Last night I learned that it is impossible to play Jenga without making intense faces.

KevButt, Le roomie.

Posted with Blogsy

Bookmaking begins!

 I started my first assignment for bookmaking last night! For homework, we are supposed to prepare our cover with hinge so that we can start with Japanese Stab Binding next class. This is a class I've been waiting for since being a wee freshman, and it is the absolute last class for a photo major to take. Needless to say, I'm raring to go!

got all my fancy new tools laid out

bone folding champ

kitty helps by hanging out on laundry

corners clamped to set up over night

There will most definitely be tons of bookmaking posts/pictures from this semester.

Recap of the awesome in my week.

We changed the exhibit at Space 301:

Sticker removal squad!

That meant a billion stickers had to come down. Yeah, a billion!

I ordered 2 new pair of awesome tights!

And Gunner, as usual, was ridiculously adorable:

C'est fin!

Posted with Blogsy

Daddio

Winter break has been beyond lovely. I've been trying to visit with family as much as I can before I get back into obsessive student mode. Tonight I hung out with my dad.

He picked up tacos, and we just hung around drinking wine and cracking up over old memories. I take the beautiful drive across the bay every other week or so to have dinner and catch up with daddio, and I feel like a lucky duck to have such an epically bearded and big hearted father.

Posted with Blogsy

 A mishmash of photos from this week:

I made some awesome origami at Space 301's Friday night craft party.

We made inkblots to inspire our next glass project. Mine reminded me of a female reproductive system!

I found this random spiral thing on my screen door.

I've been knotting my clothes a lot recently.

I discovered the Harriscamera app. Uh, hello awesome!

And last, but certainly not least, a sleepy Gunner.

Posted with Blogsy

This week we experimented with cyanotypes! Cyanotypes are a photo printing process that gives a an awesome cyan blue print and an awesome tonal range. It's a contact printing process, so I used one of my ink jet negatives from last semester to experiment.

First, I coated my paper with a mixture of Ferric Ammonium Citrate and Potasium Ferricyanide.

Then, I place the negative on the coated paper, put glass on top to keep it flat, and then slide it in the light box for exposure!

It turns this odd color before you rinse the chemicals off.

After you rinse it with water until all the yellow comes out, you put it in another water bath with a cap full of hydrogen peroxide to oxidize it!

The end result is a beautiful dark blue.

Derp, safety first.

I'm overall happy with my first cyanotype experience! Now that my class is comfortable with the cyanotype process, we are starting on our next project, which is a series of 5 cyanotype images with a conceptual theme. Instead of using an inkjet negative like this time, we are shooting 35mm black and white film and creating ortholitho negatives from those images. Now, that's going to be an adventure.

Posted with Blogsy

Oh, happy Friday! This week has flown by. Hurricane Isaac made a brief and uneventful visit to Mobile, and I got to enjoy 2 days off of school. But now it's back to the grind, back to projects galore!
I finally finished cutting the glass for my murrine project.

Murrines are made by stacking layers of glass together and then melting them. After they are fused, we will cut them like sausages and the small rectangular pieces will show the pattern inside!

I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like! They looked so fun and colorful lined up in the kiln.

These babies are just begging to be fired!

Posted with Blogsy

I got to hang out with one of my favorite contemporary artists this summer, so there's that! Alison Saar has an amazing installation at Space 301. This is us in front of her massive piece!

Summer lovin'

This summer has been absolutely fantabulous! I spent a few weeks teaching art camps at Space 301, and it was a total blast.

The first week I assisted with Paper Mache and Cardboard Camp, and we started off by making sea creatures. I had forgotten how much fun strips of paper and glue could be, and how unbelievably messy! I went home with glue crunched hair for a while.

I made a jellyfish using a wire bird's nest I made for another project.

We made pinatas, and had all kinds of dangerous fun busting them open.

We had fun with cardboard, too!

The next week I taught a photo and collage camp! We created collages, made sun prints, did gel medium transfers and modified disposable cameras.

And last but not least, April, Brennan, and I taught Stop Motion animation camp, and it was such an adventure! It was a learn as you go experience, but everyone was so excited to see their short films at the end of the week! We screened them in the auditorium and invited all the parents to come, and the kids were as proud as can be of their hard work. They were all VERY short, so we combined all of the groups, 7 total, into one video per day. They last about 5 to 7 minutes each and are adorable and incredibly creative! Kids come up with the craziest ideas, and it was such a treat to see their imaginations hard at work.

The first day was whiteboard animation:

Whiteboard Day 1 from CLA Mobile on Vimeo.

The second was pipe cleaner animation:

Pipe Cleaners Day 2 from CLA Mobile on Vimeo.

For the last 2 days, we worked with clay and spent a while creating backgrounds:

Clay Day 3 from CLA Mobile on Vimeo.

This summer has been art-tastic! I love my life.