things for eyeballs.

A work of Jenny Holzer projected on the Louvre.
this is Taloulah, my make believe puppy. The great dane shelter near my house in cincinnati has puppies, WHICH THEY NEVER HAVE, because its a rescue shelter, and abandoned dogs are usually much older. i can't get her. but i would very much like to have her as my bff. She is one of seven girls accompanied by one brother. If you live in cincinnati and want a really cute babie, go get 'em at Harlequin Haven!!
Le petit Palais is currently having an exhibition of William Blake. The colors of his works are explosive and many are itty bitty, surprisingly itty bitty. But the colors! Oh! They could never properly be captured by a photograph. Its like sunsets and autumn and spring all unfolding in one religious vision.
Speaking of pretty, the flowers are here! the flowers are here! Its amazing how cozy the city can become with the addition of green canopies and a confetti of colors.

I have a telephone for a head.
Joseph Beuys likes pianos, crosses and felt.

Glitter face update

here are the final products (not all of them though) of glitter face getting dressed and undressed.

Parsons has been spewing great tidbits for the past couple of months. I have been very selfish keeping them to myself. Here are some tidbits from class over the last couple of months to help you get through final season.

Art Suggestions by Mr. Mahdavi (drawing teacher)
- Why don't you add zippers, gauze, and bandaids to your piece?
- I think your work would really improve if you talked to me about it. I have a lot of great ideas.

Life Suggestions by Mr. Mahdavi
-It's really important to be a Candian women.

Life Stories by Wade Saunders
Wade is my sculpture teacher. He wears at least three layers of polar fleece everyday, and finishes every story with "So, the answer was.." even when its not really applicable. He also really like superalatives when talking about artists, ie "He is the BEST gay artist, She is the BEST mold maker in FRANCE, He is the BEST first nation artist, She is the BEST argentinian artist, He is the WORST artist of all time."

Wade was the lover of Martha Rosler back in the hey-day. He lived with her and her son in a house. But as Wade explained, he was in love with a girl in France, and this didn't make Martha very happy. This is how Martha found out. (P.S. he's pretty sure shes one of the original gorilla girls)

Wade sent a love letter to the girl in France, but didn't put enough postage on the letter. It of course got sent back to Martha and Wade's love nest when Wade was out of town. She opened the letter, and true to her Editor nature, she edited the letter (including details of what wade was lying about) and sent the letter back to the girl. He came back to find all of his stuff in the garage. She forgot about his stuff in the laundry machine though, and thoughtfully, she put it in a bag on his desk at work. She had purposefully organized the contents of the clear plastic bag so that all his dirty underwear were showing. This is why you don't want to emotionally cheat on Martha Rosler.

To continue on with the circus act....Here are some excerpts from a class discussion.....
We are to write our final papers aesthetically analyzing an everday activity. One girl choose hookers...I'm not quite sure how this fits into her everyday activity....but...this is what she has to say about them.
"Where I'm from, if you see a girl standing on the side of the street talking to someone in a car, you think, 'Look at that nice little girl talking to her friends.' But here, you think, 'HAHAHAH, LOOK ITS A WHORE.'"

I don't remember the context, but in case you were wondering.....
"Cirque du Soleil is full of freaks!"

And as a final update: the person who first announced the "We're all acting position" is writing his final paper on the matter. Stay tuned for riviting details of his findings.

artworkk

I am currently working this series of drawings. There are nine panels in total, and show a person putting layers and layers on and then taking them off and off and off. The first picture is right in the middle of the series. I'm going to color them now and add words? I'm feeling really hesistant about this project/making anything, but I know I should just take the plunge and finish it off.

Conceptually I'm trying to work with the form of a really simple story that is a visual conceit for a specific idea or feeling, kind of like a parable gives way to a moral. The idea of layering/ unlayering is how I feel about art....I keep putting layers on (energy, time, interest, knowledge, understanding, passion), only to take them off later (forget, loose interest, get disheartened, question it all, stop believeing what i learned) All the while i'm never really sure of my own body temperature. I guess being in school is like that, but I feel like I'm going in circles and circles and circles. Anyway, this is a pretty vague discussion of it all, and I guess I'm not entirely sure how to get it into words yet. I was really struggling with starting anything at all, and this was the only image I kept coming back to. I started the project with a gut feeling, and I'm hoping listening to my stomach signals will pan out.

I'm NEGLECTFUL!/THE HOME EDITION

First things first. I have been a terrible blogger. Sometimes I don't feel like recording things. Though I probably should. Anyway, I'm here now. AND THIS IS THE HOME ADDITION.
43 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth vs Versaille.

Let's start with our appartment. It is teensey weensey and probably has some mold problems, but I've grown very fond of it. Both comfortors and my towel are pink, which is always an easy way to my heart. Our street is reallyy funny. It is full of the most bizzare stores ever. There are two Native American paraphenalia shops, several leather outfitters, a shop call "TRUST THE POLICE," and many a wholesale stores. Above shows my bed/ movie theatre. We have become quite the movie pirates recently.


we have lime green appliances!
teensey weensey kitchen. on the left hand side you can see some collaborative work using the almighty florescent pink pigment.
couryard garden seen from our window. cute.

NOW FOR ROUND TWO: VERSAILLE! We went to Versaille last weekend. Unfortunately, we missed the Jeff Koons show that was going on there from October to December. How wacky would that have been??? Giant ballonies in a palace. It really doesn't get much better than that.
that's me. myspace shot hall of mirrors style. yeahhhhhhh.
GIANORMOUS FIRE PLACE.
the chapel
hall of mirrors
when you have wall paper that matches your drapes, you KNOW you're king
look at the rainbow through the doorways!
the outside jardin on a snowy day.


So all and all, I think they're an equal match! yeah?

Gardening with Voltaire

Last week we went to Le Panthéon. The crypt holds many a famous deceased, including Victor Hugo, Louis Braille, Marie Curie, and my personal favorite, Voltaire. In Voltaire's Candide he reminds us that "We must cultivate gardens." And it's just the reminder I need right now.

For the first time in a long time, school is not the center of my life. I only have class two days a week, homework is minimal and unlike summer-time, I can't get a job here. So I am faced with the daunting task of filling up five days of my week with personal projects, ambitions, and regiments. It seems like both the best thing and the worst thing. I can do exactly what I want, exactly what I think will help me grow, exactly what I need, exactly what I think I should do, for me and for no one else.

But its the " for no one else" clause I keep coming back to . Being entirely self-motivated scares the bee-jeezus out of me. The thought of getting yelled at by someone is a big motivation for me. I really hate getting reprimanded. When I was little, my mom only had to raise her eyebrows to adjust my behavior. But I have no one to yell at me! It seems silly that this should be a problem, but yelling at myself just isn't as effective...

One of my biggest fears is that if I am an artist I will never do anything. I'll just flander my time away and turn into a big rotten blob of blown sockets and dirty socks.

So this is the ultimate experiement. I got over my fear of being locked in bathrooms when I inadvertedly got locked in our bathroom in St. Louis in the middle of the night last semester. I got myself out using tried and true techniques developed during freshman year when I would be locked out of my dorm. So here I am, locked in the perverbial giant bathroom that is France. (On a side note, select subway stations really do smell like a gaint bathroom.)

Now I have to get out of the bathroom, start composting, and make this garden happen.

True Life

I'm going to give you the true life low down on my paris experience.

First of all, school BLOWS. Its terrible. Its a joke. The professors are pompous hootinanies, the facilities are non-existant, and the classes are un-engaging. This is demonstrated by the fact that all the students that go there talk often about transferring.

Here are somethings that happened at school:

1. Drew plants for 4 hours (with feeling.) Our homework is to draw the movement of the plants. This week we're allowed to use one color.

2. Had a 30 minute lecture about how keys work (yes, the things you open doors with) from our sculpture professor Wade, who also told us that he is the most knowledgable person about sculpture that we will ever meet.

3. Excerpt for a discussion class. As a preface, there is a girl in this class that goes "hmmmm" after anyone says ANYTHING, enlightening or otherwise.
ie "we will discuss allen kaprow" " hmmmmmmm"
"think about your eating habits" "hmmmmmmmmmmmm"

girl 1: "We don't have identites because we act differently in every situation. We're always acting"

boy 1: "Why are we all so afraid of being fake. Let's just realize that it is our true nature to be so"

hmmm girl: "Well I go 'hmmm' when I'm thinking here and at home. So I'm not fake."

girl 1: "Well that doesn't count because you know you're doing it."

hmm girl: "Of course I know I'm doing it. I'm not a RETARD"

4. And just so everyone knows, Rafael, one of my studio teachers, thinks that Foucault and Barthes aren't really saying anything at the heart of it all. And he knows, he's read it IN FRENCH. If only I had Robert Gero with me ...... we could take him down. I have a strong dislike for this man. He made me cry and then made fun of me for it. In front of the whole class.
He also is a popmpous asshole, here is an excerpt of a conversation with him:
Rafael "I don't think of myself as an artist, just a painter
Me: "That's good. I think its better not to get caught up in it all."
Rafael "Yeah, it's just hard when your paintings start to sell for $50,000......"
Me: "You're just an expensive painter then...?"


Okay, so that was a pretty negative rant.

Let me be positive for a moment. Because school is a joke I will have time to do lots of things that I want. Like
1. Read books
2. make zines
3. make my own work that does not involve plants.
4. Do yoga everyday and become a master
5. travel, travel, travel, travel (we are going to go to iceland!!!!!)
6. see lots of art, and reflect on that art.

When I step back from the situation, I realize that it will be a good experience in
1. Moving to and living in a big city
2. being my own best friend
3. what life is like as a working artist (SELF MOTIVATION NECCESARY)

Best Things About Paris:
1. Macaroons
2. Yogurt
3. the metro is fabulous, fast, and easy
4. I bought flourescent pink pigment powder (like the ones Trex used for Chris Duncan)

OH, and BY THE WAY:
to my professors and fellow students:
Thank you for being awesome. I miss you dearly. If anything, this experience has made me realize how lucky I am to be surrounded at WashU by intelligent, creative, and kind peers and faculty. You are all fabulous, and I would be much obliged if you'd send me your ideas and thoughts about work/art so that I can keep up a creative dialouge (which does not exist at Parsons.) Also, I'd just like to know what you're up to.

okay, ill post some more uplifting news lata. but for now contemplate how delicious these look


Okay, so now you know.