Life Update

School + Internship + 45 Minute Commute + A Family = No Spare Time. This is normal. I'm used to it. But it does mean that the new season of Downton has to wait until after graduation. Monday-Thursday, I leave home at 8am and get home between 6 and 7. Friday is a home day. A bless'd, welcome home day.

If you aren't on facebook and friends with me, then you probably haven't seen my current profile pic. This is what it looks like. Amn't I glorious? (That's a word, you should use it.)

It's my last semester. I'm learning HTML/CSS coding, prepping my portfolio for the job search, learning about Islamic art, learning about conspiracy theories. Fun fun.

My internship is at HUB-BUB. I do graphic design, etc. "Etc." means some light marketing, generating ideas for exhibitions and implementing them, wine tasting and bar tending. I love working there! It's an awesome organization and the people are just my kind.

Watching/Listening/Wearing/Reading/Wanting

End Of Term

Well, this is the last week of classes for me. Not really much to do. The nice thing about an art degree is that it is project heavy, exam light.*

I have a comprehensive exam in environmental science and some projects due, but that's about it. Oh, it's really nice to not be a procrastinator. I'm surprised at how many folks claim procrastination with a tone of pride. Well, have fun with all that stress come end of term. It's not for me.

In fact, I'm one of those annoying students. You know, the ones who sit in the front and answer the rhetorical questions, who ask for clarification on assignments everyone else hoped the teacher would forget, who get their money's worth or as close to it as they can. They say, "Cs get degree." But I believe honor roll As have a better chance of getting into grad school, not to mention getting a job.

So now that the semester's winding down, I'll have time for some fun. Street art, wheat paste, murals, actually reading actual books for heavens sake already. All the fun things I couldn't do with my time taken up with classes.

In fact, I got an early start, wheat-pasting last night before the semester's even over.

This isn't me. I neither grew a beard nor shaved my head.

*I'm reading Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Not through it yet, so no grammar/punctuation judging please. And honestly, I'll be damned if I ever diagram another sentence. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Goings On

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Jake and Lucy are staying with us for a while while they look for a house in the area. It's great to have their company and good for the kids to get to play with Arlo so much. It'll all be fine as long as I continue to isolate myself for that nightly study sesh!

Speaking of which, I'm kinda behind on the school front. You see, the last few weeks, I have been involved in an all-consuming mural project. It's pretty much done now and I am both glad and sad. It took up a lot of my time and I was away from James and the kids a lot. But alternately, I learned some good stuff and met some great folks. The mural is in Spartanburg where I hope to be increasingly involve in the art scene.

On that topic, I have a new project to work on. It is an outdoor sign for an art organization in Spartanburg.

You know, I could get into sign painting. Like as a thing. I'm thinking about looking for more opportunities like this and doing some field research in this area. There's so many great hand-painted signs from back in the day and a number have recently been covered up. That makes me sad and I believe this to be an art form worth reviving.

Back to School

I'm going to be honest and just tell you: This semester has gotten off to a rocky start. I have no doubt that I can totally turn it around and make it my best one yet, as I'd hoped it'd be. But right now? Sheesh!

My mother in law is in ICU with complicated pneumonia, so my disabled brother in law is staying with us and has been for a week. James is not better from all that stuff from two weeks ago, but at least he's done with his round of steroids. The heightened stress in the household has a big impact on the kids' behavior as well as their sleep patterns. All this to give you the backdrop to my school year so far!

I am taking only three classes. That may not seem like much, but to me it is a lot. I mean, it is literally the very most I can manage with these preschoolers under foot from 7am until 10pm or so. Maybe if I stuck 'em in daycare it'd be different, but that would also require a higher income bracket.

Anyway, I have a ton of homework, but I've come up with a tight schedule. Let the learning begin!

Wait, Already?

It's been really hard to blog this week. It's been hard to do anything. There must be some strange alignment of the planets or the cosmic balance has gone all rickety, because it's just too much all at once. And all I want to do is sleep.

School starts back tomorrow for me and, well, I have to go put together an outfit.

Away

I'm not at the beach, I'm not on a cruise. It's not a real vacation, but I am away. I'll be back to blogging by Friday. 

Our school requires one representative from each organization to attend an annual leadership conference. So I am here for Club Art + Design. It is three days and two nights of activities and lectures from 7:30am to 10:30pm. Yeah. Not a vacation, huh?

But at least it's a little break from the routine for a while. :)

Persuasion

I may have concocted a solution to my class cancellation issue. (I mentioned it yesterday here.)

If I can get permission and approval and all that stuff, I'd like to get 3 credit hours for an independent study in advanced printmaking. I took Printmaking 1 last semester and totally loved it, but I felt like there was just so much more to explore!

My goal would be to go in with a strong concept and delve into it from various print angles throughout the semester, possibly with a research essay thrown in for good measure. I would like to have a hefty amount of exhibit-ready material by the end of term, showing a rich depth of subject matter, a high level of craftsmanship, broad appeal, creative variety and technical prowess.

Now to convince someone to be my advisor...

The Week So Far

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You know how sometimes you just need to get away? A freezing cold, silent hotel room or a day at the beach without any children...

Over the weekend, a relative said something really hurtful about my house. It's taken me this long to accept that the individual was trying to be ugly, not stating a true fact about my house. My house is fairly tidy. Not pinterest clean, not pinterest decorated. But for no budget, it looks pretty good. And for housing two tiny wild creatures, it's pretty damn tidy. 

I vacuum and sweep every day and mop, like, once a week! We always have three square meals, 98% of which are planned and made by yours truly. And we always have clean clothes. So there. 

So that happened over the weekend and then today I found out that a really essential graphic design class has been indefinitely cancelled. A class I was registered to take this Fall. Now I have to find another class to make up my hours when that was the last thing I needed. So for years to come, I will have to live with the knowledge that rather than paying off debt for a useful, much needed class, I'm paying off a superfluous waste of time. 

I'm trying to find a way to turn this around, but it hasn't come to me yet. 

It will.

...   ...   ...   ...   ...

I guess the graphic above could be misleading. The relative wasn't my mama. Or my husband. Or anyone in my own immediate family. 

Drawing Lines

I love the first track of James' upcoming album. Draw a Line in the Sand (and watch us wipe it away).

This week, my project has been designing a look for this album that works as an unconventionally packaged CD, translates to standard vinyl size and also could be rearranged as a show poster. I am really inspired by vintage books covers and "vintage inspired" contemporary typefaces. (I found some here!)

The album is an exciting collection of raucous, spirited, sing-along/shout-along protest songs.

Here is the in-progress cover:

The design wraps around so that there are two flaps making up the back cover wherein the disc itself shall rest.

I am kind of excited about these fonts. They are newly designed from the co-op linked above, available for a name your price deal. 

Ok, well, I'll be the first to admit that I have a long way to go. Of course, I am aware that trying to complete a project a week is ambitious. But I'm still on it!

Back In The Game

Until now my summer has been about being a mom, getting my house in order, growing food, vacation bible school, preschool, etc. All great things and important and worthwhile. But I had no time –or was giving no time– to my own creative pursuits.

Until now.

I made a map of the rest of my summer and it includes four (4) projects. They are all art/design related and will all go toward my senior seminar portfolio. They all address various gaps therein as well as things I've just wanted to tackle. When I'm done, I will have no products or market-related items in my portfolio. (*goal*)

Drawing, designing, printing, painting, vectoring, photographing. Four projects. Four weeks.

I'm so freaking excited!

Something is Not Right

When the chair of the Art Department and all the Graphic Design professors (3) resign within a couple months of each other, you know something ain't right.

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At this point, none of us knows what is going on and we have to just hope that by the time we get back to school in a few weeks, there will still be a graphic design program. I am set to graduate in Spring and I only have three classes in my field left to take.

It looks like I will spend my Senior year under the tutelage of complete strangers rather than the professors who guided me and know my style and how I work. It's kinda scary.

What Is Going On?

End of Term

End of Term, always so far away, then upon us before we are ready. Except this time! I got ahead because I was expecting a final project on my most intense course. I got ahead in everything else. But, the teacher decided to go easy on us. We just have to finish up our previous project and call it a day. Or even a term.

So I have an exam in Public Speaking. It is a comprehensive exam on a textbook which I am proud to say I never read. Thank you very much. That will be Thursday. I expect to enjoy it.

I have a slideshow to put together for my print class showing all the stuff I've make this semester, showing that I learned a good variety of techniques and tried different styles, etc. I still need to photograph some of my work for that, but here is some that I can show you now.

This first piece is a linoleum cut print. It is based on a photograph I took of James not too long ago. It is about 9"x7" or something.

The next is more or less a doodle because I had little bits of lino and big bits of imagination. The studio was a mess.

 The sugar skull is a two color lino print. It is done on butcher paper.

This sugar skull is just the key plate from above. I hand colored it with watercolor crayons.

For this one, Lady MacBeth, I "rainbow rolled" two colors and attempted a chine coli. I still don't know what that means, but I'm pretty sure this is it. And I'm pretty sure it is awesome.

There were some other processes that we tried, but I can't show you examples until I get them photographed. Also, one is a familiar nude and I don't know you as well as that, so you won't be seeing that piece.

The last process we learned about was lithography. I quite liked it even though it was a beast to figure out. Hours and hours of trial and mostly error. It is a portrait of little James Ambrose:

I based it on a sketch I did of him while he and Bea were watching a movie recently:

So that is what I've been up to. One week form now, the semester will be over and I will have weeks of house cleaning, potty training, grocery shopping, laundry and all those other domestic things that I've let fall by the wayside.

(Also, parties, art exhibits, daytrips, rock shows, skinny dipping, banner dropping, puppet making, drinking, reading, gardening, painting, etc, etc.)

Ladies,

Want vs. Need

found here

It's that part of the semester. The end is just about in sight, but the biggest projects are ahead of me yet. When I finish up all the necessary daytime stuff (class, parenting, food prep, laundry, etc.), I hit the books and work, work work. But I have a fantasy To Do list always going in my head. What I'd do if I had just a minute. 

a. listen to music

b. read a story (I read that one already)

c. go see a show

d. work 

I guess blogging should be on this list also, because obviously I make a minute or two for that. :)

Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me

Today, Amby and I spent a lot of time together. He came with me to school for the art sale. It was hard because he is heavy and he's two and he's still in diapers and college students are not mindful of young ears and there's no place to nap in a lobby like that. Oh, and lobbies are boring. But then, he slept all the way home.

The art sale will continue tomorrow. It went pretty great today. Lots of sales and all that. Another great thing about today is that I registered for classes and got into all the ones I need. Yes! For once! 

*The title of this post is from Amby's favorite song.

The Anti-Nuclear Handbook

If more important things were presented like this, I would understand so much more. Seriously, illustrate it and use everyday language and I get it. I do. 

This is a book form the late 70s that I found in our school library. I was doing research for a speech I'm writing. Boy, did our library surprise me. So many great books. And this fun little one. 

I'm not going to be citing it in my speech because 1) it is a comic and 2) it has a definite leftist slant (with which, for the record, I am ok). For the purpose of persuasion, I am trying to use only Presidents' Commissions and scientific papers, etc. But for my own understanding and the sake of conversation, this book is great. 

Student Art Sale

We have an art sale coming up at school. So many people have submitted work! I don't know about you, but not much excites me like good student art. The sale is this coming Wednesday and Thrusday. So if you are in the SC area, you really oughta come check it out. The price range is super low, $5-30. Here's some of the stuff I'm entering:

Time; Don't Waste It

What should students do when teachers don't teach?

I don't mean they never teach. I mean, lots and lots of class time is wasted. This is happening right now in two of my classes.

In my Public Speaking class, the teacher arrives on time and starts class promptly at 8am. We get out of there by 8:30! I am paying for a full hour and fifteen minutes of instruction, but I'm getting a measly half hour.

This is also happening in Graphic Design 3. Sometimes, we have projects to work on independently, so it's not applicable for those days. But some days, we have nothing to do until the teacher deigns to give us his time. This is usually 20-30 minutes after class was supposed to start. There are also times like Tuesday when everyone hung out on facebook for close to an hour while the teacher wandered around, sat in his office, chatted before he finally started class.

I don't mind some down time, but class time is time I'm paying for. It is time I will be making payments on for years to come. It is time I am not with my children, not helping James earn our living. It is time specifically set aside for learning, specifically for being taught.

I think it is disrespectful for teachers to waste my time. When they lecture, I listen. I take notes, I ask questions to make sure I grasp the material, I read the assignments, I do the projects. My GPA is proof of my hard work and dedication. That is how students show respect to teachers. (In addition to addressing them respectfully and being polite, etc. of course.)

It surprises me that more of my classmates don't seem to have a problem with this. They seem to just be glad he's not making them do anything. I suspect those people won't value their time until they start getting the student loan bills. I've seen them, so I know this is no joke.

Students who pay as much as we do in the US for college should demand rigor. We should demand assignments, direction, critique, academic challenges, etc.

What do you think? Do you think I should just be happy that my degree will be easier to attain?

Podcast, reworked

Just the first minute or so, though. I added an opening track, took out some clunky phrases, gave the tracks a cleaner mix. And here it is.

Gonna Pay It Forward

I took these pictures to capture a special moment today. 

It was the moment when I realized that I could get at least 80% of my stuff done in one day if James were to take the kids with him and just bring them home for naps. 

This was followed swiftly by the further realization that I actually have pretty potent bargaining power, enhanced by a good hair day.