This is my last all nighter of the semester.

At least it better be. Then again, I've said this several times.

It's 6:16am. I'm speckled head to toe (literally) in gold leaf. I'm tired of my trail mix. I'm tired, just a little bit though. I'm ready for fresh air and sunshine and a good hearty breakfast.

At 1pm, I have my first final critique of the week. Then Thursday night, I'll be done. Which means I have my BFA year, and then I start The Rest Of My Life. How crazy is that? Not as crazy as I've been going lately.

Here's a bit of what I've been working on (because I need a break from this presentation I'm putting together). It's for my silkscreen final. I'll explain the concept when I photograph the final presentation and post it on here.

Alright, back to work for me! Just think, though... A week from today and I'll be done with my third year (and 105 credit hours) of college. WEIRD.

Supplies for Tomorrow

Canon XH-A1
Tripod
Totas light kit
Old school lunchbox
Construction paper
Glitter
Rhinestones
Yarn
Tin can telephones
Rod Serling paper cut-out
Fish
Double rainbow
Golden cats
Mylar
Popsicle stics
Clothespins
Hot glue

(Expect an update on Vimeo April 28th.)

CMYK

Instead of telling you how dreadfully busy I have been and how many all-nighters I've pulled this week, I thought I'd show you a bit of what I've been working on (finally!). I seem to live in the fibers studio lately, doing all sorts of crazy silkscreen projects. Our latest one was a color separation print (like printing the layers cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).

So I started with this original photo of Mia from last summer.

I separated it into the layers and started printing one at a time.  So they started to look like this.

The images are adjacent vertically, so as to mimic the filmstrip format and take this one fleeting moment and repeat it, experimenting with subtle color adjustments to see how they can manipulate the tone of a single frame.

It got to be a lot of long days. But luckily, good people were there working as well. (Good people who like good music, might I add.) Debbie & I even stopped dressing alike coincidentally! Which is probably for the best. Although, I do wish I had a sweater as marvelous as this one.

I pretty much made a big mess. Well, a contained mess. Notice the Teddy Grahams container. That holds my black pigment. Thank you, Grandma, for the care package that I was oh so excited to recycle.

I think my fingernails are still dyed rainbow. The pigment just doesn't want to leave.

I finished the last layers last night. All thats left is hemming, photographing, and animating the frames (we'll see where this goes). But for now, I need to finish packing and go to bed. Tomorrow I leave for a weekend in Detroit, where I get to spend time with a special 4 year old who has been nagging me all semester to come home and hug her. Goodnight!

I've Been Really Into Ballads Lately.

They fit well with some art I'm working on. Especially the video I'm making about Grizzly Adams. There will be a ballad. But before that's done, I need to find words that rhyme with Franklin.

I've also been listening to Bob Dylan. All the time. Which is weird, because I usually stick with Buddy Holly/Dion & the Belmonts/Chubby Checker/Ricky Nelson/Franki Valli and the 4 Seasons/Motown/50s Doo-wop area, or the contemporary Iron & Wine/Jack Johnson/The Tallest Man On Earth/Will Hoge genre. But I don't mind this change.

I drew a lot of trees today. Tomorrow I will draw a lot of tree stumps and tombstones. And maybe some mountains. And rain clouds. For large repeat patterns, which I love making. I have about 26 feet of fabric to silkscreen. It will be awesome.

Also, I might be buying 2 or 3 cameras (one's only $11, though, so that doesn't really count) soon. I have so many ideas for projects, and with the end of the semester (and summer!) in sight, I can hardly wait to do art without deadlines.

Tomorrow I will be cleaning my room, sewing, embroidering, looking at images of owls, designing pillowcases, checking out more library books, reading, taking pictures, and hopefully coming home to see that my new camera lens has arrived! I'm excited.

Last week I was in one of those after-Spring-Break-where-I-didn't-really-take-a-break-at-all-and-now-I'm-exhausted funks. I think a lot of us were. Stress has been high lately. But this week will be good and productive.

And just because I haven't shared much besides insignificant words here lately, look at this beautiful video my best friend Vanesa made. She has incredible ideas.

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.