The Sunday Morning Crowd at Starbucks.

The Saturday Morning Crowd at Starbucks.

Fashion advice.

Dear sir* in the Daisy Dukes**,

I know, I know, I am not one that should be giving out fashion advice. I wear t-shirts, jeans, and my vintage pink and black checkered Vans way too much. However, I firmly believe that the choice of wearing the Daisy Duke cutoffs (complete with frayed edges) with the tight t-shirt and cowboy boots may not have been the best idea.

At least for a Sunday morning in Starbucks. Unless I wasn't notified of some new fashion trend, in which case...carry on. And I'm out to make my own Daisy Dukes.

*not a typo. He was definitely a he.

**please excuse the gratutious usage of "Daisy Dukes". It's just that it's now become culturally relevant again to use this term to define short shorts. If I don't overuse it now, I never will.

Pigeon Playing Chicken.

So I'm walking to Starbucks this morning and about 20 feet in front of me is this pigeon with a look of fierce determination on his* face. He's walking straight for me, so I veer to the left...and he moves over in front of me. I veer to the right and again, he moves in front of me. This goes on for a couple of seconds until he's so close that I could kick him**.

At the last minute he swerves and goes around me.

Dare devil.

*I determined that he was a male purely from the bravery of the act. Perhaps his pigeon croonies were watching from a distance and had dared him to play chicken.

**I didn't kick him. That would be mean. A bit funny, but still mean.

I'll Sleep for a Year.

Accomplished. Acheived. Completed. Conquered.

However you want to say it, I am finished with summer session. I go back to Orlando on Sunday where we'll have two weeks to pack everything and move up here.

It feels good.

And I now promise to be a more active participate in life. At least until Sept. 14.

Discovery

Seriously.

All the cool things happen when I'm not there.

Good luck to them.

Please Make the Madness Stop!

Have you ever experienced the horror of "word fixation" (my term, obviously)?

The house that I am subletting a room in this summer is, of course, furnished. And there's this very large Monet print framed and hanging in the bathroom. Every time I go in there, I cannot help but look at the bottom right hand corner which says "Les Coquelicots". And then it gets stuck on repeat in my head.

As if that's not bad enough...the other girl that is also subletting this summer has some sheet music on a stand...If, by a miracle, "Les Coquelicots" is not in my mind, "Joachim" gets stuck in there.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Can someone please tell me what the heck "Les Coquelicots" means?*

Or accompany me on the way to the insane asylum?

*I know, I know, I could look it up. Google and all. But, just writing this post is aggravating my condition. I don't think I'd like to add to it by researching "Les Coquelicots".

File That Under "Thank God It's Almost Over."

For our drawing class final project, we have to do a bunch of large scale drawings...supposedly of whatever we want, in whatever style we want.

These are a few of mine.

I really am just glad that drawing class is almost over.

Light Study.

I had fun doing this one (it's large. About 3 feet long).

It made me think of Tim Burton...for *some* strange reason (especially the dancing skeleton in the background).

Public Service Announcement.

Dear Readers of the 45wall blog.

If the temperature outside reads 85 degrees and it is only 8.00 in the morning, think carefully about what you will be wearing for the remainder of the day.

For example, if it is 95 degrees outside and the humidity is so thick you can actually drink the air, and if you know that you will be stuck in a drawing studio for the whole day - WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING - do not, repeat DO NOT, wear jeans.

If this situation is compounded by the fact that you will be required to walk two miles in said heat and said humidity (to and from your 3rd floor attic apartment - which also has NO AIR CONDITIONING), please rethink the black CBGB t-shirt and white undershirt.

It's just not a good idea people.

Thank you.

Bizarro World

So. Funny story.

Between the time I got my acceptance letter from RISD and actually arriving up here for the summer, I would often joke that RISD probably made a mistake and didn't really mean to accept me. I would confidently walk up to the table to check in and they would say (as they went down their checklist, "Traci Yau...Traci Yau...I'm sorry. We meant to accept Traci LAU". I would go home humilated, but with my life making a bit more sense than them actually accepting me.

Fast forward to today.

They did, in fact, mean to accept me and I'm 4 1/2 weeks into their program. So, I go to the registrars to get a copy of my transcripts (which is a whole other embarassing story in and of itself. Let's just say college, the first time around, was not my friend).

Ms. Registrar asks my name. I go through the usual "Yau. Y-A-U" thing.

She begins flipping through her row of files, pulls one out and asks "Tessa Lau"?

Weird.

Another Color Study.

This time it was self portraits.

Andy Warhol anyone?

5.6 Pounds of Loveliness

One of the things I have to have as a Graphic Design student is an Apple G4 Powerbook, and the ones that we order through the school come pre-loaded with all kinds of goodies: the Adobe Creative Suite and the Font Folio (that's over 2200 fonts people!), among other fun things. And it's actually quite a good deal.

I placed the order for mine today.

Come mid-August, I will be the proud owner of this pretty thing:

Images From Drawing Studio

I Have No Life

And here's why.

We're doing color studies in my 2D Design class. Gouache on illustration board. Would you believe that I've spent over 30 hours on this piece? All in the last 4 days.

Another Hair Change.

So.

I changed it again. I really liked the red, but it's just too hard to up keep. Actually, it's not hard. Just a bit pricey.

This, on the other hand, is not.

I think it's close to my natural color.

Maybe.

Idle Chatter to Resume at a Later Date.

Here at 45wall, we pride ourselves* on daily postings that are fairly frivolous in nature. I promised here that I would not make any attempts at being profound or deep. I fully intend on sticking by this...

However, I am going to take a moment to bring a bit of attention to something that means a lot to me.

First, Invisible Children. An amazing documentary by some amazing guys I know.

Second, the One Campaign.

Check em out. 'Nuff said.

*by "we" I obviously mean "me".

I Just Can't Master Them Stairs...

Why is it, in a world full of graceful people, I am not one of them?

I swear I may be the only person who falls up [yes - UP] stairs. On a regular basis...and often in front of other people. I trip over things that aren't there. I even walked to a co-workers desk once...and my shoe fell off. My dear husband is threatening to pad everything in our house that has corners, and my friends are no longer surprised at my clumsiness.

I was reminded of this today, as I walked down the wooden steps in the very old house* that I currently live in...and completely wiped out.

How about you...Are you graceful?

*this is me trying to blame my wiping out on the house. "yeah, the stairs moved..."

I Think I May Be Learning Something!

I know, I know...it's been a few days. But really, I've been so busy with school (12-15 hour days)...and right now, the only interesting things for me to blog about are school related. And, quite frankly, my brain is sort of maxed out, and I don't really have anything funny or wise to say.

You'll just have to excuse me.

So. Before coming to school, the only drawing that I felt I could do involved a pencil and making things as life like as possible. But I've found that that's not "really" drawing [whatever].

My professor* is really into abstracts, defining space, and using new materials. On the first day of class, I hadn't ever even touched charcoal. The drawing on the left is evidence of that. The drawing on the right was my homework for today. I don't think he really liked it, but I am extremely happy with it - purely from a growth point of view.

*said professor is the same guy who fails to clearly communicate what he expects of us, and yet gets upset when we don't meet his expectations.