Senior Year Blog

Fridays I only have class until noon, so can start my weekend early. First thing on the weekend agenda was Perry County Health Department for a swine flu vaccine. They were offering them to students and those at risk. I figured I'd better hurry up and get one since I'll be shadowing doctors. I also have absolutely no time to get sick!

I raced out after the shot for a quick Tuscaloosa trip to visit a friend who goes to the University of Alabama. I thought I'd have to pick up some books at the UA library for a 10 page Painting I Alice Neel paper (Judson library cards can be used there), but Dr. Washburn, the reference librarian at Judson, called my cell right before we went to the library. The ones I'd ordered via interlibrary loan had already arrived! This weekend will be spent buried in Alice Neel books.

So far I'm enjoying it. Alice Neel seems like a pretty neat painter. Most of her portraits are pretty abstract with vibrant colors, almost Picassoish. Coincidentally, Alice Neel was a graduate of a women's college. In an interview with Cindy Nemser, Alice Neel explains why she chose an all girl's school:

"Now the reason I went there was, well, boys were very attractive and I thought that if you really wanted to paint you had to concentrate and not think of anything else."

-Alice Neel, Nemser, Art Talk: Conversations with 15 Women Artists, 1995

When I chose Judson, I was mainly thinking about the quality education, convenience, and strong science department, but focusing is probably easier at a women's college. There's really no need to dress up in the mornings unless it's a special dress day or a day you'll have your photo taken. I can't stand looking at myself in the mirror and having rat's nest hair, but there really isn't any reason to waste time dressing up normal days, except for practice dressing myself.  

Oh, big news..My quail eggs arrived for my biology honors project. More on that to come! I was way excited to see them! They're already sitting in a Lowder incubator. If all goes as planned, they should hatch around December 6^th.  

Our Painting I oil paintings were graded this week. I only got a B on project 1, a brown shoe (see above). Mr. Adams gave some pointers to improve it. I followed them, so should get upped to an A. The painting still needs more work on the funky insole. I'm a bit sick of it though.. I don't think it's possible to look at a dusty old shoe for more than a week without wanting to chunk it or dump paint on it. Who on earth would want a shoe hanging on their wall? Think I'll let it sit for a while and come back to it.

My Painting I Project II piece is a paperclip. We were supposed to come up with still lives. Since I got tired of the shoe in the first week, I decided to do something I couldn't get sick of - a light blue paperclip. It's on a nice purple construction paper background with a strong light, so has really cool shadows. The purples and blues are putting me in a much better mood than the browns, blacks, and mud tones of the shoe did. I decided to use a really big rectangular canvas and only show part of the clip. This painting is certainly going way more quickly than the old shoe painting. There is still a little bit of work to do, but not much.  

The only bad thing about my paperclip is that my hands will almost certainly have a blue tinge until it's finished. I need to remember to bring good soap to class. I keep forgetting it. Today I had to drive home with paper towels on my hands so I wouldn't get light blue fingerprints on the steering wheel. It was a bit tricky transferring the paper towels to shift gears, but I managed! I might as well go ahead and find blue nail polish that coordinates with my paint.

I'm glad I decided to branch out my senior year. I'm really getting into all of this painting. It's a good break. I'm planning to join Art Club. I've been interested in joining for ages, but have always thought I was too busy with other campus obligations. This year, there are ideas for a trip to the Frist in Nashville, an Empty Bowls dinner, weekly movie nights, and sale of artwork to earn money for museum trips. I can't wait!