Listening to Music Calms You.

The Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack is so soothing and calm... and sad, bittersweet. I listen to the track "A Princess" and think of the film, visualize everything that does go on, and how in this piece of music, towards the end, you can hear Ofella's last bit of breath before she dies. Or maybe I'm imagining things. No, I hear it.

When I hear this piece, I imagine myself months from now and think of my last breath before I enter the room for orals, my last breath before I get questioned and the breath after I answer the first, the first breath when I leave the room, the first breath I make when I hear the door open... and then what? Either a breath of joy or one of sorrow. Maybe I shouldn't be thinking of things like this, especially now, but I overthink, I think into the future a lot. It's just who I am. I like to be prepared and I like to dream, especially daydream.

What's on my plate, especially for next week? Make collagraph plates, plan/design collagraph, finish paintings, work more on paintings, work on unifying a show, work on figuring out your space, work on updated bib for my mini-thesis, work on researching mini-thesis, work on digital media project, work on digital media homework, work on having fun and hanging out with friends.... the list goes on, and really, I don't HAVE to do all of that next week, some yes, but not all, in fact some things will take more time.

Maybe I still am an overachiever. Maybe I do work best under pressure. Maybe I worry and look ahead too much. Maybe I need to slow down. All I know is that I'm an addict to my studio. And that's why I'm about to go back.

Maybe the more work and more fun I have the better I'll be able to figure things out, work a lot, but have fun to take time to step away and come back fresh. I didn't have much fun today so to speak, but I am an addict. Off to my fortress.

Titles.

The more and more I look at my paintings, the more and more I try to name them. It's crazy, but I see my paintings as children in a way, I am the one who creates and develops them, therefore they are a part of me, and I have a right -- more so need -- to name them. Now I suppose I have a ways to go before I name all my pieces, I should even finish them maybe before I name them... but then again, the longer I wait to think about it, the closer it will get to my show, and the harder it will to name them to the point where it could be rushed. This was the situation I fell into before Synopsis; though I did like some of the names, they felt rushed or even too cliche. I want to avoid that this around. Even though I still have other major things to worry about, framing, space, etc. this is something I want to start considering, and by using a title perhaps I can allow that to help influence the development of the piece, give more direction.

This is just one little thing that will help everything else fall into place.

Intro to Digital Media

Or as I like to call it, Crossing-the-Digital-Hurdle-and-Remembering-Stuff-From-Years-Ago.

My experience with digital media is very limited. In 8th grade I did Yearbook, but really I ended updating the school's A and A/B Honor Roll list. You best believe I choose fun texts, crazy colors, used free backgrounds, and even did a marquee here and there. Looking back, I can only imagine how tacky those webpages were. To get out of taking a year and a half of something computer related, in high school (honestly, I forget the requirement), I took Webmastery and worked on very few things. Mostly I searched the web after doing what I was supposed to do, but we never had much to do. I did learn some basics of photoshop, and years later I did take AP Photo though I wasn't using it as my sole medium, but I did do some digital projects. Add random livejournal (yes I had/have one), myspace, and other random blogs, I do in fact have some experience of codes and creating things for the web. I don't know how much of that will come in handy, but I hope some of it does.

Of course, I am the only undergrad in the class, as the other 6 are grads, but thankfully, I know and love them all. I'm excited that my advisor is teaching it too. To be honest, it all does seem overwhelming, but I know I will learn a lot as I struggle to decide if the professional art world is my place, I hope it is, or at least part of it. I have said that I do not seek fame or fortune, I seek to help and inspire others---part of the reason I want to teach, but I want to explore my passion for my field as well, and being in galleries and shows is a part of that. I look forward to working and learning about all these things that are so complex, but I know it will only help me.

On the plus side, we're going to work on making our own websites, EXCITEMENT! Given some of the grads already have one, but still, some of us don't and it's perfect timing before my show goes up to learn all these handy things, in the hopes that by May I can hand out business cards with my own name and site... a huge step into that professional world. I hope I can just pull it all off.

Overall, knowing all this web stuff, is only going to increase my knowledge, and nerdiness. Cool points to me.

Absolutely Freezing

It is absolutely freezing outside. All I can think about is going out to paint. It's maybe a 10 min or less walk, but in the below freezing weather, I question if it is really worth risking a chance of getting sick. I have a sketchbook and pencils and though I desire my studio, I could always draw and develop ideas at home, leading me to be more prepared in the studio. However it is not fun considering I spent some time yesterday painting a new background for a new piece:

This is actually a cool pic... my paintbrush looks ghostly. It's alive and well though. It sadly may not be active today. Though I might just have to brave this 26 degree weather. That's what a passionate person does sometimes.

Happy New Year (belated)

Being home with no internet access on your personal laptop is not fun. Though a netbook had internet, it's so small that it's hard to work with a site. Thus I am back in the Dallas area and ready to post more updates. I'm hoping to do more customization to this blogspot. Aside from that, I finally posted my artist statement, and hopefully post some images of prints that I've done, and links to artist websites that are friends of mine or of things that interest me.

The possible art of the artist statement.

You know when you go to a gallery and there's information about the artist and you sit or stand there and read it? Especially if you are a nerd like me? Well, I have two and a half hours to touch up my own artist statement, and all I can think of is how difficult it is to express into words what your visual images are about! This artist statement is not likely to be shown at my show, y'know, the let art speak for itself, but knowing how to do something like this is important for future shows and competitions etc. What's worse is that I consider writing another hobby, though I don't get to do it as much if at all.

As you can see from the top, there is a new page titled Artist Statement; it has not been posted yet, but it will be, along with pieces I have been working on. I also thought about getting a flickr account for more and better viewing of my work instead uploading everything here. I don't know yet.

For now I'll just sip my coffee and write away.

Almost a Month

I am obviously not doing a good job of keeping up with this... I promise more pics soon and better updates, in the mean time I have a ton to do before finals week... once this coming week, the last week of classes, I'll be so much more relaxed. Honestly, I'm not too worried about my finals. I just need to take care of things.

On the good news, I had comps last month and I passed. That's a relief, I knew I would, but still, there's always a bit of doubt and second guessing after turning it in. Luckily I was right on this one.

So what's to come? Paintings and Prints! Maybe even more in studio pics! Who knows, but next semester with me taking all art classes I'll hopefully post more and be a bit more relaxed, though really I'll be massively stressed out.