The semester is almost over, & I realized this week how much I've produced. For whatever reason, it really doesn't feel like I've done much (probably my lack of motivation), but there you go !

So at any rate, here's the bulk of my creative initiative since we last talked about it, hope it isn't too boring/ expected !

As it turns out, these frames I've been making are super fragile, so I've been trying to figure out how to piece the broken scraps together to keep functional.

I'm really not having the best time learning mold making, mostly via breaking everything, so I've been trying to use different mold making processes to fit together for my final installation. So far press & sprig molds are my ~*fav*~ (I hardly slip cast anything anymore !)

These are the sprig molds I made of 6 little seashells I found in a shelf I thrifted last year. I haven't tried them out, but I have high hopes for these pups~

Basically, I'm just producing as many multiples as I can before the semester ends. It's so tedious & uncreative at this point, but there you go !

I made a press mold outta this guy that I can't wait to try out asap !!!

So far, these are the only finished pieces I have, but it's way too exciting seeing them after all the trouble I've gone through trying to get them to work !!! (f/ my handbuilt ferrel cat series hehe)

That's all I have on the ceramics front, but I'll try to remember to post something about the goofy paintings I've been making or something later, blah blah blah. Hopefully this mold making business will come together for my final next month. I have some pretty kitchy plans for the final installation, hehe.

So by some miracle, I ended up making a killing at the school art sale in November, & weirdly enough, all of my funny ceramics sold like literal hotcakes in that there were even a couple people fighting over a tiny albino pig head, a white polka dot nose with snot green interior, & a vase of my right foot. Since this realization that people seem to appreciate/ want my insane humor, I've decided to make as much goofy junk as I can. Which is a perfect segway into the things I've made in my ceramics class the last two weeks. It's a mold making class, but I'm not quite there yet, so I've been sculpting tiny things during my down time.

So that's it (the two pieces in the back are really nice, too, but not as fun as the rest of the stuff, so I didn't photograph it)

This is a teeny tiny double cheeseburger cup. For some reason, cheeseburgers are my go-to mindless busywork. 

So this is the first piece in my ~ferrel cat~ series, inspired by real cats, of course, hehe. They all have the sweetest little cat junk.

This guy looks so much nicer sitting on a flat surface, but you get the idea.

I think this is my fav, modeled after my cat's "cone cat" posture.

& this is the newest addition to the family, look how sweet his little tale is.

Alright, so I've been thinking about an inbreeding project for the last several months, & this is the first actualization of the series !!!! I think there was an episode of 30 rock featuring an inbred wedding or something (I've yet to find proof that this is a real thing, but I remember it pretty specifically, though the sitcom it was on defeats me, maybe it was Parks & rec or Whitney ?). Either way, my next project is a pitcher with a chin-neck via Kenneth as a spout, hehe.

The real point is that this is what my nails looked like after class where I threw, handbuilt, & made a paster mold. Ugh, life's rough, & my nails are now filed down so short so I can actually use my hands in class without slicing chunks of clay outta everything I touch.

This semester, I'm taking my first printmaking class. I've always really loved the etchings in the Art Institute of Chicago, so (of course) I thought this'd be the perfect introduction to printmaking. So far, I've made something like 10 etchings & 60-80 prints. Most of them have ended up being monoprints, which is pretty cool. I've also been doing ghost prints of everything. These are some photos of the last batch of prints I did~

This is the stack of 25 prints~

I just keep printing this My so called life print. I'm obsessed !!!

This one says "I didn't come out of the closet to become a cliche"

Family photos

This is the first print I made of the house I grew up in, inked 3 different ways.

I'll probably write a nice long midterm post later next week~

The last couple of weeks have been super busy ! I just started an internship & a new job, plus midterms are coming up. Literally all I've been doing is working. My anatomy class has definitely been the most comfortable of my studio classes this semester, purely because it's the only medium I'm really familiar with; I could do nothing but figure drawing for days. I've been meaning to write a post about all the cool junk I'm making, so I figured I'd go ahead & share these drawings I've been working on.

I use my Instagram nonstop (@ras24528)

We've basically been working in class on drawing simple figures & understanding how to articulate the skeleton by using wired skeletons, loose bones, & reference books.

Man, it's like every time I go to photograph my work, I have a harder time taking a decent picture. I definitely think I'm going to have to invest in a real camera & start scanning everything this semester. That's really all the update I have time for- I'm trying to get started on my anatomy midterm before work (and a suspension party !!) tonight ;)

Now that I've covered the basics as far as an internet introduction is concerned, I want to share a little bit of my art before I start posting new things from this semester as I'm working on them. This is just a little chunk of my fav & portfolio pieces. Let's see…

Probably one of my all time fav diptychs I've made, this is a collage portrait of my daddy (left) & his brother (right). It's graphite drawings over xeroxes from old photos my daddy took & brown packing paper mounted on sturdy drawing paper.

My first figure drawing class was taught by one of the most incredible artists I've ever met, Anne Harris. She changed the way that I look at the figure & pushed me to draw in a very sculptural, graphic way. This portrait is of my favorite figure drawing model, Laura, who I actually got to draw again in my first Anatomy figure drawing class last week ! This drawing is graphite & charcoal (note: we weren't allowed to use erasers in this class !)

Oh boy, this one breaks my heart a little bit, but it's one of the silliest collages I've done. It's a photo of an old friend of mine in front of a fiberglass sculpture of Merlin at Mark Cline's Foamhenge attraction in Lexington, VA (one of our fav haunts). The rest of this is pretty self explanatory in that it isn't supposed to make sense beyond the initial goofiness & size hierarchy drama. It's just a photo on cardboard with white acrylic paint, colored pen, & various paper cutouts. 

This is probably the most crucial point in my art education thus far. I made this 16" ceramic hamburger candy jar (the top bun comes off & reveals a smooth, red & white striped interior) in my first college ceramics class taught by another awesome artist, Mie Kongo. This was our first assignment, to make a vessel that resembled an animal. Unfortunately, I lost this when I moved at the end of that semester. Hopefully, it's found a nice new home with someone who loves it as much as I do !

I did this in my first Fashion Illustration class a couple years ago. This is the first piece of a diptych where we illustrated the same drawing using 2 different marker techniques. I chose to share this because of how beautifully the dress  turned out. It's all Prismacolor & Copic materials on transparent marker paper.

While I was at Hollins, I had a really cool professor, Alison Hall, who retaught me a lot of drawing basics I'd forgotten or else never learned. This is one of my favorite media I've learned: charcoal powder. I did a couple pieces like this outside of class to learn how to manipulate the medium & ended up loving this picture of my bestie Katie & her boyfriend. It's completely done with charcoal powder & a soft cloth from a photo.

& here we have more work from Hollins, one of my first thrown plates. It's orange clay with a pretty red terra sigilata on the outside & white slip with the design carved as a relief into the face of the plate & glazed with in-studio made basic glazes. I had a lot of fun with this process (I can't seem to get the same results working on my own in the studio up here) & am really bummed that FedEx cracked it down the center in shipping.

I made this "basket" at Hollins also, using iron & copper based glazes on orange clay & fired it in a Raku kiln made outside of the studio at school. Raku is my all time favorite form of ceramics, & I'm planning on making my own kiln as soon as I have a yard/ studio space !

Realistically, I'm probably more proud of these pieces than anything I've ever done. They're my final pieces from the winter term at Hollins last year where I used unconventional methods to replicate master studies. These pieces are burned into the wood with white acrylic wash backgrounds. On the left, "Big Sue" from Lucian Freud's 1990s series (I think the painting was called "Supervisor Benefits Resting") & on the right, a male nude by Paul Cadmus. These are my fav artists, probably of all time. You should check out Freud's etchings & Cadmus's drawings. They're so simple & perfect !

This is just a cute fashion illustration from my Advanced fashion illustration class last semester.  Drawn from a model in a costume illustration exercise with pen & colored pencil. 

This is a fairly accurate representation of the last 2 years of my work & the direction it's headed in. I'm so excited to explore new media & further develop my drawing & sculpting styles this year. Hopefully I'll also be able to start selling junk through etsy in the upcoming months.

Lately, it's become clear that I have commitment issues. Things I haven't been able to commit to in the past three years include: endless hair cuts/ colors, my major & college, being a vegetarian/ happy vegan, making friends with classmates (or being social in general), any form of a relationship, which city I want to live in right now, finding a job, reading every art/ fashion blog, how many cats I can own while living by myself without looking too crazy, & ~my look~

This year things started at least sort of making sense. I finished winter term at Hollins university in my goofy hometown in va, transferred back to art school in Chicago, & even moved into my own place, decided on a major (for now at least), & made a few really cute friends. Now that the fall semester is starting, I think I'm ready to make a commitment to  blogging, too ! I guess we'll see how it goes, y'all.