To the sea

Sarah's giant suitcase (we only stayed two nights).  And every time we got ready she says, "I don't have anything to wear!!"

 Floppy hats...which didn't work too well because my head got burnt and we all got miserably sunburned in strange patches.

Twankies.

 Not a great picture, but a whole lot of disco balls.

 Waiting at Hominy Grill.  This was a 45 minute wait but was said to be one of the best places to eat in Charleston. 

While the beach was beautiful, we saw many things and learned a few lessons. 

1) Don't drink alcohol on the beach. EVER.  Even if you think you are hydrating yourself with water in between gulps of rum and pineapple juice. 

2) If a mob of fraternity boys with their sorority friends plant themselves three feet away from you, be prepared to pack it up and move or you will listen to a lot of cussing, beer funneling, and vomiting.  With these crazies, we also saw a guy with a house arrest anklet and the smallest Asian girl in the world funnel a beer by herself before noon. 

 3) Even if you've put sunscreen on 4 times in 4 hours, keep putting it on.  And put it everywhere.  My leg has a sunburn patch that looks like Russia.

 4) Bring pepto and aleve, lots of it.

Aside from the headaches, stomachaches, being wiped out by the sun (and the rum), walking in the heat, being stood up by a former undergrad classmate, taking a taxi ride in a van with a driver who had a cool accent and wanted to stop at this pink building on the way to our hotel to "get a tshirt"  (she let me look at it and no sort of baggies fell out, and we ended up bonding a little talking about skin, age, and mother/daughter relationships), I'd say we had a good time.

So long school!

This week will be my last at the LU.  This is strangely scary to me because it's what I've devoted 90% of my time to since January and I don't know what the L I'll be doing afterwards.  Something may have come up as far as teaching a few weeks during the summer so that will be good cash to have.  Oh, and experience. 


 I've worked my butt off this semester but wish I had more art to show for it.  Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day.  Or in the case of welding, sometimes there isn't enough light in a day.  I'll miss the days of coming home late in the evening and watching black welding dirt spiral into the drain when I shower.  I will also miss the humor that ensues when wearing my boots, dirty jeans, and "butch" shirts out in public and people giving me strange looks.  Like I've said before, there's nothing quite like tangible signs of hard work.


Another scary part about leaving for the summer is that my routine will be changed and I will not be accessible to tools for sculpting.  This will limit me as far as welding but it could bring about creation in new media.  I've been following the art of Kiki Smith and I'd like to try casting; That is something I could do without being in the workshop.  I've also got a few sketches in mind for some drawings or prints.  Which means I'll also need to teach myself some printmaking since my professor in undergrad didn't really do the whole teaching thing.  IV and I started some screenprinting a few weeks ago but haven't gotten around to finishing it.


Going back to Kiki Smith, I'm in love with her ability to make a piece of art and adamantly say how the interpretation is different from how she intended it for herself and how the viewer views it.  ("Viewer views it"-really?)  That's important to note because often times I think people (myself included) try so hard to get a point across that it just becomes so uninterestingly obvious.  This semester I've kind of been dealing with how to juggle what message (if any) I'm trying to evoke through my art yet doing it in a slighter, less discernable way.  Smith's tones and themes are a lot darker than anything I've ever done, mostly because nothing too dark or terrible has happened in my life.  That being said, I do have these mean red areas that should probably be confronted through my art. But maybe I just don't want to bum anyone out (myself included). 


Next week will be my last week of teaching at PTC.  Honestly, I wish it wasn't over because I've enjoyed it so much.  There have been a couple issues that I didn't know how to handle because I've never been in this sort of teaching situation before but I've learned from them.  The students (minus one or two) have been great and so enthusiastic.  They will be remembered and missed. 


It's kind of funny.  I stopped the MAT program because I realized I really didn't want to teach in public schools.  Since then I've taught at PTC (community college) and may be teaching at a nonprofit, outreach sort of place.  It's like God has said, "I'll meet you half way and give you non-public schools, but you are still supposed to teach."  Which has been fine my me.

Bed Buddies

The funny thing about having Stella, Henry, and Simon (from back to front) in my bed is that Simon is the only one who actually likes me. The other two are just so jealous of each other.

I started job hunting online today. Yikes. I don't even know where to begin. Do I work an odd job just to make money? Do I find a job with benefits? Do I find a job that relates to art? I've been riding the gravy train long enough but I'm still not grown up enough to handle this just yet. After all, the Easter Bunny still leaves me presents.

"I think I'm about to go"

Social interactions make me feel confused and ridiculous.
Especially in an artsy environment. Maybe it's because I am still finding myself artistically or because I don't know my role or because I'm not "weird enough" to be a labeled artist.

Either way, I'm trying to be patient but am really hoping to get going sooner rather than later. I thought that whole, "Where do I belong thing?" was over after freshman year?

Festival of Flowers piece

Very excited about where this is going!