This week was much better than the last couple.
Monday: I'd had enough of the situation that has been bothering me for the last two weeks, so I decided to take action and wrote a letter to the other person over the weekend. That day I printed it off with the intent of giving it to her on Wednesday. The printer that handles regular (non-photo) paper in the Photo Dept. is one of three in said department that are inaccessible to students, so you have to go to where the printer is housed (what is known as The Cage, where the studio techs are based, and where you can sign out or borrow some equipment). When I went to pick up and pay for the page that I printed (regular paper is 25¢ per sheet), the studio tech who retrieved it, Jake, asked about it, and I told him what was going on. He sympathized, as did Alex, who was about to start his shift in The Cage. They both encouraged me, which I appreciated as I needed all the support I could get my hands on.
The final product for my project for APC is going to be a video (a slideshow, to be exact). Because it's my thesis project and will be going in a gallery, I want to stay as far away as possible from programs that are geared toward the average consumer, e.g., iPhoto. Yes, they do the trick (and as far as photo organizers that are geared toward the average consumer go, iPhoto's pretty awesome), but when you consider the two things that I just mentioned (thesis project and gallery show), as well as where I am in terms of my skills and what I ask of a computer program, I need something a bit more powerful. I knew that the computers in the Photo Dept. computer lab don't have video editing software, so I decided to ask at OSAS to see if they knew who I could ask about which programs are on which computers at which campuses. I was directed to Multimedia in North Block, which is one of the more interesting places to try to get to, as you have to make sure to take the right set of stairs once you're on the second floor of said block. I took the wrong set, backtracked, took the correct set and found Multimedia's equivalent of The Cage. After pausing to catch my breath, I asked about the software that I needed. NSCAD has Final Cut Express (which is geared toward the passionate amateur) and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 (a professional-grade program) at the Academy Building, and Premiere CC at Port. Creative Cloud (CC) isn't backward-compatible with CS6, so if I started working on the video component of my project there, I'd be limited to working only at Port.
Since I was in the area, I stopped in at the Dawson Print Shop, said "hi" to the studio tech, told him about my project and had a look around (nothing much has changed since I was in there last).
Tuesday: I ended up not needing the letter that I'd printed off the day before, as the other person decided to take matters into their own hands and talk.
That day was election day, and because I'd never been in an election office on election day before, I decided to pay another visit to Labi Kousoulis' election office. I asked about what was going on that day (mostly making sure people got to the right polls and answering questions), and was told that there would be an end-of-election party that evening and that I was welcome to come.
I spent the afternoon prepping for the next day's work-in-progress critique and then went to the party.
They had CBC on on a big-screen TV and a lot of the party-goers watched the results come in. By 10:00 PM it was all over (which amazed me, as I'm used to having to call it a night before the election has been called) and Darrell Dexter had lost spectacularly: Stephen McNeil (Liberal) is NS' next premier. Also, Labi won. I'll admit that when Labi showed up, I got a bit starstruck: although I met Greg Thompson when I was a kid, I'd never met anyone I'd voted for (although Greg was a good MP, I have never voted Conservative in a federal election). After we chanted his name, he spoke, thanking those who volunteered. I congratulated him on my way out.
Wednesday: We usually start the day by discussing the week's reading, but that didn't get done this week and we more or less went straight to the critiques after going over the plan for the afternoon (a field trip to the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery). Mine wasn't until 11:15, so I spent some time in the Photo Dept. computer lab and, when I couldn't stand the chill anymore, visited the SUNSCAD office to ask whether Crit would be available at NSCAD (while the newspaper started out as a NSCAD student publication, due to various mistakes by the people running it, the paper is now published by the Khyber).
I then headed over to Adrian's office. My meeting with him went very well, and I was really glad that I'd copied the tracks that go with the photos that I've shot so far to my external hard drive.
After lunch, we took the bus to MSVU. Currently, the MSVU gallery is showing work by August Sander on the upper level of the gallery (work from the Canada Council Art Bank is being shown on the ground floor). A woman from the gallery spoke about Sander's work, and we were done a couple hours before class was officially over. I talked with Adrian about some course-related stuff, and he helped me get the right bus to go back downtown (I'll never forget the time I took the bus to get to the Halifax Shopping Centre--although I took the right bus, without realizing it I got the one going in the wrong direction). I had to wait awhile, but I didn't mind as it was a nice day. Once I finally got back downtown, I wended my way over to the Academy building, asked where the computer lab was and spent almost an hour playing around with Premiere.
Thursday: As mentioned last week, I've given up on getting homework done on Thursdays this semester. Instead, I visited Java Blend Coffee Roasters, which was a bit of a walk from my place (about an hour) and had an amazing decaf cappuccino. Java Blend supplies the coffee for my favourite café in St. Andrews, Honeybeans, and I found out that the coffee is also available at the Seaport Farmers' Market. Afterward, I headed to NSCAD and attended this week's Queer Collective meeting. One of the things they're going to be working on is posters raising awareness of bathroom accessibility for trans* people, and I volunteered to design the posters, as I have experience working with InDesign. This is an issue that I've never thought about, and although I'll admit that I know nothing about it, I want to learn.
Friday: I started the reading for APC and came up with a plan of action for this year's Nocturne.
Saturday: That day was so slow that I'm amazed I got any work done. I finished the reading for APC.
Sunday: I reshot a photo for my project, went through the resulting images at school and chatted with a fellow photo major.
Showing posts with label galleries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label galleries. Show all posts
Monday, October 14, 2013
Monday, February 6, 2012
happiness is going home
I went home for the weekend, and I couldn't have been happier--unless the Patriots had won the Super Bowl.
Monday: I submitted my ArtsNB scholarship application before class.
This past week, we started another assignment (we collected images last week), and spent most of the class working on it. For me, that meant making transfers. Let's just say that although transfer pens are easy to use, and produce great results, those things stink! **cough-cough**
Tuesday: Yay for 3D! In Photoshop, that is. Just when I start to wonder, "is there anything new and exciting that Drew can throw at us?," it turns out that there is! I've been curious about doing 3D in Photoshop for a few years, and now I got to actually try it out. Mind: blown.
As for Still to Motion, we were given our first "go out and shoot some video" assignment: fifteen to twenty clips, any length, and with good audio. Which means not using the built-in mic on the camera. Those little things are okay, but you really want to have good audio--so external mics it is!
That day, I got an email from NSCAD, saying that "the following items are still required to make your application complete." The "items" in question were transcripts. They didn't specify which ones, but as my post-secondary transcript was sent directly from NBCCD by the registrar about a week-and-a-half before the deadline, I knew that it was my lack of a high school transcript that was driving the university up the wall. So I emailed them, explaining the situation.
Wednesday: Field trip! Karen took us to Gallery Connexion, which is "Fredericton's only artist-run center." They show a lot of work that most other galleries won't show: "From its inception in 1984, Gallery Connexion has supported politically and socially engaged art through a range of programming initiatives such as exhibitions, performances, special projects, and workshops." The current show is Tokyo Hotel Story, which is a photography show that was shot in one of the "S&M 'love hotels'" in that city. The photos were all shot on film, and the photographer, Nathalie Daoust, manipulated them in the darkroom to change the colours.
Although I liked my research class right from the start, I'm really starting to love it. I'm getting to fill in what I see as gaps in my education, like model releases and alternatives to printing out my photos and sticking them in an Itoya portfolio (although those portfolios are gorgeous and a hard-copy portfolio is very professional, sometimes I don't want or need to present a physical version). And Drew's going to show us some of his research techniques this week!
Another thing that I love about that course is because everyone's working on something different, we get to share what we've learned not only with Drew, but with each other. And it's all practical stuff, like figuring out what the best printer for your purposes/budget is, the ins and outs of work for hire, etc.
Thursday: We finally got to see what everyone has been up to in the last few weeks. Although I didn't have anything to present, I still talked a bit about my project. I wanted my classmates to know what I'm up to. And I didn't want to feel left out, as everyone else was talking about their projects and showing some of the photos they shot for said projects.
As I was headed home that day, I asked Peter for an early appointment--he gave me the first one of the afternoon. As soon as I sat down, he nailed me for not backing up my stuff, as even the hardiest hard drive (I have a LaCie Rugged) can fail. I have to admit that I felt a bit like when I get in trouble with my parents (which doesn't happen very often): the height of uncomfortableness. Ouch. Starting this week, I'm going to get into the habit of tossing my RAW files and school assignments on my school computer account, as those are the most important files on my external hard drive. Eventually I'll get a second external and use it for Time Machine.
As usual, Mom met me in the studio, and we stopped at my place to grab my stuff before heading home.
We talked politics most of the way, specifically Bill C-11 (Copyright Act). Neither of us likes Harper, though Mom's views are centrist, and mine are fairly far-left. I also read a lot more politics news--which meant that she got a crash-course in Harper's latest bit of mischief.
Friday: And as usual, I wasn't fully unpacked and ready for the weekend until the day after I arrived home.
I called NSCAD late that morning: turns out, they waived the requirement for a high school transcript for me. **phew!** That makes my life a lot easier, as I don't have to fight NSCAD.
I spent the rest of the day working on homework, and then I skyped with Helen that evening (we talked about writing, as I considered doing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. I decided not to, as I'd have to start all the way back in first year again). Helen always tells me to say "hi" to my parents for her, but as I was home this weekend, Helen got to say "hi" to them for real.
Saturday: Tom and I planned to shoot my Still to Motion assignment that morning, but the wind was picking up, even at 7:30, so we postponed the shoot until Sunday. And I went back to bed.
When I got up again, I worked on my independent-study project for Peter's class, and I spent an hour or two trying to get the plug-ins that I downloaded a few days ago from Adobe's website to work. DRRRREEEEEEWWWWWW!! HELP!
As usual, I listened to the opera--and that opera deserves a paragraph or three of gushing.
This week, the Met performed Anna Bolena, which is the same opera that opened the current season, and that I saw in the movie theatre back in October. Those two other times that I listened to/watched it, I felt that Anna Netrebko was holding back, vocally. Her voice sounded like it kept skidding into a brick wall, and that she could've given her singing more power--that brick wall shouldn't have been there. Though to be fair, the title role of that opera is an extremely difficult one, as it calls for a lot of singing in the chest register, and that singing is very loud.
However, I didn't hear that in her voice on Saturday: she sang it exactly as I wished she had four or five months ago. Her voice sounded very free, like she was giving herself permission to finally go all-out.
During the opera, I had a few moments where I knew I was hearing something special. And I, too, wanted to shout, "brava!" (which some members of the audience did) a couple times. After the performance ended, I kept thinking, "wow!," and I couldn't help sharing my happiness with Mom and Tom. Though, as I listened to the opera on my earbuds, they missed out on a performance that I will probably look back on as one of the best that I've ever heard.
That day, I published a blog-post inspired by Mom's and my conversation on Thursday, which you can read here. Don't mess with me, Harper!
Sunday: I finally shot my Still to Motion assignment! It took all day, but hopefully it was worth it.
I also finished my Imagery homework, and worked on my homework for Peter's class, which I'd been working on all weekend.
As my family hasn't had satellite TV for a couple years, Tom and I caught Super Bowl updates online, using the Guardian's live-blog page. I wasn't thrilled about the Patriots losing (21 - 17). Oh, well--there's always next year...
Monday: I submitted my ArtsNB scholarship application before class.
This past week, we started another assignment (we collected images last week), and spent most of the class working on it. For me, that meant making transfers. Let's just say that although transfer pens are easy to use, and produce great results, those things stink! **cough-cough**
Tuesday: Yay for 3D! In Photoshop, that is. Just when I start to wonder, "is there anything new and exciting that Drew can throw at us?," it turns out that there is! I've been curious about doing 3D in Photoshop for a few years, and now I got to actually try it out. Mind: blown.
As for Still to Motion, we were given our first "go out and shoot some video" assignment: fifteen to twenty clips, any length, and with good audio. Which means not using the built-in mic on the camera. Those little things are okay, but you really want to have good audio--so external mics it is!
That day, I got an email from NSCAD, saying that "the following items are still required to make your application complete." The "items" in question were transcripts. They didn't specify which ones, but as my post-secondary transcript was sent directly from NBCCD by the registrar about a week-and-a-half before the deadline, I knew that it was my lack of a high school transcript that was driving the university up the wall. So I emailed them, explaining the situation.
Wednesday: Field trip! Karen took us to Gallery Connexion, which is "Fredericton's only artist-run center." They show a lot of work that most other galleries won't show: "From its inception in 1984, Gallery Connexion has supported politically and socially engaged art through a range of programming initiatives such as exhibitions, performances, special projects, and workshops." The current show is Tokyo Hotel Story, which is a photography show that was shot in one of the "S&M 'love hotels'" in that city. The photos were all shot on film, and the photographer, Nathalie Daoust, manipulated them in the darkroom to change the colours.
Although I liked my research class right from the start, I'm really starting to love it. I'm getting to fill in what I see as gaps in my education, like model releases and alternatives to printing out my photos and sticking them in an Itoya portfolio (although those portfolios are gorgeous and a hard-copy portfolio is very professional, sometimes I don't want or need to present a physical version). And Drew's going to show us some of his research techniques this week!
Another thing that I love about that course is because everyone's working on something different, we get to share what we've learned not only with Drew, but with each other. And it's all practical stuff, like figuring out what the best printer for your purposes/budget is, the ins and outs of work for hire, etc.
Thursday: We finally got to see what everyone has been up to in the last few weeks. Although I didn't have anything to present, I still talked a bit about my project. I wanted my classmates to know what I'm up to. And I didn't want to feel left out, as everyone else was talking about their projects and showing some of the photos they shot for said projects.
As I was headed home that day, I asked Peter for an early appointment--he gave me the first one of the afternoon. As soon as I sat down, he nailed me for not backing up my stuff, as even the hardiest hard drive (I have a LaCie Rugged) can fail. I have to admit that I felt a bit like when I get in trouble with my parents (which doesn't happen very often): the height of uncomfortableness. Ouch. Starting this week, I'm going to get into the habit of tossing my RAW files and school assignments on my school computer account, as those are the most important files on my external hard drive. Eventually I'll get a second external and use it for Time Machine.
As usual, Mom met me in the studio, and we stopped at my place to grab my stuff before heading home.
We talked politics most of the way, specifically Bill C-11 (Copyright Act). Neither of us likes Harper, though Mom's views are centrist, and mine are fairly far-left. I also read a lot more politics news--which meant that she got a crash-course in Harper's latest bit of mischief.
Friday: And as usual, I wasn't fully unpacked and ready for the weekend until the day after I arrived home.
I called NSCAD late that morning: turns out, they waived the requirement for a high school transcript for me. **phew!** That makes my life a lot easier, as I don't have to fight NSCAD.
I spent the rest of the day working on homework, and then I skyped with Helen that evening (we talked about writing, as I considered doing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. I decided not to, as I'd have to start all the way back in first year again). Helen always tells me to say "hi" to my parents for her, but as I was home this weekend, Helen got to say "hi" to them for real.
Saturday: Tom and I planned to shoot my Still to Motion assignment that morning, but the wind was picking up, even at 7:30, so we postponed the shoot until Sunday. And I went back to bed.
When I got up again, I worked on my independent-study project for Peter's class, and I spent an hour or two trying to get the plug-ins that I downloaded a few days ago from Adobe's website to work. DRRRREEEEEEWWWWWW!! HELP!
As usual, I listened to the opera--and that opera deserves a paragraph or three of gushing.
This week, the Met performed Anna Bolena, which is the same opera that opened the current season, and that I saw in the movie theatre back in October. Those two other times that I listened to/watched it, I felt that Anna Netrebko was holding back, vocally. Her voice sounded like it kept skidding into a brick wall, and that she could've given her singing more power--that brick wall shouldn't have been there. Though to be fair, the title role of that opera is an extremely difficult one, as it calls for a lot of singing in the chest register, and that singing is very loud.
However, I didn't hear that in her voice on Saturday: she sang it exactly as I wished she had four or five months ago. Her voice sounded very free, like she was giving herself permission to finally go all-out.
During the opera, I had a few moments where I knew I was hearing something special. And I, too, wanted to shout, "brava!" (which some members of the audience did) a couple times. After the performance ended, I kept thinking, "wow!," and I couldn't help sharing my happiness with Mom and Tom. Though, as I listened to the opera on my earbuds, they missed out on a performance that I will probably look back on as one of the best that I've ever heard.
That day, I published a blog-post inspired by Mom's and my conversation on Thursday, which you can read here. Don't mess with me, Harper!
Sunday: I finally shot my Still to Motion assignment! It took all day, but hopefully it was worth it.
I also finished my Imagery homework, and worked on my homework for Peter's class, which I'd been working on all weekend.
As my family hasn't had satellite TV for a couple years, Tom and I caught Super Bowl updates online, using the Guardian's live-blog page. I wasn't thrilled about the Patriots losing (21 - 17). Oh, well--there's always next year...
Saturday, April 23, 2011
How do you fill all that free time at the end of the year? With creative awesomeness!
This coming week there are only two days on which I ABSOLUTELY have to be at school. But on those other days I'll probably end up at the college anyway.
Monday: My last Photoshop class for the year. :-( That day we finished our pages for the magazine and handed them in. We also chose dates and times for assessments with Drew (mine's on Thursday afternoon).
In the morning I asked him to cut another mat for me, and after class my classmates and I hung our show at City Hall.
Tuesday: I didn't have class in the morning. And Photo History wasn't so much about the history of photography as it was about getting ready for the show--everything from Karen handing out stickers with our artist statements and bios on them (they went next to our non-tableaux vivant), to Chelsea curling Karen's hair with a straightening iron.
That afternoon we also found out that two of the photos from the show had been censored by City Hall. One of them depicted a dark version of the Last Supper. The other, an S&M scene. Both photos were removed from the show after the opening.
This was my first opening where I was one of the artists, and not just a viewer. Because of that, I found it a little awkward (what do I do?), but it was still a really good opening. It wasn't too crazy, either, which I liked (some openings can be really crowded and loud).
Wednesday: That morning I had my assessment with Peter, which went well. We talked about my independent project and he critiqued the portfolio that I'd produced after all that hard work (a couple of pieces could've been taken out, which would've strengthened said portfolio), as well as asking me what my plans are for the foreseeable future (I'm still figuring that out).
Late that afternoon I met with Anne-Marie and Hannah Nissen (Surface Design major) to finish our cardboard chairs for Design. Let's just say that our chair is never going to behave the way we want it to... Oh, well: we tried.
Thursday: That day, all I had were two assessments (Karen's in the morning, Rod's in the afternoon)--and one heck of a cleaning job. Both assessments went well, and after my assessment with Rod, I dove in and started cleaning out my shelf in the studio--while listening to Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor). After dumping a whole lot of stuff (mostly foamcore), I still had a large Bean bag that was so heavy that I only made it as far as the Kings Place Mall before calling a cab.
Rod told me that he'd come across my blog--and he liked it. Like Peter and Karen, he said that there was a definite voice behind my writing. So Rod, if you're reading this, hi!
In the evening, I got a note via Facebook from Peter (he sent it to all the members of the photo studio's Facebook group): he's having a potluck/party this Tuesday (which happens to be his birthday). Right away, I decided that I'll bring vegetarian burgers (preferably homemade--here's the recipe I'm going to use. I plan on doubling it.). I might bring something to drink, and I'll definitely bring my violin. From Peter's message: "Bring friends, intoxicants, food, instruments and good cheer."
Friday: Although I didn't have class yesterday, I still managed to be fairly busy. Yes, I took my sweet time that morning (though I got started on whipping my violin--which hasn't been played much in the last eight months--into shape for Tuesday's potluck: I don't want to have to tune it every couple minutes. I'm going to tune and play it every day between now and Tuesday: welcome to violin tuning boot camp.), but once the afternoon hit, I didn't stop. Most importantly, I paid my first-ever visit to WhiteFeather's studio. I'd been wanting to visit since FVA year, but couldn't due to the workload and life getting in the way (the usual). But it was worth the wait. WhiteFeather spent most of my visit scrubbing her worktable (today's lesson: the edge of a playing card makes a good scrubbing tool). I had a blast exploring the room that is StudioASAP (formerly Studio 4ward), chatting with WhiteFeather as well as asking questions about the art that I discovered, some of which was made during her time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and much of which I recognized from her blog (either because she'd posted a photo or because she'd written about the piece in question).
If I'm into a topic, I'm fairly good at retaining information. However, I often don't realize how much I've remembered until I'm using that information in conversation. My visit to StudioASAP was one of those times: I recognized several pieces because I'd read about them in WhiteFeather's blog (hot ticket), and I commented on them. She told me about the pieces in question, the successes and failures, and how she's thinking of using the failed creations in the future.
Afterwards, I went to the college (which is literally a hop, skip and a jump from StudioASAP) and started work on my own project. I won't say much (or anything at all) due to the fact that because this is a public blog, anyone could read this, and I don't want the people that this project is intended for to read about it before they've seen said project. However, I will say that it's a thank-you present.
Today I plan to shop for ingredients for the burgers (I need black beans, walnuts, a red onion and canned corn--not the creamy kind), and will make them some point between today and Monday (I have a feeling that the flavour will be better if they sit for a day or so).
Monday: My last Photoshop class for the year. :-( That day we finished our pages for the magazine and handed them in. We also chose dates and times for assessments with Drew (mine's on Thursday afternoon).
In the morning I asked him to cut another mat for me, and after class my classmates and I hung our show at City Hall.
Tuesday: I didn't have class in the morning. And Photo History wasn't so much about the history of photography as it was about getting ready for the show--everything from Karen handing out stickers with our artist statements and bios on them (they went next to our non-tableaux vivant), to Chelsea curling Karen's hair with a straightening iron.
That afternoon we also found out that two of the photos from the show had been censored by City Hall. One of them depicted a dark version of the Last Supper. The other, an S&M scene. Both photos were removed from the show after the opening.
 |
| CENSORED: The Last Parody, by Anne-Marie Rolf and Roger Flanagan |
 |
| CENSORED: Because Whips and Chains Excite Me, by Emily Jackson |
 |
| Snow White's Sister (Snow White 2)--my tableau |
 |
| Rusted Ripples--my non-tableau. The guy on the left is Peter, by the way. |
Wednesday: That morning I had my assessment with Peter, which went well. We talked about my independent project and he critiqued the portfolio that I'd produced after all that hard work (a couple of pieces could've been taken out, which would've strengthened said portfolio), as well as asking me what my plans are for the foreseeable future (I'm still figuring that out).
Late that afternoon I met with Anne-Marie and Hannah Nissen (Surface Design major) to finish our cardboard chairs for Design. Let's just say that our chair is never going to behave the way we want it to... Oh, well: we tried.
Thursday: That day, all I had were two assessments (Karen's in the morning, Rod's in the afternoon)--and one heck of a cleaning job. Both assessments went well, and after my assessment with Rod, I dove in and started cleaning out my shelf in the studio--while listening to Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor). After dumping a whole lot of stuff (mostly foamcore), I still had a large Bean bag that was so heavy that I only made it as far as the Kings Place Mall before calling a cab.
Rod told me that he'd come across my blog--and he liked it. Like Peter and Karen, he said that there was a definite voice behind my writing. So Rod, if you're reading this, hi!
In the evening, I got a note via Facebook from Peter (he sent it to all the members of the photo studio's Facebook group): he's having a potluck/party this Tuesday (which happens to be his birthday). Right away, I decided that I'll bring vegetarian burgers (preferably homemade--here's the recipe I'm going to use. I plan on doubling it.). I might bring something to drink, and I'll definitely bring my violin. From Peter's message: "Bring friends, intoxicants, food, instruments and good cheer."
Friday: Although I didn't have class yesterday, I still managed to be fairly busy. Yes, I took my sweet time that morning (though I got started on whipping my violin--which hasn't been played much in the last eight months--into shape for Tuesday's potluck: I don't want to have to tune it every couple minutes. I'm going to tune and play it every day between now and Tuesday: welcome to violin tuning boot camp.), but once the afternoon hit, I didn't stop. Most importantly, I paid my first-ever visit to WhiteFeather's studio. I'd been wanting to visit since FVA year, but couldn't due to the workload and life getting in the way (the usual). But it was worth the wait. WhiteFeather spent most of my visit scrubbing her worktable (today's lesson: the edge of a playing card makes a good scrubbing tool). I had a blast exploring the room that is StudioASAP (formerly Studio 4ward), chatting with WhiteFeather as well as asking questions about the art that I discovered, some of which was made during her time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and much of which I recognized from her blog (either because she'd posted a photo or because she'd written about the piece in question).
If I'm into a topic, I'm fairly good at retaining information. However, I often don't realize how much I've remembered until I'm using that information in conversation. My visit to StudioASAP was one of those times: I recognized several pieces because I'd read about them in WhiteFeather's blog (hot ticket), and I commented on them. She told me about the pieces in question, the successes and failures, and how she's thinking of using the failed creations in the future.
Afterwards, I went to the college (which is literally a hop, skip and a jump from StudioASAP) and started work on my own project. I won't say much (or anything at all) due to the fact that because this is a public blog, anyone could read this, and I don't want the people that this project is intended for to read about it before they've seen said project. However, I will say that it's a thank-you present.
 | ||
| WhiteFeather scrubbing away in her studio. |
 | ||
| Some of the awesome stuff I discovered in WhiteFeather's studio, including a piece of plexiglass that she etched by machine (she made the design in Adobe Illustrator). |
 | ||
| Some more awesome stuff. |
 |
| Wouldn't you love to have a floor like this?! The floor of StudioASAP (and my feet). |
Sunday, March 20, 2011
making art/viewing art
I can't believe how little homework I have this week: making a Lightroom web gallery of the photos that I shot for my Lighting assignment (due Tuesday--I have the photos picked out, and I've made enough web galleries at this point that I could make one in my sleep), choosing two or three things for a panel assessment (also Tuesday--done), choosing photos for the first year students' show at City Hall (I'll run it by Karen, but I'm leaning towards one or other of my junkyard photos) and doing research for a presentation, collecting cardboard, and making a mock-up, all of which is for Design (due Friday). I started the research on Friday night--I might profile Chris Burden, who seems like a really wacky guy: in addition to sculptural work, he's also done some really crazy (and I do mean crazy--some of it's downright dangerous) performance art.
Mom and I rolled into Freddytown about an hour before my Photoshop class on Monday afternoon, and after dropping my stuff off in the res, we drove downtown and I dropped off a roll of film at Harvey Studios before going to class.
After class, since the weather was so darned Springlike, I decided to get a blood orange Italian soda at Read's (a newsstand/café that's popular with the students) before heading home.
Tuesday. Now that was an interesting day. Rod gave us a fill-flash assignment using one of the studio flashes with a soft box attached. Since that day was so sunny, I decided to do it over lunch. As usual, Rod let us out at eleven (class is supposed to go until twelve), so since I'd left my camera in my room at the residence, I went and got it.
I did the shoot in front of the school with Erin (one of my classmates). That is, until Adam showed up. As usual, he asked what we were doing--and asked me to take some photos of him. I agreed. We chatted as I shot the photos, bouncing back and forth between shooting and adjusting the flash (moving it around, adjusting how much light it put out). He's still interested in having me do his artist portrait (according to him, the one on his bio page on the college website is about six years old--when I look at it, I don't recognize him, which isn't a good thing). Yesterday I finally sat down and went through the photos and emailed the best to him. Hopefully we'll be able to meet at some point and come up with some ideas for the artist portrait--and then eventually shoot the darn thing. ;-)
Peter met with us on Wednesday to talk about our independent projects and see how we were doing. Originally one of the first things I was going to do was in-camera cyanotypes using one of the school's 4x5 view cameras, but Peter put a stop to that due to how long each exposure would take (somewhere in the ballpark of oh, I dunno, eight hours). Instead he suggested that I make cyanotypes from digital or film negatives (the digital photos would be made into black and white images and then inverted and printed using a regular black and white printer (not the photo printer) before being photocopied onto acetate paper).
The next day I finally dug in and chose images to work with (with help from Karen--thank you!), inverted them, printed them out, and photocopied them. I then booked the UV light table in the Surface Design studio for that afternoon and made the cyanotypes. I'm going to make more this coming Thursday afternoon, and I'll probably have to make more cyanotype paper: when I started out, I had a good number, but with the experiments that I did this week and what I'll be doing in the coming weeks, I'll definitely need to make more soon (though I have probably have enough for next Thursday).
That evening I went to the first of two show openings. This one was at the college gallery. The show features work by three of the Class of '11 students: Monica Lacey, Brody LeBlanc and Rachael Flett. Peter spoke at the opening, and while all three artists gave little speeches that kind of reminded me of an awards ceremony, Peter's was a hilarious description of what the students learn at the college--using learning how to ride a bike as an analogy. But in Peter's description, the students not only learn how to ride, they learn the history and the mechanics (and more) of the bike. I'm laughing as I write this, by the way--it was that funny. He also talked about the fact that the students eventually get to a point where they've learned all they can learn at the college--and Peter's job is done.
Once I'd had my fill of the show, I went back to the studio, fished the last couple of cyanotypes that I'd made out of the big sink that we use to wash photos--and found out that a lot of the blue had washed off. When Peter came back up to the studio a few minutes later, I showed the photos to him. Turns out, you really have to pay close attention when fixing cyanotypes: five minutes in the water should do it. We also talked about how long to expose the photos: more contrast is better, which means that from now on I'm going to expose the photos for twenty minutes, rather than fifteen. However, I've saved all the photos, jotted down notes on the back of each one, and put them all in a binder that I bought specially for my project.
The next day Gallery 78 opened their show, Our Game, AHL: Art, Hockey, Life. Since WhiteFeather was one of the artists involved (it was a group show), it was a no-brainer for me: I would be there.
While all the work was really cool, my favourites were WhiteFeather's installation (Hockey Fight in Canada) and Ann Manuel's print series (Concussed). In one of Ann's pieces you can see the county line between my home county (Charlotte County) and Kings County (where Saint John is).
The Gallery 78 opening is a good example of why I both love and hate openings: yes, more people means more stuff will be sold, which means money for the gallery and the artist(s) involved. But put a lot of people in a fairly small space (though the first floor of Gallery 78 is just over two times bigger than NBCCD's gallery), and I start to feel uncomfortable: I want to be able to move freely and not have to manoeuvre myself around and between people just because I want to look at Hockey Fight in Canada for the fifth time, or check out the work that's on the wall across from the gallery's CD player (that part of the gallery is reasonably narrow at the best of times--on Friday evening it was nearly impossible to look at the work that was hung there).
However, I had a really good conversation with WhiteFeather about art and music, and I even met the guy who composed the music for Fantasmagorie (Chris Giles--the photo's from the blog post that I commented on in my last post). And it turns out that mine was the loudest voice when it came to critiquing the music in Fantasmagorie--or whether the music should be there at all. When I critiqued it, I took advantage of my knowledge of music and went into as much nitty-gritty as I could. Here's a screen-shot of my comment if you'd like to read it:
NBCCD's openings tend to not be as big--plenty of people come, but there's room to move around and I'm a lot more relaxed and I can actually enjoy the experience.
Last night was the so-called "supermoon", and fortunately there wasn't a cloud to be seen. Before I went to bed I took a walk up and down my street and admired the brightest and biggest moon I've ever seen (it was so bright that if I looked at it for longer than a few seconds I saw spots, and I could barely see the dark patches). Since Gallery 78 isn't far from where I live, I decided to see what Hockey Fight in Canada looked like at night (when the gallery closes for the night, they turn the panels around so that people can see them right-side-around from outside). To me the images looked harsher, which isn't surprising since they were lit with artificial light. And as I'm thinking about the work now, I think I prefer the night version: the images almost need that harshness, because the subject that WhiteFeather is presenting is harsh. In the daytime, due to the light from the windows the images seem gentler--and the fights that male hockey players get into are definitely not gentle (players have died as a result of fights that they were involved in). I say "male" because although female hockey players can be brutal, they don't seem to get into as many fights as the men.
Spring doesn't officially arrive until 8:21 ADT/7:21 EDT tonight, but I still want to wish everyone a
Mom and I rolled into Freddytown about an hour before my Photoshop class on Monday afternoon, and after dropping my stuff off in the res, we drove downtown and I dropped off a roll of film at Harvey Studios before going to class.
After class, since the weather was so darned Springlike, I decided to get a blood orange Italian soda at Read's (a newsstand/café that's popular with the students) before heading home.
Tuesday. Now that was an interesting day. Rod gave us a fill-flash assignment using one of the studio flashes with a soft box attached. Since that day was so sunny, I decided to do it over lunch. As usual, Rod let us out at eleven (class is supposed to go until twelve), so since I'd left my camera in my room at the residence, I went and got it.
I did the shoot in front of the school with Erin (one of my classmates). That is, until Adam showed up. As usual, he asked what we were doing--and asked me to take some photos of him. I agreed. We chatted as I shot the photos, bouncing back and forth between shooting and adjusting the flash (moving it around, adjusting how much light it put out). He's still interested in having me do his artist portrait (according to him, the one on his bio page on the college website is about six years old--when I look at it, I don't recognize him, which isn't a good thing). Yesterday I finally sat down and went through the photos and emailed the best to him. Hopefully we'll be able to meet at some point and come up with some ideas for the artist portrait--and then eventually shoot the darn thing. ;-)
Peter met with us on Wednesday to talk about our independent projects and see how we were doing. Originally one of the first things I was going to do was in-camera cyanotypes using one of the school's 4x5 view cameras, but Peter put a stop to that due to how long each exposure would take (somewhere in the ballpark of oh, I dunno, eight hours). Instead he suggested that I make cyanotypes from digital or film negatives (the digital photos would be made into black and white images and then inverted and printed using a regular black and white printer (not the photo printer) before being photocopied onto acetate paper).
The next day I finally dug in and chose images to work with (with help from Karen--thank you!), inverted them, printed them out, and photocopied them. I then booked the UV light table in the Surface Design studio for that afternoon and made the cyanotypes. I'm going to make more this coming Thursday afternoon, and I'll probably have to make more cyanotype paper: when I started out, I had a good number, but with the experiments that I did this week and what I'll be doing in the coming weeks, I'll definitely need to make more soon (though I have probably have enough for next Thursday).
That evening I went to the first of two show openings. This one was at the college gallery. The show features work by three of the Class of '11 students: Monica Lacey, Brody LeBlanc and Rachael Flett. Peter spoke at the opening, and while all three artists gave little speeches that kind of reminded me of an awards ceremony, Peter's was a hilarious description of what the students learn at the college--using learning how to ride a bike as an analogy. But in Peter's description, the students not only learn how to ride, they learn the history and the mechanics (and more) of the bike. I'm laughing as I write this, by the way--it was that funny. He also talked about the fact that the students eventually get to a point where they've learned all they can learn at the college--and Peter's job is done.
Once I'd had my fill of the show, I went back to the studio, fished the last couple of cyanotypes that I'd made out of the big sink that we use to wash photos--and found out that a lot of the blue had washed off. When Peter came back up to the studio a few minutes later, I showed the photos to him. Turns out, you really have to pay close attention when fixing cyanotypes: five minutes in the water should do it. We also talked about how long to expose the photos: more contrast is better, which means that from now on I'm going to expose the photos for twenty minutes, rather than fifteen. However, I've saved all the photos, jotted down notes on the back of each one, and put them all in a binder that I bought specially for my project.
The next day Gallery 78 opened their show, Our Game, AHL: Art, Hockey, Life. Since WhiteFeather was one of the artists involved (it was a group show), it was a no-brainer for me: I would be there.
While all the work was really cool, my favourites were WhiteFeather's installation (Hockey Fight in Canada) and Ann Manuel's print series (Concussed). In one of Ann's pieces you can see the county line between my home county (Charlotte County) and Kings County (where Saint John is).
The Gallery 78 opening is a good example of why I both love and hate openings: yes, more people means more stuff will be sold, which means money for the gallery and the artist(s) involved. But put a lot of people in a fairly small space (though the first floor of Gallery 78 is just over two times bigger than NBCCD's gallery), and I start to feel uncomfortable: I want to be able to move freely and not have to manoeuvre myself around and between people just because I want to look at Hockey Fight in Canada for the fifth time, or check out the work that's on the wall across from the gallery's CD player (that part of the gallery is reasonably narrow at the best of times--on Friday evening it was nearly impossible to look at the work that was hung there).
However, I had a really good conversation with WhiteFeather about art and music, and I even met the guy who composed the music for Fantasmagorie (Chris Giles--the photo's from the blog post that I commented on in my last post). And it turns out that mine was the loudest voice when it came to critiquing the music in Fantasmagorie--or whether the music should be there at all. When I critiqued it, I took advantage of my knowledge of music and went into as much nitty-gritty as I could. Here's a screen-shot of my comment if you'd like to read it:
NBCCD's openings tend to not be as big--plenty of people come, but there's room to move around and I'm a lot more relaxed and I can actually enjoy the experience.
Last night was the so-called "supermoon", and fortunately there wasn't a cloud to be seen. Before I went to bed I took a walk up and down my street and admired the brightest and biggest moon I've ever seen (it was so bright that if I looked at it for longer than a few seconds I saw spots, and I could barely see the dark patches). Since Gallery 78 isn't far from where I live, I decided to see what Hockey Fight in Canada looked like at night (when the gallery closes for the night, they turn the panels around so that people can see them right-side-around from outside). To me the images looked harsher, which isn't surprising since they were lit with artificial light. And as I'm thinking about the work now, I think I prefer the night version: the images almost need that harshness, because the subject that WhiteFeather is presenting is harsh. In the daytime, due to the light from the windows the images seem gentler--and the fights that male hockey players get into are definitely not gentle (players have died as a result of fights that they were involved in). I say "male" because although female hockey players can be brutal, they don't seem to get into as many fights as the men.
Spring doesn't officially arrive until 8:21 ADT/7:21 EDT tonight, but I still want to wish everyone a
HAPPY SPRING!
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