Art

Another year passes

So blogging doesn't come naturally to me, that's a fact.I'm just going to use this post as a way to keep track of what I want 2011 to be for me.

I'm pretty sure everyone says they want to start a fitness routine but considering that I started working out everyday 3 weeks ago with a fitness buddy, I think I'm a few steps ahead of the game. Mike and I have been meeting up everyday before work to get at least half an hour of running done. Waking up on time every morning has been the challenging part, but once I get there I actually kind of enjoy it. I think the part that I've been missing every other time I've attempted this is the work out buddy. Knowing that someone is there to work out with me helps hold me accountable. So when I'm laying in bed in the morning and I can't convince myself that working out for myself is better than staying in bed for another hour, cozy with my dog, I can tell myself that someone else expects to see me and it would kind of suck for me not to show up. Definitely good motivation :) running in the morning will eventually include some kind of strength training for toning but we are still working on just getting there at 7, which has been difficult with the snowy weather and me not wanting to get out of bed before 6:30, i'm pretty sure I'm allergic to that... I want to reach my goal weight of 145 pounds by the summer because it sounds like I'm going to Germany in April and that seems like a good goal date to work for. I still have to set dates and talk to my bosses but Mike has been planning to make the trip and wants some company. After my adventure in Guatemala last year, I feel like I'm in need of a new adventure for 2011. Hopefully one that doesn't involve angry spirits, volcanos and tropical storms...

Along the lines of fitness goals, I am reigniting my passion for poi and getting back into the habit of practicing so that I can break out of this skill plateau i've been sitting at for 3 years. Going to the gym has given me a chance to try practicing in the unused class studios when I get the chance. Mike wanting to learn also gives me a chance to have someone to bounce ideas off of and go through the fun of just starting out again.

Limiting my hobbies is also a goal for 2011. I have too many things I call hobbies that make it so I'm only above average with anything that I do because I don't dedicate enough time to be better at any of them. the winning three things will be... Drawing, poi and hoop dance. I just picked up hoop dancing this summer and I didn't put enough effort into it at first to make it stick but a couple of weeks ago I signed up for online classes through hoopcity.ca with the amazing SaFire and can't wait to start!

Last year I started my career as a user experience specialist with EatonGolden and I've loved every minute of it. 2010 was all about learning the ropes and getting used to the flow of projects. In 2011, I want to start digging deeper into web strategy by reading more blogs like A List Apart. If I'm really on my game I would start learning programming on my own to make myself even more versatile. The limited HTML and CSS that I know has been useful but I feel like I could do more. Plus, with the iPad I got as a Christmas bonus from work, reading blogs and other knowledge resources is much easier and way more fun. It might even help me update this silly blog more, but don't hold your breath :P

Final goal for 2011... Helping my dog, Sawyer, overcome his socialization challenges so that we can feel comfortable with him around new people, especially men and children. He is a rescue dog so he came with some baggage. This will involve attending obedience classes, taking him to play times and when it's nice out, taking him to dog parks. A measure of this goal being achieved would be earning the canine good citizenship certificate. We took level one in the fall but when the weather got cold and I became busy, I didn't sign up for level two. I haven't been consistent with his training and it hasn't been very fair to him. He's a very smart and very active dog and I need to do more to keep him active and happy. Debbie likes reminding me that I "wanted an active dog"...

2010 was spent learning about what I need to do for myself, how to step out of my comfort zone and how to protect what is sacred to me. I purged a lot of toxic people from my life and as much as it sucked at the time, I couldn't be happier. My credit card debt is essentially gone and my student loans are in a manageable full swing, but money doesn't feel like the evil thing it was just over a year ago. Most of this year was spent being single, and I learned to love it. I overcame some pretty major personal hurdles while figuring out my demons and how to beat them. Dabbling in online dating helped me make a lot of great new friends, but ultimately I realized that i was wasting time on a lot of duds so I deactivated my account. the free time I've enjoyed has been extremely wonderful and not feeling obligated to respond to people is liberating. For the first time since I started dating, I'm okay with being single. Kind of sad, but I'm really happy with this revelation. Just thinking about the progress I've made since this time last year in everything from love to work to money to social life, I'm amazed and grateful for what I have now. I think this year will only be better because now I have a solid foundation to build on, good friends to spend my time with and hobbies that I love doing. Thank you 2010, and welcome 2011!

Overdue Tie Skirt Post

yeah, so remember that tie skirt that I was talking about a couple of months ago? yeah, it's finished and awesome (as it has been for a couple of months...). I fail at updating this thing. purely and utterly fail...but that's okay, usually that just means I have better things to do. That's been mostly true lately...I'll get to that though...first, the promised pictures...

This was me trying something a little different. You can kind of tell from the picture of the front that the ties have been cut open and flattened out to make them extra wide. This also made the skirt considerably lighter weight than my past three skirts, all of which were zig-zag stitched together totally intact with the lining inside. Leaving the lining inside made for some interesting lines and warping since ties are cut on the bias of the fabric. When the ties are stitched together like this, you usually have to use more ties, since the part at the top is a lot narrower.

This new method allowed me to use fewer ties (saving me money) and make a skirt that was more comfortable to wear in the spring/summer. Since many of the silk ties were very light weight (and a little transparent) I lined the skirt inside with a cheap lining fabric. In order to match the flow of the ties, the lining fabric had to be cut unto similar shapes and sewn together to create the lining skirt. Although extremely tedious, this proved to be the way to go, making the skirt and lining flow better together when I move and far more comfortable to wear than if I had just made the lining skirt out of two tapered pieces.

Going with the Spring/Summer feel, I chose brightly colored ties, mostly purples, teals and blues. Also, if you look closely you'll see that every other tie is a stripped one.

I would have to say that this is my new favorite tie skirt. The method was far more time consuming but ultimately very rewarding. The end result was a fun skirt that moves with me and is much sturdier than it's predecessors. It certainly had it's hiccups along the way but it was a great learning experience!

Buried in art supplies

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

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

Macro Assignment

Okay, this is probably going to be just a quick post because it's a busy weekend for me... Graduating in 4 hours, going to Guatemala in less than 72... whee! I still had time for one more assignment before I left the country... This week's assignment was Macro, any medium, any size, any subject...just zoom in really really close. (sorry the photo is a little off with the color but I don't think it would fit in our scanner...)

lion fish fin

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I got to use my inktense pencils again and really test them out. It was challenging to guess how the colors would interact with each other when I got around to using my water brushes because the pencil colors differ from the ink colors once they've been watered down. The image is a zoomed in look at a Lion-fish I photographed at the zoo a few weeks ago. I loved the colors and structure of the fin.

Fun assignment! Back to packing and getting dressed... whee!

Oh, shameless plug... keep track of my ventures in Guatemala at this blog... http://mcadguatemala2010.wordpress.com

Scratchboard: The Peacock

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.

Long overdue update, Job, Travel and Zoos

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...[gallery]

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!

Mannequin Progress and other Adventures

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.

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

Good times...very good times...

Early Images of the Mannequin

So far just making progress on the torso, I'm having way too much fun with this iridescent paint I got yesterday. I can't wait to see how this project evolves from the idea I have in my head to actuality.

I love how I have limbs strewn about my studio, it's been scaring guests and concerning my family for quite some time...but I'm having fun and that's all that matters... :D I haven't named her yet...I'm open to suggestions but it might become more clear after I get more done on her.

This may or may not become a yearly project, depending on A. How long it takes and B. How in love with the final product I am...although I wouldn't be opposed to getting more mannequins in the future. They're really fun canvases and create very exciting opportunities for concepts. I'll have to keep my eyes open for anymore.

I'm going to get back to it before the rest of my paint dries...but I wanted to get some photos up so people know what I'm up to... More to come later!

Paintings...quite a few of them (in various states of completion)

Last week I went to the new Blick store in Edina and spent entirely too much on new painting supplies to celebrate my new free time. Since then, I've painted every night at least...practically all day when I can. I'm having so much fun experimenting and playing again, I don't really care if it isn't good, I'm just enjoying the journey. so here's a sampling of what I've been doing, in various states of completion and goodness... sorry about the crappy light and camera...not much I can do about it. I would say that most of these aren't done yet. but I was too excited not to post something and share what I've been working on. Feedback welcome! [gallery order="DESC" columns="2"]