Erg.

Today's Animus is. Nothing. Because I am tired, and because I have to write a paper (even if it will be bs), and I have to write a grant and I have to put together a portfolio and I just DON'T WANT TO!

Really.

I'm not feeling it.

Which may once again be why I'm doing this instead...so maybe I should post some sort of something.

Okay well...

I recently re-watched (for the thousandth time) 500 Days of Summer with Liv because she'd never seen it. I love this movie. I love the way it expresses how people are idealized and put on a pedistal and how much it can hurt when the illusion is gone. Its also filmed in a unique way, if not entirely realistic, but definally grabs emotions everyone can relate to. Plus there is some great shots and beautiful use of color. I'm a bit of a dork and watched the commentary and the director was talking about how Summer (the romantic interest) is associated with light blue and for the most part is dressed in the color, her apartment is that color etc. Also the only time a bright red is show is when Tom (the lead) is with her. My favorite example of this is a close up of a little red paper crane shown in focus then blurred as they walk into her apartment.

Plus Joseph Gordon Levitt = teh sex

He's so pretty. Definably one of my top choices (if not the choice) of imaginary hollywood boyfriends. Because you know... that's completely normal and everything...

Zooey is pretty awesome too, but she looks like my sister and it makes me jealous.

But her band, She and Him, is sweet the Him being M. Ward. Kind of reminds me of old 60's pop music. And to make it better they had a tie in to 500 Days of Summer with an adorable music video which may mostly be adorable because JGL is in it. Enjoy!



Oh yeah and if you want to see the original music video thats pretty good too.

This is not it.

What I'm suppose to be doing that is. I'm supposedly writing a short story that's due in 12 hours, but its not going so well. Instead I'm drinking tea and thinking about how awesome Beyonce's new music video is. The song could be better but that fricken clothes and style just rock my socks.

Why Don't You Love Me?

 Seriously, watch this and just look at the clothes. LOOK AT THEM! Who else can wear so little and look so classy. Also, who else can rock a body suit like she can? I bet she even sleeps in them, they seem to be her favorite outfit. Either way, mad love for her.

On a completely separate note, yesterday I overheard some people looking at Craigs list and reading all the dirty meet ups. Which is completely hilarious by the way and I would fully recommend it. But if you prefer sweetness to smut, then I suggest reading the missed connections. And if you really want to go ahead and yank at those heart strings, then I suggest you check out Sophie Blackall's Missed Connections where she illustrates some of the missed connections she finds online. Awwwww.

Since I'm in full procrastination I think I'll recommend something else that I'm obsessing over currently. It's Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, which is a made for Internet mini-movie in three acts about a villain that wants to get into the 'evil league of evil'. It also involves a romance, a superhero and singing. It really can't be passed up. If you happen to have netflix, then lucky you! You can watch it on instant play! If you don't, well its on youtube but split up here is Act 1, Part 1. Basically I love it and want to buy a copy eventually, plus it comes with Commentary! The Musical! Which who wouldn't want that? 


Okay, back to writing. I swear it.

Oh wait, I didnt even get to the best part which I'm so super excited about that everyone knows anyways but I finally got to screen print a shirt! And I have a lot of grand dreams about it, which I'm sharing with others because I'm not the only one who thinks its sweet and wants to try it out.

Voila!

and a close up cause I'm a dork

A bit of a fail this week

at regular posting. But I've been busy, and I'm lazy, which at times is a hard combination. Anywho, today is a sort of weird umm animus, I think is what I decided. Yep, its a weird one about taxidermy. See from this website, Regretsy, which frankly is hilarious. Its full of all the horrid stuff people try and sell on Esty, because sometimes you just want a felted uterus or something. So from that website I found Slightly Curious, she got famous for her creepy fish squirrel thing that showed up on Regretsy. She makes these crazy combo animals using roadkill, and shes only like my age.(see above)
From there, Corinne and I happened to find The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy. Basically a bunch of people that sell dead things designed as curios and weird creatures and such. If you want to kill a good hour or so I'd recommend it. I just got sucked into the complete weirdness of it all and there are a bunch of artists that all have their own websites to peruse.

The rain was lovely

the hail kind of hurt. It didn't hail long though, and kind of sadly. I still find it sort of amazing that balls of ice can randomly fall from the sky when it isn't even cold out. I wish I could have napped around the house and listen to it rain all day, but sadly by the time I got home it wasn't raining anymore. I just love it when the air is heavy and warm, like a giant blanket.

Anyways, besides that being wonderous today the inspiration is...actually I really don't want to use the word inspiration anymore, cause it kinda makes me think of those really sappy cards like "go for it!" or those chain letters with things like, "remember there is always an angel in your life" bs. So I've got to think of a different word.

the internet provides me with these synonyms: afflatus, animus, approach, arousal, awakening, brainchild, brainstorm*, creativity, deep think, elevation, encouragement, enthusiasm, exaltation, fancy, flash*, genius, hunch, illumination, impulse, incentive, inflatus, influence, insight, motivation, motive, muse, notion, revelation, rumble, spark, spur, stimulation, thought, vision, whim

I looked up animus because I have never heard that one before and it basically means like hateful spiritedness, which i like, but doesn't really work. I'm tempted to use it just because ive never heard it before... 
Otherwise I think illumnation, spark, impulse are all better. Maybe animus is the best, its very forcefull. Plus it reminds me of Harry Potter and his animagus or whatever, animal spirit thing. Which is pretty sweet. I wonder what mine would be. Probably something stupid. hmpf.


Okay for the moment were going to call this an animus, until I dont like it anymore.

So the animus for today is not very hateful, but rather sad and its another poem. This is one of my absolute favorites because of the language as well as the wonderful description of such a loneliness, it says things that I could not even begin to say even though I am not a balding middle aged man, but I think we all can relate in someway or another. I think it matches today's rain well.


The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock by T.S Elliot

	S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
	A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
	Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
	Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
	Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
	Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats	5
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …	10
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,	15
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,	20
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go	35
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—	40
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare	45
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,	50
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—	55
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?	60
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]
It is perfume from a dress	65
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?       .      .      .      .      .
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets	70
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.       .      .      .      .      .
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!	75
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?	80
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,	85
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,	90
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—	95
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,	100
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:	105
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”       .      .      .      .      .	110
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,	115
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old … I grow old …	120
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.	125
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown	130
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Lines 99-110 are probably one of the most lovely and beautiful pictured stanzas ever ever written. I loves it so. Oh and "I have measured out my life in coffee spoons". Besides being a line I love, I do love me some coffee.


Oh and I Wikipediad this and found the translation for the beginning bit. Its from Dante's Inferno and goes a little like this:

"If I thought my answer were given

to anyone who would ever return to the world,

this flame would stand still without moving any further.

But since never from this abyss

has anyone ever returned alive, if what I hear is true,

without fear of infamy I answer you."

  

 

Don't ask me how that relates, I can't quite wrap my thoughts around it.

Today is a day for...

Scott Musgrove!
I love stumble upon, it shows you the greatest things ever. If you don't have Stumble downloaded on your computer I'd highly recommend it. You just put in the topics you are interested and press the button and volia! A random web page featuring something you checked as interesting will show up. And that is how I found Musgrove.

He is an artists that works with creating prehistoric creatures and bringing them through life in both painting and in sculpture. I think he mostly works with bronze and oil. He use to do some animation right out of college, and now mostly paints. Plus, hes from Seattle, which I am still in love with so I give him extra bonus points for that. Also, he did a painting of an octopus...well as he calls it, a walktopus. Check it out:



















Brad and I had a little discussion the other day about artists that also create consumer products as well as fine art. Which is, in my mind, not selling out, but allowing for the general population that will never step foot in a gallery to see your work. This includes toys, skateboards, clothing etc.

Looks like Scott Musgrove is one of those people and if you wanta check out Wootini  they have one of his featured toys, as well as a bunch of other artists. I haven't gotten the chance to go through it yet, but it looks like there's some good stuff on there.

This week seems like it is going to be very stressful and I'm lacking on motivation. To motivate myself to actually want to do something in painting I'm going to use Jay Ryan as my inspiration for today. 

For anyone who went on the trip to Chicago, it is well known that I actually got to meet him and that I bought his book and he signed it, mostly because I want to tell everyone about it since it was probably the best part of the trip for me. 

(the book cover)

His website, The Bird Machine, shows a lot of his past print as well as the ones that are for sale. The color and line quality completely baffle me at the moment, considering I just started screen printing and couldn't get one color with fat lines to print. I'm not for sure, but I think he does photo emulsion instead of masking, which is what I'm currently trying out in painting.  He's a really interesting guy, a bit awkward, in fact I didnt even know it was his book at first when I went to look at it. I said it caught my attention, and he asked if it was because I hated it so much I wanted to push them all on the floor. Which of course wasn't true at all, and I said I loved that guys work and he just causually mentioned, oh yeah, I am that guy. So that was a bit awkward. But its okay, he gave me a high five.

He said he just started messing around with screen printing posters for his own band, Dianogah, (which I haven't listened to yet) but now he does stuff for bands like Modest Mouse and Andrew Bird, which is super amazingly amazing. 

 He recommended I get a copy of Andy McDougal's book "Screen Printing Today", which is on my slowly increasing list of things to buy over the summer. Jennifer said I should try and get a grant for screen printing stuff if I want to try it out next year. We will see how far I get with that. Right now I'm just trying to get a feel for it. 

Anyways this is a print I particularly like and if anyone is interested in seeing the book or trying out screen printing hit me up, its the new summer hobby (along with a thousand others in my overly optimistic mind).

Clearly I'm Failing.

And since I am failing at regular art postings, I think I'm going to try and switch it up a bit. Instead of posting my artwork, (well I still will, but only when I get the will power) I'm going to post inspiration in hopes that I 1. blog more 2. have inspiration 3. can refer back to it in moments of dullness. 4. possibly inspire anyone else who happens upon this.

Although I have lots of things I want to blog about I am going to start with a inspiration that was particular to today (ish). Well, I like it and was given a hard copy of it today. See, I am not just inspired by art, but also by movies and books and in this case a poem. In my boring brit. lit class we read and watched Joyce's "The Dead" which is all fine and dandy and full of symbolism and what not, but that's not the point. The point is when we watched the movie there was this lovely poem that was read. Luckily for us, our teacher randomly handed out a copy of it because she likes it too and it wasn't originally in the short story (novella, whatever). If you get a chance to hear it actually read in the movie you should do that, I think it sounds better than it is read (plus Anjelica Huston is in it when she was quite a bit younger and is wonderful. Not that she isn't lovely and wonderful still, I hope I look as good as she does when I'm her age.)
Now for no more of my rambling.

Donal Og (Young Donald)-Anonymous 


It is late last night the dog was speaking of you; 
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.


You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.


You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a sliver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.


You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird;
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.


When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness,
I sit down and I go through my trouble; 
when I see the world and do not see my boy,
he that has an amber shade in his hair.


It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you;
the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday.
And myself on my knees reading the Passion;
and my two eyes giving love to you for ever.


My mother said to me not to be talking with you today,
or tomorrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.


My hard is as black as the blackness of the sloe,
or as the black coal that is on the smith's forge;
or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls;
it was you that put that darkness over my life.


You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great that you have taken God from me!


I think I can let that speak for itself.

2010, time to change for the decade

Yay new semester! and Yay for actually posting stuff? Its just so much work and I am so very uncaring.