when i was cleaning out my studio on friday i realized i've taken pretty regularly photos of it since the beginning. so, here's a timeline!

1. on the first day, when we were given our studio spaces. i loved that yellow chair. i wish i'd stolen it.

2. somewhere near the beginning, proud of a new outfit from beacon's closet.

3. working on my birdcages

4. a lot of people wished i had re-installed the birdcages like this for the show, but they drove me too crazy- there wasn't enough for the effect i wanted, and i liked them all together on the floor.

5. here is is at its hey-day... siiiiigh. look how well-used and lovely it is...

6. after my grandparents came to visit a few weeks ago. they brought me christmas lights to decorate it with!

7. looking bare without all the wall art and furniture. :( last week while in preparation for our show.

8. all set up for the show.

9. in the midst of cleaning up on friday. tear. :'(

10. and finally, back to tip-top shape for the next NYSP-er!

well, my semester in new york is officially drawing to a close. i already cleaned out my studio completely, and now i've cleaned out my bedroom! it's sad, i'm going to miss this bedroom. and the M train. and bushwick. and new york. and all my new friends. and the jay street bar. and al and john from the studio. and my gorgeous well-lit studio. and all the fun we had in the studio. and PS1, my favorite new york museum. and all the good food. and hanging out with jordan on lazy nights. and getting free food from atlas. and the chelsea galleries. and central park. and DUMBO. and the guys at bridge fresh. i really could go on and on, and i better stop or else i'm going to tear up...

to rewind, thursday was our show. thanks to all who made it out! it was a wonderful time, a huge whirlwind. a good friend from home and my dad were able to make the trek up from wisconsin, so that was wonderful. i can't even really describe the show- it was a blur. it was a huge honor to have william powhida come out, and nice to talk to him again. i was also so flattered by the kind comments and praise i got on my work- and i'm looking forward to future opportunities! i didn't really take many pictures- but here's a few that other people took, as well as a few crappy cellphone pics by moi.

a photo of jasmine valentina's video installation (photo by hannah doerkson)

jordan checking out hannah's work (doerkson photo)

a photo of the big room with all the big paintings (hannah doerkson photo)

morgan ritter and i standing in front of centa peterson's painting (photo by hannah doerkson)

hannah looking overwhelmed haha

william powhida talking to our TA, meghann snow

like i said, you can see my work here.

we had our final critique today. i wasn't really told anything that surprised me.

i don't want it to end :(

a few nights ago me and some of the other kids took some random photos on photobooth messing around and jumping. our director, john, compiled them in to a little stop motion animation. i'm totally going to cherish these memories! thank you, john.

Originally uploaded by thefacelesskid

it's been a long time since i've really posted. now i've only got two weeks yet and once again, i feel myself dragging my heels into the next bout of change. this semester has been... really indescribable.
the chance to be able to experiment wholeheartedly with my work has been a huge gift. the chance to "fail flamboyantly", as dominique nahas told us at the beginning of the semester. i've gotten to know my work so much better, as well as be able to trust the decisions i make. i don't feel like i need to question the things i'm doing as often, at least, not in a negative way. i feel more confident, brave, calm, and happier. i am so grateful for the new amazing friends i've made, for my newfound ability to navigate the new york subways, and the incredible opportunities i've had. i'm thankful for all the support my family has given me even though times are tough, for the friends and family who have visited (and will still be visiting!), and the professors from corcoran who helped me to get here, and the amazing faculty at the new york studio program. i'm appreciative of the more difficult parts of this experience, and how they helped me grow.

i already know i'm going to miss living in new york. i'm already starting to think about moving back, which does seem to be a trend with some nysp students. despite how bittersweet it feels for the semester to be ending, i'm still really excited for upcoming opportunities.

like i said, things are bittersweet, but still really, really good.

my friend took a few photos of my room, i wanted to share them. they seem to fit how i'm feeling lately.

We Off Her Clothes Sure

i am proud to announce the date and times of the NYSP show:

one night only!

thursday, december 17th, 2009

opening reception 4 - 9pm

20 jay st.

suite m10

dumbo-brooklyn, ny

11201

1st stop in brooklyn

F train at york st station or A/C to high st station

hope to see you there!

(link to the facebook page)

New York

"two women blowing kisses to each other.

i got in the way on purpose."

-Morgan Ritter (another girl in NYSP with me)

Seperation With Duct Tape

Seperation With Duct Tape
Originally uploaded by comesempre

i decided to redo the "red hair twins" drawings with a greenish-gray wash background to give them some more depth. i also added a few more to the narrative. view them here.

last night we went to some chelsea gallery openings.

we didn't really see anything that show stopping.

these mircea suciu paintings were kind of interesting.

a dan flavin, meh.

i also met a few local artists at the bar down the street, it was really interesting talking to them. they had some really interesting views on whether or not it was worth it to go to grad school, etc. the picture below shows one of the artist's work. it has walkie talkies attached to it that were picking up police scanners and such.

Originally uploaded by comesempre

"outside" bird cage experiment in DUMBO.

(it's hung a little bit higher then i'd like, but oh well, it's just a trial run.)

Originally uploaded by comesempre

close up of "outside" birdcage

dumbo's a pretty fun area. right next door is this great doggy day care place. i bet my dog, buddy, would have a ball there. i went inside to drop off my resume and they have open windows over looking little dog play areas, and all the dogs stood up and peeked their heads out to see if the owners were there! i hope i get a call back, it would be so much fun to work there! these two dogs were saying hi through the glass while we stood outside taking a break.

later, working in the evening in the studios we were surprised to hear the sound of a marching band coming down the street- drums, winds, everything.

apparently they're a group of people who got together and practice every tuesday or every other tuesday, and they march down the street sometimes! here's a crappy photo of everybody looking out their window to see what's going on.

fun!

fabulous

today i went to the whitney. i didn't take too many pictures because there wasn't too much that stuck my fancy. we were sent there to check out the dan graham and conceptual photo exhibits. they gave me some food for thought and it was interesting to see an overview of my last semester in contemporary art in person (de kooning, jasper john, jackson pollock, jeff koon, rauschenberg, and kline).

anyways, i liked this picture of the industrial size elevator i took on my camera phone.

sparkly heels on madison ave

in dumbo, you can always expect to see a photographer (or a set of photographers) taking engagement photos, glamour shots, music videos, etc. here a bride and groom are taking some goofy photos together outside our studio space.

and on the way back from the whitney, me and jordan found a bouquet of flowers in the trash! i can't imagine why somebody would put a bouquet in the garbage, but it made my day!

i love cheeseburgers

tonight was a pretty good night. my good friend melissa and i were craving hamburgers so we went searching for a place that handed an amazing hamburger to her through a taxi cab window off of the 2nd ave stop on the F in manhattan. when we got there a man wearing a very flamboyant shirt was standing outside, and he said, "there's really good burgers at this place." "was this where you went?" i asked melissa. turned out it was. it's called the national underground, which is supposedly owned by gavin degraw? it was totally empty while we were there and they gave us our own roll of paper towels. they kept talking up the burgers, and we were like, you know you're leaving us with high expectations. "that's fine!" they said.

(i liked the velvety wall paper at the bar)

they ended up being right about the burgers.

it came out open faced, with a cross hatch design in ketch up and maybe mustard? or some kind of secret sauce. i got all the normal burger toppings, and it came with three (sliced) grilled american potatoes and some grilled onions. just the right amount of sides, instead of the too many fries like most burger places do. seriously, this burger was pretty phenomenal. i definitely recommend this place to anybody looking for a good burger in NY. it's not too expensive, either (and apparently only 5$ if you get there before 5?).

after that i left melissa and went to pick something up at the studios. i ended up running into my friends jordan, hannah, and brian and we went gallery hopping. we ended up going to a place called the powerhouse arena in dumbo, which doubled as a book store and gallery space. it was a pretty cool venue, seemed like it was built in an old warehouse but i could be wrong. there was a band playing but i'm not sure what they were called.

there were two photographer's work being featured. one was a person who took pictures of muslim punks, and the other one was a guy called trevor traynor who took photos of hip hop artists. it was a show called "i shoot people."

it was pretty interesting. the way traynor's stuff was installed kind of reminded me of the way shawn moriarty hung up his photography from india.

i bought this cool print from there, too. from a company called austin press.

if you can't see it it's a print of a man and a woman with the words "man's strength and women's beauty - the prefect physical form." i don't know, i just liked it and it wasn't very expensive.

we stopped by another place, too. it was a high end furniture store doubling as a gallery, and they were doing something to benefit something- i forget. and i forget the name of the place. oops! they were giving out free flavored waters though, and amaaaazing cupcakes. they were provided by a place called Bcake, apparently.

yum!!

after that we walked around chelsea trying to go to more gallery openings but it seemed like all of them closed already or were closing soon after. we walked around a little bit then went over to jordan and melissa's house, where i had some more really tasty vegan sausage. all in all i would say this was a pretty successful day, especially foodwise.

Huge Photo Dump Of The First Day

today we had our first day of orientation at the new york studio program. yet again, i got totally lost. google map's directions were totally wrong, so even though i left two hours early i got to orientation with minutes to spare, with sweat dripping down my back, even after jumping in a cab and basically running four or five blocks. i'm really hoping i can find somewhere closer soon.

we met the director and the studio manager, both of whom are really nice and down to earth. they told us a few stories about past groups who did the same thing we are, warned us about an apparent bedbug problem NYC's having, talked about our schedules, and gave us a tour. we were given books to read as well, and a set of keys. we even got free swiss army knives with the NYSP's address on them. pretty sweet. there's even a full kitchen that apparently was picked up and moved from the old tribeca studios! i'm excited to meet the faculty, too.

now, without further ado, here is my lovely, bright, big, and untouched (by me) studio space.

this is my lovely yellow chair that i commandeered for my very own.

this is the view from my studio. there's some interesting abstract street art across the way.

can you see the baby dolls hanging from the telephone wire in the above picture? i blew it up so you can see.

the neighborhood is sweet. there's a lot of interesting little shops and restaurants, and it's right near the water. we can see the brooklyn bridge from our studios, which is loud but picturesque. under the bridge is a really pretty little park, too. and right next door to us is a doggy daycare place, which is extra fun because then we get to see the dog walkers get pulled along by the dogs.

see?

the left one is our building.

the other direction... the right one's our building. you can see the bridge, too.

after orientation a few of us went and walked around, and we ended up going to this great bar down the street. i'd seen it the last time i was here, but this is the first time i was inside. it's really neighborly and i loved how they opened up all the windows. everyone was really quiet during orientation, so it was really nice to get to know those who came better. everyone slowly opened up and started joking around and telling stories about where we're from.

and there was this adorable little dog hanging inside the bar. she was pretty shy though, she wouldn't let us pet her.

this is jasmine telling everybody how she got into a catfight recently (she's the girl on the right with her back to us).

the little dog hanging out.

the prerequisite first day of school picture for mom and dad. sorry, mom and dad, i forgot to flip my nose ring up. but it still counts.

and the lovely baby dolls viewed from the outside.

getting to finally see my new studio space and meet the people i'm going to be working with over the next few months only filled me with even more motivation and excitement. i'm starting to brainstorm ideas so i've got to go buy art supplies tomorrow. i can't wait to see what i can do with all the time and space i'm being given!