hippodrome

i went to the bronx zoo yesterday. wednesdays are donate what you want, aka free day. though, i did give 2 dollars, so there. i wanted to go up to take pictures and draw animals. it was fun, but so. so. so. so. crowded. like, insaneo crowded, with many children. but still, it was good.

the gorillas and monkeys are always just the most amazing. the lemurs were super cool too. they just STARE right at you. awesome. i felt like i took SO many pics when i was there. but, as soon as i got home, felt i barely took any. bah.

gorilla lady…

kinda okay sketch of her….

ridiculous monkey! he has such soulful eyes.

kinda okay sketch of him…

my next excursion is the aquarium…and the walruses!

i really am not a very good cook. nor do i love cooking. i enjoy it more than i used to, but basically i like when i can just follow a recipe and it’s fairly easy (hello EF).

thus, i LOVE the giada citrus garlic chicken recipe. it’s magically delicious. i realize it is a whole chicken, and it seems a bit ridiculous to cook something so large (and for so long - it takes two hours), but it so completely simple, even i can do it. i originally made it for fake christmas last year. and i felt it time to make again.

look how fabulous it is! and, not to mention inexpensive. for how much you get, a whole chicken is mad cheap. and, the ingredients are what, an orange, a lemon, and a head of garlic? she says to use fresh oregano…we just used the dried stuff.

josh attempting to cut chicken…

just some of the chicken, which is still feeding us…

excellence.

we finally got to the murakami exhibit at the brklyn museum. i was fearing that we would miss it, which would be not good. it was pretty fantastic, and a nice retrospective of all sorts of his stuff. They even had a louis vuitton store with his stuff IN a section of the museum. Apparently we weren’t allowed to take pics, but i snapped afew. hehe.

i have a new challenge for myself, which is both fun and practical. spend as LITTLE money as possible. so i turned these ill-fitting pants into ill-fitting shorts. I needed another pair that i didn’t really care about to wear around the print shop. voila. short pants.

we roasted a chicken tonight for dinner, which feed us for a week! but, ha ha. we started it at 9 pm. smarts us. but still so delicious.

i’m taking etching this semester and finally i think i’m coming around to it. i took etching acouple years ago. and i sucked at it. super hard. i didn’t really know what i was doing and made a bunch of stupid looking plates and prints. i had fun, and my teacher was great, but since then have stayed away.

aquatinting especially was my arch nemesis. i hated aquatinting. it’s a process which enables you to give wide swaths of color to your plate, which is great for shading and adding tones. but, to get these lovely tones, you have to use the dreaded and exhausting aquatinting box, which to really explain i have to get a pic of it.

anyway, somehow this week i had a breakthrough with my hated aquatinting, and feel i actually (almost) get etching now and what i can do. i finally see the merit of taking the effort to aquatint. whoopee! all with the help of a walrus.

first, we have horrible walrus proof. i felt awash in dejavu with this, feeling oh great another exercise in disappointment.

then, here’s a print of said walrus in brown, on better paper, and with what i wished his lovely brown skin could look like. i felt this was getting better and almost liked this print.

and then…shazzam! a dual aquatint on him! on fab rives fbk tan paper. oh so rich, so walrusry. just what i wanted it to look like!

honestly, i know this isn’t the greatest print in the world, but it’s a breakthrough towards actually use the medium in the right way.

in fact, i think i might do a series of walruses, which might include a zoo visit…

well okay. some things have happened since may (apparently my last post).

Mainly i left my job. after 8 years. which, in the end was far easier than i thought it would be. the main reason is that i ultimately didn’t want to do advertising anymore. i saw what the next level would be, and unless you’re passionate about it, you’re wasting your and everyone else’s time. people work very hard in advertising. a lot of hours. a lot of emotion. and if you don’t care enough, you better not be there. so i’m not anymore.

i was there A LONG time. but through it i was able to figure stuff out. things i couldn’t have right out of school. and, i wouldn’t appreciate doing this - taking this time - if i didn’t go through working there. i worked on some great things, and i honestly loved working with a lot of the people there. and have some very good and close friends from it. it also taught me how to work hard and in the right ways. all of which will come in handy now and in the future.

so onward and upward!

from the moment i gave notice, i knew wholly and completely it was the right choice. i know i’ll have to get another job in a few months, but hopefully one in which i feel like i’m doing something a little more worthwhile and also one, mainly, that keeps slightly better hours.

in the time being, i’m focusing on fisk and fern, which is honestly so incredibly exciting. i’m going to just print, and do small biz stuff for afew months. and i hope, i really hope, that i don’t get distracted and waste time. by writing this, and posting more frequently, it’s going to keep me honest.

another reason for leaving, is that right now, i feel life is completely out of control. and completely disorganized. with both josh and i not getting home many nights until 8 or 9, how do you keep things together? we constantly do half projects around the house, sort of clean up something, barely take advantage of the city we dearly pay for or try to get organized. i just felt like between real work and f&f there was no time for anything. at all. and that’s not good. something had to give. so i’m taking this time to get organized, and gain some control back of all the things in life going on. i’m basically taking a time out. time to think, focus, and get back on track.

so, we’ll see what happens.

woo!

hawaii is a place where almost everything is beautiful. and more beautiful than you think it could be. in lieu of writing at this 2:31 am…some photos…

sacred hawaii at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park

growing pineapple (in the yard of our b&b!)

he’s napping.

view our friend’s the wedding.

volcanoes are alive and well

big island from interisland travelin’

happy hula’ers

so we are back! i feel like we were gone MONTHS. excellence. this was one of those few vacays that josh and i both we really not ready to leave (even after 2 weeks!) wished we could stay longer. there’s just so much amazement to be seen, but in a relaxed way.

i just dl’ed all my pics, so i’ll most more with photos. at first when we decided to go for our friend’s wedding, i actually was somewhat not in going to hawaii (i know, i’m a big fat baby complaining about a trip to a beautiful island), but there’s so many places to see in the world, and never enough time to get to see them all. i was especially worried it would be far too touristy. but the more i read, the more excited i was, because you can still really get off the beaten path, and the trip ended up being even better than i thought it would be. i seriously highly recommend it to all! also, the flight was really not that bad, and our jetlag pretty minimal.

i can’t talk more about hawaii without pictures. so more coming soon!

up late packing for the big 5-0! that’s right, we’re off to hawaii tomorrow! or should i say…in afew hours. i get so nervous before big trips, even if it’s a vacay. do i have everything? will the trip live up to expectations, did i plan enough? and where, dammit, is my 2nd hawaii guidebook.

but it’s going to be good. very good. we really need to get away. but, man o nam, we better be able to see the live volcanoes. volcanoes national park (as of this posting) is CLOSED because of crazy sulfuric gases due to ERUPTIONS. it had closed acouple weeks ago, then reopened. and now closed again. i chose this island BECAUSE of the volcanoes. but hey, we’re on the big island for 6 days, it’s got to be okay at least one of them….right?

in other news…we helped out our friend euralis at the ny comicon this weekend. She and her friends are animators and designed these super cute characters, dookie-poo (who is, you guessed it, an elf!) and the adorable tofu. it was fun, and just awesome to people watch. and i got to see and buy cute things. always a plus.

wonder tofu!

dookie and his super cute sets

wow. crowds. panels.

lastly, mmmmm h&m marimekko. that puts me in an hawaiian mood. newly hemmed as well so it’s not so short it drags on the ground like it was. excellence. aloha everyone!

so i applied to this communal studio place in brooklyn. i know i need to find an option behind the wonderful sva printshop, even though i honestly really don’t want to. it’s basically about hours, space and availability. sometimes i can’t get into the printshop when i reeeeeeally need to. or i show up on a saturday and it’s so crowded there’s no room to print. and, sigh, it’s expensive. finding a studio that HAS a printshop, good space to spread out and work, and 24-hour access for a solid price is kinda a great thing.

so i applied. and now i’m completely freaked out. and regretting it. there’s a “board of advisors” that are going to judge my work. what if they laugh at it? what if they think it’s just BAD. or worse, amateur (which is actually true, because no degree for me, but that’s a post unto itself). i wish i could fish the envelope out of the mailbox, but hey, if you don’t take a risk and put yourself out there, nothing, and nothing good will ever happen, right? i’m not going to list the name of the place because they seem like nice people and really, nothing against them if they don’t take me. seriously.

also, the truth is i don’t want to stop going to the printshop. it’s feels like home at this point. not to mention there’s access to presses, ink, squeegees, plates, computers, anything i need really. i know the other frequent printers and the teachers. we say hi to each other and talk. i’ve become a regular meself. but, to expand my art-ness i really should be taking classes beyond another printmaking class. because, while i’m technically paying for classes now, i’m really just paying for my need for studio time. for example, i really want/need to take an illustration class.

so that’s that. i sent the priority envelope with the application, my “art” CV (which was weird and scary to create), and a CD with my “work” on it. now i just wait. if i don’t get in, really it’s not bad, right? i’ll just sign up for something-printing this summer, and somehow deal with the shop being closed for a month before summer classes. it shall be interesting.