thrifts & tranquility

weekends are so delightful. i went thrift store hopping today and fell in love with too many things. i love old things and collecting antiques. every time i hold an old treasure, it's as if i'm holding history, a past, a story. there was a black rotary phone, a sewing machine and a few old suitcases that i could one day see adorning my home. my obsession is like being a curator of my own little museum.

stars is a must for my weekend playlist. i don't know what i would do without their melodies.

happy weekend,

-Genevieve

being cool in the nineteenth century

this daguerreotype intrigues me. it is called Portrait of a blind man holding a cat (c. 1850) with an unknown photographer. naturally i think it's awesome because it's probably one of the first photographs with a cat, but there's something else about it. although only blind men wore 'shades' in photographs, in today's perception he looks 'cool'. but i guess it's the movement of the cat. it's an endearing image, while at the same time creepy. i think it's great. the cat is blurred because exposure times used to be super long and if anything moved, it wouldn't show up. the cat probably stood still for most of the exposure but then decided to move and now it looks like a ghost of a pet. i'm taking history of photography and i'm now obsessed now with daguerreotypes. it might have been one of the first photographic processes, but it remains as one of the best images that you can capture. if you were able to microscopically zoom in on this photograph, you would see an incredible zoom. i could keep going on how this works, but i'm going to refrain from getting too nerdy.

i'm going to go back to studying now. tomorrow's friday, get excited.

-Genevieve

and the dreams they never lie

“Remember today, for it is the beginning of always.

Today marks the start of a brave new future

filled with all your dreams can hold.

Think truly to the future and make those dreams come true.”

sometimes i forget to stop and smell the roses. it happens. you get so caught up in the everyday, and worry about the future and contemplate the past. and before you know it, today seems so simple, so ordinary. i think that most people, i know i do, tend to think that today is just another day. that today (unless it is a holiday or your birthday), just happens to be another day of routine. another day that you drag yourself out of bed and go to school or work and before you know it, it's gone and on to the next one. i see this in so many peoples faces, i see it in their eyes, i feel it in the way they walk by me one after another. the only thing that i can think of is smiling. i smile, because what else is there to do? maybe they'll remember to do the same. this is my secret hope. sometimes i think maybe they see me and wonder 'what she's so happy about?'. i guess if they asked (and if they even thought of this in the first place) i would answer. because today is special. today i have the opportunity to do something with my life. i could take advantage of it and make it a good day. or i could let it slip through my fingers and then wonder what happened to it. the days that are remembered in history, most of those days were probably not planned as the day something important is going to happen. they started out like the same old monday and now they are never forgotten. so, here's the question tumbling around my head: why not?

i hope tomorrow is special for you,

Genevieve

missed the boat

i have returned from the lost world of i'm-not-sure-why-i-didn't-blog-in-three-months.

not sure if you missed me, but i missed you.

while we're on the subject, could we change the subject now?
i was knocking on your ear's door, but you were always out
looking towards the future, we were begging for the past
well we know we had the good things but those never seemed to last
oh please just last
everyone's unhappy, everyone's ashamed
well we all just got caught looking at somebody else's page
well nothing ever went quite exactly as we planned
our ideas held no water but we used them like a dam

-Modest Mouse

as promised, here are pics of my ceramics. a bit late i realize but better late than never, right? lol we'll go with that.

soft slab construction

firm slab construction with sgraffito

thrown on wheel

thrown on wheel

thrown on wheel

and here are some songs that came on pandora that i fell in love with...

alias & tarsier - "dr. c"

neil halstead - "sometimes the wheels"

mint - "the winter of 1985"

i promise to be back soon. i have a test in the morning, so i should go back to studying seeing at is midnight in ten minutes lol oh the joys of college. hope you have a lovely week.

au revoir,

-Genevieve

staring at the blank page before you

oh my. this summer is flying by.

for the record, i didn't mean to rhyme. my apolgies for being so away. i thought i was going to have a more relaxed summer, but it's been a tad busy. this past week i finished my ceramics class and i'm starting beginning drawing and an accounting course. this week i'm going to pick up the last of my ceramics pieces. i shall take some pictures and post them. i'm going to miss the studio, but i'm so excited to start drawing again.

the more i immerse myself in artwork, the more i feel dazed by the possibility of doing it for the rest of my life. it's strange how in the end, you really have the choice of what you do each day. people make excuses that they need to work to pay the bills, that they have obligations. but it doesn't mean that you can't incorporate your passion within that. others say, most hobbies aren't necessities and that they are expensive at times. i think it's a matter of being resourceful. i've also had a big realization that i tend to save things for special occasions. like i won't wear that because it's only for special occasions or i'm not going to eat/drink that because i'm saving it for a special day. my biggest thing is that i save art supplies as if they are my treasures and i don't want them to disappear, so i save them. today is a special occasion. today is what we have. you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. celebrate the now and don't put off living. you have the choice to live and you have the choice of happiness. go out and grab it. no one can do it for you.

live you life with arms wide open,
today is where your book begins,
the rest is still unwritten.

i've been driving a lot this summer and one day deep in thought about life, this song came on. and everything sort of hit me. i'm trying to live each day inspired by this song.

release you inhibitions,

-Genevieve

histoire de l'art

my friend shared this with me. i think this might sum up what i learn in college. it's pretty great.

lost to the mists of time

sorry i've been absent from here, i've been very busy doing absolutely nothing. i miss not worrying about school, it's quite delightful. although i have added many more law & order episodes to my 'watched list', it's nice to be home.

turns out i did use different images for my paper. i turned it in last friday, and since i chose different images i just wanted to share them. my paper's main argument was that Berthe Morisot pushed the boundaries of female artists by incorporating landscapes into her work. i used the Corot and Monet as comparisons and i wrote about female restrictions in the nineteenth century.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Valley, 1855-1860

Berthe Morisot, The Artist’s Sister Edma with her Daughter Jeanne, 1872

Morisot, Hide-and-Seek, 1874

Claude Monet, Landscape: The Parc Monceau, 1876

Morisot, Laundresses Hanging Out the Wash, 1875

i've been recently addicted to this indie band au revoir simone, they have a way of capturing an ideal emotion in their music. enjoy

i'm starting my ceramics class next week, i can't wait. until then, i'll be unpacking and getting ready to start summer. be back soon,

-Genevieve

just breathe, just believe

if there is ever something that can either bring all your emotions into the present, it's taking a deep breath. maybe you think this is cliche, but try it. take a slow deep breath. take five deep, meaningful breaths.

sometimes we let our stress take over our emotions, take over our actions, take over our thoughts. i feel horrible when i let this happen. it's usually around the times of finals if i've barely slept and i'm not eating well. but last night before i went to sleep, i did some yoga breathing and although a bunch of emotions flood you at once (especially if you're overwhelmed with thoughts), it felt better. it felt like i was getting rid of my negative energy and going to enjoy my rest.

so if you're feeling stressed out or just tired. stop. take a breath or a few. and it can help you keep going.



i hope you have a wonderful rest of the week, and i hope things are less stressful on your end.

namaste,

-Genevieve

the joys of people knowing your interests

this completes me. i really have no other words to say. i am eternally grateful to the individual who came across this and sent it to me. and i would really like to meet the individual who made this. so i could give them a high five.

- Genevieve

the love of caffeine runs through my veins

"cheer up and dry your damp eyes and tell me when it rains

and i'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins

your nerves gather with the altitude...

exhale the stress so you don't come unglued

somewhere there is a happy affair, a ghost of a good mood"

it's getting there. i'm almost at the point where lack of sleep and too much caffeine and a never ending to-do list is finally kicking in.

but it's ok. why? because when you listen to lyrics so eloquent like Owl City, things don't seem so impossible. music, especially happy things, help me sit down, take a breath and mentally focus. reggae always puts me back into a calm that i can't formulate into words.

i have been looking at Morisot images like crazy and guess what i found. you'll never guess. ok, maybe you will. a painting with a cat lol you can't even imagine how much i wanted to write my paper on it. but sadly it's in a private collection. these are the moments that i wish i was part of a group of thieves like ocean's eleven so that i could get this dream of a painting.

Young girl with a cat, 1892

the colors are amazing. they are so vibrant, that i feel infused with youth and i feel invigorated.

anyway, i'm sitting around the fine arts building waiting for my central African art class to start. i shall come and put up some images of things that i've fallen in love with this semester, sometime this week. i never thought that i would enjoy that class so much. if i can fit it in, i definitely want to take another class in African arts or at least take non-western art with the same professor.

this time, i will resist with not putting any music. but i wanted to share something that i feel combines the best of both worlds. coffee and art. yep, i am the nerd that watches youtube latte art vids. and i am pretty much in love with this one artist in the video below. i plan on going to NYC to have one of his lattes lol enjoy

very addicted to caffeine,

-Genevieve