new difficulties.

a new obstacle has arisen from working on my memory book. the memories. the nostalgia. it's definitely a bittersweet activity. Angus & Julia Stone in the background probs not helping.

reading

i just love reading, especially haruki murakami's works. i sometimes feel like they're some weird reproduction of my mind's inner worlds. a strange mash up of japan and the sixties and seventies thrown in veneered with jazz and slicked up with whiskey. i also think that the author issac adamson was heavily, almost burdensomely influenced by murakami-san. i'm actually at the point where i just want to mix myself up a mint julep and sit outside and read all day.

the last couple of days i had been doing a lot of bead work, trying to use them all up and never do it again. i really hate doing it and only started doing it because my mother had overpaid for a beaded necklace and i just got in a "that's so ridiculous! if that's what you want i'll make it for you!" sort of torrent which has continued for years. personally i think most if not all of what i make is something i would never wear. soooo they're all mum's with the exception of a mate's b-day gift i was fixing and the two pairs of pink earrings at the bottom.

today's project? i had planned o starting the much back-burner-ed australian collage book project. i'm going to use 2 japanese album* moleskins to capture my adventures in a semi-chronological visual mash up that i think i'll re-copy journal entries or write down something about the moments on the flip side. it's not really going to be easy organising my memories into a coherent form and as excited as i am to do the project and have the two little albums bursting with my homeric adventure overall i feel daunted by the task. especially since i realised i should also include some of the many photographs i took and thus get on and weed through over 2,000+ images on what to print.

that and my mum plans to have me scan all the family negatives and digitally archive them on an external harddrive...... yipeeeee.....ehgh.

japanese moleskin album

haruki murakami's site - really sweet track by jefferson rabb

knit stitch

yesterday I taught myself how to knit! it all finally stuck in my head vs me just standing there with two pointy things and yarn, my yarn became fabric. I had knitted alot but decided not to waste my fiber on a half baked plan for a grunge jumper and i instead un raveled it till i hit a knot and plan to use it to make a scarf. I'll start it when I get back from the oral surgeon today, when i look like a chipmunk. that's right finally getting my top wisdoms out after many, well not even months but years of waiting. They really shouldve come out when they were coming over while i was in oz but oh well, they're gettin the boot today. i hope i get to keep them. i keep threatin to make a pair of molar cufflinks with them like meyer wolfshiem in great gatsby.

I actually learned how to knit from the lovely expert village on youtube. here's a link to the specific video I used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiY7xFU85AU&feature=channel

if...

I were a good girl I would sketch out every painting idea I have floating in my head to have ready for when I get back to the studio in september.

hmm.....I think I'll make myself a mint julep.

uhgh, lame.

I wouldn't call it a failure yet but between it's present condition, the heat and the impending rainstorm - I'm at least not doing anything more to it today and not sure if i'll be square with myself and soldier on or decide because I find the size frustrating enough that i'll just throw it in the bin. i'm on the fence even now.

I'll still do artwork though! thinking i'll draw and watercolour on the hordes of paper i seem to have piled up.

il fait chaud.

so sticky and hot outside, idk if i have it in me to go out there and paint.

lazy.

i've been sooooooo lazy lately it feels so out of character. My parents really must think I'm half slug, not getting out of bed till 10-10.30? ah! thats like 4-5 hrs later than I was getting up last week! incredible. maybe it's my body catching up on lost hrs? or maybe it's i'm sleeping on my futon and it's soooooooooooo comfy. I have millions of things piled on it, i get hot (it's summer) and i don't have a fluffy doona but i still feel like i'm in a little nest and i just can't be roused.

anywho I got in the game today and am challenging myself to one up some fellow in the International Artist magazine by doing a better replica of a j.w.waterhouse. I've always loved his work and feel that since I'm studio-less at the moment doing my own, usually massive work is a bad idea and instead developing ideas and working on my skills is better. This replica has already challenged me to draw on a 'reasonable' scale vs. something as large as I am. what a pain.

anyways I'm about to start painting, outside (hot & sticky, ew.) so we'll see how I go. I'm sure the result will be less than stellar and I'll end up curled up in a ball on my futon doubting my self worth but.....such is life.

done.

finally caught up on my sleep and ate a balanced meal. oh how i love you mum..... currently I'm at my parents place so i'll be catching up on little projects for them and getting my commissions nailed down and on the assembly. I'm also going to make good on a promise I made myself - to create more and to make things for myself more. I had a professor say to me that there was nothing like art education to kill your enthusiasm and it's true. I never experiment or make them just for the act of creation anymore - it's always for the assignment, the client, the portfolio - never just 'cus. I think that's why i get so into making paper cranes and little odd things like that. The only pressure to create them is my joy. I'm excited to see what i do and how i feel differently as i pursue this.

But as far as assignments and such go, the fibers one is not in it's final stage of completion but on the right track.

and the painting for ghist is disappointing but the larger oil one i started is waiting for me to come play with it so i'm ok with that.

uhhhgh staying on task....

I'm not having a problem with being productive but I'm having a problem with etting my arthistory painting completed. I should have finished it tonight but it bores me....so i ended up making golden curry, and then later star shaped corn muffins and doing house chores. it's coming along but.......I did however finish my weaving sampler today. I'll wake up tomorrow real early and just hope that the time crunch will engage me for a period long enough to get that done because... I have a fibers final to bang out. man I'm gonna be one exhausted sheila come the end of the week.

Well guess that's that then. tomorrow, wake up - bust out Caracella, head to class, use lunch break to pick up any needed supplies and then it's silk steaming and

extreme awesome fibers project creating from then on out. definitely don't want my critique and final exam for art hist. on same day. Na, that's a serious no go.

If you couldn't tell I'm a bit under-slept and over- caffeinated.

blue monday

After a terrible thursday night that threw me off my axis I finally on this monday morning feel like i'm ready to get back in the saddle and take on the world if a bit reluctantly. I'd love to just lye in bed and be a slug but I have SO much to do and If I just power through this week then I can go to my parents and get outta dodge for a few weeks before fall semester starts.

First order of business is re-starting the arthistory painting which whiel not looking terrible truly doesn't follow my proposal so ..... restarting.

So it's that, get a go on the fibers final, do some weaving and defunk the apartment. I could also use some grocceries but part of me wants to make do and empty out the fridge so I can deep clean it easier.