hello blog

I suck at blogging. right now though I'm sorting through a ton of stuff in my life , kind of literally. Some serious late summer cleaning going on in preparation to moving into my school address. here's hoping the up coming school year helps me out with cool stuff to blog about :D

Book on Sale!!

I was at Barns and Noble the other day just browsing when I stumbled upon some fantastic books that were right up my ally. It was apparently my lucky day as well because one was 50% off the the other down to ten bucks. The latter is a book on the basics of quilt making which I have been wanting to get into for a while now. My grandmother used to make quilts, sadly she's passed away before she could pass any of her know how onto me. However, her spirit lives on in my new found interest. The first book I mentioned is this amazing book of quilts made by contemporary artists. I'm not crazy about all of them but others are just amazing.

I can't believe my luck in finding these books the perfect balance of the basics and inspiration to take it to the next level. So far I have tentative plans for three quilts. In my basement I found a kit for making a quilt, with all precut shapes that my grandmother must have given to my mother years and years ago. Next I was thinking of making a blanket out of some old t-shirts. These two quilts are practice for my ultimate goal. That is to take my fathers clothes and turn them into a quilt. My father passed away a few months ago now. My dad was a taxidermist/artist and hunter. I thought it would be a beautiful way to remember him. Taking the colors and textures of his wardrobe and combining them into a blanket that can be used for comfort as well as remembrance.

I say these are my plans but who knows when it will actually be accomplished it may not be for a while. So far this summer I've been busy working my butt off at summer camp coming up with lesson plans for boys and a few girls ages 5 to 9. It's been a challenge, but good one. I might try to put together some of the projects me and my mom have come up with into a book.

Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew but it's better than being board. :)

Plans for the Future

So this blog started as an assignment for my computers class. That class has since ended and I'm thinking of transforming this blog, possibly starting a new one which I will use to display my artwork. I'm hoping this will also give me further incentive to get my work from the past year of college documented before summer is over. We'll see how it goes.

Cats on LOVE

Here is my image for the second to last Computers project this semester. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I was really surprised by what I was able to accomplish by working in and out of the computer and by using my scanner. It was a bit frustrating but I good experience I may just do this again sometime.

Composite Image II

This is my composite image using my own images that was done for class. There wasn't any particular theme to this. I was more going for formal qualities such as the colors and shapes in the images and how they worked together. As with most things in photoshop I struggled with this is little but I'm relatively happy with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy it :)

Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry was a guest speaker at Tyler this past tuesday. She draws comics and writes, they were handing out copies of her book "What It Is"at the library the previous week. Along with the lecture by Superflex last semester it was my favorite lecture and I think everyone else would agree. She was comical and had a lot of great stories as well as interesting information or points of view on art that she shared with us. She talked a lot about children and the way they can come up with stories their mind set as they play. She mentions her own childhood experiences trying to figure out how to get an imaginary friend as well as her interaction with children. She talks about how she lures children over by starting to draw so that she can talk to them which is pretty creepy but when you hear her stories and the more you get to know her the less it weirds you out. One of my favorite stories was the one where she watches a kid at a restaurant as he begins to play with his bacon as his mom talks on her cell phone. The kid is doing that thing where he tells the bacon he's going to eat it and it pleas for him not to. When his mother interrupts and he doesn't know what he was doing she points out the fact that children don't know when play hits them all the time. That with play there is always an element of anxiety. She was constantly makes jokes and acting thing out she was so funny and she had great things to say. She also talked about images and how much they affect us. Jokes for example are a series of images. Lynda Barry believes that images are part of our biological function, and that art is as important as our immune system. One of her final comments is on using art to make a living. She compares it to having a baby your suppose to take care of it, it's not suppose to "buy you shit". As the final part of her speech she showed us images from her book "What It Is" and read it to us. It was a lot like an overview of what she had just talked to us about. It was especially neat to hear her read the book herself especially after hearing a little about her mother before hand and then seeing part of her life translated into a comic. All in all it was a great lecture and I really enjoyed what she had to say.

Composite Image

This is my composite image from class today. I combined a picture of Kim Jong Il and Lady Gaga with a nuclear explosion in the background. It was difficult trying to find pictures that would really work together. In the end it was trial and error and luckily it worked out pretty well. I'm relatively happy with this but I could have cropped out Lady Gaga a little more I don't think it's too obvious though.