Sunday, August 31, 2008

I'm Sorry, What Was That?


Despite all odds, I made it through the third week of my post-summer/pre-fall break. Upon my return, I spent the majority of this past week getting re-acclimated to the left coast, and attempting to suppress the relentless urge to run outside with a magnifying glass, three gallons of lemon-scented Palmolive and a handful of hard-bristle toothbrushes to clean every crack and crevice of the sidewalk in front of my house in an attempt to cure my unholy plague of boredom. But, as the days gracefully fluttered by, I did find myself engaged in more productive activities, such as acquiring the tools necessary to complete my fall classes. And my train ride home on Thursday afternoon proved interesting when, by the magic powers of coincidence, I, dressed in a white tee shirt, found myself surrounded by ten to fifteen other young gents, all white, all wearing white tee shirts. After shaking all feelings of befuddlement and doubt, I became awe-struck by this profound moment of cosmic and/or divine intervention, believing it a tale to be etched in the stone tablet of history, a parable to be told for ages to come. And while I may have been the only one completely in tune with this occurrence at the time, I'm sure the others involved felt it on an subconscious level, and I have thus declared our special group as the "Pasty White Guys In Pasty White Tee Shirts," or P.W.G.I.P.W.T.S, for short. Our spiritual group swiftly disbanded, however, upon the entrance of a linebacker-sized she-male in a yellow dress...

The week ended on a distorted, ear-piercing high note when I got to see southern-swamp-sludge-metal legends Weedeater in concert at the Elbo Room, a mere forty-five minute hammertoe-inducing trek from my house. The show was awesome and I left with the inability to hear several different frequencies. I also managed to produce a little art work this week, specifically the white tiger below which served as an early birthday present for my sister. Below that, I have included two sketches from my Dad's jury trial which took place during my Virginia trip (he was the defense attorney, not the plantiff) and a sketch from my many wanderings through Golden Gate Park.




Saturday, August 23, 2008

Virginia, I Dream Of Thee


I got to spend a week of my break in the grand ol' state of Virginia, in which I exchanged fog for sunshine, green tea for sweet tea, public transportation for hot rods and bikes and "spare some change?" for "how ya'll doin' today?" Despite my greatest intentions, I did very little art during this time, so I hereby saturate this post with various photographs which depict views of the farm and surrounding landscape of the Shenandoah Valley, members of the family, and of course, myself.









Thursday, August 14, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008

It's Dead, Jim


Yes indeed, my belt grows larger with the completion of my first semester of Gradjit Skeeyewuhl. Seems like not that long ago I was scrambling to buy art materials, sweating bullets about the quality of my homework and dining on meals of overpriced oatmeal...and with that said, nothing much has changed from two months ago. Although this may call for good praises and hearty cheers, I shall use the next few weeks of my break for meditative reflection, as well as preparation for the imminent battle with the demonic manifestation that calls itself the Fall Semester. However, since all work and no play leads to double vision, diminished motor skills and slurred speech, I plan to spend some quality recreational time by counting the hairs on top of my feet, whistling along to the Mexican hat dance tune that's been in my head for the last three weeks, and ripping into my new novel, "Levitation Made Easy."

The first image below is my final project for the figure studio class-two master copies of works by Pierre Prud'hon. I dare not juxtapose these next to their originals, as I wish to maintain some level of technical credibility. These are accompanied by my last two in-class sessions with the live model. I must say, that even though my final project wasn't deemed "Case" worthy, as was my Jack Nicholson portrait, I (humbly) noticed a considerable difference in the advancement of my technical abilities from the beginning of the semester, and am ultimately pleased with my experience of both the figure studio and art history classes.




Saturday, August 2, 2008

Post Modern Love Juice


If you're feeling a bit hindered by your Modern lifestyle in which your daily actions and dialogue are represented not by the actual things you say and do, but rather the underlying and inescapable theory with which they are executed, then perhaps you need to take a stroll into the world of the Post Modern, by way of the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Once inside, perhaps you can fulfill your desire for a culturally divided, theoretically absent state of mind for which you can indulge in a plethora of consumerism-influenced, asymmetrical structures that hold no significant historical narrative, but instead speak of a culture divided into subcultures being driven by the need for commodity as a result of aggressive commercial capitalism...Or, you can stand out in front of the museum wearing torn up gym clothes, lean on the way cool sphinxes, and give the numerous slow-walking Dutch tourists the ol' six-gun point-and-wink as they walk by.