Light(er)house.

Soooo here's some art I have been making.

 

The first one is on a newspaper clipping. The second two are watercolors. 

Where I'm going here is touching back to what I did with my fourth year work. The concept of drugs and smoking and drinking and how they are looked down upon in our society. The idea that if you partake in these things you are lesser of a person, or that they're bad, or you're stupid for being subject to them. Yet they are still a huge part of our society and if most people do not smoke, they have at some point. Some of the greatest influences in our society have. 

I'm seeing it more here, trying to meet people and become a part of a very stuckup city. I feel out of place. Not just as someone who smokes, but as I am. As me.

What I did for my fourth year work was plaster casted lighters (man they looked like real lighters) that I painted things like adidas or martha stewart and things like that on. Things you would not associate with a lighter (which is typically associated with drugs or smoking). 

Where I am reaching further now is placing them into totally unusual places. Places that they would otherwise have no consideration, to make people think why they're there and face what they are as objects. 

Anyways. I am struggling with a complete and total lack of money for some sort of art supplies. If I had it I have many ideas for other things to do. But in the meantime, here is where I'm going. 

Also happy (almost) Paint party Friday! Be sure to go there tomorrow to see what everyone else did.

P.S. this is the kind of conceptual art I really enjoyed making and miss making. I miss the creative environment of other artists and professors to inspire me. Sigh.

Mi casa

So I've been living in this house for 3 weeks now and I haven't even showed you guys the area. Geeez.

It's a nice sunny day so I thought pictures were a good excuse for a stroll. So here is my house.

It's a three bedroom place. I live with three guys, all of whom are right on. But busy so a little scarce at times. I live on the cusp of chinatown.

This is literally a one or two minute walk from my house. I think it's pretty awesome. I went to that coffee shop, the one in the bottom picture with the orange sign, and got myself a delicious iced coffee. It's called Raw Sugar and it's an awesome little artsy place.

Of course living next to chinatown means living next to endless delicious food. I have discovered Pho which I had never tried before, and man the Vietnamese know their food. YUM.


I've also decided to make the most of my summer out here by getting a weeklong festival pass to the Ottawa bluesfest for the first week. Which includes Soundgarden, the Flaming Lips, Infected Mushroom, the Black Keys and the Tragically Hip just to name a few! Gonna be an awesome week. I'm breaking the bank buying it, so times are going to be tight for a bit!

Hopefully by the time the festival rolls around I will be able to afford to get a ticket to Death Cab for Cutie the following week too. *crosses fingers*

May two-four

So I have not been making as many blog posts as I'd like. The reason is because my head is so totally all over the place what I post one hour might be 100% different than what I feel an hour later.

Right now I'm figuring what to do with my life. As of right now I'm working at a restaurant living in a random house in a city where I know no one and my sublet is up in August. I'm barely making rent. I have no ties to anywhere.

So I have been on a quest to figure out where I go from here. I am either going to do Graphic Design, do a Masters in Visual Arts (so I can network in uni and possibly become a professor even) or try to get a job harder (not going to happen I feel) or just move and try to find a job somewhere else. Or go home. Or hitchhike around Canada til I starve to death?

If I do do a masters the application date for September is long gone so it'll be well over a year until I can start. If I do that what do I do? Go home and party? Stay here for a year? Ahhhh.

But, on a positive note, my lovely friend Sarahsmmm got a job for September! A real job. I am so excited and proud of her. She worked hard to get where she is, and I know she's been as horrified of this future stuff as I have. Also it gives me some hope for my own future haha.

In the meantime I am going to try and make light of every opportunity I can. I have purchased supplies (that I cannot afford) for the weekend. This includes:

My first sundress of the summer!!! Only $15.

And

A 15-pack of Alexander Keiths. As close to Newfie beer as I'm going to get here.

Tonight my roommate is having a BBQ here for his girlfriend. Armed with these things I am hoping to make some friends? Fingers crossed.

How rainclouds are made?

So I bought some neat gritty acrylic stuff today and I made this painting while playing with it.

 

As always, on sale at my Etsy shop. 

Also I've been watching Boy Meets World from the beginning. Does anyone remember that show? Did it shape anyone elses childhood the way it did mine? TGIFridays? Awesomeness.

Made something.

Soo I did paint something this week. I am posting it now but I'll be using it for this week's Paint Party Friday. Don't forget to check out what everyone else does tomorrow too!


So I painted this.

 

Which is, of course, on sale at my Etsy shop. So check that out.

It says "I paid $40,000 dollars for an education, and all I got was this crappy job". I have a few qualms with it. I feel like maybe I should've made her bigger for better use of the canvas. Her head is alllllll wrong, as is her face, and it looks way too cartoony for my liking. 

And most of all, the writing on her apron is hard to read. Which is the point of the piece. It's supposed to be very contrasted and clear to make a blunt statement like this one.

Anyways that is very how much how I feel right now. Like I can't get a real job, trapped with crappy jobs at the age of 24 with a degree. Sigh.

Anywho. I may redo this I dunno. But that's the only decently large canvas I had (16" x 18") so it won't be anytime soon.

I took a few photos of the process to share. 

First I used a pencil to roughly shape out how I wanted the waitress to be moving.

 Then I redrew her with pencil with correct anatomy and outlined the toughest parts in pen.

Then I made a full ink drawing of how I wanted her to look.

Then I drew it on canvas and painted it. And voila. Art.

Great mail! And how have you been?

I haven't made a blogpost in about a week. And it's not really because I've been busy. Moreso because I've been pretty bummed living in Ottawa, and really really homesick. And I stepped down on the patches yesterday, after four hard weeks of quitting, and after a hard week of moving, and that was about 1,000 times harder in itself.

But alas I am going to suck it up and make a blogpost! Because on Friday I recieved some great mail! I won a giveaway at Alanah's blog! She is sweet you should check it out. So I got the awesome hat she made and I love it. Look see!

Okay, so not the best photos in the world. Stupid cell phone. But. Super awesome hat! Check out her shop here and see all the lovely stuff she has for sale!

So, has anyone else had a rough week? Or had a great week? I wanna hear about it! How have you been?

Do you still color?

I recieved a letter from my good friend muffin Patrick today! Which excites me! I wrote letters to all my friends when I moved to Ontario. Some I was expecting letters from for sure and some I was crossing my fingers. And he pulled through! Yayyy pen pals are the best.

Patrick is a busy man but he always made time for coloring and coffee with me! Now he's had to replace me with Sarah, as she's blogged about. But Patrick and I are to the agreement that it's not cheating because we're in different area codes.

So Patrick sent me some pictures he colored. And I wanted to share in my excitement. Because mail is awesome. (Especially when my brother and his fiancee are jealous when I get mail and they get bills.)

Awesome? Hells yeah.

I voted today! Excitement. I am waiting for the election coverage to start. I am way too excited to see how it turns out. (How can anyone be pumped about the royal wedding when there are elections going on!?!)

Also posted that cigarette painting on Etsy today! Check it out. I think I might look into the company that printed my brothers wedding invitations and see how much they charge for prints, as then I wouldn't have to pay shipping. (They're in Ottawa). Then hopefully I'll make some Etsy sales.

So a couple questions. What art of mine would you like to see as prints?
And do you still color? : )

Blog award and another painting!

So the lovely Sarah gave me this award, which I much appreciate.

Which doesn't surprise me as she is one of my IRL BFFS. Hahaha. So now I have to share 7 random things about myself!

1) I have a Visual Arts degree from Memorial University, Grenfell campus. Which means I owe my life in loans and can't get a job. I don't think I'd trade the experience for anything in the world, but I am suffering now trying to do something with it. Art is my life but it's hard to make money off of that.

2) I don't drive. I for some reason never got my license despite my parents having a car, and eventually two cars. I was really excited to get it at first too! But my dad had a heart attack a week after my 16th birthday, and with all the hustle and bustle I never got around to even getting my permit. If I could go back in time I'd get my license for sure.

3) I wear skirts 90% of the time. I hate pants. They never fit me properly (always too small in the waist, too long in the legs and too big in the ass and thighs) and they always fall down even with a belt. Skirts never fall down! And are so airy and breezy. I wear them all winter too, with spandex and knee high winter boots.

4) I am terrified of bugs. Sooo terrified. To the extent that when I lived alone last summer for three months I was almost perpetually terrified. If I found a bug it would take me a half hour to work up the gumption to just throw at shoe at it to kill it, then I'd have to wait until someone else came over for them to pick up the carcass. I used to pick up the cats and put them in front of any bug walking around in hopes that they would kill it.

5) This is the longest I've been single in years. I've been single for somewhere between one and a half to two years now. And this is also the most comfortable I've been with being single ever.

6) My favorite color is coral, in combination with turquoise is the best. In St. John's I painted my room a coral color called fiesta and happily lived in it that way for a year and a half.

7) I've had 32 different roommates in my life (not including my parents and grandmother). And come Tuesday I'll have had 35. I've lived in 14 (soon to be 15) different places. And this is all since I graduated from high school 7 years ago.

So that's a bit of info about me!

I'll turn it back around to award some of my fav blogs.

Patrick from if you trip in public because he is awesome and needs more reasons to blog.
Jessi from sparrows and arrows.
Christine from Christine's blog.


And Three weeks quit smoking today!!! 
Never thought I'd see the day. 

Also I made an acrylic version of the "Will work for food" painting. Which turned out pretty good!

On sale at my Etsy shop! 
Anywho time to go work my last shift at the restaurant in Kemptville! Thank goodness.