high strung

eclipse 2010

so i've been a very bad girl with this thing. i will try and make up for it with the batch of film i just had developed.

things have been good. school is love. ankle is un-sprained. hair is long.

so i haven't been posting many of my new photos anywhere. i'm not sure why. but i feel like i must hold on to them for some reason. like they've become very personal to me. i think that is a good thing. i'll share some though. why not, eh? :)

just got back from my charleston sc/savannah ga trip. i really liked savannah. although i'm pretty sure it's just a large-scale truman show. on the same day, i saw the same people at least 5 times. it was very beautiful and i found out that the people are pretty nice too.



my camera is still doing that thing where it chooses when it wants to be broken. but i can't say i mind that much.

developed 3 rolls of film lying around and now realized that #1 my nikon is not broken #2 i did not lose any film. silly girl. much to do on my winter break. already have done so much. i need to work on my invention but i have to plan for my road trip next week and still sell my textbooks back.

finals week. ick. my last final (statistics) is tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. so glad to be done.

hehe. so my digital point and shoot camera is bwoken. and it chooses when to be bwooken too. it started at the black friday art show [which was marvelous btw. i helped sarah gail out all day at the vitale studio set up like a store, selling over 50 amazing local artist's work. (including mine!)] and has continued to on and off not-work ever since.

i kinda like it. it's like i have this new lomo camera built in to my crappy point and shoot that chooses when it wants to work. wait until you see the video from it.






so i have this one dream a lot. and a lot of different ways. but it's always the same. i'm always living in, or visiting this awesome house on the beach. the house changes. sometimes it's facing east or west, painted grey or brown, but they always have at least one pool. and i'm always living there with my mom and my sister. i'm having a great time, enjoying this wealth we've never had before. usually doing different water related sports, and next thing you know, this huge wave is coming. and i can always see it. there, in the distance. everyone starts running and screaming. and my first thought is always, "my sister!" and i set out to protect her/grab her/warn her as much i can with such small warning. i always get her. sometimes i even get my mom. we always survive. but the wave always hits us.

haha. the other night i realized that most (if not every single one) of my dreams is about transportation in some way. every single one i have. action. movement. bridges. airplanes. cars. horses. i'm always going somewhere. or trying to get somewhere. getting things done. phew. talk about my whole life. i am always getting things done. i love getting things done. i love my crossed-off to-do lists. i am working on breaking this habit. i tend to feel that if i am not getting things done, i and/or my life, is pointless or worthless. hey. identifying things is the first movement towards growth. GrOOOOOOOwth.

remember my awesome neighbor i told you about? well here he is:




in the top photo he was drunk at my house, hanging out and telling me about his life and i demanded that he let me take a portrait of him. the first photo (of him crossing his arms with a badass look on his face) never came out. but right afterwards, he said, "naw. i gotta do something cool like face the door and not look at the camera or something. like this."

the second photo is when i came out of my apt in the afternoon and found him wasted in the hallway with blood everywhere. he told me he just woke up and there was blood all in his bed. when the sock came off, his bloody, mashed toe had its toenail sticking straight up at a 95 degree angle. he thought it was hilarious at the time. because he was so wasted when it happened, he didn't go to the doctor until a day or two later. i think he's still limping around waiting to see if the doctor is going to chop it off because he got an infection that started to extend up his leg. the random hand in the photo, is the maintenance guy who lives downstairs in the storage room. he's equally as awesome. i'm shooting him next....hmmm...maybe i'll do a whole building neighbor thing.

in my drawing class on monday we had our (and my) first nude model drawing session.

i arrived a little late for class and readied my materials real quick and jumped right in. she did some varied poses for about 2 minutes each while we did gesture sketches just getting a feel for the form. then we got into the pose where we would spend the rest of class drawing her. my teacher taped her off so when the model took breaks, she could get back into the exact pose. after our first break, the model went up on the stand and was getting herself adjusted. she frowned as she was trying to figure out how to place her arm. i stepped around my easel, walked up to her, and started to place her arm for her in the correct spot.

the whole class gasped and a second later my teacher screamed my name, "AJ! that is the ONE rule that was said at the beginning of class! DO NOT TOUCH the model!"

"i'm so sorry. i was late and i didn't hear you say that. i am so sorry."

so now everyone in class is either jaw dropped or snickering behind their easels in disbelief.

"can i please see you outside, AJ."

crap.

she got outside and started shaking me as i profusely apologized and half giggled because i can't believe i just did the one thing you don't do. "aj. i can't believe you just did that. imagine if it was a boy who touched her. i would def. have to throw him out. and what? just because you're a female and it was innocent, i just let you stay? you've put me in a huge predicament."

then we laughed together. "of course i would be the person to do this. if you have to throw me out, i understand, i'll go home." but she doesn't want me to miss the session because she knows i'm one of the students who enjoy our time in class. "just because you and i come from some happy hippy artist world where being nude is no big deal and we're carefree, doesn't mean we don't have to abide by the rules."

"ok. let's go get a drink from the water fountain. can you keep a straight face when we go back in there and act like i reamed you a good one?"

"i think so. give me a second." laugh.

"do i have to punch you, aj?"

"no. i'm good. let's go."


soooo. yeah. awesome first nude drawing experience. it was totally innocent and i thought nothing of it. when i am shooting females i don't think about it either. i'm just too laid back sometimes. oops.