Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Animals
This morning I was set up with InDesign. I recently applied for this job at Williams and Sonoma and it requires a basic level of CS work.
I decided to make a Crested Gecko care sheet because I'm not sure if I told you all, but my gecko laid eggs and the eggs hatched and yeah. So now I'm a gecko farmer. Here is the first draft of my care sheet in all of it's unrefined glory. Just 2 hours of blindly bumping around the program.
I also finished a pair of shoes, but the thing is, the patron wants to be surprised, so I don't think I should post pictures until he gets them in the mail. The lame thing is that I haven't even shipped out the box yet, so it probably won't be for a while.
Other than that, I haven't really done anything worth while except for some weird and random drawings in my sketchbook.
I'll post the shoes as soon as I can though. They really turned out exceptionally well.
--Katie
I decided to make a Crested Gecko care sheet because I'm not sure if I told you all, but my gecko laid eggs and the eggs hatched and yeah. So now I'm a gecko farmer. Here is the first draft of my care sheet in all of it's unrefined glory. Just 2 hours of blindly bumping around the program.
I also finished a pair of shoes, but the thing is, the patron wants to be surprised, so I don't think I should post pictures until he gets them in the mail. The lame thing is that I haven't even shipped out the box yet, so it probably won't be for a while.
Other than that, I haven't really done anything worth while except for some weird and random drawings in my sketchbook.
I'll post the shoes as soon as I can though. They really turned out exceptionally well.
--Katie
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
"I'm Not Dead- A Memoir" (WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES)
And when I say that, I actually mean that I am not dead, because last week there was a reasonably real chance that I would be.
I finally found an apartment in San Francisco with my cousin (who is currently staying there by himself). I took the time on Monday to move all of my ish out of my friend's parent's garage and finally get some sort of settled in.
I spent all of Monday moving and by the time I got back to Alameda I has zero energy left to do anything but have a glass of wine and pass the fuck out. I woke up ungodly early with a pain in my throat. Now I'm not stranger to sickness, it seems as though every year or so I am struck with a debilitating illness, but this was unlike anything I had experienced. It wasn't super painful, but enough to wake me up. It sort of felt like a bee sting or something. So I laid there until it was a reasonable hour, had some tea, and tried to relax until Julia's mom drove to the BART station.
Things were getting a bit worse after that, I thought to myself "okay I'm definitely getting sick" though still only experiencing the symptoms of a sore throat. Growing more and more uncomfortable, I realized, to my horror, that I had gotten on the wrong train and was headed to Castro Valley (seriously, who messes up BART?). Anyways, I ended up spending an extra 30 minutes on the train, and to my dismay, my condition was rapidly worsening. By the time I got to the Union City stop I could hardly swallow without my eyes watering with tears. I stopped into the nearest convenient store and chugged a hot coffee, but this seemed to be the last thing my body wanted.
I had an hour layover for my Dumbarton bus and I spent most of that time curled up in the fetal position next to a tree using my book bag as a pillow, occasionally sitting up to spit on the ground ( I could no longer swallow at this point). Meanwhile the rest of my body was beginning to feel terrible.
The bus finally arrived and I sat there trying not to drool all over myself. Still, I was mostly just REALLY uncomfortable. I texted Sam and asked her if she had any antiseptic at her house since that's where I was going. I postulated that maybe I was having an allergic reaction (to what I have no idea, the only thing I had consumed in the past 24 hours besides the coffee had been tea, pears, dried mango slices and almonds). I had no choice but to endure for the rest of the ride.
About 15 minutes later, I was sobbing quietly, drooling all over the floor of the bus (I know, gross, but I didn't really have much choice). I can't even describe how much pain I was in. I thought back to every rugby injury, every illness I had. I compared every time I thought "This is absolutely the worst" and it didn't even come close. Minute by minute I was sweating, clawing at the seat in front of me. I could not sit still. Every once in a while I let out a cry until finally I couldn't hold it in. I was literally yelling and writhing in agony on the bus, praying for death.
I managed to get off the bus and choke out to some poor passerby "Where is urgent care?" she replied that it was just down the street.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to call 911?"
"No! I'm okay!"
(Aside: no one is ever allowed to call an ambulance for me. Unless I am dead or clearly dying. Otherwise, I will hate you forever because an ambulance ride is fucking expensive as shit)
After wandering around Palo Alto like a crazy person, drooling and wheezing trying to discern my blackberry navigation to get me to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. I staggered in the front door and was almost immediately taken back to see a doctor.
"So what's going on?"
*points to throat*
"Well I'm just going to have a look here"
Convinced he was going to find my throat actually on fire and oozing acid, imagine my surprise when he said
"Your throat seems fine"
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." (NOTE:ACTUAL WORDS)
"I'm not kidding."
I was then taken up to see the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor who stuck a scope up my nose and found this.
So, apparently, this is what Epiglottitis looks like. I'll save you the trip, according to Wikipedia, Epiglottitis "is inflammation of the epiglottis - the flap that sits at the base of the tongue, which keeps food from going into the trachea (windpipe). Due to its place in the airway, swelling of this structure can interfere with breathing and constitutes a medical emergency. The infection can cause the epiglottis to either obstruct or completely close off the windpipe."
it goes on...
So that large swollen thing in the picture was my epiglottis rapidly expanding to shut off my windpipe. I was immediately taken (in a wheelchair, which was awesome) to a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV of Benedryl, steroids, and some antibiotics.
My fever increased during the 5 hours I was there and the doctor had a heart-to-heart with me.
"You don't seem to be improving, in fact, you're doing worse"
"mmmhmmmmm"
"I think it's best that we send you to the hospital over night"
"How much is that going to cost?"
"I'm not sure but, I'll be frank with you, this could kill you."
"Hospital sounds good"
Ironically, I did have to ride over in an ambulance, but as my EMT friends Jared and Paul explained, there is no way I'd pay for it. I felt kind of sad for them. But mostly happy for me.
Here is Jared taking my blood pressure in the ambulance
And here I am, thinking of you all, documenting my experience
So there I stayed. As you can guess, my condition steadily improved and the next day my epiglottis looked like this...
Obviously no longer life-threatening. Anyways, that's pretty much the whole story. I actually have more to post, but I wanted to get this one out there. Since I still have no job I'll probably be updating sometime tomorrow.
--Katie
I finally found an apartment in San Francisco with my cousin (who is currently staying there by himself). I took the time on Monday to move all of my ish out of my friend's parent's garage and finally get some sort of settled in.
I spent all of Monday moving and by the time I got back to Alameda I has zero energy left to do anything but have a glass of wine and pass the fuck out. I woke up ungodly early with a pain in my throat. Now I'm not stranger to sickness, it seems as though every year or so I am struck with a debilitating illness, but this was unlike anything I had experienced. It wasn't super painful, but enough to wake me up. It sort of felt like a bee sting or something. So I laid there until it was a reasonable hour, had some tea, and tried to relax until Julia's mom drove to the BART station.
Things were getting a bit worse after that, I thought to myself "okay I'm definitely getting sick" though still only experiencing the symptoms of a sore throat. Growing more and more uncomfortable, I realized, to my horror, that I had gotten on the wrong train and was headed to Castro Valley (seriously, who messes up BART?). Anyways, I ended up spending an extra 30 minutes on the train, and to my dismay, my condition was rapidly worsening. By the time I got to the Union City stop I could hardly swallow without my eyes watering with tears. I stopped into the nearest convenient store and chugged a hot coffee, but this seemed to be the last thing my body wanted.
I had an hour layover for my Dumbarton bus and I spent most of that time curled up in the fetal position next to a tree using my book bag as a pillow, occasionally sitting up to spit on the ground ( I could no longer swallow at this point). Meanwhile the rest of my body was beginning to feel terrible.
The bus finally arrived and I sat there trying not to drool all over myself. Still, I was mostly just REALLY uncomfortable. I texted Sam and asked her if she had any antiseptic at her house since that's where I was going. I postulated that maybe I was having an allergic reaction (to what I have no idea, the only thing I had consumed in the past 24 hours besides the coffee had been tea, pears, dried mango slices and almonds). I had no choice but to endure for the rest of the ride.
About 15 minutes later, I was sobbing quietly, drooling all over the floor of the bus (I know, gross, but I didn't really have much choice). I can't even describe how much pain I was in. I thought back to every rugby injury, every illness I had. I compared every time I thought "This is absolutely the worst" and it didn't even come close. Minute by minute I was sweating, clawing at the seat in front of me. I could not sit still. Every once in a while I let out a cry until finally I couldn't hold it in. I was literally yelling and writhing in agony on the bus, praying for death.
I managed to get off the bus and choke out to some poor passerby "Where is urgent care?" she replied that it was just down the street.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to call 911?"
"No! I'm okay!"
(Aside: no one is ever allowed to call an ambulance for me. Unless I am dead or clearly dying. Otherwise, I will hate you forever because an ambulance ride is fucking expensive as shit)
After wandering around Palo Alto like a crazy person, drooling and wheezing trying to discern my blackberry navigation to get me to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. I staggered in the front door and was almost immediately taken back to see a doctor.
"So what's going on?"
*points to throat*
"Well I'm just going to have a look here"
Convinced he was going to find my throat actually on fire and oozing acid, imagine my surprise when he said
"Your throat seems fine"
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." (NOTE:ACTUAL WORDS)
"I'm not kidding."
I was then taken up to see the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor who stuck a scope up my nose and found this.
So, apparently, this is what Epiglottitis looks like. I'll save you the trip, according to Wikipedia, Epiglottitis "is inflammation of the epiglottis - the flap that sits at the base of the tongue, which keeps food from going into the trachea (windpipe). Due to its place in the airway, swelling of this structure can interfere with breathing and constitutes a medical emergency. The infection can cause the epiglottis to either obstruct or completely close off the windpipe."
it goes on...
So that large swollen thing in the picture was my epiglottis rapidly expanding to shut off my windpipe. I was immediately taken (in a wheelchair, which was awesome) to a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV of Benedryl, steroids, and some antibiotics.
My fever increased during the 5 hours I was there and the doctor had a heart-to-heart with me.
"You don't seem to be improving, in fact, you're doing worse"
"mmmhmmmmm"
"I think it's best that we send you to the hospital over night"
"How much is that going to cost?"
"I'm not sure but, I'll be frank with you, this could kill you."
"Hospital sounds good"
Ironically, I did have to ride over in an ambulance, but as my EMT friends Jared and Paul explained, there is no way I'd pay for it. I felt kind of sad for them. But mostly happy for me.
Here is Jared taking my blood pressure in the ambulance
And here I am, thinking of you all, documenting my experience
So there I stayed. As you can guess, my condition steadily improved and the next day my epiglottis looked like this...
Obviously no longer life-threatening. Anyways, that's pretty much the whole story. I actually have more to post, but I wanted to get this one out there. Since I still have no job I'll probably be updating sometime tomorrow.
--Katie
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
All the things I know right now...
Right now I'm hanging out in Alameda surrounded by sleeping animals. Kuma and Mizuki (akitas) are here on the floor, and Cliff the cat is nearby on a chair. Snoop Dog the cat is nowhere to be seen as usual but he's probably sleeping too. How did I get here you ask? Well...
I moved out of Los Angeles last Saturday. My lease expires tomorrow so I made it just in time really. Every plan I had made for the past 3 weeks or so has dissolved in some way, yet, I continue to live and breathe and have a roof over my head. Since this epiphany I have taken to going with the flow. Ever since, I have been floating around northern California, currently located in Alameda at my friend and former teammate, Julia's house.
I had plans to move to San Francisco, but as expected, that didn't quite work out. It now appears that I have a prospect in Oakland, but again, who knows if that will come to fruition. What is certain at this point is that I am jobless and not currently paying rent anywhere. Not an entirely bad situation, in fact.
Since I have secured a free place to store my things for the next month (thanks to Julia's lovely parents) I plan on using my foreseeable "funemployment" time to go back to Oceanside and LA to visit and say goodbye to some people. I left in kind of a hurry.
One thing at a time though. Today I had a lazy, yet productive day. I finally made another TV and Toast comic which you can find at the bottom of this post, and I did some work for artrobot.net. I also got a little farther in the robot t-shirt process and as you can see, I am finally updating this damn blog.
As of late I have completed some projects. I recently designed a logo for a soccer team in Menlo Park, Ca.
as seen here.
I also put up some t-shirt designs on the art robot facebook:
and 
So those are the shirts, the other REALLY EXCITING thing is my business card that came in the mail. It turned out really well.
I have only been distributing it to my friends so far because artrobot.net isn't exactly up yet (though there is a cool graphic that you can check out right now if you'd like) but like I said, I spent a part of today working on it, and I'll do a little bit more tonight before calling it a day. I wanted to update the blog so that it wouldn't completely fall to the wayside. Though I suppose it couldn't hurt to let the 5 of you in on a little preview of what the basic page on the site will look like. Here it is:
Pretty Art-Robot-y I'd say. Anyways, once the site is up my life should be much easier, it will link up to all of my stuff like this blog and the facebook and paypal and all that.
The final change in life trajectory has taken the form of going back to school to acquire more skillz in the digital design area. I'm more or less decided on going to a community college to earn an AA in Graphic Design. It will be good to learn how to use things like Adobe CS, beef up my resume, and of course, a piece of paper saying that you know things goes a long way in the professional world. But as for now, I have some time to enjoy not having a job or any responsibilities, and so I leave you with this...
-Katie
I moved out of Los Angeles last Saturday. My lease expires tomorrow so I made it just in time really. Every plan I had made for the past 3 weeks or so has dissolved in some way, yet, I continue to live and breathe and have a roof over my head. Since this epiphany I have taken to going with the flow. Ever since, I have been floating around northern California, currently located in Alameda at my friend and former teammate, Julia's house.
I had plans to move to San Francisco, but as expected, that didn't quite work out. It now appears that I have a prospect in Oakland, but again, who knows if that will come to fruition. What is certain at this point is that I am jobless and not currently paying rent anywhere. Not an entirely bad situation, in fact.
Since I have secured a free place to store my things for the next month (thanks to Julia's lovely parents) I plan on using my foreseeable "funemployment" time to go back to Oceanside and LA to visit and say goodbye to some people. I left in kind of a hurry.
One thing at a time though. Today I had a lazy, yet productive day. I finally made another TV and Toast comic which you can find at the bottom of this post, and I did some work for artrobot.net. I also got a little farther in the robot t-shirt process and as you can see, I am finally updating this damn blog.
As of late I have completed some projects. I recently designed a logo for a soccer team in Menlo Park, Ca.
as seen here. I also put up some t-shirt designs on the art robot facebook:
and 
So those are the shirts, the other REALLY EXCITING thing is my business card that came in the mail. It turned out really well.
I have only been distributing it to my friends so far because artrobot.net isn't exactly up yet (though there is a cool graphic that you can check out right now if you'd like) but like I said, I spent a part of today working on it, and I'll do a little bit more tonight before calling it a day. I wanted to update the blog so that it wouldn't completely fall to the wayside. Though I suppose it couldn't hurt to let the 5 of you in on a little preview of what the basic page on the site will look like. Here it is:
Pretty Art-Robot-y I'd say. Anyways, once the site is up my life should be much easier, it will link up to all of my stuff like this blog and the facebook and paypal and all that.
The final change in life trajectory has taken the form of going back to school to acquire more skillz in the digital design area. I'm more or less decided on going to a community college to earn an AA in Graphic Design. It will be good to learn how to use things like Adobe CS, beef up my resume, and of course, a piece of paper saying that you know things goes a long way in the professional world. But as for now, I have some time to enjoy not having a job or any responsibilities, and so I leave you with this...
-Katie
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sculpture or Painting?
So, I probably won't get a chance to update for a while, I'm about to be launched into my last bout of finals and then i have to scramble to find an apartment.
However, all of this business has not kept me from pursuing crazy-ass art projects. Ever since I finished the pointillism, (which I scanned so it's now a digital file. Stay tuned for poster-size versions) I have embraced the idea of obsessive-compulsive artwork.
Inspired by my Notes on Color class, I went to Blick a few days ago and purchased about 9 feet of canvas (like 72 inches wide I think). I also purchased rubber cement, a hole puncher, and got a bunch of those free paint chips samples from home depot.
Figure it out yet?
I'm going to hole punch the paint chips and then glue the holes to the canvas as points. So it's not quite like using a .005 tip pen on paper, but it's comparable. The "points" are a lot bigger, but so is my surface area. Still...it's almost certainly going to kick ass.
I'll try to get around to scanning my actual sketchbook and show you the ideas I've been working on. It probably won't be representational because frankly I don't have the skill for that. I think for now, for the first project of this kind, I'm comfortable doing just a color study. Not to say there won't be any pattern to it at all, I'm just saying I'll probably stick to circles cause I'm into those lately.
Anyways, I'll check back later with my progress.
Cheers,
--Katie
However, all of this business has not kept me from pursuing crazy-ass art projects. Ever since I finished the pointillism, (which I scanned so it's now a digital file. Stay tuned for poster-size versions) I have embraced the idea of obsessive-compulsive artwork.
Inspired by my Notes on Color class, I went to Blick a few days ago and purchased about 9 feet of canvas (like 72 inches wide I think). I also purchased rubber cement, a hole puncher, and got a bunch of those free paint chips samples from home depot.
Figure it out yet?
I'm going to hole punch the paint chips and then glue the holes to the canvas as points. So it's not quite like using a .005 tip pen on paper, but it's comparable. The "points" are a lot bigger, but so is my surface area. Still...it's almost certainly going to kick ass.
I'll try to get around to scanning my actual sketchbook and show you the ideas I've been working on. It probably won't be representational because frankly I don't have the skill for that. I think for now, for the first project of this kind, I'm comfortable doing just a color study. Not to say there won't be any pattern to it at all, I'm just saying I'll probably stick to circles cause I'm into those lately.
Anyways, I'll check back later with my progress.
Cheers,
--Katie
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
UPDATE
Hello Hello. So I'm back from my weekend up north to see some rugby and visit Sam. The tablet really hasn't been good for my school work. I had a mid term this morning and I have to catch up on a lot of things this week. However, despite being super busy with un-art-related things I managed to draft up a design to put on the sample t-shirts.
behold...
So the shirts are going to be as follows:
t-shirt - black with light grey robot
tank top - blue with grey robot
v-neck t-shirt - grey with white robot
I'll try to get some visuals and once Keith e-mails me back with a price quote I'll get some samples on the way.
--Katie
behold...
So the shirts are going to be as follows:
t-shirt - black with light grey robot
tank top - blue with grey robot
v-neck t-shirt - grey with white robot
I'll try to get some visuals and once Keith e-mails me back with a price quote I'll get some samples on the way.
--Katie
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tableta Rasa
The tablet arrived in the mail yesterday and I've been pretty much obsessed with it ever since it got here. First of all, it is beautiful and second, it can do pretty much anything. It does take some getting used to as you will see in a moment. The experience is not unlike trying to teach yourself how to play piano, or some other impossibly complicated thing. The thing to remember is that you need to practice, and that's just what I've been doing.
So here is the setup as I had it yesterday...
I originally just pulled up paint but found that wasn't working too well anyways, so I started using Gimp. That is, until I put together my graphic design command center and get CS5. But anyways...here are some things I did yesterday just to practice including a new TV and Toast cartoon.
"You're still not good at drawing cubes"
"Its front leg is lumpy. Why is its tail so far down?"
Just some of the comments I received for those. But finally, here is the new (properly)tabletized version of TV and Toast...
I think this is the start of something good.
--Katie
So here is the setup as I had it yesterday...
I originally just pulled up paint but found that wasn't working too well anyways, so I started using Gimp. That is, until I put together my graphic design command center and get CS5. But anyways...here are some things I did yesterday just to practice including a new TV and Toast cartoon.
"You're still not good at drawing cubes"
"Its front leg is lumpy. Why is its tail so far down?"
Just some of the comments I received for those. But finally, here is the new (properly)tabletized version of TV and Toast...
I think this is the start of something good.
--Katie
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Apologies and Exciting News
I am sorry that I haven't gotten a chance to go to the Library and scan the newest TV and Toast comic. I promise it will be up soon.
In other news, last night I ordered the first piece of my pending graphic design studio: a Wacom Intuous 4 tablet.
It should be here in about two weeks and let me tell you, this is going to be awesome. It comes in four sizes, small, medium, large, and extra large. I ordered the large which is 18.7" x 12.6" x 0.6" total with 12.8" x 8.0" of active area. I'm excited about it because I won't have to do things like go scan TV and Toast comics from my sketchbook (I also won't have to do tedious things like drawing in comic strip bars by hand wtf).
Next step is putting together a computer. Which is going to have to be broken down into several steps, but I'm putting the general plan into action. That's all the boring stuff for now.
--Katie
In other news, last night I ordered the first piece of my pending graphic design studio: a Wacom Intuous 4 tablet.
It should be here in about two weeks and let me tell you, this is going to be awesome. It comes in four sizes, small, medium, large, and extra large. I ordered the large which is 18.7" x 12.6" x 0.6" total with 12.8" x 8.0" of active area. I'm excited about it because I won't have to do things like go scan TV and Toast comics from my sketchbook (I also won't have to do tedious things like drawing in comic strip bars by hand wtf).
Next step is putting together a computer. Which is going to have to be broken down into several steps, but I'm putting the general plan into action. That's all the boring stuff for now.
--Katie
Friday, April 16, 2010
Pointillism, TV and Toast, and more.
I've been postponing writing a blog as to not overwhelm you all with my one-a-day posting. Really I just didn't want to set a precedent I couldn't live up to. But now that I have some down time I thought I would share the good news.
I FINALLY finished the pointillism piece that I had started just under three years ago. This isn't the greatest picture, but you get the idea.
I posted all of the detail shots on Art Robot and they're on my flickr too. I feel so much better. As much as I enjoyed working on it, I'm so glad it's finally finished. I can finally move on to other things.
other things like....
Yay TV and Toast. My plan is to post every Sunday and I have been posting primarily on Art Robot so that's where that has been. I dedicated an entire album to them for easy archiving.
Speaking of other things...I am about to embark on an interesting project. With the creation of this blog, and Art Robot, the need to go digital with my art is apparent. That is why I will be purchasing a Wacom Tablet in the next few weeks, and then putting together a desktop computer with Creative Suite 5.
I'll post more in-detail when I get back. Rugby nationals are this weekend and I won't be able to post a new TV and Toast until Monday. Suck it up.
--Katie
I FINALLY finished the pointillism piece that I had started just under three years ago. This isn't the greatest picture, but you get the idea.
I posted all of the detail shots on Art Robot and they're on my flickr too. I feel so much better. As much as I enjoyed working on it, I'm so glad it's finally finished. I can finally move on to other things.
other things like....
Yay TV and Toast. My plan is to post every Sunday and I have been posting primarily on Art Robot so that's where that has been. I dedicated an entire album to them for easy archiving.
Speaking of other things...I am about to embark on an interesting project. With the creation of this blog, and Art Robot, the need to go digital with my art is apparent. That is why I will be purchasing a Wacom Tablet in the next few weeks, and then putting together a desktop computer with Creative Suite 5.
I'll post more in-detail when I get back. Rugby nationals are this weekend and I won't be able to post a new TV and Toast until Monday. Suck it up.
--Katie
Friday, April 9, 2010
Comics
Finally, I have something going on. I spoke to someone about t-shirts and hopefully that will get off the ground pretty soon. I've pretty much finalized all of my designs, that is, which robots I want to put on shirts. However, until I get a price quote I won't know how much the t-shirts will be but I'll keep things posted on here and Art Robot.
I made two more comics today during class. I'm really excited about this project and I want to try to make it a regular thing. Though for the sake of consistency, I'm going to try and build up a collection before posting them every week or so. But since I'm still really excited about it, I'm going to post another one right now.
--Katie
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Chromophobia
The required reading for my Notes on Color class includes a portion of a book (depicted above) by British artist David Batchelor. He attempts to explore what he calls "chromophobia" in contemporary art and architecture and I found certain things he had to say very interesting.
Batchelor's work with color evolved from a sculpture series exploring the contrast between the front and the back of a piece. In contrasting the shiny, polished, colored front side with the dirty, boring, ugly back side of a sculpture his work evolved into experimenting with color specifically...
So that's pretty awesome, but what else? In Chromophobia he writes that his color sculptures were more or less inspired by the realization that there is a conspicuous lack of color in contemporary art. I agree, there is.
Examples: Richard Sera ONLY published photographs of his sculptures in black and white. Richard Meier constructed whiter than white buildings. I guess we don't really know why, but Richard Sera's publicist suggested it was because color would add unnecessary contrast to his sculptures (which were usually in industrial metals, reds and metallic greys).
Batchelor points out the "otherness" of color in the Western mindset. But it's also much more than that. Color is many things. It is something temporary, cosmetic, inessential (to form), subordinate (to form), fluid, inconsistent, deceitful, feminine. Of all the things that color is, more importantly, it is NOT masculine, it is not rigorous, and it is not philosophical. Which is something I think contemporary art strives to be.
Once again, I am overwhelmed with thematic overlap. In this case, women's studies with Notes on Color. I hadn't thought about color in this way before and I must say it's a little bit weird.
Consequently, I will never look at the Wizard of Oz the same again.
--Katie
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
For F**k sake!
So, I made it through the hardest quarter of my LIFE and it feels good. I just got back from Scotland with my rugby team and let me tell you, it was amazing.
So that's a three-picture re-cap of the trip. Stone architecture, Rugby, and going out. It was the culmination of winter-quarter season but because we are so damn good, we have earned a spot in nationals yet again.
On the art front, nothing too exciting is going on, though I do have some news to report on.
1. I pulled of some decorations for a Bar Mitzvah (Designer status)
2. I designed a business card for my cousin Josh's catering company (with help from Sam)(Graphic designer status)
3. I am currently enrolled in an art class with Jim Welling,
The class is on color, so this should be interesting. I really had no idea what a complex subject it was until I sat through lecture. It's not a studio class, but it should definitely inspire me to work on some stuff and maybe after some new insight I can get over my anxiety of painting in green.
Still to come, finishing that damn pointillism piece and framing the fruit pictures above my stove. Also, I haven't abandoned the robot t-shirts but I need to come up with a better method of getting those done.
I promise I'll start writing more soon, I already have a lot more free time and plus my classes are extremely thought provoking and I'll probably use this blog as a colorful soap-box, so prepare yourselves for that.
yes I'm talking to the 5 of you who read this.
--Katie
So that's a three-picture re-cap of the trip. Stone architecture, Rugby, and going out. It was the culmination of winter-quarter season but because we are so damn good, we have earned a spot in nationals yet again.
On the art front, nothing too exciting is going on, though I do have some news to report on.
1. I pulled of some decorations for a Bar Mitzvah (Designer status)
2. I designed a business card for my cousin Josh's catering company (with help from Sam)(Graphic designer status)
3. I am currently enrolled in an art class with Jim Welling,
The class is on color, so this should be interesting. I really had no idea what a complex subject it was until I sat through lecture. It's not a studio class, but it should definitely inspire me to work on some stuff and maybe after some new insight I can get over my anxiety of painting in green.
Still to come, finishing that damn pointillism piece and framing the fruit pictures above my stove. Also, I haven't abandoned the robot t-shirts but I need to come up with a better method of getting those done.
I promise I'll start writing more soon, I already have a lot more free time and plus my classes are extremely thought provoking and I'll probably use this blog as a colorful soap-box, so prepare yourselves for that.
yes I'm talking to the 5 of you who read this.
--Katie
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Blog Fail
I haven't been able to do any new art lately. I've been trying to get the Robot T-shirt thing off the ground but I just haven't had time. I'm taking classes that have pretty much monopolized my time.
Lizelle recently showed me some quotes from her old online journals, and It's been brought to my attention by the gf that I am the biggest blog failer ever. It's true, this seems to be the first thing to fall by the way side once I get really busy and stressed out. But I should make more of an effort to post things that may not be directly related to my art, but maybe have to do with what's going on with me so that people don't think I'm dead.
So that's that. For now I'll leave you all with this
--Katie "Huggles" Seibert
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Long Time
I know, I know, it's been forever since I've updated, but it's been a pretty busy past couple of months really.
Though, I spent most of that time working on my Facebook page which I'm sure more people look at. Nevertheless, as I sit here watching Inglourious Bastards wondering to myself "can you really sharpen a knife with a leather belt?" I have decided to update my blog.
I realize this is why my blogs suck so much, but you know I'm not quite ready to give up just yet, especially since this blog isn't for my personal life (thank god). I feel as though long bouts between posts can be forgiven as long as they correspond to long bouts between artworks.
Recently, I was in the GlobeMed art show. I submitted two pieces for that. Not sure who won the vote, I assume given the time that has elapsed it wasn't me, but that's okay. I was really only in it for the exposure.
I have another pair of shoes finished. Spiderman theme, for my friend Tia for Christmas.
They're also on Art Robot, along with most of my other stuff. Specifically the robot drawings which I will try to make into t-shirts at some point in my life. Though, seeing as how I am very busy with other things such as school and rugby and work, who knows when this will go down. However, the plan is on the horizon.
Also on the horizon are skateboard decks by me. Yay! This is interesting because unlinke the shoes, these pieces will be destroyed much faster being on skateboards and all. I'm still pretty excited about them.
Anyways, I should get back to the movie.
Happy Holidays, y'all
Though, I spent most of that time working on my Facebook page which I'm sure more people look at. Nevertheless, as I sit here watching Inglourious Bastards wondering to myself "can you really sharpen a knife with a leather belt?" I have decided to update my blog.
I realize this is why my blogs suck so much, but you know I'm not quite ready to give up just yet, especially since this blog isn't for my personal life (thank god). I feel as though long bouts between posts can be forgiven as long as they correspond to long bouts between artworks.
Recently, I was in the GlobeMed art show. I submitted two pieces for that. Not sure who won the vote, I assume given the time that has elapsed it wasn't me, but that's okay. I was really only in it for the exposure.
I have another pair of shoes finished. Spiderman theme, for my friend Tia for Christmas.
They're also on Art Robot, along with most of my other stuff. Specifically the robot drawings which I will try to make into t-shirts at some point in my life. Though, seeing as how I am very busy with other things such as school and rugby and work, who knows when this will go down. However, the plan is on the horizon.
Also on the horizon are skateboard decks by me. Yay! This is interesting because unlinke the shoes, these pieces will be destroyed much faster being on skateboards and all. I'm still pretty excited about them.
Anyways, I should get back to the movie.
Happy Holidays, y'all
Friday, September 18, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Naked Pictures......(of the truth)
Sometimes endeavors are met with overwhelming disappointment. Kind of like Kanye West during any sort of award show, and by any sort of awards show I mean, always in general. But I digress. Sometimes we tell lies, myself included. You know, you set goals and have plans in mind and then they just don't pan out like you wanted them to. (This is an apology by the way).
Moving on.
Okay I didn't really MEAN to lie, the piece just didn't quite get FINISHED as I had planned. However, I have made substantial progress so I guess that is worth something. I've decided to get over my embarrassment for not having met my goal and post SOMETHING.
So here is the "before" picture. I put "before" in quotes because to get to that point took me just under 2 years...so you know, it's all relative.
So that's that. Each panel is 11x15 inches. so that x 8 is a collective 44x30 inch POINTILLISM piece that is still untitled. It's cost me almost 50 dollars in pens alone...so far....
anyways, after my 5 day power-hour I put in about 40 hours of work on it, and now it looks like this...
the majority of the progress made is in the far right panels and the tiger. Here is an attempt at a close-up of the main section I was working on.
I haven't yet decided if I'm satisfied with the progress I made or if I'm disappointed. I think it might just be a combination of all sorts of different emotions. I mean, I've been working on this since my sophomore year of college, that is like a RELATIONSHIP. And it's finally coming to an end...
I still need a title.
I still need somewhere to show it.
I still need to write about it.
I still need to finish it.
All of these will happen soon.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Project Projection
I have an interesting 5 days ahead of me. Let me tell you why...
I have decided to take advantage of the long weekend in a big way. I took the next two days off work, giving me 5 days of freedom, and by freedom I mean unpaid labor.
You guys all know about the gigantic pointillism piece I've been working on for the past ~2 1/2 years? Yeah well, that's a long time to be working on a piece and I'd like to finish it. I have pledged to work 8 hours a day for the next 5 days on it.
Essentially my plan is to treat it like any other work day, take a 30 minute lunch break, but other than that, it's work work work. Hopefully the binge will pay off in a finished piece. I will also be photographing the entire piece after each day of work to show my progression.
wish me luck.
or don't. whatever.
I have decided to take advantage of the long weekend in a big way. I took the next two days off work, giving me 5 days of freedom, and by freedom I mean unpaid labor.
You guys all know about the gigantic pointillism piece I've been working on for the past ~2 1/2 years? Yeah well, that's a long time to be working on a piece and I'd like to finish it. I have pledged to work 8 hours a day for the next 5 days on it.
Essentially my plan is to treat it like any other work day, take a 30 minute lunch break, but other than that, it's work work work. Hopefully the binge will pay off in a finished piece. I will also be photographing the entire piece after each day of work to show my progression.
wish me luck.
or don't. whatever.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
This makes me really cool
I took some scraps of really dense cardboard and made a Jacob's Ladder that happens to be robot themed. enjoy.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Bots
So I FINALLY finished a piece. Well I suppose technically this is 4 separate pieces but they all go togehter. It is a commission I am doing for someone in New York. They asked for something "happy" so this is what I cam up with. 
This has really got to be one of the most awesome pieces I've done recently. Obviously, continuing with the drippy lines technique. I hate to say it's "drip painting" because, thanks to art critics in the late 40's early 50's it's technically not drip painting. But it does involve dripping paint. So I'll just leave it at that.
The dripping is more controlled in this piece but I had a little more fun with it and incorporated some robot cartoons I've been developing over the past couple months. As well as the collection of stamps I found at the library.
The text around the borders is made up of sections from the Java Script Bible which I found laying just outside a dumpster on the corner of Landfair and Gayley. All in all I'd say it's a pretty good sample of what I've been doing recently, incorporating some primary colors, collage, simplistic childlike drawings, and some found object art for good measure.
I must say, the few days I spent on this project were totally worth it. It's really nice to break away from a more serious style of painting and do something whimsical and fun. And use the word whimsical.
I'm also glad that my robots have finally made it into a more serious endeavor instead of existing primarily in my sketchbook and on college ruled notebook paper. But I'm also sure that everyone who has seen my robot drawings is sufficiently annoyed that I keep doing stuff with them. Sorry guys. But not really.
These are some closeups of more interesting parts of the piece. I really only have one more thing to say about this recent work: I think it's awesome that stuff like this can be done by hand and still look good. Digital art programs can suck it.
This has really got to be one of the most awesome pieces I've done recently. Obviously, continuing with the drippy lines technique. I hate to say it's "drip painting" because, thanks to art critics in the late 40's early 50's it's technically not drip painting. But it does involve dripping paint. So I'll just leave it at that.
The dripping is more controlled in this piece but I had a little more fun with it and incorporated some robot cartoons I've been developing over the past couple months. As well as the collection of stamps I found at the library.
The text around the borders is made up of sections from the Java Script Bible which I found laying just outside a dumpster on the corner of Landfair and Gayley. All in all I'd say it's a pretty good sample of what I've been doing recently, incorporating some primary colors, collage, simplistic childlike drawings, and some found object art for good measure.
I must say, the few days I spent on this project were totally worth it. It's really nice to break away from a more serious style of painting and do something whimsical and fun. And use the word whimsical.
I'm also glad that my robots have finally made it into a more serious endeavor instead of existing primarily in my sketchbook and on college ruled notebook paper. But I'm also sure that everyone who has seen my robot drawings is sufficiently annoyed that I keep doing stuff with them. Sorry guys. But not really.
These are some closeups of more interesting parts of the piece. I really only have one more thing to say about this recent work: I think it's awesome that stuff like this can be done by hand and still look good. Digital art programs can suck it.
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