Lah de dah de dah de dah de dah...

I used to write in this blog alot. Well, maybe not alot. But with some frequency. Ish. Lately, I haven't. At least, not very frequently.

So I'm writing just to write, but I don't really have anything to say. Lah de dah.

Life is kind of in a weird place right now, because I'm still in Provo, but not taking classes, and not quite graduated yet. So school is over, but not. I'm also in a weird place where I want to stay in Provo but also really want to leave and go somewhere ELSE.

Also, I'm working full time. With like, a real job. Part of what makes this so weird is that I wasn't even job searching--I feel like, if I had been searching and applying and thinking about getting a job, I would feel more normal about now having one. But I was only planning on doing my internship this semester, so having a job kind of fall in my lap has been extremely strange. And the fact that I have a job doing art that is NOT in a movie or game studio--jobs like that actually exist? Why did nobody tell me this? I make shapes on a computer, and then a machine cuts them out. Its kinda cool. Take a look at cricut.com for more cool stuff to do with that.

Also, I have a car now. Just a little old 2002 Toyota Corolla. Her name is Martha. I'm still figuring out this whole car-owning thing.

And I'm tired. I'm going to just post this now, just to have posted, not because I said anything interesting or substantial.

The end.

Books I read in 2013

Its time for my traditional books-I-read-this-year post! Everyone else is reflecting on things they did and things they will do and making new goals, and all I seem to care about is how many books I read--what they were, how many there are, and how many I'd like to read the next year. Which doesn't seem quite as, you know, deep.

But on the other hand, it kind of is. I think books can show a lot about how your year went--or at least, how my year went. There is a Lord Peter quote about books being like shells you shed to show previous periods of development, but I'm to lazy to find the exact words right now.

Anyway. What I read this year.

These are in reverse order, meaning the book I read most recently is listed first. This isn't a complete list because I'm not nearly as organized or on the ball as I'd like to be, and sometimes I'd go a few weeks or a month or more without remembering to write down titles of what I'd read, so I'm sure there are a few books missing here. Most are novels, mostly YA but some Middle Grade and Adult, and some are graphic novels. My goal was to read 52 books (one per week), a goal which I met by the skin of my teeth--there are 52 titles here. This is less than half of what I've read other years, but this year was very busy in other ways. I think I want to make a goal for 78 books next year--1.5 books a week (since, yanno, I don't have homework anymore). We'll see how that goes.


Ok, ok, ok, finally--here they are. The books I read in 2013:

• East, Edith Pattou (again)
• Friends With Boys (graphic novel), Faith Erin Hicks
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
• The Maytrees, Anne Dillard
• Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
• Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, Usrula K Le Guin
• Clouds of Witness, Dorothy Sayers (again)
• A Letter of Mary, Laurie R. King
• My Antonia, Willa Cather
• Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers (again)
• A Monsterous Regiment of Women, Laurie R King
• Divergent, Veronica Roth
• The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R King
• North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell (Librivox)
• The Search Part 2
• The Search Part 1
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Librivox)
• The Princess and the Bear, Mette Ivie Harrison
• Passage, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Legacy, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Beguilement, Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater
• The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
• The Seven Towers, Patricia C. Wrede (again)
• The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope (again)
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi
• Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith (again)
• A Stranger to Command, Sherwood Smith
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
• Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor
• Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Brothers in Arms, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (Librivox)
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Librivox)
• Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman (graphic novel)
• Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman (graphic novel)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Audiobook), J.K. Rowling
• Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson
• Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson (Librivox)
• Spellhunter, R.J. Anderson
• Tuesdays in the Castle, Jessica Day George
• Old Mans War, John Scalzi
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson
• A Countess Below Stairs, Eva Ibbotson
• The Warrior's Apprentice, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold (again)
• Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy Sayers (again)

What does Thumper say?

Maybe kids now don't grow up watching Bambi, but I believe that at least most of my generation did, and have therefore had reason to be reminded of Thumper's little saying, "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all."

Seeing the types of comments that come up on almost every blog post or article I've read online recently, I've been thinking about this a lot . There are a whole lot of people saying a whole lot of not-nice things. And this is basically what you expect to see when you scroll down to the comments section.

And the fact of the matter is, the world isn't black and white, and sometimes there are not-nice things that need saying.

So I am proposing my own version of Thumper's mantra:

If you can't say something nicely, don't say it at all.

By this I do not mean that we should say rude or sarcastic things prettily. What I mean is, if you disagree, feel free to do so. Do it tactfully, intelligently, chivalrously, without mud-slinging or name calling.

Can you do that for me, internet?

and then I lost my phone

Today was a happy day.

Note, I said a happy day, not a good day.
Isn't that the same thing, you ask?
Not really, at least in this case.

Today was very normal, overall. I went to work, made some progress on my current project. Went to class (Womens Lit), talked about cool stuff. Next class (Senior English Course--wait, you're not an English major, you say. Well, so what, I say. Anyway, I'm just auditing it. I'll have to tell all two of you blog readers about it sometime, its a pretty interesting class.) Talked about cool stuff again.

Next class was sketchbook. I drew pictures. I tried out my new brush pens, which are awesome. Sketchbook has been a kinda weirdly hard class for me so far.

Wait, what? Sketchbook, hard? Don't you just go and draw pictures the whole time? Yes. I have... a kind of interesting relationship with my sketchbook, and with sketching, which I've really come to realize more lately since my two illustration classes are Sketchbook and Head Painting--very different.

TANGENT. I keep meaning to take pictures of my paintings and sketches to post on my art blog. And I keep forgetting when I'm at school, and I remember when I'm at home and my pictures aren't. Blah. END TANGENT.

Anyway, long story short, in sketchbook class I've been experimenting with different sketching media because pens just aren't fun, and I really am loving the brush pens. I got the idea to use them because I've been having SO MUCH fun in head painting DESPITE the fact that we use no color, or even white paint for that matter. Paint just works so much better with how I think than pen does. Its not as.... stiff. Brush pens unite the convenience of a pen with the looseness and real-estate-covering qualities of a brush. Which makes Sarah happy.

So while I'm having all this fun with my new brush pens my phone decides that it wants a bit of sunlight so it sneaks out of my pocket and then, not satisfied with just getting some sunshine, decides to play hide-and-seek too. So far, its winning.

And then class ended early so we could eat before going down to the guest artist lecture by the awesome Jillian Tamaki. I'm really glad I went, it was overall a very interesting and encouraging lecture, and I had maybe a smallish epiphany as a result. Epiphanies of every size are happifying.

Also, today I wore one of my favorite outfits. Mom/Aunt Allisons old couduroy paisleyish jumper with pockets. I love jumpers with pockets, and paisleyish things.

So I would call today a happy day, not a good one. Because it really was just a normal day. And I lost my phone, which is very not good, because I actually really need to use it. But... I just felt happy anyway. Despite the fact (or because?) I lost my phone.

Also, happy talk like a pirate day, world. Despite being made aware of the holiday before even going out the door this morning, I failed to celebrate it in its traditional way. And was happy anyway.

Grin and Bear It

I haven't really blogged in awhile. I've really fallen out of the habit of blogging.

The other day something reminded me of an old blog entry I'd written, and I decided to go back and find it. I ended up looking over a bunch of old blog entries. I'd for gotten how often I'd written, and how much. I wrote in more than one blog, too. And, even if I do say it myself--some of my blog posts were really entertaining. I ended up laughing out loud when I read a few of them.

I made alot of good new habits on my mission, but I think I lost some good ones too.

I'd like to get back into the habit of blogging. I never really had a schedule before, I just wrote when I had a thought I wanted to throw out of a funny story to share. I'd like to try and see if I can get back into that habit again... if it doesn't work, I may set a more specific schedule for myself.

This is connected to a thought thats been rolling around in the back of my head (which I just posted as my facebook status). It is this: activities where I've learned to get over my mistakes and have fun are those that I've improved most in and bring me the most joy--art and dancing. Those that I still have a hard time getting over my mistakes in I haven't improved in and tend to avoid--specifically, speaking and writing.

What started me thinking about this was a little thing, really. In one of my classes I made a comment that didn't make much sense. It was actually a really dumb comment. I got some raised eyebrows and chuckles and the class discussion moved on. Nobody else in the class probably remembers my dumb comment, at least not very specifically. But all day afterward and into the next, I kept remembering the mistake and wincing. Why did I say such a dumb thing?

In dancing I am very aware of the fact that I'm not great, sometimes I slip or don't follow an obvious lead or, yes, step on someones toes, and thats just how the dance goes, and I laugh and keep dancing. After years of participating in art critiques, I'm pretty good at not getting offended at comments, instead just taking them as they're meant, analyzing them, and then applying those that I feel will actually be helpful--all without getting all hurt and offended.

Actually, I think this was one of the biggest reasons that I chose to major in Art rather than English (which, when it really comes down to it, are the only two majors I really considered--I can't see myself actually majoring an anything else.) I enjoy both. But I knew that I would have a much harder time accepting critiques of my writing than of my art, and would therefore have an easier time in art. Did I choose the easy way out? Maybe in this specific aspect of the choice. Overall, I don't think so. I chose the one where I knew I would be better able to learn from my mistakes.

Is that strange? It seems like someone should either be good at getting over any mistake, or not. You're either prideful, or not. I guess people aren't that simple.

Anyway. So I want to get back to writing a blog again, just as a way to do a little low-pressure writing.

Farmers Market

This week was my first time actually going out and selling my artwork in person--I've sold art online, but not really face-to-face with potential buyers. It was a great experience! My main goal first off was just to get the experience, to get an idea of what to expect with this sort of thing in order to do it better in the future. Goal achieved---huzzah!

I learned some things that are maybe obvious to some people, but are new to me, and hopefully helpful in future. Some of them are:

• -People aren't just going to line up to give you their money (duh). You have to catch their interest first. This can be a problem when your art is the you-only-get-it-when-you-look-again (upside-down) kind.
• -Clouds are one of those good-or-bad, awesome-or-terrible things when you're selling outside. They either mean rain (no!) or shade (yes!). Fortunately, we had the shade kind of clouds for most of the day.
• -People like to buy things when they have a 'thing'. Like, some people have a cat thing, or a book thing, or a dancing thing, or a mustache thing, or something. This is why fanart sells... and also why people get in trouble for selling fanart. I want to figure out some "things" that people like that are NOT trademarked and design things they might like.
• -I sell like a missionary, and so does Normandie. We tended to focus alot more on the person than the product. Which lead to some fun conversations, but I have no idea whether things would sell better if we had focused otherwise. So far, I've enjoyed using my missionary conversation skills so I'll stick with that for now :-)
• -Sitting/standing around and doing nothing except greet people is tiring. 
• -You don't know if something will sell well just because you like it. You just have to see how people respond when they see your work, and notice what catches their eye. It might not be what you think.

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.