Hi everyone, just finished my summer school. It was absolutely the most insane thing that I think I have ever done (school-wise that is). So it was a printmaking / bookmaking course and we crammed 16 weeks of classes into 3 weeks. My days at school were 7 hours long, and I would come home and continue working until I couldn't stay awake, then get up the next day and start all over again. The class was 5 days a week, but we had to work 7 days a week to keep up with the homework. It reminded me alot of woking the Gem Show, except somehow I managed not to get deathly sick. Despite the intenseness, it turned out to be one of my favorite classes ever. My instructor (a grad student named Nate) was awesome and let me incorporate my crazy, untraditional bookmaking ideas into my projects. I ended up making a zillion prints (dry etchings and xerox transfers), and total of 3 dummy books (little traditionally bound blank books) and 3 artist books. I am posting images of two of them, but my third one was only about an inch by an inch big, so it did not photograph well. It's unfortunate, because it is really cool and inside it is a poem I wrote about being ant like, and feeling small and out of place in the world, while also trying to maintain individuality. It looks like a miniature hardbound book (has a white cloth cover), with a small ant (plastic, not real) ant attached to the front cover. I wrote all of the text in the drypoint method on plexi-glass, which means it was all scratched into the plexi by hand (it was super tiny writing I might add), and I had to write every thing in reverse. Crazy stuff! So, hopefully this fall I can replace my stupid camera that broke and get a photo of it up. I borrowed a camera to take the other photos, so here they are! Enjoy!
Oh, the quilt looking one is a book, it actually folds up into a book form, but hangs for display. The other one is actually cast from beeswax (which is not advisable on a warm day, as it attracts every bee in the neighborhood), and then bound like a book.
First, congratulations go out to my little brother who will be getting married this summer! I wish you two the best!
Now to more local news. Things are going well. Kermit and I are both sick right now, but it's not too bad. Been trying to take it easy, and even skipped a class or two so I wouldn't make it worse. Mid-terms are coming up and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I do well. I also have two rather crazy projects due, and hopefully I will finish them on time, but we'll see.
It looks like I will be attending school this summer. I was given both a scholarship and a grant by the school recently in order to attend. Hopefully, I will be taking a printmaking course and the Intro to Fiction (this is a how to write fiction course) class I need. I'm really excited about it, and hopefully, this will allow me to graduate a semester early.
There isn't much else going on, but I'll post some more during spring break (in about 2 weeks).
Well, February has arrived in the old pueblo and today I am finding myself in a short sleeve t-shirt and flip-flops. Seems a bit early for this weather, but it does make walking from one end of campus to the other a bit more plesant.:o)
School is going well. I love all of my classes, just hate the schedule. I spend most of my time going to and from school. The gaps between classes are too long to stay on campus, but the time it takes to go home and back really eats into homework and freetime. I find that it is incredibly draining, and by the end of the week and am simply beat. I know several other students that ended up in the same situation, and they feel the same way. Hopefully, next semester will be better.
As I said, my classes are great. Art History/History of Cinema is a blast and I simply love going to this class. My professor is incredible and makes learning art history really fun. The only drawback is that our entire grade is based on 2 exams and some quizzes. There are no papers or homework to help bring up the grade, so if you are a terrible test taker (like myself) you relly have to work at it to get an A. Then my Folklore class, where we are learning about Native American folklore,is a papers only class. Yep, no tests only two papers to get you that A. It seems a bit odd, them being exact opposites, but oh well. Speeking of opposites, my two sculpture classes are taught by two different instructors. One is very laid back and flaky (in a good way), and the other is very regimented and deadline oriented. I am somewhere in between, so I am going a little kookey from the two different teaching styles.
Not much else going on. Meowzer moved in and we got her fixed, and all of her shots. I'm kind of glad she found her way in through that doggy door, because she's pretty nice to have around. I'm just thankful she is the only one to have found her way in! I think Amy (our dog) likes having her around too. They seem to keep each other company when Kermit and I are away.
Well, that's it so guess I'll run for now. Take care everyone, and don't take life too seriously!
Whew, well what can I say. The New Year has arrived and even though we are only at day ten, I have a feeling it's going to be one of those years.
I finally received my school money, and was able to get my books and necessary supplies for the semester. Just in time, as I was officially on the Ramen diet and washing with shampoo. No, seriously, I really was. Anyway, we spent the morning restocking my share of sundries.
Meowser, who I scheduled for a fixin' tomorrow morning, has suddenly gone in heat. Oh my god people, be sure to get your cats fixed! No more than 6 hrs. after I had made the appointment she just flips out starts rollin' around and screamin' like a banshee. Man, she is driving us nuts. Just figures that I would finally get the money to do it and BAM! We have to keep her inside all night (per the vets instructions), and I have no clue how we are going to fall asleep with those blood curdling meeeeeooooooooooows going on. If that wasn't bad enough, I actually started feeling guilty because her big, hottie, man cat has been at the door crying back to her, as if to console his sweetheart. Geez... they're making me feel as if I separated the Romeo and Juliet of cat love. Well.. I felt bad until I remembered that she did go pee on the floor (mind you, as she starred at me with a spiteful look), when I first locked her in the house this evening. Oh well, hopefully all this will be over tomorrow and she won't hate me for it.
On a final note today, I would like to send out a final farewell to my Canon digital camera. A few days ago I found her sitting peacefully on my desk, and when I tried to waken her there was no response. After several minutes of trying to revive her, she was pronounced dead. I will greatly miss her, as I loved her dearly for the four, short years I knew her. Her point and click, auto focus, 10X zoom (sighing as a tear rolls down my face). She will not quickly, nor easily be replaced as she was a truly great camera, and helluv expensive.
So, X-Mas has passed, rather uneventfully I might add. Oh, don't get me wrong, that is a good thing. We had breakfast over at a family friends house (a friend of Kermits Aunt), and it was very nice and quite fun. It's always nice to be around a group of adults who are as goofy as you are. After we ate breakfast, we took a nice long drive away from Tucson (away is always good), then returned home where we proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. Oh, I stand corrected, we did make a nice little dinner. It was a most pleasant day.
Since then I have continued to do, nothing, in preperation for the busy semester I have coming up. My schedule is going to be crazy, but I think it is going to be worth it since I have some fabulous classes. After noumerous changes, I ended up with the following classes: Folklore (this semester it is focused on Native American Folklore), Art History: History of Cinema (couldn't resist this since a good portion is focused on classic horror films. You know, the old B&W ones.), Intermediate Sculpture: Metal & Wood Fabrication, and Intermediate Sculpture: Casting. I may add one more class, but I need to see what I am already getting myself into. The two sculpture classes are going to be overly time consuming, so I don't know if a third studio class is going to be possible. So, that's next semester.
We have no plans for New Years Eve, simply because we just don't do that kind of stuff. We really aren't party people, so it's just another day for us. But, for all you other folks who do, please have fun, but keep it safe!
Well, I am once again going to run. I have more lounging around to do. Tee-hee-hee.
Hi everyone! Well, looks like I'm going to give this blog thing one more try. Perhaps this time around I'll have a little more to talk about, and therefore keep people a little more interested in viewing and participating in it. So, with that said, let's get rollin'.
I think I'll start by just bringing everyone up to date. I just finished my first semester at the university, and although it was a big change from community college, I really liked it. Despite a couple of problems with an instructor, I really enjoyed most of my classes. My poetry instructor, who had originally not seemed to care if some of us knew absolutely nothing about poetry, ended up working very hard with me to improve my work. I wasn't the star poet by far, but by the end I was one of the most improved and got an A in the class. S-w-e-e-t! Art History (Contemporary Art) went well, especially given the fact that my short term memory isn't exactly what it used to be. I normally dread those particular classes, but I really enjoyed learning about Contemporary Art as opposed to the more historical and traditional types. Somehow I actually pulled off an A in that class too. I'm not sure how I managed that miracle, but apparently that extra credit paid off after all. Then there was Fibers class, oh geez, Fibers. All I can say about that class is it was a blast at first, but by the end I dreaded going to class. It's rather sad, because I really like working in that medium, however it's not worth dealing with the professor. I was actually scheduled to take the intermediate level of that class next semester, but dropped it on the last day of school. Oh well, perhaps when I finish school I'll by myself a little loom so I can weave again. Finally, Sculpture class was AWESOME!!! I learned how to work with wood, metal, and also cast metal. I cannot tell you how much fun (and hard work) this class was. I have also discovered that there is nothing more exciting than having a little danger and risk involved in producing your art.
The only break I got for the semester was a short trip to Flagstaff in late October. It couldn't have come at a better time, as I was burned out from school work and needed the break. We went camping for several days and got to enjoy the colorful autumn leaves and chilly temperatures (below freezing at night) to boot. It was great and quite the inspiration I needed for the final project I did in my sculpture class. It was a book encased in a cast bronze sculptured box, and the book contained a poem I wrote titled Autumn.
Now before I forget, we (Kermit and I) have a new critter running around the house. Her name is Meowser, and she's a sweetie. She is actually a stray cat that I started feeding around the end of summer. She was really skittish, but over the course of time she began to let us pet her and eventually made her home out in the backyard. At that point in time Meowser began to join us for breakfast every morning at the patio table. Not surprisingly, being the highly intelligent feline she is, she found Amy's doggie door one day. It just so happened that Kermit was at work, and I was at school when she discovered that she could get inside. So, to make a long story short I arrived back home after classes one day, opened the door and there was Amy trotting up to the door to greet me with Meowser right by her side. I must admit it was really cute and quite funny as well. At first Kermit and I weren't exactly pleased to have her coming indoors, but she was quite intent on moving in with us whether we liked it or not. She started bringing us little gifts to win over our hearts, a lizard here, a moth there, all of which were live and all of which I would have to scoop up and release back outside. Lucky for her she is really sweet, doesn't require a litter box, and not your stereotypical cat... so we decided to let her stay. Winning over Amy was a bit more difficult for her, and I noticed that she started bringing Amy little gifts. Although we would find both her and the cat curled up on the bed together, Amy would still occasionally growl and snip at her. Of course you can't blame her, because she had been the center of attention in the house until that darn cat started coming in. So good 'ole Meowser, apparently in a last ditch effort to win Amy's affection, went for something a little more sizable and suited to Amy's taste buds. We returned home late one afternoon to a floor littered with feathers and a partially chewed, lump of a bird on one of Amy's beds. O.K., it was really gross and I really hope that's the last time that happens, but they seem to get along really well now.
Well, I suppose that's it for now. Happy Holiday's to you all and check back soon!
