Lauren and I + food times!

Today I have been feeling quite tired. Not sure why. I guess it's just the lay of the day.

I decided to go out and spend some of my precious dollars on food! I was going to get sushi and wine and watch T.V. at home in bed (thrilling, I know). But wine was too expensive to justify, so I went slightly less classy and got a 24 oz bottle of Mike's Hard. Hah! And I decided to make myself one of my favorite food items: bruschetti on french bread! I must tell you how to make it, it is so delicious.

I learned this from a missionary family who was staying at our house on furlough from Italy.

To make this delicious treat, you will need:

salt

grape tomatoes

fresh basil

olive oil

garlic clove

french bread

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and place them into a bowl. The amount you make depends on how many people/how hungry you are. Then, cut up the basil leaves (sometimes I use a pizza cutter, but a knife works just fine). Put the basil in the bowl with the tomatoes and pour a splash of olive oil in there, then put a decent amount of salt in. Don't be afraid of salt, it will really make the flavor pop. Cut the french bread into slices, and then put your oven on broil and toast the bread so it's crispy, but don't burn it! Then cut the garlic clove in half and once the bread is done toasting, rub the garlic clove on the bread. Now you are ready for deliciousness! Just spoon the bruschetti onto the bread and enjoy!

Oh, you know, just hanging out with Lauren Conrad, eating some din, in bed with my Mike's Hard. Anyone want to come hang out with me? I promise I'm less lame-o than I sound!

Also, I need a tripod. And I think my baby cam is dying. Time to start using my Rebel EOS. It's far less convenient to haul around, though.

intaglio

Tomorrow is a bike day, for sure!  Although it says it's going to rain..  I will still bundle up and bike because I haven't been able to all weekend.

You can tell if I like a piece I've made by how fast it goes on my own wall.  The woodgrain screenprint from last post got on the wall almost before the ink was dry.  And I like my new print (scroll down!) so much I almost want to put the mid-process proof on my wall!  

It is something unlike any print I've made yet at school.  I've done a few drawings like this but most of my prints and paintings are quite banal and dry.  Graphic and ironic.  Not beautiful in the most Kollwitz or Rembrandt sense.  Plus I've never made an intaglio print using mezzotint.  The rich black quality is due to the Mezzotint process.  I could try to explain mezzotint, but I bet wikipedia would do you a better service.

The beauty of printmaking is that it produces multiples so I can have one and so can you!!  If you want to buy this one, I think I may put it on etsy as soon as I'm done with the edition.  Would anyone like one?

New Print!

Final print. I think I may do another one for kicks. Also, the registration on this one was pretty wonky, which I really hate. I have an etching plate prepped to be worked on so I may do a little etching.

(28x20 in. Serigraph. Edition of 6)

I was thinking this could be a really cute print for a dad to give to his wife for mother's day. Anyone want one? I have five of them for sale, so if you or anyone you know would like one, let me know. I think I'll put it on etsy for easy transaction purposes. (www.elcamino70.etsy.com)

Tailor-made

Get this:

"You are a custom design; you are tailor-made.  God prescribed your birth.  Regardless of the circumstances that surrounded your arrival, you are not an accident.  God planned you before you were born.  

The longings of your heart, then, are not incidental; they are critical messages.  the desires of your heart are not to be ignored; they are to be consulted.  As the wind turns the weather vane, so God uses your passions to turn your life.  God is too gracious to ask you to do something you hate." (from a book I'm reading: You! God's brand-new idea, made to be amazing)

Skirt/thrift : Shirt/billabong (pac sun) : Dress (underneath)/old navy : Shoes/minnetonka

Hope everyone's weekend is amazing.  Do something you are passionate about!

Time Bandit

I was thinking today about how I mostly exist in a time period which is a conglomeration of the 70's and the 00's. Really, our current time period has no control over us, beyond the effect of current events. I could live in a 60's haze, surrounding myself with Beatles records, typewriters, and clothing of the time. I could live in the eighties with tape decks, shoulder pads, and big hair. Really the beauty of the present is that we get to pick any time period from the past and incorporate it into our current lives. I could live sans-internet if I so chose.

I think for the most part I choose to live in a mash-up of the 60's and 70's with a few conveniences courtesy of the current times. I sure do love the cultural exchanges that the internet has provided. And cell phones are pretty great.

Plus, I feel like only dressing in current trends is so shortsighted. Why would you chose to only wear trends that are current when there are thousands of years of styles available to us? Obviously new trends are fun because, well, they're new. Same goes for music. I don't really understand why people only listen to new music. There is so much good music from the past. Why can't I like music that my mom liked when she was my age? No one is saying I can't, I just find it odd how widespread this obsession with the new is.

Really, when I drive around, I half imagine that it's 1979. I only wish everyone drove 70's cars to complete the daydream.

Here is an outfit from Wednesday. There are going to be a lot of art building outfit pictures since I spend most of my time there now.

Jeans/wet seal : Shirt/thrift : Shoes/thrift

I finished my paper dress tree sculpture yesterday. They look so nice fluttering about in the tree. Hopefully the tree's leaves will come out soon and then they'll be so great among the brand new fresh leaves! I wish I had been able to make like fifty or one hundred, but I have not the time.