musicgeekstress

Took a bit of a break from livejournaling for a little bit. I wanted to focus more attention on building my blog for my artwork which resulted in me moving my chirtescu operations over to blogspot which has been a positive change but I kind of missed having a place to share what was going on in my own day-to-day so I decided to dust ye old musicgeekstress moniker and give things another go here.

Just to bring things quickly back up to speed, I just wrapped up my second second year at OCAD.  I throw a lot of people, including myself, off by that statement.  Because I originally entered OCAD as an illustration student and then made the transfer over to fine arts I kind of had to repeat my second year which was kind of a drag but on a positive note I'm ten times happier and because of taking that first year in illustration I have more than half the required courses to minor in Illustration at the very least, so it wasn't a complete waste.

As usual, I still struggle with my feelings over whether to stay on as a mature student or not.  Fine Art or not, I've never actually been fond of school, surprising as that sounds coming from someone whose spent almost the entire last decade hopping institutions like a common harlot.  I'm still not all that excited about homework assignments or being addressed like a 20 year old where I'm outnumbered by people 10 years younger than me, but the real difference this time is that for the first time in ten years I'm putting my all into it and I'm actually kind of having not as bad a time as when I was at UofT and George Brown.

The one marked difference between Illustration and Fine Art has been the effort put forth by the Fine Art faculty to actually perform in-class demos and encourage different ways of thinking and approaching projects.  I comment on this frequently as I'm in awe at how the Illustration department managed to run without these basic principles.  Back then I felt as though I was given a rifle and thrown into battle without any training while being scolded on not knowing how to shoot.  I'm happy to say that with only one year of Fine Arts education under my belt I feel more confident that I'll be able to get more out of the remaining three Illustration courses I must take to complete my minor.

I have been busy over the last 6 weeks completely 2 summer school courses.  I've never taken summer courses at the post-secondary level and I wasn't too sure how I was going to handle extremely condensed versions of regular semester courses packed into 3 weeks per course.  It was arduous.  Each course was 6 hours twice a week for 3 weeks.  I took Figurative Drawing and Digital Painting and Composition.  Both have been outstanding experiences.  If I knew it was going to be this much fun speeding through my credits I would have signed up for more summer courses.  I'm always amazed just at how I can think I know enough about my craft and then be shown just how much more I can improve.  Figurative Drawing was a very humbling experience but I managed to come out on top in the end (my favourite comment from my teacher was, "The only problem I have with your work is that I don't know how to tell you to improve!").  Digital Painting and Composition was based more on the technical side of things, showing us how to use software to design compositions that can be used to create paintings.  It really helped stretch my imagination and learn how to generate ideas.  My final class will be next Wednesday and then after that I'm a free agent until September.

I suppose I'll be spending the rest of my summer just working on my own projects once again and focusing on trying to move to a new  and hopefully bigger place with Jason.  Still lots of packing to do.  Unbelievably, registration for the fall is in 3 weeks.  I have my eye on a pair of intensive landscape painting courses-- each one 6 hours a week for 3 months, one focusing on on-site painting and the other on in-studio painting.  This is something I really want to improve on as I see this potentially becoming my bread and butter while work my own artistic goals.

Anyway, sorry for the longish post, I know it has been awhile but hopefully I'll get back into short and frequent posts when I'm finally back up to speed. Thanks for reading. Now here's a reward :)

muzicons is a website that allows you to upload a song, affiliate it with an emoticon and post it to your blog...so that now people can actually know what you are listening to!


Here's "Can't Win" by Christine Collister which I was ranting and raving about over a month ago.

This week's assignment for illustration was to create an editorial for any article of our choosing. I found an article in Maclean's about the different types of bad bosses a person can have. This was a subject near and dear to my heart-- the third one, entitled, "The Suppressor" is visually and nostalgically inspired by one of my own old bosses (my mom will know exactly who). The other two are "The Cult Maker" and "The Pilferer" respectively. These are meant to be spot illustrations that would run throughout the article. I didn't do all five because that might just overwhelm the article, but I might just do it for myself once I have more time :)

Okay, just one more thing while I'm on this high. I had to submit a project this morning for my graphic design class which was an album cover for an artist of our choosing and in whatever style we want. I kind of did a rush job on mine but I still kind of proud of it. I seemed to impress all my younger colleagues in class today when I told them I did the drawing by hand.







I'll stop now :)

During the last couple of weeks OCAD has been partnering up with Orangina to host an art show that will be premiering this week in OCAD's grand auditorium. In addition, Orangina sponsored a contest to all OCAD students to create an original poster for their new Canadian ad campaign. Keen on us all entering, my illustration teacher made the poster an assignment for class and she encouraged all of us to submit our works, optionally of course. Knowing that my poster would be up against the work of fourth year students I had no real interest in entering.
The due date came and went and the poster was due in class a day later. I wasn't too crazy about my poster but everyone in class seemed to love it. Incidentally it was leaked that day that there would be an extension on the contest date and everyone in my class encouraged me to enter. So last Monday I went into school early and I ran around the floors like a mad woman trying to get my poster printed, not getting the right quality, fixing the image and then reprinting-- back an fourth just to make the 12 o'clock deadline. When I went to the office to submit my work, there was no one there. People kept coming to the office with their posters and no one ever showed up! Finally some one took pity on us and helped us find someone who would take in our posters. No one knew anything about the extended deadline but after all the running around I did I was to be sure to give my poster to SOMEBODY! It was a lot of hard work just to get it in and I felt good that I put in the effort, but I still didn't think I would win anything. It didn't really matter to me.

So you can imagine my shock this morning when I found out that my poster had been selected as one of the top 10 finalists for 2nd place. I mean, SHOCKED. When I got the email this morning I started to read it like "thank you for your submission, unfortunately it wasn't chosen...etc" so I took a double take when I continued to read, "your impressive work titled Orangina Apeel is an outstanding representation of the Orangina spirit and while it has not been selected as the grand prize winner it was chosen among the top ten entries." I've never heard anyone refer to my work as outstanding before.
So I stand to win $1000 if enough people vote for my poster between Wednesday and Saturday by going to OCAD and submitting a vote. I'm urging as many folks as I can to pop in and make a vote for me...though just being considered for the top 10 is really quite an honour.

Okay, enough of this unbridled and explicit self-promotion. I'm as giddy as a clam.

I recently read an article in the Toronto Star care of Reuters about a Death Row inmate who has been blogging about being on Death Row leading up to his imminent execution most likely for this coming Wednesday. He is convicted of killing 3 people. Two when he was 19 and one in his prison cell, in self-defense he says. That is not an easy thing to defend.

I have long been against the Death Penalty as I do not see how people on the side of the law are any better than the perpetrators they execute by doing the same thing and premeditative at that. I think it is a barbaric practice among sane people and it does nothing but harvest a blood lust in the victim's families.

It is a tough argument to sell, I admit, especially not ever having lost a loved one to violent crime. I imagine I would want the perpetrator dead-- but probably by my own hands in a state of tremendous grief. There is something unsettling about the sterile, administrative process of executing someone long after the crime has been committed.

I had this conversation with Jason recently because I was actually moved by a lot of what I read in this man's blog. Maybe it is an attempt to manipulate enough people to write in and stop the execution; that could easily be the purpose. Jason couldn't get around the 3 killings and I have to admit I have a problem arguing against that too, but it still will not change my feelings toward capital punishment.

I would be interested to see how other people respond after reading this man's blog. We are removed from the violence of his crimes and perhaps find it easier to forgive a man who speaks eloquently in his final days but do you think there is room for forgiveness, even if it means he spends the rest of his life in prison?

Disgusting

It is the sick reality that racism will always exist and that there is really not much one can do to quell common stupidity. And that's really frustrating.

I just want to randomly profess my love for the music of Yanka Rupkina and the Trio Bulgarka. It truly is some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear.

Trio Bulgarka - Kuzum Elenke


Kalimanku Denku - Yanka Rupkina


Listen to more by visiting Yanka Rupkina's MySpace Page

I just want to say how happy I am about Barack Obama's landslide victory last night. I had the television glued to CNN, BBC and Newsworld yesterday from the time I got up to the time I finally went to bed around 1:30 in the morning. There should never have been any doubt of Obama's success and I could have gone to bed secure with that knowledge but I wouldn't dare choose to miss this historical event; this is something that will now define our generation in history. How could anyone sleep through that?

Up until last night I've often felt a dismal sense of the world we live in. After being repeatedly beaten about the brow by the blatant hypocrisy of the Bush administration I believed that this generation had grown apathetic through their powerlessness. No matter how much America and the world protested against the ill-conceived choices made by the government, the government always got it's way and the world seemed powerless to stop it. When America had it's chance to finally remove George W. Bush from the seat of power in 2004, everyone thought it was inevitable that the Bush administration would end. His popularity at that time was meandering around 60% and rapidly declining...and yet, he won.

I couldn't make any sense of it and from that point on I felt a dullness come over me. We watched the world decline with Bush's popularity and even though the world staged simultaneous protests against the war in Iraq, our voices were still not heard. This was not an administration that was interested in listening to the people and that, after awhile, gets very demoralizing.

With the Bush administration quickly coming to an end I feel as though the world is collectively waking up from a long nightmarish dream. Was it all real? Did all those terrible things happen? Are the World Trade Centre Towers still standing? Sadly, they are not. It will take a lot of time for America to heal from the inconceivable traumas they have endured. Bush may have to return to drinking as I don't know how anyone could live with the guilt of knowing they were pivotal in all this chaos.

What can I say about Obama that hasn't been said a million times since last night? I can remember watching him give the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2004 and I remember thinking to myself, "Wouldn't it be great if he were to run for president?" Of course there were rumours and murmurings but no one thought he would run so soon given his age and inexperience. So when he did decide to run there was a feeling of hope but also concern that Obama was risking his chances by trying to run so early in his career. Obama was someone I wanted and I didn't want to see him miss his chance.

But he went on to prove us all wrong last night. We have for too long lived in fear and the election of Barack Obama last night beckons us to learn how to trust again.

The U.S. has often been criticized for being too grandiose about itself, making themselves appear obnoxious and self-involved on the world stage. Last night was no different (especially when you compare this election to our own recent election in Canada which could never have pulled off the fanfare achieved in America). But last night I believe the whole world shared a collective moment of silence for 15 minutes while Obama gave his victory speech. It was magical.

There will be a period when we come off the honeymoon period as the U.S. returns to face the massive mess left over from the Republican party, but for now last night serves as a gift to the world. In Obama we feel a sense of inspiration and a sense of hope that we have long been bereft of. Anything can happen and we have the power of choice once again, not only by virtue of a government that will actually listen to the people, but in our own daily lives. We can choose to help each other out, we can choose to pay attention to what our leaders are doing and be active participants, we can choose to shoot for the stars. We may fail but we must continue to try and to hope and to have faith. I never thought we could escape the hazards of the world Bush has created and even though it will take us a little longer still, I have faith that we now have someone who will guide us through it and if everyone can share in that feeling of hope we may get there sooner yet.