An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

I am so so so excited about this movie. Written and starring Terence Nance, it's about a young man that navigates live action and animated landscapes to understand himself after a young woman stands him up.

I personally love dream landscape movies like this and I'm so excited by the lovely afro action going on in the film! Trailer posted below...look out for the yummy stop motion animation sequence.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty • Teaser from Terence Nance • Terence Etc. on Vimeo.

Feeling Broochy...

I just finished the school Holiday Art Sale at school and it was pretty successful. I decided to sell lots of left over inventory but didn't manage to clear out all of it. None the less, making pretty things and having people express appreciation for them always make me smile.

I sold my usual etched metal jewelry but decided to try my hand at some silkscreen panels and those sold fairly well. Now, I'm thinking of expanding my horizons and selling some fun brooches!! I found all of these lovely ones while perusing the Internet at my boring office job today. Enjoy!

By fineDollyLolly



By Ribizla



By IndianBlue



By murmurfremo



This one is totally my fave:
Jayne Mansfield Brooch By ultravioletglam

I just like the idea of brooches because it gives you the excuse to wear elaborate art pieces on your clothes. Plus, what a dashing and gentlemanly way to spice things up! I hope you all enjoy eating tomorrow.

Misfits - (SPOILERS!)

Just got out of work. Totally fatigued...totally bored...totally need to type so let's talk about: MISFITS!!

- SPOILERS BELOW-

I learned about this show from perusing some of my favorite tumblr blogs. The plot seemed cool especially since I'm waaaay into supernatural tv shows, so I thought I'd give it a try. The premise: five kids from a community service program get struck by lightning in the middle of a freak electrical which gives them super powers. The superpowers they have aren't necessarily usual, yes there is a girl who can read minds (Kelly) and a boy who can rewind time (Curtis) but there's also a girl (Alisha) who sends people into passionate sexual rages after coming in contact with her skin.

Touching Alisha's (Antonia Thomas) skin with your bare hands will send you into a violent sexual frenzy!

You should be forewarned that this TV show is of the Skins variety, meaning it's rather raunchy with lots of foul language and graphic sex, which I wouldn't mind so much if I felt like the show was a bit more honest. I don't know how to quite explain it...but I feel a lot of these emotions don't quite ring true. Though there are some characters that you consistently feel sorry for (Simon) the episodes aren't particularly heartfelt (like Buffy for example), which could be fine depending on what you're into.

PROS:

• Yummy British accents!

• Alisha and Simon are adorable! I'm also really impressed by the character growth of Alisha. She started out as such a miserable, selfish, shallow person but has grown into a very mature and kind character. I'm glad that her relationship with Curtis is no longer. With both of them being very popular and well-liked in their schools, I felt like them pairing up was rather obvious and easy.
  
  
  Hardcore Simon from the future - Delicious!
  

• As the seasons progress you come to find out that many other people were affected by the storm and have developed some sort of abnormality as a result. The most ridiculous being a man who can control dairy products.

Cons:

• The character Nathan (Robert Sheehan) is the most annoying son of a bitch on television! I don't find him funny at all and often role my eyes every time the camera cuts to him. In fact, if he were to just disappear from the show and NEVER come back, I wouldn't bat an eyelash... and another thing: WHY IS HE ALWAYS PICKING ON SIMON???
  
  
  

Nathan (Robert Sheehan) The most annoying character on television.

• Kelly's cockney accent is waaay too thick. Most of the time beyond recognition. I find myself having to rewind her speaking parts just so I can make out her sentences. Her power (telepathy) is pretty useful though. Though I'd imagine knowing exactly what everyone thought about you all the time could be kind of a bummer.

• The body count is ridiculously high and at times is gratuitous. Seriously,why so many murders? And no one's suspicious of the fact that TWO of their community service supervisors have gone missing??!!

Final Verdict: Watch this if your favorite supernatural TV show is on hiatus and all the house work is done. Or watch it for the amazing soundtrack and the Alisha/Simon progression.


I found all of the episodes uploaded on youtube. Hulu has it as well but I was having an incredibly difficulty loading it.

Happy Wednesday!

A New Update

The semester is over and I'm left to process and contemplate the upcoming summer and my final year. One thing I tried this semester (and simultaneously loved and hated) was Stop Motion Animation. Below is one of the many short films I shot during the semeser during the course of my intro class. The main character is named Mr. Monkey and is my second favorite puppet creation (the first i will debut at a later date.) But for now feast your eyes on A Monkey and His Objects.

Ring Around The Rosey

I love this music video in spite of myself. I'm kind of a prude so the subject matter makes me blush, but honestly I can see myself listening to this song if I needed a little pick me up.




I'm loving the outfits with the Marie Antoinette style wigs...and some of the improvised dance moves make me giggle. I'm curious about the little girls in the intro, though. Because if I was a parent, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't allow my little girl to be in a video such as this. Thoughts?

End of Summer/Beginning of Fall

Back from a pretty interesting few weeks and I have plenty of updates and good news to share!

First things first:

The Gold Coast Art Fair went very very well (in the big picture sense). I toughed it out in 90+ degree weather for three straight days with no sunscreen, no tent and a minimal amount of tears/anxiety attacks. My inventory sold consistently... not necessary what I had anticipated but more than I have ever made an art art fair and for that I'm very grateful. The best thing is I was in an area designated for SAIC students only and they were all very supportive and pleasant.

Gold Coast Art Fair photo of me at my table. Taken by my mom with her magical phone!

I only had one unfortunate run in with a mean- spirited loony but I've since made my peace with that. It never ceases to amaze me what some people believe is acceptable behavior at a public art event, especially towards a fellow artist.

2) Summer is coming to a close, much to my dismay. I have no personal problems against fall as a season. It produces vibrant colors, wonderful flavors (pumpkin spice) and it makes me feel all warm and glowy....the only problem is that it will inevitably lead to winter. One of THE WORST seasons for me in every sense of the word.

I can't wait to go back to the Chicago Botanic Gardens later this month to see a scene like this!

I'm doing things to calm myself down and say goodbye to summer like hot showers with Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap, late nights of True Blood marathons, and shopping for soft, layer-able fall wear.


Side Note: I finally got around to reading Dead Until Dark. The first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and I was very impressed with the story quality....and I was totally right about the sex scenes. The second season of the television show seems to be going down a very weird path but I'm not giving up.

Though I know it may take some time, I would really love to dance en pointe. My aerial teacher is always yelling at us to point our toes!

3) I'm starting Ballet classes at Lou Conte Dance Studio (a part of Hubbard Street Dance) next month and I'm very very excited about it. I figure ballet will help me to maintain my core strength and will be beneficial to the circus arts classes I take. Though I do consider myself to generally be a graceful person, I noticed that there was a slight difference between me doing a routine on the trapeze and an ex-dancer doing that same routine. Besides, I've always wanted a reason to rock some ballet shoes!

In the midst of an aerial routine. It hurts a little bit to be suspended in that position but it also feels pretty good to give your hips a good stretch. Maybe one day if I get good enough, I can work with Fuerza Bruta!

4)One last thing: I finally got a raise. Yay!! It only took like 3 years!

BTW, I can't wait to indulge in some pumpkin pie. One of my favorite seasonal snacks.

Happy Thursday!

The 3 C's: Clowns, Clothes, and Chocolate!

Hey Lovers!

I'm back from my "blogging break" and I apologize for not posting in such a long while. I've been a pretty busy beaver in the metal's studio lately, getting things nice and tidy for the Art Fair next month. The good news is, I have plenty of tasty photos and ideas to share, which I will be uploading in the next couple days.

But first, I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the adorableness that is Zoe Kravitz.

That skirt is worth dying for.

I've been trying to find a coat like this for the past 5 years of my life. No success.

BTW, Who knew that Alexander Wang was so young and gorgeous??!!

So now that I've gotten my fashion crush out of the way, I want to talk about something I've recently read: Clown Girl by Monica Drake.

My friend lent me this book during my short vacation in Michigan. I was intialy very excited about the prospect of a "dark, witty tale" regarding the life of an aspiring clown. But I was very disappointed by the end result. The main character of this novel is named Nita, an aspiring clown who works relatively shitty gigs to save up enough money to go to Clown School and be with her boyfriend (who she also sent to Clown School). In the midst of pining after her fellow clown lover (who doesn't return her phone calls) and perfecting her mime interpretation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, she is also resisting the advances of a "Steve McQueen look alike" cop who is trying his damndest to court her.

You can pretty much guess the ending, right? I definitely did but continued on for the remaining 300 pages in hopes that atleast the end would justify the means...but it did not. None of the characters were sympathetic or multi-dimensional at all. In fact Nita, with all of her self imposed problems was down right unlikeable. It's also unclear as to why the cop was so drawn to Nita because clowns are relatively common place in this story's setting and Nita never leaves her home without her makeup and costume, even if she doesn't have a gig.

It's very clear that the author was trying to draw a parallel between the way the two character's "costumes" affected the way they interacted with the world but each character was so underdeveloped that after a while it felt like I was choking on archetypes. Read this book if there is nothing else lying around and if you don't mind getting headaches. I only think about this novel fondly because of the person who gave it to me.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday thus far. I'm in an overly air conditioned office, dreaming about Ice Cream.