Written on my veins.

My hands are permanently covered in constantly changing thoughts. My arms keep secrets up my sleeves. My wrists host small reminders. Each time I wash my hands, my ideas wash away, and I have a limited amount of time to do something less ephemeral with them. Yesterday, faded notes reminded me to coat my silkscreen with emulsion, pin fabric, read more about the Cottingly fairies, look at lenses, and "2." And when I took my  shower last night, the last of my thoughts washed down the drain, all except for the number 2, which remained boldly placed in the center of my hand. I have no idea what it means, or what it refers to. And I usually don't write numbers when I mindlessly doodle (usually, I draw owls or narwhals or ghosts). So I have no idea what it means.

I have lots of ideas. I don't know how, but I feel like I almost always do.  Some ideas are more exciting than others. I have so many different styles of stop motion I want to try, so many different techniques of shooting things frame by frame. And new lenses coming next week to play with! One day, I will make something spectacular. And it will start off as a little idea, written with a ballpoint pen on exposed skin.

I'm old.

When did that happen?

I'm on the second half of the second semester of the second half of college. Which means I have seven weeks and 2 semesters until I earn my BFA.

I'm old enough to drink three beers because I wanted the bottle caps for an awesome collaboration project.

Mia's going to be 5 in June. She'll start kindergarten in August. I'm not ready for that.

I started dating Nicholas 5 years, 8 months, 1 week, and 3 days ago. Which means I know him so well, I answer my own questions. I'm also really good at imitating him. I just pretend like I understand how everything works and then explain it using words like "friction" and "torque" and "current" and "capacitors." Even though I have no clue what I'm talking about.

I just got back from Charleston today. It was a marvelous spring break. Nicholas & I explored Hilton Head Island and Savannah. We shot 200 feet of 16mm film. I got my picture taken with 2 fake bears and a bronze alligator statue (because who doesn't want that!). We took silly pictures. He drank coffee because I do (excepts he adds about a quarter cup of sugar--literally). We went to at least 7 different antique/vintage shops. We took advantage of every moment of sunshine.

Which is why coming back to Cleveland today was a little depressing. I came straight to my studio to do some work. Back to late nights in the studio. Back to vending machine coffee and cans of mandarin oranges (my meal right now until I go home). Back to moving things incrementally frame by frame. Which I don't mind at all.

I'm kind of excited, though. I honestly can't remember if I've mentioned this yet, because my brain's been mush lately, but my major day class has us working on developing a thesis, hopefully to use for our BFA project. And I have so many ideas. It's really wonderful to realize why you make art, what drives you. You know, get it down to one idea...that I plan on focusing on until May of 2012. Crazy. But I'm excited.

I should scan some of my sketchbook pages. Lately, my art has been inspired by the apocalypse, the American Old West, Harry Houdini, Paul Revere, the Cottingly fairies, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, winners podiums, Pangea, Hans My Hedgehog, The Youth Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was, Wikipedia, The Catcher in the Rye, Grizzly Adams, shadows, hi fives, ghosts, petting zoos, fiction, strangers, narwhals, bears, telescopes, string, unicycles, tin can telephones, and 1960s music performance videos.

I am sitting in the airport.

Last night I went to bed at 12:30 (ok, a little after), couldn't fall asleep because I happen to be occasionally usually nocturnal, and woke up at 5. Not bad. I took a cab to the train station. (Which was exciting because I've never taken a taxi before.) Took the train to the airport. Met some interesting people, which I always love. And realized that there were maybe 2 people in the same concourse that early. So I explored the other concourses, compared 6 different restrooms, at a grilled veggie panini from Bruegger's Bagles (yes, for breakfast, and yes, it was incredibly delicious), browsed 4 gift shop store things, and discovered that wearing an apron is incredibly convenient while juggling personal belongings through airport security.

I see Nicholas in 4 hours. I hope the weather's nice.

I JUST DID LAUNDRY!

Yes, this is worthy of a blog post. Because I do laundry so rarely, that it is always a celebrated event.

(I never have enough quarters.)

Today I Slept Til One O'Clock.

I had a lot to fit in, so I was working until almost 4am last night. I woke up at 7:15am. I mustered up the courage to get out of my warm bed. I ironed my outfit. I got dressed. I got ready for the day. And at 8am, I checked my email.

Snow day.

The school was closed. Not only was CIA closed, but so was the school downtown where I teach kindergarten art classes every Friday. My interview with American Greetings, which was supposed to be at CIA, was also canceled (maybe postponed?). No one really anticipated this snowstorm. Except for my friend Amanda's mom, who said we might get 10 inches. But I have to say, it was nice to get up and realize that I could (well, was forced to) take the day off.

So, wearing my freshly-ironed interview outfit, legwarmers, and slippers, I climbed back into bed, and slept until 1pm. It was beautiful.

After regaining energy, I went grocery shopping (because I was home when the grocery store was open!), worked on my demo reel, watched some Hulu, talked to Mia, downloaded videos of 1960s music performances (for a new side project!), and turned some flip books into this:

Rotoscope Gesture Studies from Michaela Lynch on Vimeo.

And now I think I'll clean my room and do some sewing and storyboarding.

(I know I complain about the snow an awful lot, but today, it wasn't so terrible.)

Dear Ciara, I happen to love you.

I just took a shower and watch ink run down my arms and stain my wrists. I felt a sudden surge of ideas today and needed to write them down before they were lost. And now they are washed down the drain, leaving behind the ghosts of words written across my veins.

Today was unreal. S.I.E. 65 opened today, and my animations Curiouser (the second ending) and Lost Boys: Peter Pan Complexes in the 21st Century were accepted into the show. Kasumi came to see my work, and we talked about plans for next semester and how much we've all missed her since she's been on sabbatical all year. She's wonderful. So many good people came to the opening. It was a nice break.

The last two weeks, it seemed like I hit a complete streak of bad luck. So many tiny nuisances consumed my days, which can be really exhausting and frustrating and discouraging. I work best with a positive attitude, and that was near impossible lately. But I kept saying that it's ok, because something good was going to happen. Soon. I kept saying soon.

Tonight something good happened.

Curiouser won two awards (complete with grant money!): CIA's Board of Director's Second Prize and the Hal & Cyndy Goodwin Award First Prize. I don't think shock is the most accurate word to express my reaction. Shaking? Yes. Almost ready to cry? Maybe. I was completely stunned. I couldn't believe it. I was just telling Kasumi that I would love a new camera lens to push my animations even further. I can afford a lens now. Maybe even two. It's so weird. Even before I even opened the envelopes and learned the value of the awards, I was utterly overwhelmed. It's an amazing feeling, to have people believe in you that much. And to have people like your work.

After the shock (and the wine) wore off a bit, I ended up talking to my sister Ciara on the phone. She writes beautiful things, including the music for this animation. Somehow, she mentioned a quote from her favorite book. My brain exploded. It made so much sense. It was completely related to everything I've been exploring for my thesis. So we stayed on the phone while I silkscreened handkerchiefs, and talked about storytelling and memory and story truth and happening truth and interconnectedness and God. As it turns out, everything I've been exploring for this thesis is exactly what she's been researching for her writing. It's amazing.

I have ideas. And I have thank you notes to write.

The best feeling in the world...

is wearing my saddle shoes for the first time after a harsh winter. Instead of patches of grass, there are patches of snow. The sun's been making regular appearances, and birds announce their presence. As often as I wish I lived closer to the equator, I'm glad I live somewhere with 4 seasons. Autumn may be my favorite, but there's nothing I appreciate more than that first week of Spring.

Of course, I am told that it's too good to be true, and that another snowstorm will surely come. But I have high hopes for this year, and faith in my groundhog friend. I think this is it. I sure hope so, because I have so many runs in my tights, and I'm constantly restitching legwarmers that are splitting at the seems. And I love being barefoot. That is really the best feeling in the world.

Today was wonderful. Normally I have Cinema from 9:30am until 4:30pm, and then Video from 5pm to 10pm. But today both of those were canceled! Normally, I'd prefer to have class. But the weather was so wonderful, and I have a lot of footage I still need to shoot for various projects. So I came home early (4 o'clock!) and sat on my balcony and taped some shots and read some articles and ran to the grocery store (because normally, I leave before it opens and return wayyy after it closes) and watched 2 movies: The Butterfly Effect and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. My major day this semester (have I mentioned this already?) is spent developing a thesis...ideally to use for a BFA project next year. Which is why I have half of the library in my studio. Anyway, I have a growing list of movies related to my topic that I've been trying to watch. I really enjoyed these two, especially the latter. Then again, that is to be expected with anything involving Michel Gondry.

Now to make this night perfect, I just have to go to bed by midnight. Wouldn't that be wonderful. Ha!

Ps. If you're in the Cleveland area, the 65th annual Student Independent Exhibition opens tomorrow (6pm-9pm), and I have two pieces in! I'm really excited about a lot of the work in there, actually. So stop by!