Glazing, round one

These are my first three ceramics projects pre-glaze firing. They had already been fired once, making them glazable, but they weren't done. The glazes went one and I thought they looked lame... the "clear glaze" went on completely white, but I knew their chemical structure would change in extreme heat. I took this picture and left them to be fired.

And BAM! They came out SO COOL! I mean, I would think anything that comes out shiny cool. I'm basically just super excited to use things I made at home.

This is what the Brown Sugar jar looked like before I glazed it- I had put a purple endgobe on it. 

And this is what it looked like after it was fired AND glazed. I don't know what happened, but the endgobe was smeared all around and turned a really dark color. I like it. It looks aged. It's so cool.

Eatin' cereal out of the bowl I made. Aww yiss.

This is my next project. I want to make it a giant flower, basically.

It's so huge. I'm terrified.

And I was practicing my throwing, too. I made these two (almost) straight cylinders. They're six inches tall each.

I threw a bowl, too- but I don't have a picture of that.

And then I had some fun drawing a model named Nora the other day. Experimental drawing to the max.

And then some... not quite so experimental.

And there's my past two days. I also just took a test in my ITT course, that I'm fairly confident I aced. Woot woot.

I promised.

 Pictures from the gallery opening of my framified artwork!

Trying to make the same face... I failed.

Friends who showed up to my opening: Erin, Zach, Shelby, Nate, Caleb Vick, and Simon and Logan who stayed the whole time!!! I have the best friends in the world.

Obviously I also saw my arty friends Yelena and Farrin, who also had work in the show.

And I added backgrounds to the drawings from before.

The Pattern

There is a super huge

obvious

painfully strong correlation between my posting the link to my blog on facebook and the number of pageviews I get.

But you know what?

I can't really hold it against all of you. I'm really flaky with checking websites, too.

You know. Except for Imgur.

Here's the drawing I did this week.

Feeling Narcissistic

I haven't drawn for the sake of making a picture in a goodly while, so I drew this at work on Saturday.

It is the general atmosphere of the room when I showed Logan and Simon Oldboy.

I love that movie.

I really do.

But it IS hard to watch.

Then I painted my ceramics pot.

I think it's officially a self portrait now.

Coil pot...

Anyway.

Arty things.

The Gallery opens in three days.

I DREW A THING

Look at it

LOOK AT IT

Okay. I'm sure what most of you see is another figure drawing. "Aileen, we know you're good at those. This one is good, too."

But all I can see is her head and neck and face and shoulders, and GAHD. I'M SO PROUD. I also like how I did her torso. And legs. and foot. ...Hell, I think I drew her really well. 

We had two models simultaneously that day, but I couldn't help and focus more on one than the other.

See? In the top one, I was all about her gorgeousness, and in this one I couldn't help but focus on his.

HE HAS A VERY ROMAN FACE. 

This is a model you all have seen me work with in the past.

This guy.

Very strong brow, straight nose, scruffy face, generally handsome.

(I like drawing him.)

Anyway. I did more than just those two drawings, I had some homework I had to do. The assignment was "Take quick drawings we did in class, and work them for exactly thirty minutes."

You recognize this one. It's not too old.

A bunch of gesture drawings.

And this one... I didn't really like it before...

And I still don't. Ew. I don't like how I handled her race or the hand or ANYTHING.

But the continuous line drawings I did were pretty cool.

AND THEN-

TA DAAA!

CERAMICS!

This pot is so tall.

SO TALL.

But I didn't mess it up!

YES!

And last but not least:

SHUT UP I'M REALLY PROUD OF IT, OKAY?!

No art, just happiness.

Today has been such an insanely good day.

Well, comparatively.

Basically, last week my laptop finally went kaput, I spent a lot of money getting some art framed, my car was having trouble (it was using WAY TOO MUCH GAS. Like... Portland to Gorham took an eighth of a tank), and then the electricity bill came in (which we missed last month). So in a manner of DAYS, a bunch of things went wrong in the most expensive way possible.

That was the downslope.

Today, I brought my car in to the shop to see what was wrong with it. I was ready to spend $400+ on a new sensor in my engine or something like that- but they just cleaned my fuel lines for $50, and now she runs just fine. And- AND- when I explained to the guy who was talking me through everything (you know, the whole "this filter needs to be changed every 30,000 miles, this kind of oil makes your car run cleaner," etc.) that I've spent a lot of money and I don't really have any to spare, he stopped trying to up-sell me, he explained the cheaper options for the things I needed, and showed me my filters and said "I mean, it COULD be replaced... but it's really fine. Just change it next time." It was a very different experience than other times I've brought in my car for work to be done.

Bonus: when I got in my car to leave, I noticed they even vacuumed my car and cleaned the outside of the windows. God, JiffyLube in So. Po is AWESOME.

Then, I went by the art gallery to see if any of my art got into the juried show, and pick up any possible rejections. This was my first time submitting to an art show or gallery in general, so I was pretty nervous to see if anything got in. We were only allowed to submit three pieces, and when I dropped them off last Thursday, there was art EVERYWHERE. So my hopes weren't too high, I was just crossing my fingers to get one in, at the very least. And guess what? I GOT TWO PIECES IN!!! Which is, apparently, not normal. Everyone else I've talked to so far only got one in. So I'm feeling pretty fly.

Fly!

I've showed you guys both of the pieces that made it in here in the past. These two: 

This I named "Muse of the Manor" because I can totally see it hanging above a fireplace in a huge creepy mansion.

This one I called "Strange New World," Partially because I was thinking of Brave New World, partially because of the lyric from Fiddler on the Roof "Soon I'll be a stranger in a strange new world."

Aww yiss.

Muse of the Manor I needed the back to be wired so it could hang in the cheap frame I bought. So I brought it over to the painting studio where my favorite Professor Jim Flahaven was teaching his intro to painting class. I asked if he could help me get some screws in the back, and he said "You came to the right part of the galaxy for that kind of job. Just throwin' some firefly lingo your way." And I replied "Shiny."

He said he's teaching an advanced drawing class next semester. I am so excited.

Then I bought new sponges and did all the dishes in the sink, even the ones that weren't mine, so I feel generous.

I'm so happy.

So.

Happy.

Also, Hi Dave, it was nice talking to you today, however briefly. <3

Hustle and Bustle

I call this post Hustle and Bustle because I spent several hours today driving around getting some of my paintings and drawings matted to submit to the juried show here at school. My hopes are not high for any particular one getting in (In fact one isn't matted, so I KNOW that one won't), but I really hope one of them makes it in.

Anyway, I dragged Derrick along, because he's visiting and I needed to get them framed and matted, and I still made it to class on time. My pieces look really nice now that they're framed, but of course I don't have any photo evidence. I'll post some pictures of them next week.

My classmate was wearing his hat oddly. Like... It was sticking off the back of his head. He didn't take it off. I wanted to draw it. So I did.

Then, my teacher asked me to make a drawing based off of what we had done for the homework. Well... I didn't do the homework. So I drew this in my shame. Don't bother reading it, it's just angsty drivel, but I like the how it came out.

A new spelling of my name for the logs. My favorites are still "Eiline," "Aye-Lean," and "Islean."

Literally the only productive thing I've done...

I really need to get my ass in gear.