I apologize for the lack of updates but this month I took a class on the letterpress at Harvard and it was an intense crash course, 4 hours a day for 4 days for 3 weeks straight. Waking up at 6 am finally caught up with me this week… but the class is over! So next week will be back to regular schedule. I have posted below a few images my letterpress instructor took of the work that was done. The pic below is of the background of a poster I did of Carl Sagan’s “We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands”… as a conclusion of the class, I am now ‘officially’ trained on the letterpress and can attend the Open Press Nights on Wednesdays during the spring semester. So now I think I know what I’ll be doing on my wednesday nights 🙂
Category Archives: College
Well I’m done.
I finished my last and final semester of college. I can’t believe I’m saying that really.
I’ve been through so much to get to the point I am where I am, I’m surprised at how well things have turned out.
I’m tempted to wait on applying for jobs because this past semester was a hard one on many levels. I’m really ready to just kick back and enjoy the summer months on cape cod not having to worry about school at all and just let my mind relax for once.
I do have a few options though that I’d like to pursue:
– I’ve been eyeing the Program in Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) degree from the MIT Media Arts and Sciences lab.
– Heading off to Taos, New Mexico and get a degree in Earthship Biotecture and getting involved with that community. Completely building sustainable housing from recyclable materials.
– Or going into the blossoming field of semiotics: Semiotics is the general study of sign processes, or semiosis. Semiosis makes the world meaningful. The University of Tartu in Estonia is the one of the world’s centers for Semiotics.
I’ve also been contemplating on how to continue my research. I’m a bit of at a stand-still with it. I guess I just need to plow forward and see where it will take me. Maybe see if there are universities out there that study the esoteric, or something. We’ll see what happens yet… I’m kind stumbling in the dark with it though.. I know where I’m going but I don’t know what I’m looking for… Truth, sure… but as the quote on my website says, truth is contextual and changeable and dependent on point of view. It depends on everything, where the successes come from and how I will get there. Also the main goal… well, I’ll will reveal that sometime down the line especially when I start working on it.
I suppose for now I’m going to focus on trying to get hired somewhere and start building my studio. Definitely need a place to call mine 🙂
We’ll see. but … time to enjoy my last week here at Moravian and in Bethlehem, Pa and enjoy the festivities.
Daily Draw: 04
Today: Knight of Swords
Tomorrow: King of Swords
Today, as expected, was mostly about communicating. Whether it was through email, or via the communications presentation, it was a day definitely ruled by the Knight of Swords. Although, I see him more of a knight who thinks outside of the box, whereas the king might be a bit more conventional.
Tomorrow, is the King of Swords. I plan on finishing my photography project as the critique is tomorrow.
Daily Draw: 03
Today: Page of Pentacles.
Tomorrow: Knight of Swords.
Recap: Totally a Page of Pentacles day! Busy, busy. I think pages tend to be a busy be type personality. Which, is surprising as, pentacles are slowwww. But the pentacles manifested as completely physical things. I.e: I received two packages, a business proposal, studiosouth related messages, dropped off 3 posters and my senior show stuffers, etc. Yes! I may have a potential client, though we haven’t exchanged a lot of emails yet. I’m still waiting to hear back about what they are interested in. Today was totally a page of pentacles day. I would say pages are about manifesting things of a physical nature that you may or may not be expecting.
Tomorrow? Knight of Swordssssss.
The knight of words. Fast communications. Only thing that it could be referring to is that we’re having a speaker come in tomorrow in Interactive. He’ll be talking about creativity, and thinking out-side the box (!).
Daily Draw: 02
See? I told you I wouldn’t keep up. Anyway. I’ll keep doing daily draws whenever I think of it I guess.
Two days already and I haven’t done it since Saturday!
I’ve been busy putting together Senior Art show work, which is due tomorrow and thankfully it is all done! Just gotta figure out how to truck it all over to the art department without destroying it all. 🙂
For tomorrow, I drew the Page of Coins. Perfect card for submitting work. Pages are all about messengers of a practical nature. Or givers of materialistic means. I’m supposed to be submitting my work for the senior art show as well as dropping off signs for my internship.
I didn’t remember on Sunday cause well I was up way past my bed time getting senior show stuff together, had a drink and promptly fell asleep.
Tonight, I plan on working on those signs and shooting the second roll of my self-portrait project so I have something to work on in Photography. Gah! Things are starting to overlap each other… not liking it one bit.
Daily Readings: 01
I’ve stopped doing daily readings since I was a sophomore. But I feel the urge to do them again. I seem to have forgotten some of the personal meanings I’ve attached to the cards.
To start, my daily reading for tomorrow is the Ten of Swords.
In numerology numbers end at 9. And the new number cycle begins again at 10. Kabblistically, Number 10 deals with the inTENsity of some event or moment.
All I plan on doing tomorrow is getting my work ready for the show. Ten of Swords is Tarot’s way of saying that you’ve hit rock bottom. It is the Lord of Ruin; an unexpected, shocking and traumatic upheaval. Not the best card when I’m supposed to be getting work together for a deadline. However, perhaps that the Ten of Swords indicates the end of a cycle; as mentioned before. In the present position, this card is a confirmation that you are turning a corner and leaving behind one of the worst chapters in your life. Keep a mental image of that golden sky rising … your world is about to get brighter, as it hardly could ever be any darker than some recent dramas you have encountered. Perhaps putting together my work for the senior show is a sign that after tomorrow things will get brighter than they have been.
I sure hope so.
Amnesty International
Sad Week
For some reason the events of last weekend have struck me differently than I think I expected. They have reactivated some of the days during high school when whenever the vice principle announced the death of a fellow student due to suicide. One day, once a year in high school we learned about a death of a fellow student. Those memories came back and hit me like a brick when I heard about Kirsli’s tragedy. The feelings of being shocked and the sadness; feelings of confusion and feeling a bit lost.
Its the same kind of emotions I think. While a fatal accident is not the same as a suicide, the emotions created from such an sudden event are the same I think. While I never was friends with any of the people who committed suicide, it affected the people around me.
One kind of lives in a bubble and they go through life thinking that how can anything puncture that perfect bubble that they have built around themselves. And then something so sudden such as a suicide or fatal accident pops that bubble and shakes and shatters the very foundation of your life. I know, I’ve seen it; several times before. Its not pretty and its very difficult.
Student Union Internship
So because the academic administration messed up my senior year, I was forced to do an on campus internship. I live six hours away from school and I don’t have a car on campus cause it costs like $230 a year for a parking pass. I wasn’t planning on coming back senior spring semester so I didn’t buy a parking pass. Now I’m back, and really don’t mind being back, but at the same time I could be doing an off campus internship somewhere.
Anyway, I decided to do an on campus internship because A) I needed courses to be considered a full time student and since I basically took everything I’m doing this internship and 2 photo classes. B) To brush up my skills even more…
So one of the things I’m working on is doing graphics for an event that the Student Union here is putting on. This year is its’ 50th anniversary. They are celebrating by having a 60’s themed event since it was built in the 60’s. I was like, “Oh great. 60’s so over done…” so since its in March I decided to go with the flower power kind of theme.
I’m hoping to do a more fulfilling internship during the summer somewhere if I don’t get a job right away.
Yay new semester!
So, its a new semester and lots has happened since jan 10!
I took my French CLEP exam and missed it by 4 points so I have ended up signing up for French III which I haven’t been too happy about as I’ve got my senior art stuff to focus on.
I’m still fighting to get the credit transferred and there’s a big possibility that my Umass professor may just up the grade so it will get transferred over.
And so now I am having my hypothyroid medication adjusted and they doubled it. So I’m like wired without having caffeine. Its a weird feeling. Anyway, also been experiencing a bit of a second spiritual awakening (lol) as everything I thought was normal with me has been a slow on coming symptom of low hypothyroidism and who knows how long this has been going on for. As long as I’ve been alive possibly.
Stupid low hypothyroid messing up my childhood … heh…
Anyway, perhaps I’ll lead a relatively normal adult life now that I’ve got energy and my brain back. It causes mental dullness/confusion so it may or may not have caused my supposed mental disability (!) I don’t know…. I don’t know anything anymore about myself…
I’m excited to switch my focus a bit more to my photography classes though it seems that I have a nice balance of photography and graphic design stuff to do this semester. I’m excited especially with this new found energy…
I also figured out a way to make that visual language I had in mind. Just gotta figure out how to do it.
Finally!!
So I have finally time to sit down and write a decent post. Been awhile.
What’s happened this month? A LOT.
The week after thanksgiving I began to feel sick. Loss of appetite, extreme weakness and fatigue. I had it for the entire week and went to the health center by Friday. They tell me that I have Viral syndrome basically a virus that hasn’t manifested yet and told me to sleep and rest over the weekend. Well I did that, and kind of got better, but it didn’t really go away. While I was at the health center I made an appointment with the doctor for Monday. Monday I go see him and he tells me its anxiety and then tells me I should go to the hospital Tuesday morning to get an AKG, heart monitor and bloodwork done. I flipped out since this was now during the final week of classes and for me, all of my art finals happened in about a span of a week.
I broke down at the health center cause I could not deal with something like that. I don’t know the area of Bethlehem all too well, since I don’t have a car, my travel distance is kind of limited to the campus distance. I had a whole bunch of projects to do in a span of five days since that monday and it wasn’t that I didn’t feel like I could not do them, it was my sickness stressing me out even more because I had no strength to work on them. Bad day that monday? Yes.
My portfolio seminar class was supposed to go and have a book making workshop that afternoon but thankfully it got moved. But I couldn’t make any decisions myself since I had pretty much lost my mind. I went to my prof for that class and got a bit of an extension and found out that our final critique time wasn’t until Tuesday of finals week. Phew, I’ve got the weekend to work on the book.
I decided not to go to most of my classes that week, since I had no strength whatsoever. I ended up not going to the hospital since I couldn’t think straight and really didn’t have the time during an already crunched schedule, so I waited until I got home.
I finished my art finals and studied for my sociology final which I got a B- on. But then I was handed back a book review and was accused of plagiarizing that paper!! FOR REAL. As a hobby researcher I should know better than NOT to plagiarize! I got an F for the assignment but not a Zero, but anyway, I didn’t get another F because it was combined with a presentation that my group got an A on. I SWEAR my professor had something against me. He was one of the most arrogant professors I have EVER had. UGH. But thankfully I passed sociology. After the final, I broke down again in my room about the accusation and I couldn’t do anything about it. I had spoken to my prof right after the final since he was going on Sabbatical and he said to me, “There’s nothing you can do about it now”. I emailed the deans and they couldn’t do anything about it either since my prof didn’t file charges for it. So he won either way. FUCK HIM.
And no, I didn’t plagiarize. I wrote those 5 fucking pages myself, granted there were a few things that were incorrect fact and grammar wise, but it probably felt disjointed because I wrote it while under severe anxiety…. sigh.
So. I finish the semester with a straight B+ average except for sociology which I got C-.
I go home and do the bloodwork and they tell me that I have an inactive hypothyroid, so now I am being medicated for it for the rest of my life. Yay for getting my energy and life back??
End of semester melt down here we go…
I am so freaking frustrated.
Jeff and the art department agreed to have the lab open today from 12 pm -5 pm for people to do work over Easter break. I got there no later than 12:15 pm and it was not open. Someone else was already there and was probably there at 12 pm. I waited for an HOUR for lab assistants to show up (you need one in order to work). No one showed!!!!! I have been stressed out for a month and a half and I can’t take it anymore. I don’t get stressed out easily, but if I have been stressed for that long, it starts to get to me. I have so much work that needs to be done for that class, I’m frustrated that all it won’t be the best it can be.
I have to get 5 cyanotype prints done – which I have but aren’t that great.
I need 2 more van dyke brown prints. (5 total)
And 3 more salt prints. (5 total)
Plus a self-portrait collage of a series of 3-5 photos.
I have negatives made and everything, paper coated and everything I just need to print! -bangs head on wall-