Fresh

Currently, I am working on a books about people in my life and how they relate to other objects and obstructions. I have done a lot of prints in my printmaking class working with typical tree subject matter, as well as my blind contour work. My favorite is a piece of my brother represented as an idol.

Almost October

It's almost October. I've almost made it through the first month of school. A huge project marks my one month anniversary of school, which is totally lame, but I will be done with it then and as my mother says, "done is good" and "it's not finished until it's in your backpack." Though, the latter quote has nothing to do with this post at all.

Aside from my huge project of an essay and a powerpoint (the two things i am literally the WORST at, three if you add in that whole public speaking thang), I am working on books and prints. Not too much painting going on, but my research makes me want to paint so bad, so it sucks that I barely have time to do so. I make some occasionally, like today. So I thought I would throw up a piece I did a few weeks ago, see below. It's a mix of my drawing and painting. I am working on smooshing all of my interests together. I'm still working on the whole painting and book thing, which you think would be easy, but I am having trouble using my style in my book work, so go figure.

Today, I am working on a portrait of my dad in a more messy style. I need to kind of sit down and get a grip for my senior show next year adn my junior review this year, but for now I guess I am still messing around.

Giant Book!

This summer, I worked as an Education Intern at the Children's Creativity Museum. It was a fabulous experience, both because it was fun and it taught me a lot. We are involved in a lot of tasks, but they are still only a few in the myriad of tasks it takes to run the museum. And not only were us interns working and teaching kids, but we were also learning, from the educators, the kids, and our mistakes. I walked in petrified, but just kept going through all my fumbles-failing forward, if you will-right til the end when I was horrified that it was ending.

Among designing workshops for kids, running the workshops, running the Innovation Lab, attempting to co-ordinate groups, and working in the Imagination Lab, I found Early Birdles. Early Birdles is the morning early childhood development class, which I got to assist the lovely leaders Emmy and Eli with. We have story time, free time, and music time. It involves a lot of singing and dancing and being silly. Amid all the growth I gained from this job from brainstorming to how to approach kids, I personally grew the most from assisting with Early Birdles from putting myself out there, silliness and all, in front of people. It also cheered me up every time I did it, even on days where acting out the story just doesn't seem appealing.

When I arrived, we were encouraged to take on a personal project beyond the regular tasks. I felt awkward and stuck like usual, but then I overheard Eli talking about how he wanted to vamp up the giant storybook we use in Early Birdles, which is opened to two blank pages that are filled with random pictures so that the leaders use to make up a new story every day. I love bookmaking, so I asked if I could take on the challenge and was granted permission. I brainstormed for a long time, I drew up what I thought it would be like. Then I interview both leaders to see what they thought would be useful and we came up with great ways to revamp the book to the next generation. So add a few weeks, a long day of brainstorming and prepping with help from my mother, and I flung myself headlong into the book and finished in a few days. Below is my final product, complete with two magnetic whiteboards, giving the story tellers plenty of options, as well as a storage container in the top of the box for the pieces to live. The cover is adorned with the blue Birdles and Ah-ha, characters from the museum that pertain to Early Birdles.

I am proud of the accomplishment and so grateful for the support and freedom to pursue this from the staff at CCM. Though I may see some technical flaws in my work, I really am happy with how it turned out, especially since it is so freaking big at 2 feet wide by three feet tall by about 8 inches deep! Below are some pictures illustrating the book and its aspects, as well as some pictures of it in the context of the Early Birdles space and action!

 

 

Summer 2012 Update

So my summer after sophomore year is winding down now; two more weeks until school begins again. It started off with a three week travel course to Iceland (picture below), which was absolutely fabulous. We spent a lot of time working on art, especially the two weeks we spent at a Horse Farm on the Snaefellsness Peninsula.

Once back in California, I started an internship at Children's Creativity Museum. Highlights there were the great people and I hope to continue volunteering there. I just finished up making a new huge storybook for the early childhood program, Early Birdles (see the picture below). In the program, the leader tells a story that they make up on the spot based on pictures stuck in the big book. The current one is made of cardboard and felt with velcro pictures, the book I just made features two magnetic whiteboards. The kids will put magnets up now and the leader can choose to add drawn pictures and symbols to enhance the story.

After Iceland, it took me a little time, but I got myself back into doing some artwork, mainly sketchbook work, but also a few paintings.
Now, I am beginning to face the idea of my senior thesis because I had a crazy brainstorm and I might just run with it. On top of that I am working on offering portrait and greeting card services. More soon!

Miracles?

This weekend I drew up a plan for my illustration project which ultimately will be a print. I was going to do a linoleum cut relief print because I have a ton of linoleum, but as I was cutting a piece to carve tomorrow, I was wistfully thinking about doing a woodcut. Then I looked down and saw a woodblock from high school that had a free side to carve and turned out to be the exact size i need for my print. Success!

Painting

I finally got around to photographing a few pieces I am working on or finished with. The first is a child from an advertisement that was inspired by Marlene Dumas. The second is a figure study from painting class of an hour of hour and a half pose. I have been focusing on painting loosely and hopefully someday get better at working thicker, but it has not been in the cards for me yet. Later on, I think I might switch to oils instead of acrylic or maybe work with a mix, by laying a ground of acrylic and then working over it with oil.

Blind

Today I went to an extra session with a model at school. I was uptight for a while because I had no teacher telling me what to do and I was tired, so I was definitely lagging. Finally, I started doing blind contours again and it felt like home. Sure, they are wonky. They are also like magical pills of relaxation for me. Plus this one turned out pretty cool.

Secondly, I have finally decided on a major, for reals this time. I am going to be a Painting/Drawing major because it is what I have always done. I will continue to experiment as much as I can and I am taking Painting/Drawing as loose terms. Woohoo!

Sweet Spring Semester

It's finally raining!

It's also raining projects, good, sweet projects. I am going into the second week of my second semester at CCA and I am really happy working (let's hope it carries out throughout the semester!)

There's a big change brewing as i am undecided about my major. Last semester I was working in clay under my ceramics major title. Over Christmas break I realized that was not what made me content, though I did really enjoy it. so as of now I am just having fun for a semester before I decide which major to stick to: ceramics, illustration, or painting/drawing.

I am exploring through a painting 1, illustration 1, and bookmaking 1 class. bookmaking is making me wildly happy so far. I love learning how to actually bind books and am already employing my few print skills from high school to make teeny lino prints for a project.

Below is the beginning stage of a piece I did over my winter break, part of my realization that I missed painting and drawing. Second is an in the process shot of my color chart for my painting class. I wanted to make it fun, so I did a Fibonacci spiral and put circles along it. Lastly, a few of the first teeny prints. I can't wait to work on them more tomorrow!

Still Life

Here's the still life from my intro to ceramics class. It's about how childhood gets pushed down inside of us. The outside is meant to be neutral colored and the now, and inside this older set of drawers there are colorful innards based off of a Gustav Klimt's painting, The Kiss, full of substitutions of toys that I used to play with when I was young. The corner that is break apart is the transition between the two, how sometimes the kid inside of us creeps out.