the lovers, the dreamers and you.

This is a mediocre picture of a perfect rainbow. The only way I could have got the full arch in frame was if I had stood in the middle of a very busy street...but still, it was a lovely lovely time.

How Not to Move a Litho Stone.

I'm attempting to teach Lithography to my advanced/grad students this semester at CSUN. All is going well so far, except for this unplanned demonstration. "See, class? It really hurts!"

Not a tear, though.

Spring 2010.

I have already been teaching for a couple of weeks, and they have been somewhat brutal weeks. That's why I haven't been blogging. (Or making art, or doing much laundry, or or or...) This semester is going to be a tough one.

I got an email a few days before classes started, asking me if I could teach Printmaking at Loyola Marymount University this semester. Of course I said yes, although the drive from Los Feliz to Westchester is not too fun. But so far my students are great, and it will be a welcome boost to my bank account.

Also I have unexpectedly reconnected with an old acquaintance from Frogman's who is a TA at LMU this semester. He's been cleaning out some cabinets in the studio there, and found this non-dairy creamer from the 1970s. Ew.....



I also love that the plastic container is a major selling point...

Two days a week at LMU, and two days at Cal State Northridge. At CSUN I have the most Printmaking students I have ever had, which is GREAT, and this is the first semester where there are more levels offered, which is making eveyone's life better!

So things are going well, but I am still adjusting to my schedule. I get up around 6am to go to LMU, and this past week I had one morning where...I swear to God...I put on two different shoes. No, not like black and brown:



Fortunately I did have time to stop at a shoe store before class.

The Winter Crazy.

I'm going to post a few catch-up posts today. This has been a catch-up sort of a weekend.

Over my winter break, I tended to a couple of crazy Michelle projects.

One: I spent a few whole days unstretching my crumby undergrad oil paintings and cutting the canvases into 4" squares. Some of these paintings were rather large, and all of them were astoundingly crumby. They had cluttered up my life for too long, and I am grown-up enough to know that I am past any interest in reworking them, or showing them to anyone, or ever ever ever hanging them on a wall.





What will I do with the squares?

I don't know.

I like how they look all stacked up. I'd love to hear your suggestions!

So, this enterprise was about orderly destruction, and potential reinvention. This second crazy project was all about crazy organization. (while listening to all three seasons of Arrested Development...) This was what I did as soon as I was done teaching for the fall semester, and I think I needed to stay home and be alone and arrange things. It was great. But crazy. I know...crazy.

Anyway, way back in gradschool, I started making the paper-spirals...It was a big (but little) component of my Thesis at WVU. (the little spirals are pictured on the banner of my Etsy store, as well.) In my moves since then, these things have been tucked away in various boxes, bags and suitcases. And I have continued making them...so I finally took the time to wrangle them into a single container, and rather than simply dumping them into the box, I obsessively arranged them one at a time. And took a million photos in the process. (50 or 60, actually)