Graduation, DAAPworks, and things

So I graduated. Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati, Magna Cum Laude, Distinguished Honors. I think my final GPA was like 3.76 or something. I can never remember numbers.

DAAPworks went well, considering. I was on the committee so I helped out with space allotment, organization, installation and de-installation. De-install was the most interesting, since we managed to break the floor in the Meyers gallery with a badly-designed scaffold mishap. The gallery director Aaron was really cool about it though. Which was good because I was technically in charge when in happened, yikes.

But the opening was crowded and hot, and a bunch of people I didn't expect to come came. Before the crowds descended my dad and I took pictures with his really nice full-frame camera. So here. (Disclaimer, I didn't know how to set the white balance on his camera, so it was on auto. Meh.)

Fun fact: one of Dan's sculpture's legs broke off during install. He was able to glue it back, thank goodness.

I love Marty's 'I Get Money' print. Kind of want one.

I traded a drawing for one of Alana's bowls. She won one of the Director's Choice Awards.

Recognize the ceramic tile thing on the wall? It's from the electron microscope tour we made in winter! The artist was inspired by our investigations of the butterfly wing. That piece won a Director's Choice Award.

HI DAD

Danielle's work had to do with public/ private space and voyeurism.

The wall o' books also won a Director's Choice Award.

This is my work, as modeled by my lovely friend Nina.

The idea was that people would browse the pages on the wall. I'm not sure how many actually did.

This is only one of the galleries, the Reed Gallery. I didn't get time to gank dad's pictures of the Meyers Gallery before he flew off for India, but I'm sure if you Google DAAPworks 2012, you'll be able to find the official website, along with plenty of this year's seniors' blog entries.

This summer I have a studio at DAAP, until August 13. I'm mostly going to be painting and drawing in there, though perhaps I can use it as a setting for my gif work (which might end up turning into video work for fotofocus, I'm still wrestling with it).

I watched The Secret Garden yesterday (after having read the book a couple days ago) and drew these (crappy cell phone pics, I'll scan the drawings later):

Oddly enough, this is one case where I feel the movie is actually better than the book it's based on. Mostly because Frances Hodgson Burnett was quite racist, and there are a ton of really outdated ideas about how children develop in there. Same with A Little Princess. Oh well.

That's all the updates I have for now. I'm thinking of actually doing something productive, like dishes. Or I could just fart around on the Internet some more.

Go Pro! and other stuff

I've been updating my professional photography portfolio. I don't really have that many examples though. Anyone want me to shoot some headshots?

I checked out five more books from the library even though there are already towers of books that I'm halfway through around my room. I think I have an addiction. NO! No. I can stop whenever I want to!

Nina Here Nor There by Nick Krieger
Ontology of Sex by Carrie Hull
Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg
Prisoners of Childhood by Alice Miller
The S.C.U.M. Manifesto

Drag and other shenanigans.

This is one of the numbers I'm doing in the spring drag show:

Bring on the Disney.

More gifs are upcoming, but in the meantime, check out the gym I shot some of them in. It's at my sister's school which was built in 1929 or something, and the gym just SCREAMS "90s high school flick." John Hughes, where are you?

Book I just got that I'm super excited to read: Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty. I'm also midway through Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and I finished Chelsea Handler's Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang the other night. It wasn't quite as funny as her standup, but I enjoyed her family anecdotes.

Spring Break!

The quarter is over! The sun is shining! My room needs cleaning!

There are new gifs up on my tumblr. I will be continuing this project next quarter as well.

I will start work on my rocky horror comic this week, as it is due before April 22. I will be trying to sell it at SPACE in Columbus then. It has also become an honors project... so there's that...

WHAT I AM READING:

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot
Lifting Belly by Gertrude Stein
Orality and Literacy by Walter J. Ong
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Also, guys! Ladies! People who don't fall in either of those categories! The Denton Affair will be doing a shadowcast performance of The Big Lebowski on March 24th at the Esquire! The tickets are going fast, there's information on the website about how to purchase them! Go go go!

Photo of the day:

Some dapper DAAPers at the Refresh this Page opening a while ago.

THESIS, UPDATES, COMICS

IN THAT ORDER.

Hi. It's been a while. How have you been? I've been better myself, but at least I have my voice back. A nasty cold seems to have been making its rounds of the entire population of Cincinnati, it seems, and I am no exception.

So, first things first: THESIS. I just turned in my draft to my professors, and had my visual critique. I'm in the second round of the Dry Run show so I have a week to think about presentation and hanging the work... but I'll leave you with some images of my favorite pieces, and a link to the google doc of the draft if you feel inclined to read it.

UPDATES: I have been working on gifs in my photography class, and I think they're turning out pretty rad if I do say so myself. They're big, so I'll post one here (EDIT: I'm not sure why this one isn't animating but just go to my tumblr and look at them, guh).

Also, Cry-Baby and The Big Lebowski are coming up soon. Here's where you'll find more information on that.

COMICS: I've been working on the Order of the Golden Bear wordpress site, and while it's not quite up and running yet, I did put up all of Third Culture Kid. So go and read, and follow, and be on the lookout for more things! Also, Alison Bechdel will have a new book out soon and I've never been so excited.

Currently Reading

The Unruly Queen by Flora Fraser. A biography of Queen Caroline, wife of George IV of England. Kind of a sordid story, full of double standards for women (if she had an affair, it was treason--if he had an affair, is was merely discouraged), but a very interesting account of the era nonetheless.

Jeffrey Brown's Funny Misshapen Body. A graphic novel about becoming a cartoonist. It manages not to get too meta, and is self-deprecating and touching by turns.

Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, Volumes 1&2. Not that the story is extremely compelling nor the art particularly astounding (especially when I compare to later work like MW), but still. It's part of the foundations of the Japanese comics scene.

...Lord of the Rings, again. I can't seem to help myself.