Surgery.

This has been some week. Really, I'm not sure I'll ever forget this week. It was filled with highs and lows, tears and laughter, waiting and rushing, frustration and elation, sleep and sleeplessness. It was sort of like life, compiled and spread out over the course of a few days. My sister is one of the strongest people I know, and I never doubted that she would come through this (sort of) unscathed. It isn't over yet, but at least the surgery is. Baby steps.

Portraits of Dead Dogs and Other Waiting Room Sagas

A hospital waiting room is really something. We spent 15 hours in the hospital on Wednesday, more than half of those hours in the waiting room. It was a hub-bub of activity all day long. I never knew so many people received surgery on Wednesdays.

Somehow I was enlisted to draw a portrait of the receptionists' dead dog. She wanted me to do a lot more, a whole family portrait of dogs and her, but I just did not have the energy. One Scotty portrait was enough.

Having never drawn a dog before (I guess I never really had the need). I was suitably nervous.

Progress shot, after spending an hour or two procrastinating on the eye.

Another progress shot, looking pretty good. Somewhere between these two shots entailed a hospital lunch, a soda, and much obsessing.

Aaaaaand... Done. She absolutely loved it, and said it looked just like him. I was then enlisted to do a portrait of her dead friend with the dead dog, and a few live ones. Oh, and her too. And she is going to pay me! This will be the first "paid commission" I will have ever done. How strange life is. I definitely didn't expect to get a paid art job while waiting for my sister to be out of surgery. But, why not? We'll see how it works out.

The receptionist woman also mentioned that Disney would offer me a job in a heartbeat, as they did with her dead friend (the one who I'm drawing) who had skills like mine. It got me thinking: If I were to be offered a job, working as an artist for Disney in Orlando, would I go? Would I accept getting paid for my art, giving up my dreams of Hungary and travel? The answer, I quickly came to realize, is no. Simply no. This has been what I have wanted for so long. Even a dream job like working for Disney won't derail that.

So there you have it. Not only can I mend your clothes, I can memorialize your dead pet on UNM hospital letterhead paper. Oh, and install a Saran Wrap spiderweb in your home. If you should ever have need for it. Which, really when you think about it, why shouldn't you??

Inflatable Art and the Last Day of Class

Today was the last day of our 3D Design class. This final inflatable spider was one of the hardest projects that I have ever done! It was fun, sort of. My sewing prowess really came in handy for this. Over all, the spider came out really well, but deflation was our biggest enemy. Here is a pictorial, from start to finish.

This is the setup, before we started melting the seams together with an iron.

Construction. Foil on either side of the plastic insulates it and creates a better seal, as well as protecting it from the bare iron.

What project isn't complete without a casualty?? RIP Alex's heat gun. Sorry Alex! I really did wonder what that smell of melting plastic was...

Spider assembled and complete, just waiting for air. That proved to be the hardest part.

Web installation almost complete. We changed a few of the webs around, and added a few I believe.

Our spider deflating as we speak, but nonetheless installed in a site-specific manner.

Close up of the head. Look at the eyes, Look at the palps and fangs! We added an amazing amount of detail to this little (or uh...big) guy.

A lot of blood, sweat and tears for a few pieces of melted plastic. (There seems to be a lot of that lately...)

Hours and Hours to build and install, and two second to rip down. Sad.

Goodbye Surgery, Happy Birthday Erin!

My sister's surgery went well. Better than well actually. And apart from having to wait for a room for many many....many hours, she is doing fine. She apparently has the world's most beautiful neck (which we all knew already of course) and the surgeon celebrated its slender, non-fat encased glory.

Happy Birthday Erin! I love you so much.

I have a few more things to post, one about an inflatable spider, one about a receptionist's dead dog's portrait, but since I'm exhausted (both mentally and physically) and they require pictures, I will leave it at that. Fun photos to come soon.

Inflatable Art and Other Trials of Monday

For a site-specific project, John and I decided to make a giant inflatable rubber duck, and float it in the duck pond at UNM. We cleared this idea with our teacher on Friday. We come in today ready to brainstorm and make a pattern, when I look over and see someone else sketching a duck. Great. We were already seriously irritable, and did not want to give up our idea. John tells them that we cleared it with her on Friday so too bad pick something else. I watched them for awhile and they were all huffy and being ridiculous about it. I decided to just give it up and do something else. I went over to them and said "Have you guys thought of anything else? You can just do the duck" and the girl says, "Actually, we were thinking of doing a guy with a gun shooting your duck" me: "... um...why don't you guys just do the duck it's fine..." BAH! I was about ready to sock her one. and the guy says, "There's nothing that says there can't be two ducks in the duck pond" me: "Whatever. we're doing something different."

So we decide to come up with something else amazing and think of a huge spider/web in the staircase, that forces you to walk in/under it. We sketch it all out, plan everything and tell our teacher. "Uh no they won't let you put anything in the stairs; fire hazard" me: "!%$&^*"
After assaulting the stairway wall a little bit, we decided to put the web on the second floor in this giant skylight, and having the spider wrapping up the Pepsi machine like prey.

Oh yeah, it turns out that they aren't doing a duck anyways. Yeah.

Pictures of the installation process and project to come soon.

A Happy Life

There are times when I feel unwaveringly happy about life. Just happy. Tonight is one of those times. There are so many things to discover, to experience, to celebrate. There are awful things as well, but why on earth should they be dwelled upon? If you haven't found something to be happy about, then you simply aren't looking hard enough.

Looking at Hungarian blogs, watching Gogol Bordello, also some Ukranian band called Los Colorados. The world is an amazing place. 'Wanderlust King' has become my anthem for life. Eugene Hutz has given me an unbelievable appreciation of the awesome-ness that is the handlebar moustache.

Newest Painting

This is my newest painting, titled "The Making of a Super-Hero". It is oil on plywood panel. It is going to be in the Johnson Gallery at UNM sometime in August, as part of a group show called "PsychoGeographers, 11 Artists Look at New Mexico" (I think that's what the show is called...). I still think I need to do some more layers, but I'm calling it done for now.

Detail:

A Mending Job, Before and After

For awhile now, I've been the go-to girl for all things that need mending. So when my mom approached me with a very nice evening gown with holes in its pure silk that she wanted to wear to an event, I put my head down and just...went. After much blood, sweat and tears (well, not really too much), here are the before and after photos.

The holes. Moth eaten? Mouse nibbled? I don't know. Note my fingertips for size. This is 100% pure black silk over a pink shell.

My arsenal. I decided that the holes were too large to just leave them be, so I bought some black sheer material. Although it didn't match perfectly, I was confident that the beading would cover up any irregularities. I matched the beads as closely as I could.

After tediously patching the largest hole. I unraveled a thread from the black sheer fabric, to use as thread. I felt like a little spider weaving a web. It was a little bit cute and inspiring. That wore off. Quickly.

Getting ready to patch the other three holes.

Patches complete.

A little blurry, but you can see the middle beading portion finished, (along with a smaller cluster of beads to cover another hole) in comparison with the original beadwork.

Finished! You can barely tell that it's different.

The moral of this story is, if you have anything that needs mending, send it my way, and for a small fee, you too can look fancy.

Critique and Photo Shoot

Yesterday was critique day (again...) and a mini-photo shoot session for our work. The lighting utterly failed on my blindingly white girl, and therefore most of the shots are unusable. After one shattered studio light and a little troubleshooting later, I did manage to get a few...

She is sculpted paperclay, with fish lures on the bottom, and fly-tying fluff for a powdery wig look. I originally wanted to use candy, but the fear of hungry ants became too great. Fish lures were a wonderful substitute and look amazing, but they were hard to work with. Slimy and difficult to glue. The critique went over well, one guy said that it looks like something he would get tattooed and that I could definitely sell these, and one girl said she wants it. Just wants it, for her nightstand. Pretty good for a couple days work I'd say.

A soft focus close up of her face against the photo shoot background, the only one that really came out, unfortunately.

Gram 1906-2009

My great-grandmother died on Tuesday morning. She was 103, which is unbelievable. This photo is she and I when I was around 2 months old. She did many great things, including creating an extensive family tree, which showed our direct relation to Pocahontas. She lived a wonderful long life, and that's an amazing accomplishment in and of itself.

What's On My Reading Desk?

The Historian: A lovely and "true" account of the great and feared Vlad Tepes, and the people willing to risk their lives to find the truth behind the myth. A little slow-moving, I'm on page 80 or so and I just arrived at the first notable vampire activity.

Eyewitness Travel: Hungary: Pretty straightforward with sections on history, culture, weather, festivals, and everything else you can think of. Sort of a crash-course in all things Magyar. (Magyar=Hungarian)

Can you tell I'm on something of a Central European kick?

Dreams of Hungary

Last night I dreamt that I was at the teaching orientation in Hungary. We were in the forest, staying in little cabins. Everyone was smoking peyote. This is the second dream that I have had about being in the Hungarian forest. I woke up with a tummy ache.

I know it's still a year off, but in my mind, I'm already there.

Fall Fashion

Since John and I have been taking an obscene amount of summer classes, we haven't really had much vacation to speak of. (Well, except that whole boondoggle in France...) International travel aside, we've been up to our noses in school work since the beginning of June. We only have a week and a half left before our real summer starts...all 3 weeks of it. I have decided to fill up those weeks with sewing my fall wardrobe. I have been getting very inspired after looking at some Japanese blogs, Haute Doll, and the new Gothic and Lolita Bible. This photo is slightly fashion-related, and will have to suffice until I find the cord for my digital camera.

Back to Black

For awhile now, I think I've been having somewhat of an identity crisis. Unsure of myself, where my life is headed, decisions I've made. I've tried to pinpoint the reason that I am feeling this way. A few days ago, I discovered the culprit. Yes, I have to look no further than my own head to discern the reason for my discomfort. It's my blonde mop of hair. While looking back, dying my hair blonde may have seemed like a good idea, I never quite got it to the state that would have made me happy (ultra-platinum edgy blonde). I just don't feel like myself anymore. So that's it, my hair will be black again, my bangs will be short, and I will hopefully be feeling Val-ish again.
I also found a handful of dress designs in 'Haute Doll' magazine that I'm going to base my fall wardrobe after. I will need to adjust them to people-size first of course. My three weeks off after my 3D design class is over will be spent sewing like a mad woman.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! I am 22! Last year on my birthday I was in Germany, and taking a road trip to Brussels. John had been up sick all night, and I had sprained my ankle. Still, it was a birthday I will never forget. I wonder where I will be when I turn 23?

(by the way, check out that amazing ninja turtles cake...)

Why Hungary?

A lot of people have been asking me lately, "Why Hungary?" Well, my laziness sometimes prompts me to reply "Why not Hungary?" But of course that isn't what anyone wants to hear. So here it is. Val, why on earth did you choose Hungary? Well, the answer is that while on the job hunt I found a program called CETP- Central European Teaching Program. I wanted to teach in Europe at some point, and the EU is making it harder and harder for Americans to do so. Basically it is getting to the point where it is now or never. They can hire Brits to teach English with little to no paperwork, while Americans have to have a visa, jump through hoops, have money, jump through more hoops, etc etc. It's so much easier to hire a British person.

Sooo, what does all this have to do with me? and with Hungary? Hungary was inducted into the EU in 2004 I believe. Things aren't quite as straightened out there as they should be. They are still using their national currency, the Hungarian Forint, not the Euro. There are many other inconsistencies to be ironed out, so therefore it is still possible for Americans to get teaching jobs there, and it is made even easier through CETP. They make contact with the school, find you a place to live, take you to immigration, etc etc.

So there you have it. That's why.

(By the way, tomorrow is my birthday!)

Dreams of Egypt

Last night I dreamt that I was in Egypt. It was somewhat like India as well, but mostly Egypt. It was tropical and there were animals everywhere jumping out of a river that we were driving over. We ran over some of them. Then, we went to see the Pharoah's tomb, inside one of the pyramids. We had to buy tickets and they gave us stickers for entry. The pyramids were amazing. I was speaking French with everyone, and they understood me. I just had to speak with a purrrsian accent (said just like that). I faintly remember the scent of urine.

I woke up feeling refreshed and curious, that is until I realized we didn't have enough money for parking...

(photo taken by my mom in India)

Impressions of the Past

I have been thinking about the past a lot lately. Maybe this is because I have been looking through old photo albums, or recent changes in my life and those that I love, or the fact that I am graduating college in 5 short months. Probably all three combined. This is an old photo of me that I love, it was taken while I was having coffee at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.

It seems to me a moment of perfect serenity, the soft warm light filtering in through the windows, the people all chattering around me. I can almost smell the chickory coffee and feel the warmth of freshly baked beignets.

Visions of Distant Lands

While technically I really should have started this blog a long time ago given all the traveling I have done, my laziness and/or presumed lack of time prevented me from doing so. So here is some of what I would have been posting about, if I had been on the ball. This is what me and mine have been up to for the past 4 years, what about you?

Eating and drinking, and ocassionally posing for photographs in Parisian cafes...

Viewing bones in underground tunnels in Paris...

Dangling our Boots over the Mediterranean...

Leaping through the Schloss Dyck Royal Gardens...

Protesting in Berlin...

Pondering German architecture...





Feeling small in the Roman forums...

and munching lucky black eggs in Japan...

Granted, I have been doing other things too, but all of these pictures lumped together makes it look like I'm a jet-setter! /endhistorylesson

My Blog Christening

So, here I am. My first blog post. I'm starting this mainly as an outlet; things in my life are changing quite quickly. It is terrifying, emotional, exciting and surreal. Now you can be in on the roller coaster.