He War: finality

Love this. (found: wiki for hair)

The air is filled with so much anticipation. I love (don't tell) finals week. There's a camaraderie on campus: we're all exhausted, over-caffeinated, and almost there. It doesn't hurt that I tend to work much better under pressure, and subsequently do some of my best work at times like these. I like having my own, class-free schedule. I like feeling justified drinking the equivalent of my weight in coffee. I also like feeling finished: no more papers, no more tests, no more stress. Those few days between finishing a semester and heading home when there's just nothing to do: they're golden. I don't have to be the one always leaving to do work. I can just be. Then again, I can't wait to get home, to see my (and Tim's) puppies, to visit my usual spots, to go running through my neighborhood, to have my laundry done for me, to see homey faces, to watch copious amounts of hockey (go Wings!) and ultimately to travel to NYC for my fellowship and all of the things that come with that. I feel lucky enough to perpetually be looking forward, but on Friday when I'm finished with everything, I'll be happy just to be here and now.

National Anthem of Nowhere

Michael Kareken

I think these are gorgeous. The unnatural natural landscapes are both confronting and neutral, ordered and disordered. I wish I could see one in person.










I miss painting. It's been a whole season without acrylics or oils. Watercolors don't feel the same to me: it's a whole different process. I miss my superstitions and the physicality of it all. This week in the studio has been fantastic. Non-stop printing, only pausing to let the ink dry, and I'm really happy with the results so far but soon and very soon I'm jumping back into giant, fabulous, messy, squishy PAINT.

It's business time

I was just sent some pictures from the conference I attended last week and forgot that I promised to spread this new craze:

Business Climbing! (he made it all the way to the top before loosening the tie)

Ready, set, go! On my list of fads: it's cooler than Jerkin' but less than Harem Pants:

Debaser

Today was gorgeous. A perfect public market morning followed by an afternoon filled with insane college students and an impromptu (well, only for me, I'm sure someone planned it) concert on the quad by OK GO (that band that has the treadmill video, pictured below), then an evening of writing, pretending to write, and art-related tangents. Tomorrow I'll be back in the studio, working on all of the things I want to be working on all of the time. I know it's far too early, but I keep daydreaming about my senior show: I want hundreds of perfect prints, and tons of paintings. I want to fill the gallery. I want everything to be beautiful, understated, overwhelming, and inspiring.

It's that time of year. The time of year when I just want to go.go.go and slow.slow.slow. When I am perpetually, simultaneously overwhelmed and extremely content. I love what I do. I feed on stress. I perform better when things are crazy.

But.. I look forward to when things slow down, when I can lay in the grass and just BE (happy, silent, with Tim, content, watching, thinking).

Yesterday I had the chance to present my research to my home community. I realized my favorite thing to do is explain the things we do to the people who say "oh, no, definitely not!" when I ask if they're familiar with biology. I get to show my excitement: then it BREAKS OUT and all the viral particles run wild, right!? (HIV-1 acute infection of CD4+T cells). I think most scientists become numb to the awe-inspiring nature of our work. Yet, I'm so humbled by and fascinated with the things we study, and more importantly, the things we don't know.

you and me baby, we ain't nothin' but mammals

I love detailed line work in prints, drawings, life, or anything! If it looks like it took one thousand hours to make, I will probably like it. As such, I'm really attracted to hair, muscle striations, and fabric patterns, among other things. 

In short: I look at things like this a lot.

and I will follow you into the dark

Tweeted: already have to stop myself from twice-daily blogging (recognized by the NIH as a class5 full roaming vapor): time for a twitter addiction.

Elephants & Juniper has added a twitter account! 

Follow me at: http://twitter.com/elephantsinjune

that what? that life is hectic

I had a great conversation today about one of my favorite photographers, August Sander, and I thought I'd share it with you.

If you haven't heard of him: He documented society as he saw it, in all of its forms. The Weimar Republic was a hodge podge of ideas, parties, and people. It's the name we've given the government between 1919 and Hitler's rise to power and the culture was populated by many artists and thinkers we still recognize today. It was home to Walter Benjamin, Bauhaus, Brecht's theater, Gödel's answer to Hilbert's second problem, Shoenberg's compositions, and Heisenberg (may have) come up with his uncertainty principle there. Sander decided to document this tumultuous time period and the diversity of his space and place.

He is known for his work representing all levels of society (the elite, middle class, workers, and outcasts) but I've chosen some of my favorites, which all happen to be working class people or outsiders.

 

The Bohemians, The Boxers, and Circus People

If anyone's feeling generous... I'd lovelove a copy of his giant book, People of the Twentieth Century.

if I am a stranger now to you, I will always be

Yesterday I ran three miles, hiked up a mountain, presented my research poster, and found a Ring Pop for sale. In contrast to my action-packed day yesterday, today I had the chance to sit outside and read, take a long photo walk, talk to some really interesting presenters, and listen to Ryan Adams on loop. It's our last day today, and I have to say I wouldn't mind another day or two before heading to New York... and I can't wait to return here and explore the west with Tim sometime in the not-so-distant future.. though the per diem will be sorely missed!

Introducing: The Velvet Undergrads

April 21- May 9, 2010: Opening Reception April 21st, 5-7pm

The Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition

On another note: I received some good news:

I was accepted into the above exhibition! If you're in the area, definitely come by and check it out! My piece is entitled Observed and is a four color linocut. There are some beautiful pieces in the show this year. It's definitely the best collection work I've seen in this particular show in awhile, and definitely worth the time to see it.

R&R

Montana is gorgeous. Gorgeous enough that I'm giving a lot more consideration to Washington U in Seattle for my PhD work... a lot more. I've also loved the transition to mountain time-- waking up at 7:30 am to run was easy as pie!

Speaking of pie: my goal for this vacation is to find the double R and enjoy coffee with a nice slice of pie.

Honeybear

It's beautiful outside, my prints are finally starting to look like the image I have in my head, I've knocked several big things off of my to-do list, got pears at the grocer, and I get to print with the doors open while the sun's shining.

love is all you need (mischief managed)

Update
Dishes: washed
Laundry: in progress
Tim: talked to
Poster: half finished
Care package: on the way

This is keeping me alive. (yes, like everyone ever I'm coffee-dependent)

Makes coffee or espresso in 30 seconds with 1/5 the acidity!

I say blah blah blah

It's been a tough day. Hell, it's been a tough month. I'm leaving 4:30am Wednesday morning to catch a flight to Montana to participate in this years' NCUR. My dishes are stacked up, lists are long, laundry has remained undone for far too long, I'm behind in my printing, and I really miss the comfort of being around Tim. Times like this I really crave home; home where I can sweet-talk my mom into doing my laundry and I'm within walking distance of slurpees at any time of day.

I've really Lemoned things up. (people don't really say that, do they?)

On the brighter side: I've never been more convinced that I want to spend all of my time in the studio and in the lab, I got to go home for Easter, and the cold weather curtails my impulse to lounge in the sun, thereby increasing my productivity. Also, I re-found Peter Sutherland. Set 5 is... familiar, which is really comforting right now.

 

 

little bunny foo foo (so say we all)

Alexa Meade paints people on people.

I went home for Easter and just got back yesterday. I have a week to throw together a poster (and data) for a conference next Wednesday out west and I'm behind in my printing from all of the traveling. Basically, I'm spending 24 hours a day in the studio and in the lab from now till forever. and I'm really, really excited. 

This was my Easter:

I'm also thinking very seriously about opening an Etsy shop. This way, I can have a year to get going, to get some of the kinks worked out, and then an entire summer (or year) to do it full-time before I start my PhD work. I'm not sure if the whole full-time Phd and full-time Etsy baby is a good idea, but this week has reinforced my conviction that I can do both and I can "have it all" (as Liz Lemon would say). If I want to. I'll probably have to start eating ham though.

she blinded me with science

Like every other scientist ever, I read xkcd sometimes.

Like every other scientist ever, I like and extraordinarily identify with this.

(Unlike every other scientist ever, I make a lot of art somewhat relating or alluding to this disconnect.)

Science Montage

Alt text: The rats are perturbed: it must sense nanobots! Code grey! We have a helvetica scenario!