I'm done with all of my midterms but I still have two classes left to go to this week before Spring Break. Yay! Joel's coming in tomorrow night and I'm very very excited to see him! I just got back from meeting the dogs I'm going to house-sit for in two weeks. They're adorable Weimeraners. Emma is a very excitable dog and absolutely adores attention. Ally on the other hand is a very subdued pup but still loves people. I'll definitely put pictures up when I go live there for the weekend. Lynnea told me to tell her next week what I would like to be in the fridge while I'm there and was cute about it too.

Yesterday I took pictures of the poppies in the desert. I'm starting a project where I pick up a bagful of trash (or more) from the desert space by my house. Its tough to take both pictures of trash and regular things I like to take pictures of (which does sometimes include trash...) because I have such a huge bag, its especially hard when it gets full. Cause then I want to go home cause its heavy (and my weak little arms and shoulders hurt today!). What a sissy. Here's the link to the project and more pictures: http://www.savethebrown.blogspot.com







I've been having some what of an artist's existential crisis recently. Its been going on for a couple weeks now. Not that I would ever consider giving up making art, I've just been analyzing where it comes from. I feel like my work is very stagnant and doesn't either push the envelope or feel alive. And that isn't to say that the only art that is good is progressive activistic work. But that stuff is pretty good. I've always felt this way about my work and I believe its very true. I'm good in a technical sense but in an emotional or translating sense I'm really not that great.

Art stems from some passion. Or at least, thats what I've concluded. The passion to share an experience, a cause, a love for one thing or another, hate for something, sorrow for another thing. And some of it is just passion for art, passion for colour (like Joseph Albers or Mark Rothko), for composition or line (Franz Kline or Piet Mondrian). I'm just not a very passionate person, I think. I think I'm pretty peaceful and calm. I don't know if thats a problem or not, though I'd like to think its not. I don't really know what to think, actually. Thats all the more conclusion I've come to at the moment. So stay tuned. Here is some work I've done in the past, so you have an idea of what I'm talking about:











PS. I, like everyone else, love comments -- though I'm ashamed to say it, I am. ;0)

Easter, New Blog

I have lots of catching up to do! First of all, I started a new blog, its my online journal of a project that I'm calling "Think Green. Save the Brown." Its a desert clean up project. I'm starting with the desert space by my house and then we'll see if I get beyond that. Its for my Environmental Biology class. This is the link for it: http://www.savethebrown.blogspot.com So stop on by and check it out!

So, as you're more than likely aware, last sunday was Easter and leading up to that was Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Maundy Thursday lifts up the Last Supper and Jesus' last day with his disciples before he gets taken by the government and killed. That day is Good Friday (the day the government killed him). Then saturday is the day between death and life. Easter is on sunday and thats when the Easter bunny rose from the dead and laid his first egg and the first child on earth got a cavity. Or that might not be it -- I'm going to have to check my theology... Whatever the case, here are some pictures from Maundy Thursday at my dad's church.

This is my dad in his pastorly garb.



These are some of the people in the church. I felt like such a voyeur cause I was sitting in the balcony where the projector and sound system are.













My mom works the projector and sets up the lyrics and other things (i.e., slides explaining the seder, visual aids, etc.).



We celebrated a seder and one of the people from the congregation, David Smith, explained about what the ceremony and what the foods stood for. Then everyone got a plate and was able to taste all the seder foods.




On Easter we went down to Claremont to hang out with one of my dad's colleagues and his family. Our families spend most of our holidays together. Its nice to be able to relax with other people who do the same thing. Not that I know what its like being a pastor but I certainly understand the stress level and the fact that they have done five services in three days. At any rate, I had a really good time. Then in the evening we took my brother back to school at Chapman where he announced he hated school. I totally feel him on that and could sympathize whole heartedly. School can be particularly loathsome at times. Or all the time, depending where you're going.

And this is some nonsense I've been working on lately.

Kiki, Simon's Cat

So, I haven't posted in a while and this isn't really any sort of make up for that but I loved this so much I had to share it. This cat reminds me so much of my cat Kiki and I can't stop giggling every time I watch it. :0) Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this:

More Basket Weaving

So what do you do for fun? Basket weave tie pieces of rusty chicken wire together, you know, normal things. Recently I've been working like crazy on baskets, etc. I've been super inspired to create things lately. I don't know why, perhaps its because its Spring and Spring means change. Last year I went stir crazy in all of my classes cause I wanted to work outside so badly. But then again, you can't really haul a floor loom down two flights of stairs and expect to keep it in one piece and no one to yell at you... So I forewent that idea and just got more and more feverish to be outside.

Thats the nice thing about basket weaving, I can just sit at the pool edge, keep my reeds wet and sit in the sun, even if its not always warm. I did this piece today, I'm going to shellac it so that its shiny and can use it as a demo piece for my speech on thursday.



And with the left over reeds I made this little thing.



Yesterday it was so cold and windy outside I stayed in the garage and did a "paper maché" covering for a tube basket I did.



And that about wraps up what I've been doing with my time lately. I'm super excited about the next coming weeks. Joel is coming for a week and then the day that he leaves I'm going to go up to Portland and stay with a Clara and visit PNCA and then take a train up to Seattle and see Rachel! I'm really excited about the whole thing. Its going to be a wonderful Spring Break! Last year I visited my cousin in Chicago and my friend Jen was also visiting her friend there so we got to hang out while we weren't in Baltimore, that was a good Spring Break too! I love traveling and I'm so happy that I get to get away from the desert for a while.

By the way, Lindsay, I don't know if you ever read it but I commented back to you. You really made my day and it makes me so happy that you appreciate the photos. :0) Thanks for letting me know!

PS. I fixed my last post and put up a better picture of the wire thing and added the pictures of the sketches I wasn't able to upload!

Underwater Basket Weaving 101

So on thursday I'm going to give an informational speech on basket weaving so I've made some demos. This first one is a flat reed basket weave.



This one is a round reed weave that has a loose base and then gets tighter. Thats mainly because I'm not good at starting a tight weave...



And since I had the white sheet up I decided I needed to photograph my sculpture better cause you can't really see anything in the picture I took of it outside. I don't quite know how to finish it yet or if it is finished. I'm still pondering that.



This is also what I've done with things I've found in the desert.



And these are some sketches of what I'm going to work on next. They're going to be basket woven on the bottom, I'm not sure what the top is going to be made out of (i.e., fabric, felted wool, crochet) but the faces are going to be ceramic -- when I have access to do that. They'll be an installation somehow. I don't really know exactly how I'll set it up but thats my next project I'm going to work on. Maybe a junior thesis? We'll see.




And lastly I just wanted to brag about getting into PNCA some more.




Okay, maybe not brag. I'm just excited. I hope I like it as much in person as I do in my mind. I have three more credits to fill before I'm a junior but that'll be easy to fix because I'm taking 14 credits this semester. I'm looking forward to not being bored out of my mind with what I'm being taught, or not. I've been working profusely on basketry and sculpture this week and its been a lot of fun. I've certainly enjoyed that!

Sculpture

Two blogs in ONE day!! Look at me go! :0) Today after I went to my environmental biology class I came home and worked on a sculpture that I started earlier. I used some of the pieces that I picked up on my walk yesterday. These are all of the pieces I picked up. I used the two big pieces of chicken wire.



I put them together using fabric ties. I'm going to have to figure out a better way to keep the pieces together. Not sure what yet. At any rate, I used reed to weave a bulb onto the chicken wire. This is the lovely cross section of a piece of reed.



And the sculpture.







And thats about it.