BFA:
Achieved!

GRE:
Taken!

GRAD SCHOOL:
APPLYING. help me

JOB:
Got one! Actually, two- I'm back to teaching art classes for the foundation, on top of working as a circulation clerk at a nearby village library.

SUNDRY UPDATES:

My newest obsessions include Bones and Battlestar Galactica. Seriously, why didn't anyone tell me about these before? The latter, especially? Now I'm trying to play catch-up before the season ends and someone spoils it and auuughh.

Back in July, one of my illustrations was published in an investment magazine, PlanSponsor. I haven't had anything since, but I've also not been promoting myself since moving back to Michigan. I'm hoping once the whole grad school mess is over and done, there'll be a little more time to work on promotional material and update my website. (ahaha.)

The GRE...sucked, but I managed a combined score of 1490 and 99th percentile in the vocabulary section, which was kinda cool and almost made up for my abysmal analytical writing score (which I shall not reveal here because I'd like to maintain some veneer of intelligence. Even a thin one.) Apparently, composing a cohesive and eloquent essay on a randomized topic in 45 minutes is not one of my strongest skills.

Oh, and I managed to break two toes since the last update.

...it probably says something¹, that these are the most exciting things I can think to update with after nearly a year, but there you have it.



¹_{Something like NERD.}

Because I'm bored as all-else at work right now and don't have anything to read, ( here's a random meme. )

Good GRIEF it's dead in here. Can't someone try to steal a book, or something?

Geek moment of the day: Discovering that Glenn Gould is, in fact, humming on his recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations, and that I haven't been hearing things for the past eight months.

Whew. Glad that's been cleared up.


First person to mention that I am using a Tchaik icon in a post about Bach wins a free punch to the face!

Bonjour, mes amis sur dans sur l'ordinateur! I come bearing links and art.¹

Item the first: I finally have a website (mostly) up and running, at grimmart.net. Most of my finished pieces from this semester and last are up now (including two finished just in time for the Society of Illustrators deadline,) along with some in-progress work and life drawings.

This was one of the pieces I submitted for the competition; it was initially a simple portfolio assignment that ended up eating a semester of my life. Oh, egg tempera, you fickle mistress.

I had oodles of gold leaf left over from an illumination class, and they were just begging to be used in a new painting. Sorry for the crappy scan- the vellum buckled a little more than I'd hoped, so it made for a slightly-wrinkly finish. Next time I do this,² it'll be on a gessoed wood panel.

Item the second: My children's book is progressing at...well, a moderate pace, and I'll be posting updates at eswm_progress, if you'd like to friend it. I'm still mostly in a color study and cleanup stage, but I plan to start on actual finishes sometime in the next few weeks.

I've been terrible about keeping up with friend's journals lately, so some of you may find yourself getting comments on old entries. Pay it no heed- that's just me, being a dork and playing catch-up. I still owe several people packages and letters too, but as per usual, I'm being a terrible procrastinator and haven't been able to drag myself to the post office. This week, perhaps? Perhaps.

Oh gosh, is graduation really less than four months away? Meep.


¹Also, poor French.
²AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Holy crow, someone shoot me now.

Most of my final projects and exams are this week, all due within a day of each other. I have an art history final on Tuesday to study for (with about 120 slides on the list and 6 essays,) a portfolio piece due tomorrow (or at least, nearly completed,) and two illustrations for a poetry class due Wednesday. On top of that, I still need to get a gift for the studio Secret Santa/holiday party on Friday, and at some point on Wednesday, mix up my palette for Thursday's painting class.

In other news, I had an interview with the Muskegon Mirror yesterday; they regularly showcase recent or near-recent MHS grads, look at what they did as students, what they've gone on to, etc., so for anyone in the area, I think it'll be in the next (January?) issue. I need to email them some of my art, like, tonight, so they don't use my freshman year work. To be honest, I'd have been so much more comfortable with an email/written interview, since I hate talking on phones and tend to stutter and say "ummm..." far too often.

...should probably try and get some semblance of a portfolio online before the article comes out. Just in case.

EDIT: Thanks to Tina for reminding me that we have to meet with our advisor this week to fill out our BFA applications and get fitted for a cap and gown. Since graduation's in 5 months.

Panic mode: Engaged.

I'm preemptively declaring that tomorrow can just... die in a fire. I have a midterm at 3pm- which I'll be studying for in the studios all night- and then work, and then attempting to sleep for a few hours before rushing off to the airport for a 6am flight. My brain's already back in Michigan- here's hoping the rest of me doesn't wind up stuck in Chicago.

Surprisingly, I'm not that far behind in most of my studio classes- a little pressed right now, yes, but not the 'ohgoshIhavetodothisinaWEEK?' nerve-wracking panic that usually sets in at this point in the year. And last week, I had a term paper written almost three days before it was due (minus revisions, but, ya know.) Seriously, what's up with that?

However, the better part of the past month has been spent on one painting- entirely my own fault, since I decided that egg tempera would be really neat to use again. If I can finish it in time, though, I may submit it to the Society of Illustrator's student competition (not that I hold any delusions about getting in, but it's worth a shot.)

...I should probably eat something other than pretzels at some point tonight, too.

Dear MS Word:

It would be very much appreciated if you could give your spell-check system a brief review of art history before it attempts to correct any more of my papers. As it happens, I did mean Granacci, and not, as you suggested, Grimace- unless Vasari left out a few little details, and said artist was actually a 7-foot tall purple muppet that hung out with a clown and liked milkshakes.* Your other suggestions of Fibonacci, Granada, and Cranach, while endearing, were equally wrong. (Although the last was a little closer than the others, but still off by a few years and about 600 miles.)

Also, contrapposto is a real word. Promise! Look it up in- Oh! You are a dictionary. Fancy that.

No love,
Steph



*Not that I'd put this past the Medicis.

Wow, I really need to get better about updating here.

So yeah, I'm a senior now. How did that happen? I swear, it was only last month that I was freaking out about our freshman final drawing project (diptych, 200+ hours- remember that?) and pulling all-nighters to finish papers. Which... okay, that still happened last year, but now? I'm actually getting sleep! It's the craziest thing, but having more than four hours a night is awesome, and I totally recommend that everyone try it.

206 days until graduation. That sounds like a lot, but we're already into our eighth week of the semester, and it feels like I just got back to NYC.

I lucked out and had a high enough gpa and got a studio space this year, which has been a serious boost for productivity, since I spend most of my evenings and all weekend in there. Mostly, it's just been portfolio assignments and a project for one of my senior series classes, but now that I'm settled into a routine, I'm going to start working on the children's book again, too. I have a few pages half-finished for that, but I can't bring myself to bother scanning them until they're completely pencilled. My goal will be, eventually, to get at least one page done a week. Coloring won't be that difficult, since it looks like I'll be doing this one digitally, but the actual drawings are killing me, with finicky little things like "perspective" and "accurate human proportions."*

And just so this post isn't text heavy, here, ( have some art. )



*Thanks a lot, ancient Greeks, ya big jerks.

I forgot to include these in the post last night, but since they don't really fit at all with the thesis, I'll just give them their own entry.

( Anatomy project, a few life drawings, and a portrait. )

And now, to paint the house.

New journal layout! I liked the blue, but I've had that for almost two years now, and it seemed time for a change. (Also, I'm on a total Northern Renaissance kick, but that's a rambling entry for another time.)

So I didn't get into the Regional show, although The Imps (photos below) made it surprisingly far. Still, I don't feel too upset- there were over 600 entries, with only about 160 accepted. Eh, I was already in one show this year, I'm happy enough.

Tina and I have been talking a lot more about trying to study abroad this fall- in Italy, no less. It's fairly obvious from the setup of the program that SVA pretty much discourages Illustration students from even attempting to go- you're not allowed to apply until you're a junior, but oh, junior year is thesis year, and senior year is portfolio prep. We're both in good academic standing though, and I'm already well over the number of credits required to graduate (and only three required classes short of doing so,) so it may be possible with a little pleading and a lot of sucking up to The Woodruff.

On the job front, I started teaching drawing classes for an arts foundation again just last week- two beginner/intermediate classes, one advanced class, and one independent study with a girl who just graduated and starts at an art school this fall. The kids are, as expected, completely and utterly adorable, but I think it's going to take some time to get over how strange it sounds to be called "Miss Stephanie." I refuse to acknowledge that I am now some sort of "adult." Pfft, whatever.

I was going to wait until I had professional photos taken of my thesis to post it, but that won't be for another month or so, and I've been promising to get these up for a while. (Read: Lots of photos behind cut.)

( When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he is tired of ankle-deep slurry. )

I have many more photos to post, possibly tomorrow. Right now, though, I need sleep.