more of my assignments from last term

mixed media on braced panel
20"x24"



acrylic on braced panel
24"x26"
-- i'm not totally happy with this but had to stop and hand it in anyway. i think the white eyes are a little much. will keep working on it and post updates when i get a chance



egg tempera on masonite panel
7"x10"

the first day of the rest of my life

Day 1 of NaBloPoMo...ahem...

Hai!!!

So anyway, the loft is sold! What a relief.

Except for fact that as of November 27th, we are moving in with my parents.

Sigh. I know.

I said I'd never do it. But we ARE doing it.

I mean, how hard could it be to find the perfect balance of price, size and location for a live/work space in the city? It's fucking impossible is what it is. At least, it's beginning to feel that way. The only real good house we've seen, and tried to bid on, sold for 70K over it's asking price. I guess that's why they call it a seller's market.

We're basically putting our stuff in storage and moving there until we can find a new place, buy it and move into it.

Anyway, let's forget about all that for a few moments. Let's contemplate some artwork completed for my 2nd-year painting studio course.


acrylic mediums and techniques study.
acrylic paint on canvas
4'x4'


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


collage study
7"x9"
old magazines, japanese papers and acrylic paint on canvas board


20"x26"
acrylic paint on braced wood panel


study in observation and transfer of a scaled up image onto a solid ground.


So....whatchu think?

one more assignment done...

Kirk and I have been dreaming up fancy houses we would love to live in. So here it is:




Wanna see the whole fabrication process with slideshow-y goodness?

closer to the bone

Ink and pencil on paper.
18" x 24"

SUBJECT: Using a split-image format, based on the Golden section, create a juxtaposition (visual and conceptual) by drawing 2 parallel images - one a description of part of a human skeleton, and one image is selected from another context. Consider the comparison and contrast of the elements - analogy, metaphor, symbols, etc.

CRITERIA/MATERIALS: 1 of 2 images may include colour. Tonal structure may be pre- or post-Titian. Variety of chalks, conte, ink, pencil. Minimum 18" x 24".

holy crap! i'm a 34C!

Since school started, my sleeping schedule is all over the place, so I basically eat smaller meals whenever I'm hungry, which is about every 2-4 hours. I've also been a weight training once a week with my personal trainer brother.



Last fall, and now that the snow has finally melted, I've been riding my bike 4 times a week to and from school which ends up being 10-15 minutes each way.



Just one year ago I was a 38D and 2 dress sizes bigger. I also pretty much sat on my ass all day at a desk, sometimes in front of a computer that I shared with 3 other people.



These are shots from the last project I submitted to my Art and Design in the Social Sphere class.


SUBJECT: Create a recording of something. Interpret the word "recording" as you see fit. This could mean a literal recording, a trace, data analysis, a copy, etc...

CRITERIA/MATERIALS: Format and materials are open.

MY INTERPRETATION:


'7 DAYS'
mixed media on canvas
32" x 36"

I saved 7-days worth of packaging and non-perishable trash from whatever I bought or finished and used a glue gun to collage it to an old canvas I had lying around as a record of my consumption.

Art and Design in the Social Sphere - Project#2

Art as a collaborative effort between producer and viewer/receiver.


I handed out hand made Valentine's Day cards to everyone in my class, as an example of the practice that often happened when I was in grade school where we had to hand out Valentines to everyone in the class, whether you liked them or not, just to be sure no one would felt left out. How we were, in some ways, being brainwashed into buying into the bullshit concepts of romantic love. Seriously, no wonder so many people want what they can't have, or think that that's the only kind of real love there is.

Inside each card was a quotation about the notion of love in a few different contexts, minus the romantic aspect. The crass commercialization that is displayed every February nauseates me, but I didn't want to the project to be too cynical about it either. My hope was to provoke in the receivers some kind of thoughts about what love meant to them.

OK. So, it was kinda simplistic, but the idea was to present a prototype of a larger project I could do outside of the school setting, with enough time and effort, based on the ideas of unconditional love and random acts of kindness. I could randomly pick names out of the phone book, take their address and send them a pretty handmade card on Valentines Day (or any other holiday or for no reason, really), with no expectations for anything in return. Since I didn't sign them, I told my classmates that they were free to pass the cards on to anyone they wanted, sort of paying it forward (so to speak).

Anyway, it's giving me a few ideas of a couple of collaborative projects I can do with the great folks I've met through blogging. That means you!

I'm still working it out, so stay tuned for that.

you are what you eat

This is my third assignment for my Form and Structure course, and it's due tonight. The assignment was called 'The Body'. The guidelines were:

1. The structure of your work can either be a fragment of the body OR a relationship/association created between 2 or more body parts.
2. Your completed broject will focus on, and be expressive of, a theme/idea/meaning
3. Your sculpture can be abstract/representational/self-contained/assemblage/installation/personal/political
4. Materials suggested: mould-making medium, plaster, plaster bandage, air-drying clay, sculpy, wax, wood, fabric, organic materials, etc.

SO, the idea I wanted to explore (as this post title suggests) was 'you are what you eat' in relation to how little we think about all the invisible stuff (fertilizers, pesticides, hormones) we put into our bodies when we consume seemingly innocuous foods, like fruits and vegetables. This is exemplified in the fingers that are bitten off along with the apple, as if the "biter" didn't notice. This also touches on the theme of the psychological impact of the mindless consumerism western culture, which is on my mind a lot lately with Christmas coming up, and me not having much money to spend. In fact, Kirk and I are considering making it a Buy Nothing Christmas.

Anyway, I really wish I had taken pictures of the whole process for ya'll. Instead I'll just tell you how I did it. I used alginate to make a 'negative' mold of my friend Melissa's hand, holding an apple, sans bite. Then I made a 2-part plaster bandage shell to hold it all together while it set. The shell also allows for you to pour your material to make your 'positive'. We then melted down some oil-based clay and poured it into the alginate/plaster bandage mould and poured it in. Once it was set, we pulled off the mould and had a great clay positive of my sculpture.

Then Melissa took a few bites out of the clay (yuk) and I used some hand tools to clean it all up. Then we repeated the alginate/plaster bandage process to make a new negative to pour the hydrocal (white gyspum cement) into. When the hydrocal started to set, we inserted a 3/4" wood dowel into the base, for mounting, and let it dry overnight. During the curing process, the dowel expanded with the moisture and heat and unfortunately cracked the base below the wrist. So I had to mix up some more hydrocal and work it into the cracks. Next time I'll remember to use a metal rod.

Once it was all dry, I sanded it and used spray primer to get it as white as I could. Kirk helped me make a plywood base (phew!) and I primed that as well. Last night I put it all together and this morning I epoxied in a real apple stem that I also had primed, and VOILA! Done, aaaaand done.

Ok. I'm off to school to present it to my class, where I will endure all manner of critique. Wish me luck!