missing things

This is the Uffizi Palace in Florence. I remember when Wendy and I went there, there was an event going on with a string quartet and as we were walking through we were allowed to stand on an inside balcony and look down at the event. I remember just being around all the fantastic architecture and having the quartet like a soundtrack in the background... it was lovely.

Anyway, had a nice, if hectic spring break with Aileen and Jem visiting, and going home for a night, and all that. When they were here we went to the Drake Hotel and listened to jazz- it was great. We used to go to Wally's in Boston, but what I liked about the Drake is that it was so quintessentially Chicago- it had the decor and ambiance of old Chicago. Very nice. I want to go back and draw it. I love the calm feeling I have after breaks- I don't feel as strongly that I need to Get Things Done OR ELSE. However, things I do need to get done before the end of the semester:

Design and Ad, Billboard, and Package Design for Design Class
Design, Draw, Illustrate, Paint a physiological process
A few drawing exercises
Make a Business Plan
Ace Cranio Lab and Written Tests at the end of April
Make a silicone and wax ear
Work on my Medical Illustration rap with LP

Then a month off to think about thesis topics and maybe go to the Carribean or New Orleans? Minneapolis and St. Louis? Who knows...

My favorite things

Like Oprah, I too have favorite things. Every so often I will mention them here, as a record for me when I forget my favorite things, and to share them with everyone!

My latest favorite thing, as I search for a new place to live, is this fantastic website that tells you how much apartments are going for in a neighborhood. They have a bunch of cities and you can adjust the radius to see the cheapest or most expensive places to live in your city. It is a great help when just moving to someplace new. Check it out at: http://www.myapartmentmap.com/rentaldata/ You can also search for apartments that are up for rent on this website.

Although I must confess, I am a huge fan of craigslist for finding apartments. In addition to apartments I have found lots of great things- bikes, bookshelves, couches, dressers, art supplies, etc. It's like a national garage sale. I've also sold numerous things- tickets, my scooter, bookshelves, books, etc. It's easy to set up an ad and easy to search.

Alright, I'm off to the art institute, then jazz and a comedy show to show my Boston friends the best of Chicago!

Spring break freakout!

Thought I would redo my knee a bit- other changes I want to add is a stronger bump map and fiddle with the lighting a bit more. I like the simple background, so will probably keep that. Maybe make it more of a brown color so it matches the knee better.

I have friends coming tomorrow from Boston and since I haven't done any homework since Friday, looking at my long list of things I wanted to get done over spring break- looks like I'll have to put most of it on hold and just work hard the week after spring break!!! It will be ok- I'll get everything done eventually, so yes I am worried, but I also know all the worry in the world doesn't help much; better to just dig in and get the work done. Basically what I'm saying is emotions are useless. :)

I really like everyone in my program- they are all cool and fun and while we are about as dramatic and different group of 17 strangers picked to live in Chicago and study in the BVIS program... I still like them all and have enjoyed celebrating spring break with them this week!! I have also enjoyed being home alone the past two days just processing things and painting a sculpture I made and having some Heidi-quiet relax time. I am an introvert- and that doesn't mean that I'm necessarily quiet, it means I re-group and re-energize by being alone. I will post my sculpture up here when it's done. May take awhile!

Alright, enjoy the knee!! Such a cool lil' bit o' anatomy!

Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

"The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who fine beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist instruments of an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless."


and then follows this most perfect paragraph- the first paragraph in chapter 1-

"The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."

fruits of my labor of the week

and then some crappy pictures of my knee, that I will adjust and load up the final finals here later!



SPRING BREAK!!!!! never has it felt more earned or desired.


PS. all images are copyrighted so please do not use them without asking permission!!

and things

SO still plugging along on the knee assignment. Just found out it goes much faster if I take pictures of the bones and alter them a bit on Photoshop. That may help. May not. Feels a bit like cheating, but I think it's legal.

Needless to say I think everyone is feeling the cabin fever of spending all day working at your computer, then falling asleep then waking up and doing it over and over on the same project... it's a bit tedious. I really need to keep running even when I have projects due, because even biking to the grocery store this afternoon helped burn off some energy. Last night there was a spontaneous dance party in my room and hallway around midnight that was refreshing. A video will be posted later of that...

If anyone has some good music that they are listening to right now please send it my way. I'm sick of everything I listen to, and there's no TV shows left to watch, so I'm just Pandor-ing it, which is fine but not ideal.

OK, back to Maxwell.

Another day, another morning

Today is 3ds Max day- I call him Maxwell. Because this program has become such a huge part of my life, it no longer is an it, but a he, and no longer 3ds Max, but Maxwell. And when I am angry at him I call him by his full name- Three D. S. Maxwell.

Today is also 70 degrees!!!! I have never ever been more excited in my life for warm weather. This winter was hard. and long. and still probably not over. I wish I could take my desktop computer outside!! Alas, my laptop can't handle Maxwell. I opened all the windows in the apartment and that's as close I will be getting to being outside today.

Other than that, I found some Russian lessons on you tube so I think I'm going to try to pick up some Russian today. In honor of St. Patrick's day of course.

the eyes burn

Well, after laboriously checking all my lines in my drawing, I think I am finished with the illustration due tomorrow. Finally, with this drawing I feel the concentration set in- the discipline is coming back after being out of school for awhile. And also the panic sets in as I realize how much I have left to do on my 3d assignment...

I'm going to need a good long run and a tall pint of Fat Tire by the time Friday rolls around.

I was peed on by a guinea pig today!!*

And almost immediately as I wrote the last post I decided task #3 was utterly lame and will cease to do that. Although some artifacts of aesthetic appeal will most likely slip in unchaperoned in quite a few posts. Such as this one, listen to this from Tristan and Isolde and tell me it isn't perfection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mOA8pZ_I4M

Let's see, also, of the 3 days this past weekend I only left my apartment for one of them, and that was yesterday and I was gone all day at the lab making... things. and breaking things. and celebrating pi day with some delicious pie that S made. We have three assignments due this week, the week before spring break. I am satisfied with my headway on all of them, this weekend has been very productive. Our assignments include a Mimics/3ds Max knee, an instructional set of drawings done in line on illustrator, and 3 design concepts in InDesign for an assignment in our design class. Never before this semester have I sat in front of a computer so much!!! I am learning basically from ground zero all of these programs, so the learning curve is harsh. I am getting better about taking breaks, since my eyes have been really dry the past month or so, and they need breaks.

To keep things light I also watch a lot of online tv while I work on my homework, and listen to NPR and the radio. In this way I have learned a lot about the economy and politics this weekend, and feel more up-to-date. So even though I may not leave my apartment, I like being somewhat aware of whats going on.

One week until spring break, just need to make it through the next five days! And I consider it rotten luck that not only are there three Friday the 13ths this year (something that only happens about once every 11 years) but today is also the Ides of March, and also spring break is a week too late for St. Patty's day, so instead of celebrating one of my favorite holidays in a city that celebrates it well, I will be yes, doing homework. I have a feeling 2009 will be especially unlucky...

And in honor of the Ides, I leave you with this, by William S.:

ANTONY.

O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,

Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.—

I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,

Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:

If I myself, there is no hour so fit

As Caesar's death-hour, nor no instrument

Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich

With the most noble blood of all this world.

I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,

Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,

Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years,

I shall not find myself so apt to die:

No place will please me so, no means of death,

As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,

The choice and master spirits of this age.

*Please find the sarcasm in the majority of exclamation points I profusely use.

First Post!

Hi! OK so after weeks of saying that I would start a blog, here I am at 1am on a Saturday night, wearing plaid pants and starting a blog. This is actually my third blog, the other two became victims of my suspected narcissism and were deleted when my self consciousness got the better of me. I intend this blog to be mainly about my journeys through my medical illustration program, to catalog where I came from and where I am going, and to highlight other artists and medical oddities that I find here and there. And I also like to write and read blogs, so thought I'd throw myself out in cyberspace, again. At least until my suspected narcissism gets the best of me again. So, here I am at 1am on a Saturday night, in plaid pants, blogging.

A few things I want to accomplish with this blog:
1. Post a picture for every entry.
2. Write at least once a week,
3. Tell something that tickled my aesthetic bone every entry.

In my old neighborhood a phone line was started where people could call in to the line and record something amusing that happened to them that day, and then you could call the line at night and listen to everyone's stories. A lot of them were things that happened around the neighborhood, and sometimes it was great to just get a new perspective on what was going on with the people in your neighborhood. (I apologize if you have Mr. Rogers' song "who are the people in your neighborhood" going through your head right now) I think a lot of beauty can be discovered that way- especially in a city- moments of aesthetic joy. So, here I will write about those such moments or thoughts.

Oh, and I'll try to keep my entries short- I am notorious for writing too much. So, this first entry I end with this thought I had today as I sculpted an ear out of wax:

Ears. Incredibly intricately made, no two alike, really take a look at ears for the next few days. You will be amazed.