Make Up For Lost Time
I missed last week’s post; I was archiving with Molly and simply didn’t have time. I probably should have realized; it’s always really busy before vacations of any sort, Thanksgiving included.
Drawing: We took two classes for little sketches and such. No giant drawings. I liked going back to gestures again; it feels less stressful. Or at least it did before Gabe had us do an exercise focusing more on form than line. My brain pretty much crashed and I wasted two sheets of paper and got extremely frustrated before I got a result I could live with. I usually draw very systematically first because proportion is one of my greatest weaknesses. However, focusing on form made that technique pretty much impossible, so I was dead in the water for a while. This week we’re working on self portraits. It’s different than anything I’ve done before because we’re incorporating pieces of shredded brown paper to make the drawing look more like a collage. I work pretty slowly. As contrast, Katia, one of my class’s drawing geniuses, already finished. I look to her partly as a role model and a rival. Rival in a good way, I mean, like someone to compete with (Tangent: when I think of ‘rival’ I think of Kenshin and Shingen and the salt episode: rather, compete through honorable engagements and without spite). I’m hoping it will drive me to produce better work. So far it’s been so-so.
Printmaking: We learned how to mat and matted a few of our earlier prints. For those of you not familiar with matting, it’s basically a frame made out of mat board-hence ‘matting’. After that, we produced a piece with three of the processes we learned this year. I used gum Arabic transfer, an acid transfer, and monoprinting. I produced two prints with the same subject matter. One boarder was produced with a ghost of a stencil and the other was a direct print, produced simply by drawing on an inked plate with a cuetip. After vacation we’re going to do our final project-create twenty five prints-and pass them out to the class as mementos.
Western Art 1: I passed in my paper. I didn’t get a grade on it yet. I’m less worried, which is probably jinxing me (oh well). We’ve moved from Christian Byzantine Art to Medieval and Romanesque. I have no idea why we jumped over Islamic. Afsan said we’re going to backtrack, but still it’s a bit weird. I’m glad I held off on the reading.
Sociology: The usual hat: we’re going through cases. I posted my homework on blackboard and wrote a rough draft for the paper. It’s not due until the tenth, but I’d rather get it down while it’s fresh in my head.
Imaging: We finished up scale and moved ahead to Homage. Basically, you pick three famous artists and produce like theirs while also sticking to your big idea. The object of the game is to produce artwork that is convincing enough to look like it was commissioned by the three famous artists we chose. I picked Gustav Klimt, Kako Ueda, and Wassily Kandinsky. Since my big idea is Unwrapping, or hiding things, I changed the composition of a Klimt piece and merged Tim Curry’s face from Rocky Horror over the original woman’s profile. Julie suggested it because they looked alike, so I ran with the idea. Kako Ueda incorporates cut paper, but I completed my homage with Photoshop and using threshold and the cut out filter. Kandinsky was giving me the hardest time-but then Matt suggested I include some history into my work. John then suggested floor plans because Kandinsky’s work is very geometrical, so I hid floor plans of the Bauhaus inside my piece. The worked on them all weekend, thinking we’d look over them one last time, but Matt cancelled class tonight because not enough people were coming. They’re not due on Tuesday, but I’d have rather not worked on them during vacation. (I have a feeling I will because I’m a workaholic like that). This is what I’ve got so far for my Ueda Homage.
Roommate Situation: A lot happened. I chose the guy from MIT instead of the girl. Looking at her facebook page, I didn’t think we would get along. So, MIT guy signed the lease and spent his first night yesterday. We’re still walking on eggshells around each other, but it will take a bit of time to get comfortable. I’m planning on leaving for Thanksgiving vacation tomorrow after my Drawing class and work, so that should give him a couple of days to settle in.
