Inside the Junk Drawer

Just another Blogs.cas.suffolk.edu weblog

Mar
4

By

Before Spring Break Rush

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , , , 19 Comments

Drawing Structure and Expression II:
Finished my dark-sketch drawing. I’ve also noticed all of my work has similar compositions. I should change this. Our Midterm is on next Wednesday, so on Monday I’ll have to make my drawings presentable (straight borders, cropping, etc). Also found out towards the end of class that I really missed sketching still lives. This is pretty funny considering how much I was sick of them by the end of freshman year.

Advanced Painting:
We looked at our collages last week. Apparently, I have an interest in cave-like spaces, drama, and camouflage. The cave-like space really bugged me. I’m currently focused on creating space and depth. I didn’t want it to be shallow-I want to be able to move around. I didn’t end up using any of Linda’s suggestions and tried to radically change my composition. I kept the same colors, but made the space really vast. It turned into a landscape-I put something like mountains and water in it.
When I stopped, I hated it. I snuck a glance at it on Monday and went from hate to dislike. I always hate my paintings right after I finish them, but by the time next Friday comes around, I find them less horrible. Having said that, I still don’t like my painting. Linda will critique them Friday, so that should help. I also have two other paintings in which to correct my errors. I think that’s why I love painting: if the first painting is crap, simply do another. That’s it. You’re always learning.

Western Art II:
Handed in my Renaissance paper this morning. I only had time to do three drafts. Then, Afshan, our professor, started listing Renaissance principles I hadn’t even thought of. The material isn’t as clear-cut as Western Art I: it’s all bleeding together in my brain. It also doesn’t help that High Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque over lap each other. Or that I was reading two chapters ahead in an attempt to get all my work done in time: that can’t have helped either. I really have to make my flash cards and try to get all this information straight in my head.

Literature II:
We had our Midterm on Tuesday. It consisted of three essay questions. The first confused me, but I felt like I knew more about the other two. Too bad the first was more points the others. I also got my Wordsworth paper back and my grade wasn’t what I hoped it to be. This is after he pretty much freaked me out with a long speech about getting work done on time, and blah blah blah on the writing center, and he was disappointed in us. Then he didn’t pass the essays until the end of class, so I had fun trying not to brood on it and pay attention to the rest of the lesson.  I still have another two-page paper and a five-page paper left, so that gives me room to recover. Also, they’re not being composed on poetry, so I think I have a better shot.

He also said my writing was stiff. This makes sense-I felt stiff when I was writing it. I couldn’t get anything to flow right because I really couldn’t figure out what I was saying-or it all sounded wrong. I probably should have done another draft or two, but really didn’t have the time.

Social Ethics:
Our midterm has also been completed for this class (he also let us prepare part three ahead of time, so I got to leave forty minutes early. I just hope it was done correctly. I always doubt myself when teachers say ‘if you think its good enough’. I mean come on.) The homework for this week is related to justice. It also and  seems like he wants us to re-read chapters. Professor Fried already assigned the chapters from politics and gave out the exact same questions, so I’m a bit confused. On the other hand, he also never assigns two book assignments, which he did this week, so I’m not really sure what to think. I read everything, so I guess it will be fine either way. I also have to start my electronic journal to keep my process on my lab experiment. I made some progress today and have to remember to write it down.

Library:
Yesterday, I put away some books and did some shelf reading. Shelf reading is when you make sure all the call numbers are in the correct order, a.k.a all the books are in the right place. I also talked to Ellen about a couple of Stephen King novels. (Dark Tower is still the best).

Front Desk:
I’ve been running around all day. I watched the desk for a while, put up some signs dealing with Spring break hours, wrote two drafts for this, and helped Linda clean up after the Green Design show finished up downstairs. Green Design is a show the Interior Design department runs in the Atrium downstairs once a year. I don’t know that much about it, but we have stuff up on the website if you’re curious. It was a lot of fun getting the moving walls into the elevator (I’m not being sarcastic when I’m writing this: seriously-talking to the people that shared the elevator with me was entertaining.)
Also, I just found out from Josh that I can’t scan any slides tonight because there’s still a class in the conference room. Oh boy…

Other Note:
Now I’m waking up before my alarm is going off. Like an hour before. No idea why. Might be anxiety related-I hate being late-but it could also be because my roommate and I were close to having a disagreement about my coffee pot. My brain is the per-verbal junk drawer, so all this stuff gets mixed together-who knows.
My hunter socks are also falling apart. I’ve lost three now. I keep ripping through the heel. I’m wondering if it’s because they’re old or because of my black shoes (they only have given out while I was wearing those). The Plan right now is to go get some at the Army Barrack-like place (I think its called something else-like Army Store-my memory is crap) and pick up some more. There’s also a Borders there, so I want to check if they have books 4, 5, and 6 of a series I’m reading. I went through six hundred pages in two days and have been trying to make the third book last the rest of the week. So far, I’ve pretty much succeeded.

Nov
24

By

Make Up For Lost Time

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

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.

 

Nov
13

By

Watching the Hourglass

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Time’s going too fast for my liking. I’m going to make this short in an attempt to catch up with everything else that’s going on. Bullet time:

Drawing: We had one class this week due to Veteran’s day. I managed to salvage most of the drawing by doing some research on pastel techniques. Nesad Library saves the day again! I’m not sure what we’re doing next week, but Thanksgiving is fast approaching.

Printmaking: We went over our prints. I’m still being skeptical about my print. Randal and Perla are telling me it’s great. When I look at it I still feel its flawed because it didn’t satisfy the person who commissioned it. I think I just need some emotional distance or something.

Sociology: I did worse on my second test. I passed, so no alarm bells, but I’ll have to study harder on the next test. Each of us also has to pick a case, identify three sociological concepts in it, and write a paper about it. My case is next week.

Western Art 1: I was twenty minutes late to our museum trip. Wednesday screwed me up and I forgot to leave my Sociology class fifteen minutes early. If I had been by myself, it would have been very bad. However, there were a bunch of us who were late due to classes and registration times. I’ve a paper due next Thursday. I’ve written a rough draft by hand and have to type it out and edit.

Imaging: We moved from Texture to Scale. The point of the project is to take something out of scale. I did three: Huge chess pieces behind a city, babies playing with a bathtub with a ship with tiny people on it, and a gingerbread house hidden in with the rest of a neighborhood. I thought the last one was the worse, but Matt told me it was my best. Something has got to be wrong with the way I’m looking at things.

Roommate Situation: I’ve got a girl and a guy that want to rent the room. The guy is from MIT and is willing to pay more for the room, but I already gave the girl, who is out of the country, contact information and she’s supposively filling out the paperwork. I don’t know if that’s the truth or if she told me that to keep me from renting to the guy from MIT Maybe I should contact the realty company and ask if they spoke to her. It was so hard for me to contact them that I’m surprised she got through to them so quick…

Oct
30

By

This is Not a Title Because I Can’t Think of One

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

It’s the day before Halloween. Candy and cupcakes are sitting on the front desk for the students and faculty that pass by like clock work. Molly and Holly are awesome like that. I was surprised when I found out I like lemon frosting. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow. I know my sister and her boyfriend are going to a party out in Northern Mass. I don’t want to travel out of the city because I have an eight hour shift on Sunday.

Work wise, its the usual hustle and bustle, until I offered to put up fliers for our New York trip. We’re a bit short on people. We were short on people last year too. I don’t know why. I went and it was really interesting, so I might go again if everything works out. I’m going to put fliers up on the main campus. It will be good to get some new faces in, I think.

For Printmaking, I’ve altered a floral design I made during the summer. My sister’s roommate wanted a design for a cabinet she wanted to make and tried to commission me to do it. I already knew walking into it that I wasn’t going to be able to make anything she wanted. I’m not a Graphic Design major; that’s not my thing. I made three different versions and none of them were good enough, so I considered them failures. Then Perla saw them on Wednesday when I was trying to pick a drawing for an etching and said they were good.  I didn’t believe her until Randal concurred. It’s a linear design, but didn’t have a lot of contrast, so I added a scribble effect in the background. I have to scan it again and take a second look at it to make sure all the lines are dark enough.

We finished the portrait drawing in Gabe’s class. Everybody was late because the trains were running slow and it was raining out; not a good way to start the day. Or you’d think that. Our models were missing for about twenty minutes, so Gabe had us model of each other. I like drawing my classmates. We did that in Drawing II in Neils Burger’s class last year and I found that to be a lot of fun. So, I modeled. It’s a bit difficult, staring at the same thing and trying to be perfectly still. It sounds easy just saying it, but seriously, try doing that for fifteen minutes and see. When I was done, Gabe said I had an interesting face and suggested I could model for portraits. Funny thing is I’m really starting to consider it.

We still haven’t gotten our grades back in Western Art 1. I still don’t feel good about it. I feel like if I think I did well, I’m going to jinx myself. There’s also a Sociology exam on Thursday that I have to start looking over my notes for. The last test we took, he said some of us did okay, so I got really nervous. My test was fine when he handed it back. Tests just make me really anxious…

In Imaging were dealing with texture. This is actually pretty funny because my Merging project had a lot to do with texture, so its a little weird doing the same kind of concept twice. I decided to show Slimy by taking a human brain and combining it with leeches, slugs, and worms. I got the effect I was looking for; Matt made this really disgusted face when he saw it. At first, I thought the idea might be too repulsive, but it was too good to pass up. I’ve never done anything like it before, so I figure why not? Not everything is nice and wonderful all the time; why should art be? I’m also going to do a few more: I’ve got another idea for describing sharp.

I had my advising meeting yesterday. I told Audrey I was thinking about minoring in creative writing. However, when we looked at the Fiction Workshops, we found there were a lot of prerequisites, so I’d have to take summer classes. I’m not sure I can. It’s pretty expensive, more than what my mom said we could handle financially. So, I might be here for an extra year. I’m going to sign up for Chemistry in the summer when I register for my Spring classes. Worse comes to worse, I’ll just have to drop it.

Last thing: this whole roommate situation is still pretty awful. My landlord said to call the realty company he usually uses for paperwork. I’ve tried calling them several times over the last couple of weeks, but I never get a response. I’m hoping they’ll reply to the email I sent last night, but part of me thinks I’m physically going to have to walk down there and figure out what the heck is going on. Also, my old landlord hasn’t called me back about the key deposit he owes me from last year, so I have to call him again. He’s the type of person that takes over a month to fix a broken dishwasher, even if you call him repetitively. Wish me luck on that.

Oct
23

By

The Usual Chaos

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

I’m going through the usual end-of-the-week chaos. I still have to finish both my symmetry and merge projects for Imaging, study my flash cards for Western Art, and practice some defensive stances.

The defense class was pretty cool. My class is a bit too small for my liking, but I;m getting a lot of individual attention. Which is good and bad. Good, considering I’m extremely clumsy when it comes to any kind physical movements (why I am not a dancer, lol). Bad, considering I don’t like to be singled out by people I’ve just met. There was plenty of time for me to flub up and for them to coach me. I read all the additional material already, so I should be good to go for Wednesday’s work out. Finding a time to eat dinner in between Printmaking and that class might be a bit fun because I’m cutting it so close. They’re twenty minutes apart and about fifteen minutes of that is commuting time.

As for work, I switched shifts with Riana, another girl who works at the front desk. She use to work in the library but switched. Instead of working 11-4ish, I’ve got the night shift. I don’t mind, tomorrow’s Saturday. I like the change of pace; keeps things interesting…

It’s quiet now-hence the writing. I should go back to my merge project. Basically, I’m taking a photograph of a snake and replacing its scales with pictures of beads. Easier said than done; I was messing with the tools for a while, until I figured it out about 90% of the work is dealing with the lighting and color adjustments. The trick is to make the entire picture completely fluid.

By the way, we finished replicating ducky:

Mine’s on the left but you probably could already tell.

Last tangent: My sister and her boyfriend are coming up to visit on Sunday (I think), so I get to play hostess (Yay!). I thought my friend Katie from high school might come up to celebrate her birthday, but she told me her parents didn’t want her to take the train by herself. I’m not sure if that was a cover or not. Her parents are a bit over protective, but part of me really thinks she was too scared to, poor girl. I can see why she might be nervous going by herself, especially to a place you’ve only been twice. Me: I think commuting to Worcester is scarier than taking a train to Boston, but then again I really hate driving.

Skip to toolbar