All that exciting news I spoke of has dissipated due to reasons out of my control.  However, this is for the better for everyone involved. 

Aside from that, school is in full swing.  Today I wondered why I was dragging ass, only to realize I hadn't had coffee.  It's a bad sign when you need your morning coffee, but I can't help it this semester.

While my big project has been nixed, I've got a few other side things to work on.  A few of my friends are in a Halloween art show and I'm hoping I have enough time to make a mobile-type skeleton thing.  I have sketched out bits in my head, but have yet to actually produce anything.  I'm also considering making a few of the paper cut outs I was really into about this time last year.

Must do homework.  This blog post is clearly an escape route from studying.  Bah.

Buzzing on news.

VERY excited that an idea I had about a year ago is finally coming to fruition!  And on a level even I didn't think could happen.  With the help of a local art group (which I think I'm a part of now) and their connections, I'm getting the chance to not only showcase my idea, but also to decorate it. 

I won't say yet what it is, but stay tuned.  Things are happening and I'm oh so thrilled to be a part of it!

BFFF

My best friend (for over 20 years now!!) and I celebrate birthdays that are exactly two weeks apart.  I celebrated mine and she did a wonderful job decorating a surprise party with large paintings of forest creatures (raccoons, deer, owls, bears).  Even if I had just gotten those paintings without the multitudes of friends and family, i would have been overjoyed.  Thus, it was an extra special birthday this year.

For her birthday, I was supremely stuck.  I can be crafty and handy, but recently I've been knee deep in school and work.  I had ideas, but where to start?

First, I decided I would draw her a picture and frame it.  This isn't to say I think my work is so great it needs to be framed.  No, it's more of a joke.  Every birthday since I can remember, she has drawn me a card (they get better every year).  Every time we have art jams or creative times, she asks me to draw her a picture of a squirrel.  It's always a line or two of shaky scribbling that ends with the inevitable "I can't draw".  So I drew her a picture of a squirrel.

I bought her some knick knacks from the Korean stationary store, three pairs of earrings, art pens, and some tights.  Here's the final product:

The earrings are each on their own button and then fastened to the tulle.  Everything else is neatly bound up by the tulle.

I also made her a small mobile to hang somewhere.  I was really lost on this project because i just started out with some paper pinwheels.  I made about 8 or 9 and couldn't figure what to do with them.  At first I was going to make a banner that said Happy Birthday and attach the pinwheels for decoration, but Gaby wasn't big on being loud about her birthday this year.  I figured that wasn't the way to go and nixed the idea.

I tossed ideas around for probably a whole day, then decided on a mobile.  The idea was so half-baked when I started.  I first used a hanger (what I was thinking, I don't know!).  Then when I realized it looked overly homemade (in a bad way), I started over.

I happened to find three small wooden dowels and decided to use those to build the mobile.  Here is the finished product.

The paper pinwheels have buttons attached at the center and the string runs through each center.  I've never built a mobile, but it was surprisingly fun to mess with the balance of objects on the wooden sticks.

This will definitely be something I am going to play with more.  I think with more practice and more time, I can get pretty good at mobiles.  I just love the way the pinwheels look when they spin. 

Out of Commission

I have very much been inactive about this blog and my creative life.  A few updates for you:

I am FINALLY feeling more on track with school.  Talked to a counselor, got some things lined up and will hopefully be ready to transfer soon.  This means I'll be taking at least one semester of 5 classes and definitely 2 summer school classes, but I don't care.  I want to be done and I want to graduate.  This also means that I'm not taking any art classes and that I'm pretty much pushing creative things to the side save for a few minor details. 

I'm mostly really happy to focus on something long term.  I finally cemented being an English major and also emphasizing creative writing.  Next semester I'll be taking more English classes and that is really exciting.  Plus, CC art classes are always around, so when I get my bachelors I can always go back, which I plan on doing. 

I'm also trying to focus more on my own writing in general, so a break from other artistic forces will be good for me.  The few things artsy fartsy things I still plan on doing involve writing anyway.  I want to write more skits/do more performances.  And I just barely have gotten involved with a friends art group, so hopefully I'll be making that come true soon.  I have a lot of ideas and bits written down that need to be shown.  I would also really love to start making short stop motions.  I've also got good ideas for party themes and am just waiting for the right moment to unleash them unto the world. 

I've also been volunteering at a great co-op bicycle center.  I'll be posting pictures and some details about that later.  For now, I must scribble notes for a quiz tomorrow.  Tata.

Kundera

I finished my K book for the A to Z list a few days ago. It was a long time coming. I think I started it a few months ago. I could say that with summer school and my sister being here, I just wasn't finding the time...but I'll be truthful. I just couldn't get into it.

I've had a lot of friends and respectable people recommend his work to me. I started The Unbearable Lightness of Being a few years back, but never could get more than a few pages into it. After perusing the K section, I thought he would be a good choice. I picked up The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

From the get go, I pretty much knew I wouldn't like it. In my opinion, he shouldn't have written a book, but an essay or series of essays. I got the sense that I was being preached to, or even looked down on as if I wasn't good enough.

I will say that I gave the book a good hard chance. I read the whole thing through and tried to take what I could from it, but in the end, I felt unappreciated as a reader. I got the very strong sense that Kundera, or the voice he was writing through, was very pretentious.

I distinctly remember a portion where he discusses how a spoken word can be emphasized. Here's a very short excerpt:

He said the word "subtle" as if it were in italics. Yes, some words are not like others; they have a special meaning known only to initiates.

I don't know about you, but I know what emphasizing a word means and I know that when it's in italics, it's being emphasized. I also know it can create special meaning for said word. This whole little section sort of sums up how I feel about the book.

It felt a bit preachy, had a holier-than-thou type of feel. I just wasn't, and couldn't get, into it. Maybe in a few years, at a different point in my life I'll like it more, but I'm pretty iffy about that.

In Which: Homer Simpson Saves My Life

We’re walking down the aisles, lit up bright with rows of beaming bars of light.  The reds seem more vibrant, the blues livelier, the yellow casts off rays like the sun.  You’re wearing that vest, the one they make you wear.  I think it looks good on you, it fits.  You think it’s a burden.

We’re in your store.  Or at least the one you work in.  It’s all aisles, up and down.  It’s all colors and boxes, and bottles of hairspray and tins of crackers.  It could be any store.  I could be anywhere.  But I’m walking down this aisle, number 4, with you wearing your smart vest.  Even with you here, we could be anywhere.

We pass kitty litter, with pictures of cats looking pleasant as they tiptoe from a box, leaving behind waves of clean scent behind their dirtied tails.  We pass the dog toys, the training treats.  We are talking about something inconsequential.  I can’t recall it now. 

It was then, in front of the dog doo pick up bags that you stopped and said, oh I meant to give this to you.

Out of your vest pocket, you plucked a shiny something and handed it to me.  It’s a button.  The kind you fasten to your coat pocket or lapel.  Homer Simpson smiles up at me, his round butt covered in blue jeans just stuck on a pin, smiling.

I look up at you in your vest and I’m smiling a big thank you.  I put that pin on right there and then, right on the lapel of my grey blazer.  Homer Simpson, fake though he may be, is a good man.  I sense spiffy good luck in the near future.

You like that I’m happy.  You grin with broad white teeth.  Overhead, white circles garble your name.  You say you’ve got to actually work now.  You’re putting that vest to use, though the vest does nothing but make you feel silly.  I still think it looks good.

I follow you to the end of the aisle and around the bend I’m hearing disgruntled muttering.  Your hand draws back across my body.  Be careful, you whisper, stand back.  She’s been here before.  You’re tense as you lean back whispering, watch out she’s got a strong left arm.

The shiny soles of your heels turn around the aisle end.  I follow, gingerly, listening for danger.  The dry lifeless cackle of an old woman hits my ears.  Before I see her, I can tell she’s armed.  She sounds wheezy, tired, as if the fight’s been fought.  Between bursts of exclamations, her throaty breath heaves as if she is lunging or thrusting. 

Things sound bad.  I’m afraid to see what it looks like.

Her hair is white oblivion.  It is cumulus clouds.  It floats gently above her flashy head, swaying with the winds of her thrusting, her lunging. 

The thin lithe of a fishing pole’s hook and sinker come whipping through the air.  Her hands, though brittle, made quick work of it.  She lumbers close and her breathy rasp screeches maniacally and I’m frozen quick, lost in her white oblivion.

The fishing pole whips at me and I know, surely, I must be dead.  There is no movement quick enough to escape her pole, her horrid breathing.  I can see the end of the fishing pole, the glint of the hook, but I don’t even put up a hand.  I just grimace and wait for the sharp stab of death.

Seconds pass.  A sharp plink and just barely your voice reaches my ears.  You’re saying something and I’m desperate to hear it.  You’re grabbing my arm and I am sluggish.  I say, I’m dying, just leave me. 

Slowly the sound comes back, my breath comes back.  I look down and Homer Simpson is smiling up at me, a fish hook stuck right in his happy grin. 

I think I hear you calling me an idiot. 

I think Homer Simpson just saved my life.  I’m smiling like an idiot.

Birthday Gift

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday recently and in an effort to get/create something for her that I could spend minimal monies on, I decided to take an existing shirt and create an applique on another.  As a kid she liked Pokemon, so to keep her youthful memories alive (though admittedly, neither of us is very old) I took an old Pokemon shirt, cut out the main picture and stitched it onto a new one.

Simple process, but it was cheap and easy and something homemade is always nice!

You can't see the shirt, but it's a normal black shirt from Forever 21 (only an easy $3.50!). 

Here's a little detail on the stitching.  Just a basic stitch. 

And since the applique was fairly simple and even impersonal, I decided to stitch on a little heart to the back of the shirt.  It's placed on the bottom left hand side and I meant it to be a sort of secret.  I attempted to attach a little A in the middle (her name starts with an A), but ran out of time.

Overall, I'm happy with the turn out, though I believe next time I'll work on something more hand made and less of an applique.