Friday, April 22, 2011

Wild Wild Life

Jeepers creepers...again it's been an age since I updated this blog. But don't blame me. It' s not my fault...really! Since last time I posted someone new as come into my life, someone very special. His name is Netflix and I must say that we are very very happy together. Happy as clams. Peas in a pod. However, he takes up most of my evenings, leaving little time to update this sorry excuse for a blog. 

So...since last post I had my senior show, went to Disneyland, and had a birthday. Let's start with the show. Well, it turned out to be a GREAT success and I'm very pleased with how smoothly everything went. My children's bedroom installation came together just as I had imagined. Hanging my pieces was a bit tricky and I must admit that I had nightmares that entire weekend that involved my pieces crashing down but luckily that didn't actually happen. The opening reception was scheduled from 6-8pm and it was surreal how quickly the time zoomed by. I was very touched by how many of my favorite people attended; a support system is key to an artist. An unexpected thing happened at the aforementioned show as well...I attracted the attention of an AGENT who is going to represent my work! I'm very very pleased with this arrangement and am very much looking forward to creating new work. I've even decided to start selling prints and plushies on Etsy so I might score some extra cash this summer :) Here's some pics from the show:




So yeah...lots of exciting things going on these days. Let's move on to the birthday...To be honest, I was DREADING this birthday since I was transitioning into the last leg of my darling twenties. I know I don't look old and I certainly don't feel old but I guess I just don't feel like I've accomplished as much as I thought I would by this age. Don't get me wrong, I've come a LONG way in the past 7 years, in fact 7 years ago I never could have imagined I'd be doing all of the things I'm doing today but...I had dreamed of having a book published by now and had assumed that I would've found that elusive Mr. Right by the ripe old age of 27. But...some wisdom I've gained in my "old age" is that you can't plan your life. It just doesn't work like that. However, I do feel like I'm getting closer to wear I'm supposed to be and then the rest will fall into place. *Hopefully* Now back to the birthday.

Since I was feeling morose about my looming birthday I had an idea. I should have one last party. I hadn't had an actual birthday party since I was 18 so I was long overdue. Also, I wanted the chance to get as many of my friends in the same location as possible since my time in Arizona has become limited. For the theme I chose to do a costume party...an ANIMAL costume party since most of you know I am very found of the critters :) Since I have very limited funds at the present, I had to concoct a cost effective costume so I bought some bunny ears from the dollar bin at Target, fished out my face paint from Halloween and selected an adorable white party dress from my closet that had been anxiously awaiting to make its public debut. My lovely friend, Ashley, offered to host the party at her house since my house wasn't an option. I thought this was a very kind gesture and am very thankful to her for offering to help a sista out. We started the evening out with a little Mario Kart action. I chose my Mii and the Magic Cruiser if you're curious. As to be expected, I won all of the cups...minus one. Hannah somehow managed to beat me by one point at the very end. 

After that we moved onto Pictionary. We did boys vs girls and I'm proud to say that Team Estrogen was victorious. I find it very interesting to observe the variances in how men and women play this game. Men start shouting out nouns before you've even started to draw while the women wait patiently for you to complete your drawing before they start their guessing. Next we moved onto my very favorite party game. This game turned out to be the highlight of the evening and I'm still giggling to myself just thinking about it. We played a game called "Telestrations". It's basically a combination of Pictionary and Telephone. Everyone gets a sheet of paper and a pencil and you gather around in a circle. You then think of a word or a short phrase and write it down. Then you fold your paper and pass it counterclockwise and the next person has to illustrate your word. When they pass it along the next person has to then write what they think your drawing is. After every turn you have to fold over what you wrote or drew so the next person doesn't know what the first word was. Here's an example:


Nonetheless, it's a HILARIOUS game and if you're looking for a good belly laugh, which are hard to come by, I highly recommend this game. Just be sure to sharpen the pencils beforehand :) Here's some photos from the evening:
 

As for upcoming events, graduation is May 12th. I simply cannot believe how quickly the past 2 years have gone by. It feels like I just came back to Phoenix and in less than a year I'll be off again onto my next great adventure. But I'm very happy with my decision to come back home and finish my degree. It's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I've grown so much and met so many incredible people since I came home. I'm going to miss everyone so much. Great...now I'm getting all nostalgic. Well, I must have some lunch and squeeze in some reading before I'm off to work but I'll *try* to post again after graduation. 


Toodle-loo!


Sunday, March 6, 2011

Well...

I am officially the worst blogger in the history of the universe. I often forget that I even have a blog. That's how awful of a blogger I am. 

Like last time I posted, I've been a busy little bumble bee for the past two months. I've mostly been stressing about my senior exhibition which will commence this Tuesday. I don't know if I already said what I'm exhibiting... If I already did, then too bad. I'm telling you again. I'll be showing 4 drawings from my cat series as well as some of my plushies. My friend Hannah had the idea that I create some sort of installation to display the plushies on instead of just setting them on a shelf or a pedestal. So I wound up creating a children's bedroom with the plushies all lined up on the bed. It might be the cutest thing ever. Seriously.

This past Friday we installed our show and I'm very pleased with how everything turned out. Oddly enough it turned out EXACTLY as I had imagined it would. I was super duper nervous about hanging my pieces since this is my first show in a long long time and I didn't have any experience hanging such large pieces but luckily it all went smoothly. I about had a heart attack when my professor told us that he was leaving and that we were on our own as far as installing went but I guess it was better to learn by doing instead of just having him do everything for us. It took a lot longer than I anticipated (about 3 1/2) hours but we also took a food break to go to Chipotle and since there were limited supplies I spent a lot of time waiting around to use the tools. Alas, I think our show will be a great success. 

People keep asking me if I'm nervous about the opening but I'm not really at all. I was more nervous about the installation process than anything else. And now that that's done with hopefully my hormone levels will go back to normal. 

Other than preparing for this show I've been doing pretty good. My Mixed Cardio teacher hasn't killed me yet, so that's good news. I had a slight freakout about my Art of Spain midterm I had last week but it turned out to be so much easier than I had imagined it to be. 

And next week is SPRING BREAK! My pop and I are going to Disneyland...again. I know, I'm totally hogging Disneyland but I just can't get enough of it. Also, I know that when I move to Washington it'll be a lot harder to make the trip there so I have to squeeze in as many trips as I can while I'm still only 5 hours away. I'm not looking forward to the paper I have to write over Spring Break though. Assigning homework during Spring Break is just mean in my opinion. In theory I COULD write it before I leave but let's be realistic here. 

Anywho, I better get started on today's comic but I'll try to post pictures from my opening reception SOON!

Later gators!