I have finally put together my online shop on etsy! I am sill in the process of posting stuff up there but it’s getting there.
skoonberg.etsy.com
Pricing is problematic for printmakers and I am trying to get a feel fo what will sell and what I’ve got listed too high. This is something that I’ve been pretty nervous about and I guess that’s why I’ve procrastinated on it. Any advice would be appreciated.
I just got myself a new laptop. It is a Dell Inspiron Netbook Mini 12 which is essentially the sexiest laptop I have ever seen. She has a 12" monitor which is 2in smaller than my old thinkpad. The buttons are a bit smaller but I can’t really notice the difference. This is the largest Netbook yet and falls between laptop and netbook in size. It has an 80gig harddrive, 1gig of ram, 2.7 pounds AND came with windows XP! I don’t even have to deal with Vista! She is the slimmest sexiest electronic I have ever seen. I was looking into HP at home and then I saw her at Microcenter and was seduced.
You can’t see that and and not want to touch. It runs pretty cool and I believe the only downside is the lack or CD drive. That’s it. And I can buy a auxilary CD drive with a USB hookup if I need to.
I am listening to this AWESOME gig and a half of music that Adrianna gave me and I love it. I think she is one of the few people who has the same taste in music as me. Even the weird stuff that I normally don’t ever share with people. So just a shoutout to my great friend and roomate Adrianna. Thank you and it’s been awesome living with you this year. I need to figure out how to add this music from my jump drive to my Ipod without the help of a computer that has itunes. I can’t hijack my dad’s work computer that much.
I can’t seem to part ways with Livejournal. I wish I could just cut ties and be happy with that. But I am thinking I should just buy a subscription and cope that way. Even though I enojoy wordpress and I feel like it’s more profssional I like the LJ community and, well, I can’t seem to cut ties cleanly if I continue to come here 3 times a day to read my friends page.
I am graduated from college. I am back at home with my parents and tonight I have a reception to go to and earlier I went rock climbing with Brian. But I plan on visiting Athens next month to pick up some art from the Athens Academy show and I plan on making it a 2 day trip. So there will be updates on the day and visiting will happen.
I’m back on Puzzle Pirates and I missed it.
My laptop’s hardrive died today. I am sitting in a computer lab at the SLC right now. I don’t even know how I am going to deal with this. I was just on the internet and I suddenly got a strange blue screen shut down and now it won’t turn on. When I reboot it I get an error that says "disk drive error has occurred Pres Ctl+Alt+Del to restart" Which only brings up the error again. Safe mode only pulls up a sticky key error and basically I don’t have much hope at all for the poor thing.
The kicker is that I had been using my laptop while I was carving to zoom in and get things perfect. Fortunately I already printed the really difficult to see unless you tilt the laptop screen layer so working from a print-out may work out alright for me. I won’t be able to add any any additional audiobooks after I finish 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
This may mean I get an awesome laptop shaped graduation present from my folks and I certainly won’t be goofing off as much between now and graduation but trying to be positive isn’t cheering me up at all. I have a lot to do today and I am so bummed out that I can’t even function. I just want to cry and play guitar.
You were a good laptop
This print took me an entire semester to carve
edit: I forgot to mention the dimensions the piece is 18″x36″
Cross posted from http://mouse2cat.wordpress.com/ <-this is my new main blog
Well here’s my newest print in all it’s glory. It’s a huge reduction print that I whipped out in record time. I am trying to think about my work in relation to my buddhist practice and spirituality in general. Any feedback on how I could make that point more clear would be helpful. Today is also my birthday! 22!
BFA I: Graphic Design, Jewery Metals, Photography, Printmaking
Gallery 101, 307, Orbit Galleries, and 2nd Floor
On View: April 20-24, 2009 Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia.
Reception: Friday, April 24, TBA
Anyone who reads this is invited to come to the show it should be really good.
It is snowing right now and it looks beautiful. After looking at images of trees and snow for so link to inspire my art it is nice to see the real thing for once. I was such a skeptic earlier today. I mean In Georgia the weather forecasters tend to be just as hopeful as the kids in regards to predicting snow. The ground it only semi covered but it’s sticking to all the trees and some of the grass.
Hanyah wasn’t in the study hall this morning so I moved her stuff so I can sit next to the window. I don’t think she’ll mind too much. I mean she’s moved my stuff before in our perpetual well mannered battle for the window seat.
I have a lot of work to get done today and just can’t help looking out the window instead. I’ve reduced today’s goals but it’s still a lot.
In other news I am fed up with live journal and it’s restrictive blogging policies. I should be able to read any blog through it and it really pisses me off how they go about changing policies on you. If I got a no-ads deal when I signed up that should stay. Not I just don’t see the ads when I am logged in but anyone coming to read my blog does. So I am trying out WordPress. I’ve heard good things about it and it can download all my livejournal entries so it’s not like I am leaving behind 5 years worth of entries. It’s hard to change gears but I think it’s worth a try.
My wordpress blog is mouse2cat.wordpress.com and if you are saddened that you can’t view it from your LJ friends page then it is proof that LJ has let you down and it’s time to move on. I’ll cross post once in a while and I’ll still read everyone elses blogs but I am done.
I just pulled to most unsuccessful print in my entire life. This ABOMINATION is so bad that is rolls right back around to possibly interesting. This was my experimental centra carborundum collograph. I just… I just couldn’t make it happen. I believe at this point my best course of action is to throw my plate into a dumpster and walk away. Not only was it impossible in execution… It shredded to black ruined tatters 2 brand new tarlatans, took 3 hours to pull one print, I may be stained blue for life with the ink rubbed into my hands. My image as it was is no longer even recognisable… This print was hilariously bad. The amount of ink required here would have done for 15 regular intaglio prints and the gritty aquatint shredded anything I used to wipe off the ink. Including myself. I don’t even feel depressed. I mean if it hadn’t gone so poorly I might have had to spend more time with that wretched plate. I never want to see that plate again. Shit. I just want to have a beer and read some comic books.
So who all reads Claymore? Because this month’s chapter was made of so much creepy win I am dying to talk about it with someone. You know who you are. I am really excited about the series even if he is the LAZIEST manga artist in history. Strategic use of shadows I swear.
Something I really enjoy about Japanese storytelling is how the roles of protagonist and antagonist are fluid. Sometimes who you believe to be a ally is really the worst antagonist and sometimes the "villian" ends up becoming sympathetic or joining with the hero. I see this particularly well done in the Claymore series in themes of human as a monster and noble monster. Layers of misunderstanding that reveal a much more complex character dynamic. Something a lot of western authors use in a more static way. I like the idea of characters changing during the course of the story and how that continues to affect the story and it’s conclusion.
Ta daa! I finished my Adv Print class with a bang this semester! This print is 24 inches x 36 inches (freaking huge)
I just had to share! 
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3022
I have recently discovered a group that records audio files of public domain books. It’s great! I just play them from my laptop while I am carving so I don’t get as bored or distracted. Today I was listening to “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde” read by a delightful British voice.
Also I have a newly photographed print to share!
So for some reason my printmaking projects are giving me a lot more anxiety than usual. Of course there is a lot of reasons and I am doing much more ambitious prints than before but that doesn’t reduce this gut sinking feelings of anxiety I am having over these prints. I think working on 2 prints at once doesn’t help either but that’s what I get for taking 2 print classes. I end up really liking one and then sort of pushing through the other. I know it’s a mood and I will feel better about them especially once I can get some ink on paper and they do look good. Ugh I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. Of course anxiety is often a combination of feelings and I am more and more worried about my decision to try and make it as an artist. I mean it sounds brave and good but when you are REALLY making art to the best of your ability, failure is no longer a business issue but personal. Failure is something that I have struggled with for years, I am not terribly good at pulling myself together after a bad go and it’s something I have been trying to work on in my life. So I work hard in school and always make good grades and there have been only a few instances where I have had to grapple with this fear. So like any good phobia I am good at avoiding the issue. I want to be a successful artist and I want to be able to support myself doing art. I just wish it wasn’t so uncertain. So I guess I feel like a lot is at stake with my current prints more so than is actually there.
On the positive side we got my room outfitted with a nice drafting table so I can work in my room and have a decent workspace. On the downside it means it’s just me and the internet alone in my room. A recipe for disaster procrastination. I have been reading SMBC comics to cheer myself up but I am out of strips and I could use more crack.
Ok so I have a Deviantart account and I post up my stuff there like any good 13 year old would. So apparently they have something called “Daily Deviations” where moderators feature selected pieces every day. Apparently this is a pretty big deal and it directs a lot of people to your art. So my latest print got Daily Deviation yesterday and I went from being almost unnoticed to Jesus Christ linoprint superstar. I got 3,000 pageviews yesterday and 380 something favorites. Freaking awesome! I am like 6th top linoprint of all time on deviant. Lino is a pretty small category but I am still pretty excited about it.
Yesterday my roommate informed me that I talk in my sleep EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. She’s a night owl and usually gets to bed well after I’m asleep while in the past my roommates went to bed before me. I knew I talked in my sleep before now from sleepovers and stuff but I guess I had no idea how frequent it was. Ambili said that it usually isn’t a lot of talking generally just a sentence or something then I’ll be quiet again. I guess if you don’t have someone awake in your room to hear you you’ll never know. Does anyone know what causes people talk in their sleep and is it a problem (other than waking up light sleepers)? I know sleepwalking can be a sign of other issues.
I am sitting here carving and I would rather be doing something anything else right now. I am trying to think of art as my zen practice and it isn’t coming easily at the moment. I have been having some technical issues with the presses and I am going to have to resolve them before I print this layer I am working on. I just am having my paper shift a lot inside the press and I am pretty sure this is connected to pressure but I feel like I can’t seem to get it right.
This lovely piece has been my recent source of agony. I am really excited with how well it came out and maybe it is my best print so far. The print is 18″x18″ and it took me ungodly amounts of time to carve it. I am trying to think about Zen Buddhism in this piece and my own personal search through zen. The actual paper is much tanner than this looks. I had to adjust the colors a lot to make it look like I didn’t Photoshop together 6 scanned sections. Needless to say my teacher is pretty darn excited and I would love some feedback from my LJ friends!
ADVERTISEMENTS?! on MY livejournal? I have to be logged on not to see them… this is pissing me off and I know they weren’t here earlier this week. I thought us original LJ members were exempt from their advertising disaster. I guess they weren’t making enough money on the fist batch and they had to broaden their base. It’s not cool because even though I can’t see them when I’m logged in I won’t want to direct people to my blog because I wouldn’t want my readers to see the ads.
FUCK
I heard some good things about bloglines if you are looking for an alternative to LJ and as a plus you can subscribe to all your friends journals no mater who hosts them.
I spent 12 hours in the studio today bleargh
I also found a really cute stop animation film about puzzle pirates.
So my website is now more of a fetus and less of an embryo. As in it has a long way to go but at least it’s online with more than 3 pictures.
I also managed to scan and upload
My lovely print
It is 4AM and I am in a lot of pain. I don’t understand but I suppose it feels like a really bad bone ache mostly in my legs. I have experienced intermittent night time leg pain for as long as I remember. It’s been a long time since I have had it and I don’t think it’s ever hurt this much before. This is how I imagine polio feels like. Rubbing my legs doesn’t help at all because it really is the bones that hurt. I can barely walk at the moment and my hands are shaking. Add that on top of a pulsing headache and I am just a shaky quivering mess. I have no medicine at all and I don’t feel good about waking people up at this time of night to ask them. But if this gets much worse I might need to wake up my RA and get some help.
If it feels any better I am going to try and sleep again.
*edit*
feeling a lot better… God bless the distracting powers of the internet.
Ok so most all of you know or have heard me mention that I am a printmaker but I don’t know if many have a clear idea of what that is. Here is a SWEET little interactive tool to make it all clear.
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/whatisaprint/flash.html
I was able to wiggle out of work half an hour early and was hoping to catch my family before they all ran off to the movies. They were going to see Wall-E and they must have left early to get seats and they also turned off their cell phones early too it seems. I would have been able to make it toooo! I suppose I will get to see it with Brian but I don’t want to wait any longer. I actually had a perfect day at the pool. It was relaxing and fun and finished off with a storm. I even got to jump in and dunk my favorite 11 year old.
So I had a meeting this morning at 6:30 for work. Pretty early I know. So my alarm is going off I put it on snooze but the alarm simply decided to turn off and I woke up 10 minutes before the meeting. I run to the car drive over to the neighborhood where the pool is at and manage to get completely turned around in the neighborhood. Apparently there are multiple entrances from sandy plains and I didn’t take the one I thought I had. Spend 10 minutes driving around INSIDE the neighborhood and manage to find the pool. I park the car and run to the meeting. I then trip and skidd along the ground at a pretty high speed. I skinned my knee badly destroyed my jeans and scratched my cell up. And just to make my morning better I got to preform a CPR refresher on my busted knee at the meeting. Now I have a few hours before I get to go to work for 9 hours.
I might be a little repetitive with my endorsement here but everyone needs to read Fullmetal Alchemist. It has climbed its way to the very top of my manga list and if you saw the sad excuse of an anime called Fullmetal Alchemist you do not know what you are missing. I am giving the anime a hard time because it only tells about 1/4 of the story. In the meantime the real story is still going and getting better every month. Look guys you don’t even have to download anything.
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/
I promise you will be hooked and then I can have someone to squeal with when more awesomeness happens. Consider it a civic duty.