. It's the Pope, petting a baby lion...held by a juggler. Papal audience? More like Papal Circus...

2009-01-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

In regards to everything that happened all of yesterday I only have one comment:

For the love of God will someone please make Sting shave that damn growth off his face

It's not really the beard so much as the fact that it is gigantic and is growing down his neck. Sting, with a neck beard. I never thought I'd see the day.

And since we're on the topic of musicians who should shave I'd just like to put it out there that Nick Cave really needs to get rid of that mustache.

2009-01-15T15:35:00.001-05:00

Aaaaah I have no art for you right now. I'm too busy apply to grad schools/ looking for a temporary job/ getting ready to visit the pope.

More later.

Oh, this is my new favorite website.......................

no, really.

2008-12-31T15:19:00.005-05:00

Plowing through graduate school applications. Unfortunately it's snowing too hard here to get anywhere for any sort of New Years festivities.

Oh well.

Also, Terry Pratchett is now going to be SIR Terry Pratchett and he deserves it 1000%. I've got Nation for Christmas and have only about 50 pages left, it's so good. It's kind of nice to hear someone else asking the same questions I have had since I was...like...9.

Oh, and in other news that is nowhere near as interesting, Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol gives birth to a child with an equally stupid name.

Ok, last edit I promise but I found this video of a very young and confused looking Nick Cave and it made me laugh so damn hard.

God, I love Nick Cave.

That is all.

2008-12-13T08:49:00.003-05:00

Get ready for a stupid-lame music post.

Apparently I was completely out of the loop last month. Not just out of the loop, but probably across the room from the loop and looking the wrong direction.

I completely missed that Manic Street Preachers lost writer and guitarist was finally pronounced 'presumed dead' at the end of last month. After almost 14 years. Which is a shame, because his work was really incredible brilliant.

Motown Junk is one of my top favorite songs.

Also, I just got the little Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! book a couple of months ago that was about Tim Noble and Sue Webster who are two artists that I love to death. The book is hysterical and I am so insanely jealous of them meeting Nick Cave. My favorite part:

"Tim Noble: The President of Iceland and his wife are pretty good though, weren't they? They're totally open.

Nick Cave: He seems like a really good guy...and Dorrit was sweet...

Tim Noble: Yeah...

Nick Cave: I think she thought I was Nicholas Cage"

That freakin' cracks me up.

Also, saw the new music video for More News From Nowhere:

I know this ones pretty old too but watched Tom Waits press conference for his Glitter and Doom tour and was pretty amused:

And finally, saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Thursday and was blown the hell away. It's been two years since I've seen them in concert and damn has the budget gone up. Just when you think they couldn't possibly cram in more lights/fireworks/fire/smoke/lazers they do. Amazing as always. Also they had Johhny Lee Middleton which, if I'm not mistaken, usually does the West Coast tour. Also I damn near peed myself when they played this lovely Savatage tune and dedicated it to Criss Oliva:

I think that's it...

Oh and this painting of Saint Patrick holding a beer. Yeah, BOSTON!

2008-12-10T00:00:00.004-05:00

So...5 days ago I finished college. Suspiciously enough the world did not, in fact, end. So far I've mostly been trying to A. complete some screenprinting transparencies to burn and print before they close the shop and I have to leave forever (though I figure I can get in for at least another semester) B. scan, edit and pick images for my portfolio for grad schools and C. pick grad schools. Also go to the gym.

I know I'm done but I don't feel done. Like maybe there is a hidden test somewhere.

Well, it's been interesting but I think this blog might be reaching it's end.

Loki (c)2008 Oil on board

2008-11-23T16:30:00.005-05:00

So here's a neat trick. Just finished a diptych of a portrait of me and my brother, complete with frame/box. Originally I had them like this:

I brought it in to class for our final review of our work. I was happy with it but it didn't feel like a pair. The teacher suggested I flip the positioning of the image (I didn't want them facing each other before because I thought it would be cheesey/dumb). So I did...and viola:

Completely different image. It kind of blew my mind how much different is, now it's pretty much the psychological double-portrait I wanted. The expressions, light and everything works so much better.

Diptych 21"x15" (including frame, which is not shown)

2008-11-17T11:11:00.005-05:00

So I'm beginning to realize this is just looking like a repeat of my deviantart gallery but with more words...
Case in point:

Yeah.

With my upcoming end of school I'm realizing this blog is over because it was meant to track the progress of art through college. So I might stat a new one but maybe not because no one reads this shit but me anyway and it would probably be easier to keep a non-internet journal.

We'll see.

Wonder how long that'll stay up until youtube remove the video.

St. Guinefort Prayer Card 2.5"x3.5" Screen Printed on Bristol Board

2008-11-09T23:23:00.002-05:00

Crucified Orpheus-Bacchus! Wild stuff right here. Haven't updated in a while, updating now. School's been okay. I love my art classes and am going to be really bummed when I can't take them anymore (what with graduating...just thinking that word makes me panic).

I like screen printing, it goes well with painting. I need to come up with some amazing us of glitter for flocking though, I think it would be awesome to have all these different colors of glitter for shading and stuff...a whole print of just glitter. Glitter is amazing but annoying as hell. Some spilled in my bag this week so glitter is now stuck to everything. I dunno what else to write. OH! I like this site, there are some cool things in it.
That's all.

Crucified Bacchus-Orpheus (c)2008

2008-10-16T23:34:00.004-04:00

Dog.

I like this song.

Untitlled (c)2008

2008-09-06T22:42:00.002-04:00

4 months left of school. Only for months to polish and create a body of work to be proud of. 4 months and I need to find a real direction in my life.

2008-06-21T00:04:00.004-04:00

Okay, so, I know this is totally, totally, totally, random and counter-productive to everything else I'm doing but it's been stuck in my head for days:Oh man, this cracks me up so bad for some reason. The guy on the left is Euchrid from Nick Cave's book And the Ass Saw the Angel which I just finished and was amazing by the way. The dog is Cerberus from the movie Man About Dog, which is an Irish movie about dog racing and is one of my favorites. So it's a combo of the two sort of...yeah. Ahahaha. Euchrid isn't saying the words though because he's dumb and is instead thinking them.

Seriously, I don't know why I find this so funny.

2008-06-09T21:36:00.003-04:00

Even MORE half-assed crap. I would show you my mostly finished Cuchulain print but it's not finished...and is in another state.

I have moved to New York with relative ease and I must say it is very surprising that only a little over a week ago I was backing away most of my stuff (again).

I am going to miss my Roxbury apartment so damn much, I really am sad that I will never go back there. I will miss my roomate, my neighbors Patrick and Tony, the awesome and sweet Fransicans living down the street, the crazy guys at the market store, the laundromat, the adorable triple deckers...I'm going to make myself sad if I keep going.

Although I love New York. Astoria is very cute. Super-ethnic etc. Here is a list to highlight what I like best:

the subway, which is cleaner, wider, runs more places and is timelier than Boston's. Did I mention it runs all of the time instead of just till 12?
the streets, which make sense because the are gridded and labeled in a logical way
the fact that you can buy beer just about anywhere (pharmacy, grocery store, liquor store, tiny whatever store...)
the weather, which is warmer (I like it to be 100 degrees out)

I would say the people are friendlier as a plus but that also means the men are...more piggish and that gets really old really quick.

Not to be hating on Boston or anything but...being here just puts into perspective how small, prudish and quiet Boston is in comparison to New York.

So, yeah, I am so far liking it better. But also, I never had much free time in Boston to hang out and explore like I do here so I might be missing some experiences (also, the ever present ticking clock of the train keeps your from having fun late

Wow, I haven't even talked about my internship at Marvel yet...next post, then.

Unfinished Sketch Photoshop 6 (c) 2008

2008-05-23T23:24:00.003-04:00

I tried uploading this like three times before I realized I was trying to upload the tif version and not the jpeg. Duh. Also, I'm too lazy right now to scan in any big new shiny art so you get this craptastic 2 am doodle from the other night...morning.

So the roomate is gone and the search is on for subletters. Still. I'll lower the rent soon and hope that works. The apartment is certainly losing it's charm, though, after discovering a very dead and smelly mouse in the 'storage' room while cleaning in there. Good thing I found it when I did...ew.

I've never been a huge Weezer fan but this is just awesome. So many memes, so much cool. Also, to all the /b/tards baaawing out there over their poor pilfered internets: they're no your memes; they're everyones.

2008-05-07T00:10:00.004-04:00

MY PAPERS ARE DONE. I AM FREEEEE. At least until the weekend...and then I work. But after that?? I plan on spending the whole week doing whatever I want to do. Like...sleeping...and making art. Really miss those things. Maybe baking too.

This semester was very hard and I am overjoyed to be rid of it. GOODBYE TUFTS.

Then...in a few weeks...off to New York City for my summer internship. And then back for my final semester at SMFA. I'm kind of terrified. What I will do with my life I have no idea. But, like with so many other things, I will wing it when I get there.

2008-04-25T01:00:00.001-04:00

This is one of the major reasons I will miss my neighborhood when I move out next year. I am knee-deep in love with the contrast of all these quaint triple-decker houses painted brilliant colors (or sometimes not) amongst the chaos of college life and the urban decay in general. I really don't like using that term, urban decay. Makes me sound like an artsy snob.And Now!

Adventures in Cooking:
I got it in me yesterday that what I really needed was some Wife Cakes, or Lao Por Bing, and that I didn't need to buy them, I needed to make them.

So, after class, I took a trip to Chinatown and bought my ingredients...or what I could find. Only problem? Couldn't find any candied winter melon in the store (most likely due to the fact that I could read none of the labels) but instead found a giant hunk of fresh winter melon. I bought that instead. And, of course, I bought other things too. I love that grocery store in Chinatown.

That there is the wintermelon all cut up. Once I got home...I needed a recipe. And for that I must thank this other blogger for providing it. Though next time I may use this recipe, which I didn't before because I did not think I could get the Golden Syrup from my grocery store (I could...I saw it when I was there for the other baking supplies)

So...first I needed to candy that wintermelonLook at that lovely, lovely mess. First I was candying the melon, then roasted the sesame seeds and finally making the dough (which needed to sit in the fridge)

I think I should point out that I had never candied anything in my life up until this point, but am not unfamiliar with the fickle ways of incredibly hot sugars. I am now the proud owner of the leftover material of this foray in candying - a half honey half sugar mixture that is cemented into a bottle...

So then I had to make the filling

I can't help but notice...it doesn't look like the filling in that other blogs photos.
I was a little concerned, because the rice flour I had bought was not imported from China but rather was a Goya product for Mexican/Spanish cooking. I was hoping it was the same difference.

But I was too far at this point to not make it so I got my dough out and started rolling all fancy like...

With a beer bottle. Because I am nothing if not CLASSY

Then put them all in the oven! AAAAAAAAAaaand:

Ta Da! I would say it was fairly successful for a first try. A few things to note, though:

The pastries turned out much smaller than I would have liked (about half-dollar size) and I can not reeeaaaally taste the filling. I think I either did not flatten them enough or did not role the dough thin enough because the crust really does become thick
Seems to me the rice flour works fine, the insides were a little less gooey than usual but I suspect this is because I had them in the oven at the wrong temp to begin with (the recipe recipe I used said 200c and I did Fahrenheit of course)
Other than that, all the flavors I wanted where there
AND I learned how to candy fruit
I found this website really handy for converting all those grams to things I understood.

By midnight, when I finally ate one, I was pretty impressed with myself.

Also, I got myself an internship at Marvel Comics for the summer. I'll just let the awesome sink in on its own.

2008-04-08T21:12:00.006-04:00

So I was going to write about something totally awesome but then I forgot.

I saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford on Monday, it was pretty good. I got a lot of the characters confused with one another and the movie goes on for 2 1/2 hours but Brad Pitt actually gives a really good performance as James. And Casey Affleck did such an amazing job as Robert Ford. I mean, you really really disliked him for killing a criminal.

Granted, I only rented it so I could see Nick Cave play a saloon singer at the very end. I love that man. Also, he and Warren Ellis did the music for the movie and it did an incredible job of setting the tone.

Uhm. I'm actually feeling a lot better about all these insane papers coming up. I don't really know why though. I haven't started any of them, still researching.

My left-click mouse button stopped working yesterday and I spent and hour and a half on the phone with dell trying to fix it. It's still broken. The guy I talked to was really nice though, and really patient for hanging in there with me for 2 1/2 hours. So right now I'm using my tablet to click on things. Hilarity ensues. Like when I forget the buttons broken and click about 10 times in a row on something...

Here are some sketches from my Tufts notebook. As you can see, I lack focus. I lack focus because my head is too full of other things. Like these little drawings. It's a vicious cycle.

Perry and Igor tiny little doodles in notebook (c) 2008

2008-04-04T00:14:00.003-04:00

What combination of words can possibly pass between two people that takes them from adversaries to companios in less than 8 minutes? I'm sure I don't know. But my roomate and her boyfriend do, apparently.

I'm sure I don't want to know, either.

I'm tipsy as I write this, at 1:00am. I need to be up in seven hours to go over to my parents and wait for some guys to fix the heat. Oh joy of joys. I'll probably sleep on the couch till they get there.

This drawing, I just did it.

Yay for drunken wacom tablet art. Have not used it in forever. It shows?

Tei Barnabas "I forgt X the dimensions" (c) 2008

2008-03-31T22:50:00.004-04:00

I was gonna write stuff but then I sort of forgot what I wanted to write. Loki's birthday is tomorrow, he will be two.

Fascinating, I know.

I'm kind of tired, so I'll go to bed after this.

I spent the day trying to focus on my paper (its debatable how well I did in that field. I can honest to god only stick to a paper for so long before I start to think mean things about my professors, but at least the apartment is cleaner now). I have to meet with one of said professors, and she always gives me mean evil eye so we'll see how that goes down. Like a lead balloon, I think.

Here is a doodle that I have desperately been wanting to make into a painting. It is very, very, very frustrating to not have any time for art. I sincerely hope I get some free time soon because I have too many ideas and it can't be healthy to keep them all bottled up like this. As you can see, my note-taking has been affected.

Otherwise...I've been doing really well these past few days. Not so stressed, kind of have that under control. Got really restless at work yesterday and my solution was to run down the hall.

Also? Antonio Lopez Garcia coming to the MFA...YEAH, I KNOW. So great, right? Check out his amazing work here. My teacher is going to get to meet him, lucky guy that he is.

Yes, I am still listening to Nick Cave like it's my job.

2008-03-26T21:03:00.003-04:00

And I was doing so well in my readings and in not becoming a distracted little monkey who sees the shiny thing. But then I got to thinking...it's been, what, a whole day since I've seen Nick Cave dancing?

I mean honestly, some things are just not right.

And oh my god I just found a way to put youtube videos on my ipod. I can now travel anywhere with his amazing white boy dancing and make other people watch it too.

Oh I am completely aware that this has no point. Here's another one.

What is it about skinny guys I find so amusing? Granted, now he has a creepy mustache but I will continue to believe that it does not really exist.

2008-03-24T22:13:00.006-04:00

Its old, but I don't feel like scanning anything because the scanner is all the way in the other room, while I am in the living room. Which I've grown fond of, even if it is cold.

I lost my cell phone, which really isn't that surprising if you think about it.

I have had so many Realtors come through here this past week. My landlord thinks he will be able to get a lot more money for this place next year, I don't know how. It's a nice place, but not THAT nice.

Spent the weekend with my family, which was really nice. My mom made me some sweet curtains. Kyle was kind of annoying, but he tries to be so he accomplished it. Easter dinner was really really good. We had a butter lamb. I think my dad conquered the world with his laptop.

Just to clear things up, the song two posts ago is "Everybody's Better" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was playing when I uploaded the image. The image is the cover for my notebook for school.

Also I am adding this video because I love Nick Cave and I love Shane MacGowan and I think this is beautiful:

2008-03-17T23:15:00.007-04:00

2008-03-17T00:21:00.003-04:00

2008-02-15T21:42:00.003-05:00

And lack of update for the win! Sop much for the whole "Gonna track my work through college with blog" thing. To be fair, there has been little to no real work done by me this year due to stupid Tufts classes. Really, they're just a glorified waste of my time. Oh well. I don't really know what else to write here. I'm hung over and eating some really kickass sushi. If that's your kinda thing and you live in Boston, check out Fugakyu, they have some very fancy, tasty rolls. Kind of expensive, though.
So last post was October of 07...since then:
I turned 21
My grandfather passed away
I celebrated Christmas
I had to finally leave Camp Hawthorne behind
I started classes at Tufts
I went to Arizona
That's about as interesting as it gets. Oh, also, my laptops hard drive corrupted and it looked like all would be lost until Ken saved the thing. I pretty much owe him my first born at this rate.

So, you know, pretty much the same old shit. Except 20% more legal.

And now the obligatory link. I give you: CORY ARCANGEL. I saw an artist lecture by him at the MFA on Wednesday with Missie and thought I would piss myself I laughed so hard. Truely the work of an inspired genius.
Saint Guinefort (c)2007 Freehand

2007-10-11T21:07:00.000-04:00

As I type this I have found myself to have fallen, for the second time in as many weeks, deliriously sick. I don't get sick often during the school yeah so I don't really know what to make of it. Naturally I blame our cat, Jeremiah.

My roomate and I found him wandering the street last week and he has been living with us ever since. I take this as solid proof that I need to stop picking shit up off the street. That weeks find also included a wooden lamp of baroque tastes found in the bushes by a funeral home, and a dice found under a car.

I somehow managed to drag my ass to school and back again. I slept a good part of the afternoon and have spent the rest reading some really nasty Hellblazer. I've concluded that the horror comic is my equivalent of the trash novel. I also stared at the latest Rolling Stone and thought to myself, "I have a paper due Monday...ugh". But hey, what are working weekends at the hospital for if not doing my homework?

So all the photos above are of the same painting and you can see the progression. The first is 2 weeks of work, roughly 12 hours. Every one after that shows another week and 6-hour work time. The class is a year-long course with one pose for the entirety. The painting itself is not going to be pink when finished, I'm merely setting out tonal structure. I chose alizarin crimson for this because it is a color not found in the still life and its chroma does no change when tinted. I will probably begin laying down descriptive color in two or three weeks, if I work smart and fast. The end result will, hopefully, be a photo-realistic portrait.
Unfinished Still Life (c) 2007

2007-09-30T21:56:00.002-04:00

So...there hasn't been much to say. But now there is:

Let's talk about lady presidents.

It's a pressure weighing down on us and one of the unadressed goals of feminism. An almost unsaid goal: Get a female president, then you will achieve equality.

But I don't believe in equality, because equality has the connotation of sameness and that makes life bland. The idea that everyone is the same is a Communist one. I want people to feel that way. If I can get people to equate equality with Communism then the post Cold War instincts recieved from our parents will drive us toward the negative. Then we will stop feeling this way. Equality will never happen and it is a useless ideal. The sooner we get rid of it the sooner we can move on.

Being born female, I do not have the luxury of men to disregard feminism, though I have tried. I have to face the issue of my gender and address my own beliefs before I can act against equality. I've read it. Linda Nochlin, Barbara Solomon, Sojourner Truth and Sylvia Plath. I've read some, probably not enough. I've talked about it in culture, in art, in regards to Comunism. First generation, second generation. I've read about pornography as violence and opression against women and I've seen Suicide Girls make it their own. I've seen people refuse bras, not shave their legs and proclaim their wombs the center of their being. I've seen women who seek to be men, and men who praise strong women. I've been subject to catcalls, insults, heckling, stalking, politeness and chivalry. I've felt loved, pretty, sexy, despised, ugly and hated by men. I've felt fear and I've felt confidence. I have been removed from men, too shy, too terrified, too confident, too smart to date. As for my beliefs? My femnisit beliefs? All I say is three things: 1. Opression has two parts. The opressor and the opressed. 2. Men and women should not seek to be equal, no one should. We should all seek to be our best. 3. If you don't want to be looked down on, treated like less or given less, then don't be.

A woman president? That would be swell. But only if they're elected for the right reasons. Don't elect someone just because they have a vagina, elect someone because you agree with their views, because you believe they can best represent your country. Do not look at them as female, do not look at them as male. They aren't white, black, latino, male, female, transgendered or otherwise. If your ideal candidate happens to be female then fine. If they happen to be a Republican and you're a Democrat, that's ok too. I know these things will never truely be seperate from our goals, but we can hope and we can try.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air
Thylacine 6"x8" Monoprint on BFK Reeves White with etching inks (c)

2007

2007-09-12T22:13:00.000-04:00

So it's been well over two months. I'm very much done with camp and have been home a few weeks since. Camp this year was...a lot. I think the most exhausting and rewarding year ever. I don't know whats happening next year. I hope I can go back, I think I would like to. It's hard for me to work so closely with a big group of people, I'm Avoidant and Anxious and when this gets aggravated I become Paranoid. It's true that at camp I have a higher risk of panic attacks but I feel that the experience outweighs all of this. I can spend days there with crushing pain in my chest but it is always worth it. I love the staff, and I love having the opportunity to work with kids and take them seriously. I love being able to treat them as adults and not talk down to them and see the results. So, camp was great, but now it's over.
I moved at the beginning of the month. It was...intense. The new apartment is beautiful and newly renovated. So newly renovated that it...isn't quite finished. I'm still waiting on a door for my room. But it's ok. It's in Mission Hill, and the whole street and the streets around us are all college students. I think that's good for me, even if I tend to get aggravated by them being silly and loud while I try to sleep. Also, this semester I started classes at Tufts. It's very exciting, I'm there from about noon to 9:30 at night every Monday. The classes are very interesting. I was hoping to...you know...meet some boys. But I'm such a fucking social wreck that I doubt it's going to happen. I'm too smart or aggressive or ugly or something. It's kind of frustrating/depressing. What happened to guys pursuing someone? Fuck it, I don't need people.
Anyway here's a tv stand I found on the street during the big move. The first of September is a great time to get a ton of free furniture, which I did. My prized piece is an antique floor lamp that matches my bed. Anyway I painted this stand black and then put some swirly funky Victorian inspired floral patterns on it and sprayed it with acrylic gloss to protect it. Looks good.
Refinished TV Stand Painted and refinished particle board tv stand with Victorian elements. (c) 2007

2007-06-08T00:29:00.001-04:00

So I'm a sometimes visitor of Fandom_wank, because it's funny. Whats better than reading about a hormonal catfight over the new Good Omens covers?

If you're a fan of a movie/book/comic book/tv show/band/celebrity or pretty much of anything...the odds are theres an online community (whether livejournal, yahoo, or otherwise) that's out there writing fanfiction. Basiclly, a large percentage of this writing is of a homosexual nature. For instance...if you like the tv show House, MD the fanfiction will probably involve a relationship between House and Wilson or House and Chase. Not all of it, but a good deal.

To the best of my understanding it appears that recently the Livejournal staff have been going through and deleting a large number of these fan communities, a lot of them Harry Potter based. I don't want to get too much in to it but basiclly a lot of writing about sex and sexual things etc etc, isn't it always about the nasty? If you all want to read more you can here.

It seems way sillier than need be with a lot of people getting really worked up over it. Kind of reminds me of one of those internet art theft things with more drama and people(Banrai, anyone?).

Anyway, it got me all thinking. My first thought was: They can't delete anyones community, pedophile or otherwise, because of freedom of speech. My second though was kind of two-fold consisting of: 'I'm pretty sure LJ can do whatever they want with the communities therein because they, in fact, own the site and the contents thereof and I'm sure users agree to this when they join' and 'The internet is not America and does not necessarily follow American law'. Which leads to sort of a dilema, doesn't it? What laws does the internet fall under? With so many people from so many different countries interacting things are bound to happen and when they do...whose laws do they fall under? The defendents or the prosecuters, or the site on which the issue occurs? It will be impossible for the world to agree on a set of laws, it seems so hazy to me. I'm kind of suprised something insanely messy hasn't happened yet. There's a huge potential for crime here.

And on that note...did anyone else laugh at the irony that Paris Hilton was let out of jail the day that Stupid Spoiled Whore re-ran on South Park? My mom pointed that one out to me. I laughed and laughed.
Sleeping with Your Cigarette is a BAD Idea Hightlighter, watercolor, ink, gold leaf, gouache (c) 2007

2007-05-22T00:33:00.000-04:00

So, I spent my whole week trying to upload a cutout animation to deviantart so I could put a link up here...or something...but due to my complete lack of knowing how to upload an animation on deviantart mixed with me working an evening shift every day this week...it didn't get done. There was also some laziness in there, as I'd rather spend my mornings (afternoons for you normal, non-evening working, people I guess) watching South Park.

Yes, South Park. Yes, I find it funny. I like the characters, I like the topics, I like the humor. I like the swearing and the violence and the stupid, stupid antics paried with relevant opinions and references to contemporary culture. I like it. I like Kenny and I like The Mole and I like Tweek, who sounds a lot like my inner dialogue sometimes. My parents think I'm going to rot my brain out but at least I paint n' stuff while I watch, if that makes you feel better. Hahaha.

Anyway, I'm doing a story. Not writing, but doing, because I'm drawing it and writing it at the same time. So far I've go two drawings. This is one of them. I'm not going to tell you what it is because it's a surprise. Feel free to speculate.

Dream Sequence - Not Again 5.5"x7.5" Mixed media on BFK rives white. (c) 2006

2007-04-27T20:14:00.000-04:00

Okay, so, I wasn't going to make this "my blog of pretty photos that no one gives a shit about" but...he's so cute...
Besides photography is art too.
Anyway other than that I'm just having one of those weeks that is accompanied by the nagging suspicion that god is secretly laughing at me...
So basiclly the week was overwhelmingly off
I'll just list it:
>Allergies. Man, WHAT THE HELL? I never had them before, all of the sudden its a full-on attack on my nose.
>Locked out for hours on Tuesday, didn't get in till 10
>Same day, roomate charmingly left a huge bag of garbage leaking all over the floor of the kitchen, mice everywhere.
>Roomate doesn't bother to say where she was when I was locked out from 6-10, I don't bother asking because apparently that's 'prying' and I don't deserve to know.
>Roomate also offers no apology for garbage mess. Instead says "I too it out from the can and put it in a bigger bag than the one you used."
>I discover a cockroach in the kitchen. Possible reasons? Constant dishes in the sink that roomate says she'll get to "Eventually, ok? Not today! Not tomorrow! But it will get done, you have no patience!" Or the open candy left on her floor.
>Smoke alarms battery starts to die at 3am, beeping is constant and irritating
>Roomate complains that I turned on the door alarm and that it scared her. She went out thursday and came back friday, I assumed she wasn't coming back because she said she was leaving.
> Roomate basiclly hates me and treats me like the lowest worm beneath even her notice. I deal with booze.
And because I am in love with this site, I urge you all to take a virtual tour of Hell. Get to know the place, travel the circles. Figure out where you're going. I'm pretty sure I'm going to Caina.

2007-04-16T12:59:00.000-04:00

So this weekend was pretty much debauchary all around. The twin brother came to town with his girlfriend and pretty much a good time was had by all. I hope. I'm kinda in a bad way these past couple months so I've the sneaking suspicion I'm a bit of a downer.
But anyway let's talk about art, because it's what this thing is here for.
Unfortunately my etching class is now over for the semester, much to my pouting. The print room is pretty much always full of people and I'm trying to get a project done. Mainly a series of prints that I'm going to make into a book. So far I've got 6 prints with 3 of each. The copper plate and early lineart of Hell are both a part of the series, as is the print above. It's a photograph I took and made into a photo etching. One of the good things about making a book of etchings is that you can have very, very small margins. I am a messy person by nature, so making a print and keeping huge, fashionable margins clean is a really big challange for me.
Anyway, I'm giving you this link to Luka's blog, he's the author of the webcomic Kagerou, which I've read and loved for years. Of particular interest is his pretty humurous entries on the recent Todd Goldman, of David and Goliath fame, issue. Always of interest to me is the debate of idea/art ownership and the role played by the internet in these cases.
Seven Day Wake 6" x 8" Photo Etching (c) 2007

2007-04-05T21:52:00.000-04:00

This weeks update is an etching plate! Not the etching, but the plate that makes them. Why? Because it's pretty and takes a long time to prepare and I like copper a lot.
So I signed up for classes at Tufts. And as if it wasn't hard enough signing up for classes at the museum school try signing up for classes for a conected college that you've never been to with a block program you have no idea about. Lovelies. But I'm all set now! And next fall I'll be taking Intro to Genesis and its Interpretations and Myth, Symbol and Ritual. Sounds exciting, right? I'm thinking about a minor in comparative religion. However I don't know how useful a minor would be. The fine people at the museum school couldn't tell me. At least I can paint with the blood of a beanie babies all I want.
Fight Plate 6" x 8" copper etching plate (c) 2007

2007-03-23T14:48:00.001-04:00

I'm on spring break this week, and I'm spending 4 of 7 days at the hospital working. Today was a day off and it was very peculiar. I went to take a shower this morning but the hot water was off and so, frusterated, I washed my face, brushed my hair and teeth, did my makeup and threw on some clothes and headed out to the store. I just walked down to Mass Ave and back to pick up some basic stuff (magnets, lens repair kit, some food...) and I must have been rocking something because I swear guys where looking at me. It's not unknown to happen but I always think I have something on my face or the like. I'm too self-critical to find myself attractive for very long. But here's a bit of an odd thing that actually happened:
So, I'm walking on the icky part of Huntington...
Random Guy: Excuse me, miss?
Me: Yes?
Random Guy: Can I tell you something? You are stunning!
Me:...uh...thanks
Random Guy: No, thank you
pause
Me:uh....ok *walks away*
So I keep walking home and then I see another guy with the exact same shirt. What did is say? Greenpeace. What, did I leave before he could compell me to save the environment? I'm so confused

I could not make this shit up if I tried, I'm not self-confident enough. I don't know if I should shower less or not but I did buy some new lipstick the other day and I was wearing it so maybe it was that. Clearly.

Anyway, I've been posting so many prints lately I've felt a bit redundant so here is an image before it becomes a print. It's Hell. Or something quite close to it. Anyway I'm going to be making up some books of prints, I think, and hopefully selling them for remarkabley high prices. We'll see how well this goes as I'm not particularly known for my networking abilities. Also...I feel this print needs something. If you help me find it I will be most grateful.
Hell Line drawing, Photoshop 8.5" x 11" (c) 2007

2007-02-28T19:15:00.001-05:00

2007-02-19T17:41:00.001-05:00

2007-02-09T20:58:00.000-05:00

I now know how to etch! Not really. This is a dry intalgio. It doesn't use acid or anything. It was still fun though. I am pleased. I am also covered in ink
I can't really think of what else to write about. I'm really tired and have to work tomorrow...yep.
I will send you to this place here. Because it is partially relevant to the image above, and I love pigeons. I don't know why, but I do. They make me smile.
Goodnight
Igor and the Birds Black Intalgio Dry Print, State 1 on BFK Reeves Gray 7.5" X 11" (C) 2007

2007-01-31T21:07:00.000-05:00

So...if you live in or around Boston you've already heard all this news about the Mooninite invasion...and if not you can read it here. I have to agree with the author that Boston probably is now the laughing stock of the nation and I'm sure it's going to get parodied. Hell there is even tshirts already that say "I Survived the Mooninite Invasion".
My mom called me to talk about it and within seconds of her describing it I said, "Did they say it was that alien guy from Adult Swim?" She said yes and I laughed.
How can you not laugh? You have to support the city for erring on the side of caution, but you also have to laugh. Because it's just silly.
The Mooninites are cartoon characters from the Adult Swim television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, not one of my personal favorites but I've seen it before.
Although I must say some fortunate person grabbed a sign early on from Boston and it's on Ebay now at a current bid of $5,000 The buzz on the internet is pinning the signs on a company called Interference Inc., whose website is down, doubtless because of today, but you can read it on Google. So I guess Turner and the boys at Williams Street are the ones behind the adverstizing catastrophe.
You can watch the Adult Swim apology that ran last night here.
Just goes to show, it's a funny ole' world.
Also, they've now arrested a local artist (MassArt Alumni) by the name of Peter Berdovsky. You can see him putting up the signs in photos on his website, and talking about the job, you can even watch a video about it.
I actually saw one of these on MassArt last weekend walking to work. All I thought was "Huh, that guy from Adult Swim"
This is a cartoon I made at work. Of me at work. Heh.
Hospital Pen and Ink. (c) 2007

2007-01-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

So Be-Bop looked like crap on Thursday, she was limping around and screamed whenever I touched her foot. So I put her in her little travel cage, wrapped that in a blanket and took the T over to the boonies of South Huntington, where the Angell Vet Hospital is. I took her to the ER and they said it looks like she got her foot caught in something and that she also has a puncture on her toe but she'd probably be ok with some antibiotics. So after a lot of money she's now getiing .09 ml of meds twice a day and a change in diet. She's already look 100 times better.

I was so relieved that she was going to be ok that I drew a picture of her to be turned in to my first ever pronto litho print. And the result is above. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm enjoying printing, even if the whole inking process is still very mysterious to me...You can even see her swollen toe sans claw (although this shows it on the wrong foot b/c of the switch you make when printing).
Be-Bop 2 of 2 Pronto Lithograph (c) 2007

2007-01-15T19:20:00.000-05:00

So it hasn't been a whole month! I call that some sort of a record. Sometimes I forget why I'm making this blog. Like right now.
I just got back from vacation in Belgium, it was very nice thanks for asking. I'm still a little jetlagged and conjested from 8+ hours on a plane with it's dry, recycled doom-air. Also I'm nursing my poor bird, who somehow managed to rip out one of her claws while I was away and hid the fact from me for, like, 2 days. I think she's ok, at least it's growing back.
So here's a photograph of Ghent from the top of some castle. We took about ten million tenny tinny stone spiral steps to the top and then I stood up between a space in the wall where the wind was blowing to take this silly photo. Woulda been sillier if I had fallen off.
Ghent from Castle Digital Photograph (c) 2007

2006-12-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

It's been much too long, hasn't it? The excuses are the usual plus it being the end of the semester AND the holidays. That's right. And I make no move to apologize. Haha.
Anyways, I can't believe it's only four days till Christmas. Io Saturnalia, everyone. I hope you desperately love the holidays as much as I do. Why do I love the holidays?
1. Giving gifts
2. Getting gifts
3. Homemade cookies
4. Hanging with my twin brother
5. Being the only apartment on my road with x-mas lights
6. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
7. Another excuse to drink
8. Hanging with my mom and dad

Yeeeeeaaah. So, lots of new news in general. I've started working at the hospital as a unit assistant, long shifts but very good money. Also I'm going to Belgium and France in January.
Plus the usual, I passed my review board but there may be some changes showing up in my work. They told me to take animation and film...I'm going to take at least one, maybe both.
So...I'm not so sure about all of this but we'll see how it all works out.
Anyway, this is a lovely little picture of London. It's part of a folio of London, New York City and Italy that I made for my mother for my birthday. Why those places? Because we've traveled there together.
So have a happy holiday everyone, and I hope you all get as drunk as I do.
"London" India Ink, Watercolor

2006-11-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

So I was going to post yesterday, but it was my birthday and I didn't really feel like it. Anyway, this is a painting I did over the summer with really crappy fake gouache. Unbeknowst to me they were not water sollubile but instead had acrylic in them and dried like a plastic. Fortunatelty this didn't really affect the piece. I wont be showing any current work right away because I have plans to make an exhibition blog and put up all the themed work I did this semester there. Look for it soonish, maybe mid-December.
And, because I love giving links, check out the Christian Dollar Store. Some words to sum it up: horrifying, hysterical, misguided. Why? This site takes itself completely seriously and yet I don't know if they know what they're marketing. Like shirts that say "He's leading you on!" which are supposd to be positive messages of the lord leading you and yet have a phrasing that is culturally identified as negative. Very interesting. Also, I want all the scripture candy. Especially the Jesus lollipops.
Dog and Rabbit, Gouache, 11" x 9" (c) 2006

2006-11-02T18:26:00.000-05:00

This is Be-Bop. She was painted for my Water, Color and Paper class with Erica Adams.
This is a pretty acurate representation of her, except for the fact that the painting is much bigger that she actually is. And, of course, she has already chewed an edge off of it (you can't see it here). The colors aren't dead on, unfortunately, because I still haven't re-installed Photoshop yet.
I'm enjoying watercolor painting more and more, especially using a paper towel or sponge to remove layers of color. I'm working on some very cool paintings that you'll see here eventually.
And in other news, my school finally has online registration for courses. Now if they only had online signups for review boards...
Be-Bop Watercolor, Gouache, Aqua Pasto, Carbon Paper. (c) 2006

2006-10-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. It's been a while (again). Unfortunately, I was in the middle of switching out my old laptop for my new (refurbished) replacement from Dell. I had all of my art files saved to a disc but now I can't find it, of course. So I have none of my old programs to edit images with and I'm still pretty much getting used to this new laptop.
But enough of that. The above is a cover of a book I made over this week and the week before. It's a piano hinge and I took apart a copy of William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and re-assembled it to fit in this book. I'm pleased with the cover, it's the first time I've tried a design of this nature and I deffinately want to try it again.
And for your link I give you another blog, that of The Clerkenwell Kid. Stephen Coates is a musician who created the soundtrack to one of my new favorite books: Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer. He's very talented and I've never heard music quite like his. Deffinately worth checking out because he has some great Podcasts to listen to.

2006-10-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

And we're back! After a tense 5 minutes this image finally made it up. So I know it's been a while but with the begining of school, homework and laptop issues I haven't really had the time. But now I do and so here is some art. This is a piece I did over the summer, and it's supposed to be illustrating the fairytale 'The Three Apprentices', which I read in a copy of Grimm's Fairytales. In it, these three apprentices enter in a deal with the devil to help secure the soul of an evil man, in return they recieve all the money they would ever need. The interesting thing about this fairytale is that the apprentices don't join the damned, and the devil. keeps his word. In fact, everyone gets what they want. An interesting idea.
Three Apprentices, Watercolor 7/06

2006-09-10T20:43:00.000-04:00

Well, apparently the internet is my enemy. I am indeed back from camp but two unsuspected and unforseen obstacles are currently preventing me from posting any new work.
1. My laptop is currently on it's way out. It's dying and Dell is supposed to be sending me a new one but I have yet to recieve it, if I don't get it by next week I'll have to call again (sigh).
2. For some reason, blogger is not uploading any of my images. This is really getting on my nerves, because I have new work and I even have a beautiful new scanner to scan the work and yet I can't upload it.
So, until I can get past these problems I'm going to direct you to my deviantart site. There's no writing to go along with the images, just the work itself. I apologize for this because I really wanted to keep a smoothly running blog with frequent updates, but these are really situations beyond my immediate control and so anyone out there reading this will just have to be patient as possible. Thank you.

2006-07-04T15:06:00.000-04:00

HEY! It's been what, two weeks? Sorry it took me forever but I've been working at a camp in Maine. It was just today that I figured out how to pirate it's internet on my laptop. Not much to write though. I've been constantly sick and I haven't showered in 2 days but hey, thats the way life is here. Right now is the camps fourth of July party thing so all the kids are running aound hopped up on TONS of sugar.
Anyway, here's a painting I did in the month I had between school and camp. It's Vasalisa. From the fairy tale of the same name. Check it out sometime, it's good reading.
Vasalisa gouache (c) 2006

2006-06-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

This photograph really does this window no justice at all. For starters, I did not patina the lead, instead I left it the bright silver color it comes as. But, because of the lighting, it looks black in the picture. Maybe someday I'll get a nice photograph of it. This piece took me a while, and was mostly experimental. My favorite panel has got to be the two dogs for which I used silk screening and enamel paints on clear glass. I also like the writing bit, where I got to use a calligraphy pen with the lead paint. All in all its a very different window from my first big project, which I still need to get a photograph of. The subject Finn MaCool, a famous Irish hero. Also featured are his hunting dogs, Bran and Sceoling. We also see Fintan, the salmon of knowledge, and his mother and a female warrior who helped raise him.

I'm going to camp next Monday and I don't know how that's going to affect this blog, but I hope to be able to at least update every now and then. I'll be bringing my laptop with me up there because the director had mentioned me teaching digital photography and I wont be in a bunk, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to do. Also, that means I can keep writing: something I find myself doing more and more of recently. Anyway, the link for the evening is a good one. I found it while wandering the internet and I watched it twice in a row. It's 10 Things I Hate About Commandments and it's pretty self-explanatory. All I can say is that putting Samuel L. Jackson in there was an inspired decision. One might even say divine.
Finn MaCool stained glass with lead and enamel paint, lead (c) 2006

2006-06-08T22:54:00.000-04:00

Well I wish I could have had a lovely entry for the infamous 6-6-06 but I was away and who really cares, anyway? The significance of man-made time sometimes tricks me in to thinking certain numeral dates have significance purely because of the combined values they make up, and then I remember it's all BS. Besides, the world still exists so we're all ok.

The image above is titled Animus and if you're familiar with Jung or Estes you'll know what that is. For those of you who can't be bothered (or simply don't have the time) to indulge in philosophical works an animus is the interior male force inside of women. Men have a similar force that is feminine and called an anima. Apparently, these subconscious personalities project ideals of our male or female counterpart on to whomever we seek out as a mate. The idea here is that they embody all archetypes of the male or female and that, without management, a person can subconsciously expect their significant other to fulfill these completely unrealistic ideals. Pretty interesting stuff.
Animus Gouache 11" x 16" (c) 2006

2006-06-03T21:22:00.000-04:00

Well, at least I got a decent photograph of this piece, but it wasn't easy. I had to angle to flash funny because the black ink is shiny and I didn't want any big white spots on the piece there or on the gold leaf. Also, the photoshopping took longer than normal and the color is just a tiny bit off but overall pretty good for having to use a camera.

The piece is supposed to look like an illumination from a manuscript, at some later date (can't say when really, ,maybe never) I intend to incorporate it for a dec letter, or at lease use the design to create a dec letter. But for now, you get this.

And here's your link for the evening. This is perhaps the funniest and most polite way to show the world how much you hate something: a website with effecient powerpoint slides. Unfortunately it doesn't work on Mozilla browsers, for some mysterious reason. Now, I'm off to go discuss literature with Margo.
Angel 11" x 8.5" Gouache, papyrus, gold leaf, india ink (c) 2006

2006-06-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, it's freaking blury. That bugs the hell out of me but that's part of the wonderful joy of taking photographs of art instead of using the scanner *glares at the offending electronic*
Anyways. Here's a a recent piece done for the hell of it.

Let's see...a link. Ah, here we go. A site I found this same day. It's a very cool site covering the fairytale of Vasalisa. Someone, apparently, did it for their MFA and left the site up. It's very well done and the images and text-work are pretty good. Not great, but deffinately good and an impressive overall piece. Enjoy.
La Que Sabe 11" x 16" Gouache.

2006-06-01T18:07:00.000-04:00

Alright everyone, so the deal is: my scanner is dying. Or at least it's trying to. I scan something in and all I get is stripes, so until I get it fixed you'll have to deal with photographs of artwork. This is something I had hoped to not have to do for anything other than glasswork, but unless I want to keep not updating I have to.

So for now here's a glass piece I did from last semester. You may find it resembles some of my other self-portraits and theres a reason for that, they're all a series and this is, for now, the last in that series. I love this window and am very satisfied with how it turned out, it was well recieved at my reveiw board too.
Self-Portrait 16.5" x 12" stained glass, fused glass, lead paint and lead

2006-05-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

Sorry to have been away so long, but I don't have a scanner at home and I had no new art pre-scanned to my computer so I was in a bit of a bind until I got back to the city. But now I'm back in the city and in my lovely, clean, roomate-free apartment and can start posting again.
The piece above is a wine label that I designed for my dad for his birthday for a wine that he made from a wine-kit. The wine isn't finished yet so none of us knows if it's good or not but at least the bottles will have swanky designer labels. And really, it's all about appearances.

Okay so the link is nowhere near as fun as the labyrinth generator but I still quite like it. Much as I feel that the world of webcomics is over-run by Japan fans there are still some good ones out there. One of these is No Rest For the Wicked by Andrea Peterson, it's an amazing and impressive blend of largely victorian fairytales into one conglomerate adeventure. So far the mentioned tales are Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Girl with No Hands, The Princess and the Pea, the Buried Moon and The Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. Not only does she follow the more traditional and grimmer versions (Sandman fans will recognize her version of Red Riding Hood) but she also has created an intruging cast of characters. I'm particularly fond of Red and Perrault (Puss).

2006-05-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

Well here I am at home, packing up my stuff. I already threw out a big black trashbag of crap and so far I've realised...that I have a lot of crap. I have a tonj of books and comic books. I think I'm going to try and sell some of my comic books and my magic cards on ebay. That's the kind of stuff people buy.

Anyways, here's another one from my portraiture class. The assignment was to make a mask over spring break and then we all drew each other wearing our masks.

So I'm pretty proud of this link, it's actually a really cool one. It's a labyrinth search engine. You type in where you are, or hat area you're looking in, and it gives you the addresses, phone numbers and websites of the narest labyrinths and what material the labyrinth is made of. There's only one in Boston, on Tremont Street, but I think I should go visit it, might be fun. Most of them are located in religious locations, however the labyrinth is a pretty cross-cultural symbol of spirituality so I don't think you really need to be of any specific religion to appreciate them.
Mask Girl Oil Pastel, Gouache 18" x 24" (c) 2006

2006-05-12T19:49:00.000-04:00

So I'm back in the middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire for the next week or so, depending on how fast I clean. I have to pack up/clean out my room and art table in the basement for the whole parents-moving-out thing. I didn't really wanna come home. I mean, I love my parents and love seeing them but this town sucks the vigor right outta me and by the end of the week I'll be pining for the sounds and activity of the city.

But for you, I have a lovely gospel page. This is the final format, complete with kerning and leading and margins and all the appropriate typographic terminology seen to.

And for your featured link I'm sticking with a single thing today, but it's a good one. It's that fabulous website that I'm sure most of you know of, Wikipedia. I read on the Boston Globe website an article about the volunteers who run the site and the statistics show that there's more males than females, they tend to be young and that a large number of them can be found in Boston. Maybe I should join up. Not that there's any articles I wanted that they didn't have, but I bet it would be a good way to meet smart guys. However I've pretty much decided I'm going to wait on the whole relationship thing and see what my karma does for me, seeing as it should be around the level of a saint due to my patience with my roomate.
Just When I Had Begun to Hope Freehand 9" x 6" (c) 2006

2006-05-10T11:20:00.000-04:00

Hey all, here's another collage from my Masks and Mirrors class, it's made up of National Geographic magazine photos, mostly from their September 2005 issue, I believe. I had to copies of it.

Now for the links! I've got fun ones today! Pompeii graffiti! Click the links for lovely sites and even a hilarious drawing. And you all thought latin was a noble language used for bibles and epic poems. Bet you didn't know they wrote stuff like, "Suspirium puellarum Celadus thraex." Haha, it's translated as "Celadus the Thracier makes the girls moan" Scuzy, right?
Urchin Collage (c) 2006

2006-05-08T00:55:00.000-04:00

So it's only a couple of hours after I posted the last one, so who's counting anyway? Geez. No link for you, I've got better things to do.
Campbell 2 Mixed Media 18" x 24" (c) 2006

2006-05-07T20:04:00.000-04:00

The first of two images I did of Joseph Campbell as the final for my Masks and Mirrors portraitiure class. I rather like them both, I'm considering putting them in a mat to join them as a diptych, or doing more.
And for a random quote...I give you the 'official' rules to shotgun.
Campbell Mixed Media 18" x 24" (c) 2006

2006-05-02T17:03:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm out of school I have all this free time to do what I want! Like hang out in the museum, or do artwork or work at the school...pretty much the stuff I did before-hand. But now I have time for MORE.
Guess what? No links today! Yaaaaay!
This self portrait is more humerous than serious, I guess. Me just sort of playing around with oil pastels.
Self Portrait #3 Oil Pastels 24" x 18" (c) 2006

2006-04-29T10:53:00.001-04:00

Hey kids, how's it going? Well I don't know about the rest of you but I am DONE with school for the summer. That's right, it's not even May and I am completely finished. I'm pumped and ready to hang out till it's time for camp.
So I passed my review board with flying colors and yesterday I sat in one my mandatory boards as a reviewer. The first one was good, it was a freshman who did a lot of beautiful jewelry work. Strangely enough, I recognized the name: Rebecca Ross-Russell. I had seen it earlier that year and remembered a fellow camper of that exact same name at Sunapee Arts Camp, which I attended for a year before joining the ranks at Hawthorne and never going back. So it was only fate that I would be one of two students in a school of about 500 to be on her board. So I just had to ask her, and I did. Turns out I was right. I don't think she really remembered me but she did remember what year I was there. It was bizarre and funny. What a small, small world.
Anyways, in more exciting news, I'm just about ready to piss myself from excitment because they're making a Discworld movie. That's right. Which book? Hogfather. And it's set up to be out for Christmas. And on top of that? A Wee Free Men movie is schedualed for some time in 2008. Yes, indeed. I am especially excited because it appears Terry Pratchett will be playing a big role in the production of the movies, which bodes well. Now all they need is a Nightwatch movie, or my new favorite Thud!. ALSO, Terry's got a new book finished called Wintersmith featuring the Nac Mac Feegle and his next book in line to write is going to be called Making Money. Alright, that's enough glee for now. Look at that art, it is lovely.
Rose 24" x 18" mixed media (c) 2006

2006-04-26T22:14:00.000-04:00

I know, I should probably be doing other, more constructive, things at the moment considering my review board is tomorrow, but I just couldn't resist. I know a my posts have been pretty content-heavy lately so I'll try to keep this relatively quick (I still have a paper on Patty Hearst to polish up, too).
The piece you see above is a fuse piece from my Glass as Process class that I had this semester. It's regular window pane glass with pieces of dried-out coral I picked up in Mexico sandwiched between it before it was fused. Something made the glass crack like that, and I'm thinking maybe the salt because it was deffinately dried out when I put it in there. I'm pleased with the result and would like to try more, maybe next year.
And because I was so amused by it, I'm going to put a link in here for this amusing backmasking website. You can download and hear all these song clips played forwards and backwords with whatever it is they're supposed to be saying. A lot of it is BS but some of it is pretty funny. I particulary like Weird Al's backmask in 'I Remember Larry'. It's something like "Gee, you must have a lot of free time on your hands."
Anyway, back to work for me.
Seaweed 9" x 8" Glass, Seaweed (c) 2006

2006-04-23T19:51:00.000-04:00

What are these pages, Caitlin? What do they mean? Well kids, it means I can't be bothered to write a whole gospel so I'm using FILLER. But not just any filler, the oldest and most revered 15th cetury filler. Lorem Ipsum! The scrambled text of a speech by Cicero (who wants to read his crap anyway!) lorem ipsum is a filler text that was set by a printer in the 16th century and has survived through the years and made it's way into the world of electronic typsetting. You can even find generators for this stuff (the link above).
So, what's this 'gospel' about then? If I told you I would have to kill you. I'm just kidding. It's an extension of the many narratives and characters I've found myself creating over the years in idle moments. The Gospel is a parody of a holy book and is written by the character Teirisias R. Barnabas, a prophet who dreams of disasters before they happen and left his home one day after waking up from a dream where he saw his house burn down. His character is entwined with the Haris/Eblis character I've had for *thinks* almost five years. He's the guy in the glass piece below (Tei is, not Haris).
Since we're on the subject of amusing religous parodies I want you to all head over to this little site and start reading from the begining. This is some funny shit and completely responsible for me wasting a couple hours today. When I become Pope (next time, next time!) I'll have these two canonized as saints and then we'll party hardcore up in the Vatican, yo. That's a link to the Vatican website, my favorite part is the big button on the mainpage that says VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES. I hope that doesn't need any further explination. Sometimes I wonder if they make it too easy for me on purpose, now that would be really clever.
The Gospel of Teirisias Barnabas Freehand 6" x 9" (c) 2006

2006-04-20T13:49:00.000-04:00

A collage I made in my Masks and Mirrors class. I really like how it turned out, seeing as it uses about 4 different images of women to make this one really bizaree but still attractive face. And yeah, I used a National Geographic.
Speaking of which (and because I told my brother I'd do it) I'm going to put a link in here for one of the topics in the latest National Geogrpahic. The Gospel of Judas, you should all go and check out this site. It doesn't have all the text of the document but it has beautiful hi-res images that you can zoom into along with the coptic text and english translation and information about the reconstruction prosess. Even though I don't consider myself Catholic or very religious for that matter I find this whole ordeal fascinating. A lot of shit has hit the fan because of this text, which says that Jesus told Judas he needed to turn him in so that Jesus could fufill his prophecy of being crucified. Apparently this pisses off a lot of people. The church is fond of keeping their Judas Iscariot as a red-headed, yellow-robed scapegoat of Jewish evil, and has since Jesus died. How can you tell which one is Judas in those images? He's the one with red hair, yellow robes and exageratedly stereotypical Jewish feature (ie: big nose). In that respect suppose it would be hard to learn that he was in on the plan. Along with this is the suggestion that Judas was the only apostle who truely understood Jesus' message, another factor that would piss the church off. Not only is their scapegoat a goodguy, but the smartest in the batch! Oh lordy!
The theory rings truest when you consider Christopher Moores satirical work Lamb. In his novel, he suggests that Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice to his father in order to cease the requirment of bloodshed and to demonstrate to mankind the unending love he had for everything, and that he wished on everyone.
But regardless of all this the docement has so far been proven to be genuine, whatever that means to you. It doesn't matter if any of this is true, or if Jesus in fact existed or not. Not even in the slightest. The important part is the message, wherever it's coming from, who ever wrote it. People have to stop getting wrapped up in the unimportant shit. And believe me, whether or not stuff like this actually happened is pretty unimportant. The concept of a Judas that understood what he was doing and willing accepted the stigma of what was required of him is much richer than pegging him as a greedy idiot. There are plenty of those in mythology, this text suggests a much more dynamic persona.
Composite Lady Collage 10" x 17" (c) 2006

2006-04-18T22:17:00.000-04:00

I had my last Masks and Mirrors class today, so here's a piece from that class. This isn't my final piece, that was a portrait of Joseph Campbell and I'll try to get it up here at some point. But for now you get this.
That's all for this evening. I'm too tired to put up a link and no one stops by here anyway, so everybody wins.
Girl With Mask, Mixed Media 18" x 24" (c) 2006

2006-04-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

Another self portrait! Done in the class that the one of me and Be Bop on the windowsill was done in. I drew it from that one the day it was due during the class time. I really like this one and I have a couple more that came from it too. The Bop is now sitting on my head, ain't she purdy?
I was trying to figure out just what kind of species of lovebird she is the other day and I use to think she was a blue peachfaced lovebird but I remember them mentioning at the place I bought her that she had a violet factor and she deffinately has an all-over blue tint, but her forehead has a lot of the peach color on it. The world may never know, espcially since she doesn't like to sit still for me to examine her, but she's my little baby and I love her.
Self-Portrait 18"x24" (c) 2006

2006-04-05T21:12:00.000-04:00

I'm very fond of decorative letters and illuminated manuscripts, the amount of time that must have gone into them is astounding. And to think, you spent your life a monk holed away and meditating on these wonderful pieces you worked on by comission of the wealthy.
So this is for a current Type as Image project involving text and the body. I'm writing up these random passages about life and life in a city in general and creating these pages. The thing looks like a gospel. It's turning out nice and I like the modern spin on an old art form.
And yeah I see the typo.
I Sit 11"x17" Freehand (c) 2006

2006-03-28T20:20:00.000-05:00

So here's yet another self-portrait, I seem to be doing a lot of these this semester. This one was done shortly after the one with the really abstract backgrounf of the same size. I hope to eventually take one of my many self-portraits and produce a glass piece from it. Here's hoping.

In completely unrelated news I read an article today about a sculpture going on display in New York of Brittney Spears giving birth. The artist who made it is named Daniel Edwards, and while I wasn't able to find much background on him I did learn that he made a 'death mask' sculpture of the medically decapitated head of Ted Williams. Why was it medically decapitated? For cryogenic freezing, of course. I found the site for the company, a non-profit group called Alcor, and discovered that it is located in Arizona. My parents are going to Arizona in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to convince them to visit.
We'll see how that one plays out.
The World Snake 17" x 11" Oil Pastel (c) 2006

2006-03-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

Type as Image is turning out to be one of my favorite classes. I'm fascinated by fonts, even though my brain says I shouldn't be. "They're just fonts, what the Hell?" Well I guess not, theres so much I never knew about the shapes we read. Anyway I'm throwing a link in there to keep things interesting. My latest glass piece is a window about Fionn MacCumhail, and Irish hero and sometimes regarded as the equivalent of King Arthur. He had prophetic wisdom that he accessed by chewing his thumb, which he burned while cooking the Salmon of Knowledge. The site linked is Godchecker and is a neat compilation of the pantheons of many different areas. The articles are usually fairly solid, however there's an attempt at humor which sometimes just confuses the facts and I wish they cited their sources better, but you can't have everything. Overall it's a useful site for mythological references.

2006-03-18T00:51:00.000-05:00

I did this in my morning class today...er...yesterday. I can't think of what else to write. I like how the painting style came out. I took it back to my apartment to think over it and I had decided it needed color, brought it in to the morning class and- ta da- Barbara said we we're going to apoxy on pieces of antique glass to the back of it. I'm really pleased with the result and I suppose the only thing that would make it better is some sort of frame.

2006-03-15T20:54:00.000-05:00

I did this piece as a homework assignment for my portrait class. Only three other kids did the homework so the teacher made all the kids draw from our portraits and we could pretty much do whatever. Why would you not do the homework? The feedback you get is so good.
In an unrelated tangent we had a speaker come to our Type as Image class to talk on Tuesday. His name was Ben Fry. The stuff he showed us was amazing, and while I was watching his presentation I realized I had seen his stuff before, a long time ago Kenny Osbourne had given me a link to his Zip Code Project. It's quite a fun little time waster.
His projects are amazing and intelligent, both artistic and fascinating. It was great to see someone who was an artist but also had an understanding of mathematics and science. To be honest, not a lot of my classmates are very bright, it's nice to know that this MIT graduate is out there as an advocate for intelligent, well-designed art.
The Window 24" x 18" mixed media (c) 2006

2006-03-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

And here's another piece of metalwork! I finished this yesterday during my metal and enamel class. It's a beltbuckle made of copper, and it was damn hard. It took me a while to get the soldering right, as the image and background are two soldered pieces of copper, and the enameling did a number on the solder! But finally, here it is. I am very pleased with it. A piece that looked like it was doomed to begin with (even the enamel was going weird) and now it's done and set to be put in the metalworks shows. I'm slightly concerned about where the show will be, the students are a bit notorious for nabbing each others work...
Belt Buckle Enamel, Copper (c) 2006

2006-03-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

So here's finally an example of my work in other areas. This was done last semester in my Gravity Pour Casting class. The piece is cast in bronze and wrapped with bronze wire and the back is copper wire with another piece of cast bronze for the clasp.

2006-03-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

Park Street is a crazy T-Stop here in Boston, it must be one of the oldest with the way it's designed. Which isn't very well. There's lots of traveling up and down stairs and darting across tracks to get where you want, and then there's the long tunnel trek to the orange line. Good times to be had, in general. So here's the red line, below, Park Street.
Park Street Collage (c) 2006

2006-03-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

This was an in-class project for Drawing Explorations where we had to create a piece using the same 'style' as an artist that we covered in a slide lecture, I chose the artist Takashi Murakami, a Japanese artist who embraces the colorful and cartoonlike pop-culture of Japan. He is best known for his Louis Vuitton monogram design. I chose him because his style was so indulgent and playful and I couldn't resist to make a piece so whimsical and bright.
Bird 14" x 11" India Ink, Prismacolor Markers (c) 2006

2006-03-02T13:10:00.000-05:00

I'm a fan of this piece, it came out nice. The character is one I've had for a while, he's from the same train of though as Perry and Frankie. I want to make this in to a bigger piece, too, maybe in a wood from with some enamel pieces. We'll see.
Transitional Period 14"x 11" Watercolor, Gouche (c) 2006

2006-03-01T21:56:00.000-05:00

The piece above is another assignment from my Drawing Explorations class, I forget the specific requirements but I know that this piece features the view from one of my windows here in my apartmen overlayed with the veiw from home. It's about the transition I was making, and continue to make, from living in the country to living in the city.
Transition Collage (c) 2006

2006-02-27T23:16:00.000-05:00

A little on the weird side but this is my most recent work, finished today. If you could call it finished, I feel there's something still unresolved in the smoke. I've been on a kick recently of watercolor and oil pastel pieces at 11" x 14", most of them abstract/surreal self-portrait type deals. This is no real exception.
Be My Adversary 11" x 14" Watercolor and Gouche (c) 2006

2006-02-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

So this was a piece I did for a class I had last semester called Drawing Explorations, and the assignment was to create a narative piece. This one's about a boy who lives with a dog in the city. The boys name is Perry, and the dog, her name is Francis Shields III or Frankie.
Untitled Collage (c) 2006

2006-02-21T18:13:00.000-05:00

This one's pretty recent. I did it back in January on a whim. It's a kind of abstract/surrealistic self-portrait. I like how it came out, though.
Untitled 17"x11" Oil Pastels (c) 2006

2006-02-20T18:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this one is a bit out there but I like it a lot so here it is. I took a piece of heavy weight watercolor paper and scooped freshly cooked purple rice on the paper and removed it later, and once it dried I applied the border of gold leaf around the edges.
Rice Paper Mixed Media 8" x 14.5"

2006-02-19T10:37:00.000-05:00

I have a particular fondness for elephants, I think it's because they're so big. Anyway, this is almost an autbiographical piece. I feel it represents some of that initial anxiety I had of moving to Boston.
But hey, elephants do fine in the cities in Thailand.
Elephant in the Big City Collage, 13" x 17" (c) 2006

2006-02-18T18:12:00.000-05:00

Here's another piece I did during last summer while working at camp. It's a lion, in case the anatomy is too distorted for you to tell.
Lion Knotwork 6.5"x11" (c) 2006

2006-02-18T03:27:00.000-05:00

I just want to say the only reason this thing is up today is Ken, because I'm a stubborn art student who refuses to use a pre-fabricated template. So, thanks to Ken.
And here's the first of many images, I did this over the summer at the camp I work with.

Birds Watercolors 11"x15" (c) 2006

2006-02-17T23:11:00.000-05:00

this is a crazy ass test post. woo