Quick doodles of girls 

A small piece of a very strange photoshop file I just found on my computer.

Get off my lawn!

What happens when a starved girl opens photoshop for the first time in three months.

haha ok, a little better.

Companion

     The final for my introduction to surface class. And late last night when I was finishing the sculpture this song popped up on my itunes:

Which fit somehow really well.

Bleaching

Playing around with bleaching materials and layered mark making. 

Double Indemnity

Party Animals.

Materials Study: Embroidery

Wish that instead of white, a more intermediary color had been used but alas, just wasn't thinking that far ahead.

  
          An introductory project to embroidery. I've never done embroidery before even though for literally years, I've been watching it with interest. The process is really fun, frustrating and in the end gratifying, but the sexist attitude toward sewing and craft is a bit disheartening. Totally too tired for a rant right now but no worries, I will post one in the near future haha. Anyway, before starting I was looking at Jillian Tamaki's embroideries and how she's been using them in her professional practice. Her work is really inspiring and it's dissappointing that I didn't become aware of her before I left New York because how she takes on drawing in her work seems very uncompramising which results in images that are so alive!

         From this experiment we're moving into finals, and for this class I'm definitely going to expand what I learned into a true reworking of a surface. Have been thinking about modifying a piece of clothing with almost journal like vignettes. Almost like a visual free-write that may explore childhood and race relation? Or a kid's relationship with the media? It would tie in with my glass final quite nicely...

Near Sandpoint

         Today got lost on the way to my destination and found this abandoned building that had been condemned because of abestos. It's owned by the University of Washington but is part of a larger collection of infrastructure that was once an old military base. It felt strange walking around and exploring (hah, probably because of the no trespassing signs) but there were just these really great details, like water decay, boarded up windows and the lines of very out of place looking windows that lined the top. But then when I went to peek inside I thought of all the people who may be hiding inside or worse, all the empty stairwells that lead up to those windows that were perfect for watching. Needless to say I got kinda spooked and went on my merry way. Then when I turned the corner there were all these men with metal detectors sweeping the lawn. How wierd is that!?

highway birds

Here is a small materials study assignment with applying heat binding pigment to fabric. After all the dyeing and slow building up of layered transparent color, it was nice to just draw and create a more graphic and deliberate mark. The pigment wasn't diluted and I just worked on the muslin with a brush to see how things went. I like to draw! No matter how open I am and intrigued I am with all the avenues that an artist can now take everything returns to drawing. It's definitely something I want to keep developing despite UWs insistance on heavy theory and clumsy hands.

Every once in awhile it feels like I have to put my boxing gloves on and get in the ring to defend my stance on background and the environment of my work. Though I'm very interested in an environment texturally and creating a space for my subject of choice to exist in, complete articulation of the world outside my focus just to create a context feels wrong. When I focus, I can't see anything outside of what I'm looking at, and if drawing is an act of focusing, well that just means that my drawings arn't handicapped at all, but just honest. They are able to serve the dual purpose of communicating ideas for a greater cultural need (Illustration, entertainment, public consumption, livelihood) as well as create a place where I can work out the more personal aspects (neurosis, fetish, innocent curiosity) that come with being an artist... Or at least that's the balance I'm working toward :)  

My cat, Mischa, didn't get to come live with me in Seattle, and I miss her a lot. Can you tell??

what do you want to draw? Idk. boobs.

laterne

Coloring with kids today.

Direct Dye

Bleached

Shibori 1

oh, and this.

Can you spot my cat and I? (hint: I'm not wearing glasses.)

I've been thinking a lot about a film-noir crime drama involving bugs...

Really strong coffee, cinnamon roll, bargs root beer.

          I've just started my Senior year at the University of Washington and am kicking it off with a fabric embelishing class and introduction to glass. Towards the end of the summer I didn't know where to go with my art and was frustrated with my limitations with drawing and painting, actually discarding my pencil instead to write a little bit of fiction and poetry... For now I want to instead of drawing figures and elements that look like singular objects on a picture plane actually create objects that take power over their surroundings, or become part of whatever environment they're thrust into. Not that I won't return to drawing and digital media, but I'm excited to try a different way of approaching what I want to communicate or give people when they experience the art.

There's a certain quality of light here, especially during fall that lines even the most dilapitated work spaces with gold. ALSO, love the structure of the naked clothing rack.

Learning how to mix dyes and use them on fabric. Here are our first swatches after they've been ironed out and proudly displayed. The entire experience of washing and treating the fabric was a lot like Christmas. That's one of my dyeing buddies, Monica. She was laying stuff out but retreated when I tried to take a picture. So obviously I made her look busy again haha thus her goofy smile. (Note: See that cobalt blue piece? yeah, I mixed that dye :)

Learning how to use kilns with glass and our first assignment is to slump glass into a wire/ metal frame.  I'm hoping that the open bottom part will warp into a sagging cavity linked with tubing. Intention wise the goal is that it will be read as an ambiguous biological structure like a stomach, uterus etc. and that the glass will become liquidy enough to fuse into all the grooves and crevices of the tangled wiring, picking up that complicated woven/ veiny pattern. The other way this could go is that it will actually capture the metal frame within the glass. A possibility I'm very ready to work with! Am a little worried about the weak outcrop  but maybe it will be saved after some reinforcement when it's fired.

         I think my problem has been that I pick a nonexistant place I want to be (ex. success) and then make these lists of criteria that I think will get me there, which just immobilizes me in fear of moving or doing the wrong thing. When really I should just work as hard as possible without a specific idea of the future and see how far I get on my own terms and ready myself for opportunity. This direction seems really exciting to me. 

Different takes on a self portrait

Moved

Another

Pete Campbell from Mad Men.

I, I and I.

Sometimes it's difficult to muster the energy to deal with people. Sometimes I'm happiest when alone. And sometimes making art and writing seem to be the only ways I can participate in life or communicate that I exist. It's also scary to think that there's a risk that one day I may reject people all together because of this social weakness. Letting that happen is not an option though. It would truthfully be the end of me. Nobody wants to end up like Ayn Rand.

His ear looks like a piece of uncooked steak! <3

Trying out acrylics by painting Donald Draper from Mad Men.

It's nice how quickly acrylics dry for when you want to just build something up and not smear away the texture. Also it allows your hand to move as if you're drawing... I really really like what happened with this portrait but am unsure if It can happen again. It was made out of panic once the paint started drying and a childish declaration of "Little Miss, You will not leave this table until you've finished your painting!" We will see, I'll try a few more portraits or scenes and see how it goes.