Monday, October 27, 2008

Fighting Time

I was just on the computer trying to get some things done for a project for another class and I realized that I haven't made another post yet for this week so I guess I should. The important matter at he moment seems to be my focus at the moment, and in the recent years it has been increasingly so. I just don't seem to have enough time to complete all of my requirements all of the time. I have no balance, although sometimes convince myself I do. There is always something that I could focus more on, my laundry for example, or my social life, calling my little sisters, working more to make more money, unpacking boxes, arranging furniture, working out, cooking and eating healthier food, going to the doctor for a flu shot etc. I also find it difficult at times to focus fully on all of my classes equally all of the time, it seems that something always drags behind. The passing of time is something else I find frustrating, something I can't control, it's happening as I write and as you read this, it's unstoppable (for me at least, unless you have access to a time machine or a superpower you're holding out on). Time is something that I am very aware of as of late, the perception of time I also find very interesting. Like on the bus for example, waiting to get to a destination, and the time during traffic hour will barely seem to be moving yet you look down at your watch and suddenly an hour has passed and you're not there yet. In contrast time can seem to move incredibly fast (which is usually the case for me) last week you ha an assignment and the next class seems so far away, you plan to do things for that assignment on certain days at certain time slots, thing arise, that assignment or other projects seems to take longer than expected and suddenly here you are working on that project at 3am the day of the class. How does this happen? This year is my third year at University and I thought it would get easier to manage time, and somehow it doesn't seem any different, in fact it seems the more I age the faster time goes, mostly due to more obligations, I keep on thinking about when I was in Elementary School a fifteen minute recess seemed to long I could accomplish everything I wanted to and still have extra time, now it seems to get everything done to the degree I would either learn how to pause time while I worked on things, develop superhuman speed, or never sleep (which sometimes seems like is the case). Anyway enough rambling for now, I need to go do drawing homework. Any instructions on how to pause time, or develop superhuman speed are welcome!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Autumn

Okay so I've been slacking on the blog this week but I swear I will get my two entries done. Here is a post that I actually wrote about in my notebook first so that I wouldn't forget exactly how I wanted it to sound. So here it goes...
I have been watching the seasons change rapidly lately and I can't seem to get these images out of my head. When my mind begins to wonder I start picturing these images, and thinking about them. I would like to create some work about it, but I am not sure what that will be yet, (I took some photos today I will post them below). Lately I just can't stop looking st the ground and the world around me, I see it changing everyday, every minute, all of the time, I find this fascinating. There are various types of leaves, colors and textures piling up on the sidewalks recently and when the combination of the weather and the traffic of marching feet rush by over time impressions of the leaves begin to emerge. They are like drawings, or ink sanguine ink stains on the sidewalk from these deteriorating, biodegradable pieces of colored material. What I fins interesting is that many of these markings have great detail when fresh and eventually fade over a few days. There are also these smudges that seem to be pulling off of the leaf drawings that develop over time, and I can figure out exactly why this happens, but it pleases me in an aesthetic way and they seem to suggest movement, which I really like. I think of these markings that can be seen all over the city as collaborative works between nature, unconscious human activity and time which leaves an attractive residue on the pavement. So next time you are walking on the city sidewalks take a few moments and look down; just be careful of object in your path (such as lamp posts) and other pedestrians.




























Saturday, October 18, 2008

Assignment

So this assignment is to get to know someone better in my computer class. We all get random partners and have to write about them . My partner is Emma, I have asked her some questions and in response to those questions I have created an imaginary creature...

The Emma Procyon (genus) is a mammal which is closely related to the common raccoon. Yet they have very little similar physical characteristics. The color of this species seems to vary depending on mood or even the season, and has some camelion type characteristics. Lately the Emma Procyon is emmiting a green tinge to it's fur. The black/grey bandant-like mask seems to be quite similar to the raccoon, as well as the size of the animal. This animal can be found in various parts of the world such as Milan, and New York but seems to reside in the Eatern reagons of Canada, and usually lives in cities. The Emma Procyon is mostly a nocternal animal but will be occassionally seen in the day, only out of nessesity (in search for food), with a sleepless glaze over it's eyes. The Emma Procyon's diet consists mainly of a found diet, it is a "scrounger" on the constant search for discarded desserts from high class resturants, and various types of cheese. If nothing is available the Emma Procyon has been known to eat small amounts of fruit or vegetables. The Emma Procyon is a friendly creature but is rarely seen because of it's nocternal habits, strangely enough this animal has been seen in packs of wild dogs, but has been known to associate with the household canine. This animal's prime is in the autumn, and has been known to be sneek around on Halloween night looking for dropped candy on the the ground. The Emma Procyon is a very new species to the scientific world and still needs to be fully researched to understand it's full nature and habits.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

School Thoughts

Think. Remember. Come up with a brilliant concept, that can be put into a visual language somehow. Which medium and what color, glaze or texture will it need to be? Will people understand this? What I am doing? I have to work. I need to do homework. Class. Will I be there in time? Hurry. Run! Transportation takes to long. Deadlines. Breathe. Relax? Social life? Where am I? It's all most over. So much at once. Don't forget to eat. What's cooking? What about the future, whaen I'll I can think about is now and next week? Did I forget something? I have to go. Juggle. Where am I going again? It's due tomorrow morning. I choose this for myself, I love it and I hate it. The money. I am late. Oh, and don't forget to sleep tonight.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Try Again.

So here I go I am going to try to add this stupid link thing again. The first time I added successfully but the link didn't work, I tried early this morning and it still didn't work. So I'll add it again and hopefully this post will work.
Here is the link to a Ron Mueck site. Cross your fingers, and hope it will work this time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888_index_frames.htm?startat=1

Whoops!

Okay so apparently I screwed up one of the links for a Ron Mueck site I'll try again instead this time I am just going to copy and pate to make it a little bit easier. Hopefully it works this time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888_index_frames.htm?startat=1

Ironc.

Today I was exhausted and slept in until about 11 (I had no classes today) I got up, got ready, threw some stuff in my back pack and left to catch the bus. I got to school and got ready to mix about 18, 100g batches of glaze, I needed to get this done by tomorrow morning at 9-ish because that's when the test firing for my class would be. I decided to stay later and not walk down to catch the 3:45pm ferry to Dartmouth, then catch the bus and get to work 20 minutes early. Instead I would shell out the cash and pay for a cab for once (they are so much faster) and thus I could spend more time on mixing glazes and finish. I lost track of time it was now 3:50pm and I needed to leave soon, so I could catch a cab and get to work on time. I left. I went to Superstore and got some cash out of the ATM (which cost me $1.50 extra because it wasn't my bank) and I called a cab. I waited. And waited. I called again. 40 minutes later my shift started and I wasn't there, I called to let them know that I would be late, but I wasn't sure how late. I was hungry, I haven't really eaten since 11am (I usually eat every 3-4 hours to keep my metabolism up) I had juice at 1pm but that doesn't really count. I searched my bag for that apple or pear that I put in my bag this morning, hmm, I guess I forgot to actually put them in my bag. I was in front of a grocery store and could get a salad or something, but if I got in and try to get through the line up, my cab would probably show up, and leave because I wasn't there. Sigh. I was so hungry. Even if I did have enough time to go in, I probably would be able to have enough time to eat it outside in the rain on that bench,before the cab came anyway. Maybe I'll grab something later. My cab finally shows up. I would've had enough time. Grumble.

So apparently there was something going on with his computer and the signal didn't show up until a few minutes before I saw him. He greeted me with "Hi. You've been waiting a while". Yeah. I explained that I was late for work now. He said that he would try to get me there as soon as he could "Where are you going?" I said I was going to Dartmouth "Oh no!" he said "There has been an accident on the bridge". So long story short we crawled on Barrington Street for 50 minutes just trying to get on the bridge. Once we got on the bridge I saw 5 cars piled up with cops, a tow truck, Elizabeth Chu (on her cell phone) from CTV News with a camera guy, and a firetruck. Shit, it looked so crazy there were cars underneath cars... I hope they all are okay (the drivers were gone before I got there). So I was an hour and twenty minutes late and I explained what happened to a manager and she that said it was okay because that was something I couldn't control, she was just glad I showed up. I got changed, bought a chocolate bar from the vending machine, that I didn't even like (gross milk chocolate) and ate it secretly while I worked. I worked 4 hours and 20 minutes so I only got an 15minute break, so I bought a chocolate milk and granola bar at 8:45. Not real food. I got home at 10:30pm-11-ish and I realised that I didn't even have to go through all of that.

I asked my instructor for that class as I was leaving, when he was doing the glaze test firings tomorrow, he replied "Oh, I'm not doing it tomorrow now, I'm doing them on Saturday". So I guess he was giving us 3 days instead of 2 to get the test tiles/glazes done and didn't notify us. So I guess I didn't have to stay late to mix and measure out all the ingredients to the milligram, so that it would be faster when I came in a 7 the next morning. So I could just sieve the mixes and add water and try to get that done and on the tiles before 9. I guess I could have walked down to the ferry when I planned to, (completely skip the bridge) caught the bus, made it to work 20 minutes early, ate a decent meal and not have been an hour and twenty minutes late. When I realised that, I laughed.

P.S. It turns out it was a 9 car pile up. Some cars were removed by the time I got there. Everyone was somehow okay. The cab driver was really nice and not the kind that just egnore you and turn the music up really loud. The cab only cost 7 dollars more that normal ($27). As I was getting out of the cab the driver said "wow. An hour we could have gotten from Halifax to Truro in that time". Ha ah ha ha ha! I could have gotten to a comletely different region.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Link Addage

Okay, I have finally gotten around to doing my homework and I figured out how to put this stupid link thing on my blog (by the way it was super easy once I used my eyes and looked around). My homework was to make a link on my blog to a site of an artist whom I like and then write about them. I chose this artist Ron Mueck, he is a wonderful realist artist who makes sculptures the are bigger than life size or smaller, I am inspired by both. He hand paints his works, even down to the veins that would be seen through the flesh and punches the hair (usually acrylic fibre) into the scalp. Mueck uses silicone, latex, fibreglass, acrylic paint and acrylic fibre. I couldn't find much about the concept of his work, I found out where he grew up, who his parents are, and what he did for the first part of his career life. Ron Mueck was born in Melbourne, Australia, 1958, his parents were toy makers and for 15 years he made models and puppets for kids shows. Later he went on to make models for commercial photography, then he decided that 'photography kills sculpture' and decided to sculpt and exhibit his work on his own terms.
I like Mueck's work because it is so direct, it has power, even if the scale is small. The power in his work has to do with the fact they are so real looking, nothing false sometimes too real. My favorite works at the moment are Dead Dad (1996-97) which is a small figure of his naked Father on the floor and it is the only work where he uses his own hair, Mother and child (2002) which is a woman who looks ragged and exhausted after just giving birth to a child, the baby is still attached by the umbilical cord resting on the woman's stomach and they look at each other. These works are seem so powerful to me, somewhat shocking but full of emotion and real, maybe hyper-real (like emotions can be) and unromantic like life can be. Just beautiful and stunning.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/up-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888-index-frame.htm?startat=1

http://www.paintalicious.org/2007/09/14/ron-mueck-hyper-realist-sculptor/

Friday, October 3, 2008

Here I am.


As Promised here is a picture of me, Alesia (pronounced A-lesh-a, think "flesh") during the "Golden Hour" as I heard once discribed. The Golden Hour is a time of day right before the sun goes down and makes evetything seem yellowy-gold. This picture is blurry, my face is shiny, hair messy because I just woke up from a nap. Never the less, here I am. I really like the colors not the actual subject matter.


Music in Unexpected Places

This happened last week but I couldn't stop thinking about it, sometimes when my mind wonders I think about this experience. Last week one afternoon I was on my way home after class, I should have went to the ceramics studio but I was exhausted from finishing my drawing homework early in the morning. I was travelling on the bus the same bus that I travel on everyday at least two times a day for 45 minutes at a time. Usually I do a lot of thinking, sketching or reading history when I am on the bus. I was so tired that day I didn't want to do anything, I was starring into space, hearing muffled speech and percussion from other people's headphones. I was watching building and places go by that I see everyday with different scenes, and people set in front of them. Humm... how mundane. Then something clued in... I have been hearing this low, vague sound for awhile now and I finally thought, what is that?! Where is it coming from? I discovered it was coming from the back of the bus, it sounded like an experiemental trumpet piece by a mucian from a jazz band. Kind of nice, suprising and funny actually. The more that I listened the more I realised that these improve sounds coincided with the meovements of the bus, mostly the up and down movements, I started to smile. When we got to a main stop the bus driver got out and looked all aroung the bus to see if anything was wrong. I watched him. He seemed perplexed, scratched his head and got back in his seat and began to drive. The music started agian, I listened to it all the way home. Maybe the bus felt like expressing itself a bit differently that day. Later I explored this thought and wondered what the world would sound like if buses could run on various types of music, or musical instruments. What would our city sound like compared to what are current sound scape is? Maybe someone in our class could do a peice on this, I would love to hear it.