Painting

Aj's dad came over recently and I realized how little work I had to show anyone from my university career so far. So I rounded all my work up from my classes and over the next few days/weeks depending on my work load, will share from each class. Most of it is really boring looking. But I'm learning a lot of interesting stuff. 

Right now I'm taking Art History: Up to the 1800s, Painting, Drawing, Photography, and Time Based Media (Video). I showed a photography piece I did last, and this post will be dedicated to my Painting class. 

Video is not my strongest point. And I don't like it much either. Just not my forte. I like watching the performance pieces, and video art we're exposed to in that class, but for me- trying to make it is tricky. I just can't manipulate the media to create whatever I had in mind which is disheartening. I will not be showing any of this work - maybe my final, but nothing else. 

I'll rant about Drawing another time. I got a should-be-retiree, plant loving old lady.

Anywho. Painting.

A lot of what we've done is colour theory and mixing. I love it. It's so neat to understand exactly what paints make what colours. 

Recently we were given a chip to match. I had so much fun with this. I still chew my nails, just don't look at it.

Colour wheels. This one was not as fun. Bla.

This was my first piece I handed in. It's achromatic (no colour- black and white and in between). It's acrylic. All of these are 16X20"

The thing about these is that they're not meant to be good paintings. So don't judge. They're geared so that we learn about paint, colour, and technique. Not so much making good paintings. I'm sure we'll get there sometime in the next 4 years.

The class is 3 hours long. Most of the pieces are set up in class, and that's how long we have to do it. This is in oil. It's a mannequin- not a person, we'll be doing figure painting next semester. 

This piece is also achromatic using a black that I mixed with primaries.

This isn't a great picture. Photography wise and painting wise. It's a high key (whiter), achromatic. Acrylic.

Again, it was about an hour and a half we had for this one. I enjoy painting within the given colour schemes, it makes it interesting.

This piece was supposed to be monochrome, but ended up being analagous. Meaning, rather than being strictly blue, it ended up being in the blue family. So I had to redo it. The result was this piece. A little smaller and nicer.

This one is oil. I feel comfier in oil. And every assignment I leave it too late to have time to use oil and then I hate it because it's in acrylics. 

This piece had to be mixed secondaries, aka tertiaries. Paper bags are not fun to look at for 3 hours. But whatever. I guess I was learning!

There are a few more that I'm not posting because my prof still has them. So for now, this is all I've done. I don't know how I feel about them yet. We'll see. I'll get Aj to post his, his projects are much more interesting & they generally look nicer than mine. 

xx

Thanks for checking up on me <3

H

Pecha Kucha

Latest photography assignment// 3 images in 3 minutes relating to your influences in your practice.

As you may have guessed after my first presentation, I'm not really sure what my practice will look like in the future, and it doesn't really look like anything right now. I don't know where I want to go with my art, and to be truthful I don't think I want to be a practicing artist. Actually, if I'm more honest, I think I am afraid of trying to be an artist for a long time and nothing ever coming of it, or not being that great but thinking that I am. Who knows what my influence will be by the time I reach fourth year, and who knows what my practice will look like at that point in my life. Right now I'm influenced by many things- everything is new. The city is overwhelming and hectic and there's so much to explore and experience, I don't know where to start or what my taste is for life here.

The first photo I chose is of Alice Glass from the group Crystal Castles. This isn't really like a One Direction crush I have, but I would call it a bit of a crush. I really appreciate their music but also the look and art made by them. Their videos, music, and Alice's style do inspire much of the way I aim to look but to an extreme. I like the way they're kind of screw the world . Alice Glass ran away from home at 14. I moved away at 17 which at that point isn't really running away, but I'm still young, and I sometimes feel too young to live on my own. I always go to say Alice Glass is my role model, but if you read up on her, I wouldn't want her life. They're pretty famous for having secret lives and nobody really knows much about them. I like her attitude. As I said, it's not just a crush, it actually does influence my work. I guess what I've gotten from Alice Glass is that I can make whatever the heck I want, and I don't owe anybody an explanation, and somebody out there will appreciate it for what it is.

The second image I chose is one taken by Richard Avedon. As you probably know, Avedon is a renowned photographer, and is well known for his portraits. You've probably seen his image of Marilyn Monroe, the one she isn't glamourous in. I didn't choose this image for a particular reason, simply that I find it beautiful and I was drawn to it immediately. I chose Richard Avedon because I am so drawn to portraits. I could see myself focusing on portraits for a time in my practice. Humans are so fascinating, and different. In a series of 7 billion portraits of different people, not a single one will be identical to another. This sort of leads into my next image.

This is a painting by painter Cecily Brown. I had the privelege of hearing her speak at a conference and have been so inspired by her work. I am so drawn to the human body, the figure. There's a limit to nudity in the real world. But there shouldn't be one in art. I've always been a subtle exhibitionist, and I suppose as many people are when they're viewing art with the naked human figure, a voyeur. I think anybody who argues otherwise is lying. There's something so beautiful and powerful in our own bodies, and the bodies of other humans. Nothing else in the world does what seeing naked bodies does to people. Bodies are so beautiful, so repulsive, so raw, and so human. I find it the most beautiful and intimate expression of humanity, and you can paint it, so in the future I would love to focus my practice on the figure.

Nuit Blanche and some thoughts on T.O.

So we went to Nuit Blanche last week, and I feel pretty lame that it was the first event we've really been to. We went to the Jazz festival & Casa Loma in the summer. As artists though, we've been encouraged to see gallery openings, and visit the ROM + AGO (to which we have free entrance). And I haven't yet! The school also has many guest artists and speakers, and I haven't gone to a single thing.

I haven't been involved in anything at all. And that's my new goal- to check stuff out, and start doing fun things. Otherwise, what's the point in living here anyway?


Last night I saw my cousin play at the Hard Luck Bar in a band called Signifier. It was a good time, and good music. I have to do this kind of stuff way more.


Also- I'm taking photography + video right now and we're encouraged to always have cameras on us and to record/photograph whatever we like. So: on the way home from Nuit Blanche, I noticed how loud the subway was. Usually people, even if it's only standing room, never say a word. I'll get on the subway in the morning and I'm squished up against like 60 other people trying to hold onto something. AND IT'S SILENT. But the energy of Nuit Blanche, and some kind of sports match, seemed to spread into the subway and it was noisy!

Living Room

So, I got around to cleaning my living room finally. It was awful.

This is our couch. We got it for free, it's a pullout. The pullout isn't bad, but it's been gouging into our nice floor every time we put it away. Whoops...

The couch was THE WORST material to sit on during the summer. It was so sweaty. We kept it covered with blankets all summer.

We've stained it with oil paint already. But I don't think we'll be keeping longer than this apartment.

To get it in the apartment, we (as in the guys) had to carry it up the fire escape and we had to squish it into our living room. It took a long time, a lot of work and one of the guys puked afterwards. When we take it out, my vote will be to chop it up into firewood first.

This is our coffee table. We were warned before hand, that it would be too tall for putting our feet on. It's true, and mostly we just use it for storing all of our blankets and throwing stuff onto.

Aj has a big teacher's desk. It takes up the most space in the room, but it's perfect. & it's always covered in stuff. This is the cleanest I've seen it since we moved probably. He built the bookshelf that sits on top of it with his dad. It's pretty full, I have no idea where we'd put our books without it...

This is our sexy lamp.

I can't stop posting pictures of the sea critters. They're just so cute. Here's some shrimp on Scoob.

We always have paintings on the go, and as you can see, there's not much room for two easels. My poor piano has a drop sheet on it. It's hiding. I haven't played in too long. I don't have time, and can never find it anyway. One day I'll uncover it.

I used to have a desk where my piano was, and I had my little inspiration strings up. I never took them down, I love em.

There's the sea critters again! & our artsy shelf. + board games. It's funny. Most of our games require more than two people so we don't play many of them. We just got Dutch Blitz & Bananagrams.

I love our windows. They face East, and the sun is a lovely thing. It keeps our place nice and bright. We have some cutsie plants and an elephant parade in the window. I'm looking forward to needing the rads on. It'll be so cozy.

So now you've seen almost everything!

Nuit Blanche is tomorrow, and I'm pretty pumped!

xoxo

H

My Bedroom

So, I'm sort of avoiding doing our living room. It will probably be the last one I do. And that's because we're in there the most. And it's so messy. We have a lot of painting and art projects going on since school started. And the room is covered in stuff. So, when I get around to cleaning it, then I'll show you it :)

So keep that in mind- what you're seeing is as clean as it gets ! It's usually much messier, but I have 4 day weekends, so I've had a bit of time to clean up.

Aj made me this for my jewellery a long time ago. it's perfect. 

this is my wardrobe. my favourite piece of furniture that I own. it was my great grandmothers, and is made from ration crates during WWII. how cool is that. we put it at the end of our bed to make a dressing area since we don't get up at the same times for school. the table beside it, we found in an abandoned house and i fell in love with it. 

it took a while, but i finally got my sewing machine here, this is my sewing table. not used much at this point, but it definitely comes in handy ! The sheet on the wall is a beaut, it has tiny mirrors on it too. we bought that in kensington sometime before we moved. Aj plays saxophone, so there it is.

no matter how old i get, i will always have pillow bunny on my bed. i like the windows in our room. its a nice light. 

we have two turntables, but this is the one in our room. it sits on the radiator for now. not sure what we'll do once we have the rads on. i listen to more vinyl than i listen to an ipod. 

bathroom will be next, then living room :)

miss you alliston, look forward to the weekend home.

h