The past weekish

Last weekend, David came to visit and I took him to see the farce, Noises Off.  It's a play within a play and that play inside of it is called Nothing On.  Confusing?  Yes, but it was hilarious and I am and always have been such a fan of the acting/music theatre department here.  I couldn't even begin to describe it if I wanted to.  Anyone I tried describing the play to just looked pained afterwards.  So, a youtube video will do more than suffice in this blog.  The guy on the video does a good job explaining it:

So, this week has been very, very  busy.  Ceramics is coming to a close and we have until tomorrow to get everything onto the shelves to be fired.  This means that nothing can be wet, everything has to be trimmed and we definitely cannot throw anything on the wheel tomorrow.  Frantically, I've been trying to bring everything to a finished and clean state but, honestly, it's taken its toll on me.  I haven't been getting enough sleep and there are nice bags, the size of carry-on-luggage pieces, underneath my eyes.  See, I've spent at least 5 hours every evening/night in the ceramics room and then all the hours in between and left over on any other homework I couldn't bear to leave unfinished.  This is a drawing project I completed mere hours before class (while Seinfeld serenaded me in the background):

Yet another example of how scary I came make myself look.

On Wednesday, my week was made a little bearable when the department chair and LM Wood with camera in hand came waltzing into the ceramics room.  Everyone in the class was on a wheel and it was really noisy between us and the blasting radio.  Then, Mike told everyone to turn off their wheels because the department chair, Shawn, had an announcement.  A second later Shawn said, "Is there a Monica Huang in the room?"  The rest is history.  He asked me to come up and accept a scholarship for rising seniors in the art major and then took my picture multiple times.  I was flabbergasted because I had not applied to anything that even remotely resembled a scholarship.  Apparently this particular scholarship was new this year and because they didn't give students a chance to apply, the faculty members had a meeting to choose candidates and winners.  My friend Jim, who is also doing a ceramics concentration, got a scholarship too!  In Mike's words, two "claydogs" had been recognized.

money money money money

I promise

update to come.

soon!

Chocolate Calculator

My Ceramics professor/thesis mentor sent me this cool thing that tells you how old you are.  Take a look:

>>   Don't tell  me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood  anyway   -but 
>> the  Hershey Man will  know!  YOUR AGE  BY CHOCOLATE MATH 
>> 
>> 
>> This is pretty neat. 
>> 
>> DON'T CHEAT  BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST! 
>> It takes less than a minute . 
>> Work  this out as you read . 
>> Be sure you don't read the bottom until  you've worked it out! 
>> This is not one of those waste of time  things, it's fun. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 1. First of all, pick the number of  times a week that you would like to have 
>> chocolate (more than once  but less than 10) 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 2. Multiply this number by 2  (just to be bold) 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 3. Add  5 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you  get the calculator 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 5. If you have already  had your birthday this year add 1759 .. 
>> If you haven't, add  1758. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 6. Now subtract the four digit year  that you were born. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 7. You should have a  three digit number 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 8.  The first digit of this  was your original number 
>>      (i.e., how many times you want to have  chocolate each week). 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The next two numbers  are  YOUR  AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!) 
>> 
>> THIS  IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE 
>> IT LASTS.   Chocolate  Calculator 

I <3 free stuff!

Today my Professor gave me a very used, but lovely, easel from the drawing studio.  

"We gift you this easel!" said Anne and I think I might have blushed.  The thing looked huge.  "But it's your job to get it out of here."

"Thank you, thank you!  This is amazing.  Do I need to get it out by a certain time?" I said.

"You have a week."  And the thing began to look even huger.

So, I drive a mazda miata and have no friends with big cars or trucks.  This afternoon I rolled it out of the art building and looked up at the sky.  It was dark and menacing.  The wheels were rickety and I realized I wouldn't be able to roll it the entire way back to the apartment.  I folded it up and, flattened, it was about the length of a sudan but not the weight of one, luckily.  On the walk home, I swear I could feel my gymnastic calluses growing back in.  And then it began to rain.

Thankfully, I wasn't far away from the building.  I got in somehow and, too large to fit in the elevator, I had to carry it up three flights of stairs.  The stairs were the easy part.  The doors were the things giving me trouble.  I couldn't actually hold any door open for myself because the easel was too far in front of me.  Needless to say, friendly neighbors assisted me when they saw how I was struggling.  It was an embarrassing sight.  

Now it's sitting in the living room and hopefully not to the great dislike of my roommates.  I'd like to keep it here, but if there isn't a good place, I don't know what I'll do.  In the meantime, I have a place to rest my art:

Close up of the art using the easel:

The exercise was to use warm and cool colors to bring forward and push backward forms.

Procrastination - drapery

I got this Drawing II assignment last Tuesday and have been avoiding it ever since.  This includes today, the day before its due date.  During these past seven days I simply have not been inspired to draw clothing (who ever has been?).  I'm okay with, and maybe even enjoy, drawing clothing folds and ruffles when they are being worn by people.  I don't, however, get a kick out of drawing heaps of blankets or curtains or dresses pinned up on walls.  Because of all this, even though I had set aside a good four or five hour chunk for the project this afternoon/evening, when Stephanie called asking if I wanted to get Japanese I quickly said "hai!" and offered to drive. 

Little known fact: I don't actually like Japanese food.

After about an hour or two picking at Miso soup and a plate of rolls (seaweed wrapping tampura, apples and salmon) we decided to get tissues, makeup, toothpaste and floss from Target.  At checkout, DVDs were being advertised for $4.75 and I picked up Milo and Otis. When we got home we watched Milo and Otis and wondered how difficult it must have been for the makers to make the movie.  Did they film these animals endlessly until their movements coincided with the narrative?

Anyway, this went on until about 11:00 pm, at which point I panicked and began my homework.  This is the result, which I am happy about given the amount of time I did it in (I just hope my professor won't be able to tell that it was a last minute thing.  I mean, it's not great, but it's not terrible either):

This is a dress, that I ordered from the delias catalogue online, pinned to our living room wall.

That's it for now.  I think I'm starting to feel the effects of that raw salmon...

Jugtown

They smelled awful, but had great balance.

This past Saturday, my Ceramics class took a field trip to the NC Zoo and toured pottery shops in Seagrove.  Yep, I said field trip!  It was outstanding and the weather was perfect (a breezy 79 degrees F, baby!).  I think we might have spent more time at the zoo (which is HUMONGOUS) than we did in Seagrove.  But I'm not complaining because there's nothing better than free zoo passes, free lunch at Jugtown Cafe (thanks to your generous professor) and getting to meet this guy, (who happens to be world-renowned), without actually knowing you've met him.  On to the pictures:

Cutest thing ever.  I wish every animal came adorned with a baby.

NOT A TOY...(very alive AND poisonous)

Tiffany becomes friends with a sea lion.

These pictures wouldn't be complete without one of a giraffe.

******************************

Intermission, in which I ate a sandwich called "The Monte Cristo" (Ham, turkey and swiss cheese on sourdough bread dipped in egg, sprinkled, without warning, with powered sugar).  Yummmmm

*******************************

Mike talks about outdoor kilns.

We're intrigued.

This teapot is the size of a car, a big car.

Ceramics from an auction.

A friend of Mike.  He is not only a potter, but a professional student, going to school, currently, for some kind of rare algebra.

Mugs. Mugs. Mugs.

Seagrove scenery (taken from inside the van without paying attention and falling asleep shortly after)

Foolishly I brought money along thinking that I would be able to afford some pottery.  That giant teapot went for $2200 and most things were at least $75-100.  Not in my budget.  It was funny, though, because everything that I could afford ($5-$35) was stuff that I didn't want to buy.  I remember saying, "I can make that now."  How exciting!

Third eye

Tomorrow we're testing kids on Piagetian stages of development.  If you had a third eye, where would you put it and why?

Bo Obama

My late puppy, who was a cousin of Ted Kennedy's dog, Splash, is related to the Obamas' Portuguese Water dog, which is pretty neat.

We got our Portuguese, Fangio, from the same kennel.  This is their website.  By clicking on the "Our Family" link, you can see a picture of Twinkles, Fangio's mommy.

Finally Frida and Unibrow Close-up

She's done, even though the hands seem a little big to me sometimes.

Heads will roll

Felices Pascuas

from here

I just went to a mass completely in Spanish...and I understood ALL of it!  I am thrilled and ecstatic and now going to David's for good food and dinner conversation.

Love,

Monica

Antlers

I want this bike!

Tonight, Stephanie and I stopped at Harris Teeter to pick up some dessert.  It was rainy and kinda cold, so I guess we parked pretty quickly and without thinking.  I say this because when we came outside we saw that we had accidentally parked in a handicap spot!  We laughed so hard and sped out worried that someone had seen our little mistake.

For: Stephanie

From here

For: Unichole, erm, I mean Nichole

From here

For: Jenna

Hope you're still reading. 'Cause this one's for you:

Amish horses

Scanwiches

You gotta try this for lunch!

Yesterday

It was nice.  David came to visit and took me to dinner shortly after I got out of class.  After picking The Aviator up from the library (we both love Leo), we went to dinner at Dan Thai.  It's the only restaurant fancy and expensive enough to meet our frivolous ways of spending.  

I've never ever gotten anything besides the Green Curry at this place because I am convinced that it's the best.  However, on the specials menu, there was a dish called "Soft-shelled crab in yellow curry sauce", which sounded delish.  So, I got that and David got, well, the Green Curry.  And he didn't even do it incase I didn't like my dish (he's allergic to shellfish).  It was so that I wouldn't get Green Curry for the eleven-hundredth time.  I'm one of those people who thinks it's weird when people order the same things at restaurants.

David with green curry

Soft-shell crab in yellow curry sauce (it tasted better than it looked)

But I'm still going back to Green Curry.  After our fried bananas and vanilla ice creams, we went to Nature's Emporium to pick up new filters for the fish tank.  This scared the living daylights out of me:

Giant beanie-baby spider that looked real for a sec

We also visited the koi pond.

They were seriously the length of a human arm.

These are my fish as of today with new tree-trunk and purple plant accessories.  They are snacking.

Koi babies from Monica Huang on Vimeo.

Kids with Cameras brings you...

...
IN A DREAM: Theatrical Trailer from Herzliya Films on Vimeo.

The Born into Brothels team executive produced this movie.  I'm spreading the word.  I don't know if any of you guys remember, but Ross Kauffman came to Elon our freshman year.  Anyway, I think this movie seems interesting and full of tiles!

Schmaltziness

Frida update

Progress so far:

close up

The eyes are bothering me...something about them.

I've always loved colored pencils

Colored pencils are a classic.  Everyone should have colored pencils available to them.  I have multiple sets and they are never more than a few feet away from me.  I've used them for doodles like this:

Co-authored while watching the summer Olympics with David, who drew the monkey

And for more time consuming doodles like this:

Done for an art project in high school.  We had to visualize song lyrics.  Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

But, I never ever ever imagined that they could be used to do this:

Both taken from here

And, yes, I realize that most of my blog entries are actually born from the blog entries of others.  What can I say.  "For opinions as for material goods: production is dead, long live reproduction."  Just kidding, but Baudrillard said that and it came up in my art history class yesterday.

So, I'm sitting here alone.  All my roommates went to see "the really hot old guy" aka Anderson Cooper.  He's at my school today.  I wasn't interested.  I think I'm going to go check my mailbox (I'm waiting for a necklace) and work on my Life Drawing project.  For those of you who forgot, I have to transfer my image into an art historical image.  I chose a photograph of Frida Kahlo (this entry).  And, in case you were wondering, I will be giving myself the unibrow.  I'll have updates of this project in photo form later tonight.

Lazing on a Saturday afternoon

Just sitting here, watching this over, and over again so far.  Didn't shower or anything, haven't eaten anything.  And it looks pretty outside my window.  

I do have to babysit for 5 or 6 hours tonight, though.  And these kids are literally babies.  So, after I put them to bed, there will be more lazing.  If I had a copy of Red Lights, I could get started on my reading for book club.  

TGIF

This week has been a doozy, putting the finishing touches on my thesis proposal and sending my baby off to the big, scary honors committee.  However, I would just like to say that today has been a wonderful day.  Not only is it Friday and not only will I get to eat a home-cooked meal and watch the music theatre kids sing and dance, but a nice lady from Teach for America just contacted me.  I couldn't be happier!

Love,

Monica

Lovely Frida

Frida Kahlo, photographed around 1938/39 by her lover, Nickolas Muray.

For Drawing II we have to pick an art historical portrait that we would enjoy putting ourselves into.  My teacher said that when she had this assignment in college, she put herself into the Mona Lisa.  I've decided to put myself into this photograph of Frida Kahlo.  

We had to do a loose sketch of ourselves to bring to class so that we could begin transferring:

Kinda looks like me, I guess.

LaMancha, baby

This is the goat I want:

taken from here

One day, I'll have lots of land and some goats.  And I will make cheese.

I wish I could say that this was an April Fool's joke

After my thesis meeting (my proposal is officially done!!!!) Mike found this want ad on the school website:

Pay close attention to their spelling:

I would generally dismiss this as being fake, but the date has me worried.  I think this is a genuine ad.