new tattoo

I'm getting a new tattoo this Sunday (but shhh don't tell my parents!), so I decided to chronicle the process here. I'm getting a small flock of birds on my back. There will be five birds in all, starting with one standing at the lower left corner (like at my waist) and the last one on the back of my right shoulder. I'm specifically using a royal tern for the breed, because their wings take on some very sharp angles when they fly and it looks really cool. (P.S. I'm not just getting this done for vanity; the image does have a meaning for me, but it's private :P )

Here are the photos I took from Google images as reference:



They'll be about three inches tall on my back, and will consist of a light black outline with all the inner shading and color having no black linework, and an overall painterly, wispy look.

I'm getting it done by Dave Wallin at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg. At first I planned on going to Saved Tattoo, but they have turned out to be totally elitist and overpriced. My room mate has been trying to get an appointment with them for months and they won't even give her the time of day. When I went, they told me the tattooer I was interested in is currently in Copenhagen, and then told me to contact him through MySpace (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate MySpace?). I can't even get a real e-mail address?? Okaaay...

Anyways, Tattoo Culture is only a couple blocks away from Saved, and I stumbled upon it when I started walking in the wrong direction by accident. It is so much more welcoming. The guys there were friendly and warm, the studio was impeccably clean and organized, they have multiple artists who take walk-ins (not just appointments months in advance), and they have rotating art on the walls. (As an aside, the current art exhibit is cool enough that people should stop by just to see it. It's photographs of regular people in their conservative work clothing, then photos of the same people in their punked out, personal clothes, with their tattoos all showing. Very clever.) And, most importantly, the tattoo artists there do really excellent work, especially Dave and Gene, the two resident artists.

Dave Wallin was awsome. This will be my first really "big" piece, so I'm kinda nervous. But Dave discussed every detail of the tattoo with me--feather style, shadows, exact placement, even the amount and angle of "light" hitting the birds--so I feel 100% confident about being in his hands.

When I go back to get it done Sunday, I'll get Dave's original sketch and will take photos of the stencil, linework, and finished product. He estimated about 4 hours of actual tattooing, so here's hoping I can handle the pain long enough to get it all done in one sitting.

looooove

Found more illustrators whose work I adore, this time through the Vinyl Pulse site.

First up is Sarah Joncas, a Canadian artist whose ultra-feminine work has a decidedly Dali-esque feel to it. These are so pretty it kills me.




Then we have Camilla d'Errico, another Canadienne. Her adorable girls have incredibly expressive eyes, and the girls in helmets are especially quirky and cute. Check out her "Birds and the Bees" series in the Recent Work section for some incredibly sexy (and slightly demented) cuties. Meanwhile, here are two of my other favorites:



These two artists are in a joint show at Thinkspace in LA.



I wanna go! Vinyl Pulse only lists shows and stuff for California. What about us NY'ers??

...

The Society of Illustrators is currently hosting an online exhibit of art that responds to the war in Iraq, by contemporary graphic artists and illustrators.

I rarely write about personal things in here, but this is one time when I really feel compelled to. I met a wonderful man through an online dating site last May. After messaging back and forth for a few weeks, we met for a date, and ended up really hitting it off. Long story short, Joe and I have been together for about seven and a half months now.

Now comes the unusual part. He's in the military. And I'm a staunch pacifist. He's still extremely liberal and atheist (as am I) and we share many of our world views. But in the past, I always maintained that I couldn't date someone in the military because I assumed the thought of (or knowledge of) him having killed someone would change the way I felt and/or treated the guy. Granted, Joe hasn't been sent abroad or seen combat yet, but there have been a few instances already in which he was slated to go to Afghanistan, but then the situation changed for him. Every time he gets a phone call or e-mail from the military, my heart skips a beat. What if things are changing again, and now he does have to go? Would our relationship survive him being gone for a year (or potentially more)? Would he even survive?

Honestly, it's something I don't even want to think about, but unfortunately I have to.

Since meeting Joe, my attitude toward the war, toward the U.S. government, toward soldiers in general, have all undergone a shift. I hate the reasons for going into Iraq, but recognize that at this point, the American military presence cannot just pick up and leave. I mean, with the way things have developed, Iraq is damned if we do and damned if we don't; but at least General Petraeus seems to be making some headway, and a new, hopefully more realistic and responsible, administration will be put in place in less than a year. As for the current administration, my opinion has done nothing but get worse and worse (not that it was even remotely positive to begin with...). Never in my life have I felt so distrustful and disgusted by the U.S. government. Even with elections looming, I still have very little faith in the government anymore. I've always known that politicians are inherently evil (such is the nature of the beast), but by now, I've pretty much lost all faith that these people are trying to help Americans. I'm even leary of Obama, who I support and fully intend to vote for in the primary. I just have a lot of doubt that his message of hope will follow through (though I have way more doubt among the other candidates, both Republican and Democrat).

As for my attitude shift toward soldiers... Well to be honest, I used to hold a lot of disdain for them. I know this was an unfair assessment; there are a lot of different reasons people choose to join the military, and as far as I can tell, blind support for the Iraq war is very rarely one of them. Wanting to kill people is never a reason (or if it is, then that person will in all likelihood get kicked out or not make it through training). After meeting Joe, though, after revisiting Suzanne Opton's photographs of soldiers at Fort Drum in light of the disappearance of some of them, after watching National Geographic's "Inside the Green Berets," after reading the cards sent into PostSecret each week from soldiers... now when I see soldiers in airports, recruiters on the street, etc, all I feel is sadness. Not because I pity them, but because I think I now share at least a little sense of empathy. The entire Iraq war has been such a huge, devastating mistake. Iraq's culture, cities, and civilians have been pillaged and destroyed. What started out as a "pre-emptive strike" has devolved into a mess of sectarian violence, civil war, and destruction. It's not fair that American lives are being sacrificed to this monster, much less the thousands of Iraqi lives.

It's all a big, irresponsible, disgusting mess.

So here is my presentation of the Society of Illustrators' "Artists against the War" exhibit. I'm posting the pieces that spoke to me the most, and my response to them in both artistic and personal parameters:


R.O. Blechman's "Support Our Troops"I love this drawing's simplicity. Its message is clear: blind patriotism is suffocating and prevents anything productive from getting done. I hate hate hate hate the blind patriotism that is foisted upon us by conservative media and the current administration. We're told that if we don't support the war, then we're not supporting the troops. This is completely bass-ackwards. I support removing our troops from harm's way; and I don't like being told that being anti-war makes me anti-soldier. Those fucking "Support our Troops" magnetic bumper stickers, which this piece is referencing, are straight-up stupid. How is forking over a dollar for a car decoration supporting anything? These people who wear their indignant patriotism on their sleeve are ridiculous. Are they sending encouraging letters to the troops, writing congress to demand that the troops receive adequate supplies, or doing anything even remotely constructive? No, they're buying magnets to stick on their gas-guzzling cars (which is part of the reason we're over there in the first place), and then maintaining a mindset that tells them they're part of the solution when in actuality they're doing nothing.



Serge Bloch's "Cannon Fodder" This one in particular is infinitely frustrating for me. How could politicians with no military experience (ahem Bush cough Rumsfeld) so carelessly ship sons and daughters, parents, husbands, wives, friends, companions... into such a quagmire? No plan, no exit strategy, barely any strategy at all for that matter, no real committment to catching Bin Laden, despite the fact that he was the one who masterminded the 9/11 attack, not Saddam Hussein. It's just so enraging! People are not cannon fodder, damnit! But they're certainly being treated as such.



Milton Glaser's "The Losses of War"
Honestly, I think this one just speaks for itself. Many of these pieces are deceptively simple, such as this. One little image evokes a deep gamut of painful facts and thoughts and emotions. This prosthetic arm stands for more than a soldier's lost hand. It stands for lost limbs; lost lives, families, homes; the forgotten minefields remaining in poor, war-ravaged countries; loss of innocence; loss of life; destruction of a culture, of history... of hope...



Gary Kelley's "Manifesto" This is probably my favorite. The figure looks so beaten. It could represent anyone involved in the war. The pacifists who are ignored or insulted, the Iraqis who are being invaded and killed from all sides, the soldiers forced to fight an unjust war... The darkness, simplicity, and skewed, half-fetal position of the figure are haunting. And the quote at the bottom is truly disturbing. It says "Naturally the common people don't want war... but it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along... all you have to do is tell them they're being attacked, and denouce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." Sound familiar? The man who said this was Hermann Goring, a leading nazi officer who ended up being tried and found guilty of war crimes. This is interchangeable with the rhetoric that was spouted to justify the war in the first place and is still being spouted desite the obviousness of what a mistake the war is. Eerie. Just... positively frightening.



Peter Kuper's "This is Not a Comic"
Of course I love this one--it references modern art! It also points out the contradictions at play not just in the Iraq war, but in issues we've faced throughout the Bush administration's tenure. Everything has been glossed over. Iraq was not an "invasion," it was a "pre-emptive strike;" destruction of animals' habitats and encouragement of pollution and consumption isn't "damaging" because there's no such thing as "global warming," and even if there were, it won't kill us in our lifetime; the removal of our "rights" is acceptable because we're "fighting terror;" ignoring the genocide in Darfur is acceptable because it doesn't suit American economic interests to intervene. There is so much going wrong in this country. And so many people are just complacent. I hope the new election brings out droves of voters, from both sides. It's time people start caring.



Koren Shadmi's "Tasting Victory"
I have mixed feelings about this one. Visually, it's very powerful. The red on the dress really stands out and is quite brutal, disturbing even. The painting is right to argue that this war is not comparable to those of the past. The "enemy" now is totally amorphous. There are no clear "good guys" and "bad guys," leaving out a sense of glory in fighting. On the other hand, this piece presents a very grim impression of soldiers in this war: faceless, violent, killing machines. I know there has been some very publicized horrible activity at the hands of American soldiers (torture at Abu Ghraib and that rape and murder of the 14-year old girl and her family, for example), but the vast, vast majority of soldiers are not attacking innocent people on purpose. I feel like this piece stands for the opposite of the blind patriotism I discussed above. Any extreme, obstinate frame of mind is going to be wrong. There is always more than one side to every issue. True, soldiers who have committed crimes must be punished for their deeds, but in general, in the case of Iraq, the blame needs to be spread among those responsible for starting and proliferating the war, not on those who are stuck carrying out irresponsible orders.

i'm in love...

...with these drawings by French illustrator Annette Marnat.











Her drawings are so French. The sketchyness and loose lines, slight cartoony quality, and exaggerated shapes, wrapping up to create an overall quirky feel, are trademarks of French illustration (see Toulouse-Lautrec, these guys, and pretty much any Franco-Belgian comic) , as well as some of my favorite effects in illustration and animation overall. I love love love love love these. Thanks to my French skills, I was also able to glean the following from what little information about her exists on the interwebs:

Annette was born in 1982 near Roanne (central France, northeast of Lyon) and now lives in Lyon. She studied at the Émile Cohl School, also in Lyon. She's had her illustrations printed in various publications and now works as a children's book illustrator, including the "Pavillon Noir" ("Black Ship," approximately) adventure series, which, near as I can tell, is about kids who are pirates.

I wish I could find more about how she creates the work on her blog. Some look like they're pastel, but the backgrounds, lighting effects, and repeating patterns are clearly computer-generated, so I'm wondering if they're not entirely done on the computer, with different built-in effects and textures.

!!!

This is FANTASTIC! (So fantastic that I'm using bold, italics, and caps lock. Wow!)

One
Two
Three

Read all three parts in order! It's short, I promise.

I love this! It reminds me of my grandmother because she tried to teach me how to draw a face in profile once when I was little, and it was just as ugly as this guy's face drawing (but I still loved it and definitely still have at least one notebook with my version of her faces). It also reminds me of the "How to Draw" books I used to covet as a little kid. I used to take them out of my elementary school library so often that the protective plastic covering actually got all ripped up on a few and my mom bought new plastic to re-cover them because she knew the school would never do it.

More illustration that I've fallen in love with.

These are by Seiko Omori. The 3D girls look a little stoned, but they're so charming and sweet. And then the 2D ones are more like fashion illustration--so edgy and cool with their dash of anime style. I love that Omori utilizes two diametrically opposite styles, but they somehow still feel cohesive together. I think it's the rosy cheeks and faraway glances that do it.




(This is my favorite 2D one. I think I may have to print it onto transfer paper and make a purse or tee-shirt out of it.)

(Love those pouty lips!)

P.S. Sorry for so many image dumps lately! I just can't help but share it when I find illustrations I like (being a wannabe-illustrator myself and all). Plus, it helps me to remember them for my own projects and stuff :]

pretty pictures

I have become completely addicted to the Drawn! blog. Yesterday they posted a link to illustrator Justin White's site, Jublin. He's had seven tee-shirt designs printed over at Threadless.com and has some deliciously demented illustrations on his site. The guy has a real talent for exaggerated facial expressions and melding the cute and grotesque. He's like an American, male version of Junko Mizuno (only my favorite illustrator EVER).

And here is my favorite of Jublin's work on his site:



It's so twisted!... And pink!

more stuff found on the Drawn! blog

Los Campesinos music videos:



It sort of bothers me how the animation in the one above only seems to match the music during the chorus, but it's still cool nonetheless.

I like this one even MORE:



Disco war!

The colors are so bright and fun! And obviously I'm a fan of the anti-war sentiment, but I also just really like the animation. The illustration is childlike, but still moves so fluidly. Love it!

happy holidays, etc

Found these on Drawn! The Illustration and Drawing Blog:

(M. Ward's Chinese Translation)


(My First Crush)

Awwww

!!!

Oh my god tonight's Simpsons episode had Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, and Dan Clowes! And they called themselves the "League of Extraordinary Freelancers"! Genius!

This may give the Homerpalooza one (featuring none other than the Smashing Pumpkins) a run for its money as the best Simpsons episode ever.

new article at zingmagazine.com

http://www.zingmagazine.com/drupal/node/447 or you can read it below


Censorship Exhibit at the Brecht Forum
By Leah Hansen

Thursday, November 8 saw the opening of “Censorship: An Exhibition Benefiting Artists in Distress” at the Brecht Forum. The reception featured plenty of food and drinks, live performances, and a raucous crowd the filled every inch of the relatively small gallery space. The featured artists hail from countries around the world and utilize an array of mediums, including drawing, painting, photography, video, and performance. The only thing missing was context.

No artist’s statement or biography appeared; no overall explanation of the show’s goal was on view. The press release for the exhibition, which can be found at freedimensional.org, explains that a few of the artists have faced political repercussions as a result of their controversial work, but nowhere at the actual show can one read which artists were censored and which are simply responding to the idea of censorship.

This creates a modicum of confusion. Though quite striking, Melissa Murray’s “Bag,” a four-foot graphite drawing of a nude woman in profile, sitting on the ground wearing a plastic grocery bag like a hat, doesn’t necessarily address censorship. Yes, nudity is frequently under attack by censors, but in this case, the woman’s arms and legs obscure any “offensive” parts. Moving on, one arrives at Sarah Valeri’s stunning painting, “Bright”. The 30-inch canvas features a lithe, androgynous child curled in a fetal position on a swamp bank. In the foreground, a dog with a frog riding on its back swims by; lily pads float around them. The painting’s sea of blue, green, lavender, and cream swirl gently together, and, coupled with the child’s morose expression, evokes serenity and sadness. But, again, one wonders how it relates to the show’s theme.

The pieces with clear ties to censorship cover emotions ranging from rage to hope to humor. Particularly humorous are the pieces by photographer “BKLYN Paul,” who attended the opening naked. In “Spring Street,” the artist appears naked and smirking in front of graffiti-covered wall that creates a stark contrast to his unclothed body. On the left, an amateur photographer is caught snapping Paul’s photo with a little digital camera and a woman on the right turns toward us with a big grin. Paul’s “Subway Series” consists of three photos of a friend riding the subway naked. Only one other rider watches with a scowl, while everyone else is clearly laughing. The laughter captured in these photos emphasizes the ridiculousness of the attempts by the FCC and conservatives to fine and jail people for even accidental flashes nudity. Meanwhile, no one in these photos appears harmed or scarred by seeing a naked man on the streets of New York.

Collages by Issa Nyaphaga and Bara Diokhane evoke potent anger at the lack of artistic freedom in their homelands, Cameroon and Senegal. Mel Smothers’ two Mao portraits (of the Andy Warhol variety), painted over with ethereal birds in flight, impart a sense of hope for the future.

While the exhibition is successful as a showcase of eclectic art, it fails to maintain a cohesive message about censorship. Background information on the art and artists is especially important in this context, as artists face the FCC crackdown on “obscene” television and radio programming, and the current administration’s attempts to repeal basic rights in the name of “combating terrorism.” Without an explanation tying this work together, it’s just a mish-mash of art—impressive art, but a mish-mash nonetheless.

“Censorship: An Exhibition Benefiting Artists in Distress” will be on display at the Brecht Forum, located at 451 West Street between Bank and Bethune Streets, through December 6. There will also be a closing celebration held on Friday, November 30 from 7 to 10 p.m., featuring live music and dance. For more information, visit brechtforum.org or call 212-242-4201.

aww

Cutest OverheardinNewYork post ever:

Girl: I'll have a dozen bagels.
Bagel guy: I can't pass up on this opportunity. I have to tell you that you're really cute.
Girl: [Blushes.]
Bagel guy: Do you know what the difference between cute and not cute is?
Girl: ... Nooo, what?
Bagel guy: Three bagels. [Hands girl 15 bagels.]

--Jumbo Bagels, 57th & 2nd

Bette Midler's Hulaween

New article written by yours truly on the zingmagazine website:

http://www.zingmagazine.com/drupal/node/435

It's accompanied by photographs by the extremely talented (and my former room mate) Marta Fodor, more of whose work can be found at www.martafodor.com

She and I covered the "red carpet" at Hulaween, but there were only a couple of real celebrities who walked it. Seeing paparazzi up close was quite enlightening, though. The paps are CRAZY!! They were shoving each other out of the way and stealing other people's spots, and the guy next to us was saying all these nasty comments about the other photographers and even the people walking the red carpet. There's no need for that kind of behavior--it's not like this was the Oscars!

meh

I saw a homeless guy fall onto the train tracks this morning. Two guys immediately pulled him out, and there wasn't a train coming, luckily. The man was obviously mentally handicapped and seemed really out of it. He was yelling gibberish and lying there sort of slowly wiggling his arms and legs once the two guys pulled him back onto the platform. It was kind of a scary thing to see. You have to wonder what would have happened to the guy had he fallen in when it wasn't rush hour and full of people. I know people like to say that some homeless are that way by choice, or are just addicted to drugs (so it's their own fault [?]), but what about people like this one? He probably has no family or anyone to take care of him. And yes, there are services out there to help the homeless, but how is someone like this supposed to take advantage of them, much less even take the initiative to seek them out?

It's just really sad to see. I mean, what can you do for someone like that? Throwing change at him won't exactly help anything, even if your heart IS in the right place for doing so. I hope the police or paramedics or whoever that got there after I was gone got the guy to a shelter or something.

!

Stephen Colbert is speaking at Barnes & Noble Union Square tomorrow FOR FREE!!! Who's going?? Leah's going!!

SO EXCITED!!!

The Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence

Stephen Colbert's new book, "I am America (And So Can You)" is HILARIOUS. I'm only about a third of the way through it so far, but it's been making me laugh out loud (literally--I'm not being hyperbolic [is that a word?]). I've been chuckling on every subway ride I've taken for the past few days. The whole thing is written in the same style as the way he talks on The Colbert Report. He seems serious, but you know it's a joke because the things he says (writes? dictates?) are just so abdurd. The book really is the television show in bound form. There are even little snarky notes written in the margins, which is reminiscent of his "The Word" segment from the show. The entire thing is split into chapters on issues that affect America today ("family, "old people" [hee-hee], "religion," etc.), and consists of Steve giving his opinion (which we're ordered to all follow) on each of the topics. I'm currently in the religion chapter, and just HAD to post this one line from his section on Shinto:

"...a whole bunch of magical beings based in different parts of nature? That's not a religion, that's Pokemon."

HA!!

Oh Stephen Colbert, you are just too much...

He's doing a talk and signing books next Tuesday (Oct. 23) at the 92nd Street Y. I thought t was free, but I just looked it up, and it actually costs $35 and is SOLD OUT!!! The L Magazine did not say it cost anything OR that you had to reserve tickets in its listing! LAME!!! Though a "limited number of tickets may be available an hour before curtain," so I think I'm gonna try to get in anyways.

mini review

One of the people I met at the Haystack Arts Camp alerted me to an exhibit currently displayed at SUNY Stonybrook called “No se sabe más: No more is know: Anonymity and the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez.” The show features work influenced by and in reaction to the hundreds of serial mutilations, murders, and disappearances of women and girls that have been going on for the last 15 years in Cuidad Juarez, a Mexican city near El Paso, Texas. I stumble upon an article about these murders once every couple years or so, and it just keeps getting worse. The Mexican government does almost nothing to solve or prevent these crimes, and the few suspects they do catch are tortured until they confess (or die), leaving serious doubt as to whether they’re actually guilty. (Confessions given under torture are almost always false, since the person being tortured will usually do anything to make it stop.) I won’t be able to get over to Stonybrook in person, but the exhibit’s website has a photograph of each piece in it, as well as a deeper explanation of this situation, so here’s a little mini-review. I hope this exhibit will teach some new people about this horrible phenomenon. The longer it goes ignored, the longer it’s going to go on.



The 13 female artists of this show each have one piece pictured on the website. Some are also accompanied by an artist’s statement or explanation of the item. Unfortunately, some have neither, and some have a more general artist’s statement, rather than an explanation of how the piece ties into the theme. The general statements almost take away from the idea behind the exhibition, as they seem self-indulgent in comparison to the heartfelt words written on the murderous situation in Mexico.

There’s also quite a wide variation in skill level. Some of the art just looks amateurish compared to the better pieces. Marisa Cornejo Kasterine’s watercolor drawing features a roughly hewn girl diving head first out the backseat door of a moving van, with five male figures seated inside the vehicle. The background consists of brown and yellow scribbles for the road, and flat red with a layer of yellow forked trees for the space behind the van. The artist’s explanation is a short treatise on the artist’s nightly dreams, which this piece is presumably based on, though it doesn’t outright say so. How, then, does this fit in with the theme? A personal statement unrelated to the exhibition’s inspiration just seems out of place. In addition, the drawing itself is unimpressive in its child-like quality. It’s a purely two dimensional drawing: no depth, no shadow, and simple line rendering of the figures and vehicle, right down to the horizontal lines trailing the van to indicate motion.

Kasterine’s drawing fits in neither with the exhibit’s theme, nor with the skill level in the more accomplished pieces, such as Jain Hutzell’s sinewy carved wooden sculpture. Her upright log has subtle flows that vaguely resemble a human body and a stretching hand near its top, as if it’s reaching out for help.

Erica Arce’s ceramic sculpture, however, is by far the standout piece of the show. It’s a ceramic, mutant human torso painted cream with dusty gray in the corners and cracks. The gray corners and allover scratchy texture make it look dirty and beat-up. The figure’s head, back of the neck, and back of the shoulders are jaggedly broken off, and its arms clutch its belly at the base of the elongated torso. A split down the figure’s center, and a bloody red stain at the broken edge of the shoulders, make it all the more disturbing. I only wish the online photo were bigger, so I could get a better look at the details and the shreds of clay scattered at its base (I can’t tell what they are from the photo). Overall, the figure evokes pain, sadness, and serious abuse. It sympathizes with the mutilated and murdered women of Cuidad Juarez. Taken in a broader context, the figure can be seen as representing the women across the globe who are maltreated and killed every day while their government and society do nothing to stop it and the rest of the world remains ignorant or apathetic.

I wish the website included bigger and more photos, and it’d be nice if media were listed with each piece. At the very least, they ought to list the titles of the pieces pictured online. But I guess the website really isn’t the focus; the idea is to GO to the show.

For those who ARE able to go to Stonybrook, the exhibit is located in the Student Acitivity Center Gallery, which is open Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be on display through November 2. Website is http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/sacgallery.

gross

So I know this is totally old, but it's so messed up that I had to post about it. I was surfing around dlisted.com and found a post from this past February about a London restaurant, Bumpkin, which was offering free meals to size zero models with a BMI under 18 if they presented their model card. Bumpkin only gave free food to size zero models--no size one fatties allowed!

Are you KIDDING ME??? These are women who choose not to eat! Even though I doubt any models who are that skinny would even take advantage of the offer, it's still ridiculous. Why are models being rewarded for being morbidly thin?? I've also (sadly) been watching the new season of America's Next Top Model, and the judges called the one girl who's not skin and bones (she's maybe a size 7/8) "almost plus size." WHAT??? I used to really like high fashion (not that I can afford it, but it's still fun to follow it), but it's gotten to the point where I just can't stand anything remotely related to the world of high fashion anymore. The New York Times Style Magazine, which has become my main source of fashion reading, drives me insane--every article is written in this pompous, pretentious tone of voice, as if owning ridiculously overpriced clothes is the true mark of success in life. Most women's magazines do the same thing, as well as presenting a new "must-have" list every few months. And god forbid that a "fashionista" wear something from (gasp!) last season. How important can any of these clothes be if no one wants to wear them again three months down the road??

And this obsession with thinness is completely out of control. While walking down the street with a male friend recently, we passed a really tall, ridiculously skinny blonde girl wearing a short black dress, and my friend made some comment about how hot she was. I said, "Are you kidding
me?! She has no boobs or butt!" and he responded by saying that she looks good that way because she's so tall or something. Then some random guy behind us was like, "Yeah, man!" and the two of them laughed it up about their shared observation. I don't understand how a woman in her 20s having the body of a twelve year old boy is attractive or, more importantly, healthy. And these designers who claim that clothes "just look better" on thin women are ridiculous. How many designers are that thin? Where do they buy their clothes? (P.S. If you make clothes to fit someone that thin, then, yes, it is going to look better on a skinny-minny. It's no different than plus-size clothes looking better on plus-size women. It's not that clothes in general look better on super-skinny women, it's that everyone looks better in clothes that are designed for their specific body type! Sheesh!)

And this restaurant thing--why don't they give free food to people who don't eat because they legitimately can't? There is rampant starvation around the world and they're donating food to people who choose not to eat, to the point that some of them are actually dying. Disgusting. It's gotten to the point that I just don't understand how anyone can embrace or enjoy high fashion anymore. Designers suing cheap chain retailers for copying their admittedly unoriginal designs (http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0739,yaeger,77905,15.html), aestheticizing morbid thinness, and the exclusivity and whole annoying aura of self-importance in the fashion industry... it just disgusts me. I can't even enjoy Betsy Johnson and Vivienne Westwood anymore, and I've loved their clothes since forever.

On a more positive note, here's today's moment of surreality: Last night, I walked through Abingdon Square Park on my way to The Spotted Pig, and there were three clusters of three massive gourds (maybe 16 inches long and 9 inch diameter at the widest part) in the bushes in the center of the square. It was dark and I didn't get that good of a look, so I don't know if they were real or not, but it was still pretty random. And if they were real, then that is some serious genetic modification going on.

the end of (another) hiatus

So it's been another crazy ridiculous couple of months, and blogging has ONCE AGAIN taken a back seat to the rest of life. I have been simultaneously searching for a job and a new apartment.

After sending out about 30 resumes with no response whatsoever, I got an interview and was hired about a month ago as a proofreader for a real estate marketing company. They don't really do marketing in the traditional sense here. When a building or piece of property goes up for sale, the seller hires a brokerage company, and the broker hires us to create an "offering memorandum," which is a book with anywhere from 30 to 150 pages full of information on the property, and is intended to convince potential buyers to purchase it. So, really, I would say this is more of a graphic design firm, it's just that they only design one thing.

Then I spent about a month trying to find an apartment. October 1st is probably the worst possible move-in date. Returning college students snatch up everything good in September, and then no one's moving out in October, so there's very little to choose from, especially if you have a low budget. But I did manage to find a nice place right in Williamsburg (only a block from the Lorimer L stop!) a week before the lease ended in my old place. It's a really cute, fairly big place in a fun neighborhood. It's around the corner from the Alligator Lounge, only one of the best bars ever, so designated because you get a free pizza with every beer you buy--and it's a good-sized pizza too, none of this "personal pan" nonsense.

However, even though I'm pretty much settled into both my job and new apartment, I still won't be updating this regularly for a bit longer, as internet is not yet installed at home. I am going to try to start a new, short feature that I can update here while I wait for internet at home, though.

So here's the plan: Every day, I see something surreal or funny or just smile-inducing (most often on the subway), so I'm going to start writing down all these little moments here for all to enjoy.

Moment numero uno:

9:15 a.m., L train: A young (maybe 21-22?) guy gets on the train wearing a too-small tuxedo with a bubblegum pink bowtie. (Who wears a tuxedo at 9:15 in the morning?? And with a bowtie--a pink bowtie--no less? Fantastic.)

Moments later, same train: I spotted a billboard for a palm computer, upon which someone had scribbled "GO HOME, GET A LIFE, AND STOP CHECKING YOUR EMAIL!" I could be really pretentious here, and claim it as a cry against our constant need to be plugged in at all times, but I'm more reminded of a postcard in the first "Post Secret" (postsecret.blogspot.com) book that says, "I hate billboards so much that I have started to vandalize them." Made me smile, in any case. Sometimes I really wish I had a camera in my cell phone so I could document these things visually. Pulling out my big, wonky digital camera is too conspicuous.

back in business

I have been a very, very bad little blogger lately. Actually, I've been an absent blogger, really. Working on the thesis and being out of town took serious priority. But grad school is officially over, I'm back in NYC, and it's time to return to this poor, neglected blog.

First, a short recap of my time spent at the Haystack Arts Camp in Deer Isle, ME. I was there for two weeks, met some really nice people, and got to do lots of art. Also, the food was shockingly good. I expected it to be gross vegan tofu nonsense every day, but there was a huge variety, and LOTS of yummy baked goods for dessert at lunch and dinner. I learned lithography, and made three sets of prints during the first week. I pretty much just took it easy and hung out during the second week, instead of doing more lithos. I needed a vacation. Plus there was only one printing press and eight students, and everybody snatched up the time slots before I could sign up for any, unless I wanted to do it at 3 in the morning (no thanks).

Lithography, by the way, is done by taking a flat limestone, and drawing on it with grease-based pencils or ink. Then you coat the whole thing in gum arabic and do some stuff with caustic chemicals (like lithotine, acetone, and my personal favorite, nitric acid!). You eventually roll grease-based ink onto the stone. The places you drew absorb the ink, and the rest of it absorbs water. So you coat the stone with a thin film of water when you're ready to print, and roll grease-based ink over the entire stone's surface. The drawing absorbs the ink, and the naked parts repel the ink ('cuz it's oil and water--get it?), then you run it through the press and the image goes onto a piece of paper. FUN!!

Here are the three lithos I made and the photos they're based on:

This photo was taken in the print studio at Haystack,
using my Mac's built-in camera set to "comic book effect."

Here is the actual print. I painted the eyes blue
with watercolor and acrylic paint.


This one was printed on this sheer cream paper called
chin colle, which is then affixed to the white paper.


This is Joe's cat, Clark. The photo was taken by a friend of his
who I do not know, but is a super talented photographer.


This paper is dark tan in real life, but my scanner didn't really do it justice.


This is a photo of Joe from a year ago, of which I fiddled with the contrast.



This one was printed on really lovely light blue paper, but again, the scanner didn't pick it up so well. Also, the margins are way bigger in real life, but my scanner can only do eight and a half by 11 inch-size paper.

Since getting back, I've been attending my usual galleries and art activities. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was surprisingly good. It got pretty bad reviews as I recall, but I thought it was way better than number two. It was a bit confusing, what with all the new characters who were only in it for a few minutes, and three hours was too long, but in general it was still really enjoyable. Johnny Depp was as fantastic as always, and Keith Richards was a nice addition.

I saw the Simpsons movie on its opening night as well, which was awsome. Honestly, I was really expecting it to be lame. The show itself is nowhere near as good as it was a decade ago. A couple peple I know complained that it was just an hour and a half long episode, but to that I say, then it's the best episode they've made in years. Seriously. The whole theatre was laughing out loud through the whole thing. It had just the right amount of classic Simpsons silliness and jabs at pop culture and politics.

I also went to the Rubin Museum Friday night, which I'd never even heard of before Joe pointed it out to me. It focuses on Himalayan art. It's got six floors of art and a swanky bar on the first floor. On Fridays it's free after 7 p.m. and open until 10. And if you buy a drink (of any price), you can see their Friday night movie for free. It currently houses three exhibits: "What is it?" on the second floor (through Oct. 28), "Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain" on the third (through Oct. 16), and "The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama" on the fourth and fifth (through Sept. 3).

"What is it?" was separated into four sections covering "Where is it made?", "Why is it made?", "How is it made?", and "What is going on?". The art on display was all kinds of stuff--sculpture, paintings, embroidery--that mostly consisted of large scenes and/or minute detail. Then all the pieces had long explanations that answered the question of whichever section it was in. I got kind of tired of reading so much text after a while because it was making me pay less attention to the art itself. So I eventually just stopped reading and spent my time staring up close at each piece. Everything was stunningly beautiful. The colors in the paintings on fabric were shockingly bright and the statues and sculptures had some of the most impressively minute detail I've ever seen. And of the text that I did read (which was a lot), it was really fascinating. It explained the roles of the deities pictured, and the symbolism of repeated imagery, and the process that goes into some of the common mediums and processes.

"Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain" wasn't nearly as interesting. It focused on Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom, who lives on Mount Wutaishan. Joe and I kind of breezed through this part to get to "The Missing Peace," which was fantastic! It consisted of art inspired by or featuring the Dalai Lama, created by people all over the world. It covered pretty much every genre of art: photography, painting, video, installation, ceramics, sculpture... And there was a really wide variation in genders and nationalities among the artists, which is unusual (but much-welcomed) for contemporary art in a museum setting. One of my favorite pieces was this small participatory installation of a shelf holding a number of spools of golden thread. Museum-goers are instructed to stand in front of the shelf and pull the thread out to arm's length, then let it drop to the floor. One and a half spools were empty and there was a big pile of the thread clustered in one spot. I wish I'd written down the piece's explanation (and its title and author for that matter) because I'm gong to bastardize it really horribly here, but the idea is that the many arms' lengths of thread represent, like, joining hands all across the world. I think I'm inadvertently trivializing it with my crummy explanation, but I assure you, it was moving.

As for the overall feel, The Rubin is one of the best organized museums I've ever been to. The pieces on the walls are sufficiently spread out that you never feel overwhelmed, but close enough that the place hardly feels empty. Floating columns and display cases are placed so that they don't obstruct your walking path. The whole place was really clean and displays looked consistent throughout. The lighting was perfect, the air-conditioning was comfortable, the crowds were minimal (it is in a pretty off-the-beaten-path location), I could go on for a while here. Plus--hello!--open till 10 on Fridays with free admission and a free movie? I will definitely be going back in the near future.