The Loveliest of Them All

I wish I had one for a pet.

Last year, for my final research paper in art history (ancient - 1500), I wrote about unicorns. Yup, unicorns. And some narwhals. And I think I referenced owls briefly. Oh, and Jesus. WHAT! Best paper I've ever written. (Ok, maybe it wasn't the best writing since I was preoccupied making four animations (!) for just one of my finals, and organizing a class exhibition, and making a flip book hybrid which is way too complicated to explain, and making a website in Flash... Sorry, rant.) Anyway, I wrote about the unicorn tapestries, which were made around 1495-1500 (just made the time frame!). It was really interesting, since they're loaded with symbolism. Did you know that unicorns were a symbol for Jesus? How awesome is that! Anyway, it was a lot of fun to write, and even research. I am an expert on unicorn history and symbolism now! Haha. 

Last semester, my art history paper (1500-1900) was about artists' self portraits and facebook/myspace profile pictures. I even made a mock profile page for Rembrandt, who painted like 60 self-portraits (which I made his profile pictures). So that was a fun comparison. It wasn't one of the suggested topics, but I got special permission.   :)

So now I need to pick a topic for this semester (1900-present). I'm a little stumped, I have to say. We have no suggested topics and lots of freedom, which is wonderful. I just don't know how I'll top papers about unicorns and Facebook! I'm hoping to do something about animation (maybe involving some Svankmajer...hopefully), but I'm still brainstorming.

I had my critique this morning for my big animation project. It went a lot better than I was anticipating. I guess I was nervous that I wouldn't have that much to show, since I haven't shot anything yet. I just showed some test animations and a few storyboards, but didn't want to give the ending away. I don't like explaining absolutely everything before people see it. But it went pretty well. We had to type up an artist statement last week, as well as write about our influences and possibilities for the rest of the semester, and I think writing it all down really helped me clarify all the chaos existing in my head. So yes, it went pretty well.

I have a musician lined up to write music for the finished piece. I have a wonderful friend to be the actress. I have a lovely vintage suitcase to animate. I'm looking for my grandfather's old compass when I go home for break. I'll be making a trip to Joann's to buy fabric for backgrounds...and other surprises. And in about twenty-five minutes, I'll find out if I won a set of vintage skeleton keys on eBizzle. Everything is falling into place. Let's hope it doesn't fall apart.