The last entry I made here was on Sept 18, and it's been quite busy since then, so hopefully I can provide a somewhat accurate and coherent update of what's been going on.
I used to update more frequently to help sort out my thoughts, and it helped me when I wasn’t too happy. But these past few months I have been happier than I have been in a very long time.

Seeing as how I am terrible at remembering certain things in order, I'll start with a summary of the semester, then work into other stuff from there. Let the rambling begin...


First off, the semester is over! As much as I'll miss seeing some friends and being a part of the fun projects (See: Soft Sculpture, Pillow, Chair, Wireman), it's nice to have a short break and prepare for my next semester. I ended up with 5 A's and a C. The C was from an English class, which I never read for (let alone owned the book), studied or showed up to the final. I couldn't really care less since art schools really don't care as much about MLA formatting as they do my portfolio.

The first class was Sculpture, which I had with We first did a project where we created a person in a dynamic pose using only wire, a wood base, and a screw to hold the little bastard to the base. That project was one of my fav's and ended up making me love wire as a medium in art since it's so similar to scribbling and sketching (which I love to do) but in a real life form.

The second project was, if I recall, a biomorphic design using plaster as the medium. We filled a bag with Plaster of Paris mixed with water, let it set, then carved out the form. I really disliked what I came out with and the sculpture was little more than an awkwardly shaped ball for me to toss into the trash after the critique. Though I must admit it was still fun learning the process and attempting to execute it.

The third project was a self-portrait using, once again, Plaster. We made relief casts using plaster and objects of our choice but I greatly disliked the idea of the project. My issue was that this self portrait was meant to help sum up who we are and what we like but I found that incredibly difficult since I don't see myself as being plaster. I'm me, and no painting, sculpture, or single item can really sum myself, or anyone else up. Sure, the self-portraits of the old masters were fantastic but even then it's only one part of them we see. We're living, breathing, growing and changing. No matter what we love or hate, we are never as simple as an image. Maybe I was over thinking it, but I ended up with a lump of plaster (which some lady pulled out of the garbage to give to her kid) and a lump of concrete (which lead to the most hilariously silent critique ever). Oh well.

The fourth and final project in sculpture was using opposites to create a thought-provoking sculpture. When this was announced I instantly thought about putting nails through a pillow, and being done with it super fast so I could work on my chair (more on that later). And nails through a pillow is exactly what I made.
Since the whole class was done with this project early the instructor decided to do a group project were we each painted a cardboard box, filled it with random items and left a note to "take one". Again, I felt motivated to finish the project as quickly as possible so I could finish working on the chair, so I painted my box neon pink, filled with white spoons and forks, then called it a day (I may upload a phone picture of it another day).


That's pretty much it for Sculpture. My second class was Life Drawing (With who always helped keep things interesting xD), which again was a fantastic class, and one where I learned more about drawing than my other classes in the past, developed a style, and learned to love to sketch. For the most part we had the same models as last semester: a weekend cross dresser/totally awesome guy, who was by far our greatest model, both due to his physique, endurance for long poses, and general attitude (he held one hour long sitting pose while he had the flu, and didn't move a muscle 'cept during a short break). Our other model from last semester is an older lady who is fun to draw as well; she has very long limbs and wide hips, which make for fantastic gestures.

It was the third model however who was trouble. First let me make it clear that I am always grateful to have a model to draw, I understand how hard it is to hold a pose for a long period of time (I did it for 20 mins last semester and started to cramp), and never take having someone to draw for granted, but this lady was Annoying wrapped in Lousy with a little WTF sprinkled on top. She sucked. Never have I heard a model constantly talk while posing! Perhaps she just didn't know that her face moves and neck flexes when she speaks and that the mood and gesture totally changes, fine whatever. But it was seldom that she could hold a post longer than two minutes without asking for a break or moving her arms to get more comfortable. She'd stiffen up and try very hard to hold a pose, when we really just wanted her to relax and lie down or just rest. When she took breaks and relaxed we asked her to hold those poses and she did quite well, but never caught on to that.

The class was fantastic for my sketching though, and since it (as well as my Drawing Composition class) demanded 50+ pages in a sketchbook I was constantly drawing, but grew to love it. So that is a huge plus.


My third class was my fourth and final semester of Drawing Composition, which I had with Tacianja (that feels weird to call her by her DA name, but whatever xD). Unlike last semester, I didn't have, nor wanted, a contract, instead I drew quite a few biomorphic drawings using various mediums such as Ink, Chalk Pastel, Oil Pastel, Charcoal, and probably a few other things. Seeing as how the class started at 9 and normally got out at 12, I had three hours to kill before English (more on that next). So I spent that time mostly hanging out with Tacianja and getting work done for other art classes. This was easily my favorite time of the week. The auto shop instructor got up my ass a bit about being in the room after class hours, but I explained to him the situation and he thankfully didn't bother us again.


My fourth class was English, which was wonderful for my sketchbook. Seeing as how I didn't once read the book, take notes, or participate I think getting out of that class with a C is pretty damn spiffy. I would have actually put effort into the class but there was little reason as it was more of a "Who is more of a politically opinionated, yet grossly misinformed and bias douche bag debate" class rather than English. It is unfortunate however that by listening to the instructor speak and seeing our graded papers I saw that she really is a very knowledgeable English instructor, it was just that she rather rub up against Michael Moore's DVD box sets than actually discuss anything related to actual literature. Oh well, I still passed.

The fifth class of the week was Photoshop, and took place at 6pm on Wed. This meant it was my third class of the day and by the time it normally ended I had been on campus for about 12-13 hours that day. Luckily for me I know a thing or two about PCs and Photoshop, so the class was a breeze. One of my classmates later told me that I normally left about an hour before everyone else, and still walked out of that class with a 100% (out of a possible 106%... screw extra credit. ).


The Sixth class was 3D design, and had my favorite projects of any of the classes. It was taught by the same lady who teaches Sculpture (whom is married to the guy who teaches life drawing and drawing comp... both of them really really like me too, and we get along very well. It's kinda odd, but nice. )

Our first project was a Marquette (or model) of a public park that takes into consideration the space around the object as much as the space itself. I enjoyed this project and make a rather interesting model, but only took one picture on my phone, which I unfortunately don’t have anymore. It was essentially a design with a lot of odd triangles and blocks leaning on each other in odd positions and angels so that it looked very unstable, but was in fact quite sturdy (well, until a very excited critic accidentally broke it while “dude I was just looking” at it).

Our second project was creating a soft sculpture, which I explained in my last journal entry. It was the large burlap bag that was hung from the ceiling. You can read more about it if you like by browsing to it through my devinations page (Hint: it’s the only one with a thumbnail of a giant brown sack hanging from the ceiling )

Our third project was an interesting one involving multiple casts of the same object that slightly changes with each one. I took a long board and put plaster molds from a cup lined up on the board. The first mold was clean and perfect, and the rest of the molds slowly deteriorated and broke down from there until the final one was just a little circle with a hole in it. I think that I still have a picture of it on my phone somewhere and may upload it at a later date.

The fourth and final project was the chair, which I just uploaded a few hours ago. This was the project I enjoyed most of the entire semester. At first I was just going to half-ass it and melt a few plastic lawn chairs together to be done with it, but I came up with the fun idea of putting arms and a head on a chair. At first I wanted one of those cool old executives chairs that bigwigs in large corporate offices use, but had trouble finding even a used one under $400. So after hearing my instructor talk with a fellow student about choosing their chair I remembered having one in my garage. So I took that and started work on it. First I made the arms (and even made sure the forearm bone on the right arm twists properly with how it is positioned in relation to the wrist). I would have liked to have more time on the chair, as we only had 5 weeks, and one of those weeks I missed due to a epic concert (more on that later… yes, I know this is a long post). However I did make the arms and head at home, and work on the chair a bit during drawing comp class. I was going to make the head much longer and looming over the person sitting over the chair but I lacked the time to bend a piece of rebar for support, so ended up using nothing but wire (and the skulls) to make it. Thanks to some assistance by Tacianja balancing it while I wound on the pieces, it was a lot easier (and more fun) to work with. In the end it turned out quite well, and I’d really like to get a pic of someone sitting in the chair (just not my ugly mug xD), as when they do you can see that that chair isn’t visible, but instead just the arms and head are, and it looks very very cool that way. The chair took about 1300 ft of wire, maybe more, I don’t know. I just know that it was a lot, and I got plenty of small cuts on my hand that made it feel like they were going to melt whenever I ran warm water over them. But it was well worth it.

That’s pretty much it for the semester. I learned a lot and had quite a bit of fun.

Next semester I have Sculpture, Math, Life Drawing, and Painting. ruuuuuuu


In my off time I mostly worked at my job, slept or did homework. I did get the time to go see Inglorious Basterds with Tanuki and her brother, which was fucking EPIC. So epic in fact that we saw it twice xD

Her and I also went on a grand adventure to see the Mastodon and Dethklok show. Though I got lost on the way and saw the ocean, but whatever. Anyway, holy freaking balls it was a great show. High on Fire, a Sludge Metal band fronted by Matt Pike (a bit of a old school metal hero in the underground) opened the show up. Being an opening act, the crowd isn’t really warmed up or into the music yet, so it’s unfortunate these guys got as little love as they did because honestly they were quite good. I would see them again if the price was right.

Second up was Converge. Aside from their Jane Doe album (and a few songs of their latest album) these guys are terrible. It’s violent noise played at an obnoxious level. Though I must say that they sounded just like their albums, so I’m sure the fans of theirs at the show were not disappointed.

The third act was Mastodon. These guys are no bullshit when they play. No talking, no stroking the crowd’s ego and saying how they love to play for [insert city name here]. Just music. They got on stage and ripped the balls off everyone in the venue, then made us thank them for it. When they started playing we were about 4th from the front of the stage, but due to crowds consisting of dickheads (one of which got punched) we had to move back a bit. Any other day that I wasn’t tired with a bad cold and standing for three hours I would have loved to mosh, but that coupled with my wanting to actually listen to the music and sing along made it not happen. So we moved about 20’ or 30’ back.
They played the entire 52 minutes of Crack the Skye, during which I almost cried once during “The Czar” and twice again during “The Last Baron” (Brent Hinds did a solo with his teeth… HIS FUCKKING TEETH HOLY SHIT). After this they went into some of their older, harder tunes, which were equally amazing. Hearing Mother Puncher live while seeing people toss shoes and bleed on you is pretty amazing (and a bit disgusting) xD
There was (and still is) no other band that I wanted to see more than them, and they did not disappoint.

The fourth and final act was Dethklok, a virtual band from the television show Metalocalypse. The great thing about these guys is that aside from Mastodon, there was no other band that I’d rather have seen live than them, and it was fantastic. The creator of the show and band is Brenden Small, a animator, and graduate from the Berklee College of Music. This guy is living both of his dreams at the same time: having one of the largest and most successful animated shows in production and being in a #1 band (Their debut album is the highest charting Death Metal album of all time). All of this came within a few years time, and what’s so amazing about the band is that Brenden never had to put up with the years of being an opening act, or having to deal with tiny venues and crowds that don’t know you. Their very first concert (which was part of a tour that they were headlining) was sold out, and their first tour had bands such as Iron Maiden opening for them… that’s amazing.

To be honest though I was expecting a lame show from them. I thought they’d show the cartoon on the big screen (which they did and was awesome) and bring out people who didn’t know how to hold their instruments because all their music was produced in the studio. But holy crap I was wrong. Not only did they have one of the most, if not the most, legendary drummers of all time (Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan) but Brenden could play. He nailed the vocals (which were considerably higher than his first album, but still fantastic) while playing brutal riffs and solos and made me nearly crap my pants. Watching and listening to him play the solo on “The Gears” without missing a note was so mind blowing that I actually said outloud to myself during the show “holy shit he did it…” (Though of course I couldn’t hear myself with all the noise).

In the end we had a great time and you can bet that in a couple years when they do another tour I’ll be first in line for those tickets (ditto for Mastodon). I’m sure Tanuki had a great time as well xD


Well I probably have a few more things to add, but I am getting a bit too tired to type and I’m sure anyone reading has stopped by now, so I won’t go much further.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a safe new year, and to thank all of my friends that I’ve made this year for being so wonderful to me. You guys don’t know how much I appreciate every kind word and gesture. You know who you all are.

In a couple weeks (Jan 3) I’ll be 23, and that’s very weird to me. I won’t go into all the funny reasons and details but ever since I was little I’ve expected it to be a big year for me, and I’ve been worried about it, but I honestly think it has the potential to be a very good year. We’ll see

Oh, and just for fun I’m growing out a winter beard, which I’ve never done. I’m going to shave it right before a date with a special someone in Jan, so I might take a picture for fun before shaving it, who knows. XDDD

Take care, everyone.