Until Jan 9, I'm basically locking myself inside the house to finish the Art Book That Will Not Die for portfolio day. And applying to 15 printmaking programs. Which on the one hand allows me to get shit done, and on the other hand is locking myself up to get shit done. A quick and inevitable recipe for crazy. Crazy with scalpels. I am reaching three pots of coffee a day, tearing my hair out OHGODHUMANCONTACTPLZ levels of nuts. I am introverted, it's true, but I've started talking to my paintbox. That just can't be good.

Tomorrow I have job interviews and checkups and a trip to the art store to get more brush cleaner and titanium white, but after that? Back to a locked gate. *climbs walls* I WILL get this done. Even If I start naming my paintbrushes and inventing soapworthy drama for them.

Totally awesome things:
ussenterprise gave me a snowflake! Thanks! ONTD Trek people are awesome. <3

I made cookies for the world. ILANA, BUSSING TO YOUR HOUSE IS HARD, BUT IF I SEE YOU IN THE NEXT WEEK, I HAVE A PLATE OF DELICIOUS FOR YOU. Gingersnaps, pumpkin softies and double chocolate monstrosities in numbers that made my family drool and then run into other rooms screaming GET THEM OFF THE COUNTER, OMG, I'M GOING TO *EAT THEM ALL* AND I HATE YOU SO MUCH. *cackles*

Purchased the best little black dress ever. BCBG Maxazria at a beautiful discount. It is draped and flattering it *fits* I want to wear it *everywhere* <3

In possibly the best distraction from portfolio prep ever, I'm going to Teatro Zinzani tomorrow!
First reaction: REALLY, FOR FREE, FOR SERIOUS? OMG! Followed swiftly by I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR D: Aaaaaaaaand then I had to smack myself for behaving like one of those idiots they populate yogurt and latisse adverts with. I'm tempted to go the cat glasses and feather boa route, if only because I wouldn't have to surrender major organs to my dry cleaner for services rendered. We have falsies* with rhinestones in in the costume box somewhere, when else am I going to have an excuse to wear them in public?

In other randomosity, PNCA's application totally has the best essay prompt this year, "Describe your imaginary best friend."
Actually, all of their prompts were great, but this one is giving me warm fuzzy flashbacks to my hippy dippy elementary school and making me want to draw little four panel cartoons featuring Stewart, (who eats secrets,) and Serendipity, (who loses all my pencils.)

PS. Yesterday, I purchased 150 scalpel blades, an ergonomic size 3 handle, a packet of curved surgical needles, sterile linen floss and a large rubber mat. I had it all laid out with my road map of Nevada, (annotated with contorted figures drawn in dark red ink,) when our contractor walked in. He was all D: and then tried to cover it up by being really, painfully polite and edging towards the door. I'm pretty sure at some point the babbling convinced him I was an art student and not, you know, insane, but wow. Awkward. I'M NOT A PSYCHOPATH, I'M MAKING AN ART BOOK, OKAY? IT JUST LOOKS LIKE I'M PLANNING HORRIBLE MUTILATION IN MY LIVING ROOM. All these sharp and pointy instruments? Totally for cutting and sewing paper. I am torn between laughing like a crazy person and making explanatory placards. Sometimes, life is bizarrely like a Sedaris story.

*Edit: False eyelashes motherfuckers. VERY FUNNY MAJ. The day I need silicone inserts is the day bodyswap enters the realm of science. Though I'll totally own to finding the thought of bedazzled fake breasts hilarious.

Everything looks pretty challenging/amazing, so far. Bone and musculature intensive (where you build the body from the bones out using plasticine clay, SO FUN,) a figure painting course, a color and composition lecture section and a really intense class on the history of art in Rome. (I am backwards woman! Travel to Rome! Spend all your time in museums! *Then* learn what the hell you were looking at. *facepalms*)

Somewhere in there I've got three print projects to wrap up, daily lap swims and experimental cookery. Life is pretty cool.

For folks that need to know, my schedule runs like ( this. )

( Notes )

( Pattern )

Have fun!

In an effort to post instead of just making things and giving them away frantically, Things That I Am Working On!

Trek patterned scarf for the lovely Katie:


And because no two art projects are unrelated, today's doodle:


Tiny!Spock is never not fun to draw. <3

SO. THE MIDDLEMAN FOLKS DID A FULL READ-THROUGH OF THE UNMADE FINALE AND IT IS FREAKING FABULOUS. YOU ALL SHOULD YOUTUBE IT, RIGHT NOW. UNLESS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE SERIES, IN WHICH CASE, *DAMN*, ARE YOU IN FOR SOME AWESOME, GET AHOLD OF THE PILOT AND GET CRACKING. I AM SO CHOKED WITH GLEE I CANNOT RELEASE THE SHIFT KEY. GODDAMN.

PS. Most, but not all of it can be found here.

ONTD TREK MEETUP WAS AWESOME.
More photos, fanart, recipe for nerdiest cookies ever later. Fans are such lovely people.
Now I sleep. *flops*



PS. I can't find my snorkle and I leave for Mexico on Tuesday- diving without a mask kind of defeats the purpose. Did I lend it to anybody? It's cerulean colored with a clear seal. :D

This Saturday, beginning at 2pm, there will be a hair pampering/movie watching/chocolate drenched unvalentines shindig at my place!

We are using black cat red cat bridal Jamila henna, and it's excellent stuff! Katie has been kind enough to purchase it ahead of time, and all she wants is for the rest of us to bring auxiliary supplies. We should totally shower her in kittens. And, you know, supplies.

If you would like a henna/cassia rinse and have not claimed an item, we still need:
One box clear gelatin, one box heavy duty saranwrap
One container each of powdered paprika and cardamom
One tarp and one bag of cotton balls (better still is the chunky string of cotton batting they sell at most beauty shops for hair dyeing. Sally's, for instance, had the stuff we used at my 21st.)

The following people have claimed ingredients and are good to go:
oui_je_danse (Merlot, assorted spices.)
4ti3k4t35 (Henna, lemon juice.)
itsychick (Gloves, merlot, assorted spices.)

Blatant repost:

Unless you're buying organic fair trade gold encrusted pope blessed supplies, it shouldn't cost more than ten bucks. :) If you'd like our seamstresses to whip you up an expendable yukata to flounce in while the henna stews, you also need to bring two sheets. (at least one large enough to fold in half and cover you neck to ankles and wrist to wrist.)

There'll be hair dying, hair dusting, nerdy movies and dinner. People bringing spices and liquids need to be there at 2 so we can get the henna stewing.

PS. CAN SOMEONE POINT JESSE THIS WAY, PLEASE? I'M NEVER ONLINE WHEN SHE IS, AND I DOUBT SHE'LL SEE THIS OTHERWISE.


See you soon!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, aesc and beadattitude wrote an adorable Atlantis/Pygmalion fusion. Greek myths make me a happy bunny, so I did some sketching and then, er, let it sink to the bottom of my to-do stack like a stone. Today, it emerges from the depths! So to speak.

Warning for the modest, John has no fig-leaf!


( On to the art! )

Mostly harvested from the wreckage of a dear, dear, coral/hand carved Japanese ornament choker I made in high school. New additions are beads from shopping at the flea market in Italy with the inestimable pick_up_styx, and chunky black coral from a touristy shark necklace in my junk drawer.

( Picture! )

For the moment it's just threaded on waxed string, when I'm done messing with it I'll put it on higher tensile flex wire. Should have bought more turquoise while abroad! Even at the then-killer exchange rate it was gorgeously cheap. (This 1/4 palm size piece was 1.5 euro. Three. Bucks. *drools*)

PS. This is kind of hilarious. ♥

Practically nobody here watches Merlin, but you should, because it's ridiculously campy and adorable. A fun mix of candyfloss, subtext and fairytale. For a bonus, there are chicks with swords and cute boys.

Also adorable? greensilver's genderbent fic A Step To The Left. Chick Merlin done with a good dose of humor and not a hint of sue. It sparked some doodling, and the results are ( here )

:)

PS. STITCH AND BITCH HAS MOVED LOCATIONS. So if you're planning to show and oui_je_danse or I have not gotten to you, drop us a line and we'll give you the new directions!

Writing my very first grant application.
Which is driving me ever so slightly mad.
I can throw down a budget and a page of project specs like nobody's business, I've helped choose grants before so I've got some idea of how to put it together, but wow. I am an extremely junior artist who has only ever been published twice and won a single very minor award. I have a great idea and some wonderful people to work with but I'm very, very inexperienced and it's kind of heartbreaking to know you can plan down to the last grain of sand, put months into your work samples, and sacrifice your very best goat, and chances are it still won't ever see funding.

Cross your fingers, folks. And hope the state of Washington feels generous.

Okay, to anyone I missed, Stitch and Bitch is THIS SATURDAY AT THREE. I will make cranberry coffee cake and something with veg/protein that can be served over rice. (Curry? Stir fry? Only sparse weekend groceries will tell!) We have Sarah to heckle for tales of her travels, and a choice of: The Princess Bride, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Transformers, Singing in the Rain, The Emperor's New Groove, Mulan, Stardust, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Mummy, Harry Potter, Juno, Constantine, any Indiana Jones film and whatever floats home from the rental shop in the next day or so. Or, we could sit around and gossip while I sew chicken feathers to book cloth. Choose your poison, bitches.

In other awesome news, Ilana hosted a fun new year's bash in which we all played amusing party games and while daddy dearest watched in extreme apathy from the Barnes' corner chair. Bad dad, no champagne for you. Three cheers for irritating party poppers and ridiculous games!

PS. FINALLY got my vacation photos! Will link as soon as uploaded. Spain was pretty. Italy was prettier, but I did not have a camera. :(

In one of those weird family logic things, we delayed Christmas dinner until tonight. (I think the reasoning was something like 'Then Aunty K can come! But Aunty K is crazy! If Aunty K comes she will shriek at us about her past lives and have fits of rabid hypochondria and revisionist history all over the living room. What's that, Aunty K is deathly afraid of traveling in snow? Excellent. Let's put off holiday dinner anyway. Who's for Indian take out?') Tonight, we did the turkey and cranberries thing with family, friends of parents and the inestimable 4ti3k4t35. After, her dad drove his ENORMOUS TRUCK through the snow so we could look for sale prices on a PS3, (4ti3k4t35,) and a bag of black chicken feathers, (me. Don't ask.)
We ended up getting egg shapers. *coughs* Our shopping-fu is weak, but we had fun, and are full of glorious amounts of spicy turkey and pie. <3

My favorite things this year: A little Nikon camera! My old school B&W monstrosity is archaic enough that when I take it to the arboretum, the other photographers go 'Oh WOW, I haven't seen those since I was covering politics in the late 70's!' ...as I struggle with the trunk it's lenses live in. Now I don't have to fuss with film OR lenses! Or even settings, if I'm feeling lazy and ambivalent. This probably makes me a bad photographer, but I'm so grateful not to have to blow money on film it's not even funny. It is blue and shiny and I have named it Zack. ♥
Also, an A&C card I'm totally planning to blow on print supplies. For now, it's kind of nice just to set it on the night stand and moon at it. It's so orange! And powerful! AND TINY.

Got to my email after days of radio silence, and holy crap, someone nominated And I Have Known for the McShep awards! Thank you so much! I'm embarrassingly excited by this. <3

I finally got InDesign to bend to my will, dug out my old master pages and am zooming along. Good thing too, because 4ti3k4t35 requested a Mascotverse compendium.
Do you know how prolific Coyo is? That woman is a library in and of herself. The sucker is six hundred pages long. I'm two thirds of the way through formatting it and I'm pretty sure I've consumed all the coffee in the house. (We buy in other countries and then keep it in crates in the freezer until we need to grind more beans. I have emptied the freezer, people.) On the bright side, found a ream of lovely cream colored linen paper to print it on. On the slightly less bright side, I'm out of PVA glue and we're buried in snow, so I'll be binding it with wheat paste. KATIE, IF YOU EVER GET THIS THING WET, IT'S GOING TO GROW FUR AND POSSIBLY ALSO LIMBS. RIGHT BEFORE IT DISSOLVES INTO CREAM OF WHEAT. DO. NOT. TAKE IT TO THE BATH. It will eat your face

PS. Drawing chocobos is wicked fun. Heee.

PPS. My favorite printshop on capitol hill says they'll run it for me for 30$, on paper even better than the stuff I've got, and ignore the fact that it's fannish porn. SEATTLE IS FULL OF AWESOME PEOPLE.

You know, setting lead type is time consuming as fuck, but at least with physical presses there isn't some arbitrary software designer that waltzes in, makes my furniture look like bath ducks and hides it in the teapot, just to screw with my head.

In short: With the jump to InDesign CS4, exactly enough changes were made that all my lovely education is useless. I'm going to have to put together each page, letter by letter, and then smash the printer with a stick until it spits out proper signatures. You should all receive your Christmas gifts in approximately a century. *facepalms* My print prof once told me that this was a pursuit for the masochistic and the OCD. She really wasn't kidding.

On the bright side, there was a sale on acid free daveyboard. <3 I can now make covers for everything in the 'to finish' box, and a library besides.

Stitch and bitch is a pass this week, between the holidays and the weather, but snow and ice allowing, how does next week look for people?

Went to orientation at the Vera Project today. THEY HAVE A SILKSCREENING LAB, GUYS. WHERE I CAN DROP IN. AND SILK SCREEN. *FLAILS* I get to make concert posters and once they're sure I don't blow things up, teach/manage lab. Also, helping put on concerts! I've got something like thirty sketches and a T-shirt design for Katie and now I can actually *make things* with them. So awesome. Getting to use art to contribute to the community? A+

Also, skulked around Easy Street records and picked up some Mountain Goats, because they (he? whichever,) are awesome, and put out the Satanic Messiah EP for free and how can you not support that? =D Also, it's very difficult not to buy a CD with a song on it titled 'Lovecraft in Brooklyn'. And now, sleep, because tromping around downtown all day makes me dizzy with exhaustion.

For any Sitch and Bitch folks that I've missed: We're on for Two(ish) tomorrow. I have to run down to the arts center and do the 'HI, I'VE NEVER KILLED KITTENS, HAND TO GOD, AND ALSO, I KNOW HOW TO USE A PAINTBRUSH' paperwork beforehand, so if anyone gets here before I do I'm REALLY SORRY, and probably also on the bus.

In the food department, We have banana bread, tea, and everything for scones of awesome except, you know, cranberries. *facepalms* So, BRING NIBBLIES, or we will be forced to go grocery shopping and then 'yall will have to watch me nance about in an apron and it will be very tragic. Also, if anyone has cranberries they want to bring, I'll shower you with scones thirty minutes after you show up. <3

PS. SARAH IS MADE OF AWESOME AND REMINDED ME TO SCHEDULE THINGS. WE SHOULD SHOWER HER IN CHOCOLATE AND SMUTFIC.


PPS. Knitting with size six needles is insanely tiny. What the hell was I thinking? This scarf is made of frustration and bitterness.

Back from the black of space! *grins* This city has a lovely explosion of arts organizations and doing volunteer work for them has been fantastic. I'm leaning towards the Vera Project, when I'm done with the arts center and all the Christmas bashes. (Gage is putting on an UNBELIEVABLE Christmas drawing jam, so if any of you have even the *remotest* artistic inclination you should totally come with me. There is food and amazingness and models from Teatro Zinzani, folks. It's quite literally a circus of awesome and art.)

Also awesome? Got hired to do my first bit of design work this week. Let's hear it for getting paid to muck about in photoshop. *cheers*

HEY, ALL YOU STITCH N' BITCH GIRLS! Janine can only come if it's Tuesday. Does it work for people to move to Tuesday this time, or should we keep it on Fri/Sat and mope until next month when she can come? THOUGHTS? LOCATION IDEAS? Because we can totally keep doing this in my livingroom, but there are some nifty tea houses in town, and it might be fun to test their chairs. <3

I've just written 236 pages of abstracted Arabic calligraphy on transparent vellum, then folded the lot into signatures, tape sewn it with aqua colored silk thread and given it a clear plastic cover. In theory, this represents (in some fashion) Borges' Book of Sand. Final project is FINITO.

I'ma sleep now, and then drink a loooooooooooot of coffee so I'll be awake when Katie gets here tomorrow today later.

Later, when the labs are open and I can get to ze scanner, doodles of a robot ballerina, an Agrop and Iroh and Teyla having tea. Because abstracted calligraphy is only fun for the first ten pages.