The sky is gray. The sand is gray. The ocean is gray. And I feel right at home.

I went to Lisa's birthday party tonight and really only stayed for about 10 minutes. I felt so bad but I was tired and really didn't feel like being around big crowds of people. Instead I used up more polaroids to take pictures of my cats and roommates. Lame Lame Lame Lame Lame.

Tomorrow Steph is having a party for BJ's birthday and I'm sure it will be fun since I will actually know the people and I won't be standing awkwardly in the corner by myself. But we'll see since I plan on spending late night in the color darkrooms, I just might be very cranky when I get back.

It's a nervous tic motion of the head to the left.

Today we had our critique on the portrait assignment. Everyone did so well on their projects and it's rewarding to see the improvements you're making after such hard work and long nights in the darkroom. Everyone gets along so well and my teacher is amazing, she has taught us so much already and I look forward to each class to see what we are going to learn next. She noticed I had my polaroid camera with me today (I was DYING to take pictures with it right after i bought film) and she actually gave me 2 more packs of 10 count polaroid film. I was surprised she gave them to me since the price is up to $20 for a 10 pack since they're going out of business :(

Chelsea thought of the clever captions.

Kate added the nice little doodles.

This is what my class does while we're suppose to be flattening our fiber prints and spot toning. I really think our graduating class is going to be so much fun. Today me and Chelsea were talking about how our class doesn't seem to be full of assholes. And if you go to UArts you know exactly what I'm talking about haha.

Have you seen them, the words cut open? There's somthing living in these lines.

I finally finished my portraits. These are the other 3 I'm using, as mentioned before in this blog (and probably every time for now on) the scans SUCK. It's really starting to make me mad how shitty all my prints look they have been scanned.

for some reason this scanned crooked?

that little curtain in the window had a 40 sec. burn.

I did this print of Melissa about 2 weeks ago for Color Concepts. I got a couple lomo cameras for Christmas and I have been dying to try them out. This one was a double exposure on a fisheye camera, and I was really happy about the result.

Late night starts in the darkrooms this Friday. I think I'm going to go to work on Color Concepts work since that is the only class I'm behind in. I think I'll be able to get my 2 still lives and hopefully another 2 plaid self-portraits. Then if I feel like staying super late then I'll try to get one more fisheye portrait of Melissa done.

Lou joined the Wednesday lunch club today. Julie and I are going to bring him more so that creepy old guy leaves us alone haha. It was also another Wednesday lunch that I forgot to bring my camera with me. Next week I am bringing my polaroid, no doubt.

Wednesday is becoming my favorite day of the week. I get to sleep in, enjoy the company of friend for a couple hours, and still manage to get school work done later. It's the perfect balance.

When I die 1,000 birds will fly out of my mouth.

self portrait. the color of plaid.

annoying cat.

Yesterday night my cat had me in a frenzy because she couldn't open her right eye. And me being me I started to worry, so i basically stayed up even longer then anticipated (until about 4 or 5am) to wait and see if she got any other symptoms. Of course, she had only got something in her eye and was fine a few hours later. 

This is basically how I have to sleep every night because my cat is up my ass 24/7 and HAS to sleep directly on top of me at night.  It's also the reason why I will probably be single for the 14 or so years. 

Somewhere in the middle of the night, everything is going to be alright, alright.

Lee Miller, Nude Bent Forward, 1930

Today I finally went to see the Art Of Lee Miller showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I had already missed her son's lecture, and was beyond disappointed that I did, especially after I heard how amazing it was. Lee Miller is possibably the most influential female photographer of the 20th century, with work ranging from portraiture to Vouge to World War II documentation. Her collection was probably one of the best one's I have seen yet. There were photographs exhibiting her entire career, including her earliest work in front of the camera as a model to the progression into her photography career. I must have walked around the exhibit 3 or 4 times and each time I discovered something new about each photograph. I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever felt someone's work to be this deeply influential.

Man Ray, Portrait of Lee Miller (above)

In other news, this is the first print of a Van Dyke Brown I did in Non-Silver Printmaking. It's a really interesting class of alternate processes. First, you coat your own paper or whatever you decide to print on (it could be anything from paper to wood to ceramics, the possibilities are endless!) with emulsion. Then you expose it in this huge machine called a platemaker and it really only takes a few seconds to expose. Then to develop it all you do is wash it in water for 5 minutes, then fix it and wash again, then you're done! The next process we are learning is cyanotypes which doesn't even involve fixing, but the exposures could last from a few minutes to a few hours, or even all day.

So, I'm working hard, but it's hard to find time to get everything done. This week is just an overload where it has been non stop work all day everyday. It's to the point where i have been forgetting to eat (today i didn't eat anything until 7:00pm, and yesterday i ate a total of 7 crackers) and sleeping is a whole 'nother story. I've been trying to write out weekly schedules to help manage my time, but even then I find myself tired, hungry and overworked. I still have a lot of work to do tonight and it's almost midnight, and this blog took to long to write. I'm off to read Hemingway and to write a paper for Love & Death.