Shoes!!!

What is with girls and shoes? I don't know but I just can't help loving them! Perhaps it is because no matter how fat you may be/get, they still fit. Or it could be that they are just really cute! :) I have hereby decided to not buy cheap shoes again though. A couple weeks ago I wore a pair of pink shoes that I got on sale for $2 (normally about $10) and I wore them from 8:30am to 11:00am and in that short time they managed to wear right though my skin....grrrrrrr! And the sad thing is that from 9:00 till 10:20 I was in a class, so I wasn't even walking for that long....and they were flats(which should make it easier to make them comfortable). Anyway I was at Winners shopping one day and I found the most adorable shoes, which are kind of hard to find but it is possible to find some. But then I noticed they were leather, and they were not lined with some cheap fabric which just ruins the fact that they are leather. They were all leather and they had really good grips on the bottom! Why don't more shoe companies put good grips on their shoes? When you live in a country where ice and snow are possible pretty much any time of the year, you need shoes with grips! And they were a nice slate grey with a mellow yellow trim, so cute!! And they were only $40! But alas...they were a half size too big *sigh* and that was the only pair.  So I just looked up the brand and they go for about $150-$300. So much for that :p Check out the website here if you want to torture yourself....

The Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

     In English class the other day we were discussing "The Lady of Shalott", and it has gotten me thinking. My teacher was saying how the Lady of Shalott was like Tennyson himself, how this poem was his way of saying that if he actually were to enter into the world, he would in a artistic sense "die". He was kind of just observing the world, and if he was to join society and all that he would not be able to commentate on it in the same way. And then she was saying something about how people are doomed to continue seeing the world in the same way they always have, if people are negative about things chances are that they are going to continue the same thought patterns. I am not so sure about that, I mean maybe I just hope it is not so... I don't know, I think people can indeed choose to be optimistic about things or not. And things around you do influence your way of thinking.... So watch out who you hang out with!

     Anyway, the point of all this is that she also said that Tennyson as a artist (and artists in general) had a sort of distorted view of the world, just as the lady of Shalott did as she only saw the world through her mirror. And a mirror is a mere reflection, not to mention that the reflection is backwards! She surrounded her self with the web she was weaving and she stayed in her own little world, secluded and alone, that is until she saw Lancelot. But really artists do see the world in a different way, that is what makes art interesting. Each artist has a unique way of distorting reality, I can really see this in action in drawing class. Even though everyone may be drawing the same thing we all draw in very different ways. Some use very strong harsh dark lines, others make it look as though you were looking through the roof, despite us all having our feet firmly planted on the ground and the next person may amplify the halo of light around the subject. We all see differently, that is was makes art interesting. Art is sort of like a window to the mind, you can find out much from it.

     But the thing I really wanted to get to was that I have realized that a lot of artists do indeed see thing very differently, like a old baggy sweater. I would maybe see that as something beautiful, not because of how it looks, but because of how it could look. I can see the wonderful creation that I could shape it into! Most may think its a useless piece of junk, but I can see what they can not. I try to be critical of why I keep things because I am too aware of how I may end up, like my grandma. She has mounds of useless things in her house, but not because she wants to make things from them, no she is convinced that she can sell everything on Ebay for a lot of money. But there is a lady in my art class who kept some barbie texture panels (for doing rubbings) and she was telling me how she kept them because you never know when you may need them ten years down the road! Ten years!???!!! That is far too long, free yourself from the clutter! Please!

My English teacher was saying how it can be both a blessing and a curse. So be careful that you don't keep to much junk!!! NOTE TO SELF: Don't keep a pile of junk! It may fall on you and bury you alive!!! And go get rid of more stuff. Yep!

By the way, this piece is by Tim Noble and Sue Webster :)



Midterms......AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!

     Yes, it's that time again for us college students :p Midterms. This morning I nearly had a panic attack because they loaded the kilns yesterday, and they fired it early this morning. I saw on the calander that it said today was the firing day, so I was thinking that if I got my pieces done today my stuff could go in....wrong! And my ceramics midterm is on Monday! Therefore I would have been done for, because today was the first day I had glazed anything... leaving me nothing finished for my midterms!!! Yes, I was a little worked up! Okay, I was very worked up! Thank goodness that the midterm is really on Wednesday, leaving me time to have my other stuff fired. Hallelujah I am saved! I was ready to start a really big bonfire to try and pit fire it! But alas, pit fireing is for low fire glazes....mine were high fire. So, I really hope that I make it through this next week....three midterms!!!! AAAAAHK!

Oh, and my friend took me out for a very delicous birthday supper, THANK YOU KAILA!!!

And remember:

So eat some desserts instead of being stressed! Ha ha! I just found this while looking for a picture to use for this post :) Have a great weekend everyone!

More Pictures!

Here are a few pots that I made yesterday! I think I am getting the hang of it a bit more :)

My Wild Adventures of the Untamed Clay

     Well I survived my first midterm of the year..... I really hope I did well. But since the midterm was in the morning, after it was over I decided to go throw away my stress. Ha ha! My mom came up with that! I thought it was pretty funny :) Anyway after having a pretty bad time of it, I finally decided to just relax and enjoy it. I think the problem was that I was watching some throwing demos on YouTube and they make it look so darn easy!!!! And trust me it isn't all that easy, at least not without a ton of practice :p They just slap a ball of clay on the wheel and whoosh! They just pull it up into a fantastically perfect vase! So, after many failed attempts I decided to just save the bowls if they weren't turned into a collapsed heap of clay.

     The first one was pretty bad (I may just scrap it) it was all lopsided and I sat there for a while scowling at it, as if that would somehow shape up my rebellious bowl into something beautiful.....it didn't work. So I gave it another try, this bowl turned out quite lovely! So I tried to make a second one for a set of two. Well, it was going quite well and it was about the same shape and size as the first. Then I decided to use my wire to loose it from the wheel.... Ahhhhhgh! You see, when I started the wheel, one of the handles on my wire cutter got caught on the wheel and flew up and landed on my bowl cutting a nice big chunk out of the side. I decided to also move past this incidence and make another bowl. This one was amazing!!! Oh wow! I was so happy with it I figured that I could leave at that point ( I couldn't bring my self to just quit without having something amazing to show for). You can see the pictures below :) Yay!

Oh, and here is my latest roller stamp. Hooray for buttons!!

Contrast in Photography

 So for my visual fundamentals project we had to take twelve photos that used twelve different methods of composition. The one which turned out to be my star project was contrast. But not contrast as people most commonly may think of it, which is the contrast of black and white. The contrast my teacher wanted was the contrast of themes and subject matter, ie. a teddy bear with a knife. So enough of my chattering and on with the picture show!!!


Ok, I know I said that I would stop chattering but I feel you should know the concept behind this photo shoot. The contrasting figures were the mannequin who is plastic and does not appear to be having very much fun. And then there's me.... Ha ha ha! Very much alive and wearing far more edgy clothing than my life sized barbie doll :)

 

As you can see at the beginning I started out very boring and still, but as time went on though I started to have a lot more fun! And the pictures that look the most fun are defiantly my favorite :) Oh, yes and the lemon on the knife that I was holding was also suppose to contrast the cupcake my mannequin was holding. Although the symbolism is not as apparent as I would like :P

Roller Stamps!!!

I think that roller stamps are pretty amazing, you just roll one across some clay and you have a lovely texture/pattern!! Here are a few that I made....

This first one I used a bamboo paint brush holder, the end of a pen with the tip retracted, the handle of a fork and the lid on a bamboo box.

This next one I used various tools to carve and shape it, and I also used the end of a bamboo brush (I seem to have a lot of bamboo art supplies!) 

And there below are a few initial stamps I made!

And on Monday I get to start throwing!!!! Yaaaaaaaay! I have been waiting my whole life for this!! (Well actually I did sneak in to do some throwing before. But now we are officially throwing...the whole class....not just me being the rebel...hee hee!)