art on campus … 1st-year mfas!

Two weeks ago I attended the opening of an art exhibition on campus for the first-year MFA students. Some of the stuff was cool, some was confusing, some was merely eh. It was … an interesting mix. Nice change to escape studio for a bit though, and there was alcohol (always a plus)! Below is a selection of some of the pieces I found interesting.

“untitled (blue monochrome 1 to 88),” “untitled (yellow monochrome 1 to 97),” “untitled (red monochrome 1 to 100)” – Arches 88 paper and ink – Jason Kraus

“Between the Lines” – Newspaper, see-through mirror, wood, string, smoke – Jin Joo Chae

“Live Forever” – Microsoft PowerPoint, clay – Laura Miller

“April Showers” – sugar, T-shirt, video – Wang Xu

finals. nor’easter. sigh.

Tonight is going to be an all-nighter. Sigh. It’s that time of the year when massive amounts of caffeine and sugar get ingested and I seclude myself in my room and my room turns into an absolute mess. Oh yes, it’s finals time. No exams of course, just papers. And a presentation tomorrow … er, in nine hours. I kind of feel disgusting right now. A few days ago the weather was really warm, then cold, then kind of nice. Today my room once again turned into a sauna, because outside it’s cold and rainy and the heater (which I cannot control) only has two options: off or full blast. Apparently there’s this thing called the “Nor’easter storm” which is a type of storm that affects this area, which is causing the frigid rain outside and thus this tropical ecosystem in my room. Sigh.

Last month when I went to Boston over spring break, I visited the New England Aquarium. The jellyfish were so pretty. And so peaceful-looking. And definitely not dying of stress or heat. Sigh.

the hunt for snackages

I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t made anything in a while. Yeah … school has basically sucked me in. I can spend the entire day in studio and feel like no time at all has passed. That space truly is a black hole of time. Sigh. I made oatmeal cookies the other day but those got decimated pretty quickly . Today I made potato bread and granola bars, which I thought would be great for studio snacks.

The bread was yummy. I sliced it up and stuck a bunch of it in the freezer. I’ll probably have that for toast in the mornings. As for the ‘granola bars,’ … um, I guess they turned out decently enough. I put chocolate on them because all great granola bars have chocolate. They don’t look very appetizing, but they’re still edible. They’re kind of sticky though (from the honey in the recipe), so I won’t be making them again. Cookies are so much simpler to make … and to eat.

And speaking of cookies, they sold Girl Scout cookies near campus today! It was very exciting. And goodness gracious those suckers sold FAST. I thought Girl Scout cookie season started a while ago, but this is the first time I’ve seen them being sold up in my neighborhood. That little table basically got swarmed. It was kind of entertaining watching a bunch of college students go crazy for Girl Scout cookies. I got two boxes of Caramel deLites (aka Samoas), which are the BEST COOKIES EVER, and two minutes later when I walked by again, they were out.

I won’t be bringing the Girl Scout cookies to studio (because I’m too afraid others are going to eat them!) and I probably won’t bring the granola bars to studio either (because the stickiness is too annoying), so I still need some studio snack food! I might just go out and buy some Craisins. Although the last bag of Craisins I had went really, really fast. I need something healthy, filling, energy-sustaining, and easy to eat. It’s always amazing just how much food I can consume just sitting at a computer in studio.

[NOTE: This post originally appeared on a now-deleted blog and is reposted here for my own sake.]

oil in them thar … manhattan

This is the “Manhattan Oil Project” by Josephine Meckseper, down at the corner of 46th Street and 8th Avenue … in Manhattan. Oh yes, there are oil pump jacks (from Electra, Texas) plugging away down in Manhattan. All in the name of art, of course. There’s no actual oil, which would be a ridiculously crazy notion because Manhattan is basically rock due to the schist.

It’s just one of those weird juxtapositions, of the skyscraper versus the oil pump, of the quintessentially New York with the quintessentially Texas. It was fenced off with signs warning of danger, and although I knew it was meant as an art piece, there were obviously many other people who did not. It was interesting like that. It was less about the sculptures themselves (although the repetitive movement was quite relaxing to watch) and more about how people perceived the structures in a space such as downtown Manhattan. There were no indications that it was art, no signage to that effect, but even if one didn’t have the prior knowledge about Manhattan’s schist, there was still this sense that the oil pumps did not belong in that space.

passover + easter = festivities

Passover started on Friday, and today is Easter Sunday. Last night we had a little dinner party that ended in a sleepover and brunch this morning. Well now, this weekend has been oh so not productive. On the other hand, I did get to stuff my face with chicken and matzo. So … wash?

april showers

There’s the old saying that April shower bring May flowers … goodness gracious I hope that’s true. It’s been raining ALL DAY today and it’s quite annoying. I was extremely low on groceries so I forced myself to trek out there. Ugh. It’s very awkward carrying groceries while holding an umbrella. But now I have food in the fridge and I’m all cuddled up in my pajamas, so all’s well that ends well.

This is a sculpture in Times Square that I visited a few weeks ago. It’s called “Soñando New York (Dreaming New York)” and is by Pablo Atchugarry. It was hand-carved from a single block of marble – amazing, eh? It was a nice piece, but I think I would have liked it much better if it was in the space of a museum or gallery. I’m not too fond of when they put sculptures in Times Square because most pieces just get overwhelmed by the surroundings, and it always makes me sad to see so many people just walking by a piece without appreciating its art. I need to make a point to trek back down to the Chelsea galleries one of these days. The New Museum and Whitney are still on my list as well. Sigh. I might try to make a day of it for this Friday … if I can squeeze in the time.