gwendolyngrey | Entries tagged with evol papers

I gave a presentation today in Capstone, and had the distinction of having some of the other students come up to me afterwards and say they enjoyed it and actually didn't want to fall asleep during the presentation. It also generated the most interest and feedback of any presentation in class so far. The assignment was to pick a contemporary artist to write about and present on.

Instead, I talked about Alexander McQueen and his Autumn/Winter 08 collection.

It was a beautiful fifteen minutes.

And tomorrow I have the final for my ballroom dance class. My partner and I are dancing to Neville's Waltz from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Since we are doing the least flashy dance of all (waltz), we're absolutely determined to be vastly more elegant than any other couple performing. For we are performing... in front of about 200 people... by ourselves. I just have to go hem my dress so I don't trip and fall on my face in front of everybody; at the moment, the dress brushes the ground even when I wear my four inch heels... so much potential for disaster!

Why, oh WHY does a painting class demand papers?! I should think that all our time and effort put into actually doing art would be enough, and lumping papers on top of things is just plain mean. They don't have to be formal writing, but I'm still bitter that we have to do them at all. Some of the artists I had to research had nothing whatsoever in common with my work though, and that was supposed to be the whole point of this exercise. John Currin, at least, is very interesting, and I think his work is relevant to my own... and I suppose one out of four isn't a complete bust. As for the others: Alice Neel, Gerhard Richter, and Eric Fischl, I appreciate what they do, and sort of like some of it, but I don't think it relates at all to what I do. They paint(ed) people (sometimes) and I paint people... but that's a very thin sort of association. However, to make myself feel better I am also writing about Tasha Tudor. I think I would like to be her someday, although not living as in the 1830's.... 1920's maybe... but the 1830's are ridiculous....

My mom just brought me a cup of tea and a bowl of bread-pudding and a hot-water bottle for my lap. Sunday afternoons at home are truly delightful (in spite of looming homework), and I must say that I enjoy my family so much more now that I'm not around them every day. I think my mom and dad like to feel as if I'm still their little girl, and so they try in all sorts of little ways to take care of me whenever I'm around. I'm certainly not about to complain.

I actually started working on my independent study costumes this past week. The designs are nearly complete; I just have to scan and color a couple. The general plan is for me to have finished making two of the costumes by the end of the semester, and I hope I haven't put things off too late. The maiden costume is now underway at last though, and I plan on having the undergarments done within the week. Lynette will be wearing my red effigy stays (the design is late-Elizabethan flavored), but I have to make a chemise, wheel farthingale, and petticoat. The chemise is about done, and I've started the farthingale. I'm using patterns from Jean Hunnisett for both since strict historical accuracy is irrelevant. I just wish I could properly devote myself to this...

There are about five people from my art history class in the lab right now, and we are all working on our papers.

I'm actually rather happy with how mine is coming... and I can hardly believe I'm saying that! At the moment I'm at eight pages (the min requirement was seven) and I definitely have a lot more I need to say! And it all means something! Exclamation points indeed!

On the not-so-nice side, my hands are positively aching, and my stomach is kinda queasy as a result of a lot of junk food and next to no sleep. And by next to no sleep, I mean I went to bed after 4am and got up at 6am. I don't feel tired but I've been making a LOT of spelling mistakes.... and they're the sort of spelling mistakes where I type entirely the wrong word instead... and often it's a wildly wrong word (ie 'smother' instead of 'stomach', 'jail' instead of 'feel' and 'meant' instead of went').

I think I'm on a roll! I have six pages written now (out of eight) and I'm STILL talking about Copley and his portrait of Mrs. James Warren, and am only now bring a couple other Copley works into the discussion. I haven't even BEGUN to discuss Sargent yet, much less draw comparisons between the two! If I don't keel over and can keep this up, it might just turn into a ten to twelve page paper. Me going over the page limit would be an event to immortalize in a journal for sure... it would be completely unprecedented!

But hey, I wasn't going to talk about homework!

I figure I should probably at some point mention that I updated my website several weeks ago and simply forgot to tell anyone. Poor KatieJacobs had to discover it on her own. I think I had made mention over the summer of the super comfy and very fantasy-esque outfit I made for Rebekah for our annual jaunt to Bristol. We had taken a couple decent photos of it when we were there (Bristol) and I finally uploaded them and did a little write-up thingamabob fairly recently. I do have a bad habit of keeping my website updates secret... I just assume that everyone can read my mind and will of course know when I choose to get around to posting stuff. As this is blatantly Not True, I'm taking advantage of the rare moment when I actually Remember Things to announce that yes I do have New Stuff up. Linky!

And speaking of sewing for Rebekah, I have decided to graciously postpone my own sadly neglected projects this Christmas break, and make her a solo dress for her dance competitions. We didn't find anything on our trip to Chicago a week ago, but I was inspired by all the flashy, elaborate (yet often poorly constructed) dresses and made up my mind to help her out and indulge myself all at once. It'll be very different from anything I've made before, and should push me in various, interesting ways. Fortunately I have sewn for her many-a-time in the past, and have lots and lots of ideas for designs. I also have a huge wad of swatches that I cut at work the other day, and we are planning on meeting on Mon to decide on materials and finalize a design.

Did I mention I'm getting a new sewing machine out of this deal? Well, I am, and high time too I say! The best part is that my new machine (which I get to pick up this Sun) has a function that allows me to unplug the presser foot, press a 'start' button and sew without having to use another appendage to make the thing go!!! This means I can sew while sitting on the floor!!! I'm quite excited.

I'm all set... ensconced here on the couch with Lynette's laptop, a pile of books and articles, pringles, candy, coffee and a blanket. I have my file open in MS Word, I have my outline open next to it, and I'm writing on LJ instead because it is a LOT more fun than art history.

Something interesting I've noticed however, is how most contemporary art historians all build off each other's work and research. It seems that the number of people interested in making a study of John Singleton Copley is fairly small, and different authors often make reference to each other's research in their articles. Paul Staiti in particular seems to be cropping up all over the place! The research for my paper is actually really interesting. I'm comparing and contrasting the portraits by John Singleton Copley (as the eminent colonial American portraitist) and John Singer Sargent (as the eminent American portraitist of the 19th cen) and their ways of depicting women. It's really interesting how, their names aside, they both had a LOT in common (in spite of the hundred years seperating them). My original intent was to show how different they were, but my paper is slowly coming around to focus on their many similarities instead. Most of the differences seem to be in the purpose behind constructing the portraits, instead of the artists' individual practices. I'll never be an art historian because of my deep-seating distaste of writing, but I love studying art history.

The paper is due tomorrow though, and I'm bound and determined to finish it tonight. I have four out of eight pages written, and I will stay up all night if I have to in order to finish the blasted thing. It seems to be a trend of mine to write papers at the last minute, and then complain on LJ the whole way through. If I have to take another break and rant about things before I'm done, I'll try very hard not to bring homework into the discussion. I know I'll be bored reading about it several years from now.

That said, I'll get all my homework ranting done and out of the way now. There's a disgusting amount of it to be done in the next week, and most of it is writing and studying (NOT art). Most depressing. Must finish this paper, writing another eight page beast, make a scrapbook for French (in French), finish my big illustration, give a presentation, and then study for three exams. And most of this has to be done by next Wed... I'll survive... barely.

It is done.

I mostly finished it at three in the morning, and wrapped things up at six when I pulled myself out of bed.

At least it LOOKS good... the formatting is nicer than I normally make it, courtesy of an angelic english-major roomy. And even better, it doesn't sound like I wrote it at ungodly hours of the morning under the dubious influence of 80's music and copious amounts of coffee.

Current Mood: satisfied

It's not DONE yet!

The systems of governance in Florence and Trent were diverse on several different levels. Not only were the power structures extremely dissimilar—Florence with its mildly republican councils, and Trent under the sole rule of a prince-bishop—they each (nominally) pledged allegiance to opposing powers...

Getting up at 6am, oh joy!

I definitely do NOT belong in academia...

Okay....oooooooookay:

Cup of Tea
Deep breaths
Skim the books again
Three Pages (justthreepages, justthreepages)
Ready
Set
Go

I think this is a 2am paper... one of those where I can't properly form analytical arguments unless it's between midnight and 6am. When I have all day or all afternoon, I just Can't Write. I might be able to get good grades, but I am NOT an academic. There's one hour 'til small group... if I get that cup of tea I ought to be able to grind out a page or two, and then I'll only have two pages to do when I get home.

I want to be nine again.

When watching home videos today I was amazed by two things. Firstly, as a seven-year-old I didn't mind doing my spelling or math because it meant I was learning stuff. Secondly, I was SUCH a ham! I was constantly playing things up for the camara while my sibs just went on normally... which leads me to think that the first bit might be a product of the second and I was an awful little actress at seven.