Pilchuck Madness #8

Last night was the Student Auction and Party. I had made some monoprints (see above) based on the chipmunk I did for the t-shirt contest, and together they sold for about $100. They managed to raise about $8,000 last night. Half goes toward scholarships and the other half toward supplies for the campus.

I did end up buying a couple things, one was a print in the silent auction for $10 and then I managed to snag a glass sculpture for $40 during the live auction too. Which was fortunate, because there were lots of good things, but most of them were $100 or more. There were definitely some steals though... If I come back, I'm going to have to make sure I have some cash available. As much as I hate to think of art as an investment most of the time, it would be a great place to start or add to a collection.

I've been having a TON of fun in the print shop. I was in there most of the day today working on some pieces inspired by basketry designs from my tribe. Good times!

Pilchuck Madness #7

We took a field trip on Tuesday (if I neglected to mention it already) to Seattle to check out James Nowak's studio on Capitol Hill which was SUPER-COOL!!! I want to live there. There is a shot of him with his assistant (who was pretty hot by the way), and also a close-up of James working in the "gloryhole". Yes, you heard me right. I guess there are a lot of fun terms in the glass world. Good times.

Afterwards, most everyone piled into Tom's van for a trip to Uwajimaya. I rode back with our teacher and a couple other folks instead, seeing as how I can go to Uwajimaya whenever I want to normally. Sounds like I missed out though, Tom just happened to have a didgeridoo in his van AND Katie just happens to be able to play the didgeridoo! He really does have a magic van...

Anyhow, the third photo is a shot of my desk. No, not all of that wine is mine. But somehow it all ended up on my desk. Any time we get the chance to leave campus we always seem to migrate back with various bottles of alcohol. We have fun in the evenings working in the studio, drinking wine, listening to French pop from the 1970s. I will treasure these memories forever. Also, the last photo shows some candy that Jane picked up at Uwajimaya called, "Crunky." (I'll leave that one alone.)

And did I mention that we have a theme for our student auction/party on Friday night? A super fun theme, in fact. "Bedazzled Prison Uniforms: The Musical." How do you dress for that? One of the students in our class got her hands on a Bedazzler, and there were rumors that the kitchen staff went to the Wal-Mart in Mount Vernon and cleaned out their Bedazzler supplies (nine of them). I promise to bring my camera with me tomorrow night. I just need to make sure that I don't get drunk and lose it in a bush, which happened to a student at the last party.

My Other Car is a Diamond-Encrusted Mercedes...

Just opened up my email this morning to find a forwarded message about "Prince Waleed of Saudi Arabia's" diamond-covered Mercedes. Supposedly it is his 38th car. It cost $4.8 million and you can pay $1000 to touch it.

There was a little note at the bottom saying, "Remember this when gasoline costs $5.00 a gallon. You paid for this one." I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to mean. That I should stop driving so that Prince Waleed can't afford to buy a matching Mercedes covered with emeralds? That I should ruminate on this car when I am filling up my tank at the gas station and become insanely jealous?

Pilchuck Madness #6

Slept in this morning until 11:30, which was GREAT!!! Got up, took a shower, did some laundry, and it was suddenly time for lunch. After lunch I was in the print shop all afternoon and had a really fun time. Don't have any images of what I've been working on, but they are inspired by things I was doing a few years ago, such as the red/black acrylic painting at the top and the oil pastel drawing below it.

It seems like ever since I went back to school I've been so focused on design that I've really moved to working with grids and straight lines and don't very often do projects that aren't somewhat rigid. I was hoping that my time here would let me develop more fluidity and introduce some organic elements into my work. If I'm able to successfully combine my art and design, I think I'll be there.

Also, we had a slide show tonight by the de la Torre Brothers (Einar and Jamex) that was really cool. Their website is also super slick, although it has less work on it than we saw earlier. I'm so excited to be surrounded by such great artists, both teachers and students!

Pilchuck Madness #5

Every session here at Pilchuck they have a t-shirt contest. Inspired by the chipmunks that frequent the campus, I decided that I was going to draw a chipmunk for my entry. My desk is near Jane's and she suggested I add an eye patch (a la Dale Chihuly, founding artist) and then Gyun came by and said she thought he should be blowing glass. After a small pile of tracing paper, some scanning, and digital coloring, I was left with my lovely t-shirt design.

Tonight, anyone who wanted to enter posted their submission on the fireplace at the lodge before dinner. Voting was open while we ate, and the winner was announced before the regular evening slideshow. I got first place! This means that they will be printing them out and selling them in the school store. And I think I get a free shirt for winning.

Our instructor, Cork Marcheschi, told us he is "teaching [us] how to win" open calls for public art. I figure this is a good sign? I have to start somewhere!

Pilchuck Madness #4

So in the photo above (you really should click on it to see it in all its glory) this terrible hat that looks like a Barbie/My-Little-Pony horse combined into one mind-blowing object. And yes, you heard me right, it really is a hat.

I first met this hat on Friday when a group of us was digging in the costume pile for the party being thrown by the TAs. Jane modeled it for us, and someone, somewhere has photos of that. I forgot all about it until last night when I had wandered over to the hot shop to see if my cast glass pieces were out of the kiln yet. There it was, sitting in a lawn chair right outside the shop.

Immediately I scurried back to the studio to grab my camera.

I may not be very good at remembering to carry my camera with me, but I did know that it was important to document that hat. How did it get there? (The hot shop isn't particularly close to the metal/wood shop where the party was.) What tales can this hat tell? Who the hell made it?

iphone envy

Generally I feel pretty content with my life and what I have. Unfortunately, the internets conspire on a regular basis to make me want things I don't own. (Television usually has the same effect on a larger scale, which is a big part of why I don't have one.)

I was randomly reading an article about Comparing the iPhone's 'true' price that I saw advertised on MSN's home page. Their tactics worked on me! I clicked the link, read the article, and thought about how nice it would be to own a shiny new phone with lots of features. The fact that I would be spending about $2000 over the next two years for the phone and plan actually seemed like it wasn't too bad. Until I realized that if my phone happens to last two more years, I would only be spending about $780.

Don't need it. It's pretty, but I don't need it.