Don’t change the channel, Lianne will be back after these messages…

I’m in Budapest! It is awesome!

Lots of posts coming as soon as I get back … so many photos.

yakkityyakyak

well. I sure havne’t posted in a while. Considering only my parents and denise and maybe kellen read this.. it seems kind of pointless. I guess I am more keeping this blog for my own sake since I haven’t been keeping a travel scrapbook- this sort of serves instead.

Lets see… what has happened?

I am leaving for Budapest next week (thursday) and I’ll be away for ten days. I might take a trip down to Croatia during that time, but I am leaving my schedule open. I’m planning on going to some Turkish baths (open air!) and the Hungarian Christmas Village, and the Communist Statue Park at least…

peppermint tea

Finn and I went to a warehouse dance party near our flat last friday… it was pretty rad. I didn’t get home until 4:30…

We have an tiled blocked up fireplace in our kitchen which i have slowly been building into a mountain/waterfall of wax. This is what it looks like at the two month stage…

Been making lots of new friends recently… sad since i only have a week left.
School is Over. Seems like it barely happened at all, but i am happy with what I’ve done here.
food poisoning sucks.

Lots of movies to see. Saw that Assasination of Jesse James one… pretty intense!

and dinners, dinners and more dinners to go to.

paintings

here are the two works I presented in the group crit. I’ve done some small studies, but they are mostly process and to work out ideas… it’s really nice to really have a lot of time to think about the work you are doing and really understand it. Both pieces are about 5 1/2 feet square (ish).
I had to use a flash, so they look a little washed out and the neons and really saturated colours don’t really show up, but you get the idea… sort of. just for reference, the yellow around the black blob things in the first painting actually looks neon and all radioactive. the pink is also really bright, as are a lot of the colours in the main log.
also, neither are finished… people don’t seem to ever need to finish things here.

I’m also now also considereing going farther east for my full one and a half week (maybe Croatia?) … too many options!

no pictures today

I’m posting from a school computer, so i can’t put up any images.. maybe later.

It’s been a while since I updated, and plenty has been going on. I had my first and only Group critique on Friday. It was INTENSE! mostly because it was so unbelievably long. I think it was almost six hours. The crits here are very different from Emily Carr. We don’t do them very often so they are more important. Everyone is put in groups of four or five students and two tutors and then we have a time and a room where we install some work. I was in one of the last crits, as they have been going on for the past two weeks. We go around the room and spend about an hour on each person’s work. The artist is not allowed to talk until the very end of their time… so people can’t ask them why they did such and such; the observer has to try and figure things out for themselves. The whole process is supposed to be about ‘looking’. I got some pretty good feedback… and people seemed to like what I have been doing (photos later). No one really discusses technique though, it’s all content based… so I would have felt weird telling someone that I disliked the way they were painting. The crits are also very open, its not an attack, and its more about hashing out ideas than telling people what is wrong with their work. I am always worried that people will think my work is some kind of environmentalist statement (which it is NOT!) so it was good that no one in my group even mentioned anything about that… they all seemed to get what I was trying to communicate.

On Saturday, Scotland was playing Italy (and lost) and it was CRAZY!!!! honestly, i was so sad I didn’t have my camera on me. Just imagine being in the middle of a huge pedestrian street absolutely filled with hundreds of Scots all wearing blue and white and kilts and bagpipes everywhere and they are all drunk and all singing in unison every patriotic song for Scotland… INSANE. I can’t even really describe it. The cheering and chanting and dancing was all pretty cool though.

Went to see the New Pornographers yesterday at the Oran Mor, which is this awesome venue in an old church… I was telling mom earlier that everyone seems pretty short here, however, I think every tall person in Scotland was at that show. It was ridiculous.. where did these tall people come from?

I’m currently figuring out what to do at the end of term. I have a week when I can go away, then I have to be back for a few days, then I can go away again for a week and a half… so where to? I’m thinking I might go to Germany (maybe Berlin?)… so Kellen, where are the best places? Good idea? Amsterdam is on the table, and so is Paris and Nice… and maybe someplace warm before I head back to Frigid Canada? who knows. but I have to book it all soon. France just seems like an easy option because I can speak the language and I hate that tourist feeling of being unable to communicate in places. I can barely even communicate here.

yesterday I met a new person who lives in our building and i could barely understand a word she was saying. i felt like a complete idiot.

Last thing I am working on is figuring out which planting companies I’ll apply to next spring… it just seems so far away.

reading week

well this week I have done a whole lot of nothing. but that’s okay. not a bad thing at all. I somehow (ahem) slipped back into the going to bed at 4am and waking up at noon phenomenon that seems to be so easy for me. I have spent the past two nights trying to force myself to fall asleep much, MUCH earlier, to no avail. alas! I have a paper due tuesday, but it’s really short and really easy. …just basically explain why this book I read sucks and doesn’t help me at all in my practice. no problem.

the new roommate moved in, so I felt I could afford to go to Lush and buy myself some nice things. like a face mask. mmm.

and I had a good hair day last night. before I went to bed. seems that it always looks good right before I go to bed and ruin it. but because I know how much you all care. here is a photo.

what else what else.
Mary might come visit me sometime this month and I am debating whether I want to go see Beirut, The Shins, Animal Collective, The New Pornographers, Beach House, or any other of the thousands of awesome bands playing here in the next month.
yeehaw.
I also am really likeing this little bar/restaurant that is litterally half a block away from me with free internet. Grab a beer, surf the net. plus one of the guys that works here is rather good looking. doesn’t hurt.
although right now it is busier than I have ever seen it, so I feel weird sitting on this couch using my computer when there are so many people hanging around.
I’m making pita pizza tonight.
what else can i tell you.
Glasgow is awesome.

I think I might paint this:

the end.