I wasn't expecting my dashboard to fill with new stac blog posts. Good job, little artists!

I have been relaxed with my work, but I have time to get on it A busy semester awaits. A busy, paper-eating semester (between animation and screenwriting).

I have, however, found a new love in friendship bracelets. I brought some cotton thread with me to school and weaving has just been an amazing stress relief. Plus I've been using manual dexterity in almost every class this year, so it's good practice. Plus it's great procrastination. And a calm-down from the focusing energy of my work.

Some LCD work

These are all from the last 3 weeks, selected works. Oil paint, unless otherwise noted. We did Chiaroscoro, Cangiantismo, and Sfumato in the same month. Chiaroscoro bottles from life, Cangiantismo indoor/outdoor scenery, and Sfumato self-portraits.
Okay. Chiaroscuro: bottles, abstract with same palate. Cangiantismo: stained glass flower design (gouache on paper, then cut and pasted), indoor/outdoor painting. Sfumato self-portrait in a grid. And last is the case I made, so that I can carry wet oil paintings from my class to my room without getting everything ruined. It's made of a Crispix box, corrugated and pressed cardboard, duct tape, rubber cement, and masking tape. It can hold six 11" x 9" pieces.

Grout

Imagine a mosaic made with pony beads instead of tiles. That will be the outside of my children's chair 3D final. I did a sample of the effect.


It actually came out amazing. And now I'm waiting for my shipment of 1000 beads. 50 beads covers 6" x 1", so I have no idea how many I need, but it's more than 1000. 1000 covers what?
12" x 1", 100
12" x 12", 1200.
Oh. No. I hope I'm wrong. I don't think I am. If 1000 doesn't even cover a foot square. I may need 5000. I may need more than that. Alrighty. Let's do the impossible.

A model and a bead-snake

I made a half-scale model of my children's chair design, out of illustration board and hot glue.
It is one of the most solid things I've made, ever.

I also got a pack of beads, and took all the small ones and made a snake. They don't look like the small ones, because they are in the same proportion as pony beads, but they are. Penny for size reference.

Also a few dots of you-need-to-clean-your-scanner.

I haven't been here for a while, mainly because I found facebook, and I'm busy fretting about not doing anything.

But, I'm a bit worried for college. It's uncertain, and that makes me nervous. Today, I cooked potatoes, baked brownies, drove, went on an exercise bike, and tied yarn around clothes hangers. I'm still nervous, so I've started marking my brush collection with nail-polish. If this is not enough, I'll continue making a new sketchbook, or I'll paint, or I'll continue weaving a friendship bracelet.

All I can do to keep me from pulling my hair out. Hand-repetition calms me. I wish I could make a job out of that.

Workshop 4, Karl, and Passion, and a Lingerie Commercial

Listening: Clementine, Decemberists, Castaways and Cutouts


I actually got a lot done this workshop. I came in with a plan and I worked on it. I don't know if it was a good idea to come in with a straight idea, but listening to Karl talk with other people at my table helped, and I made a mock-up. I also ripped my paper, folded my signatures (I have 8), and put them under weight. My book may be as much as 1 1/2 inches thick. Oops. That's okay. I need to work on the outside cover of my book next week, which means cutting apart a pair of jeans. I'm making a watercolor sketchbook.


Luke keeps asking people 'what's your passion?', what do you really want to work on? I've spent this half of the year working with my hands. My original practice was sewing, and now it's cooking, and I'm making an armature model for my project. Craft things, hand-working things, small repetitive hand motions I can concentrate on.


And I read on CNN about LaneBryant's Lingerie Commercial. It isn't clear what happened, but the commercial didn't air during the time it was supposed to, because it was too racy. I don't like The View or whatever that's called on CNN, each person takes a biased view and they can't be in total opposition because they have to look good. I love the commercial, I love the support it's getting on youtube's comments, and I wish more people could see it.
     This, in comparison with a New York Times magazine article about how "food is never just food", and watching what you and your child eats and talking to them about food and exercise and weight, but having them be healthy. This is too much for little girls. Just enjoy yourself.

Merry Christmas Eve.

During the snowstorm, George tried to eat everything. Then he got tired.


I haven't touched my computer in a few days, and I'm not suffering withdrawal. I think I'm going to cut my computer time in half and read more. I have to finish Treasure Island, finish Lord of the Rings, read the 5th Ranger's Apprentice book, read Storm Thief again, read more art books, read philosophies, read some biology theory books from the library, steal the AP Lit book list. Start my own classical education.


Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. I love it. I love the intellectual art, the art that doesn't have extreme emotional attachments. It's like an illustration of an idea. I loved most of all the painting with clouds and shapes in the 6 primary and secondary colors. It was textbook perfect.


Shostagigi was amazing, people. Everyone thought about their gift, we spent the whole time laughing, and Luke got his gift (that was the nicest wrapping ever). The hats and codpieces were amazing, so you guys have to do it next year.


This is the Penguin-Viking hat from Shostagigi, and its plans. I like the way it came out, and I don't expect to be sitting on a shelf for years. Don't feel bad throwing it out.
The hat is based on a Barbute, a type of helmet used in Italy in the 16th century. It was also used in the Lord of the Rings movies as the standard for the Gondor armor.

I love the model for the planned hat. It was a Holden Caufield hat, shaped like a penguin.

Vampires Kill From Above.

Let the Right One In.
I'm still thinking about the movie. I want to see it again. Rewind and watch again. Go to the parts I've forgotten and the parts I really won't forget. whoa cliche. I love after Oskar cuts his hand and offers it with the stupidest smile. I was almost crying when the blonde bully starts crying because he can't handle it. I don't think the other bully (not Conny) deserved it. I felt bad for Hakal when he couldn't please Eli, he couldn't do right, and he could never receive affection from her. That relationship was so one-sided.


I don't really like horror movies, but it isn't horror. I'm okay with the violence. The worst parts are before when someone gets eaten.


I'm not reading all the other blogs yet. I saw most of this movie off youtube, because I had to leave on wednesday. And then i had to sleep, to I saw the last 20 minutes half-asleep wed. night. I need sleep now.


Overall, for the movie, I was cringing in anticipated terror most of the time. I need to see it again. And I love non-sexual nudity, especially in movies. American culture is so scared of nudity, but I'm drawing nude people every weekend.


The Questions are momentarily lost. I don't think I brought them home.

Feast on Boston Market

One of my goals this year is to build a suit of armor out of cardboard. This comes with all sorts of problems in a lot of different areas, which is what I want to solve. I don't usually work in the third dimension, either.
   And today, I made a left vambrace, which is a fore-arm guard. And it fits. And I can't wait to make the other side.


STAC Nostalgia-Fest, 2009. Amazing. I realized, once again, that I was sitting sort of outside the 'group' But I was okay with that. Usually at parties I end up in a similar position. I was thinking about why I wasn't ecstatically hugging everyone, and then I realized that I didn't think of them as 'gone'. They were still part of stac because of our memories of them. They just moved to somewhere else. I wasn't surprised, I was more at ease. These are people I know. I'm comfortable around them. 


This weekend is essay-writing and Rilke-reading. Describing myself in writing. Coherent, english writing.


Sketchbook page of armor-figurings. The legs are going to be interesting. I just realized that the left thigh is much longer than the right thigh in the main picture.

I've been getting into cardboard. Today, I found a cardboard piece shaped like a life-size R2D2, which means I will be painting, in neon. I would love to have a glow-in-the-dark painting.


I also am collecting cardboard for a bigger project, a full suit of armor, made of cardboard. I hope I can get a trip to the Met Museum to take notes on armor. I've always loved knights and cardboard is cheap. I'll make plans, do research, and start after the children's show.

In my research thusfar, I have found The Cardboard Tube Fighting League. The world is a better place because this exists.