It's Christmas! Let's be glad!

After Liz and I finished up the last of our work for the semester, we finally had a chance to get some decorating done for the holidays. We bought a little tree and put up some decorations and made garlands out of popcorn and cranberries. 

Sufjan's Christmas music has been a staple this holiday season as well. Of course! I've decided that my favorite album is Hark! Vol. 2. Here's a sweet little cartoon. 

Work Share

On Friday the 10th, the MFA students at VSW participated in an event called "Work Share" where as first year graduate students we were given the opportunity to have our work seen by the greater VSW community. We were set up in the student gallery like a science fair. The seven of us each had a table with our books and statements and some of us hung our prints on the wall. Our final videos were on a computer at the entrance to the gallery so people could watch them at their leisure. It was a very valuable afternoon. I got a ton of feedback on my work and am pretty excited about some of the conversations that took place. 

Jessica looking at my SHTUFF! Photo by Sarah Weedon.

Oh, the shame of today.

Today I woke up with a migraine. It was so excruciating I couldn't bare to move. I ended up asking Liz to rifle through my drawers and inevitably venture out to my car to get me my medicine. Such a good friend. I stayed in bed through all of the daylight hours - most of the time just lying there, but after the pain became more bearable and I could stand to open both of my eyes I watched a lot of Hulu and posted several blog entries. My head never stopped hurting, but a bit after 6 p.m. I decided that I couldn't waste my day completely and drove to the studio to do some last minute tidying up. While I was converting a video file that was taking too long, I took a trip to Wegman's to pick up a few groceries. While I was at the store, I walked past the greeting card section and a realization hit me like a brick wall...today is my dad's birthday. By this point it was after 8 p.m. and although I knew he would probably be asleep I gave his cell phone a call anyways. No answer. Then the house phone - my mom answered and sure enough, dad was in bed, asleep already. Ugh. I am the worst daughter ever. I've literally been so wrapped up in my own selfish little grad school world for the past several weeks that I didn't even remember my own father's birthday. I am the worst daughter ever. 


Well, at the risk of someone reading this and exposing my disgusting emotional sentimentality. I love my dad A LOT. Thus why I feel terrible. We don't say it as often as we should, but I literally do not talk to him when I'm not in Clayton. And I don't go home very often. Him and me - we aren't phone people. My mom forces me to be a phone person and then gets mad when there are long periods of silence during our "conversations". I wish she would just get text messaging. Anyways, I love and respect my dad. He is a hard worker. He wakes up cheerfully every morning and is a good whistler. He has amazing self control. He built our house and has a garden and bakes really good pies. And he thinks he's pretty funny, which he is. He loves Jeopardy and the History Channel and show tunes. The only sport he follows is the World Poker Tour. He likes birds and vintage things. We get along quite well. I'm going to call him first thing tomorrow morning, but until then, I just felt compelled to pay tribute to my FAJA. ("Faja can you hear me?")

Holga Love

I bought a Holga this semester and took some photos. I really enjoyed the process of not knowing how the final images would look. Slowly, but surely breaking away from my digital comfort zone. Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome, they are quite mysterious looking. I didn't process them myself, but I did scan the negatives. In the future I want to use colored film. 

I could only upload the thumbnails, because my other files are currently too big, but I think you can get the general idea. 

Fall

Fall is my favorite season. I love the colors and the temperature and the scarves and the quiet and the walks and the piles of leaves...sigh. This fall went by much to quickly for my liking. Here are some pictures taken this fall. A few were used in a book I made this semester, others are just adding to my ever growing collection of photos that may or may not be used for anything, ever. 

Once winter hits in full force, the exterior photos will be much more sparse. Bare fingers on a metal camera - sometimes it just can't be managed.   

Follow Up on the 5th of November {Everything Tomorrow}

First of all, chatting with Bea Nettles was really wonderful. I was nervous, but the conversation ended up being so helpful and essential for my research of her life. She walked me through all of the books that I am including in the exhibition and although a lot of the processes are still a bit over my head, her descriptions of the content were thorough and extremely useful. I'm so very glad that I chose her to research this semester. Her  career is remarkable and I feel connected to many themes that continually appear in her work.


The "Everything In Time" opening reception was a hit as well. The Siskind gallery was hoppin' with "First Friday"ers. The exhibition will be up until December 19th, so there is still time to stop in and feast your eyes on some maximalist artwork before the exhibition moves to The Center for Book Arts in NYC. Here are some pics from the opening.

Also, I DID end up watching V for Vendetta, but it didn't end up being until AFTER the 5th, technically. There were no fireworks either. Only in my mind. It's weird, I'm writing all of this and it has been well over one month ago. I'm constantly playing catch up. Whatevs, it will happen some day. :)

Book Binding & Josh Ritter

Now that the semester is over I can finally catch up on some blog posts. I wanted to include some info about this one weekend a while back. (I love the vagueness of that sentence). A weekend full of friends, music and learning. I attended a "four needle coptic with cloth covered boards" book binding workshop with VSW alum and current student at University of Iowa's Center for the Book, Heather Wetzel. The workshop was INCREDIBLE. I learned the coptic binding technique and created a wonderful, functional, notebook. The majority of my classmates attended the workshop as well and we all had a book to show for it in the end. Brian made a bright red dream journal. Ha ha ha. 

Heather instructing Alicia and Megan.

The spine of my book. 

The next day I went to Ithaca to see Josh Ritter with Katie Brennan and John Brennan! It was truly magical. What a show! I'm so thankful that I was there amongst good people. 

I've got a great life.