Current: review board

So, in the spirit of updating this thing until it bursts, here's post #2 of the day. Months ago - May 7th or so - I had my review board. You'll remember, of course, when I posted the pre-review board lineup, and so here I am, months later, showing y'all what it really looked like. I made a cherry torte and fruit salad to munch on (I am a huge fan of food bribery!!!) and brought some lemonade and seltzer to drink. It took me about an hour to hang (all the time I had) and it ended up lasting about 2.5 hours. Because I didn't have the time, I was only able to take pictures after the board was over and had been gone through, so it's a little disheveled in these pics. But here they are!

anne pelikan, my favorite teacher ever, by the about mixtapes installation

i tried to hang all the doodles i'd done that year, and/or
during my time away from smfa

this is an installation i'll detail in another post, but
i had just finished it a few days before my board - i really
loved how it came out

a table with calligraphy, my icon, and some odds and ends

some of these little transparency guys i made a while ago

some photobooth shots from a year+ ago, pinned
to a prototype i made years ago

the cherry torte aftermath - it was sooo delish!

wall of calligraphy

one of my favorite text pieces

sample sheets

It was an amazing board, probably the best one I've ever had. Old loops came full circle, my eyes were opened, and I walked away from it feeling proud, accomplished, encouraged, and excited. I hadn't realized just how much I had made until the whole thing was hung - and I'll tell you that we didn't even get to look at all of it. My mentor and total inspiration, Anne Pelikan, was one of the faculty, and Kurt Ralske was the other. There were three student reviewers and they were all talkative and awesome - two of them really got my work and it was really wonderful to hear how they felt about the work and the inside the had to share. By the end of the board I started thinking about how much I love making work, and how important it is to me - and feeling encouraged enough to sort of maybe a teeny bit entertain the idea that maybe, maybe, maybe, it wouldn't be so bad to put myself out there more, to try and imagine going forward with art making, in a serious way, after graduating from smfa. We'll see what happens, but i'll tell you that it really made me think...

The other day I laid out all of the work I'll be presenting at my review board, and I took some pictures. Most of this has been posted already but some of it hasn't. I've actually added a few things since taking these photos, and there are stacks of calligraphy and tracings/drawings that you can't see. I also got really into finding frames and framing some of my stuff this semester too. I try and go to salvation army and goodwill a few times a week to find awesome frames - and I've found some goodies! I got started on my frame kick months ago when I just happened to find the most perfect frame for a drawing my dear friend Matt McKeever (click for his myspace that features some of his work) gave me a long time ago now. Here's the frame and the drawing:

The photo doesn't quite capture how incredibly well the frame suits the charcoal drawing - thick, raw wood frame.

Anyways, here's some of the stuff I laid out.