i have been doing a lot of thinking lately, and maybe it's just pure procrastination from school but i' feel like i've lost the start of term energy. it's halfway through and there's so many things to do that it feels like i don't have enough time. this feeling is strange because i know that things get done. somehow i get through them and before i know it, i've completely forgot about all the hurdles that i've jumped. in the end, it's the little things that make me smile. it's the little things that make me appreciate everything i have and everything i am working towards.
ultimately, happiness is a choice.
things could be going completely wrong, but nothing lasts forever.
Don't watch the clock, do what it does. Keep going. -Sam Levenson
sometimes that hardest question to answer is 'am i happy?' i guess the only way i can check is by asking 'am i doing what i love?' and then that seems to answer the question. and at the moment, i couldn't imagine doing anything else.
this woke me up in the library this morning:
the sun is shinning on my end and i hope it's shinning on yours, too.
i came across this website online and i'm beyond words. awesome doesn't begin to describe it. as an art history nerd, i'm very excited when i come across great quality images. especially since most of the physical art is not readily accessible to me as i'm learning it, it's wonderful when professors take the time to get great quality images. when doing research it's also exciting to be able to zoom in and try to see something 'up close', when you're not even really in front of it. after i saw this website, i truly hope that this is the future of images and that the study of art history will benefit from both the improvement of images and digital technology. both can lead to wonderful things in the world of research. anyway, enough about my nerdy musings. go check it out for yourself:
as promised, here are some of my favorites from the slides i memorized for my history of photography midterm. i was away this weekend because i went home. although, i have internet and i take my books with me, the best advice is: 'when at home, do as the cat does'.
Negre, 1851
Southworth & Hawes, 1852
Marey, c. 1890
Man Ray, 1824
Rodchenko, 1928
Rodchenko, 1933
i'm sort of in love with Rodchenko at the moment. i love his experimentation with angles. he photographed with a Leica and shied away from the 'belly button' way of holding a camera. he was pretty bad ass like that.
it's amazing the amount of energy and amusement that a double latte can have on me. although i am colombian, and i have a pretty intense tolerance for caffeine, if i go a few weeks without any espresso, it's like bam! energy. and then certain things just seem funnier than usual. if sleep deprivation is mixed in, well what some consider as mentally insane would begin to describe it. either way, i have 5 hours straight of lecture on tuesdays and i'm usually pretty mellowed out by the end of the day. after my last class i'm looking to take a nap, but today i grabbed a vanilla latte before my last double block and history of photography was pretty incredible. normally art history courses are in a super dim classroom so that we can see the slides on the projector. the windows have black curtains, it's a warm and cozy atmosphere because it's about 30 of us or so and if the professor has a soothing voice, it is very common for people to doze off. i think the professors are used to this by now, especially for afternoon classes after lunch.
however, today i was wide awake and taking pretty extensive notes. we whizzed by early 20th century photographers Rodchenko, Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, Atget, Steiglitz, Weston, Strand, Modotti and Ansel Adams. i can actually say that i didn't doze off once and that none of my notes have little jibberish lines. i will definitely post some images of these photographers in the coming posts, there was a lot that i love.
the following is a cover of The Smiths' "This Charming Man" by Stars. it's my current addiction. i love the original, as well, but i think that the cover is a great cover. sometimes covers don't do the song justice, but i think this one is awesome.
Be a coffee-drinking individual - espresso yourself!
this quote was too good not to share. maybe it's the coffee, but i find this incredibly hilarious. in a corny, older-person-trying-to-make-you-laugh kind of way.
ok, i'm going back to studying now. use this energy towards my exam coming up. hope you are having a good week,
i dedicate my sundays to yoga and studying. they are lovely lazy days that i try to be productive and get ready for the start of the week. i have a midterm this week in history of photography, so i'm working on memorizing slides and little bits of info of every image. i'm in love with the collaborative photographers Southworth & Hawes. their photographs are mostly studio portraits, but they dared to experiment with shadows and posing. they feel more than just a planned pose. many evoke a powerful emotion and you can't help but feel like you know the person. you feel the moment, you feel what they were capturing. the first image left the strongest impression on me because of its beauty and subject. in 19th century, it was popular to take post-mortem pictures, especially of babies and children. these are all daguerreotypes.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
stars is a must for my weekend playlist. i don't know what i would do without their melodies.
