New York--quick and boring write up

So a couple people wanted to hear about my New York trip, and I wanted to tell you all about it. But one of the effects of the New York trip was that I am now VERY behind on my homework, so finding the time to do a good thorough job of it is just not possible. This is the best I can do. Truth be told, no effort has been made to make this report at all interesting. I basically just looked at the itinerary and wrote a couple lines about each place we went.

The first place we visited after our flight was the National Portrait Galleries in Washington D.C.. It was here that I started my method of museum-viewing that I used throughout the trip—don’t worry about running through the whole museum to see the famous pictures, don’t worry about appreciating every single piece of art there, just walk around until a piece catches your eye. Take a closer look, try and figure out why it caught your eye, maybe take a picture or a sketch, then move on. The portrait gallery was really fun, it was really interesting to see all the different types of art there.

Afterward we visited some of the monuments, which was fun, but I’d already seen most of them at least once on my previous trips there.

The next morning we went to the Delaware Art museum, where I got to see lots of Howard Pyle originals. It was SO COOL. Howard Pyle was amazing. There was also some work by other artists that was fun to see as well.

Right after that we headed to the Brandywine museum, which have a lot of the Wyeth’s work (N.C., Andrew, and Jamie). The N.C. Wyeth gallery was closed at that time, but Bethanne, being Bethanne, talked to the people in charge and got them to let us in anyway, which was awesome. The N.C. Wyeth gallery was probably the highlight of the trip for me, I wish I could have stayed longer but I’m glad that they let us in at all. I also really liked some of Jamie Wyeth’s paintings, he was a great colorist. Before leaving I bought a couple postcards for myself of N.C. Wyeths paintings, I chose those that I thought had the most accurate color reproduction (since I had just barely seen the originals, I thought that that was probably the best time for me to make that kind of call :-). I only realized later that the two illustrations I had chosen were both from Treasure Island...but that's not surprising, since that's probably N.C.'s most well known work. 

After the Brandywine museum, each of the 3 vans went their separate ways to get lunch. We decided to get snacks at a grocery store just to tide us over until we could get real Philly Cheesesteaks in Philadelphia.

Finally, we headed over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My favorite pieces there were probably those I saw by Monet and Cassat—I guess I just kinda have a thing for impressionists.

Then, we went to get our real Philly Cheesesteaks. We went to a place called Genos, which is apparently one of the two places that claims to be the originators of the Philly Cheesesteak. The sandwiches were delicious (if a bit expensive).

Thursday, we drove to New York. Our first visit was to Blue Sky studios—you know, the people who made Ice Age and Rio. They gave us a tour and then we got to eat lunch with all the BYU alumni (/Mormons) who work there. It was really fun and inspiring to see how much art and work (and artwork) goes into making movies.

Next we visited Bob McGuiness, who was just the nicest guy. We all crammed into his studio and we talked about art. It felt kinda like we were visiting someones grandpa or something (which I guess we were, haha). 

The next day started with a visit to a certain bakery, the name of which has slipped my mind. But we got the thickest, richest, creamiest hot chocolate I have ever tasted or probably ever will taste. It was seriously amazing. I was surprised at first that one small cup was 6 dollars… then I understood.

Our first visit was to Abrams Books. I was pretty sure that I had walked into heaven. I mean, this was a place filled with books, book lovers, and book makers. And they gave us cookies and picture books and were just really nice in general. Yeah. I used to want to be an Editor… I know that I would have loved that, but illustrating is so much fun. Yeah. Anyway. I guess we've established that as long as books are a big part of my future, I'll be happy.

We went to the Society of Illustrators for lunch and oh my do they have a whole lot of awesome art there. Definitely a feast for the eyes, and they fed our mouths as well. It was basically a buffet style thing and it was all delicious—my favorite was the cuscus salad. Yum.

Then we visited an artist’s agent, Richard Solomon. They talked a lot about what they do and what they look for in artists they represent, etc.

Then, the Museum of Modern art. They had some interesting stuff there, and also stuff I didn’t quite understand… I got to see some famous paintings in person though, which was cool, including Christina’s World, The Scream, and Starry Night, among others. Afterward we got street food for dinner and visited the Strand Bookstore, where I was sorely tempted to by so many things but I didn’t :D.

Saturday morning Rebecca and I went and bought tickets to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood. We were late getting to the box office but it turned out being a good thing because their servers were down and they weren’t able to sell tickets yet. We waited around for awhile, and with the help of some really nice people we were able to give them our names and number, so they could call when the system was working again. We walked around, saw a cool church which we explored, and they called Rebecca back and we were able to buy our Student tickets for 32 dollars. Success all around!

Then we visited Sam Weber’s studio, which  was way cool—he was a really nice guy and we got to look through his originals, which I’d seen in print (both in book covers and art books) but it was interesting to see what the paintings looked like before he altered them digitally.

Next, we headed to Paul Zelinsky’s studio, which may have been my favorite studio visit of the trip. He was really nice and accommodating, and we got to look at the originals of his Rapunzel picture book, which won the Caldecott a few years ago.

After that, we headed straight back to Broadway to see our play. We got a delicious torta from a street vendor outside the subway station which was possibly the most delicious thing I ate on the trip.

The show was fun. The singing was amazing and there was a lot of fun comedy in the show. The voting at the end for the detective/killer/etc. was also fun. So overall, the play was a fun experience but it wasn’t particularly moving or life changing as other Broadways (or equivalent) I’ve seen. But it was worth the 32 dollars, so I'm happy :-).

Sunday was a bit of a rest day, as it should be. We went to the YSA ward at 11:30 and afterward headed to the Met. By this point in the trip (actually well before this) my feet were feeling pretty abused and complaining fairly loudly. Fortunately, the Met is one museum we visited on the trip where most rooms are well supplied with benches. I continued to use my wandering method of museum viewing, adding a long sketching period in front of paintings I liked which also happened to have a bench in front of them. It turned out to be a very fun and restful way to experience the museum.  Afterward Bro. Barret took us walking through some fun sites to see in New York, including some murals by Maxfield Parrish and Dean Cornwell.

Monday morning we visited Peter de Seve’s studio, which was fun. He’d actually forgotten we were coming, but was very friendly and accommodating anyway. He offered a lot of good thoughts and insights about the industry.

Afterward we visited Brett Helquist’s studio, which was wonderful. He showed us a bunch of his original paintings and gave us some really inspiring and sound advice about how to go through school and get started as an illustrator.

Then, we had free time until 4, when we would have to head to the airport. I got Rebecca and Stephanie to come with me to a Filipino restaurant I’d found by searching online. I got to have Sisig and they tried Tocsilog and Bangsilog. Then we wandered around Soho, looking at random shops, my favorite of which sold all kinds of fancy and exotic foods. I got a pear-almond tart, which was delicious.

Then, we headed to the airport and home.

And lived happily ever after.

Complimentary, my dear.

Today was a day full of wonder and excellence.

Until I look back on it and realize that, while it was somewhat above average, the only real difference was feeling so happy. Maybe it was getting so many worries off my chest this weekend (Symposium speech, job interview, first swing team performance--all of which went quite well, yes, thanks for asking).

I slept in over an our later than I usually do this morning. This has a very simple explanation. I use my phone for an alarm clock--on vibrate under my pillow, so hopefully Caitlin isn't any more disturbed by my waking up than she needs to be. Well, I lost my phone yesterday. And Inkheart is a more gripping book than I was planning on, which I read before bed last night.

So I was about 40 minutes late to Intermediate Life Drawing this morning.

How is this good? My teacher lectures the first 30-40 minutes of class. It is all valuable information, etc., but he could really work on the animation in his voice, so I usually end up zoning out anyway. I arrived just as they were breaking up after the lecture and were starting the actual drawing... awesome.

My figure drawing looked decent, I thought. This is a good thing.

It was a beatuiful, blue-sky fluffy-cloud smile-at-the-sun day.

I had two hours before work. I had the leftover half of my ceasar wrap from the day before (delicious), checked e-mail and such, and did a couple quick run-throughs of the speech I'd be giving in my 4:00 class, public speaking. Today was the informative speech, so I would just be delivering a very summarized version of my Friday morning speech.

Work was good. I didn't have that many books to shelve, so I started dusting. I got a good excuse to stop dusting because there were alot of pulls from the shelf I had done and would be more in the next. (Yes, I know alot is supposed to be two words. This is me, not caring :-p so there.) I didn't want Janice to hate me for burying her desk in pulls she hadn't actually asked for, so I just wandered around asking customers if they needed help finding anything (they didn't, usually) and checking to see if the books were out of order (they weren't, usually).

Then I got to leave work early to go to public speaking. I ran down to the Lost and Found on my way (ish) to check if they had my phone... which they didn't. I'll keep checking, though.

Public speaking went very well. I definitely had much more preparation and practice than the others giving their informative speeches that day because I'd written a hugely long paper on the topic and given a presentation four times longer a few days before. I'd forgotten the visual aids I had wanted, which turned out to be a good thing because I probably would have gone overtime if I'd had them. As I went to sit down after the speech, a girl leaned over and whispered, "Wow, that was really good!" and the boy next to her nodded. During the break a couple people talked to me about my speech and complimented me on my choice of topic.

What can I say? Hero's Journey=awesomeness.

XD. (<= :D with squinty eyes.)


After public speaking I went to the Wilk Ballroom for Swing Club lessons. I had half an hour before they started to actually sit and read... oh joy! I wish I could have relaxed more during this time, but I didn't have my phone to check the time so I was wondering whether it was cancelled this week or....? But then people showed up.

Inkheart is exceeding my expectations, random side note. I am sometimes distracted from the story by reconstructing the prose (why didn't she just take that simile all the way to a metaphor? That sentence would flow better if she reversed those elements.... that is such a cliche.) but overall, very good. Mind you, I'm not even halfway though and my opinion could change.

Anyway, swing lessons. Before lessons actually started we were all standing around and the girl next to me said out of the blue, "I love your nose. Its, like, perfectly shaped and proportioned. And, just, yeah." An odd compliment, but I'll totally take it :-)

Today the intermediate group lesson was on girls working within the lead/letting the girls work within the lead. Like, not highjacking exactly, but just the girl taking control for just a couple counts and then letting the guy take up the lead again. All I've really learned to do with dancing is FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW DON'T ANTICIPATE TONE TONE TONE FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW so this was a great lesson. The lesson ended early ish so we had more time for social dancing afterward than we usually do. This was one of those good times where I was asked to dance alot and only sat out a couple songs. One time the swing coach (of the team I'm not on) asked me to dance and commented, "Wow, you're getting so good! You're really improving!" I, uh, did mess up a few times after this, but there is a no-reurns policy on compliments ;-).

Later another swing regular, Ben (there are like at least three swing regulars named Ben, which is fine because it makes the name thing that much easier, except for confusing them with the Dans...) asked me to dance and it was alot of fun. We didn't do any fancy moves or anything, but it was a really interactive eye-contact dance, with lots of silly grins and O RLY? faces and just playing around with simple steps.

Then we headed up for swing team practice. Before practice started a bunch of swing people were standing around in the hall talking and I joined them. Again out of the blue, Ben told me that I had really pretty rosy cheeks. "Whenever I see you, they're so round and pink and rosy, like that picture in the MOA." I knew what picture he was talking about, a very pretty one. The conversation turned to why my cheeks are rosy ("well, you always see me after I've been dancing,") complimenting my beautiful pronounced cheekbones and the classical beauty of my face. We went to team practice before I could start feeling really awkward.

At swing team practice we took a break from doing our routine. We learned that we're going to start learning another routine for an informal competition in a few weeks. We worked on doing a couple moves to use in later routines--one jump-and-spin one that I need to work on my landing for, and one jive one that I caught onto pretty quickly--and left early.

I had leftover Thai Ruby for dinner, thanks to the beautiful Caitlin. I love my roommates, especially the ones that feed me. :-)

Now I will do my reading for D&C, read Inkheart, and sleep.

GUESS WHO WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER TODAY.

(And guess who isn't doing homework right now in order to tell you about it.)


I actually completely forgot that I was going to be in the paper until this evening. There was just so much going on these last few days that it slipped my mind.

Monday nights I have my Beginning Social Dance class. My teacher usually asks us to tell stories about our weekends, which I didn't do because I didn't have much of a story. We all separated out and were about to start class when the teacher said, "Oh yeah! One of your classmates was in the paper today. Sarah, why don't you tell them about why you were in the paper."

So I did.

The article is here: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/71483

I don't particularly like the way the part about me is worded, but there isn't really anything I can do for it. I just wish they would have let me write the paragraph summarizing the topic of my paper myself. Then it wouldn't use the words "technique" or "create", which aren't really correct.

< / nit picky >

Yes mom, I picked up five actual copies of the paper, in case you would want them for some strange reason.

Religion Symposium--its coming up!

So here is the official schedule for the BYU Student Religion Symposium:
http://religion.byu.edu/event_single.php?eid=33

It's coming right up! Only two more days. I feel that I'm at least moderately well prepared. It doesn't help that this coincides with the finishing up of midterms--though thankfully I don't have so many of those, with all my art classes and such.

A couple friends and acquaintances have come up and told me they saw my name on the program even though I hadn't told them I would be speaking and told me that they'll come. I've also asked/invited several other friends/acquaintances. (Co-workers, visiting teachers, my Writing for Children teacher...) I hope that I can give them something worthwhile to listen to that morning, and not have them wondering what they woke up early on a Friday morning for.

And, well... thats about all I was going to say.

Have I mentioned that I'm nervous? Because I am.

Randomness

I thought I had work today, because Maria worked last Saturday, and we had a cleaning check today... cleaning checks have always been on the days I work. But last Saturday was a fifth Saturday and so everything is thrown off. Meh.

I got this e-mail the other day:

Dear Students,

This is just to confirm that I have received your paper and it is in the process of being reviewed. We hope to have the reviews back and decisions made regarding presentation by January 15, 2009. Congratulations on completing your paper and good luck with finals!

Patty

I counted about 80 addresses that received this e-mail. Thats 79(ish) other papers that mine will be judged against. (Assuming that they didn't send more than one e-mail because they had so many to send it to or something like that.) I'm really nervous, even though I should just calm down and forget about it until January 15th... thats over a month away! And their papers are probably all better than mine, and alot of them are probably religions education or somesuch majors so this kind of thing is what they do and... yeah.

And here's a quick wish list for my birthday/Christmas. I don't want this to be taken wrong--this isn't The List Of Things I Must Get For Christmas Or I Will Be Angry With Life. This is just The List Of Things I Can Think Of That I Wouldn't Mind Receiving This Year. In fact, if I got all of them I wouldn't know what to do with them all. And some I really don't expect to get but I might as well throw them out there because it'd really be awesome to have them... anyway.

-Microsoft Word on the laptop I'm using (and other basic programs, like Power Point and such...) because it creates difficulties not to have them, and I have to still use the labs a whole lot so that I can put my assignments in the right format, etc., and open documents from blackboard, etc. While we're talking about it, the absolute ideal would be to get a Mac laptop with all the basic programs and the art ones and a touchpad and all that artistic stuff... but I'm thinking that isn't really likely.
-Some dancing shoes (with the non-grippy soles, you know...). Some saddle shoes would be totally awesome. I think thats what they're called, you know, those black and white ones...

I have some shoes I can dance in fine, but they fit when I bought them and have since stretched, so they're a bit loose which makes for some difficulties. I wear size 8 shoes.
-Books. Big surprise there. Um, maybe I'll make a list of the ones I'd like... later. (Elizabeth Wein's, for a start, and Garth Nix's Sabriel books, and maybe a copy of The Thief since mine seems permanently gone and even if it comes back two copies can't be a bad thing and, well..) A gift card works just as well here. :)
-Watercolor... stuff. And Oil paint stuff, while I'm on the subject. Brushes, paper, canvas, masonite, paints, palette knife... whatever. You could just go pick out a paint brush that looks nice and give it to me... Nana did that it it was my favorite brush for a long time... I really really like that brush. Except its getting kinda frayed... I've used it alot. Anyway.
-Ponytail holders/bobby pins. I didn't bring alot of them with me to school, but they'd really come in handy for getting my hair up and out of the way for dancing, which I've gotten in the habit of doing. I don't like having my hair flying around when I'm dancing, and I especially don't like whipping any guy who is nice enough to ask me to dance, which my hair has a habit of doing when I give it the chance.
-fun socks. :-)

Some more I've thought of:
Sketch books. They will definitely get used. The ones that are something like 5x7 size work best.
Sculpy/pens. Because I like making sculpy pens.
A skirt (or maybe more than one) to dance in--one thats fun to twirl in. Ok, so I have a few of these already, but that doesn't mean I couldn't find an occasion to use another :-)
Also! One of those boxes with 200 or however many crayons and a sharpner in the back... some girl came and borrowed my crayons and hasn't given them back. I need my crayons.
AND! An artist calendar would be cool, like with paintings by Monet or Degas or Van Gogh or Wolf Khan or Thiebaud or some cool artist like them. :) (Man Gogh might be the most appropriate, seeing that it will be put up in VanGoghvia, but I'm not picky.)


Well, thats what I can think of right now. I might come back and add some stuff later if anything comes to mind.

Ten Pages

Well, I've been working on this paper for the religion symposium. The paper is due on December first and must be 10-12 pages long. More Here

So I finally broke ten pages an hour or so ago. Not ten full pages, mind, there are only about eight lines on the tenth page, but its still there. The paper is not finished--far from--but now that I've made it up to the page count (well, kind of) I feel like I've accomplished something. And also like its really going to happen--I'm really going to turn this paper in to be read and reviewed, and if its good enough it might be published! After I actually finish writing the stupid thing, of course.

And, just while I'm on the subject...why on earth did I CHOOSE to put myself through this? I can't remember ever being required to write a paper this long for a teacher, for a grade. And instead of a grade, my reward for doing well on this paper is that I have to stand up in front of a lot of people and talk about it instead. The only paper of comparable length that I've written was for the National MUN conference... also a choice. And I also had to get up and talk about it in front of a lot of people... I should stop thinking about this before I decide I'm an insane, backward, masochistic nerd. Because that is where this train of thought is headed. But the train is crashing NOW. IT REALLY IS. BECAUSE I SAID SO.

I'm guessing that the completed paper will sit at around eleven pages, which I think is a pretty good length. There are a couple 'paragraphs' that are only single sentences right now, to be expounded on later when the rest of the paragraph is more than a vague something in my head. Funny how clearly I could see the paper in my mind, what it would outline and what the overall message of it would be, but when it comes down to actually getting it out it simply doesn't want to come at all, like it has to be forced, fighting tooth and nail. (Is it me fighting tooth and nail, or the paper? You know, I'm not entirely sure.) I think I have at least a little more appreciation for the authors of those books that I consume within hours of picking them up--even if they had a clear idea of what the whole story would be, actually forcing it onto paper is not the easy, carefree, inspired process that we might want to think it is.

Another One

Yeah, its just another Hero's-Journey-Related image. I didn't make this one, but I wish I had, because its Very Funny.



From:
http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html

Check out my awesome Illustrator (thats a computer program) skills!