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The student government group threw a Halloween Party this past Friday. Halloween is apparently a very important holiday for art students. I didn’t realize that there was going to be so much pressure to come up with a clever costume.

We had about a $100 to spend on decorations… I think that we did quite a lot with that budget. Here’s a picture of the cast hall -

There was a pretty good turn-out and the costumes were really fabulous. I don’t know how appropriate it would be for me to post everyone’s alternate personaa here without their permission, but I wanted to have a few pictures to give everyone a taste of the event.

This was one of my favorite costumes (especially since they constructed the chest-burster and face-hugger by hand).

Here is a picture of me (attempting to look like a certain 14-year old wizard) with the very affable and erudite Lisa Lebofsky (here as Puss-In-Boots).

I know it’s not much of a costume, but it was affordable.

I think that we got around 100 people to turn out for the event and a ghoulishly-good time was had by all. It’s going to be hard to top that next year.

– Jeremy

I had the opportunity to visit a new (to me) yarn store in Portland this weekend, with two ladies I recently taught to knit. Having only been to a few yarn stores myself, mostly the ones in the Salem area, it was a real treat to visit a larger yarn store. The Yarn Garden was a wonderful store, packed with yarn and people. I got to meet a lot of yarns I had heard people raving about, but had never seen in person. My only complaint about this store is that the prices were often difficult to make out, as they don’t mark individual skeins. After spending at least an hour there, I did a fairly good job fighting off temptation, and only made one purchase: 2 skeins of Misty Baby Alpaca Chunky in aubergine, to make myself a scarf and hat.

This yarn is unbelievably soft and cuddly, with really decent yardage for such a large-gauge yarn. I might have to start making the scarf this evening, if my hands are too cold and stiff for knitting with cotton.

Speaking of which, I am making progress on the baby blanket, with 7 squares of 16 now complete. There’s not really much else to say about it right now.

Finally, I got a few good photos of the first Flower Basket Shawl. It is really lovely, and I hope the recipient will be as pleased with it as I was.

Here are a few photos of how the Willamette campus looks right now. Someone decided to decorate campus this year for Halloween, and the grounds are covered with pumpkins and other spooky paraphernalia, such as fake cobwebs, plastic tarantulas, brooms, and rubber skeletons. The most scary thing about it is the potential mess of pumpkin innards that we could have on our hands Monday morning if someone feels tricksy.

In order to write a review, or even a summary of this volume, I was forced to look back through the contents to recall what important events happened. I was relieved to discover that I was not mistaken in thinking that not much really happened over the course of these 350-odd pages. It begins with the conclusion of Dr. Bartlett’s transmission of Clementina’s plight. This is followed by a number of minor domestic events: Sir Charles orchestrates the reunion of his good friend Beauchamp with his father and step-mother, and set up seemingly several dozen weddings, including the wedding of his own sister Charlotte to Lord G—-. The latter relationship is interesting in large part because it is in some ways an extension of that of Anna Howe and Mr. Hickman, who had not yet married at the end of Clarissa. Charlotte is clearly at fault much of the time, but I have no doubt that she will improve herself by the end of the book, under the angelic influences of her brother’s and Miss Byron’s relationship.

The biggest revelation occurs in the very end of the book, when Sir Charles returns to Bologna in a renewed attempt to restore Jeronymo’s body and Clementina’s mind to health, by his visit and the assistance of an English doctor. In the last few pages, we hear from Sir Charles’s own pen an admission of his attachment to Harriet, which has been strongly hinted at by all parties but never confessed by the man himself.

Having racked my brain to think of something more interesting than a synopsis to say about this volume, I am at a loss. So I’ll just post the link to the text and leave it at that:

Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4

Onward and upward.

Some of my professors had started to complain that my drawings weren’t specific enough. I had no idea what exactly that meant. However, I was able to finally pin Harvey Citron down, and he showed me what they meant. It was something of an epiphany for me.

To illustrate: here is a drawing that I did in the morning on Wednesday. It was three 20-minute sessions in the same pose, and I thought that I really nailed the drawing.

So, after Harvey trashed that picture (in a very constructive way) I found that, when he said that I wasn’t looking carefully enough at the curves on the body, what was happening was that I was fixating too much on the contour line. I was trying to make the contour line beautiful. In doing so, I was creating curves that were overly smooth and regular. I decided to try and really capture the mimetic quality of the curves on the next drawing. As I started the process, I felt like I was creating a very ugly drawing, full of awkward lumps and bumps. It reminded me very much of Potormo’s drawings, which I really don’t care for.

Then I started to add in the tones within the contour and something happened— it all started to gel. Very odd… Harvey came back around as I was working on the drawing and suggested that the tones and the contour work hand-in-hand (which was just starting to dawn on me) and that I shouldn’t be trying to get the contour completed first; they should be developed together iteratively. We were drawing from the cast during the second half of the class.

Anyhow, here is the drawing:

To me, it looks like the two drawings were done by different artists. I can’t believe how much better the second one is. I really wish that I had more time to work on this new way of drawing. Perhaps this weekend I’ll have a chance.

– Jeremy

Here is a mix of some Week 7 figure drawings, as well as some assignments that are due this week and a couple of drawings from today.

First up, the figure drawings. Same model as last week. I’m not sure why, but I have a tough time drawing her. She seems to have a very long torso and though I am doing quite a bit of measuring and triangulating, my drawings look ‘off’ when I try to capture her idiosyncratically. Very odd. She’s leaning against a wall in the first drawing. Suppose that I should have done something to suggest the wall so that one isn’t inclined to say ‘timber’ when looking at it. Weak attempt at a face on the second drawing, I know… I promise to do better next week.

Next is the work we did in Figure Structure today. We learned more about the clavicle and the scapula today and how they connnect via the ocromion process. We were promised a talk about hands today as well, but alas, it will have to wait for next week. These first two drawings were done from the model… I think I’m getting pretty good at seeing the underlying structure. It will really be helpful; by the end of the semester we will have modeled the figure in plastiline, including the major muscle groups.

This was the homework for the Figure Structure class. We were told to create a multi-figure (at least 10 figures) composition involving two groups. My Ovoid people were up for a little recreation…

Last is an assignment that is due tomorrow. We learned about Florentine and Venetian Form Sense in our Composition and Design class. Then we were told to construct one of each. It is terribly fascinating stuff; unfortunatly, I find myself lacking the will to regurgitate it all right now… if you are really interested let me know and I’ll post a detailed write-up.

Both of these images are constructed completely from imagination. For this first image I was thinking of the Iliad, specifically the scene where Ajax wounds Ares on the battlefield.

For this image I was think of the end of the Trojan War taken from the Aeneid, where Neoptolemus (know in Latin as Pyrrhus) slaughters Priam before Hecuba.

Just a quick hint: the former is the Venetian and the latter is Florentine, and the biggest difference involves the center of the compositions…

Preview of things to come…

That’s all for now…

– Jeremy

Hey, that’s a catchy title…

Yesterday there was a gallery tour through Chelsea. We visited about a dozen galleries there. The really amazing part, however, was that we only needed to move between three streets to visit 12 galleries, and that we skipped more than half of the galleries on those three streets! The area is literally saturated with galleries of contemporary art.

The most interesting art was at the Mary Boone Gallery, where they had an exhibit of paintings by Will Cotton. Will is an NYAA alumnus and his work deals in a very interesting way with what is known as the ‘Male Gaze’. The Male Gaze is a topic that we’ve been dealing with quite a bit in Catherine Howe’s Art and Culture class. Basically, it refers to the fact that in Western art, the artist and the viewer are necessarily considered to be male (and until recently, heterosexual). This is particularly important when dealing with the nude. Lately, feminist artists (after finding that simply substituting a male nude for a female one created a homo-erotic reading rather than the intented feminist interpretation) have been working to co-opt the Male Gaze (usually this involves some sort of a dead-pan ala Manet’s Olympia of 1863).

Nevertheless, Cotton’s paintings are interesting precisely because they straddle the fence between being feminist and misogynistic. In fact, I would say that Cotton has gone so far as to make the fence his position. He paints nudes in suggestive positions amid a world constructed out of candy, and it would seem hard to read the content as anything but misogynistic. However, when you look more closely at the works, the meaning becomes much less clear. For one, the sweets are more highly rendered than is the figure, which suggests that they are more important in the hierarchy of the composition. In fact, the candy is so lovingly and fully rendered, that one feels in danger of developing a cavity just by looking at the works. In the same vein, the figures seem to take on some of the qualities of the world that they inhabit. This suggests that Cotton is preaching against the vice of excesses. Interesting work—it is easily accessible in terms of subject, yet nearly impenetrable in terms of meaning. How very contemporary.

After waking around Chelsea and looking at contemporary art for several hours, I met up with Tara and Loren at the Met. In addition to seeing fabulous works of art from all over the world, we saw the titular head of the largest international NGO (see previous post, if you are unsure who I am referring to). The Met is always a good time. It was fun to be able to give my friends a bit of a tour. I really feel like I know my way around the place now.

Then, after walking around for and looking at art for nine hours, and realizing that I hadn’t eaten anything but a bagel that day, it was time for a real meal. We went over to Jackson Hole Burgers. There are half a dozen of these restaurants in the city. They have dozens of different burgers, as well as burritos and omelets. Here’s a picture of Tara—she hasn’t started eating yet because she’s trying to figure out how to do so.

The food was excellent, and the atmosphere reminded me of a 50’s diner. However, it was more like someone who grew up in the 80’s trying to make a place that had a 50’s feel. Still, a giant and tasty burger with fries for around $10 is a pretty good deal in this part of the States.

Afterwards, there was nothing left but to watch the Red Sox manage to outlast the Cardinals and take a one game to none lead in the World Series. Who’d have thunk it?

– Jeremy

Well, I think it is safe to say that the Flower Basket Shawl makes a quick, enjoyable knit. After starting the first of three such shawls just yesterday afternoon, I have already finished it, and it is blocking as we speak. It was a clear, well-written pattern, with rather clever construction given the fact that it is a triangle. (You knit from the center neck edge down, starting with only 2 stitches.) So here are some photos to document the process. First is a photo of the piece shortly before binding off.

Here is what it looked like immediately after binding off, still all curled up and begging to be blocked.

Immediately after that photo I soaked the shawl in water, squeezed it dry in a handtowel, and blocked it with straight pins. Sorry for the green towel it is drying on—I wasn’t considering photo opportunities when I pinned it out.

I’ll probably take one more photo when I unpin it, hopefully in such a manner as to show off the lovely lace pattern that I managed to obscure completely above.

Famous Person Sighting: I was strolling through the Met today with Tara and Loren when we happened upon Kofi Annan. He and his wife, Nane, were there enjoying a special exhibit of 6th Dynasty Chinese artifacts.

– Jeremy