Friday, December 24, 2010

Lately-

Things are turning around for the good, it feels AWESOME. I don't have to work for Satan anymore, which is nice. I've been making things, I have heat again (praise Jesus) and I'm finally over my cold. I've also recently met some very inspirational and motivational artists and all around good people. It makes me think I might be able to swing this freelance thing and really be able to do what I want to do and not be bogged down by a full time job that I hate. 

Anyway, here are a few images of New York over the past couple of months.


Rockefeller Center





Sorry for the horrible pictures, but these are some of the beautiful windows and neat lights out and around Manhattan.
These are from the NY marathon on Bedford and Manhattan Ave and other Fall days


Hello Lesley and Andrew
McCarren Park 
Near Graham Stop

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Oh yea

Two (2) interviews tomorrow! Woop woop. Onw at 9 AM 30th, then go to 53rd for like an hour  or so for this small odd- job I've been working on, then another interview at 12 on 45th! It's going to be a crazy day.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Hello Again

Well it seems like I have a special follower, which means I'll have to stop being a lazy bum and start posting to this thing again. (Hi Em). When are you going to start your blog? I'll be thinking of CA when looking at this:



Picture from McBrooklyn blog

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Labor Day Weekend

  Out of the window, at the top of a lime green, ladder-like structure hung a rusty pulley. It rested there with its face turned away from the sun. A broken laundry line dangled from the pulley, swaying a soft goodbye to summer in the gentle breeze. The midday sun cast a quiet shadow on the little yard below as a young couple emptied out the kiddie pool. The young mother calmly picked up a beach ball that had been roving around the lawn, running away from the first signs of Autumn. The woman gave it a little toss and squeezed both sides and, bending slightly through the low-hung door, went inside. 
  The slow wind that came in through the window carried a woman's voice, singing almost imperceptibly. She only knew half the words of every other verse. She sung just under her breath but loud enough so she could feel the words wafting up and out from her stomach. On this Sunday the weight of the week was nowhere to be seen and the promise of the impending holiday made the words taste that much sweeter.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

First Day of Summer!

    Yesterday was the first time in a long time that it's been sunny on my day off. I took full advantage of course. It's definitely strange how the weather dramatically changes my mood. I slept in, ate some grub and then tanned on the roof for about an hour or so. Then I met my roommate Lesley for a beer and we caught the Spain v Honduras game at a local bar. Viva Espana! I started towards Bedford Ave with my bike and heard some pretty good live music. I stopped to watch for a while, took some pictures and did a quick sketch. There's nothing better than live music in the summertime.


     I was heading home, but something about the East River Park called to me so I decided to settle there for a bit and bask in the sun for a while.

     I also picked up a couple of books from one of the street vendors for pretty cheap ($4). Even though I just got my NY Library Card, I figured four bucks is actually cheaper than what I would end up paying in my inevitable overdue library fines so I went for it. It's also always so exciting to own a new (new to me) book!

Monday, June 21, 2010

A Year

I was looking through my camera the other day. I have pictures on there from over two years ago. I'll spare you those, but I'd like to reminisce a bit and pick out a few of my photos to show a few of my good times.

   Savannah

 We typically gathered at Jon and Ally's Saturday nights. I think we're just about to play a drinking associated game of cards.


 Papusa Night near the end of the year at Mily, Lizzy and my house.


   Greece

I know I still talk about this way too much, but my trip to Greece was one of the best things I've done. Returning to Kalambaka from Meteora.

 
Mykonos at Dusk

Lindos

Rhodes
I like that guy with the cheesy Greece tourist shirt 

Santorini. The crowd was insane.

   Home

 Hiking for my uncle's birthday on Halloween in Santa Cruz with my cousin and doggies.

Later that night. . . Emily as a scarecrow and Ben as that ol' black crow himself.

The 'hood in mid November

 Yosemite- Bridal Veil Falls


Yosemite- Hike back from Vernal Falls

This is from me soaking up my last bits of home before my move to NY. I took my dog hiking in Los Gatos every chance I got.

He's so happy whenever he gets off leash

Looking SE towards Almaden
 
Bye- bye Heintz Open Space


New York
 
Spring finally comes to New York with green leaves and great sunsets. . .

. . .and eating. . .

. . .and drinking. . .

. . . and more drinking.
 
 
Father's Day on Long Island

    So, I grew up down the street from my best friend Emily. Her mom, Sheryl and her stepdad, Brian came out to visit Sheryl's sister Kathy and her husband Wayne who live on Long Island. Kathy, Wayne and their two kids Elyse (who's my age) and Tyler, a few years younger came out to visit California ever year during the summer. Basically the whole gang is like my family. 
    I left work Saturday evening, caught the train out of Penn Station and made it to the house a little over two hours later. Everyone is always so gracious, their house is beautiful and it's always great to get away from the city for a day or two.That evening I just hung around and watched Tyler and his friend score the rest of his film. Apparently they have a big father's day/ beginning of summer BBQ with a bunch of friends and family and Tyler was finishing up his film to premier it at the party the next day. Which, by the way was a big hit with the whole family. Keep an eye out for Tyler Bodamer, he's going to do really well in the film industry.
    The next day we got everything set up for the party.
 Ah, the drinks table, prior to the creation of Wayne's famous, deadly rum punch.

Don't judge me. I only had one and it wasn't that bad.


Holey board. So simple, so fun.

First came drinks, some holey board, then we kicked off the hors d' oeuvres with some sausage, courtesy of Brian.

Then came more holey board, more drinks, and a whole lot of conversation. Almost everyone there was a native of Long Island and blessed with the gift of gab.

Then came dinner (thanks Wayne) of which I over ate and didn't save room for dessert and that was a real shame.  All in all it was a great trip. I got to see some family and finally deliver my painting to Sheryl and Brian. They really enjoyed it which is all that matters and I can't wait to see it up in their house when I go home in a few weeks!

Coming up, finally a beautiful sunny day off in Brooklyn.


Monday, April 26, 2010

The New York Times

While living at home in San Jose my internet homepage was the New York Times. I almost always found myself enthralled by one of their "Most Popular" articles. My flimsy qualms about being conformist were always quelled as soon as I began to read. I still base some of my romantic endeavors on Daniel Bergner's findings in his What Do Women Want? article. Or justify them, at least.
Now that I'm here I don't read the Times or the Magazine nearly enough. I've left it out of my E-mail-Facebook-Blogger routine and can never seem to recall it when I'm bored and looking for other things to investigate on the internet. As you can see my internet-media radius of knowledge is decidedly smaller than most people's, but what can I say? I'm a simple girl. Yet on those rare occasions when I do decide to read something, I'll notice that the next day it seems as though most of New York has read it too. For instance the day after the Times had an article on the absence of subway announcements, A.K.A. the omnipresence of mumbling train conductors, even the G train got it's act together enough for me to know that the Fulton stop was next.
Today while skimming over the home page I had my second rendezvous with a lovely man by the name of Bill Cunningham. Ol' Bill does a style segment for their multimedia section called On the Street with Bill Cunningham. Bill is like your great-uncle with ambiguous sexual orientation. As far as you know he could have a wife and children, but he could just as well have a feminine, balding life-partner and everyone in your family is too polite to speculate. Bill is just one in a long list of people that remind me of one of my goals to fulfill while living in this or any other city. I love being an observer of oddities and curious characteristics in people. I've always loved to draw "weird" or "different" people because I like exploring why these people strike me as such and it's something I want to examine further in my work.* Let's hope that these intermittent inspirations produce results and continue to make for an interesting life and an interesting body of work.


*Is it typical for someone as antisocial and awkward as I am to have such an interest in people? Have I compensated for my own social awkwardness by using the excuse that I'm an observer in order not to participate in society? Good God let's hope it doesn't go the sociopathic route, because it very-well could. Let's hope I can find the participant-observer balance.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Adobe Trials

When you're poor, Adobe 30-day trials are the shit. Now for reals, I'll hopefully have a website up soon.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Holy Shit

I just started my new job today. I swear to God I continue to subconsciously sabotage myself. I basically made a bunch of decisions to ensure that I did a horrible job. For example, I only gave myself four hours of sleep and didn't bring a lunch or have a way to get lunch which resulted in me being brain-dead and grumpy the entire day.
I showed up late, disoriented and flustered after being caught in the rain, not knowing what to expect. I wasn't sure which position he hired me for because I interviewed for a receptionist position (which I later proved to him I couldn't have done). I also just expected this to just be a paperwork day for some reason. Not quite.
Turns out I am part of the production team. It's big commercial printing company whose name I got wrong when speaking to my boss this afternoon. I called it "Print Factory." It's "Print Facility." Idiot.
The woman who's the lead production manager wasn't there today so I had to learn and do all the things necessary to set up documents and machines in order for them to be ready to print. There are around four huge laserjet plotters for posters, two color printers, B/W plotters, a 2-Color offset printer, a 5-Color offset printer, die-cut machines, lamination, and some screens that look like they hadn't been used in a while among other things I can't remember.
I've got to give myself refresher courses on Illustrator, InDesign and apparently the English language/proofreading and craftsmanship.
I basically felt like an idiot the whole day. Tomorrow will be better.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Beautiful day in BK

Today was so gorgeous! I set out early to drop off resumes at various places around the area. I was lucky enough to be able to wear shorts and a tank top. Spring is in the air and the daffodils are emerging all around the area. I got some promising responses from a few restaurants and coffee shops, so hopefully something will come of that. Other than that the face painting business looks like it's going to have some real success. We have a real opportunity to promote ourselves and get the name out there this Sunday and have some leads for future gigs!!



*Designed by Kendall and Lesley!*