I don't remember from what patch of thin air I pulled this obsession, but I've had it for a while now. It's kind of waned over the years but it's still there. I am obsessed with spies. But like I said, I wouldn't really call it an obsession anymore at this point in my life.
It may have started with the fact that I'm the little sister. I used to really enjoy spying on my older sister, whatever she did. I think I also enjoyed getting her in trouble, but what little sister/brother doesn't enjoy that? My cousin, Lauren, joined me in my obsession and we started to pretend we were spies any time we were together. Sometimes we even roped her dad into playing along with us. We went on covert 'missions' and had meetings with other spies who were, in reality, non-existent.
In middle school I happened upon this really awesome subscription in the monthly scholastic catalogs. Each month they would send you new gadgets and a book about being a spy. The starter kit would have been enough for me, but my mom kept the subscription up so I got something new every month. Things got serious then, especially when my cousin started to get the subscription too. Every outing was a mission.
This is basically what my starter kit looked like.
We started our own spy organization then. We came up with the ridiculous name "Federal Agent Bureau," which we frequently shortened to FAB. When I say we were serious, I'm not even joking. We had an FAB file book, which was essentially a handful of notebook paper in a binder. It had at least five different files, including lists of agents, mission logs, and meeting logs. We were the only two 'real' agents, but we pretended there were a lot of us. We really did have meetings, too, and an oath you had to take to be an agent. When we were apart we would send each other coded letters, or letters written in invisible ink. We even had matching uniforms we had scrounged up.
Over the years our interest in being spies waned, but I still had a thing for it. When Kim Possible was around I loved her. I drew her, and variations of her, almost constantly, but I grew out of that eventually too. In those gap years of high school I still kept the dream alive by writing spy stories, even though I didn't have any inspiration to look to. I mean, there were a few bright spots, like National Treasure. I totally knew they were looking at an 'Ottendorf'' cipher (book cipher) before they did.
Until Burn Notice came out. Here was a niche I could finally settle into without it being an obsession. I still watch it all the time, even though I haven't always been able to keep up weekly when it's on television. Now with the availability of Netflix to me, I'm watching every episode they have up this summer.
This retired spy hasn't totally left everything behind, though. I still have all of my gadgets and books in an old messenger bag up in my closet at home, and I occasionally take them down to look through my past. I also still have our file book. I will probably always keep them so when I'm a hundred years old and sitting in my rocking chair I can reminisce.
I've never been able to make myself like James Bond though. It's great to get this secret past off my chest guys.
Sometimes I just really want to pull my hair out when it comes to movies nowadays. Here have some homemade pie:
This rant comes after I discovered that Disney is releasing a fifth 'installment' of Pirates of the Caribbean. Perhaps they felt like they hadn't been confusing enough in their last one? I'm really not surprised at this development though, given Disney's current reputation for horrible movies. I'm not saying all of them are horrible, I'm just saying that most of them probably make Walt turn over in his grave. He's made it nice and roomy by now. And then just think what they're going to turn Star Wars into...
The last good movie I've seen from Disney was Brave. I've heard people say that Merida just runs around and does nothing and gets nothing done, but at least she's not running around with some random guy. I was just finally happy to see a Disney princess who didn't need a guy.
Disney's partnership with Pixar is one of their only bright spots. I've seriously never seen a Pixar film I didn't like. Their relationship has been a bit rocky in the past, though...something about Disney being greedy I think (I hope you caught the sarcasm).
You know, when I was little I would have given anything to work for Disney. I seriously wanted to be an animator. That dream died a long time ago. Today, I have absolutely no desire to work for Disney. None. I'd rather tell my own stories, like this one:
Yay! It's my book!
The story is based on a dream I had which I'm currently turning into a short story. It involves time travel, memory loss, and paradoxes. I started out wanting it to flow smoothly and transition from frame to frame in a very understood way, but as I went through the process of planning it out I began to fragment the story, purposely not giving any one narrative or meaning, giving it a dream-like quality. I want people to interpret this the way they see it, I them to come away with their own interpretation of the story. I've begun to understand that in order to make my art more accessible I should pull back and not make things so firm and planned and set in stone as I usually do. In no way do I see this as a sacrifice, though, I see it as growth as an artist. I'm more proud of myself for that than for doing all the work on this book. However, because of time constraints I had to cut out the last four pages, but I intend to finished them and add them in this summer.
Now that we're done with our personal growth session, more pictures!
From the back.
From the front.
When you put a light source behind the book you get to see the hidden phrases in the pages (the writing isn't actually on the drawing, it's behind it). These are my three favorite pages where the writing worked especially well with the image.
The cover took a lot of work too, but I really love the way it turned out. The only thing I'm not sure about are the comments from my classmates that it kind of looks like a giant ice-cream sandwich. Do you see that? The fabric is a discontinued sample I got for a dollar at Joann's (win!), and the metal piece was something I found on the sidewalk one day when Caroline and I missed our bus stop and walked back to the apartment from the next one. I really pleased at how successfully this came out and I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the future.
Guess what else? I finished repainting my ukulele! Now begins the horrendous period where I have to tune it every five seconds until the strings get back into their comfort zone.
Awesome accents, right? They're actually more aqua/turquoise but the lighting made it look blue. But I know what you guys are really waiting for...
BAM!
I think I love this back soooooooo much more than the first one. I'll be keeping this design for a while. And a special thanks to my lamp:
This little guy helps me out with lighting since the lighting here in the apartment is really stinky. If this guy died, I'd be so sad.
Okay, it's summer guys. The semester is finally over and I survived my first year at FSU! So what's next? Adventures galore! Tallahassee has really overwhelmed me with a lack of possibilities, or maybe it's underwhelmed me with possibilities...I don't know, I just know I need a break from this place. Today is my last day here for the summer. Tomorrow I'm going to Panama City! I'm staying there for the whole summer to work and have fun and work and hang out with family and friends and work and go to a wedding and work. Did I mention I'm going to be working? Not just at a job, but also on my artwork. I have a painting to work on and I'm going to start another book too. I'm beyond excited! Let the adventure begin!
I was recently going through some of my old writing when I found this lovely poem:
One of Those
I have dreams like fire and thoughts like rain.
They came from the boy in the green shirt.
I guess he did something nice for me, but I don’t remember.
I’ve run after him my whole life.
I’ve never found him.
I guess I’m looking in the wrong place.
I think about him all the time.
Thank-you green shirt boy.
Your limey, grassy, delicious color makes me happy.
I don’t even know what your face looks like.
I never see faces there.
Maybe they’re not important.
I want to know who you are.
Why do you always wear that color?
Where do you read comedic novels and drink cheap hot tea?
I think what you do is glorious.
Nothing I do is glorious.
Maybe one day it will be.
I wrote it about a dream I had of chasing a boy in a green shirt all over a college campus. Apparently I started planning a story for it too, but I totally forgot about it. I really enjoy a lot of my dreams and I wish I could remember more of them. They would probably give me so much material for my stories. Of the few I do remember several of them have turned into stories.
One of them went from dream to story to illustrated book project. It's the capstone project I'm finishing up for my experimental drawing class. I've never taken on something so ambitious, but Caroline says that if I can do this then I can illustrate books for a living. Excuse me while I search for a monster that eats procrastination.
I remember a period during my public school days when my sister became obsessed with dreams. I think it must have been some sort of psychology class she was taking, but she started to write down her dreams. I thought I had strange dreams until I read hers. I wish I still had what she wrote because all I can remember is something about a house with a bunch of rooms and a guy at a piano that had a tie that was as big as his head. Am I the only one who sees a potential story in that?
There are other dreams I've had that I wish would go away and never come back, like the recurring dreams I have where I get into situations that cause me to fall from great heights. It never fails that I have one of those at least once a month, but when I was younger I had them waaaaaaay more often. I'd say it probably has to do with my fifth grade teacher leaving the TV on while people jumped from the twin towers on 9/11. That's totally appropriate for ten-year-olds. There went my innocence.
But enough morbidity! I'm also currently working on another ukulele makeover during my breaks from studying for my Spanish exam and working on my book. So next week you guys get to see the results of the ukulele makeover AND my illustrated book.
I'll leave you now with my photoshop projects from my digital foundations class:
First thing we had to do was repair an old picture of this scary-looking woman.
Then we had to make "Frankenstein" creatures out of a bunch of different things...so behold, Unicorn and Peacock!
The last thing we had to do was take an old photograph and alter it, then give it a back story. I got this woman standing in the grass. She's a pig herder: regular pigs, pot belly pigs, car-sized guinea pigs, you name it. But she got really bored so she started experimenting and created a literal guinea pig. Now she has to carry that shepherd's crook to fend her freakish new creature off, because it loves her just a little too much.
Also, the woman totally looks like a Mori girl. It's turning out to be a good Friday.
Semester's end is always a pretty crazy time in my life, and this semester is no exception. Even as I sit here I'm recovering from some really annoying back pain because of the car accident I was in yesterday. But don't worry, I'm not dying, I'm not hospitalized, I'm not even bruised. I really only got rear-ended, but that doesn't mean it was fun. So what do I get for waiting patiently at a red light? I get a van in my bumper and back pain. But even so, it sucks more for him than it does for me:
A) He was cited for reckless driving
B) He was in a company vehicle
C) He gets to be chewed out by his boss and I don't
In other news, I only have one more week of school left, plus an exam the following Monday. YAY! However, I will be furiously working on my final project for experimental drawing this weekend, as well as doing ridiculous busy work for my foundation classes. These foundation classes are a joke, but at least I got to have an awesome professor like Kevin.
After our final exam Caroline and I might have a sleep-in-the-living-room-and-watch-movies party. Then we're going to have Apartment Cleaning Day, which I'm actually looking forward to. After that, the adventure begins!
So what does my summer look like? Well, kind of like this:
Panama City
Swimming! (and drawing)
And this guy, my nephew! Yep, it's a boy!
This week has been crazy you guys, and I'm not talking about my life anymore. Everything in the news this week has just made me really sad. So I try to take comfort from the words I gave to my nephew a few weeks ago, "Don't despair about life in this world,
baby. It's a lot better than some people make it out to be." A lot of people would ask me how I can still say that after everything that's happened this week. I can say it because I have a purpose, because I've been blessed with family and friends who love me (and who I love to death!), and because I saw a guy try to give up his seat on the bus for a girl the other day. I can say it because I have reached out and taken hold of the hope God has held out, and I hang onto it with everything I have.
So I'll leave you with this, "You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts." It's something Uncle Iroh from Avatar said, but even though it's a cartoon it still resonates.
I'm not going to surrender. Will you?
I love adventures, and this week I've had a lot. Last Friday was First Friday, a crazy night at Railroad Square dedicated to crazy art. I've been there before, but last week I also went to the Art Alleys and helped man the doodle cart. It was funtastic! Then on Wednesday I went over to my new friend Lauren's apartment and played with her kittens. They were irresistible! I love kitties. But tonight, tonight was the best.
Tonight, Caroline and I went to the BFA Studio Art Grad Show Reception. Holy smokes, Batman! It was reeeeeeeeeeeally interesting. I had a lot of fun.
When we got there there were already a good amount of people there, and they had food! Caroline and I sniffed out where it was and found cheese and grapes and crackers and chocolate waiting for us. There was punch too, but it could have used some sprucing up with sherbert.
When we first came in we were greeted by a cordoned off space where unicorns were supposed to be dancing later. Yeah.
Then it was on to a performance! We waited for it to start for a long time, and at one point someone who worked there was so bothered by people getting so close to some paintings that he ended up putting velvet ropes in front of them. Superhero.
It was really packed in so Caroline and I stood behind all the people sitting on the floor. We had to squeeze in between people, but we got a pretty good view. The performance was nice, but really strange. I got the vibe that the dancing girls took something from the dancing guy, and then he kind of died. And he was wearing a dress. I would have taken pictures of that, but I was to fixated on the strangeness. For the first five minutes the guy next to me decided that he wanted to dance. The rest of the time he alternated between leaning in front of me, making faces at a little girl, and sitting on the floor. He was annoying.
After the performance we walked around the gallery. There were these really huge paintings that reminded me a lot of Mark Rothko's work, which I don't like. I wasn't really impressed by them, but I kind of liked this one. It was the busiest one.
And then there was this really awesome wall of paintings.
Then we went downstairs. This piece is made out of clay, which I didn't notice at first.
And these were on the wall opposite. Hey, there's Caroline!
This one was one of my favorites. They're magical empty tea bags!
I don't know what this thing sitting in the middle of the room was, but it kept reminding me of a beaver dam.
I didn't notice until after I uploaded the picture that the dam totally looks photoshopped.
Then I Caroline took my picture under this strange thing. We were art tourists.
These were really awesome. They reminded me of the circle stories Caroline and I write.
Ceramic paint tube girl. I would make a joke about mixed media, but I don't think it would be funny.
Caroline in a mask. I asked her to do it just so I could take a picture.
At this point, I thought the dance at the beginning was the strangest part of the night. I was wrong. When we went back upstairs the unicorns were in full swing. They were partying in their own little world. At one point we heard one of them say, "There's an entire world out there, you know?" There was also a unicorn confessional. When we got really close it just sounded like the unicorn priest was talking out of his butt. This was the best picture I got of that.
We watched the crazy unicorns dancing for a while and then we were going to leave, but we ran into my new friend Lauren. She told us that we could actually go INTO the unicorn room! I was really reluctant, but we went anyways. It was crazy! The unicorn DJ had an awesome moustache that he kept twirling. At one point one of the unicorns came up to us and said, "She has cats, she has cats, I know it. You gotta be careful," as he proceeded to rub our shoulders with a lint roller. I couldn't stop laughing!
Outside of the unicorn party.
Inside of the unicorn party.
After we finally left the unicorn party we saw the lint roller unicorn again with another unicorn who proceeded to stick the lint roller down the crotch of her pants so he couldn't get it. That was when we knew it was time to go back to the apartment.
Caroline is going to be talking about the unicorns for the next month.
Circle stories are magical.
Since I was first introduced to these lovely writing "exercises" back in high school I've come to know them as something really special. It all started in Mr. Lang's creative writing class. The basic gist is, you write furiously for a short amount of time then, when time is up you have to stop wherever you are, even if you're mid-sentence. Then, you pass it on to the next person and they continue in the same fashion. It goes on like this until the story comes back to the original author. What you're left with is a fantastical piece of collaborative fiction.
Circle stories are also called round-robin stories, or just round robins. These kinds of novels came around in the 19th century, so in the world of fiction they're still adolescents I guess.
It didn't occur to me until almost a year after I graduated high school that this kind of thing could be done with just two people. I could never have anticipated what amazing things would come of that singular thought. So, who else would I approach with this but Caroline? And of course, she thought it was definitely an idea worth trying. We made our own rules...well, rule: write a paragraph and send it via e-mail. We didn't have to write for an allotted time or stop in the middle of a sentence, but we had to keep the story going for ten paragraphs.
It was a success! We both loved doing it, and the story, strange as it was, was totally amazing. Since then, we've completed six stories, and we're on number seven right now. And, after the first one we stopped limiting ourselves to ten paragraphs. Instead, we ended where the story felt right to end. Our first story was 5,500 words. Our last one, number 6, was 12,111 words. Collectively, we've written enough words to win NaNoWriMo. And all of these stories are basically about the same group of people. We plan on illustrating them and getting them published one day. No autographs, please.
And during all of this, I told another friend about what Caroline and I were doing, and he wanted to do it too! He had been in the same creative writing class, so he knew about the awesomeness. So then I started writing circle stories with him. Although they have a completely different tone than my stories with Caroline I still love writing them just as much. We're currently on our second story, but our first one was 19,035 words, so you can understand why it took so long (plus, there may have been some procrastination lurking about in there).
And then Caroline started writing a circle story with one of her friends. She didn't like writing with that person so she stopped, but for a few months we felt like it would be really awesome if we started a circle-story-writing trend. It never did catch on, but I'm glad it didn't, and, looking back, I wouldn't want it to. I like it being something that makes me different from other people. It's something that I have that I hide like treasure and take it out to smile at it like I see silly people smile at their phones on the bus.
If you want to try it go ahead. It will make your life so much better (but only if there are goats and llamas in there somewhere).
Here's a moderately relevant picture of a llama:
Also, if you were wondering why my background is a wheat field, well, it's just a reference to a circle story.
Every now and then I indulge in the madness of Youtube. I can say, right now, that whoever came up with the idea for that side bar is rolling in the dough as we speak. Yep, rolling in it. All you have to do is look up a video, and then you'll see something on the side that looks interesting. Then, suddenly it's two hours later. You've been sucked in!
I fall victim to this occasionally, so I have a great collection of my favorite videos. That, my friends, is what today's post is all about!
This one is a video I got hooked onto recently from a friend I made in my digital foundations class. It's called Thought of You, and it was animated by Ryan Woodward. I posted it on facebook earlier this week, but I had to share it again. It's sooooooooo beautiful. The best way to view it is in full screen, 720p. It will blow your socks off. You won't be able to find them. Stock up on some socks before you watch it.
So, last semester I got hooked on Portlandia after Caroline told me about it. This one is a particular favorite because we watched it in one of my art classes a few weeks ago. It might be hilarious, but it's also ridiculously true....which is kind of sad I think.
I don't know why, but I got into The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which is a youtube series that started last April and ended yesterday. It's basically Pride and Prejudice in 2012, if Elizabeth had a video diary. I found it by accident one day, in January, but I caught up and for the past three months I've been watching every Monday and Thursday when the new ones came out.
How it Should Have Ended is a really good channel I stumbled across after watching one of their videos. It's basically a bunch of animated shorts of how popular movies should have ended. The first one I ever watched was How Tangled Should Have Ended.
Their Superhero Cafe shorts are good too.
The dance walking always amuses me.
And then, of course, there's Kid President. Someone should get me a shirt that says, "Not cool, Robert Frost!"
On a side note, this guy is my Spanish teacher. He can dance.
And, then, there's Cooking With Arpakasso! A stuffed alpaca who cooks and has that smooth voice should get everyone's views.
And finally, BurdFu! My friend Adam makes these hilarious videos. Watch them all...or else.
This is the newest one.
But this one is my favorite.
I'm addicted people.
