28.2.10

Beautiful Cakes...

I'm really admiring these cakes made by blogger Nicole Herriott... they are just so textural and beautiful.
The way the icing looks is amazing! Maybe cake decorating should be my next new hobby?
You can find her entire cakes collection on flickr here...

22.2.10

test watercolors

I've been trying to get some watercolors to work all day!
These are sort of color test sketches for much larger screen prints I would like to make in the next few days. 
I've been working out the kinks in these little watercolor sketches, and I keep messing up!
This is one of the little sketches...
They're ending up way too muddy and confusing in this small scale (this image is about 4 inches square). I want the backs and fronts of the geodesic dome to be distinct and the layers to be very transparent... so there is an optical illusion of dimension, depth and layering.
I'm getting a little fed up with my paintings failing so hard! 
I'm going to go ahead with the prints towards the end of the week, despite my discouragement.

"You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try." - Dolly Parton

16.2.10

Progress on new Intaglio prints...

Progress I made on an zinc etching tonight...
The proof above has just a few extra little domes in the back, in the plate on the bottom, you can see I've almost doubled the number of them behind the main domes. I really like how the domes look like they're drawn into charcoal or graphite...
I also worked a little on this dry point, putting that texture around the top edge in. This proof is a little blown out, os the image in the center would normally be a little more clear.

15.2.10

I am SO annoyed with art school right now!

I really love my department here. The faculty are amazing and inspiring, and the facilities are really not to be topped by many other fine arts printmaking programs. The one thing I really dislike are some of the people. 
This morning, I walked into my studio, ready to work on my thesis work for the day, and I find my studio name tag vandalised.
This wasn't the worst, but someone scralled a cursive phrase onto my name tag that bugs me so much. This phrase is written or scratched on other surfaces in the building, and obviously whoever writes it is into destroying or marking things that do not belong to them. My name tag read:

I don't do shit
Katherine Hale
Printmaking
Senior

What bugs me so much is that I've heard other seniors in my department talking behind my back that I'm never in my studio. I confronted someone once, who was announcing their judgement of me while I was actually in my studio. The spaces here are all cubby hole style, so the walls are not to the ceiling. If someone is talking loud enough, everyone on the floor can hear it. Thats what happened this time. "Katie is NEVER in her studio. Why the fu** did they even give her one." I pipe up, "Excuse me, but I'm here right now." My smack talking classmate stopped her rant at that point. 
The bottom line is, I am here in my studio and I do work. Lots.
I tend to try to get the bulk of my work done during the week, so I have weekends mostly free for errands or personal time. I think this decision is completely personal, and while it flys in the face of the time management that most of my classmates choose (working on weekends and evenings), I haven't ever sensed a problem. My time is my time, theirs likewise. 
What is alternately so aggrevating is that I am one of a handful of seniors who actually fill their thesis studio hours every single monday. I am required to be here from 9am to 8pm, but no one checks on me. Were seniors in college, we should be able to get to an independently driven class on time every week by now. Out of fifteen seniors who have space in these studios, about 4 show up each week for the predominate amount of out assigned class time. Everyone else shows up to the lectures and things where roll is taken. I am baffelled at how any of these students can get any thesis work done without utilizing their studio hours each week, but it's none of my business what they choose to do. Which gets back to my point, why vandalize my things with "I don't do shit" when whoever wrote it is actually the one who doesn't do shit?!

I have no proof as to who might have written on my name tag, and I've taken the tag down for now. I do have suspicisions about who did it. I'm going to prove whoever wrote that wrong by continuing my normal work schedule, graduating with honors in may, and being satisfied that a petty vandal was completely wrong about me.

9.2.10

Prep-tastic!

I've been stalking the Kate Spade website pretty constantly the last few days. I was snowed in by the snowpocalypse Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday, school was cancelled Monday, and now school is cancelled this evening and all of tomorrow. I have a lot of time on my hands to do things like prowl beautiful brands web stores... especially since my studio is locked up and closed, so I'm not actually able to do much print work at all. Call it an un-intentional vacation.
Anyways, back to Kate Spade. The web site has been making me feel my inner prep school groove again. I've been lusting for monograms and pleats. So I made a little ode to my thirteen years of prep school experience... and maybe how I would wear it now.

I wore these charming powder blue jumpers to grade school for early Fall and Spring only. In winter we wore identical navy jumpers. I guess grade school was all about seasonal colors.
This is me on the first day of first grade.
I wish that blouse still fit me. Clearly I learned to embrace coordinating my clothing and monograms early. Can you dig my matching white keds and poodle socks?

I have no good photos of my High School uniform. It went something along the lines of a white polo, monogramed with the school insignia on the left chest,
plus a navy sweater, same insignia embroidered on left chest, plus a gray pleated uniform skirt. 
Oddly enough, you can purchase an almost identical one for close to the same price I paid for a swath of pleated gray polyester/wool blend... at American Apparel no less.
Only now my old uni is geek-chic.
If only American Apparel knew they were ripping off the uniform styles of private catholic school girls from the mid-west.

Now for the accessories. 

My class ring is like the classiest jewelry I own. Everyone at art school thinks it's a big money sign until I explain, no, its a super classy monogram, and it was designed by cartier. CARTIER! It makes me feel super duper fancy wearing this everyday. This particular ring was not made by cartier, but still, the design is gorg... and I'm going to continue bragging about my cartier ring for quite sometime. Oh the prestige of fancy lady school. The ring design is the same monogram emblem as the shirts, an intertwined N, D and S.
No one who attends all-girls prep school is complete with out a natty pair of sperrys.
Now all you need to add is a set of adorable pearls, a headband, a big rumpled bun and a cute tote.


5.2.10

Booties!

Look at my way inappropriate for the snow shoes I'm wearing at work today! I love them, despite the predicted precipitation.
Snowpocalypse 2.0/2k10 is supposed to hit this afternoon and dump 12-36 inches of snow from Baltimore all the way up to Philly. Looks like I'm snowed in for the weekend. At least I have cute shoes.

3.2.10

Kate Spade Jewelry

I LOVE the Kate Spade Jewelry line right now!
All the images below are pulled straight from the Kate Spade site.
Have I ever mentioned that Kate Spade, like me, is from Kansas City? The connection grows from there. She also attended all girls school (although not the all girls high school I attended, sadly. There are two in KC). She makes colorful things, just like I do. Okay, thats not that many things in common, but I still adore the Kate Spade brand. I'm heading up to NYC for a quick weekday visit some time in the next week or so, and I plan on dropping by one of the NYC boutiques to lust over all the beautiful things. My poor student budget doesn't afford me much Kate Spade, but I adore the styling of the brand, so I browse the Kate Spade website often.

1.2.10

Dome Dry point - State Proof #1

First state proof of the new dry point (I showed off the plate at the end of last week). There is still lots of work left to be done.