The Makings of a Final

Hello All!

It’s finally the last week of school and everything is surprisingly coming together. Even with my busy weekends of dancing I’ve somehow managed to keep myself on track for a finals week with no all- nighters.

As you can probably tell, My weekend was a little crazy.

But I did manage to accomplish a few art- related things! For my final color theory project I wanted to mount my paintings on dark stained wood. So Tori and I made a morning out of it!

It was so beautiful and sunny!

The whole process only took a little over an hour but it made a world of difference! Also, Tori is so tan, she is almost the same color as our dark walnut stain!

Back to the finals grind!

-Jen

I Think I’m On to Something.

Happy Wednesday!

I apologize for my brief hiatus, it’s finals season here at Temple U. So there has been very little sleeping, eating, or blogging for this girl. But I found some spare time today because I wanted to share the progress I’m making on my Color Theory final! I’m actually surprisingly excited about it. Our assignment was very vague, create 2 paintings; one using a harmonious color scheme, the other being dissonant. Dissonant does not mean bad or ugly, just higher contrast or visual variance. These pieces are painted with this new product I just discovered which I am now OBSESSED with:

They’re Windsor Newton Drawing inks! The pack of 6 was very reasonably priced and totally worth every penny. I chose these because I wanted the fluidity and opacity of water color, but sometimes water color be a little too transparent and washed out. Also, my small palette of water colors would not satisfy my two foot painting. These are perfect because they are concentrated and highly pigmented for bold colors!

Here’s my recent work:

I’m sorry for the poor quality iphone pictures, I’ll take some nicer ones!

This is the dissonant color scheme.

 

And this guy is harmonious!

These fellas are far from finished but I think my all- nighter last night really paid off! Thankfully, tonight I have a relaxing night of home- cooking and hot – tubbing with my room mates!

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful spring day!

 

Jen

Alright Neighbors. This is War.

Happy Tuesday! (Well, technically, it’s now Wednesday.)

I’m getting so little sleep these days, they all just blend together. I’d like to say it’s because I’m working hard on finals but it’s really just a lot of thinking and cleaning… and my downstair neighbor’s bongos… all night.

I’ve mentioned my lovely neighbors before in this post:

Phlaryngitis?

It takes a lot of beauty sleep to look this good 😛

But it seems the fun does not stop here. My neighbor seems to think he is going to be the next John Mayer/ Macklemore/ Jack Johnson/ Beyonce. Therefore, he finds it necessary to practice all day every day. It is currently 1:12 AM and all I can hear are pounding bongos… REALLY?

The funniest part of this story is that he cornered my room mate tonight while she was taking her dog for a walk and told her that we walk too loudly. Also, that the massive pounding from our neanderthal feet is causing their light bulbs to burn out…

I may have exaggerated for dramatic affect.

I have decided to take matters into my own hands (actually feet) and walk around in my tap shoes at 3 in the morning the next time I pull an all nighter… maybe not the most mature way to handle things but a girl can dream right?

More than likely I’ll need the bongos to keep me up all night for all of these paintings! Updates on those to come!

Let’s Go Phils!

Happy Wednesday! 

It’s a gorgeous day in Philadelphia and of course I left all of my shorts at my parent’s house. So looks like it’s skirts all week for me! This beautiful weather is also becoming a serious problem, I can’t get myself to care about anything. All I want to do is lay in the grass and get sunburnt. But, life goes on and I still have classes and papers due tomorrow. But I thought I’d take a break from pretending to care about school today to blog about my first  Phillies game! 

I know, it’s pathetic that it took me 3 years of living in Philly to get to a game. 

But it was awesome! Not only did I get to spend the day with my friends BUT it was also dollar dog night! I ain’t mad at that. I know the Phillies won and that they played the mets, I have no idea what the score was though, I wasn’t really paying that much attention. There’s a lot to take in at the ball park! 

like the beautiful view! 

And truly great friends. 

By the time I got home, I was so exhausted I passed out and slept like a rock. Which I also think is contributing to my lack of cares today. I’m usually sleep deprived and wired on coffee. 

Well, back to the grind! 

Jen

Let’s Go Capitals!

Happy Monday!

If you’re anywhere in or around Pennsylvania wasn’t it a beautiful day?! I think I may have managed to get sun burnt (curse of red hair).

This was randomly written on my 6th coffee cup of the day. Thank you anonymous sharpie author.

This weekend was crazy packed! I feel like this blog is making my life appear exciting and glamorous but I promise you, you’re only hearing the cool stuff. Right now I’m doing laundry and writing lesson plans… but no one cares about that.

The big event of this weekend was the kick off game of the York Capitals Arena Football Team! (http://yorkcapitals.com/) which also means the debut of the Lady Capitals Dance Team!

I had such an amazing time with these ladies!

(Allie, Kortni, Me, Bre, & Sarah)

7 out of our 12 dancers were not able to make it to the first game because of a prior dance commitment (including Tori). So we had to hold down the fort with just the 5 of us! It was crazy tiring because we were constantly sprinting from one end of the arena to the other, taking pictures and signing autographs along the way (that sounds so pretentious but I swear it happened!) The stadium was packed with over 1500 fans! It was an overwhelming experience, and thankfully, the Capitals won (32-25). It was such an exciting game packed with touch down dances and fights. My lovely family and friends were there to support me and I couldn’t have been more thankful, my mom even bought a Lady Capitals calendar!

We were exhausted by the end.

But it was so worth the effort! We had so many kids approach us to tell us how well we did and to ask us for our autographs. It was a humbling experience to realize that this was exactly what I wanted to be doing when I was 6 and dreaming of being a dancer.

I can’t wait for the next game in 2 weeks!

Until then, it’s the art student’s life for me! Time to get back to work!

Jen

No Sleep Til You’re Dead.

Happy Thursday!

And happy it is! Thursday means the end of my school week, thank goodness! I have no idea how I’m even functioning right now. I’m  literally running on caffeine and inertia at that point.

Yesterday we had senior studio jurying! (ugh) so glad it’s over, but here’s my display:

I feel pretty good about it.

It’s out of my hands now.

On top of hanging and labeling my display at 8 AM after 2 hours of sleep I also had to make 2 batches of clay, do a fashion photo shoot for my photographer room mate, and we had a dance performance last night! Then I had to go home study for my exam today and write an 11 page lesson plan… BUT IT’S ALL OVER NOW.

I have a video to our dance performance on my facebook wall, it went really well!

Maybe I’ll actually get to sleep this weekend… probably not.

Have a creative  day!

Jen

 

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Hello all!

Yes, slowly but surely, spring is beginning to shine through in Philadelphia. And spirits are subsequently brightening.

I wish I could say I had a lovely Easter, but my weekend was packed with a photo shoot, canvas priming, of course food, and maybe even a little love. You know what they say about Spring after all.

I’m making surprising progress on my most recent endeavor! I’m beginning to actually come through on some of my crazy schemes. Most of the time my brain pattern goes something like this.

THOUGHTS:

“I’m so fat… I should be skinnier… I should totally start running more… I know! I’ll get up at 6 AM every morning and run 3 miles and only eat salads! I’m gonna be one skinny minnie by June.”

REALITY:

(June rolls around)… “I feel so fat… I should’ve been exercising all year… cake.”

So the fact that this extra- curricular painting is even in existence in the middle of the semester is nothing short of a miracle (Maybe I’m in the Easter spirit?)

I’ll try and post pictures of my progress tonight , but to be honest with you, I’m looking at a couple of all nighters ahead of me.

But I do have some fun pictures from the photoshoot!

Me and my best best best friend Tori!

(clearly, our photoshoot did not take place in a disgusting locker room)

She also has a pretty cool blog, you can find it here:

yourgirlyguide.wordpress.com

Here’s a really horrendous cell phone picture of the team!

AND! I finally got to meet baby Layla!

I don’t think she hates her red- headed step- aunt 🙂

Like my fake eyelashes?!

Alright well, back to the grind! I’ll see you all on the other side, hopefully with a new painting!

Jen