It's only ten?

Today was one of two mandatory excursions I have to take for my African Art History class. I spent most of the day in a Miami Van going to and coming back from Indianapolis. We went to see the Art museum's collection of African Art. Which was lovely and much more interesting now that I know something about what I was looking at. We rolled out around 8:45am and got back around 4:30pm, and for some reason all art students get extremely busy at the exact same time so we were all pretty grumpy by the time we got back. After the hour tour was over all of our minds clicked over to all of the other stuff we had to get done today and we wanted to be home NOW. Next week is the Cincinnati art Museum which wont be nearly as bad.

When I got home Mark made me dinner and then we went on a lovely fall walk. Which was a nice break. I have been doing homework since then and expected it to be at least midnight when I looked up at the clock. Nope ten pm. I think I might have to go to bed, at ten on a Saturday night.

Spending the rest of my life in college

We have been messing around with my argoflex and d80, I am not sure I have the right lens to get these to look right. Although, there is something I like about these fuzzy bright scenes.

This is my bag filled with portfolios that need to be graded.

Today concluded my first five week beginning photo class that I have been teaching this semester. I was asked if I would like to teach it right before the school year started I said yes and didn't have much time to let it sink in.

The teacher roll is not my most comfortable one. I am just settling in to being an art student, the fact that I now know enough that Miami University would trust me to teach their students is ... I don't know. Part of me feels like I am tricking them, they think I am qualified and I am playing along.

Before my students left today I asked them to write down somethings they liked about the course and somethings that they thought I could improve on. I don't know what I was expecting to get back. The consensus seemed to be that I had explained everything clearly and they really liked the one on one instruction I gave if they didn't understand something right away. Which immediately made me feel better. My biggest fear the whole time was that they had been politely nodding while I was showing them how do develop and print, but when I turned my back they were looking at each other mouthing "WTF"?!

Before the class started I had never thought about teaching photography, when I was asked to teach I thought maybe this was the beginning of a new career path. During these past five weeks I had so many doubts about my ability to explain things clearly and lead the class in a organized and fluid direction I decided I was never going to teach again after this semester. Now that I have a stack of papers telling me otherwise who knows?

Drawing III Final

I volunteered to go first during my final critique for drawing three. It went really well, everyone seemed to like my project and had some really good ideas on how I could display it better. Plus, now all I have to do is sit back and listen for my last couple days of class.

For our final we could come up with our own project so I decided to mess around more with drawing with light in photographs.

I looked at old masters works, and modern works of art to find the lines I wanted to create. Then I set up a scene and tried to take a picture of something that I felt represented those artists works.

This one turned out to be my favorite.

I used this work from Leonardo DeVinci as the master work. Then set Haley up in bed with a book and tried to recreate the lines from DeVinci's work to give the felling of knowledge or enlightenment coming from the book. The line didn't turn out how I wanted it to at all, but I think it works.

The sun makes school not so bad

It is sooooo lovely today. We need to finish our IMS website so we are walking to King to soak up a little of the sun before we are banished to the IMS Lab Cave.

The pleasures of Shriver.

I have found a spot in the basement of Shriver. There are little red comfy chairs and windows that surround it and it is perfect for napping. I wish I hadn't found it because now I can't help but hear it calling to me during my break on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the break that I use to use to get some reading done. Now I use it to snuggle in and pass out for about forty minutes before I continue on with my day.

Just what the facts is

For my first photo project of the semester I have to take a picture of a dream, and me being me I decided to go all out. I wanted a large landscape scene that I could place a fairs wheel, and myself in.

Taking inspiration from Carl Warner's Foodscapes I have decided to create my own landscape using food and whatever else I can find that fits in. I went to the grocery store a couple weeks ago and messed around with this idea and I got a pretty good landscape out of it. But as a work more on the image I realize it would be much better for me to set everything up that I possibly can in one scene instead of everything having its own layer.


So this weekend I plan on taking time out to set up a new landscape including my new fairs wheel that Mark and I spent Saturday night putting together eating pizza and Watching Flight of the Concords.

Here is when he super glued his finger too the base of it.

If any one has any genius ideas of stuff I could use let me know.

Dream, Take One

First assignment for photo three is The Dream Project. I have to take a picture of one of my dreams. I have a lot of dreams where I am in amusements parks. I took that idea and played with it until I ended up with the idea of a country fair. I took some pictures tonight and mess around with them in Photoshop until I got something that I thought had potential. I like the glowy, haziness that I got.

I want the landscape to be very green and healthy, which I am not going to get in January in Ohio. So Mark and I went to the grocery store and picked out some things I thought might look cool. Did you know that there is such a thing as Brocoflower? Well there is. Thats what I use for my tree.

I didn't get anything I really liked tonight. I think I need to mess with my arrangement more.

Spring semester means one of these days it will be warm again.

Tomorrow starts the spring semester and as of right now I am kind of excited. All new classes means a fresh start and that is always a great feeling. It will also be nice to have something to do (I acknowledge right now that I will be eating these words in a matter of weeks) I start to go a bit crazy when we aren't in class. There is only so many tee shirts we can screen print before it becomes a little ridiculous. This semester I am taking Ceramics I, Drawing II, Photo III, Something about the digital Age and a Art history class. I think this may be my best semester yet.

Crimson tow'rs against the sky

It started snowing last night while we were in the architecture studio trying to get our bridge together so we all could go home and get some sleep. The campus looked so peaceful and settled as we walked back to our car at 2:30am. I think it was my first moment of true pride because I was am a Miami Student. The snow kept falling until about noon today.


Here is Mark groggily waiting for the bus.

Undecided no longer

As I was walking out of the art building tonight I slung my portfolio over my back and I realized that I was finally that girl I wanted to be. Before I was an art major I was a journalism major, then an education major, then just an English major, then back to journalism. I had a small crisis when I started college where I could not commit to one thing and I wasnt ready to do what I really wanted to do. Every time I went by the art building and some stylish girl walked out with her portfolio in tow my eyes would follow her down the side walk. I tried to imagine what her class was like she had just left and how cool it must be to have your schedule loaded down with studios. Tonight for the first time I realized I am finally exactly who I want to be, I even have a pretty new plaid trench coat to cover the stylish aspect.
Here is Mark and my latest creation. Victoria on the front of a hand tea stained t-shirt. I think she is pretty cool.

Instamatic

I spent 11 hours in the photo lab today.


At least some good came out of it.

It's True

Yesterday Mark's coworker asked him if he really enjoyed being twenty and married in that tone of voice that says you really can't enjoy being twenty and married because that is disgusting. The thing about Mark and me is that we are not normal, we never have been. We do not enjoy the things the stereotypes of our age group says we should enjoy. I have always believed stereotypes are there for a reason and this is in no way not the case. Most college aged people are really, really, really annoying and enjoy doing stupid things.
I'm not saying that Mark and I aren't really annoying. I hope we aren't, but I think I might be a little biased in making that judgment so I will leave it up to everyone else. Annoying or not we do not fit in to our college crowd. We enjoy having the house off campus out where none of the parties are to be found, every time we see our with friend the overwhelming urge to be drinking does not over come us. No. We do not have any interest in a game of Beer Pong. Yes. We enjoy being married at twenty.... Oh! and for our honeymoon we totally went to Walt Disney World.

Ilford HP5

The last couple weeks I have spent thinking and worrying about all of the stuff I have to get done. Then I realized that since I had gotten the hang of my classes this semester I was letting myself take on more and more projects. I have decided that while I am in school that is what I am going to focus on.
I was really not linking my photos for a while. It's time to start spending more time with my camera and my images. I spent all night in the photo lab scanning all of my film in to the computer. I love the look of film, but I hate printing in the dark room it takes forever and is so exspenisive but I think it is a dieing art form so I love that I get to experience spending hours bending over chemicals for that one really good print.

The Doctor Approved TV Regiment

A couple weeks ago friends of ours invited us over to their apartment complex to use their new fitness room. A fitness room that has a personal TV attached to every single piece of equipment. Since Mark and I only receive two channels here at the house I immediately saw my opportunity to get my daily hour of Stewart & Colbert. We agreed that we would meet over at their apartment just in time for The Daily Show.
I would now like to take the time to point out that our friends are all boys. So. This is me and four boys that decided to do this. Three weeks later I am the only one who still wants to keep this up. In fact despite trying to go every Monday-Thursday for the past weeks we have averaged about two days a week.
When we started this whole thing I thought I would be the one wimping out. Turns out all I needed to exercise was Television. I hate physical strain. It sucks and makes me feel like crap. With a TV in front of me Steven can make me forget that that my knees are killing me and my lungs are burning. The whole running thing. It sucks. But let me watch TV while I am running I'm good to go. Why? Because TV is mind numbing. My very own television on my treadmill is like my very own little brain washing station. There are absolutely no thoughts coming from my own brain. I guess that is why normally I never watch television, that, and the fact we only have two channels. But when it comes to exercising a good dose of nothingness in my head is exactly what I need.

It's All Been Done

Lately I have been gathering everything that catches my eye. Books about Alphonse Mucha, images of European street lamps off of Google, old photos from antique stores. When I began art school I had no idea how someone else would teach me to create art? I quickly came to realize that a big part of learning to create art is all about creating yourself. Professors can teach techniques and principals but students have to be the ones to teach themselves how they work and what they want to come through in their work. Maybe this is why art students can be so wacky, we're all looking for something and none of us know what that is. Of course all of this applies to all college students. English majors, Business majors, Mass Communication majors. In college no matter what major you have decided upon time stops in between childhood and adult hood. A black hole of being expected to do what is right, but still being able to get away with immaturity. It is pretty rough on ones psyche. I still don't know if when we find that thing that we have been looking for it will be like a switched has suddenly turned on and *click* there it is. Dur. Or it will come in little bits every so often through out the years.
I'll let you know when I figure it out.

The Scrooge of Oxford

If you are an art student at Miami University you are well aware that there is but one art store any where near campus. While there are plenty about twenty minutes from campus its a little hard to drop everything Monday night and take a road trip for one thing you need for your 8am Tuesday morning. Can you say Monopoly? It's not so much that the dude who owns the store jacks up the prices like a Mother Fucker. You gotta earn a living and lets face it Miami University is not a place where there is a surplus of arty folks. What really bugs me about being forced to give the owner business is that while he is ripping you off he is a complete ass. He has not once smiled at me as I forked over 50 cents per negative sheet (thats a lot), or all those times I gave him 5 dollars for each roll of film that only contained 24 exposures. In fact he has been rather rude as if he is looking at me with total disgust.
I don't know if it is because he is a stuck up art snob who believes that you aren't a real art student unless you buy all of your clothes from Good Will, refuse to cut your hair, wear a crazy hat with some weird sun glasses, oh and also wear a scarf. Which I have plenty of friends who fall under this category of art student and I love them. Our fashion differences do not make me less of an art student then they are or vise versa. Of course it could be that the dudly owner is just your run of the mill pissy ass old man? In either case I would appreciate it if he could be visited by three spirits that will lead him in to the path of happiness and a full life.

Talkin' Bout My Generation

I am currently reading Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs* a very lovely break from all of those assigned readings my professors for some reason feel that I need. Along with a critical look at MTV's Real World, and why we would ever want to play The Sims page 42 has a couple very interesting thoughts about patriotism. He questioned a number of people before 9/11 and all of them viewed patriotism as a bad trait. One person responded by "claiming that any woman who loved America didn't deserve to date him, not because he hated his country but because patriotic people weren't smart". The one and only person who found patriotism to a be a good quality at the time responded with this, "You know how historians call people who came of age during World War II 'the greatest generation'? No one will ever say that about us. We'll be 'the cool generation.' That's all we're good at and that's all you and your friends seem to aspire to."

I read this while sipping my coffee in Shriver, the central hub of the M.U. campus. Beside me sat a fellow my age listening to his ipod catching up on his reading. He had obviously eaten dinner before I arrived because his tray of left over raviolis and disposable utensil paraphernalia had been shoved aside so he could rest his feet on the coffee table. The usual sight in the basement of Shriver. When he collected his belongings and left his trash stayed behind despite the fact that he had to walk by a trashcan to leave the building. This unfortunately is a common sight in the basement of Shriver too.

The World War II generation is "the greatest generation", eighty's children are "the cool generation", and my generation we are the "self absorbed generation" a.k.a the "ass hole generation". We grew up in a time where our teachers and parents were believed that they needed to give us self esteem, and boy did they ever. They blew sunshine up our skirts so far that now time has come for my generation to become the adults that they have always wanted to be, but they are lacking some very important traits of adulthood. Manners. Respect. They walk around treating everything and every one like they are royalty. Others should bow before them and clean up after them. They don't bother themselves with silly things such as others feelings. And everyone needs to hear and cares greatly about their current cell phone conversation.

I may look like I am part of my generation because of my age, but honestly I do not agree with their behavior and if someone would like to form a secret club where we sit around and complain about them I will totally join.



* A low culture manifesto (now with a new middle)

Miami Metro

I love riding the bus. There is something calming about it for me. Last year was our first year on campus and we did everything we could to avoid the bus. Parked in distant parking lots, suffered unbelievably outrageous parking fines, and constantly feed parking meters. Basically it was nothing but a big pain in the ass to have a car on campus.
This year we have embraced the bus. I have one night class and usually Mark drives out to pick me up after since this involves no parking. But this week he was at work so I headed over to the bus stop and enjoyed the night air. We live just on the edge of campus so it took a while to get to where I needed to be and that was O.K. I didn't have to worry about traffic or which way would get me home the fastest. I just sat back and got some reading done. I must say I really do love riding the bus.


About the photo:
Even though it looks decades old I took it last Monday. I'm back to using film for my photography class and wanted to find out what I could do with my crappy scanner and my film negatives.

Today in the now

Today shall hence forth be remembered as the day Samantha received free tuition to M.U. one of the most expensive public colleges ever. At least for this year, it remains to be seen if next year shall be paid for by the university or Samantha.

Photography II

On the subject of Anne Geddes:

Student: My boyfriends Mom tried to imitate her and got her baby daughter stuck in a watermelon..... can you imagine getting your baby stuck in a watermelon!?

Professor: Yes, yes I can.