scatterbrained...need coffee & rejuvenation

late nights these last couple of nights, tonight will be another long one too...but somehow managed through (much credit must be given to those who "watched" the sunrise with me...plus it's not so bad, working when i know someone is somewhere, out there even if there is no "typing" involved). i've had so many good (i think) design beginnings for projects these last few days, just haven't had time to sketch them out since i've been overwhelmed with forms and paperwork and technicalities...ugh, and that reminds me that i still haven't recorded my thoughts and comments about my future design intentions from the numerous talks since last friday. well...i suppose i shall try and muster out this portfolio and letter of intent before i can begin being creative again...till then, i shall bore you with tidbits from my daily wanderings...

more purty flowers... nice to see something other than grey for once...do you use an "e" or an "a" to spell grey? i use an "e". how about colour? with an "-lor" or an "-lour"? as you can see, the sleepless nights are making me ponder on meaningless little details...i was overly enthusiastic today as well...


today's seminar brought us to sitting on the cold steps at arlington cemetary...it was nice to see the contrast between the green and white of the tombstones...then, out of nowhere, comes the blue and red tourmobile...i wrote in my sketchbook "there is something fundamentally wrong about a sardine-filled-triple-box-on-wheels universal studio-ing on the same paced roads the hearse and funeral procession passes upon..."


entering thru, up, and around the women's memorial...

shades and beyond

i've been confined to my bedroom today...not feeling so well, tired, and still writing a paper. i got bored being ill, staying awake, and trying to form cohesive thoughts so started playing with my camera...my room is really nice in the afternoon, too bad i rarely see it at this time. the first day i can open up the window and let the air thru too...

outside my bathroom window the most beautiful of sites today...


and beyond my bedroom curtain...

the corner of my room...i had nearly forgotten how wonderful the sun shines in this room in the middle of the afternoon...

babytalk

visions of sugar plums and a smiling baby, julio, dance in your head...early morning greetings from germany give a mere glimpse of happiness that will soon overwhelm the lives that surround little julio. my auntie jena just had her baby last week...early and a girl whose name also begins with a j...now we have a youngster in the family again...

mismatched

after an extremely brisk and fast paced moonlit walk home...


...i had almost forgotten i was the mismatched sock goddess today...lol

multiple media blossoms

blossoms and 56 degree weather put a smile on my face as i walked to school this morning...felt like i needed to share such color with those who are less fortunate...


more blossoms...


today was marco's birthday...i made another little creation for him...with his favourite colours of course (red & gold)...


from last night's informal roll pin-up...mine of course is the one that is hanging the wrong way...(i can hear the sesame street "one of these things is not like the others" song in my head)


other people's looked like this...


while mine looked like this...


and here is the compilation shot...i wonder how well you are going to be able to see it...hmm...maybe i will be so kind as to email it so you can see more closely in photoshop...that is if i'm feeling generous, or course...

more knowledge

something to read later, jenn - [ I M A G I N E D A R C H I T E C T U R E ]

plates & wheels

well, so much for my 8 o'clock wake up call...but i knew that would happen. anyhow, i managed to drag myself out of bed before 10, which is still pretty good. i was greeted with pretty pictures that were posted on another's blogspace sometime in the middle of the night. (many, many smiles upon this sleepyhead's face remembering moments attached to such snapshots) - (pause in typing as she travels back to the windy city to even bigger smiles)


i wonder if frank lloyd would have approved of these hiroshige prints...


just for the record...every year a carnival comes to dc, and i see this ferris wheel - looking at it in awe and utter fear. i cannot believe that i was convinced to ride the ferris wheel at navy pier...which i later was told is one of the largest in the world! (eyes get big with shock) anyhow, i must say that the ride wasn't so horrifying...but perhaps it was merely the company that kept me from thinking and feeling petrified, certainly not from feeling cold though...i was trying to confirm that it was one of the largest ferris wheels in the world/nation...and in doing so stumbled across this pretty [ p i c t u r e ].

duration & intuition

"There is one reality, at least, which we all seize from within, by intuition and not by simple analysis. It is our own personality in its flowing through time - our self which endures. We may sympathize intellectually with nothing else, but we certainly sympathize with our own selves.

When I direct my attention inward to contemplate my own self (supposed for the moment to be inactive), I perceive at first, as a crust solidified on the surface, all the perceptions which come to it from the material world. These perceptions are clear, distinct, juxtaposed or juxtaposable one with another; they tend to group themselves into objects. Next, I notice the memories which more or less adhere to these perceptions and which serve to interpret them. These memories have been detached, as it were, from the depth of my personality, drawn to the surface by the perceptions which resemble them; they rest on the surface of my mind without being absolutely myself. Lastly, I feel the stir of tendencies and motor habits - a crowd of virtual actiona, more or less firmly bound to these perceptions and memories. All these clearly defined elements appear more distinct from me, the more distinct they are from each other. Radiating, as they do, from withim outwards, they form collectively the surface of a sphere which tends to grow larger and lose itself in the exterior world. But if I draw myself in from the periphery towards the centre, if I search in the depth of my being that which is most uniformly, most constantly and most enduring myself, I find an altogether different thing." -Henri Bergson, "Duration and Intuition"

signage

some more flicker eyecandy - [ s i g n s ]

trysts & lists

well, it's saturday and it's 1:46 in the afternoon, how did that happen so quickly? feeling slightly overwhelmed today with the massive amounts of work and sorting and organizing i HAVE to do...i realize much of it are things that i've been putting off for quite some time now, and i really have no excuses save for the fact that i've chosen to do much more exhilirating things with my time the past couple weeks...not to say i haven't been working at all, i have just been working at "normal" pace. this always happens, the after-midterm-studio-review brain freeze. well, today i'm making a consious choice to thaw out and rejoin the over-productive-and-over-achieving people in our society. things to accomplish include and are not limited to---as well as dates i have set to accomplish them by: (of course i am making all these mental notes here because my stupid pda is on the fritz again)

march 28-[roll drawing, two-sided drawing, sketches, exercise in pastel drawing]
march 29-[find CRN # from nora stover about pre-registration for italy for pass/fail option---buy plane ticket/eurorail pass contact greg, finish filling out forms, find health insurance forms and send]
march 31-[summary of and outline for epistemological/phenomenological paper collaborating with susan]
april 1 -[writing letter of intent for thesis/montreal bound application, contact/produce/retrieve a letter of recommendation from marco, put together sample portfolio of work, contact stipend people so they know how to give me my money]
april 4-[1:1 factura wall section revealing poetics and making of studio design]
april 5-[axonometric of design revealing the corner condition/coming together of/turning conditions]
april 16-[taxes!]

ugh, there is more...i just can't think about it right now. like working in the shop and finishing my furniture pieces and building a material model for studio...but these have time for leniency. i'm contemplating tomorrow travelling to [ t r y s t ], one of my favourite coffeehouse*bar*lounge places around...and they have free wireless! plus the name of the place now takes on different meaning to me, and puts a smile on my face...gol

ugh...overwhelmed...and can't think of a good soundtrack for today.

sympathy implies exquisite vision; the power to receive as well as to give; a power to enter into communication with living and lifeless things; to enter into a unison with nature's powers and processes; to observe - in a fusion of identitites...sympathy thus understood as a power, is the beginning of understanding; for knowledge, alone, is not understanding. -louis sullivan, 1924

shadows & reflections

quiet waking

today was made a quiet day by me...careful, thoughtful, calm...it began nicely waking up a little more rested than yesterday's rude awakening of realizing that sometimes 2 calculating minds in the same 8x12 room can still make mistakes. (smile) anyhow, spring is in the air here. yesterday while walking back from the airport, rolling suitcase in hand, i passed the barren trees and noticed the white magnolia flowers beginning to stretch their petals. this evening i saw yellow daffodils in the neighbors yard that brought a smile to my face. today's warm sun convinced me that a nice walk alone down to the waterfront was exactly what i needed. old town alexandria and i became reacquainted with one another as i stepped into its bookstores and coffee houses...sigh...sometimes even after a relaxing weekend away, it is necessary to rejuvenate and listen to the silence of your own mind and thoughts. some of my time was spent reflecting on the last 5 days and the creation of a list of moments to remember - it may be incomplete still, but that could also because my memory has been failing me lately (more than usual), thus the need to write these thoughts here, in order to remember the reasons my mouth smiled more than usual these past few days ---

this list becomes a story /of a trip to chicago
-four poster beds
-smelling like roses
-orange chairs in iconic buildings
-riding trains 2 stops just to go thru architecture
-being woken by sunlight beaming thru blinds
-sketchy parts of town that make me want to hide the map
-ominous looking trees
-rubber bands stolen from historical buildings
-comments on glasses
-having no good soundtracks (till the last day realizing one could have been had)
-gentle touches to the knee while road-tripping
-ferris wheel coercement
-coffee mugs that remind me of my grandpa
-wine in plastic cups and "the usual suspects"
-touches to the chin by random men celebrating irish holidays
-6B notations on the right hand
-free drinks because "you guys are nice"
-coffee, coffee, coffee
-cemetary searching, both via the internet and automobile
-being corrected for impersonal behavior in name calling
-wandering oak park & discovering FLW without the $3 map
-the "beach" lake walk thru the weeds/trees/along the interlocking pier...listening to the waves with coffee mugs in hand that had the most ingenius non-spill lids ever
-listening to the idea of a "graphic instruction" collection book
-being able to go "home sweet home" and not a hotel room
-drawing on the arm of another & being reminded of my love for the movie "the pillow book"
-drinks spilled on my of course green shirt within minutes at an irish pub on the most irish day of the year
-the moment of vulnerability when from my mouth came the words of agreeing to be asked 5 direct, unambiguous questions...& then not being taken up on the proposal
-50 cent tours of school ampuses & being told payment can be made later
-chocolate chip cookies - but more the sound of rustling ziploc bags while my eyes are resting
-ink pens that run out due to skin usage
-phantom green, matrix-like buildings glowing in the fog and the "attempt" to photograph it
-striped knee highs due to moonlit shadows
-more mirrors, more attunement to reflections
-st. patrick's day stolen signs
-old moving bridges and the sparkle in the eyes of a person that see such moving wonders as wonderous
-m. gondry videos (the making of one's own as well as the viewing of the already made)
-rewards that come in the form of french fries and apple dippers
-looking for "welcom to (fill in the state)" signs along midwest freeways
-my first cracker barrel experience...rocking chairs/triangular games/being reminded of apple farm in slo/missing checkers/salty ham
-me always being 1 peg behind
-the creation of a story that tells of the next 5 days, warm and with water, a roof, a cemetary, more long lazy mornings, complete with burrowing in the back of my neck, a place that is haunted, accessible by train, includes staying in private residences, and crepes one morning of the 5...(story to be continued and finished at a later date yet to be determined...)

desperately missed waking up here this morning...for a brief moment before opening my eyes i was hoping that it was 7 o'clock in the morning and i was waking to the sunlight pouring thru the windows...sigh---the disadvantages of being spoiled for the last 5 days

way too long of a day and too tired right now to go thru and sort through favourite pictures...however, i do want to show something of the fabulously wonderful weekend away from school and in my "home sweet home" of chicago...sigh. another great 5 days to mark on the days-that-sucked calendar (gol) --- anyhow...when i have a little more energy and patience to deal with uploading pictures, i will treat you with ambiguous explanations...(a tired perpetual smile to lull me to sleep as well as the soundtrack to garden state)