Valentine's Day

Eric and I weren't supposed to see each other yesterday (because of our late work and class schedules). However, we both got out a little earlier than expected and raced over to our Monday night trivia hot spot to visit our friends (because we love them). We were both a little late and therefore did not get to be on an actual trivia team (there is a six person limit and the game had already started). So, how did I spend my valentine's day? Well, there is a pacman arcade game in the back of the bar, and Eric and I alternated playing and watching the other play for about an hour (so many quarters lost). My valentine's gift was a big, gooey blister on my middle finger from holding the joystick to tightly. I don't know if anyone of you remember how I obsessively played pacman in college, but I get pretty into it.

Also, my "Art and Special Education" class was very cool this week. We were doing and lesson on blindness and my professor put blindfolds on everyone in the class, handed us an item and then some clay. We got about 15-20 minutes to sculpt what we felt (smelled or tasted, etc.) and upon the great reveal I was pleased to see that my mini pumpkin looked exactly like the one she had given me (I ingeniously counted how many ridges were around the pumpkin's physique). Next, we got a partner and had to lead the other (blindfolded) around the school. That was really fun. My partner and I tried it two different ways. 1) As the blind person, we held onto the arm of our guide and walked at their pace through the school. 2) As the blind person, we did not hold on to anything and, instead, touched and felt our way around the school. Number 2 was a little scarier, but my partner and I both felt as if we had more control that way since we were setting our own pace and translating the space through our finger tips instead of depending on the voice of someone else.

Also, sorry for the serious lack of updates. I am working about 5 days a week and have 6 classes and my sanity to manage this semester.

Love,

Monica

An Introductory Exercise: A found-materials exchange project...

...based on the following passage from A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle:

"Finally, though--and it must have been late in the afternoon--he pulled her up out of the mud and slid her over one shoulder, nothing heavier in the world, nothing, not stone or lead or all the mountains marching off in the neat ranks to Canada. Down the trail then, down the trail to the trailhead, and out to the road and the car and the hospital in Whitefish. He brought her back, all the way back, out of the tall trees and the wet and the sting of the everlasting day, but it didn't matter to him or to anybody else, because he didn't bring her back alive."

Read and respond to the above narrative using materials you find for image and text. This should be completed on a single base sheet of 8.5"x11" copy paper in landscape format. May be done in color or black-and-white.

Domestic Violence and Divorce

That's not what this post is about (but that IS what the homework I'm supposed to be working on is about). You may be asking yourself, "Monica, aren't you getting a degree in Art?" The answer is, yes, but none of that matters in my "Sociology of the Family" class.

And none of the aforementioned matters, either, because it's three in the morning (AGAIN, I know!) and I am procrastinating. I found these photos from May and they made me laugh. What am I even wearing (a dress and jeans at the same time)?

Pumpkin Carving

Eric came over today and we spent a lovely afternoon/evening carving two, giant pumpkins (by one get one free at Safeway). It was really fun and messy (we saved all of the pumpkin seeds and got all slimy in the process). He described my pumpkin as something out of a Tim Burton film (which I think is a compliment) and his pumpkin was really cool (he did the surface carving where one carves away the bright orange rind and leaves the pumpkin meat really thin so that candlelight can be seen through it). I don't think I did a really good job explaining it, so you can just look at pictures that I will post in the next few days.

Tomorrow is Monday night trivia. I can't wait because my team won for the first time EVER last week (and I wasn't there to share the glory because I was sick as a dog at home). So one might deduce that my team won BECAUSE I wasn't there to screw things up. Anyway, that means that I have to prove my worth to my teammates tomorrow but helping them win instead of causing their downfall.

In other news, school is great. My grades are good. Teaching is great. Because of scheduling issues I had to stop working as a therapist and am currently looking for a new job (but I have an interview for a cool position this week). So, work is potentially great too. And I am also moving in exactly one week to a new place that will be much more close to school and work (wherever that may be). Woohoo!

The only way that life could get any better would be if I could get inspired in the medium of metal. Raya introduced our next project and objectives and I am officially uninspired. Copper? Aluminum? Any ideas? What should I do for this project? I have to make two sculptures and all I can do is punch holes into things, bend and roll metal and cut into it. I just don't know what to do. The gauge of the metal has to remain relatively thin too, due to the machinery and equipment we are using. Gah! Any ideas? Someone inspire me, please!

Wood is good

Here are my finished pieces (better photographs to come):

I am SUCH a big fan of wood now. I have all these ideas for wood and clay projects it's not even funny!

Knock on wood

I've got my first studio critique tomorrow and I am super excited. My professor, Raya, has ordered a cake for the class and is bringing in lots of coffee and all us girls (and the one guy) are going to sit around and enjoy ourselves, talking about how awesome our first projects in wood have turned out. I'm going to take lots of pictures (in the really bright lighting of the studio) tomorrow, but here are some pictures from today (works in progress):

So...

...this blog is NOT dead. I've just been very, very busy. Even though grad school, work, friends and the new boyfriend are keeping me plenty busy, the thing that is keeping me the busiest by far is commuting to the four aforementioned items. I can't wait until November 1st, which is the day that I get to move into my new studio apartment (much, much, much, much closer to school and work). It is soooo efficient that the kitchen is kept inside of a tiny closet. You know you are jealous. In other news, I am having extreme clay withdrawal. In the MAT program, we need to have taken specific types of studio courses to earn our licensure for D.C. public schools. Because I studied ceramics in undergraduate school so studiously, it is, unfortunately, NOT one of those studio courses that I need. Instead I need things like printmaking, painting, digital art, sculpture, metal-smithing and textiles, among other things. So, I am officially saving up for a kiln, wheel and clay (it'll probably take me ten years). My life is simply fantastic, but amidst all the joy, excitement and new obstacles, I have begun to realize that something is missing in my life: THE CLAY, MAN! I am the poorest I've been in years and, yet, I am 100% positive that I would take a block of clay over United States currency any day these days.

Black Swan

Sorry that the video is cut off a bit and, um...I'm scared:

via The Debonaire

On a lighter note, I have a job interview set up and, cross your fingers, another one on the way. One is for an after-school art teaching job and the other is to be a Special needs instructor through an applied behavior analysis organization for children with autism. Oh, and there is that grad school thing that is happening soon too.

Peace!

Homesick

I am having a blast during my vacation week from camp. I drove up to Maryland to spend the week with my best friend, Rachael (Yep, that's us at our senior prom).

Anyway*, Rachael, Christian and I have been frantically apartment-hunting since Friday with lots of potentials, but no luck yet. We've been on site to some places to check the safety of areas out in person and have been emailing people like crazy and I think I've visited craigslist way more often than I've visited facebook this week (seriously).

Anyway, for a much-needed change of pace, I got to go all the way to downtown D.C. by myself like a big girl today (I officially have a smartrip card!). I arrived at the steps of the Natural History Museum to meet up with Kenny, Corey, Jailee, Louiza and Andy (who are friends from camp that decided to spend their vacation week house-sitting near D.C.). While Rachael was at work, I shopped around D.C. with my campy friends pretending that I wasn't about to be homeless in exactly a month...I bought coconut ice cream from a hot dog car and selfishly purchased the cutest dress from H&M (a clothing store that everyone in the world has been to but me). Also, whilst at Urban Outfitters, I got to witness a real-life shoplifter get arrested. It was actually super depressing and sad because the woman was crying and looked like any other person. The situation was simply all-around uncomfortable and humiliating. Urban Outfitters is really, really, really expensive though.

Anyway, on my crowded, but solitary, metro ride back to College Park, I began thinking more and more about my new and different life scheduled for the fall. What will grad school really be like? Will I get good grades? How stressed out will I be? What kind of people will I meet? What about boys (just kidding)? What kind of part-time job will I get to slave away at? Will I make enough money for rent? What about for food? Will I be happy? The latter is worrying me most. I know that I will be happy, but I don't know if I'll every be as happy as I was these past two years. I know I've always complained about Elon, but ever since I stepped foot into the ceramics room and got to working with Mike, I've had some kind or sense of inner calm.

I know that sounds silly. It really does. But I COMPLETELY mean it. The daily struggle and triumph that I experienced working on my ceramics and sculpture made me feel so special and unique. I would tire physically at the wheel, wedging the clay, feeling it in my arms, shoulders and, even, abdomen. I'd get weird looks walking around campus because I'd be so mentally involved, constantly thinking about art, that I wouldn't even bother to clean the dried clay off of my pants, hands and even face. Needless to say, I absolutely LOVED every painstaking minute of working on my thesis. I loved even more discussing the things of life with faculty and peers. My happiest days were at the end of April, installing the senior art show. I hadn't eaten for two days, hadn't slept for the same amount, but I was all giggly and bubbly. I didn't want to be anywhere else. All I wanted to do was stay in the art building.

What I am trying to say is that today on the metro, it hit me. It hit me hard. I am not going back to Elon this fall (which I am okay with). Rather, I am not going back to the ceramics room. I won't get to see Mike's face every day. I won't have clay under my fingernails. I won't get to walk around the maze of Artswest, passing friends in the hall. I won't get to judge the bad art in the bathrooms. There are other things that I won't get to do, but mainly I am jealous that I don't get to make more art full-time. I hope that at the Corcoran I will have enough studio time to explore more with my art. I hope that I find the faculty and students as fun as I found my cohort of art kids. I'm not worried. It's more that the Corcoran experience I am about to embark on is being held and judged against my Art/Honors experience. Mainly, though, as much as I don't want this summer and camp to end, I can not wait another day to get my fingers back in some clay and my brain wrapped around someone else's art.

Love,

Monica

*I like this word.

SURF

Today classes were canceled and oodles of students presented original research projects and theses at Elon's Student Undergraduate Research Forum (or SURF). As someone said tonight "I went SURF-ing all day and was no where near the beach!" Actually, that's not true. I wanted to see all of my friend's presentations (which was about 40, give or take), but my presentation took too long both to install and de-install. Here is a video of the way I set the installation up today (I might change it a bit for my gallery opening on Sunday):

Honors Thesis Preview from Monica Huang on Vimeo.

Along with allowing viewers to, um, view the artwork, I gave a brief speech and participated in a Q & A session for about 15 minutes. I think I did well and people seemed to really enjoy the session.

After a hard day's work of presenting, the students and their mentors were invited to attend a dinner celebrating and congratulating everyone on their achievments. We got little awards! :

Love,

Monica

Exhibition I - Art Seniors

Today was the opening reception for the first half of the senior art major class. My exhibition (the second half) will hold its opening reception on May 2nd from 1-3 pm. Anyway, everyone did a wonderful job and I'm glad I finally got to see the finished products (I didn't necessarily know what their theses were going to look like). Above is a picture from today that I snapped just before my camera's battery died. I had intended to document each member's work, but instead just got a picture of a few of the guys small-talkin' 'round Travis' sweet installation. Later (after I charge my camera) I'll be sure to post pictures of the rest.

Love,

Monica

Easter

My cousin, Sarah, came over this weekend to spend some time with me until Easter Sunday. We watched many movies, ate lots of good food and enjoyed the beautiful weather all while getting lots of homework done. I even taught Sarah how to throw a pot on the wheel! Here are some photos from our attempts at making rainbow, hard-boiled eggs for the holiday (without any vinegar):

Sarah, finally sinking her teeth into (and wiping away) the burger she was craving...

"That was Yoko Ono's sister."

Lucky tries to figure out how to get a hamster out of its cage...to do what?

I know that my spring break isn't over yet.  It just feels like it is.  I think it is because I am back at school already, working on my thesis and other homework as if my last weekend of spring break didn't mean anything.  

Over the break, I spent a couple of days at Elon to volunteer, teach and work in the ceramics studio before helping my parents pack up the things in my room that I wasn't actively using.  I was kind of bummed that my cool blue Ikea bookshelves would be leaving, along with the books on them because I thought I would miss them in a room left with only the basics.  But, after moving tubs and boxes of books, clothes, shoes, odds and ends, and carrying a heavy chair, a bookshelf, a chest, my electric guitar (I kept my acoustic), my keyboard (don't worry, I kept my accordion), my television and my twelve foot long art easel, getting three hours of packing out of the way then instead of later, seemed like a very good idea.

Now I suspect that I have unpacked, give or take, three-quarters of my room!  All that's left are my spring/summer clothes, a guitar, an accordion, some lights and the artwork on my walls.  And my room still manages to look like a happenin' place to be.  

That night after moving, I went to my parents' hotel near Duke.  My dad had a meeting the next day and my mom, Lucky and I took the free day as an opportunity to walk around Chapel Hill.  I took my mom to the University Mall to show her where I taught Art-to-Art in addition to the gourmet grocery, Southern Season.  I also took her and Lucky on a complete walk of Franklin Street to Carrborro.  I pointed out Cat's Cradle, the hip place where I saw Tegan and Sara two years ago.  Then we walked back to Med Deli and met David for lunch.  We got the lebanese lunches to go so that we could enjoy them with Lucky, sitting in a park.

A sweet view from the school of the monument

The next day, I drove home with my parents for my interview at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C.  I've applied to the MAT in Art at the school and will hear back from them in one to two weeks.  I think my personal interveiw went pretty well, and I got to sit in on two classes with students from the program.  One was on museum and community arts education and another was some kind of seminar with four students that had prepared practice lesson plans.  I actually got to participate in the latter and got to feel what it would be like to be part of a class!

One side of the Corcoran

Also, you might find it cool to know that while I was being led through the halls of the school by the Director of the program, I held the door for Yoko Ono's sister.  She had her hands full and I didn't think twice, holding the door for someone like that.  When the woman had left, the Director turned and whispered to me, "That was Yoko Ono's sister".  I sillily blurted out, "Oh my gosh!  I HAVE to tell my mom!"

After my long day came to an end, my mom and I took the metro back and drove home.  While my mom and dad had dinner, I drove to College Park to visit Rachael and friends.  It was convenient that my friend, Jeremy, was stopping by for dinner.  I haven't seen him in a few years and was horrified to see that he too, like my brother, was now much taller than me and with a deeper voice than I was used to.  Reunion photo below:

Vote!

Now I'm back at school.  I just met with Mike about five hours ago to start another batch of sculptures.  By Sunday night, I will have fired twelve sculptures leaving one last big one and six or seven mini-sculptures to be fired the remainder of next week.  Speaking of next week, my cousin, Sarah, has decided to spend three days and two nights at my apartment for Easter weekend.  It should be fun, but I hope she realizes that we will be hanging out while completing lots of homework!

Love,

Monica

Art-to-Art sharing

Matthew with "Brown Monkey" mask...such a sweetheart

The play went wonderfully today!  Everyone and their families and friends came out today to support the lovelies: Liam, Michael, Ewan, Peri, Graylin, and Matthew.  The kids put on a GREAT show.  While Elisabeth stayed behind the "curtain" to help them get on stage, Jordan and I stood on the sidelines playing different percussion instruments, bells and kazoos while Donovan narrated the story.  At the end, everyone erupted in satisfying applause and I wanted to cry because I was so happy and excited.  They did so well and I have never felt so accomplished before.  It was a great learning experience and I learned a lot about teaching art and teaching it to individuals with autism.

The high school volunteers were also such great sports through the whole experience.  For most, it was their first time ever working with kids with autism and I don't know if they knew what they were getting themselves into exactly.  That is to say, I don't think they knew how much FUN they were getting themselves into.  They really took responsibility for making everyone feel comfortable and happy and these pictures below represent the culmination of great effort, communication, enthusiasm and friendship between a bunch of crazy (in the best way) people:

Backstage "pow-wow" before the start of the show

"Tiger" scares and picks on "Brown Monkey"

Pikachu uses his "good-natured powers" to put "Tiger" in his place

"Frank", "Zeus" and "Jazzy" the Cat on stage

Group dance party at the finale

Parade around the University Mall...we're such show offs!

Donavan leading the play with upbeat, can't-resist-the-urge-to-dance drumming

Me and Elisabeth holding the arms of a GIANT puppet we did not make

Ewan posing for a good-bye photo

THE END

MECA

Art Education

My mom called me today to tell me that I was accepted into the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Art Education at the Maine College of Art!  I am so excited because I had my doubts.  But, now there is a possibility that I may end up in Portland next year.  It's a ten month program, and my certification would allow me to teach in any state.  The only problem is I haven't visited the school yet.  I also have my Corcoran interview (for the MAT program) this Thursday and the idea of possibly having to decide between two cool programs does not sound like fun.  Would you rather be in Portland or D.C?

Anyway, I am so happy today!

Love,

Monica

Also

I recently added some photos to the "thesis/current work" page on my website, as well as two new pages called "life drawing" and "printmaking".  Just for fun.

-Mon

Thesis progress

These are the four I made since spring semester started!  And below is me for height comparison:

Love,

Monica

Feeling Weird

Subway from Lee Bretschneider on Vimeo.

I promise to start writing again once I get back into the semester grove.  

For now I'll say that:  Art to Art is going well (Elisabeth and I have made neat, laminated schedules using clip art she found), my fish are growing by the hour, Stephanie is finally back in our lives, Jenna's got a boyfriend, I cut David's hair really, really, really short, my hair is growing at the speed of light, I'm still working on applications for graduate school, yesterday I started throwing on the wheel again and got back into the swing of things, there is already a lot of dried clay on my pants (which looks like mud and dirt to normal people I walk by on campus), my sculpture came back from Denver undamaged, I really like my art history teacher, I had to drop my installation class (sad :( face) for fear that it would interfere with my honors thesis, I feel very prepared for this semester, this blog is one year old (not today, I missed it's birthday), I missed Irina's "birthday" too, Jenna and Alexa got into NCUR which means Stephanie and I have the apartment all to ourselves for a few days in the future, I went to the gym yesterday and ran three miles very quickly, the ping pong tables were taken so I couldn't play yesterday, I can't wait until next weekend because I get to go home and celebrate my favorite holiday (Chinese New Year), I got a new kazoo after my other new kazoo was busted from me blowing/humming too hard into it, I'm waiting to watch a documentary I found in the library on noodling (bare-handed catfishing), and I'm finally taking piano lessons (I think I found my teacher on wikipedia).

Paperhand Puppet Intervention...with a twist

via paperhand.org

Autsim + Art + Drama + Puppets = FUN FUN FUN!

Needless to say, after going to my first Paperhand Intervention Autism group, I feel happy (Today we played a game where we had to fill the blank in with an emotion we were feeling).

This is definitely the beginning of something great, especially since I will be getting a chance to take some charge and leadership initiative in the group, as one of the few "Autism-experienced" volunteers.  I am so thankful for getting to do this every Monday for the rest of the academic year because, honestly, I don't think I could survive without even the smallest exposure to camp friends and autism every week.

--Off to work on a paper about bonsai trees and miniature plants

Love,

Monica

I'm back

I just rolled into Elon after spending a week and a half in MD for Christmas, a week working and New Year's at Camp Royall and some change at David's house catching up on sleep.  Getting my textbooks for my winter term class (Plants and Civilization) was an interesting experience because one of the books is a cookbook full of delicious recipes!  Maybe our homework will be to cook (doubtful).  What is more likely is that I will be reading and writing a lot of papers because class only lasts about three weeks and I have four good-sized textbooks from which to read.

In other news, the fish are alive and Orange is EVEN bigger than I remembered.  With the Christmas money my parents gave me, I will be able to buy them a bigger tank for their long futures (koi can live many, many, many years).  And in one short week, I will be starting a 12-week long Autism volunteer-ship in Chapel Hill.  The program I will be volunteering with is called "Art-to-Art" and is the drama program run in collaboration with the Art Therapy Institute of Chapel Hill, the ArtsCenter and Paperhand Puppet Intervention (I'm pretty sure that the phrase "paperhand puppet intervention" sums it up).  I am soooo excited!

Okay, now off to clean my room and read for tomorrow's class (I don't think teachers should be allowed to assign homework before the term has even started).

Love,

Monica