I've now got less than a week before school starts up. I'm not dreading it too much; it's been fairly dull out here and it will be nice for me to start doing a few more constructive things. Plus, I think it's difficult to adjust to living at home during times when I'm not at school, since I and other family members have grown used to having our own space. It sort of reawakens the old 'high school' dynamic, which is naturally a bit odd.
I didn't do much on Friday, though I finally took myself to see Bend it Like Beckham in the evening. I had been wanting to see it for a while, and it was a fun, uplifting movie. The next day, I went on a family outing to LACMA, where we went through the Modigliani and Pushkin Museum exhibitions. On Sunday, my dad took me (my sister was busy coaching and couldn't join us) to a "50's return" fundraiser concert at the local church. A few groups from the 50's, including the Coasters, the Shirelles, and the Drifters, performed, along with the final surprise guest, "Elvis" (though personally I think it's kind of cheesy to have an Elvis impersonator share the stage with 'authentic' 50's performers).
Today, I picked up the last of my London packages from the post office before spending some of the afternoon in Santa Monica. I mostly browsed, though I was able to get an oil paint set at a discounted price of $20 (the outside of the box was a bit damaged, but the paints and brushes weren't, and that's what matters) and buy a few DVDs using a gift card I got for my birthday. I've also started reading Tom Jones.
More questions, this time from Amy O:
1. Tell us about your art. How long have you practiced it, and what are your most memorable creations?
I've been drawing for about as long as I can remember. Mostly, I'm self-taught, though I did have introductory art and a summer drawing class in high school.
The earliest drawings I've done were fantasy-related, since I loved unicorns, mermaids, fairies, and the like as a child. Drawings were also linked to random stories I came up with. For example, a 'Cat Story' I worked on included various drawings of the two main (cat) characters, feline and canine royalty, a palace with a bone-shaped floorplan, and other locations and characters. I also drew a few graphics and cartoons for the Marlborough Ultra-Violet and the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Bi-Co News, as well as some graphic work on a website that I was interning at.
I started keeping track of my sketchbooks around 11th or 12th grade; before that, most of my drawings were on individual sheets that were more often than not thrown away or lost in the margins of notebooks. I think that it helped me a lot to be able to look back and improve, plus sketchbooks gave me more of an incentive to do more 'serious' studies or other drawings that deviated from my usual styles. I also found senior year art history classes to be useful, as it layed out the many ways in which artists have used various methods to achieve a wide range of results. Finally, I was able to borrow my mom's copy of Photoshop (as she does some freelance graphic design work) and develop my skills with that program. I've always been good with computers, and I think it's been helpful to work on digital art since it allows me to work with a greater range of effects without having to worry about messing up as might happen with paints or pastels. I would like to get more practice with paints, though.
A recent picture that I'm pretty happy with is Jazz Baby, which was largely improvised and in a style that I hadn't used much before. I've gotten some good feedback from family and friends on it, and it's currently the background on my laptop. I'm also pleased with the quick progress I've made on Illustrator.
2. When people ask me what kind of music I like, I have to say "all kinds," because it's not the genre that interests me but a certain quality. What quality do you like best in music?
This is sort of broad, but I like music that tries to engage the audience rather than pander to it. This can be through musical patterns and progressions, interesting lyrics, or anything else, but I think having that extra layer of complexity makes the music more enjoyable.
I always enjoyed being part of Chorale at Bryn Mawr because putting together one line of music over a period of time helped me to really listen to the other musical parts and the interaction of the music.
3. What's your wildest "dream" — that is, ambition in life?
It's hard to say, since I have plenty of assorted ambitions that don't really fit with each other. In a broad sense, I would like to do more art-related work, though that work could be stand-alone or in the service of something else. I'd also like to be able to travel more.
4. Kids? Maybe? Maybe not?
I've always been somewhat leery of the idea of having kids. It's not because I dislike children; after all, I've talked about my young cousins a lot, and enjoy going on the occasional outing to Chuck-E-Cheese or the park. However, I think it's very different to actually deal with the day-to-day problems of raising a child. I've never had any particular desire to be a mother, and at this point I'm not comfortable with the sacrifices that would have to be made (especially since, unlike a 'job', it's tricky to 'quit' and choose another path). So, probably not.
5. Why blog?
I hadn't been able to keep up any sort of consistent journal or record until I set up my LiveJournal. I think it's largely because it is a fairly convenient way of keeping a record, since it's more organized and easier to look through at a moment's notice. For me at least, the greatest benefit has been in encouraging a habit of writing down my experiences. While I've written my fair share of pedestrian entries, I might not have a record of interesting or important events like May Day, my graduation, or my UK trip if I didn't have an online journal.
In addition, it's useful to have as a way of keeping track of people, including some who I had lost contact with before finding their journals. Likewise, people are able to keep track of my life; my LiveJournal sometimes functions as a more detailed 'Christmas letter'.
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