I'm Back!

Finally, a proper update. It's been a while!

Here are pics of my most recent works. Please ignore my terrible messy studio. LOL.

Here's a shot of my shelf in progress. I spraypainted it blue, and bought candy for the jars. I wanted to have candy jars because Abe worked in general stores, so I thought it'd be something he's familiar with. The three new framed works look nice on the shelf, though I hadn't originally intended for them to be on the shelf. The shelf is pretty big.

Here's a closer look at the three most recent. I'm really happy with them. I used a green paper as the background, so they all have a strange greenish tinge. I thought that was appropriate since it's Abe as insect. These are all done with coloured pencil and graphite.

Here's another look. Can you tell what's happening in the three pictures? Jack said it wasn't obvious straightaway but when he looked closer he understood. I hope it does come across with most! There's a meaning behind it :) The first one took me a good 6 hours because I hadn't used this method of drawing on coloured paper. But after that the others took maybe about 2 hours each.

Large circular particleboard coaster. I decided to make some Abe cells because, well, they're cute and they make me laugh. I was thinking alot about the metaphysical, and how energy never disappears, just changes form. I imagined Abe's dispersed cells going on to infiltrate and affect different things in the world. 

I don't like this one much. More particleboard, but the smiley is off-center and the black outline looks kinda blah. It's still alright though.

More particleboard... a square placemat again. I drew this randomly in my sketchbook and the idea made me laugh, so here it is all coloured. Abe didn't drink alcohol (he was a teetotaler) so I figured he'd appreciate a nice cold soda for his swim.

His profile makes me laugh bigtime! The pursed lips makes me think of Powdered Toast Man from Ren and Stimpy. How do you like that snappy bathing costume?? Only Abe can pull off horizontal stripes!

Another small particleboard coaster...this one is beveled, so it's cool in that sense. I just made a smiling toast and here he is up on the wall.

Here are some of the beautiful things I've bought online and received today! Chris was like santa when he brought the packages to me this morning!

Here is my beautiful American troll doll I bought from Kathy on ebay. She sells TONS of troll dolls. She is also incredibly sweet and I've had alot of fun corresponding with her <3!>

My Abe plushes!!!!! Chris claims the one on the left looks like Beethoven/Bach/Mozart....but then we looked up pictures and actually no, it doesn't really look like any of them. Except for maybe the crazy hair. :D  Sammy is having fun cuddling his new Abe pals. Gosh, how cute are they??????

My beautiful vintage granny rug.....I had to pay like $42 for shipping because it's so heavy. But isn't it so so pretty??? I love the bright colours and the fringe. hahaha! I think it's gonna look GREAT draped over the beanbag I plan on using in my installation. Looks nice and will cover the ugly beanbag! 

Well, that's it for now. Chris is waiting for me to finish my update so we can go into the city. We're going to the shops and then having lunch and then going to watch the Broncos game. It should be fun but busy! I've got other stuff I need to take pictures of so I'll probably update again tomorrow :)OH!!!! I got a special surprise call from Donny yesterday evening!!! It was so fun hearing his voice again and having a bit of a chat!! It made my night :)

Have a great weekend everybody!!!!

In times like this...

In times like this I find myself clinging to articles on the internet like a person thrown from a ship in a storm. I can look around me and think, there is no hope, this is it. The water will have me. But a part of me says, fight! You know there's more! And so I dig my fingers in, and I hang on for dear life. Because surrendering is not a a real option. Never.

Abe Plush...

By the way....thought I'd post these cutecute pics of the Abraham Lincoln plush pals I'm waiting on :D The bottom one is a whopping 18 inches!! LOL.

Much Relief

I am glad to say that I'm feeling a lot better.

I ate my first real meal tonite, which my body needed so badly after having everything I ate pass quickly through me. Parmagianas ftw! I even had a bit of dessert. I didn't go overboard, so I'm glad. haha.

I've decided to not go to class tomorrow because I don't want to risk getting others sick if I'm still contagious. I'm really not sure if I am or not. But this experience was such blistering hell I don't wish it upon anybody. Anyhow, I doubt anyone would be really grateful to me if I got them sick and wound up wasting half a week of their time meant to be put twords school which is rapidly drawing to a close.

I had a really nice, relaxing day with Chris today. The most stressfull element was when we did the grocery shopping and as usual lugged heavy bags up 2 flights of stairs (no elevators in our building. yeck.). Otherwise we watched a terrible movied called Too Young to Die or some such...with Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis. Pitt played, basically, a pimp, and Lewis a 14 year old street walker. nice!

Chris played a lot of guitar, and I actually managed to get a few pieces done. I like only one of them really, and another I like isn't quite finished. But I realised that spending almost that entire week not doing any work wasn't doing me any favours.

On Saturday, though I wasn't 100% better, I went with Chris to see The Gift Horse play. It was pretty good, though the sound was strange. We met up with Tom, and then later Rachel and Dean. It went pretty well. I don't mind her as long as she doesn't say something that is beyond her business.

Tomorrow I plan on doing more work. Maybe finishing the large piece (my poor, cramped fingers). And I have to go check the mail though I'm too lazy to check. Chris has work earlier than usual and won't have the time. I wouldn't check if I wasn't expecting so many Abe goodies. LOL. Ok ok, I would. But only because of my love for Chris. Which apparently surpasses my hate for leaving the apartment.

We were looking at more houses online, and investigating some areas where we could live. We've found a few nice houses for sale, and also a builder that has a couple houses that are really sweet. They don't have any available on their home and land packages, but I guess we're willing to find a piece of land and hire them to build their house on the land. This house is amazzzzzzing. Two stories, a home theatre, an extra rumpus room, along with all the normal rooms. So it will provide plenty of space for Chris' guitar practice as well as my art area. Then we can have a guest room and an extra room for future DNA expansion. It seems a bit big for us, i know, but we do require more space than your average family. I also fantasize a lot about having friends and family come down from America/Germany/etc and staying with us...having nice parties and DAR meetings (haha...I jest.).

Well it's past 3 am now, and I'd like to get more sleep in that I've gotten collectively over the last few days. <3

Oh feh...

I've never had so much trouble getting a bowl of cereal down!

I got violently ill yesterday..after waking up feeling ok (but having a sign that something wasn't quite right). I had a decent breakfast which actually included fruit, and then later on a glass of diet vanilla coke. The coke was a big trigger because after that I got some terrible stomach pains and was doubled over in pain. They were kind of like how I imagine the pattern of contractions for pregnant women....one moment it would be calm, then the pain would creep up, make me want to cry, then subside a bit again.

So the entire afternoon and evening last nite was pretty rough. I got to feeling a bit better in the evening but found it hard to initially get to sleep, and woke up several times. It's still bothering me to the point where I couldn't go back to sleep this morning. I won't force it. I figure it's best if I put some food into my stomach and get some water in and then just doze off later watching tv or something. i"m afraid of getting dehydrated, but I also put some baking soda in my water which helps neutralize stomach acids and stuff. My mom would make my family drink water with baking soda if someone had a stomach ache. It tastes like drinking salty chalkboard chalkish water but it's not as noticeable if the water is cold.

Apparently Paul is putting his Petrucci limited edition designed guitar up for sale to help pay off some debts. Chris is intrigued and considering buying it, as Petrucci is one of his inspirations. This also inspired him to buy a ticket for dreamtheatre, which he initially avoided buying because they're like $130. Apparently, also, spending a day with Andre Rieu costs $1,500. Devastated! I wonder if I could create a body of work about him (the one I've been contemplating), get myself a grant, and use the grant money to meet him. LOL! I can dream I guess. hahaha!

My plan for today is to rest, and nap. And hopefully I'll feel better by tonite so that I can go with Chris to the first night of the Poison City weekend. I don't exactly want to spend the evening crammed into an Arthouse toilet. The good thing about the Arty (besides everything, really), is that it's close to home. So if I do wind up feeling sick it'd be easy for chris to drop me off and come back in time without missing anything.

I recommend Ikea catalogues for the bathroom. Doesn't take too much concentration as reading does, and has lots of pictures to look at. Since Chris and I have been talking about getting a house (which my parents would help with big time), it's fun to fantasize so it helps escape the sick feeling a bit.

Maybe I'll even draw today. I've got a couple pieces to work on, one large one that I'm doing mostly for Bernhard. I'm not really interested in going back to school. I have to start writing my paper, but I just don't know what I'm going to write it about. 

Time to go and watch some Ghost Hunters recorded from last nite. DVRs ftw!

Kanye...?

Woah ok so......I was talking with Chris about Kanye West's apparent diss of Taylor Swift on the VMAs. Since we're not hip enough to have seen this live, we watched it online and it was pretty sad! I think it's safe to say that Kanye is officially a massive ass.

We went to see Cannibal Corpse tonite. I don't really know anything about them besides their music is scary and dumps all over Slipknot and they have amazing t shirt designs. The crowd was amazing....so many metal guys with long striny hair and beards. I'm fairly certain chris was the only one wearing a totally white shirt, combined with the neon bluelights made him an easy target in the crowd. LOL

We wound up leaving after about half an hour cause the sound was so terrible and Chris was disappointed. I feel pretty sorry about that, but there's not much that can be done when certain venues are notorious for terrible sound. 

I've finished off emails that I've needed to send for a while! To Janyce and Donny! Janyce's was a whopper, so it feels like a massive accomplishment :D! I hate being out of touch with the people I love for long.

My dear lady V is going to see Gaslight Anthem tonite, and I couldn't be more excited! I keep reliving the shocking electric feelings of when I saw them. How much it meant to me. People can be so wonderful!

Just a short post as it's 3.15 am and I've got a counselor appointment tomorrow.  Bigger post soon!

<3

View from the balcony

I thought I'd post some pictures of the view from my apartment balcony. I don't really know why. LOL. I thought they looked pretty.

Left

Center

Right

Exhale!

Man, that was one hell of a week. I'm pretty worn out but thankful for this studio day where I don't have to go in to school.

I'm slowly figuring things out for Cuddletown while simultaneously doing school work. I ordered some small bags for packaging, and chris helped me figure out a packaging issue I was having :)

I'll have to put off buying my business cards and stickers until next month because it's important I make sure I've got money for my school project. ah. it goes by so quickly.

Chris won a pair of vintage gold velvet curtains for me on ebay yesterday! He sniped them for a very sweet price of $14 (too bad shipping is $15...), and I think they are going to look beautiful with the purple walls. He had to put people on hold at work to make sure to bid on them. My hero!

Now I need to look for star contact paper to cover my desk in for a nice americana feel. In my critique yesterday it was suggested I make a pinata out of papier mache in the form of mount rushmore and break it open on grad show opening night. LOL. It's ridiculous, but not quite my style of ridiculous. Needs to be more random I think! A performative element would be fun but we'll see.

It was really cool because after my crit Bernhard saw me again and said that he thought it was going really well. That made me feel so happy. Because I value his opinion very highly since he's a weirdo just like me. hahaha

I need to think about the candy issue. I have several old fashioned candy jars I wanted to fill with smiley face candies. But the smiley gumballs I found are from america and cost so much to be shipped here. So I'm thinking, what if I bought some cellophane candy wrappers and painted or printed smiley faces onto those, then wrapped gumballs in them? The trouble would be how to get the print onto them. I suppose a sharpie would do the trick. LOL!

I went to the Yarraville markets with Chris on the weekend to have a peek around. It was pretty small! I was more than a little surprised by that. It was nice though, in the sense that it was small, but the selection wasn't so great. In fact most of it was geared twords babies and toddlers.Alot of the items looked really nice though, in particular little hand knitted baby shoes that were really beautifully done,but unfortunately didn't apply much to me. I'm not quite sure how my strange things would fit in. But Chris told me that it would be good to do at least for some experience and to start getting the Cuddletown name out there.

I watched an anime movie that Jack lended me last nite, called Origins. It was beautifully animated, and combined cg elements pretty nicely. I'm not sure how much I liked the story, but I thought the ending was beautiful, and I admit I shed a tear or two. LOL I'm a sucker for movies that include moments of the spirit world! He also loaned me Escaflowne, and as much as I want to watch it, I want to watch it with Chris, so I hope we can this weekend.

I bought some supplies at Spotlight. LOTS of chipboard in different shapes, including stars! a shape cutter for paper, which I'm going to use to create the packaging for the cuddletown stuff. That was the priciest, because it was a pack of many different sized rectangular templates and came with a cutting matt and a shape cutter from fiskars. It was like $40 but it is really a remarkable tool! Also it was the best way to get the shapes I need cut professionally. Chris showed me how to do it and he was actually enjoying himself :) My plan is to cut out rectangular shapes from cardstock, fold them in half, slide the plastic bag in, and staple it down. Then when I order my cuddletown stickers, I will place them as lables on the cardstock. ahhh. I am happy.

I can thank JB Hi FI for really putting me in the hole though. I bought two Wii games (Little King's Story which was at a really good price, and a pack of house of the dead 2 and 3 for zombie shooting fun times). Those are my frivalous purchases of the month. Little King's Story is so fun, I played it last nite and I think that Chris is going to dig it a lot too. It's like a combination of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing but you run your own kingdom.

My shelf looks nice! Jack loaned me some purpley coloured spray paint to spray the shelf brackets so they would look nicer against the wall. I have yet to install it though. We also figured out where everyone is going to go for the grad show.

I have to buy Skid Row tickets. I can't believe I'll be seeing Sebastian Bach right before my peepers! It's an 80s girl's dream come true, let me tell you.

I gave Sammy a bath today, and now he's having a ride in the drier. I can hear him saying "wee!" over and over. Hahaha! Once he's all dry he'll be all fluffy and white and soft :)

Time to get going and try to do some work. Oh boy!!

Blargh

Feeeeeh. I apologize for not having responded to any emails yet. I've got a big yug presentation tomorrow and have been putting a powerpoint together. It sucks because I don't have a lot of my drawings with me in Melbourne, so I feel lame showing everyone my Ruby paintings. But oh well.. u_u;;;;;;

Stupid 9.30 am presentations!!!!!!! >:O

Studio Update and The Summer Obsession

I had class yesterday as well as a counselling session with Darryl, so I took my new stuff in and took photos in my studio again. (more below).

My appointment with Darryl was so great. We spent most of the 30 minutes laughing.....I am proud to say I made him laugh uproariously several times :) Well, mostly a story about Lincoln that I retold to him made him laugh. LOL. He told me about how he's joined a singing group and they were choosing some unconventional songs to sing instead of your typical fodder. He is such a cool dude!

The best thing about the appointment was the redoubled realisation of the importance of smiling and laughing. When I talk with someone and we share a moment of amusement, I always feel restored, and I can't help but wonder if it made that person's day brighter too.

Class was alright. The discussion was actually entertaining somewhat. It's funny how the discussions after watching the movie always make the movie sound much more interesting than it actually is at the time of watching it.  I'm pretty happy because I chose a movie that was made from a book I read that I really liked. I hope that the movie is good as well. It's fun to actually do a presentation about something you actually like. Imagine that!

Speaking of presentations...I have my lecture on Monday, and I don't really have anything prepared. Blegggggh. It doesn't seem too hard at least but I feel like it's kinda a waste of time.

I hate Fear Factor....and this particular episode features like 6 washed out Playboy models. Legit former playboy models from the 90s. I have to wonder how necessary this was when in the regular version of the show they always have at least 4 girls that look just as trashy. It's kind of embarassing how the show feels it needs to have girls in bikinis in order to garner ratings.

I really love the band The Summer Obsession. They make me smile! They remind me of Corey for some reason....just happy and sweet and so full of hope!

I did a bit of reading about self-hypnosis last nite. I tried it and I was surprised at how poor my concentration is. You'll be amazed if you try to meditate, how hard it actually is to concentrate because your mind is just flicking back and forth over the dumbest things. One thing is for certain though, if you have trouble sleeping, learn self hypnosis!

Now on to pictures!

Like my terrible paint job? Hahaha. I just did it quickly a few days ago to get an idea of how the images would look with the colour. What do you think??

Closer look. As you can see, I've added the new stuff :) This isn't the final layout of course, I'm still screwing around with it. It's fun to reposition everything :D!

Better angle to see the stuff on the partition (wall on the right). I'm not too sure if I'm going to keep the stars. Everything on the walls is handmade so it's a bit weird having these perfectly-shaped stars. Maybe it's too much and makes it too girly?

I'm also a bit worried about the wall colour. It looks the best out of the ones I tested in photoshop, but I was concerned it makes the whole work look like posters hanging up in a girl's room. I figure since I have alot of objects and drawings, it covers up most of the paint so the colour is more like an accent. The trouble is, most of the other colours would look like a kid's room too. and I didn't want to go dark because that would be a bit too somber. I dunno...overall I like this colour I think.

Rainbow chucks! Oh....how I love rainbows! If I could, I'd wrap myself up in a rainbow<3

I've got a tute with Merrin today 30mins before class. I don't want to meet up with her really. I'm over tutorials besides the possible technical advice I could get from them. Conceptually, I'm tired of having my head fiddled with. I'll just have to try to be strong :)

Now I must order some smiley face and scratch and sniff stickers! WOO!!

Montezuma's Castle

This post has nothing to do with MOntezuma's Castle. Does that even exist? I'm too lazy to google it.

After my update last nite, I didn't think I was going to do any more work, but my persistence impressed me and I did....three more to be exact.

As I was drawing, if I even considered censoring myself, I told myself to shut up and keep doing it cause I am just an instrument for wherever these images are coming from and I needed to just do my job making physical what was floating in my head.

I reread  The War of Art by Steven Pressfield in about a day and a half. THis book is amazing if you experience procrastination regularly...especially regarding what it is that you most want to do. It talks about Resistance being a negative force which manifests itself as any way to distract us from sitting down and doing our work. Resistance is so sneaky....it can come in any form and it exists to keep you from fullfilling your destiny.

What I especially love about the book is that he also talks about muses and angels...how they whisper ideas into our heads and they want so badly for us to bring these visions into being. It makes me smile when I read it because it aligns so beautifully with my own beliefs.

Maybe I'll make a ritual out of it...Before I sit down to start a day's work.....play a prince song and burn some insence or spray the room with Febreeze to create that feeling. LMAO...

Here's what I was up to last nite. I was particularly happy with these and excited about them. :)

Here's the first of these three. I've been doodling Abe in a grocery bag for some time now, with a french bread. LOL. I thought the paper bag would be beautiful on the particle board because of the board's natural colour and grain.

Closeup. I only added a bit of shading on the paper bag and the rest o the colour is the raw board, which I think works really well, and I must say I am in love with the effect :)

This one almost didn't happen. I wasn't happy with the drawing. I wanted to make a toast but it looked strange...so I erased the toast bit. I figured, I'll just do it and see what happens. This was the point where I was censoring myself. But I just sucked it up and did it, and I'm pretty happy with it. This one and the first are both placemat sized.

Reading a book about Lincoln's memory and impact on modern day America, there was a chapter about Lincoln impersonators. The cars of these impersonators have funny abe inspired vanity plates on their cars, such as "abe lives" and etc. One of which was "4 score", and that made me laugh so hard....like Lincoln texting someone or writing in a Prince style (where every song is like, U are the 1 4 Me ....LOL). The quote I stumbled upon through some online reading:

Not all of Mr. Lincoln's friends shared his sense of humor. Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson was one. Several others were in his Cabinet. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said that before he announced the draft Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Lincoln "was reading a book of some kind, which seemed to amuse him. It was a little book. He finally turned to us and said: 'Gentlemen, did you ever read anything from Artemus Ward? Let me read you a chapter that is very funny.' Not a member of the Cabinet smiled; as for myself, I was angry, and looked to see what the President meant. It seemed to me like buffoonery. He, however, concluded to read us a chapter from Artemus Ward, which he did with great deliberation, and, having finished, laughed heartily, without a member of the Cabinet joining in the laughter. 'Well,' he said, 'let's have another chapter,' and he read another chapter, to our great astonishment. I was considering whether I should rise and leave the meeting abruptly, when he threw his book down, heaved a sigh, and said: 'Gentlemen, why don't you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.'" (from Mr. Lincoln and Friends)

That quote really struck a chord with me. Why, isn't that exactly what I was trying to do by drawing Lincoln in all manner of fun circumstances? YES. What an amazing reinforcement.

The two side by side.

And another coaster sized bitty one..... an Eggbraham Lincoln! The text came to me in a flash of inspiration. It works well I think and helps push my message!! 

That's it for now becauseeeee I've got like 40 minutes to get ready and go for my counselor appointment. EEEeEEEep!!!

It's All Coming Up Smiley

I've got a big update for today.

The last couple of days have been daunting for me emotionally. I haven't actually made any drawings or sit down and done anything too extensive for a while, and I think the lack of productivity was starting to get to me. I began to feel all sorts of doubts and worries about what on earth I'm doing. 

Yesterday I had a chat with Jack for a while and he told me to just do what I want. I know that he's right. It can just be so hard to see the light when you're caught up inside a giant storm cloud. Everywhere you look is gray and hopeless. I tried to draw last nite and wasn't happy with what I came up with. Of course I wouldn't be. So I had a brief meltdown and vented to Chris when he got home. I was DEMANDING something to come out of myself, I wanted it too badly, and I realised I just needed to take a step back. You know those days when you sit down to do your work and nothing comes out right....the best thing to do is just stop and go watch tv and try again tomorrow.

So that's what I did. I relaxed with Chris last nite, watched a weird Japanese movie, The Audition, that was kind of a mind fuck but I guess in a good way. Today I just started off gentle with myself. I found some particle board coasters, blank craft ones, and thought I'd try my hand at making a felt smileyface Abe.

That was fun, and I wondered what would happen if I drew directly onto the coasters...So I tried drawing Abe on one and really loved how the coloured pencils worked over the surface...I could press as hard as I liked and not worry about driving a hole through the surface. lol.

Then I realised....well, I've got a massive sheet of particle board just sitting there near the door.....nothing on it....maybe I'd try to make a giant smiley face on it........:)

These I made last nite, idly while watching The Audition with Chris. I like the eggy toast one the best :) 

Here's the Abe smiley piece I made. I traced the coaster onto the blue felt then cut it out and glued it down with the stinkiest glue known to man. If you look closely you can see I even added a small mole on its face. haha. I couldn't say no to the googly eyes too...

My Abe coaster drawing. I love the colour and flecks present in the natural chipboard. This was just a quick drawing and I tried to just keep it simple as a test and to show off the board.

Here's a closeup so you can see the texture better :) I love the unfinished lines of pencil.

The beginings of Smiley. I used a cake protector thingy to trace around. I need to repolish my toenails apparently...

Sammy, Toot, and Tootie D helped pick up the slack when my hand started hurting from pressing hard on the coloured pencils.

The face is finished....ah yeah! I didn't make it too crisp or anything...I like the edges a bit rough and raw. It creates a nice, old time effect as well. 

So....apparently I'll be needing to go back to Bunnings and buy more particle board/chipboard. Chris will be pleased I'm sure, and Sammy will love it cause they always sell hotdogs outside of Bunnings :D