The first art I have made in months...

So not sure if this counts as real art, but I did this instead of translating Latin:

This is the sole reason I cannot take Dinocrates seriously, because this is what I picture in my head every time I hear or read his name. And because my life now centers around classics and grad school, this is the kind of art I'm doing now, to keep myself from going utterly insane.

Motivation, anyone?

This doesn't really have anything to do with art, but I didn't really know where else to write this. I am trying so very hard to be motivated to write about Roman and Germanic relations, but frankly, I am fed up with this. I still have to write two fifteen page papers when my brain checked out weeks ago. This does not bode well...

oh god I should be sleeping oh god...

Wow, it's been a while. I'm too mentally exhausted to give a general update, so I'm just going to talk about an IDM artist now. Hey, music is art, and therefore, I am allowed to ramble about it here.

So, this artist has come up again on my Pandora list (on the SubtractiveLAD station fyi), and it's the third or so time that it has caught my attention. The artist (or rather artists) are named Mouse on Mars. According to wikipedia, Mouse on Mars is a duo composed of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma from Germany (which really shouldn't come as a surprise). They've been creating music since 1993 and it definitely shows; their music is solid, the beats are slightly repetitive, but there is enough variation to keep it from getting too insufferable.

But there is something that has made the few tracks of theirs that I have heard stand out, and I will attempt to put it into words. Throughout the songs I've listened to, there are these delightful little sounds that play throughout (most notably for me in Tensual on their Niun Niggung album, but also in X-Flies on Autoditacker). The only way that I can describe these sounds is this: imagine in your mind a varied group of insect-like creatures. Now, imagine that several of these creatures have decided to form a band, and play preposterous instruments.

Ok, so maybe that's a little weird, but it's what comes to my mind when I hear their music. Maybe it's just my overactive imagination (or frequent bouts with insomnia), but I get very clear, visual images when listening to these songs. And that, my friends, is why I started listening to IDM a few years ago (well, among other reasons as well). To me, a lot of music in this genre creates images or moods or thoughts without even needing spoken word. These are musicians who aren't afraid to take risks with complex metering structures, syncopation, and noise effects that a lot of people don't even consider music in the first place. As someone who has taken way too many music theory classes for her own good, I'm finding myself bored with traditional music genres (if you've heard one amen chorus, you've heard them all). I'm tired of being able to sing along with a song the first time I've heard it; I want a song that disarms you, then trips you, then helps you back up again, and then shoulder throws you into a muddy river bank. Tortured metaphors aside, all I'm really looking for is something NEW and EXCITING, not the same old power ballad that's been remade and remade and ingested and regurgitated since 1970.

If that means I have to endure a few songs of 15 minute Norse wailing, then so be it, as long as I get a few groups like Mouse on Mars in return.

P.S. I apologize if any of this doesn't make sense/isn't grammatically sound. I've been awake for far too long today.

And so I return...

I'm baack! The trip was awesome, the dig was awesome, and coming home was awesome too. Haha, I love these long trips, but I always get really homesick by the end.

Some of the things that have happened since I last updated: I survived finals, went to Italy, met some awesome people, did some incredible things, came home, went back to work, started writing my Departmental Honors paper, got my blue belt in Happou Taijutsu, taught myself to ride a bike, started transcribing civil war documents at the battlefield, and started playing Half Life (it has since devoured my soul).

Wow. And after all that, I still haven't gotten my shit together to start selling on ETSY. Some day...some day...

Anyway, next semester I'm taking two art classes, so hopefully I might be able to sell and/or ramble about the stuff I make for them (if they don't turn out to be completely worthless). And, if I can tear myself away from Gordon Freeman's escapades long enough to make more jewelry, I will get my act together and start selling that. No promises, though.

Peace.

WTF Mate

Holy shit, I'm going to Italy again this summer! I'm kind of excited, kind of freaked (because I now need to find 4500 dollars somewhere...may have to get a loan, or dip into savings...), and kind of stressed (because we leave the 24th...of May...). Yeah, little short-notice there, Drew University.

But I think I'm still more in shock than anything else. It doesn't seem like I'm going to excavate again, probably because I didn't start planning for it months ago :\. And I also have a 15 page paper to write by monday, of which I only have 2 1/2 pages written. And I have to write a 2 page german paper. AND I have to study for finals next week. Please, somebody kill me.

So, since I am going to Italy this summer, that means I STILL won't be able to put anything up on ETSY until late June...this is getting ridiculous. Hopefully, I should be able to do all the administrative stuff before I leave, so when I get back, all I need to do is start posting. Theoretically.

Ok, back to writing, and drinking my now-cold tea. Bleh.

Updatez!

So I got tired of the gothy-black background and decided to go with something a bit more colorful. And since I am a retard when it comes to HTML, you get a pre-made template. Maybe I should figure that out some day...
The works came in earlier this week for my ceramic clock; I'm uber excited! Although upon examining said works it appears that I may have made the hole for them a bit too large...oh well, I'll make it work somehow.
Still no things getting sold on ETSY. However, I plan to use this time to expand the items that I will (hopefully, eventually) be selling. Depending on what I do this summer, I may have things listed as early as mid May or as late as late June/early July. I should keep updating this site off and on until then (because, you know, people might actually read this *gasp*). Actually, it just mostly makes me feel a little better.

All for now.

My first (real-ish) art show!

Greetings internets!

Today was my first actual art show! Where I actually got to choose the pieces I wanted to put in! (Unlike the show we did at the Blue Elephant last semester, where those who were choosing the work picked all my pieces that were shit.) I put in three pieces: two drawings and one stoneware piece. All in all, it was a great show, there were lots of really good submissions.

So, I've also decided that the selling on Etsy thing probably will not happen until this summer. This semester is belatedly kicking my ass, and I just don't really have the free time to actually post any of my jewelry or other things. If by some freakish chance I can actually get something productive done, then it will certainly happen. Right now though, I just have way too much on my mind without having one more thing to worry about.

Anywho, that's pretty much all that's on my mind for tonight. Until next time.

-Alison