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)?

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):

Practice makes perfect

I say the above in regards to the fact that these videos are of me practicing piano a few hours ago, and both pieces are very much in progress.  But, I've reached points in both pieces where I don't mind sharing because I'm am no longer embarrassed.  My hopes are to be playing the second half of "Misty" soon and to memorize the Bach piece as I speed it up and fine-tune it.  I also hate doing the trills and need to figure out how to play them correctly.  My fingers just don't move that quickly.  

Misty from Monica Huang on Vimeo.

What's funny is that the related videos for this piece are all videos of 8-year old asian kids playing a whole heck of a lot better than me.  Again, practice makes perfect.

Hope you enjoyed listening to these works in progress!

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

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).

I can't focus

because Jean and Elisabeth are coming tomorrow!  I can not wait!!!

Plants and Civilization

My winter term class is going to be fabulously entertaining and enlightening.  The book I'm reading right now (Botany of Desire) is a fun read and I'm so excited to see what this mini-semester brings.  

For a brief moment in class my professor talked about Joyce Kilmer and his poem, Tree.  So, I looked it up (because, despite being a famous poem, yours truly had never come across it).  Here it is:

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Also noteworthy, my professor gave us a brief history about himself.  One of his power point lecture slides was titled "Who am I?" and upon clicking the space bar of his laptop, a picture of him as a teen zoomed onto the screen.  It said "Rattlesnake-Killer".  From there, he became a "Bored-Banker" and is now a present and self-identified "Tree-Hugger".  Let me just say that once you see an old photograph of your teacher holding a dead rattlesnake from the estimated seventies, you can't help but warm yourself to his/her friendship and, in my context, to their knowledge on plants and civilization.

Today's class ended with our group of students walking outside into the frigid cold, led by professor, to a pine tree where we heard some rem(b)arkable history about North Carolina's state tree.

Now I'm off to acquire transportation to buy a kazoo.

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

I'm a busy, busy bee these days

It's exam time again and, therefore, this blog has been and will be dead at least for another few days.  The hiatus will be over soon.  I promise*!  For now, things that are cool:

1)  I'm officially a returning-counselor at Camp Royall next summer!

2)  Related:  I'm officially a counselor for Camp Royall's first installment of Winter Camp.

3)  Exams are going well and quickly.

4)  Jenna made us Chocolate Chess Pie and I've been eating it at inappropriate times, like at breakfast and in bed.

5)  I think one of these days I'm going to be a walk-in at the Chess club meeting.

6)  There's an Elon area running club (God knows I've been looking for a running club since I got here) and I can finally join this winter term.

7)  My hamster is still alive.

A thing that isn't cool:

1)  I've got Paul for secret Santa (pretty sure he doesn't read this blog).  Any ideas?

Love,

Monica

*I feel like I've made at least four or five promises here.

Big wheels keep on turnin

Current Work

Doggy Days?

Yesterday morning, during the first official day of my last fall break at Elon, I spent hours in bed dreading all the work I had to do.  During the upcoming week, I have THE BIGGEST INTERVIEW OF MY LIFE, three big presentations scheduled, lots of painting homework and general busy work (it's almost as if my day-to-homework ratio is increased during vacations, which is the complete opposite of the whole point of the break).

Anyway, I finally got up and played Bananagrams and went back to bed.  After another couple of hours, I got up for real and finally plowed through some homework.  It felt really good to be making a significant dent in the academic to-do list and I got to a great stopping point.  That's when David and I went to the mall to go shopping for my interview clothes (I got a real cute suit and skirt combo and some affordable pointy shoes).  We also got dip n dots and went looking around in the lego store until getting kicked out by an over-enthusiastic employee (suspected overbearing floor manager).  The saleswoman's exact words were, "Welcome to Lego!  You're, um, gonna have to leave."  We just frowned and she said, "But you could look through the glass outside of the store until you're done eating your ice cream."  Who welcomes a customer right before kicking them out?  And, silly, dip n dots isn't ice cream...it's ice cream of the future. 

Upon returning home, more homework was worked on but eventually faded away into a night of so-so SNL (though the Beauty and the Beast parody was great) and dunks of pita into a bottomless bowl of hummus!

Today, David kindly drove me to work at the nursery in the morning.  It was very early and I spent the time catching and releasing various types of poisonous spiders while holding babies, changing diapers and preventing the toddlers from squeezing said babies (or diapers) too tightly.  Afterward, David and I took his confused Boston Terrier pup to the dog park.  Luckily there were two other dogs there (one was a really energetic puppy) and he got some time to socialize, canine style (not doggie style, perverts).  

Anyway, all the contact with dogs had me thinking especially about my dog.  I think of him every day, but today I thought of him a lot.

I did it!

Today I found out that I made it through round 1 of Teach for America.  This means I've been invited to a phone interview which will happen early next week.  I'm so excited, but so nervous too.  I can't wait to tell them more about myself beyond what my resume says and I'm going to do everything I can to do my very best.  

In other news, school is going very well.  It's weird, but one of my favorite parts of my short week (classes only on Mondays and Wednesdays) is when I get to help the boy sitting infront of me with Statistics.  You gotta enjoy that group work and peer frustration over math.  And I absolutely LOVE watching the teacher's calculator demos via the overhead.  Yes.  I did say overhead.  You probably thought they stopped making those things when I stopped attending high school.  Thankfully, though, there are still a few of them in existence in colleges across the country that like to keep it old school.

Also, I'm having such a blast working on my thesis this semester.  I'm working on a ceramic garden of sorts right now, sculpting tree forms that have reached my personal high of 33 inches.  Mike and I will have to modify the kiln to get this plant life fired.  And since I finally got my camera battery charged the other day, I'll start posting pictures of stuff again.  And by stuff, I mean my art work!  

Now I've got to go back to my homework.  I'm working on a project for Fundamentals of Design.  The goal is to make a self-portrait that is larger than life using a small grid where each square expresses the image by way of a different pattern.  If that wording was confusing, then know that I am basically making a giant mosaic of my face.  I'll have that picture here too.

Love,

Monica

Raku

Three raku pots that I made!

Today I was a little late to the raku firing, but I still got to help out a bit.  I pulled three pots out of the trash-can-on-fire and got to see a lot of cool glaze effects.  Here's Mike doing the raku:

Raku from Monica Huang on Vimeo.

Now I'm watching an ANTM marathon (don't judge) waiting to go to work at six o'clock.  I'm so happy because I am completely done with Issues in Contemporary Art for good (I finished the two essays of death, and I think I did a pretty good job).  Tonight, I hear there's a mechanical bull someplace and food (possibly free)?  I've also got to break in those legos (by the way, 1500 is not as much as one would think).  

Gas Kiln

Burn, baby, burn.

Today was my last day of classes and, voila, just like that, Junior year is done!  Well, for the most part.  Now I must sprint through this week of exams and make it out alive.  I've got two critiques to prepare for my studio classes, a drawing project, two essays to write for my contemporary art class and, miraculously, I've done everything for my psychology class.  My last day here will be Sunday (I'm sticking around for one last day of work at the nursery) and then I'm hanging out at David's house until I have to get to camp for training week.  Nothing can stress me out too much, though.  I'm looking forward to camp and today I had lots of fun watching the gas kiln with some classmates.  I can't wait to see what comes out of the reduction firing:

Will feeding the fire.  This is an electric kiln that Mike converted into a gas kiln.

Will from Monica Huang on Vimeo.

This is the kiln that Mike built.  Pretty impressive!

Gratuitous pics of kilns can be found in this album.

Where are my clothes?

I finally assembled that series of sharpie drawings into a "book".  Using scraps of cardboard, random construction paper I found in the drawing room, string to match and ink on stamps we have:

The s in clothes is under the e in clothes, hidden by a piece of string.

Classic accordion-fold shot

The title was inspired by a classmate who did a series of drawings on a friend looking for a cellphone.  The title was "Where is my phone?" and, since we had just come out of a conversation about how I've drawn myself naked a few times, I decided that it would be funny to name my book "Where are my clothes?".

After I finished the book, I went over to the ceramics studio to take photos of some of my work that came out of the kiln firing recently.  I'm always posting pictures of random drawings but never any sculptures or pottery so, I thought it would be nice to get some variety going in this blog: