Pictar

For my Rachel,

Proof of my being at Vandy:

Yep. 

Nashville and thoughts on cities

I went to Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday with my friend Ann and saw a lovely art show at Vanderbuilt by Xiao Xin Lu. It w

as a series of monoprints that had been drawn back on, sometimes  collaged, sown back in, anything that you could name. She had a very lovely control of mixed media. 

It was fantastic and has inspired me to try more things with my own printmaking, and maybe stray from the edition-able print. I know that i'm not a 'printmaker', I know I'm a drawer/printmaker who is influenced by form of printmaking. I am really excited about trying to explore this direction that my artistic vision wants to take. I've been thinking about it a long time, b

ut it wasn't until I saw Xiao Xin Lu's show that I realized how beautifully mixed media informed by the printmaking process could work. 

I just need to find a way to make it work well for me.

...and I'm pretty excited. 

Ann and I talked about how sometimes unexpected things are the best.  For example: not expecting a birthday present and getting one makes it so much better than if you were expecting something, no matter really what the gift was. 

I can't remember how it came up, but it made me think of

 New York. Which brings us to my second 'things I just like looking at' 

 

This photo was taken in Chinatown when I was in New York a few weeks ago. It's not just Chinatown that I visually enjoy, even tho I picked this photo for this topic

 (because of the colors and is one of my more favorite pictures I took on my New York trip). It's the hustle of cities that I like and am kind of uncomfortable with. You can be around so many people and be totally alone, and there is some appeal in that to me. At the sam

e time I really love random happenings you'll find more often in city places, which brings me back to my talk with Ann about unexpected things. While I was in New York one of my favorite experiences was getting off a subway with a friend and seeing some people breakdancing one direction, and a guy who played a mean guitar/foot drums (He was playing Tom Petty's 'You got Lucky', actually. I remember because I really like that song.) in another. All while lots of people are streaming around me going about their business. 

There was just something just visually great about it. (While leaving Grand Central Station we saw a squash tourney, too. This was not as visually awesome or moving etc., but was pretty out of the blue and cool too.) 

Maybe it was because I'm sheltered and just didn't expect something like that. 

I'm sure if I lived there, those kind of thing would quickly become old hat to me.

but just that the experience of all these people going about their own lives all around me and how I got to experience some things they enjoyed doing (playing music, dancing, playing squash) filled me with a wonder and a calm for the people who are around me. 

I think I like cities for the same reason I like living in the dorm. It's comforting to be around people, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't like them. I'm not a huge people person, and will openly admit to really not liking most people I've met in my life, but the fact they are around going on with their lives and having their own adventures and stories around me that I  will never know fills me with warm fuzzies in my stomach. It's just full of so much potential. 

This is what my life has come to.

This message appeared to us out from the night.
The Gold Star Chili sign holds many secrets to the universe.
This is what my life has come to.

Louisville TMBG Pictures.

I went to the They Might Be Giants' Concert in Louisville Kentucky recently. I took some pictures. Enjoy!

mostly, a very good day.

I'll fly away

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Birds.

I like birds.
in nature, at least.

Not as pets.

They make me feel lonely and tired.

Wherein we are defeated by a cafeteria in Indiana.

I suppose the only consolation is that we didn't stop in Gary, Indiana.

The cafeteria was a rather odd place, where we could never really figure out what the prices were. There was a 'Ginny Plate' for somewhere around five dollars, but the items were specially marked, and it was too late for our wallets when this was observed.

The only good thing to come out of the visit to Jonathon Byrd's cafeteria is that we found a fantastic flyer for an elvis impersonator.

New Beginnings or How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bus

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It is close to the new semester.
The only problem with going on a trip with your friends right before sememster starts is that seeing your friends was the only thing driving you to go back to class... and if you've already seen your friends, well. Then it is just class.

Things I've learned (part one)
A 8+ hour bus ride is generally fruitless
where we find that the lowest form of communication is not, in fact, blogging, but pictochat on the Nintendo DS.
Because how many times can you draw fecal matter, genitalia, or animals in party hats and be amused?
It turns out to be much longer than antipated.

Sleep is a good alterative, if one wishes.
Much to the probable chagrin of my seat-mate, Amanda, I did.
And who knows what kind of snoring, muttering and drooling I subjected the poor girl to.

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