Reviews

I am excited to finally have my 45-hour review for candidacy here in my 85th hour as a student as SCAD. In our two year (90 hours total, 5 hours classes, three classes per quarter, three quarters per year) program grad students are supposed to have a review of their progress halfway through in order to assess their progress and begin to seriously talk about their thesis project goals. Here I am filling out the paperwork for my thesis project without having had that "necessary" feedback. Going to France really threw off my schedule. ( I like to say schedule the British way, "shed-ule" with a superior glace down my knobby nose.) Anyway, it is happening Wednesday and I am getting all my stuff together in a nice presentation. I want the presentation to be flawless so that the only complaints I can get is on the quality of the art.

If I weren't so busy with that and other various projects I would be sucking up the excitement of Savannah's very own Film Festival. At least I get some of it by osmosis. The Red Gallery (where I work) hosts some of the panel discussions and I just sat in on Walter Murch talking about re-editing A Touch of Evil. Walter Murch wasn't too much of a talker, but he apparently is a hell of an editor. He just finished cutting up Jarhead. He also edited Cold Mountain, Ghost, Apocalypse Now, etc. etc. and according to a friend "basically invented modern sound design for film."

In Africa!

My parents just informed me that my cousin, Rachel Steinfeld, has a blog. She is living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and is "helping to coordinate an HIV clinical trial through Harvard School of Public Health and Muhimbili Hospital." How incredible is that? She makes me look like I am a selfish, hypocritical do-nothing that is too busy trying to better myself to notice the world around me. At least her blog makes me feel that way, which is a very good thing. I need more inspiration in that direction. She is doing an amazing service to humanity in one of the places we need it the most and she gets to learn Kiswahili (Swahili) to boot.

Unfortunately, Rachel and I never really got to know each other very well. Actually her whole family and mine only interacted every now and then and they lived in a different universe from mine growing up. And they only lived in the next town over. I guess I just didn't care enough as a kid and teenager to get to know my extended family more. I was busy enough with my friends, most of which have totally drifted away into strangers by now. Anyway, Rachel and her older sister Amy have completely impressed me as we have grown up. I think that we have much more in common than teenager-me would have admitted. In fact, if we were to become better acquaintances I would be the lesser in the relationship. Sometimes, when I hear news of their adventures (The Steinfelds like to travel a lot) I kick myself for not being as motivated as they are in life. Rachel and Amy travel all over the world, run marathons, snowboard, learn languages, help people, etc. etc.

I am glad that I have people like Rachel as a family member. If she weren't family I couldn't so easily sneak back into the picture without being a creep. For me, she can never disappear completely as a source of inspiration.

Ha!

This made me laugh today - Harriet Miers is out of the running for the Supreme Court. Bush withdrew her name today even after he'd said earlier that she "would become the next supreme court justice." Of course, withdrawing her from the running only makes sense in the light of the strong objection to her lack of qualifications and her strong lackeyness, but under the conservative-right definition it sure looks like a Flip-Flop to me. The big reason her name was pulled was that there was no chance there wouldn't be a stronger and stronger call for White House papers in order to dig up a background on her. "It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House — disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel." Counsel on what, I wonder - all his Jesus-like good deeds? We wouldn't want a light shown on him and his internal policies and procedures. We couldn't have a transparent White House now could we? That would be ridiculous! We need more secrets! For instance, lets keep the lid down on who leaked the CIA name.

The problems for Bush and his buddies are stacking up and I love it. Their hypocrisy is becoming more obvious, and I hope every new tidbit of information that shows that Bush and his conservatives are NOT Christian (in their hearts, they might still be on paper) and that they do NOT have the country's best interest in mind. All the people out there that Believe in W are starting to waiver and I love it.

P.S. All you reds out there, Don't read this and think that I think Democrats are any less hypocritical. (Sorry to get political, but sometimes I get overwhelmed.)

P.P.S. Oil companies made record profits in the past few months. Bring on more Hurricanes!!!!

16

Pumpkins

Every year we get excited about carving pumpkins only to forget, every year, that they rot really, really quickly. We carved these jack-o-lanterns last weekend and yesterday had throw them out due to the bugs and mold that was becoming overwhelming. I'd hate to be the type that buys plastic pumpkins (I do have a plastic Christmas tree), but they do seem to make sense. Still, we did get a bunch of pumpkin seeds out of them, and Marigold really like to chew on them roasted pumpkin seeds. Besides, the joy is really in the process, not the product.

Apparently, carving jack-o-lanterns comes from the Irish. They didn't carve pumpkins although, they used turnips, beets, and potatoes. Stupid Irish, always with those potatoes.

24-Hour Power Drawer

So this last weekend I rode on out to Hotlanta with a bunch of other SCAD students to draw for a long time on large pieces of paper. We spread out five 6ft. by 40ft. (or there abouts) quality paper on the ground and on a makeshift wall and everybody attacked it.
We were situated on the top deck of the school parking garage. This was great since it had a wonderful view of the city and the weather was fantastic. We weren't able to travel anyplace else so this was as much of the city that I could get. After looking at the traffic on the freeway below us I didn't really have the desire to go anyplace. It has been a while since I have seen as much smog as Atlanta has. Of course, we were working in it for the whole 24-hours.

Most of the students that participated were foundations studies students which means they were mostly 18 or 19. This means that most were not very mature in their thinking about this project. Collaboration was too difficult for many to grasp. They would draw their section and get mad at their neighbors that might creep into their area. As if the paper was subdivided and would be cut up after the 24-hours. I really tried to not be an ass to people while imploring them to look at the whole scroll as one and therefore how "their section" would work as part of the whole. I think most still thought I was an ass. It was really only in the last three hours on Saturday that people really started to embrace the idea and fill in unintegrated areas. For instance here is a really nice area where many students drew next to and over each other in harmony.I didn't start drawing until about eight hours into the ordeal. I don't like too many people touching me at one time therefore I had to wait. But even more I waited so that I would be forced to work on integrating drawings rather than having a space of my own. So I wrote/drew out in my script the proposal statement of the whole event all along one scroll and through/interacting with other people's drawings. I thought it was a nice way to drag the viewers eye along the 40ft length. Here is the start of it. Most people liked it well enough, especially viewers not working on that particular scroll, but I actually managed to piss off several stubborn students. I'll bet they grew up in suburbs and didn't know or feuded their neighbors. One group actually blackened over a big section just to get me. I want to be above all that pettiness, but it really made me mad. Not so much my lost work, but that that section looked bad, due to their possesiveness. They whole exercise was about playing well with others and making something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Ah well. Maybe I was that way when I was eighteen as well. What a difference a decade makes.

Anyway here is the view of the city at about 11 at night. It got pretty cold at about 3 in the morning and almost nobody was actually working. They were either sleeping or staring off into space, like me. I'm really glad I participated in this. It would be fun to do again. Maybe with less people David Ellis style. I really like the non-objective layering that his collaborations get.

Gah!

This is an UNFINISHED school portrait of Medusa. It is UNFINISHED because I am a poor time manager. Our little Illustration club (SCAD - Society of Illustrators) was pushing for entries to this juried show themed around the title, "Midnight in the Gallery of Good and Evil." I ditched the "gallery" part of that, but I like the play of Good and Evil. Since I missed the deadline for submissions - about 45 minutes from now - I will have to be self-motivated to finish it. Also, I'm still not convinced about her facial expression.

Looking back my big problem was sleep - too much on the weekends and too little during the week. This next weekend won't be like that although. I am going to participate/facilitate in a 24-hour drawing marathon in Atlanta. So far there are about 150 students and teachers signed up to hang out in the SCAD-Atlanta parking garage to draw on large scrolls of paper from noon on Friday to noon on Saturday. It sounds fun and challenging and I get paid to be there. So it is a win/win/win/ situation (except for the lack of sleep thing, again).

Topical Storm

I'm not sure if this illustration is actually true or not. I don't really care to find out. I used to be such TV junkie that I would care who won what Emmy. Now I don't care about any of those award shows. Still, Entertainment Weekly does, and a bunch of other potential illustration buyers. Although I honestly don't think my stuff, as it is, would fit in. I used to think edgy was my thing, but I am more and more leaning towards sophisticated-cute. The obvious market for my style is children's - books, cards, patterns, packaging, etc. - but I want to try to push it towards young adult or even the New Yorker sensibility as well. But those are all too obvious. Gary Baseman does a great job getting all kinds of work for almost every market out there and then even making up some of his own. Using the same signature style he captures both friendly, tame audiences - like the Cranium, and Teacher's Pet crowd - and the very adult weird-o's. Say what you want about his work, he is an incredibly successful business man. I happen to half love his work and half hate it. Then again, I feel the same about mine.

I ♥ Hearts

Today I was wondering why the heart symbol (♥) is stylized the way it is, and why we all accept it without question. It really looks nothing like an actual heart, so who decided this "heart" would symbolize love?

This site gives a nice little synopsis into the history of the issue. PBS gets into more detail, mostly medical although. And here is a quick breakdown of several related issues, like why Valentine's Day exists. Because nobody will read any of that here are the most interesting parts -

Catholics claim that the symbol came from Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque vision of The Sacred Heart in the late 17th Century, but there is evidence of it even further back than that. For instance, Cro-Magnon hunters in Europe used the symbol in some of their pictograms, but nobody knows for sure what they meant by it. Those pesky Egyptians had a belief that your heart, or the ieb, is taken to the Hall of Maat after you die to be weighed against a feather. The ieb looks coincidentally like the heart symbol we all know, know, know, and love, love, love.

But here is the best part - There was this city, Cyrene, in Northern Africa somewhere around 7th century BC. This was a big deal city for the time because they did good trade with a valuable plant called Silphium. This species of fennel was so valuable that they traded it to extinction. So what did this miracle plant do? Birth control! However,

"Cultural bias and societal hubris have long clouded the vision of scholars, rendering most unwilling to even consider - never mind acknowledge - that ancient cultures possessed the means and the knowledge to do what until very recently was beyond the capabilities of 'modern' medicine." (Emilio N Favority and Kurt Baty. The Celator, Vol 9, No.2)

Some coins from Cyrene have been found and depicted on them is the seed pod of the powerful Silphium. So love, as it is depicted today, might ultimately come from something as pagan and immoral as birth control. (Maybe Cyrene was in ruins because the plant was too successful!)

Also, the practice of celebrating Valentine's Day most likely comes from the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival, held annually on February 15th (my birthday!). In fact, even the word February might be derived from a Roman festival tradition of running down the street swinging a goatskin thong called a Februa. They believed that if a woman were to touch the thong she would be more fertile. Frankly, that's weird, and of course Christians could have none of that, so they subverted the festivals into a Saint's day - Valentine's (who very likely gained his reputation through unsaintly behavior).

This will all seem more relevant in about four months. Cross my heart.