I’m definitely not using this image, but I do get entertained by how it looks like  a wrestler and an insect combine.

Creo Magazine is an online quarterly magazine that promotes student artists and visual culture. I got asked to be featured in their spring issue, “Nature vs. Nurture” along with a grouping of other artists from around the country. This is a preview of a page with my work. There’s another page with an interview included. I’m pretty impress with the flashy online magazine viewer. I got caught up in reading and forgot that I couldn’t physically move the pages except with my mouse.

Back to the studio/library/printshop/runningwithmyheadcutoff!

What would be my first hardcore studio day of the semester is starting off badly. There’s currently four trashcans set up to keep the leaky roof from flooding my studio floor. I probably need to put away any prints in the flat files for safe measure. Apparently, this will happen every time it rains. Bah.

The print quality is top notch and my image looks snazzy for the month of March:

Since I’m one of the featured artists, I received 10 copies for free. Now maybe I can keep track of my semester and deadlines… key word being “maybe.”

School starts the 19th, the last semester of graduate school. Scary! I still don’t feel quite ready, but maybe the start of the semester will get me out of my creative slump. It’s now or never I suppose.

-Megan

After a whole semester of whining about my camera, my parents decided to get me a new camera for Christmas. Huzzah! Now I have to learn how to use it properly. I’m going to re-shoot recent artwork for an application I’m working on this vacation.  I need to have my images look top notch so I don’t mess up my chances.

I took a nice long break from art making, but now I need to kick my butt into gear and prep for shows. Buy frames, print, make new art, hang stuff, and of course, the thesis paper/exhibition for graduating school. SO MUCH! AH!

Expect more posting here in the near future. I want to document as much as possible for the upcoming thesis show. I might do a “photo-a-day” posting schedule or something similar to motivate my blogging.

Upcoming shows:

MFA group show @ Gallery 148 (MCAD/MPLS, MN)

Gender Show @ Altered Esthetics (NE MPLS, MN)

Glass, Cinder & Thorns @ 323 East Gallery (Royal Oak, MI)

Feminality Traveling Exhibition Round 3 @ Manhattan venue (haven’t learned much more than that)

MFA 2010 Thesis Exhibition @ Soap Factory (MPLS, MN)

Those are the main shows so far. I might keep my eye out for more shows that follow the thesis exhibition, but this should do for the semester. I’m starting my print for the Glass, Cinder & Thorn show. I’ll have a print in-progress for next week, maybe?

Yesterday, I got a catalog in the mail for the Los Angeles Printmaking Society 20th National Exhibition from last semester. This book is huge and full of lovely black and white images of prints from the show. For some reason, I didn’t include any artist statement with my image.

Bummer. It kind of makes me look like a goof, I’m the only one that doesn’t have a blurb by my image in the catalog. I must have been a space case when I sent all the information into the mail. I can’t seem to think of a better reason why I forgot. Still, it’s nice to see my artwork along with other printmakers in the field.

That’s all for now. I’m going to update the website later this week. The Art section will receive its usual overhaul, but I might also add my resume and tinker with the About page.

Later.

-Megan

Woohoo.

It’s a very unenthusiastic “woohoo,” because I still feel like I’m recovering. I’ve been on break for a week already and I’ve mostly spent it on resting and organizing. I’m spending the break absorbing feedback, sketching and reading. I’ll also print some projects for people and and get some art ready for some 2010 shows starting up next month. It seems like whenever I just want to “be done” with art, I get sucked into shows and projects. I’m glad for this,  it keeps me going and reminds me that there’s a life outside of graduate school.

I also wanted to make a public thank you. This past week I received an anonymous check meant to supplement my art making. I am immensely grateful for this extremely generous gift and plan to use it for my thesis work next semester. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you (thousand times over).

The next few weeks, I’m going to update and organize the website/blog. I’m getting a camera for Christmas, which means I can re-shoot recent work that didn’t photograph well the first time around.

And to end this post, here’s some books I’ve been using towards my thesis draft:

And books that I read for fun… or try to, because I start them on vacation and then take four months off to do school. This winter break I plan on finishing these books:

I have 6 of these printed: one left alone and another collage (below), which I guess I used two for the final product. I’m working towards new approaches for the rest. It’s my twin sister, which I’m sure she just loves that I have her infested with bees below.

This piece has been in the planning stages since summer. I haven’t gotten around to it, but every time somebody visits my studio, they mistake it for one of the finished pieces. I’m not sure what to take of that, but I’ve been told to include this with the rest of the work. I need to finish it though. Maybe draw it on the wall? I’m not sure. I got a weird comment that the unfinished aspect of the work is what makes it successful, but I don’t think it refers to presenting the piece “as is” so I’m left to figure out a new way to complete it.

That’s me all disheveled and tired looking, which is how I roll 98% of my time at school. I don’t usually put pictures of myself up, but I figure this one is for the folks. When I first toured MCAD, my mother was appalled at the undergraduate students’ general appearance. Grandma glasses, leopard print leggings as pants, unwashed hair, and ill-fitted thrift store wear offended her fashion sensibilities. “Why are these girls looking ugly on purpose?” she asked me loudly enough so that the surrounding perpetrators would overhear. “I don’t know Mom, it’s an art school thing,” I told her in order to get her off my back. Then she grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, repeated the entire time, “DON’T EVER CHANGE MEGAN! DON’T COME HOME LOOKING HOMELESS AND DIRTY! I MEAN IT!”

Oh the memories. Maybe I’ll find an obnoxious outfit at a thrift store to wear the first day home for Christmas break. Our secret, shhhhh.

This brings up the necessity to rewrite my “About” page. I’m working on my writing more with my mentor this semester. This week, I need to work on my “elevator speech” which will be my two sentence summary of what my work entails. That statement will be perfect when talking about my artwork on the website, but I’ll also need to write more about myself (guh). However, this is where I feel like it gets sticky and need reader input.

Which means…. wait for it….

A poll!

Yes! Get excited. Or don’t, but I really need feedback. I don’t want to assume that I know the correct path. The last time I put a poll up for my site redesign, the feedback was very helpful.

Click away!

Joshua Bindewald told me that my artwork was in the newspaper… and it was! So excited. The article doesn’t say anything specifically about anybody’s work from the show. It’s more general and fairly complimentary, although I get the feeling that the pricing comment was poking fun at my price tag (haha, whoops). The article was posted online as well, but I went ahead and took a screencap for your reading pleasure:

and the actual article:

Yay. This makes all those feelings of failure from last year go away, albeit temporarily.

-Megan

Booyah!

The show at the Chambers went really well. Everybody’s work looked fantastic. My print was also sold. I talked to the curator and she said a collector bought the print. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Okay, back to work. Poot.

Edit: Forgot the school took photos. Go there!