most pointless invention. ever.

the seajogger

now, peanut butter and jelly sammiches!

it's like an ant farm, but with squirrels!

This is currently in the front window of the cottage:











Please note: In the video, we were watching Ideocracy, which is the loud sound you hear in the background. It was kinda lame. The squirrels were more fun to watch.

killer cuteness!

Good Morning Noon

Good Morning Noon, originally uploaded by snailbooty.

So I finally got all my marks and my final average is an 83! I was really happy. I ended up with a 94 in critical theory!

Yesterday I started summer school and really like the instructor. Thank goodness because I'm going to have her in June for the next class. So this one now is called Contemporary Issues: Art Today and it runs until the end of June. Here's the description:

This introductory studio-seminar course exposes students to some of the issues, theories, conceptual and formal strategies that inform contemporary art practice. This specific offering concentrates on drawing and painting with reference to other media. Each weekly seminar explores current ideas and discourses through some of the following: presentations of artists’ works, analysis of assigned readings, and students’ presentations of their own projects.

1313 Mockingbird Lane, originally uploaded by snailbooty.

The next one is a 3 week intensive course called Painting and Digital Imaging. I'm super stoked to take it, but am a little nervous about having a painting assignment due for each class. Here's the description:

The capacity to manipulate and synthesize images digitally from a vast number of sources allows artists increased latitude in generating ideas for paintings. In this studio/lab-based course, students use the computers, digital cameras and scanners to gather images and create compositions for their paintings. Through a combination of painting and digital experiments, students explore a range of possibilities for expanding the painter's vocabulary.


I've got a shitload of old photos and some crap from my teen years that I'll probably work into paintings. I also have a whole box of slides we found at Goodwill last summer that I'm going to try and use.

side dish, originally uploaded by snailbooty.

Then from the end of June to the first week of August I'll be taking History of Modern Art. Here's the description:

This lecture course surveys major artistic movements and artists from the 1860s to the 1970s. We begin by examining the roots of Modernism and proceed to a consideration of movements such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism. We then examine Duchamp and the Armory Show of 1913 to illustrate the influence of the early-20th-century European avant-garde on North American art and aesthetics, particularly Abstract Expressionism. We conclude with a discussion of mid-20th-century art movements, including British and American Pop, Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Performance, Land-based Art and Post-Minimalism.

This will probably end up being mostly essays and exams, and I have a friend taking it as well, so it'll be good to have someone to study with.

hush puppy, originally uploaded by snailbooty.

I have so many photos from my first year drawing class that I just haven't had time to tweak and upload yet but I'll get to it eventually.

OH last night I started a dance class.

A hip hop dance class.

...

STOP LAUGHING I'm serious!!!!

Katie Hip-Hop Dance - Delmar Loop 9, originally uploaded by kocojim.

I haven't taken a dance class since I was 9 years old and even then it was Royal Conservatory Ballet - ugh. I do love shaking my ass on the dance floor (the 2 times a year I actually go out dancing) so I thought what better way to get in shape an learn some new moves.

My ass and obliques are KILLING today though, ya'll. Maybe by the end of the class in June I'll have the balls to tape myself dancing and share it with you.

Maybe.

P.S. Here's a shot of a sculpture that I made last November. Just totally forgot to post photos of it!

Borderline Normal

Freudlo, originally uploaded by Tommykane.

I was supposed to check out a facebook-induced event last night at Kalendar, but ended up feeling all headache-y from my allergies so I wimped out and stayed home. Which is also why I'm inside writing this, rather than sitting on my deck, soaking up the sunshine. Sigh.

For the last 4 months, our condo looked as though an art supply store birthed a giant poo baby who wouldn't stop spontaneously pooing all over the place. I've never let my home get as dirty as I did this past school year. I spent the whole day yesterday organizing all the loft junk into an semi-cool workspace. Now that I've been at school, I finally have a sense of what kind of stuff I need to effectively complete homework without having everything everywhere.

Now that things are organized, I need to spend a couple of hours actually cleaning it. But I don't really feel like it. So, I'm online enjoying my flickr contacts' photos. I think I'm in love with Tommykane's sketchbook.

Good news: I'm a golden baby

So, my marks are starting to come in. I'm still waiting on 3 courses but the verdict thus far, is an A!!!! That is because:

A. I'm a super, academically-inclined, mega-geek,

and

B. I'm a mature student.

Most of my peers were born in the 80s, and next year they'll be kids born in 1990. They have not really known a world without cellphones, computers, the Internet or the Simpsons. They're still sorting out the whole "growing up" thing. This is my killer advantage.

It's amazing how well you can perform when you have already experienced over a decade's worth of sometimes well-intentioned yet mostly unconsidered critiques of your work from 10-20 different boss/manager types.

I'm not at university to please my parents, to get a higher paying job or even to get institutional permission to call myself an artist. I'm there to learn as much as I can about approaches to materials, history, techniques and theory and to interact, network and collaborate with teachers, students and others as much as possible.

Even though I remember pre-VCR, I am certainly a TV baby, having learned to privilege visual experiences over others. I guess, in that respect we often find common ground and can be friends (facebook is eating my soul!!!!).

Anyway, there's nothing that could convince me to go back in time and relive years 17 through 23.

Ok, MAYBE if I had to save the world from a robot war or nuclear winter or something.

Bad news: R.I.P. Abigail

Abigail a.k.a Abby a.k.a. The Fluff a.k.a. Princess Prettypaws who, for the last couple of months, had been suffering from a giant, weepy cancerous tumor in her mouth, was put to sleep yesterday, in her home, with her loving family Melissa and Melissa (people), Freezer, Kiku, Shammie and Killer (cats).