It happened yesterday and it wasn’t the first time. In fact it wasn’t the first, second, or third time either. So why is this particular poor critique worth a post? This time my unsuccessful painting wasn’t a result of being unfinished, under-developed, or technically weak. I simply made a bad painting. This is how it happened:
The assignment was to find two or more completely different images and place them together in order to convey one cohesive concept. I found my first image while sitting on my bed, flipping through a Time about the most important discoveries of our time. It was an image of a fossilized skeleton from a flying dinosaur that roamed the Earth 120 million years ago. Attached to the photo was an article about the likelihood of modern-day birds being descendents of this dinosaur. At this moment, I looked up at my parakeet who was perched on my desk. I began to think about how differently I feel towards my beautiful little parakeet, or even an image of any living bird for that matter, compared to how I feel towards this skeleton. I felt nothing towards the skeleton. I can hardly even feel like it ever existed. I searched for more images and stumbled upon a photo in Newsweek of a criminal form the early 20th century. Again, I looked at the photo and realized I feel nothing towards him. I couldn’t relate to anything I saw in him. This man lived less than 100 years ago, why do I feel the same way towards him as I do towards the dinosaur?
This is where my concept was developed. I wanted to create a painting about the disconnect we feel towards our ancestry. It seems as though we live in this false feeling of permanence on the Earth. The truth is, of course, that we are essentially no different that anyone or anything that came before us. How did I decide to paint this? 1st canvas: the fossil from the Time, prints of the 20th century men nailed to the front. 2nd canvas: a flock of parakeets. Do you think anyone could guess my concept from this imagery? Of course not! Without my explanation these are three totally random images. I definitely forgot the “cohesive” part of this assignment along the way.
Sigh. This is good for me. I lost track of what I was doing and I made a bad painting. It’s healthy, it’s normal, and I’m ready to move on.
After a few weeks of stress, migraines, sleeping through my alarm clock, and disorganization all around, this three day weekend couldn’t have come at a better time. Mostly because I love nothing more than to drink coffee in my house and watch cartoons but also because I have a huge project due Monday that I desperately need to finish.
As anyone knows who’s been following my blog lately, my routine is really boring. occasionally though in the middle of all that boring will be something interesting.
Here a few of the something interestings from last week:
Also, here are some more photos to add to “stuff outside my window”:
I’m feeling especially lazy so instead of trying to string together actual paragraphs I’m going to channel the Fug Girls and use bullet points tonight.
I’ve made some realizations today. One, I haven’t been to a party in five months. FIVE. MONTHS. Since JUNE, you guys. And I’ve probably only been to the bar maybe five times since then. I really thought my early twenties would be full of ravenous parties and fun. In a couple of weeks I have the weekend off and my plan is to get DRUNK and DANCE MAYBE and DO OTHER THINGS THAT ARE FUN AND YOUNG…..and also finish my Surrealism project.
Two, I’ve never eaten a big mac. No, seriously, I haven’t. I plan on changing this soon and I will definitely write about my experience since my wild partying plans probably won’t actually materialize.
Tomorrow is “casual day” at work. Although I’m mildly excited about wearing a women’s shirt for a change, there is something about the concept of “casual days” that makes me feel like I’m in an episode of The Office which then makes me feel lame.
Here is a link to that segment Colbert did about Miracle Whip that I was talking about. It’s funny, watch it!
I’ve begun to collect photos of things I see happening outside my window. This is what I have so far:
First of all, I’d like to introduce you to my newest and sweetest family member: Bradley Pierce, my little nephew. He was born on October 10th and there is nothing more I can write about that is more exciting than this news! I can’t wait to meet him in person.
Besides Bradley’s birth, my life has been pretty routine. It’s been hard for me lately to balance school, projects, and work. I have one day off every couple of weeks of both school and work and it’s just not enough. I don’t have the time I need to finish projects and it’s definitely starting to weigh on my school performance.
I really shouldn’t complain though, many people have it the same or worse! At least when I have a real job in the future (fingers crossed), I’ll appreciate having a 9-5 job with weekends off. I’m not really asking for much, I think.
Now that I’ve gotten my pity party out of the way, I’ll tell you about my newest project that is making me fairly excited. We were given an assignment in my Surrealism class to paint a portrait of someone we know well and use every design, color, and technical choice to say something about that person. It turned out to be an incredibly interesting assignment. Everyone in the class really worked hard on their projects and the results were extremely impressive. You can find my finished product under my “projects” tab at the top!
Speaking of projects, I must get back to work! I just wanted to drop by with an update since my blog is becoming more and more stagnate. Good luck with midterms everyone.
P.S. Remember my rant about that Miracle Whip commercial? Steven Colbert totally did a segment about that same commercial last night on the Colbert Report. It was hilarious! Will have a clip up once I can find one.
Like most people (I think) , Fall is my favorite season. I love the air changing, Halloween, pumpkin flavored pancakes, coats, and my favorite t.v. shows returning. I have a feeling this will be my best Fall yet. Especially because my little nephew is tossing and turning inside my sisters belly, ready to come out ANY DAY! This past week has been crazy busy as usual. Here’s what’s up:
A study from my Mixed Media class last week:
Some photos and a study from my Abstract field trip:
Eye spy San Francisco in the photo below, can you?
For the past four years the technical aspect of painting has been drilled into my brain. This semester I’m taking, Mixed Media painting, Surrealism/Expressionism painting, Advanced Abstract painting, and, like I mentioned in my last post, Sacred Geometry.
I’m throwing myself into the deep end of the conceptual pool and it’s fucking scary. Way scarier than I had expected. TIME TO GET SERIOUS YOU GUYS.
This weeks Mixed Media homework:
Here is the canvas for my Surrealism project. 48″x48″ giant! (for me)
Look at that giant highlight in the middle of this photo. It’s a good thing photography isn’t my major, isn’t it?
The bad news is: I have another rant I’ve been meaning to get off my chest. The aggrevator this time is Miracle Whip. Yes, the mayo Miracle Whip. Take a look at this commercial:
I have to say, whenever I’m being hip and counter-culture, hanging out with my bearded, guitar playing friends on the roof, I ALWAYS make sure there is a jar of mayo around to act as a prop for my seductive, spontaneous dancing. Don’t you? And why do I choose Miracle Whip above the others? Well that’s obvious. What was Miracle Whip’s response to those OTHER brands who told them “Miracle Whip! You have to tone it down, you’re just too much for the public!”? Their bold response was “NO. We will NOT. WE ARE THE PRODUCT THAT RISES ABOVE YOUR OLD FASHION VALUES AND SAYS NO TO THE MAN WITH EGG WHITES AND OIL. We define this generation! No matter what you do to tear us down and despite your constant efforts to make us fit the corporate puzzle our response will always be WE WILL NOT TONE IT DOWN.”
Someone is getting rich by making mayonnaise edgy, you know.
Fin.
The good news? My classes are great! Sacred Geometry is my new religion and my teacher Mark feels like the great uncle I never had. Now that school is back, every day I’m either working or in class. For the sake of my sanity I’ve been trying to convince myself that school isn’t an obligation it’s just a gathering to hang out with friends and make things. Class is fun, I still wish I had a day off doing the week though. Let’s see how long it takes for me to have a mental breakdown.
Whether it was getting a job or maybe I’m just becoming more private but for whatever reason, I haven’t felt inclined to post recently. I’ve decided to start reading classics that a person my age should have probably read already. I started this week with On the Road by Jack Kerouac. This book makes me want to drop everything and go away. I’m about half way through and so far I adore it.
It helped that I began reading On the Road while making the journey to South Carolina to visit my beautiful, pregnant, sister Cristin. Wow, South Carolina is a world away from San Francisco. It was refreshing to sit in the hot sticky weather and talk about the baby, it reminded me of the world outside my bubble. Why do I take everything so seriously? There isn’t anything to worry about.
So what if I forget things constantly. So what if I have no idea how I’m going to pay rent or get health care by this coming May. So what if all I want to do with my life is hang out with James, watch movies, travel, visit my family, paint, and go out with friends. So what if I accidentally told a customer the wrong information at work today which resulted in a disgruntled mess….. maybe that one deserves some worry.
Life is good. In the words of Kerouac’s character Dean Moriarty, “Now dammit, look here, all of you, we all must admit that everything is fine and there’s no need in the world to worry, and in fact we should realize what is would mean to us to UNDERSTAND that we’re not REALLY worried about ANYTHING. Am I right?”
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of the same thing again and again (work, watch a movie, dinner, bed) and usually the usual doesn’t make for a very interesting subject. This is why I haven’t been updating as often as I have in the past. In a nut shell, this is how August has played out: Colin finally moved, making my list of close friends turned pen-pals even longer. Next week I’m taking the epic plane ride to visit my sister in South Carolina and I absolutely can’t wait to meet my little nephew when he is born in October. My 22nd birthday is in a few days. I’ve completely combed through my house and organized everything. In doing this, I’ve realized that Container Store is my very favorite store.
On another note, I saw this in the news today: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/21/BAJE19BSDN.DTL Apparently, a gallery on Sutter St. has been selling fake Miro prints. This is really funny. I use to pass this gallery all the time and once I stopped and noticed the alleged Miro print on display in the window. I specifically remember thinking to myself, “That can’t be a real Miro print. Would someone really place such a valuable print in such a vulnerable place in a window?”
You would think someone involved in a international art-fraud ring would be a little more careful.
First of all, I’d like to introduce you to my newest and sweetest family member: Bradley Pierce, my little nephew. He was born on October 10th and there is nothing more I can write about that is more exciting than this news! I can’t wait to meet him in person. 
