Movin' On Up

I'm officially a college graduate!  Two weeks of freedom before I start my internship in the art department at Kohl's.  I'll be in the kid's department and I can't wait!  Here are some pictures from behind the scenes, including Marisa and mine's bright tights and my awesome cake featuring a taste of my thesis work (har har, see what I did there?).

 (Sorry, I couldn't find a source for the kitty cat picture, I've had it saved on my desktop for ages waiting for today!)

It's Official

With the help of some of irreplaceable friends (the saint-like Liz Nugent and the splendid Marisa Seguin) my website is now up and running!  There are still some more pieces I need to add, but right now I'm sewing up a storm and making some super adorable cup cozies--more on that later!

In other news, Gallery Night at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design was last night and it was a blast.  I met some great people and got excellent reactions to my work.  There was a mini-crisis when the drywall my shelves were mounted to began to fall apart, but a young usher man saved the day by running into the 3-D lab and grabbing a screwdriver so I could quick make some new holes and reattach my shelf.  I wish the night would have lasted longer, I love when people start reading my work and grin at a joke or hold their kids up so they can appreciate it closer.

Ben Kweller & Pete Yorn

On Friday my Canadian Marisa and I bussed over to the Pabst theater to see two boys that I have wanted to see in concert ever since I was fourteen--Ben Kweller and Pete Yorn.  Poor Ben was incredibly sick, but he still came up on stage in his parka and played six songs or so, all which sounded great.  He was flanked by two barf buckets, and I kind of wish he'd used them.  It would have been enough to make me buy the recording afterward. 

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Seeing Pete was like a dream come true for me. I've been a fan of his music ever since his first album, musicforthemorningafter came out in 2001.  Along with the two albums that followed to make up his little musical "triology", I listened to Pete all while reading the kick ass Abarat series by Clive Barker, and during the concert the vivid images from those books kept flashing through my mind.  He played (almost) all of my old favorites.  It was an ah-mazing night.  Even the part where I fell in a snowbank while trying to brush the snow off my car.

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Sven and Sylvia Sketches

Here are a couple more sketches from my senior thesis. First up is Sylvia the snake (who also happens to sport a lovely beard). Drawing just her tattoos alone took me well over an hour, and there are some special things hidden in there if you look close enough. Below Syl is Sven the flamingo sword swallower, complete with a cocktail sword and shrimp.

I also helped with the Friday Favorites over on my friend Marisa's super-duper blog Good Good, so go and take a look!

Mallory and Ivan Sketches

My senior thesis is a series of pieces featuring animals as carnival sideshow acts. (I like animals, I like hand-lettering, and I like weird stuff.) I just finished tight sketches for all ten pieces, including detailing where every tattoo goes on Sylvia the tattooed (and bearded) snake, so I thought I'd share a couple. Also--my assigned space for the big show is right in the entrance hallway to our school... so now I have to be even more kick-butt than usual. ;)

(credit for Mal's catchphrase totally goes to Marister)

String Bean

Here's part of my entry for Design*Sponge's alphabet contest.

And I had to try it in pink, too, just for kicks.

Check out the holiday cards my friend Marisa made out of her entry, too!

The Ambition of Crazies

...Or maybe just crazy ambition (that's me trying to look on the bright side of things). Coming up next week on Saturday, November 13th, from 10-5pm (*cough*plug*cough*) MIAD is having a student and alum art sale, and my friends and I all wished we could have participated, but what with homework and work-work... and then a certain teacher convinced us it was a good idea. So here we are, approaching one in the morning and printing cards up the bum. I tweaked my Terrestrial Critters to adapt them into Christmas cards- I'll show you those later when it's not November. I also adapted a little guy from my Penfield Croquet Poster that, if I may say so myself, was pretty clever... again, you'll have to wait until after Thanksgiving.

Stressed!

Stressed x3!

Oh, how I wish I didn't have to work at 7:30 tomorrow morning. This is going to be a long couple of days...

Costume Collections

On Halloween this year a little boy, probably three or four years old, came to our door trick-or-treating dressed as Woody from Toy Story. As he held out his bag, we asked him "What are the magic words?" expecting a "trick-or-treat!" in return, but he stood there for a moment, clearly thinking 'Well I know it's not 'thank you'... maybe it's 'please'...' and then he finally squeaked out "French... fry?"

I didn't get a chance to dress up this year, but here are some of the things my awesome friends did.

Joey and Mark made me squeal with glee- they're Harry and Draco! They're dressing up for the premiere on November 19th, too. I can't wait!

Jaclyn was Keyboard Cat... geeky costumes are the best, are they not?

Chelsey, Kyle, Marisa, and Jamie all participated in the Waukesha Zombie Walk. They all looked so great, if there is another walk next year I'm definitely taking off work!

(HP pic via Mary Cate Raynor. Zombie pics by Cory Albrechtson. I can't find where I got Jaclyn's pic from, but it's not mine!)

Drunk and Drew

On Friday I attended my first (and hopefully not last) Drink & Draw event in Milwaukee with some friends from school. If you're wondering what exactly a Drink & Draw event is... well, it's pretty much what it sounds like. We sit around and draw according to a few chosen themes and then hang them on a wall, all while consuming alcohol. September's themes were Old School, Fall, and what I'm pretty sure was everyone's favorite: Underwear!

Um, of course I drew a cat.

Pants party! Bonus points if you can identify all the topless ladies.

You can see all the drawings from that night in Milwaukee's Drink & Draw Facebook Album. :)

Steampunkerella

If I thought I had a lot of photos to post last week... I was sadly mistaken. Chris and Jamie (or Chris [backwards ampersand] Jaime, if you're Best Western) got married on Saturday! I have a bazillion pictures of them... as well as a bazillion pictures of barns and clouds and birds and stuff, because Marisa hijacked my camera. Here are some from a week or two ago, when we headed off to a "Victorian Steampunk Ball" at Club Hyde in Milwaukee.

I absolutely love Chelsey's hair with those goggles.

Marisa and me, with her earlier "Do I look too much like a pirate?" costume.

Dirty Liz. :)

A small taste of the awesomeness that was there- mechanical wings. (Photo from here.)

The club itself was very neat with lots of wood and leather furnishings, as well as a neat birch tree set up behind one of the bars- perfect for a steampunk ball. Not quite as perfect for the Lady Gaga event they were hosting there a couple days later... (Photo from here.)

Dress Shopping/Bus Waiting

After an entire day of searching for a wedding dress for Marisa (not a wedding dress wedding dress, just something she can wear to the wedding) we got bored waiting for the bus to take Marisa back to Milwaukee. She ended up finding a cute dress the next day.
(Oh, and so far it's 3 votes for the flowered dress and 1 for polka dots.)

Quotes

In the back of each of my sketchbooks I always save a page or two for the silly things the people in my life say. I was doodling out a poster that I'd just dreamed about, "Giving Brings Us Together" (for a poster designing contest held by Winona State during their welcoming events... other contestants were painting around print outs of Helly Kitty with white out... there were also two little boys (Aidan and Cameron) who were flirting with me/buying me a salad after I realized what I was eating was a fish that still had bones and eyeballs/bringing me a Barbie things to play with!) ...Anyway, I was doodling and glanced to the back of my sketchbook and cracked up remembering how bizarre we can be at times, so I thought I'd start a collection of them here.

(Haha, it kind of looks like I'm naked in this picture... I promise I'm clothed!)

"I've ridden that horse and it left a bad taste in my mouth." -Chelsey

Liz: Elvis apparently pooped while on stage.
Chelsey: Is that why he wiggled so much?

(while discussing web hosts)
"I leech off CJ's ridiculous package." - Liz

(after sighting some ladder golf balls stuck high on a tree branch)
"Check out the balls on that tree!" -Mom

"Is this pie chart a circle?" - Marisa

Marisa: Maybe we won't get Alzheimer's when we're old because we do crossword puzzles...
Me: (doing a puzzle) What? A precipitate whose second letter is A??
Marisa: ...rain.

Marisa Post

I feel like Marisa posting pictures of flowers, but whatever, these guys are tiny and cute and cool. They're in the pot that sits by the corner of the shed and I'm afraid I'm going to knock them over every time I pull in with my car. Each cluster of flowers is like a tiny half-rainbow!

Bus Driver Offerings

Because some teachers are cruel, they assign things like "illustrate an embarrassing moment you've had while going to MIAD" and then I end up drawing things like this... because I am a pervert. Chelsey had forgotten her bus pass so I was merely making the suggestion that she offer the bus driver something else in exchange for his services, however I managed to do so while a big tour of potential MIAD students was being led right past us in the illustration studios. My bad, heh?

These were my two options for how to illustrate that equivalent of shouting "blowjob!"- popular vote elected the second.

Before, when the lines were all brown and stuff.

Finished version. Some things I want to change, but overall I'm happy with it. I changed my embarrassing moment late in the game so that coupled with Easter caused me to rush a little bit at the end, but for something that was primarily done in one night, I like it.

Last Pee-Wee, I Promise

As per Marisa, here is the Finished version of Mr. Herman, with the line work tweaked.

Sharing the Love

And bragging a little bit, too. Here are the flowers via the lovely Benjamin (the pink vase is so cute and I love how the stems look in it) and perhaps the most bad ass Valentine I have ever received from my bud Marisa, featuring Michael C. Hall in all his serial killing splendor.

The rest of the Valentine's Marisa made are here, at her blog.

Catherine Campbell

If Marisa doesn't like this stuff, then I deserve to have my eyes scooped out of their sockets with a melon baller. All from the kick ass Catherine Campbell. More here.

House on the Rock

The womens' bathroom was so neat we had to investigate the guys'.

*via Marisa.