theorangefedora

Shannon Gillen, choreographer

2012-02-09T14:00:00.000-04:00

CLAP FOR THE WOLFMAN, excerpt from Shannon Gillen on Vimeo.

I am so inspired by this! Unbelievable movement and interaction between the dancers. Check out her website for more. I wish I could go see a performance.

Fancy Chair

2012-02-08T00:29:00.000-04:00

Chair I saw at the Millionaire's Rejects consignment store. I'd take it!

New Room

2012-01-28T19:39:00.001-04:00

Vivian and I are rearranging our apartment to use our dining room as a studio. That leaves the third bedroom free! I'm feeling inspired to use it as a garden room- a little winter oasis (maybe even bring in a humidifier and a space heater to make it "tropical"!). I made a new pinterest board for inspiration.

Feeling In Transition right now and I haven't been completing any comics. I don't intend to stop, but I'm keeping busy with some other artistic projects and studies; hoping to find what works best for me! For reasons unrelated to this blog, my retail manager suggested that I "part ways" with my retail job, so I did. Pro: no longer will be spending half my income on clothing! Con: no more fresh Retail Life material for comics. Darn it. That was really the only reason I was sticking with the job. Oh, and for the $.

The Pill

2011-12-29T16:30:00.000-04:00

Retail Life Part 5

2011-12-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

I kid you not- I saw this happen. Almost peed my pants laughing.

Retail Life Part 4

2011-12-27T15:16:00.000-04:00

Sexy/ Not Sexy #2

2011-12-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

November Project Day 30- Kiss Test

2011-12-12T01:24:00.001-04:00

And that's it! I finished all 30 days! It only took me until December 11th to complete all the drawings, but hey, ahimsa. Don't think that this will be the end of the comics and drawings- this was way too much fun!

November Project Day 29- Cell Phones

2011-12-12T01:13:00.001-04:00

It seems nowadays that just about EVERYONE has a smart phone. I am still limping along on my little brick phone. I am only able to make phone calls and text and take pictures and such, you know, what phones are designed to do. Yet I see everyone, everywhere, with their smart phones out!

But the incredible power of the smart phone isn't it's amazing technology- it's the power to completely absorb the user so much so that he/she becomes completely unaware of his/her surroundings. This causes all kinds of problems, but what I find the most irritating is when smart phone users become so enraptured they forget they have legs or how to move them, or the fact that they are currently standing in a major traffic flow area, and other people have places to be.

(I am not happy with the above drawing- stairs! oof!)
It does amaze me how many people have them, all across social and economic groups. Paying for a data plan isn't cheap- and will be the reason I will probably not get one for quite some time. Yet I always wonder how some people are able to cough up those dollahs every month.

P.S. There are "homeless" con artists in Chicago, who actually have apartments and, ahem, cell phones.

November Project Day 28- New Band

2011-12-12T01:11:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 27- Bus Stop

2011-12-12T01:09:00.001-04:00

Thank goodness now there's Bus Tracker.

November Project Day 26- Sexy

2011-12-12T01:08:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 25- Retail Life Part 3

2011-12-07T12:34:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 24- Poops

2011-12-01T02:30:00.001-04:00

No, seriously, this is for realz.

Ok, so I realize it's already DECEMBER (yikes), and I still have 6 drawings left to go. I have one in progress, and plenty of ideas- it's just making time to sit down and draw is the problem. Hope to finish the project and stay true to my word (more or less)!

November Project Day 23- Winter

2011-12-01T02:29:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 22- in the wild

2011-12-01T02:27:00.000-04:00

I don't have many occasions to draw lions... should keep practicing. This is still missing the punchline- Kera, you know whut it iz.

November Project Day 21- No Right Answer

2011-12-01T02:26:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 20- Christmaganda Part 4

2011-11-27T21:09:00.001-04:00

Meant to get this up ON Thanksgiving, oops. Happy Merry November Holiday!

November Project Day 19- Retail Life Part 2

2011-11-27T21:00:00.001-04:00

Eh hemmm.

30 Drawings 30 Days! I'm a wee bit behind, but Ima do it!

November Project Day 18- Retail Life

2011-11-27T20:57:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 17- Rage

2011-11-27T19:30:00.001-04:00

November Project Day 16- sarcasm

2011-11-22T01:46:00.001-04:00

The Slow Clap.

Also... unless I'm super human, I won't be updating any more this week. Sorry. Happy Thanksgiving! And Black Friday!

November Project Day 15- Christmaganda Part 3

2011-11-16T22:23:00.001-04:00

Good Grief.

November Project Day 14- Christmaganda Part 2

2011-11-16T22:20:00.001-04:00

It's coming sooner than you think.

November Project Day 13- Christmaganda Part 1

2011-11-16T22:15:00.001-04:00

At the Big Box.

November Project Day 12- shit, guys

2011-11-16T22:07:00.001-04:00

But on the same day I thought this, I saw a lady in a purple raincoat with a plastic bag dress underneath. And kids on the street corner giving away Free Hugs. So things couldn't be that bad.

November Project Day 11- Nudist Boyfriend

2011-11-11T16:27:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone who has been watching so far and giving feedback here and in real life! 30 Drawings 30 Days

November Project Day 10- Cruelty

2011-11-11T16:24:00.001-04:00

Taken verbatim from an overheard conversation. Ouch.

November Project Day 9

2011-11-11T16:23:00.001-04:00

Wicker Park Characters.

November Project- Day 8

2011-11-11T16:21:00.001-04:00

Wicker Park Characters.

November Project Day 7- Haircut Monster

2011-11-09T12:18:00.002-04:00

November Project Day 6

2011-11-07T22:47:00.000-04:00

Maybe one day I'll join the ranks of the...

30 Drawings 30 Days!

November Project Day 5- The Professional Smile

2011-11-07T01:08:00.000-04:00

At all three jobs I currently hold, the skill of smiling is essential. I am paid to smile, to look friendly, (pretty), open, and helpful; usually the goal of selling something. David Foster Wallace describes this as the "Professional Smile" in A Supposedly Fun thing I'll Never Do Again. I find that smiling professionally can diverge into different facial expressions given different situations. Now that I use the Smile most every day at work, I have begun to successfully incorporate it into my personal life! It typically aids in concealing emotion; akin to lying. But with a smile!

Level 1 Smile
Possible phrases that accompany this smile:
"Hi Ladies, how's it going?"
"That looks SO cute on you!"
"Would you like to try some toffee?"
"The show is two hours long with a ten minute intermission."

Level 2 Smile and accompanying phrases:
"That looks SO cute on you!"
"It's okay you forgot to call me back."
"Please silence your cell phones!"
"Made with no preservatives or artificial ingredients. And Gluten Free!"

Level 3 Smile
"That Looks So Cute On You. Please buy the fucking sweater!"
"I had a great time on this date with you!"
"I'd LOVE to hang out with you and your boyfriend!"

Day 4- College Grads

2011-11-07T00:26:00.000-04:00

November Project Day 3- Earplugs

2011-11-07T00:22:00.004-04:00

30 drawings, 30 days! Since I have three part-time jobs, getting one up each day isn't really possible, hence, I'll be bunching them up like this. Still counts!

November Project Day 2

2011-11-02T23:01:00.000-04:00

At my retail job we play custom mix CDs made for us by various DJs. Of course the songs tend to get stuck in your head, and finally I looked up these lyrics and found the video and female rapper behind it all (I am so 5 months behind, but whatever). Kreayshawn. I kinda dig it:

Drawing for today:

I am expecting the Occupy events to become a consistent theme. I have several many related ideas.

November Project Day One

2011-11-02T22:53:00.000-04:00

Last year I attempted to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days- an undertaking otherwise known as NaNoWriMo, which hopes to get us all off our lazy asses and write the novel we have inside us. I made an honest effort and wrote about 13,000 words, but meandered around with several characters and very little plot idea. I have been writing other stories and sketches this summer and fall, which has been a very useful creative endeavor, but there's part of me that thinks the 'novel I'm meant to write' won't actualize itself until I've got a little more life experience.

But, not wanting to lose out on that NaNoWriMo creative energy, I decided to try my own project this year. I have decided to draw and post a small comic, sketch or character idea EVERY DAY for the month of November. The objectives for this project are:
1) Exercise the creative muscle- use it every day.
2) Practice and develop a technique/ form/ style of illustration or comic drawing. What type of paper, materials, etc, work best for me?
3) Generate ideas for other projects- what I post here does not have to be finished and polished (there won't be time: also a tenet of NaNoWriMo philosophy)
4) Maybe build a small portfolio (maybe?)
5) Prove to myself this is something I can DO! Just get up and doo it.

So, here I begin (one day behind schedule). "It would have been weird if it weren't Halloween."

Hip Coffee Shop

2011-10-11T22:10:00.002-04:00

China and Recycling

2011-09-14T17:44:00.004-04:00

Wow, wow, wow. Serious internet toboggan this afternoon that began last night at Foresight Design Initiative Green Drinks. The topic was "Art and Sustainability", so of course I was interested (and also the founder of Foresight is an Obie alum), and so I went and listened to members of Chicago-based Filament Theatre Company discuss their journey to become a sustainable theater company. I met an artist there who does performances using trash, and looking at her blog led me to My Plastic-Free Life.com, where a woman has dedicated the last 4 years to almost completely eliminating plastic from her daily life. She challenges others to analyze their own plastic consumption by collecting, photographing and blogging a week's worth. I want to take this challenge, and I'm hoping my sister will do it with me (we live together).

I feel very fortunate to have gone to Oberlin where the awareness of living sustainably was rampant, and at times even militant. Other students knew a lot more than I did, and I credit co-ops and my friends Margaret and Jake for their influence. Now I know how to compost, and not to flush after peeing, among other things. But I realize that not everyone has this experience, and aren't as inclined to change their behaviors and buying or flushing habits. Living in awareness of the environmental choices I make is very important to me, and I want to spread the awareness, but I often struggle to be a very convincing activist. I trained my parents to take fabric bags with them to the grocery store, and bought my dad a home water carbonator for Father's Day (it's awesome!). But I had trouble 'converting' my previous boyfriend, and currently my sister, who doesn't think my "hippie" deodorant is worth the natural sweat (antiperspirants contain aluminum tri-somethings that are a known carcinogen). I feel like this is something I could write more about.

Yet, in a further slip down the internet slope:

Crazy, right? I knew that a lot of the US's recycling went to China, but seeing the images themselves is something else entirely. I spent five months in China during which time I drank the tap water (after boiling, of course). I didn't want to buy purified bottled water, which would result in piles of empty plastic, yet now knowing what was in the water I drank makes me feel a little gross. What will I do next time I'm in China?

Jesus Loves You

2011-09-12T16:04:00.002-04:00

I Enjoy Being a Girl

2011-08-28T21:56:00.002-04:00

Click to see it bigger (and read more easily). I'm experimenting with this!

2011-08-27T20:20:00.004-04:00

My sister showed me this awesome new website Pinterest.com. It's an online cork board where you can collect visual images; art, clothing, home decorating ideas, etc, and save it all in one place (more easily perused than your Favorites list), and other people can look at what you've found and "re-pin" it to their own boards. You can have as many cork boards as you want- to be categorized by theme or topic. It's an incredible resource and an amazing way to collect and share images on the web. Each image "pin" includes a link back to the source website. Above is a screen shot of one of my boards- I don't have as much stuff on there as other people who've been using the site longer. Check it out!! In order to sign up you click "request invitation" and then they send you an email a few minutes later with log-in instructions.

Playmobil

2011-08-16T17:59:00.004-04:00

When I was at home this summer, we laid out every last piece of my favorite childhood toy across the kitchen table. My sister and I played with Playmobil constantly from the time we were old enough not to swallow it well into middle school. We would build Playmobil tree houses in our Christmas trees (and thus prevent mom from getting to decorate them) and take over huge sections of the living room floor. We collected so much of it!

The Orange Cat was a very important character in many games.

It was really fun to look at all of it again, and I was really surprised how I remembered exactly what pieces went with which set and how things fit together. Looking at all of the pieces from all the sets (ranging from "family road trip" to "water park" to "school room") reminded me of the crazy stories we would make up with these very diverse characters.
The knight falls in love with the One Woman Band (it used to be One Man Band but we gave him/her different hair, and so now she's a babe, apparently).
The wild skateboard kids terrorize the proper Victorian ladies with baby buggies!

The Garden for Wayward Girls

2011-07-22T14:23:00.002-04:00

The show went really well! Sorry it's taken me so long to post. Micheline has uploaded a montage of clips from the approximately 25 minute piece onto her website, available here.

I took close-up shots of all of the "Pandora's boxes" I created (used as a metaphor for each dancer's personal discovery and growth), and I will try to post those, too. I am in the midst of a move to Chicago and also bought a new computer! So, things are still a little disorganized.

The Garden for Wayward Girls

2011-05-14T12:22:00.004-04:00

Micheline Heal, my friend and fellow Oberlin alumna, is choreographing a beautiful modern dance piece called "The Garden for Wayward Girls". I am flattered that she has asked me to help her with the "static" visual elements of the show- mainly some props (a Pandora's box for each dancer) and set pieces/ installation. It has been really fun to work on so far; the boxes are done (pictures later) and now, with a week left before the performance, I am posting some pictures and drawings to help Micheline and I communicate about the set. She's coming down to Richmond from DC tomorrow to hang out and then take everything back with her. Eeeek! Nervous about how much that needs to be done. Pictures below.

Show information: If you are able to get to DC, I would love to see you at the show! The performances are May 20th at 8pm and May 21st at 3pm and 8pm. Tickets are $10 in advance, The piece will be performed at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop at 545 7th St. SE, Washington DC. You can learn more about the theater company curating this event here, and view Micheline's website here.

Crazy millwork piece I found and painted

"Vines"?

Bumper Sticker

2011-02-03T22:40:00.003-04:00

There are few issues I feel commited to enough that I would actually put a bumper sticker on my car, but the importance of vaccines is an exception. I know, I know, I don't have kids, I've already been vaccinated myself, so I'm not exactly in the average demographic of people who get riled up about this issue. BUT. I am currently reading Denialism by Michael Specter, and one of the chapters is about the craziness (denialism) of people who refuse to vaccinate their kids because they fear that 1) vaccines cause autism or 2) that the methyl mercury used as a stabilizer in vaccines is a potential toxin. Both of the above have repeatedly proven to be untrue, in many large and trustworthy studies. The people who refuse to innoculate their children usually are skeptical of the intentions and integrity of the U.S. government, and don't want to believe in the power and capability of modern science (which has gotten us here in the first place).
For those of you who don't know much about this issue, refusing to vaccinate kids under two years old for basic, mostly eradicated diseases such as smallpox, measels, mumps and polio not only puts their children in danger, but also endangers the health of all children they encounter. Some children cannot be immunized for other health and/ or religious reasons, but they are typically protected by what is called 'herd immunity'. Herd immunity means that if about 90% of the population is vaccinated against a disease, they are unlikely to get it, and will therefore protect the unvaccinated among the herd. The fewer vaccinated people, the more quickly herd immunity disappears, and the diseases we thought were history will come back.
This issue was also the subject of the Jan 31st episode of the Colbert Report. He was interviewing Dr. Paul Otis. The interview, of course, was funny, you can watch the whole show here. I just happened to read the comments left under the video, and this one by MichaelS struck me as being really poigniant.

"I'm kind of offended by anyone who don't get their kids vaccinated because it supposedly causes autism. I'm not offended that they are wrong, I'm offended because I have autism, and I'm a lot happier now than I would be if I had polio. Autism isn't that big of a problem, it's only bad for a small minority."

So, here's my bumpersticker, if someone wants to print it: "Protect Herd Immunity! Vaccinate your children!"

Kickstart

2010-11-19T13:30:00.004-04:00

I had never heard of this before: an internet-based way to get funding for creative projects. People make a webpage proposal for a project (film, book, exhibition, etc) they are hoping to do, and request funds from internet benefactors. The benefactors pledge a certain amountof money, which they will only give if the project reaches it's stated monetary goal in a given amount of time. Such a great idea! Artistic funding by the people, connected by the internet.
Check it out: www.kickstarter.com

Halloween

2010-11-04T10:31:00.006-04:00

Sometime shortly after Halloween last year, I decided that I HAD TO go as a deep sea diver this year. I have always thought old diving masks and diving presses (the hard-exterior type, which can go deeper underwater) are really cool-looking. There are many many different types of mask designs and breathing methods, all created by different people around the world to serve the same basic purpose; keep a human alive while exploring the ocean floor!

Originally my plan was to build the entire thing out of closed-cell foam, but I didn't realize that you can't just buy that kind of foam at Lowe's. I called the fantastic Cory Gilstrap, who was my mentor at the Museum of Outdoor Arts' Design and Build internship. Cory is a puppet master and he taught me and the other interns how to build amazing things (giant puppets, carousel horses, etc) out of this foam. So I called him up as I was wandering around Lowe's and he had a lot of great suggestions for me.
This is my helmet, early on in the process. Cory suggested that rather than try to make a dome using the foam (which it was too late to buy anyways) that instead I use a regular plastic witches' cauldron and some PVC drains. I cut holes in the cauldron and stuck the drains in to be my 'port holes'.

Bronze spraypainted the whole thing...

I also made a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which is an awesome place to get all sorts of random tools, hinges, doo-dads, and other unidentifiable crusty metal things. I gathered a big bag of said things and when I brought them to the counter to check out, the manager said, "What are you doing with all this stuff?!"

I'm building a R-378 Aquatic C02 filtration system, of course! Nert, nert.

Next, very crucial- the neck plate (in real deep-sea divering gear, this and the helmet are all one piece, of course, but I actually needed to be able to breathe). The base for this is heavy Bristol board, plus more bolts and knobs I found at the ReStore, string, and bronze spraypaint.

I also bought a painter's jumpsuit, a terrible cheap plastic thing, but it worked for this purpose. I really wanted to make myself a yellow diver, based upon a distinct memory of a diving outfit I once saw at a marine museum in Oregon . There has been considerable backlash to my wanting to be a yellow diver (ahem, Jason!) but I carried through with the plan anyways.

Here I am outfitted in the entire costume. I attached even more doo-dads onto a belt, and made "weighted" shoes out of cardboard boxes to drag myself down to the ocean floor.

And although I didn't win the costume contest at Balliceaux,a hip bar near here, (which was so crowded and wild I don't even think the judges saw me), I did get a kiss on top of the helmet from Bruce Lee. Hee, hee.

If you are interested in seeing pictures of real deep-sea diving wear, I found this great website during my preparation/ research.

Nesting Opportunities

2010-10-01T16:03:00.006-04:00

Before: Very bland and boring!

There's a loft thing above the bed that could actually hold a mattress, but it doesn't work well for when you have to get up to pee in the middle of the night. Nonetheless, the loft was ugly, especially on the underside, so I stretched some canvas over the bottom like one would stretch a painters' canvas. Hides the raw beams and catches the dust!

After:
A young girl inside of me must have always wanted a canopy bed, haha! I went a little nuts. I bought fabric and tassels, etc, for the top, and had made those flower lights previously. The blue lamp holds a tealight. My mom and I chose the fabric for my bedspread and throw pillows at SAS in Phoenix. I got the bedspread mostly done before I left and then mom finished and sent it to me. It's a quilt, really- held together with tiny turquoise pom poms on top!
So much cuteness, it's almost embarassing!

Hope Ginsburg

2010-09-28T17:28:00.010-04:00

(Hope is in white... Photo by Terry Brown)
I have begun working as an artist's assistant/ Sponge HQ Coordinator for Hope Ginsburg. She's a social practice artist who gave a talk and studio visits during my post-bacc program at VCU. I was really intrigued by her work (it's interest in community and non-traditional approaches to art-making, etc) and was happy to find out that she was in need of some help. I have some difficulty explaining what she does, but in essence she is interested in the sharing of knowledge and skills across disciplines and between people. For this process she uses the metaphor of the Sea Sponge, which for a long time was thought to be a plant and not an animal. The Sponge is the only creature that doesn't move, looks the same inside and out, and if wounded, is able to completely regrow itself into a full adult Sponge. Like Sponges holding water, we have the ability to hold large amounts of knowledge within ourselves, and once we learn we can pass on knowledge to others (so they may grow, too).

( Wool felting is also a big part of the Sponge HQ...Photo by Terry Brown)
Hope's recent work has been housed in a room known as the Sponge Headquarters, at the Anderson Gallery. This room is being used for many ongoing and in-progress works including a Sponge Conference, drop-in yoga classes, and wool Felting workshops. I'm helping her with a lot of web-presence stuff, blogging and uploading photos, etc, and probably other stuff as time goes on. Hope is really brilliant and energetic- I've really enjoyed working with her so far. There are many links, here are a few:
Hope's website or the Sponge blog. She also did a project called Colablablab where she enrolled as a VCU student (oh, yes,Hope's a professor at VCU), and she and other art students took a Bio class and Lab together and then made artwork inspired by what they were learning. Totally awesome!

My photoshop class

2010-09-24T12:07:00.004-04:00

I'm learning so much in my Photoshop class at the Visual Arts Center, including new ways to tease my sister! heh, heh.

Places that Smell Bad near VCU

2010-08-31T11:29:00.003-04:00

View Places that Smell Bad in a larger map
Found this while looking up something on Google maps. This is so funny, and also quite necessary; I have noticed many places around VCU area smelling bad, too. Reminds me of my mom's famous line while touring in China: "Sometimes, there are odors... that make you wish you weren't here."

Chris Verene

2010-08-28T16:28:00.004-04:00

I found Chris Verene's work when I was browsing Ada Gallery's website (located in Richmond).

"Amber in Step-Daddy's Trailer"
"Hug"
"Dorothy says that when she was a little girl, a star fell on her head."

Chris Verene's website.

David McKenzie and support for artists (or, Internet Tobogganing #1)

2010-08-18T00:40:00.007-04:00

Recently I felt the need to come up with a term for something that occurs when one has some free time (or something to procrastinate on) and is on the internet. I was sitting on the couch with my mom, and after asking her to look up a simple embroidery stitch for me (I was embroidering a pillow) I watched her go from embroidery stitch blogs to a very well established embroidery networking and education site, to lists of books about embroidery, antique books on embroidery, antique and rare books, to finally someone's completely digitized collection of rare books from the 16th century (or so). The moment of awakening came when we were looking at sheet music for a "catch" (another word for a round) and the lyrics were something like "if she has nice eyes, she must also have nice thighs". We decided our experience of rushing full speed ahead into the depths of the internet, following interesting links and losing grip with reality wasn't a singular event, this must happen all the time! Hence Internet Tobogganing. Or Internet Trivia Tobogganing, as you might say if you think you've learned something mildly useful (as, we did; now we know what a Catch is).

Anyways, tonight I just had another unforseen happening of Internet Tobogganing. There is nothing negative about I.T.; in fact, my journey this evening has been quite informative. I started out on Etsy, which led me to a tutorial on how to make sandals , annekata's blog ... and so on. Highlights from the most interesting bumps in the hill:

United States Artists is an organization that promotes artists as individuals and the important role they play in society. It seeks to alter the bizarre paradox that exists in American's view towards art and artists. While 96% of Americans value the arts and are inspired by them, only 27% believed that the artists themselves "contribute 'a lot' to the good of society"(read the essay). I found the site to be really inspiring- a foundation that advocates for artists of all disciplines and hopes to inform people of the crucial role artistic individuals make to enriching the lives of us all. They provide fellowships each year for a handful of well-established artists in each field each year. Very cool.

Dave McKenzie is one artist who received one of the United States Artists fellowships. My professor from the VCU summer program, Michael Jones McKean, had recommended I look at McKenzie's work previously, but I had mispelled his name in google searches. Hooray for Tobogganing, then! McKenzie's work is often conceptual and "explores notions of public space and cultural exchange in relation to the private self" (REDCAT gallery writeup). Perfect person for me to be looking at, no? The same review describes a work where Dave McKenzie prints and distributes a day planner that lists where he'll be and when so that people reading the planner are able to meet up with him. The piece above, titled Self-help: hyperventilation bag, was included in a show that came to Richmond earlier this year (SO bummed I missed it).

This show, called Slightly Unbalanced, featured the work of quite a few big-name artists (and quite a few that I really like, as well) including Sophie Calle (I wrote about her here), Tony Oursler, Louise Borgeoise, Sean Landers and Bruce Nauman. The works in the show deal with psychological concepts such as anxiety, depression and obsession and figuring out what is "normal". Just from reading the curator's introduction on the website, I'm salviating. Where can I get the exhibition catalogue? The show came to the University of Richmond's Joel and Lila Harnett Museum.

Okay. Enough Tobogganing for one night.

20X200

2010-08-10T10:21:00.004-04:00

20X200 is a website that sells limited edition runs of artist's prints- mostly photography but some painting, etc, too. The smallest print, usually 8X10", only costs $20 and comes in a run of 200 (hence the name). The larger prints get exponentially more expensive. www.20x200.com

Resting on a Bush Yijun (Pixy) Liao

Midwife/ Middle School Science Teacher/ San Antonio, Texas/ 3-person household (including dog)/ First week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables Mark Menjivar

Paris Gregory Krum

Rush Hour

2010-08-02T15:09:00.003-04:00

Found this at the Public Art Network blog: artist Joel Kyack puts on puppet shows from the back of his car for people stuck in LA traffic jams. Brilliant!

Read the story here.

VCU Summer Studio Program Final Exhibition

2010-07-26T11:22:00.002-04:00

The Summer Studio Program which I have been a part of the past two months is having it's final exhibition at the Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Fine Arts building. The show opened Saturday the 24th, and will stay up until Tuesday the 27th. I am exhibiting a new video work, and will post it here soon!

New Direction: Video

2010-07-09T12:33:00.004-04:00

Made this in my very small bathroom in my apartment in Richmond. I am still thinking about personal space and 'fitting in', as well as privacy and the transition from growing up in the spacious south-west to now living in the urban, more densely populated south-east.

Three Year Letter Project

2010-06-22T13:13:00.004-04:00

Hey all! Life has been a bit of a whirlwind- I graduated from Oberlin on May 31st and then immediately moved to Richmond, VA to start a post-bacc class at Virginia Commonwealth University. I'm in my third week of the class now and am really enjoying it. It's really intensive and I hope I am taking as full advantage of it as I can.

One of the projects I am working on right now is a participatory art piece. I have been introduced to Relational Esthetics and Relational art, and have been looking at the work of Harrell Fletcher, Erwin Wurm and Tino Sehgal. I don't really want to go into a long lecture about what all of this is about, but what a lot of what these artists/ ideas have in common is using human interaction as the basis for a work of art.

SO. I am currently inviting people across the country (and, perhaps, the world) to write a letter to themselves, send the letter to me, and then I will return it to them in three years. I will not be opening or reading the letters, I am merely the 'keeper of letters' and will make sure they are not lost and will perhaps be a nice surprise for the writer three years from now. I encourage anyone reading this to write a letter! Please send it to this address:

Three Year Letter Project
419 N Stafford AVE
Richmond, VA 23220

I am also keeping a blog specifically for the project, check it out. Tell your friends/ family/ neighbors/ hairdresser! I'm hoping to get as many letters as possible.

Perfection is a Trifle Dull

2010-05-08T16:16:00.005-04:00

The year of the senior studio program culminated in a thesis exhibition on April 9th, 2010. I showed work with Lucy Engleman, a sculptor and video artist. Above is our show poster, designed by Eliza Koch.

Below is my artist statement for the works I've been creating this year. Note- if you came to the show, this is a different artist statement than the one you saw there. As of right now, I like the following one better.

Ever since I was a small child, I have had intense physiological and emotional reactions in crowded public places. Until I spent a semester in Beijing, China in the Spring of 2009, I thought I had successfully dealt with these feelings. I arrived during the Chinese New Year and my first tourist excursion was to a Temple Festival. I have never in my life been someplace so densely packed with human bodies, bodies like a river or a stampede. I literally had to clutch my friends or risk being torn apart from them by the crowd. I was incredibly overwhelmed and needed to leave. The emotion I felt during that experience was the most intense of my entire five months in China.
Since returning to the United States, I have worked to visually express that emotion and the related thoughts it conjures up. I am investigating issues of human density, populations, and personal identity within a crowd. While drawing and sculpting literally thousands of people, it is impossible to not ponder issues of human consumption: the physical space we take up, the air we breathe, and the waste we leave behind.

Show photos

2010-05-08T15:52:00.004-04:00

Here is the completed Tags piece- with me standing in it for staffage. I wanted the tags, filled with faces, to come around the viewer and feel like a hug or at least give the impression of a densely populated space.

Detail of some of the paintings. I started this project in January of this year and painted nearly 500 tags with gouache. Each tag only had one person painted on each one.This piece was on the wall perpendicular to the tags. I made 8 'dioramas' out of paper and hung them on strings. Poking through the outside of the box were metal pins. Most were folded down, but others stuck straight out, creating a somewhat uninviting exterior.
Each of the pins were actually part of a 'pin ticket' (a tiny 11/2" by 2" card) that I had done drawings on and then pushed through to the outside of the box.

Most of the pin tickets (which say "Sale Price" at the top) also had tiny pen drawings on them- many of people, either singular or together, but some of feet, bananas, pets, bikes, and other everyday objects. At the back of each box was a mirror, so when the viewer looks inside the box they see a reflection of the interior space, making it look twice as big. They also see their own eye reflected in the mirror, making the viewer become a part of the work.

The third piece I included in the show were the clay faces that I have been working on since October 2009. Inspired by Daumier caricature busts, I made 40 faces out of air-drying clay.

A close up and a side view. This winter I started making some of the faces smaller, or 'submerged', so they didn't have ears showing, or only a nose and some eyes. I was interested in making the faces look like they were emerging from water, but despite many, many tries, I was unable to make that happen for the show. In the end, I'm glad I just showed them how they were without trying to add any other materials.

Each face was unique. Some of them were silly, like the one above, but most had average expressions of content, happiness or confusion.

Installation of tags piece

2010-05-04T22:35:00.005-04:00

These photos are what Fisher Gallery looked like at the start of the installation process for my senior studio exhibition. My show, titled "Perfection is a Trifle Dull" opened April 9th, 2010 (just getting up photos now though, heh) and stayed up until April 12th.

This is my show partner, Lucy Engleman, and our professor Susan Umbenhour having a seat on Lucy's sculpture in order to provide pressure to help glue adhere properly.

These pictures are from the two weeks prior to my show and show the installation process of the Tags piece. I first built a frame out of chicken wire and painstakingly tied 1,200 tags onto it. The hallway that you see was about 5 feet wide and 8 feet deep. I painted many of the tags (which are roughly the size of an index card) with portraits of people- some of them I painted while looking at pictures or people walking by my studio window, and others were just people I imagined.

More pictures of the final piece to come soon!

Nick van Woert

2010-02-25T23:57:00.003-04:00

Interesting sculpture by Nick van Woert, found on butdoesitfloat. His work could get gimmick-y real fast, but based on everything he has on his website, he isn't just a one-trick pony.

http://work.fourteensquarefeet.com/

Theora writes about Public Art

2010-02-07T16:29:00.005-04:00

During the Fall semester and the month of January, I've been writing essays for my Chinese class and East Asian Studies capstone project. The essays are in Chinese (of course) and are about contemporary Public Art in the US and China. I am currently posting these essays on a Chinese blogging site; I am hoping that some Chinese people might find it and learn a little about art they might not otherwise have access to. I have toyed with the idea of posting these essays here, too, but there are very few people who read this blog, and even fewer that can read Chinese. If you are interested in taking a look at the blog, click here.

Nanomuseum reopens in Beijing

2010-01-20T20:18:00.004-04:00

The Nanomuseum, a conceptual museum idea that is housed in a folding 2x3 inch frame with space for two artworks, was began in 1994. Several exhibitions occured, including the work of Gabriel Orozco and Gilbert and George (above). The final exhibit was to be put together by artist Douglas Gordon, but he lost the tiny museum at a bar. Hmm.

Now, the space in Beijing, a gallery and creative organization in Jianwai SOHO has proudly reopened the Nanomuseum as of Jan. 1st, 2010. The first exhibition will be organized by Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.

To see the official blogpost about the grand opening, click here, and scroll down to read the english.

Sculpture Faces

2009-12-01T23:39:00.004-04:00

Right now in Senior Studio I am working on making faces out of clay. Each one is about 5" long, approximately, and is made from air-drying clay (no kiln required!). I have 11 so far and am hoping to make as many as possible out of the 50lbs of clay that I bought.

For some of the more recent ones I've been looking at pictures of faces and drawing inspiration from unusual facial features and expressions.

One of my favorites so far!

Photo class trip to New York

2009-11-29T20:46:00.007-04:00

Getting ready for the drive included jumping Sophie's car, losing keys and a backpack, cleaning out Sophie's car, etc, all of which delayed our departure!

Sophie, Victoria, Leah and Sophia in Chelsea. Cute!

Meredith on the phone through a gallery window.

Pipo with Sophie, Leah and Jimmy buying empanadas in the background.

Sophia in Topshop!

We made a quick stop at B&H on Sunday before heading back to Oberlin- I took one picture (trying to capture the little green bins rolling around on the track!) but then was stopped by an employee.

Yu Jinyoung

2009-11-06T15:45:00.002-04:00

A Family In Disguise

These are beautiful! A Korean artist represented by Union, a gallery in London. http://www.union-gallery.com/content.php?page_id=3063

Daniel Eatock

2009-11-06T15:20:00.004-04:00

Colour Coordinated: week 25

Daniel Eatock is a conceptual artist I really admire. He keeps a website where he establishes a train of thought, an aesthetic via humorous photos, and then asks his readers to contribute photos they take of similar ideas. Here is his introduction to the Picture of the Week series:

Picture of the week

This is an ongoing project originally started at Foundation 33 that was open to submissions from friends, colleagues and people passing through the studio.

Since starting Picture of the week, I notice myself looking for incidents, alignments, coincidences, view points, temporary situations, small things that go unnoticed that should be recorded. I see the work as conceptual observations and ideas not as photography. The image is not as important as the content, the title is as much apart of the work as the photograph.

An equally important part of this project is the submission from others received via email. These pictures are displayed in the Thank You section, and credited to their maker.

Door From The Car in Front: week 36

He has many different series of his work; the largest is probably the Thank You series, submitted by others. Other projects of his include drawing perfect circles by hand on many, many sheets of paper, covering a fruit bowl with fruit stickers (I'm currently making my own at home, haha), and generally searching to create an archetype which will become so widespread and well-understood that people will stop noticing it's there (this is the definition of an archetype). He designed a webpage layout that he hopes will become the standard for visual artists' online portfolios.

Display Book Shelf
MDF shelf, 6 feet long, 1 foot wide, 3/4 inch thick, resting on two metal brackets displaying books borrowed from Belk Library. The shelf sags under the weight of its contents in a graceful arc, the top edges of all the books are perfectly flush as a result of a conscious selection of volumes chosen to accommodate (or compensate for) the arc of the sagging shelf.

Bus Stop: Thank You Alex Bank

Check out www.eatock.com . I'm a huge fan.

Theora Fits In part VI

2009-11-05T22:05:00.003-04:00

Tower City. Only had about 20 minutes to shoot, and since it was my first time 'performing' Fitting In in a busy, public space, it was a little weird and most of the shots didn't turn out. We actually got in trouble for this shot; Thank You Ally Sterman. If I have time I'd like to go back and work on this more.

Theora Fits In part V

2009-11-05T15:29:00.003-04:00

Theora Fits In at the construction site. Thank You Pauline Zaldonis.

Just my hair! It's a character all by itself, I think.

Theora Fits In part IV

2009-11-05T00:24:00.006-04:00

Theora Fits in the Art Department! Need to edit down more.
On one hand, I want to make these more 'performative' with more people in the background, but on the other hand, today in my Senior Studio critique of Theora Fits In, people seemed to respond more to the photos with simpler backgrounds and fewer distractions/ figures/ etc. They said that my framing and color choices were stronger in some of the simpler ones where I'd thought it out more.

Today I just tried to think less about what I was doing, and just DO it. Just FIT IN, take pictures. I did a bunch more locations than this, but these ones were the best.

Tomorrow, if it's not raining, outside on the playground and the construction site. If it's raining, grocery store. Regardless of weather: Tower City, in the suitcase, indoors and outdoor locations, art library.

Theora Fits In (part III)

2009-10-31T17:04:00.002-04:00

At the Laundromat today! Which one should I print?

Shooting from a grey day in Chicago

2009-10-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

Two associated images

2009-10-27T21:10:00.005-04:00

Courtesy the New York Times Online; photo of Japanese school kids on a field trip to the legislature. They are wearing masks because of Swine Flu.

Courtesy Dana Davis Photography (my uncle); he was shooting for La Brea Bakery in CA. He is wearing a mask for health code reasons.

I really like these two images together and am planning to work off of them somehow.

Daumier Sculpture

2009-10-27T20:54:00.006-04:00

When I was at the Art Institute of Chicago over break I was strolling along in this most AMAZING museum and came upon a collection of Daumier (the 19th-century French artist who did many caricatures in drawing, lithograph and sculpture) busts. This series was made by the artist in clay and then later has been cast in bronze by various methods by museums hoping to prolong the life of the works. Each bust is a caricature of a different political figure of the time; the name of the series is "Celebrities f the Juste Milieu". I just love these heads! They were also displayed in a very pleasing way- to make it look like the busts were sitting in a political house with raked seating. The expressions and exaggerations of each of the heads are so comical and endearing. I am interested in attempting to make some of my own caricatures or silly characters in bust form.

These photos were just what I found on the internet- unfortunately I did not have my camera with me!

Garfield Park Conservatory

2009-10-21T23:22:00.005-04:00

Went to the Garfield Conservatory today- a free nature park with greenhouses as well as outdoor gardens. I know lots of people won't look at photos of plants, myself included, but I thought the lighting on these few turned out quite nicely. I'm using a Nikon D50 this week, on loan from my photographer uncle! Thanks Dan!

Theora Fits In part II

2009-10-19T12:47:00.004-04:00

Here are some un-edited (i.e., not color or contrast corrected) images from my last photo shoot on this project. I have had a crit in Pipo's class and am planning to continue with this project. I have a lot more ideas and am hoping to shoot in Chicago, where I'm spending my fall break.

Lucy Orta

2009-10-19T12:40:00.004-04:00

Lucy Orta creates what she calls "Refuge Wear", designed with homeless and nomadic people in mind. Her work blurs the line between fashion, sculpture and humanitarian efforts. Some of her 'pods' are built for one person, but others are designed for a whole team of people who are linked together by fabric tubes. Although I am less interested in the practical uses her arwork might have for homeless people, I really like the secondary statements she's making about personal space and community space with her garments. How much space do we need to feel safe and protected?

Erwin Wurm, sculptor

2009-10-19T12:31:00.002-04:00

I love how Erwin Wurm engages gallery and museum goers by asking them to follow instructions and create art or sculpture themselves. More often than not, his sculptures do not exist without the aid of a strangers' body. One of his largest projects is called "One Minute Sculptures" where he asks strangers, people on the street, CEOs of companies, etc to do something silly and hold it for one minute while he takes a picture. Sometimes he will tell them exactly what to do or only vaguely give them hints via some props.

Greg Niemeyer Oxygen Flute

2009-10-19T12:19:00.004-04:00

Greg Niemeyer is an artist and associate professor of New Media at UC Berkley. His work experiments with ways to incorporate digital art into the public realm, ideas of interaction with the natural environment as well as with eachother and play. One of his works, Oxygen Flute (2002) was installed in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology garden. The work was a small greenhouse-like pod filled with bamboo and other plants. From his website: "Inside the chamber, a Carbon Dioxide monitor tracked the changes in air quality due to the players consumption of Oxygen and the plants' consumption of Carbon Dioxide." The resulting quality of air was represented by digitally-produced bamboo flute music. His artwork is extremely theoretical but really engages the viewer in unexpected ways. http://studio.berkeley.edu/niemeyer

Subway Grate Sculptures

2009-10-11T14:37:00.004-04:00

Joshua Allen Harris: Subway Grate Sculptures
Great video interview .

PARK(ing) Day 2009

2009-10-11T14:26:00.002-04:00

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/19/parking-day-2009-transforms-parking-spaces-into-public-parks/ This recent public art event asked organizations, companies and activists to transform a parking space into a public park for a day. The type of 'parks' varied widely, some with many plants and some just as a place to hang out. This event happened simultaneously all over the country!

Lions

2009-10-08T11:35:00.005-04:00

Personal sourcebook of lion photos. These are from China and Denver. I was collecting these images for a while because I wanted to build my own Chinese stone lion. Right now I'm not as interested in the idea, but the visual concept might come up in another project somehow.

Doug Dubois

2009-10-08T11:25:00.002-04:00

Doug Dubois photographs his family in a memoir-style. All his photographs are extremely narrative, and his book All the Days and Nights unfolds like a story but there are no words or descriptions as to what's happening. The result is a little eerie, but beautiful and quiet at the same time.
His website.

Theora Fits In

2009-10-06T15:47:00.004-04:00

Theora fits into the slide at your park.

Theora fits into your suitcase.

Theora fits into your suitcase (I like this one better).

Low-quality scans from my first shoot. I will put images up of my other locations which include Theora fits into your dryer and Theora fits into your library's shelves.

Kalan at the G20 summit

2009-09-30T14:43:00.001-04:00

He was arrested and charged with a felony!

First Post for Color Photo

2009-09-28T21:31:00.005-04:00

With this post I'm resuming the source book purpose of this blog, and will use it as a place to let people see what images I'm looking at while I'm making my own work. Right now I'm in Senior Studio and Color Photo. My ideas for Senior Studio are generally sculptural, but obviously I'm interested in Photography (even though I find it difficult to 'think' in the medium of photography). I'm hoping to bring these two mediums together this year but I don't have any idea how.

After being in China I've become really interested in ideas of human space. Human density and urban density, relatedness, connectedness, sense of personal space, escapism, how much we affectionately touch each other, how close we sit together on the couch, how often we say 'excuse me', etc, etc.
I'm also really interested in containers, containers as in buildings or as in tupper-ware, frames and boxes. I am going to explore how to fill these containers in order to give a sense of human density without necessarily representing the human figure.

For my first sculpture project I have been looking at these Mexican devotional objects called nichos- like framed shadowboxes with paintings on tin inside.

Back in the U-S-of-A- way overdue!

2009-06-24T20:38:00.015-04:00

(I started writing this over the summer and then never got back to it... )
I am finally back in the United States after all of my adventures in China. I stopped posting on the blog in March, which was partially my decision (so little precious free time) and partially not my decision (Chinese government blanket-blocked all blogspot.com blogs). So here I am, threeish months later, with even more pictures on my computr that never made it up here. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to take the time to write about all the adventures and post all the pictures, even though I'd love to share. I'll just do a quick summary for now, though, plus a map highlighting every province I've been to in China. Pretty cool!

In alphabetical order: I have been to Beijing, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Sichuan, Tianjin and Zhejiang. Whew!

So, after I came back from Chengdu, we had three more weeks of drudgery and learning before we were freed for a short spring break. Jason (a fellow student from ACC who is very dear to me) and I took an overnight train to Xi'an, where we saw the famous terra cotta warriors and sampled foods from the Muslim street. We also went to Tianjin for Jason's Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Tianjin was extremely polluted and depressing, but the tournament was really fun. Although I'd never watched let alone played Ultimate before, I subbed in briefly! It was probably better for everyone if I just watched, though. (terracotta warriors)

Then, back at acc, we rounded out the final few weeks with more Chinese language torture. We finished our semester-long independent projects, gave powerpoint presentations and turned in the 8-page-plus paper. My topic was on the contemporary art district in Beijing, 798, and all of the changes it has gone through; from a artists' studios neighborhood to one of the biggest tourist draws and commercial centers in the city. I also interviewed two of my friends who run their own gallery. They also invited me, later, to act as translator for their gallery during Art Beijing, the largest yearly exposition on contemporary Chinese/ Asian art.

(my independent project advisor, Sun 老师, and me at the post-graduation dinner)

The last few weeks of the program dragged on FOREVER. The professors piled more and more work and projects and presentations on us, and meanwhile we all were literally losing our minds. The desire to speak English became a constant backdrop to every and all thought, the thought of making sounds like "fr", "th", "kl", etc, would make us drool. Everyone handled this intense stress a little differently; I surprised myself by becoming intensely angsty and angry. It was hard to let on this anger (as were many other unhappy emotions) so I don't think it affected anyone else too much, but it was really hard to stay postitive. Throughout the semester it was really difficult to remember just how much progress you'd made due to the constant criticism and increasing demands from the professors, and the last few weeks weren't any different. We finally graduated, went out for karaoke with our professors and found out just how hard it is to switch back and forth between languages with much speed and accuracy.

(a bunch of third year students at professors after graduation- Jason and I are in the front left)

A few days after graduation, I traveled for two weeks with Jason to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guilin and Yangshuo. We had a great time and saw some incredible scenery, including incredibly serene rice paddies and beautiful lakes and rivers. Traveling in China is hair-tearingly stressful on a normal basis, but during national holidays it becomes nothing short of hellish. Jason and I unknowingly planned our vacation to coincide with the national worker's holiday, during which time everyone else in China goes on vacation, too. One night in Shanghai we found we were stranded after being unable to get on a bus OR train to Hangzhou, and that all hostels in Shanghai were booked. Things were looking really grim until I called my good friend ellis, a fellow China adventurer, who gave us the name of an awesome, tucked-away hostel (read ellis' humorous account of traveling during the worker's holiday here).

Then after Jason left to go back to the US, I hung out in Beijing for three weeks by myself. I ended up living with the cousins of the gallery-owner friends I worked with at the Art Expo. Living with two girls from a rural province whose admitted ages seemed to get younger and younger the longer I stayed there was difficult and eye opening. Since they couldn't speak more than a few words of English, I was entirely reliant on my Chinese skills. Even though I'd spoken Chinese for the last four months, something about only speaking Chinese with native Chinese people with whom I shared no common background experiences was incredibly exhausting. I felt like I was constantly misunderstood and feared I frequently tripped over cultural faux-pas and possibly offended them. I likewise got frustrated with them when they couldn't seem to understand where I was coming from or had different social customs. I did learn a lot from them, though; their story was very similar to many people currently living in Beijing. They moved to Beijing hoping to make a better life for themselves, but have had very little education and although their standard of living is higher now, they will encounter difficulties if they hope to get higher-level jobs. Aside from living with these girls I also hung out with my friend Julian who also attended ACC with me. He's an all-around superstar student who started Harvard this fall. When he and I were feeling overwhelmed and weary of life in China we'd get together for western food or go to a beautiful, expensive shopping mall (ha!). I'll be honest- it was hard to be alone in a foreign country and living in a stressful situation. I kept busy by planning my trip with my mom (Robin), sister (Viv) and wonderful friend (Maeve).
(maybe at some point I'll update with pictures and a description of my final two-week trip in China)

Chengdu, Sichuan part one of several...

2009-03-07T23:24:00.007-04:00

So I'm really behind on posting, but I'm just going to do what's the most current and worry about the other things later (slash when I get home). Last week ACC had a one week break and we went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Sichuan is in the south western part of China, home of spicy food and many famous Buddhist and Daoist religious sites.

The Friday before we left we had our midterm exam (covering about the equivalent of of one plus semesters of Chinese at Oberlin), a 15 minute slide presentation in front of 3 teachers and 3 students and another 15 minute speech in front of 2 teachers. It was grueling, but before we'd even had time to catch our breath, we were on the train headed to Chengdu.

The vast majority of Chinese people travel by train, so we were not only saving money but were also experiencing Chinese culture by traveling through China's country side for 25 hours. Yes, that's right, 25 hours. As you can see above, it's a pretty small little area to be stuck in for 25 hours- 3 bunks stacked up with a little table in between. To be honest, I didn't mind the length too much- plenty of time to sleep and read and chat (in Chinese) with classmates. By the last 3 hours or so, though, I was pretty ready to get off the train.

China's country side. The reason the train ride is so long is because we had to wind through all the mountains which allowed us to see many different climates and scenery.

Terraced hills. There were lots of yellow flowers, which I am pretty sure are safflower, which are harvested and turned into cooking oil.

Chengdu was humid and a little chilly, but no matter, we were excited to be out of Beijing, out of a classroom and seeing green things!

Our hotel was right in downtown Chengdu, near a big flashy pedestrian mall. There were always huge crowds of people there, no matter what time of day it was. Our head director, Zhang Laoshi (professor Zhang) teased that Chengdu people never go to work, they just spend their days shopping and going to teahouses. Sounds pretty good to me. The pace of Chengdu is definately more relaxed than Beijing, regardless.

In the very center of the city is a beautiful plaza with fountains and flowers (unheard of in Beijing) and, of course, a statue of every one's favorite communist founder.

Sichuan is also famous for "xiao chi" or, basically, snacks. As I am sure everyone will agree, snacks are great. Above is an example of the many, many sidewalk snackeries (?). Hot pot originates in Southern China and at the above establishment you can select as many skewers of vegetables (all kinds of mushrooms, lotus root, bean sprouts, etc) and meat, tofu and then cook them in a broth (usually dark red and therefore extremely spicy). On the street you can also buy Chuar (kabobs), and it's the same excellent deal- you pick which skewers of meat/ tofu/ lotus root/etc you want and they will boil and then barbeque it for you right there. Delicious. The character for chuar is : 串. Great, right? It actually looks like a kabob! You can also buy all kinds of fruit, including beautifully pre-sliced pineapple on skewers, water chestnuts, mangosteens, mangos, rambutans, pipaw and jujubees. I made sure to try the last three since I hadn't had them before. All delicious. Jujubees are in the apple family but are shaped like a little torpedo and have a very delicate flavor.
There were beautiful fruit stores everywhere- open to the air and wildly colorful. In the foreground you can see that brown spiky fruit- those are Durian, a really strange fruit that smells a little like a sweet onion. They are so smelly that they have been banned on the subway in at least one Asian country.
This picture is for Viv- a store where you can buy things to use in your store... like manikins, steamers and hangers, haha. I saw at least 3 of these, actually.

Next up, Renmin Gongyuan (People's Park), a giant Buddha, monkeys and more.

Theora in Action

2009-02-18T01:28:00.006-04:00

Look at that! That's me speaking Chinese- what I came to Beijng to do! I was probably making a "chu" or "xu" sound.

Last weekend I went out to dinner with two family friends, Bill and Sue, who were in Beijing for the weekend. We went to a wonderful Beijing Duck restaurant- it was delicious and glamorous. Because Bill and Sue don't speak Chinese, I spoke English with them (it's an exception to the language pledge, and oh man it was great to speak English) and then translated with the waitresses and cab drivers which was great fun.

On the topic of things to eat, this is a Mangosteen. Delicious.

The skin is very thick; the outer layer is tough, but the inside layer is very deep red and crumbly. The fruit is very small, white, and has sections like an orange. It is very sweet and mild, the texture is a little like a peach. The last week or so there have been many people selling them on the street off of their motorized bike carts.

ACC的日常生活 (Daily Life）Part 1

2009-02-11T01:45:00.008-04:00

So, now that I've been here over a month, time for basic introductions. Firstly, my school is in Beijing's Chaoyang District (朝阳区）which is north-east of Beijing center. Beijing is made up of several ring roads surrounding the Forbidden City which is the traditional First Ring Road. My school is near the Third Ring Road, so relatively close to the center of Beijing. The subway map above is really confusing because (I think) the top of the map is South and the bottom is North, but anyways, my school is really close to the Dawangqiao station (大望路－我不知道为什么那个地铁图说“大望桥”？）on the Red Line #1. If you want to really have a good time- look me up on Google Earth! If you haven't used it before you'll have to download the program. Then search for Beijing, China, and then "Capital University of Economics and Business" (the school that ACC is housed in). You'll be able to see where I'm staying (the building in the north-east section of the campus), and if you zoom out to the west, you can see the CCTV building, too.

This is the view of our South entrance from outside. The gold characters say Shoudu jingji maoyi daxue (首都经济贸易大学） or CUEB. There are guards on watch 24/7 to let cars in and out and monitor the people walking in and out.

This is inside campus looking at the South gate. On the left are steps going to the library (which I haven't been to- no art books, just economic books in Chinese), and on the right is a small park 公园 which occasionally has a few old people doing their morning calisthenics (my favorite is the clapping and reciting rhythmic sayings. 功课很好玩！

Dis eez the outside of my dorm building- a little glassed in entry way. We have classes and live in this same building, which seemed like an awful idea when I first got here, but it's actually not that bad.

Outside of the building. Everything is dead because it is winter and dirty beause it is Beijing and until last thursday it hadn't rained in 3 months! Today it snowed a little bit too, which means it's cold, but I'm just glad to have some precipitation. A little snow is actually kind of nice (I never thought I'd say that).

This is a car. And also the view of the North gate from inside campus.

Outside the Bei (north) gate looking west. The angular building in the distance is the one that caught on fire a week ago Monday. Apparently they didn't completely put out the fire until Tuesday morning (when I took this picture). The sky was really hazy until the afternoon, and the building was pretty charbroiled-looking.

That same day, a picture from inside our room looking out. Horrible! Our room has a little balcony, which is nice to go out on when you want to take a break from studying.

Ze rrrooom. Katie bought some little New Years delibops, but it still is pretty boring and spare. Unfortunately I did not bring my art studio with me, but I'm hoping in a spare minute I can work some Theora Magic on the walls. hmm. Siena, you know what I mean.

Each room has it's own bathroom, which is great.

Next up, pictures of my homework- another balanced part of daily life at ACC.

photo assortment

2009-02-09T10:37:00.007-04:00

Firstly, more photos from 798 taken during my second trip there. Above and below, beautiful courtyard where a tree had been entirely wrapped with red string. This curved concrete bit is actually an entrance to a gallery. Very cool and minimalist.

Haha! Duchamp goes to the chinaware factory.

Yes, Ally, I went here! The coffee shop with a coffee cup filled with (real!) coffee beans for a door. They played American country western music, which seemed a little odd to me.

Another door. For the "weird signs in English" photo album. For some reason the Chinese characters are traditional which are not used in mainland China.

798 is pretty grungy, but that's what makes it so cool. Artists looove the grungy grimy.

Factory which is still being used as such.

Tonight is the last night of celebration of the Chinese New Year (the lantern festival), and also the last night to set off fireworks. Fireworks and firecrackers are readily available during this time of year, and anyone can buy them and set them off, anywhere, anytime. Since loud noises are believed to scare away evil spirits who might be lurking at the start of your new year, it would seem that almost everyone in Beijing participates in this ritual. Although they are beautiful and New Year's Eve at midnight was incredible, after about 3 weeks of constant booming (daytime, too!) I'm really quite ready to have it come to an end. Earlier tonight there was quite the upset in the ACC dorm because we thought that the new CCTV building had caught fire from the fireworks. For a panicked 15 minutes or so we were all leaning out the windows trying to see through the haze and smoke (caused primarily by the fireworks, and only somewhat by the fire). Turns out it was a nearby building instead, and the fire was put out fairly quickly. Still, this is why letting a city of 17 million people set off fireworks at their leisure and discretion is not entirely without risk. The CCTV building is an architectural marvel and was only recently finished. It looks like this: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/12/china_wonders/image/cctv.jpg (there is a current name-the-building debate going on, and the vast majority of Beijingers are already referring to it as "The Big Underpants")

These are Longgan- a fruit I'd never seen before coming to China. Since I'm all about rare/ unusual fruit I was really excited when my roomate brought these home. On the inside they are sweet and translucent like a grape but have a pit like a cherry. A little obnoxious to eat but it's worth it.

Time for shower and review the characters one more time and then sleep.

Meat

2009-01-22T07:36:00.005-04:00

Don't worry, Dad, I'm eating plenty of meat in China. Last Friday I went out for huoguo with a bunch of friends from the dorm. Huoguo literally means "fire pot" or, commonly known as "hot pot".

From left to right: Piper (a.ka. Shaopei), Katie (Kangtian, also my roomate), Jennifer (Yunzi), Oscar (Oule? He is from Norway!), Me (Ruofei), and Nitt (Ande). It's weird to be learning two names for everyone- it's very easy to pick up people's English names, of course, but we have to call them by their Chinese names so the professors don't give us the evil eye. It's so hard to remember Chinese names!

We ordered raw meat (pork and mutton) that was cut into very, very thin slices and uncooked noodles and vegetables (lettuce, mushrooms). The waiters pour broth into your little pot and since it has some sterno under it, it quickly starts to boil. You cook the meat in the broth and then dip it in the peanut sauce. mmm. I'm sure this type of meal is not unfamiliar to many of you- we have this kind of 'fondue' at home.

Piper and Katie.

Excellent diagram of The Cow near the door.

Available Job Opportunities in China

2009-01-19T22:04:00.009-04:00

Since, as you all know, Beijing has a huge population, there is always someone willing to take a job that another person won't. Therefore, I have thought of a few new opportunities that could be implemented to better use the man power of Beijing's everyday person.

- What Not to Wear Zhongguo: a Chinese version of the US's tv show with Stacey and Clinton, except geared towards Chinese aesthetics. I.e.; in China it might be okay to wear a puffy, furry panda jacket to work, but there are rules! For example, a panda jacket must never be paired with pink butterfly boots. (Unfortunately I don't yet have pictures of this phenomenon- this isn't the Sartorialist.)

-Official Map Maker for the 798 contemporary art district. Description: help people find their way around this confusing neighborhood. Making maps, by definiton, is not the same as making art. Visitors can't find the art with out a map!

A view of 798 art district. I went there last weekend with Katie and Margaret (my friend from Oberlin who is also in Beijing for the month of January). 798 is a really fascinating district- all of the buildings were built as factories in the 1950's and 60's in conjunction with Soviet Russia. They are all giant, with Bauhaus architecture and giant saw-tooth rooflines. Many have huge windows, providing a perfect space to make art, which is why in the 1990's the Central Academy of Fine Arts moved their sculpture studio into the then-vacant factories. This jump started what is now Beijing's most thriving contemporary art neighborhood. It's a really exciting place, and even though I don't think the three of us chose a good day to go (since many galleries were closed and there weren't many people around), I can't wait to go back! (http://www.studio-international.co.uk/reports/beijing_798.asp- a nice brief history of the area, if you're interested)

We weren't exactly sure what this space was- we walked into this gallery (museum?) that was open but in the midst of putting up a new exhibit, and they had this really swank lounge area that probably becomes a bar on the weekends. That giant brick column is actually a giant smoke stack that goes through the ceiling.

- Pollution Particle collector (description: picks the dust and grime out of the air with a large, wet cloth). Apparently many of these people were employed before the olympics, but now they've gone back to their day jobs.

This is the view from my room on a pretty bad pollution day. This isn't a bad photo, and the window isn't that dirty- you just can't see buildings very clearly when it gets so smoggy. Uck.

This is the view with my back to the entrance to Tiananmen- the furthest left building is Mao Zedong's mausoleum (pretty sure). Gross, right?

Looking towards Tiananmen (note that the sky is white, not blue)- this is the entrance to the Forbidden City (aka gugong), which I also went to last weekend. The Forbidden City was home to the emperor during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

A close-up of a door in Gugong- very beautiful.
Me standing in front of one of the facades- it was so cold I think it made me smile weirdly.

开始 - kaishi - Start, beginning

2009-01-08T05:10:00.006-04:00

I have really struggled with how to start this blog- I've been in Beijing for almost two weeks now and only today have I actually decided to sit down and post something (little tidbits of writing have been in progress for a while). Many of the people who will be reading this already know a lot about what I'm doing and I don't really have the time to go into details; I guess they will come gradually. Short version: I am spending a semester in Beijing doing an intensive (think cram school) Mandarin language program. There's not much time to do much besides study- four hours of class every day, and then the entire afternoon/ evening is spent preparing the next day's lesson which can have up to 90 new words to learn, plus homework and other assignments. There's also an extremely strict language pledge- aside from calling home, I will not speak English for the next four months (and my program takes it seriously here- they have actually put pledge-breakers on a plane back to the US). It's hard and at times simply awful, but there are moments (which I hope will grow increasingly more often) where I am thrilled to be here, and feel that I'm mastering this ridiculously challenging language. When communication actually happens, I feel my motivation and energy to continue study revived.

Plus, of course, I get to experience a country on the other side of the world! It is really surreal to finally be here, after preparing to study in Beijing for two and a half years now. For as many times as I've had textbook lessons about the American student who just arrived in Beijing (including all the lovely vocabulary of airport, suitcase, customs, roomates, taxi, first impression) and as cliche as I felt walking through the airport, explaining to the driver how to get to Capitol University of Economics and Business, nothing anyone ever says or describes about China can really prepare you for what it's like to be here. And, I can't even claim to know what it's like to be here- maybe let's wait a few months for that one.

One of the biggest yet most obvious differences about Beijing is the unbelievable density of human beings. Yes, this is home to over 17 million people, but I have never seen an urban density like this before. People all over the street, crowded subway tunnels, packed buses. If you stop to think about how each one of these people (presumably) has somewhere they sleep at night, an apartment, owns a pair of slippers and a bar of soap, and eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it's really mind-boggling. It's like trying to imagine the Big Bang Theory. It also makes me wonder, how often do people here randomly bump into someone they know? With all of these bodies trying to get to their destination, and everyone with their head down (and right now, buried in a scarf) trying to move between each other, how would you ever know to look up and look for a familiar face?

Yours truly, freezing cold in front of, uhm, whatsitcalled.

Thank you!!

2008-12-20T21:25:00.004-04:00

I just wanted to say thanks, Pipo, for a fantastic semester. I have enjoyed your class so much- the challenge of learning photography as well as the engaging ideas and material presented in class. I've also had fun keeping a blog (I think I'll keep it up, esp. while I'm in Beijing next semester!). See you in September!

Frames

2008-12-20T21:10:00.006-04:00

This was the final result of my second sculpture project this semester- I was very inerested in old, ornate picture frames (http://theorangefedora.blogspot.com/search/label/frames) that you see in museums. The frames are so intricate and were all handcarved, yet the maker is never given credit. I left my frames empty to draw attention to the handiwork that goes into this craft, and also to question why, in our society, whatever is put in a frame is instantly elevated to the status of 'art'. Made from plaster using the blanket-mold process, the multiplicity and apparent mass-production (hah!) of my frames is also in contradiction to the uniqueness of the original handcarved pieces.

This project was an unbelievable amount of work- after creating a model of each piece from clay and making a rubber mold, each section of the frames had to be cast, baked, sanded, shellac-ed, painted brown, painted gold and then rubbed over with shoe polish for the aged look.

Yours truly (for staffage).

Loretta Lux

2008-12-20T20:56:00.002-04:00

Little children and oh, so very creepy. http://www.lorettalux.de/

Elizabeth Peyton and Egon Schiele

2008-12-20T20:48:00.003-04:00

Above, Elizabeth Peyton: Contemporary figure painter (mostly male model-y figures in lush paint). Below, Egon Schiele (1890-1918): Austrian figure painter of mostly female nudes and self-portraits (often twisted or sexual or about death). The two painter's work seem correlated to me- a similar emotion or connection to the viewer, I guess.