hello! hello!
It’s been a minute! Did a lot of things since my last post. The month of February flew by so fast that I decided to take a break. Here are some things I did….
Since we moved into the neighborhood I noticed some construction going on at the sandy jug (former strip club) and turns out it’s reopened as a bar that is a conveinant 5 min walk from our apt so we went and checked it out.
Paul, Katie, and I went to see the Birds of Gaza exhibit at Alder Commons. The 1221 birds were made in over 17 workshops held by community groups for the children of Gaza who have been killed by Israel.
Marchin on…..
I threw my back out during the month of February and was doing lots of sitting/slow movement, hence the break with posting for the month/the ongoing lingering pain. I’m fully recovered and riding my bike all over town again!
Went to the opening of the Policing Justice exhibit at PICA, it was a bit crowded but looking forward to going back to take it in more. The show is up until May, highly rec checking it out if you haven’t yet! There’s additional talks and film screenings at Clinton Street Theater in conjunction with the show.
As a part of the Policing Justice exhibit, Robert Trafford did a talk at PNCA on some of the projects he’s worked on at Forensic Architecture that blew my mind. Juan was asked to speak on a panel afterwards with him and Teressa Raiford.
Laurie Anderson, Big Science, 1982.
Honestly made this album of the month because I saw her at the Keller on Friday (March 29th) and was listening to it a bunch to pump myself up! First off this album cover- iconic. Listening to “O Superman” gets me a little misty eyed every time. In a Pitchfork article I read that the inspiration for the song came from an opera Le Cid the composition titled "O Souverain". And this great (and timely) description from the Pitchfork article further describes O Superman: “It's a song of military arrogance, failure and the price we all pay.”
Eraserhead, 1977.
Juan and I finally got around to watching Eraserhead. I’ve been meaning to watch it for like the last decade after a professor of mine in grad school mentioned it to me. What a dark and twisted film! Having watched Twin Peaks, I now see where the seed started and how it evolved- I couldn’t help but draw connections to the series- the zigzag floor, the nightmarish film cuts. I found some parts of the cinematography to be completely mesmerizing, like the*spoiler* pencil dust.
I also got to see some great docs in the last month at Clinton St Theater- El Grito, and Israelism. Highly rec both!!
In the studio…..
I’ve been hitting the tutorials hard over the last few weeks, kind of settled into a nice routine of drinking my coffee while learning a 5-10 min youtube AE tutorial. I quite enjoy youtube for so many things. The one above is one I did for this kalediscope-y/rorsharchy effect.
Finally got the chance to go to Hopscotch a couple weeks ago, our director took us on a motion field trip! It was almost like a mini Meow Wolf right here in Portland. A fun, inspirational experience to do. Here’s a video of me walking through some lit up tubes- they reminded me of those multicolor tube popsicles.
Some things I look forward to focusing on in the coming months are character animation and 3D….recently I learned about Spline (heyyyo we love a free software program ;) ) , and just started messing around in it last week.
Housekeeping:
Been doing a lot of housekeeping lately- updating my website, my reel, and planted some akebia to cover this chain link fence for some privacy in the back area of my apartment. We got very sunny and warm weather 2 weekends ago (and this weekend!) which prompted me to start planning out our little back area: basically we have a tiny deck, some concrete, and a long narrow patch of dirt that I’m looking to transform into a lush plant/small garden area. The times the sun has finally emerged recently, I realize oh, yeah, why do I feel so up and ready to do things suddenly??? The seasonal depression hit hard this year y’all. Also didn’t think how much I would miss my backyard from our last house until the sun hit, and it’s absolutely lighting the fire under my butt to figure out how to transform the space to make it more private and lush to enjoy this summer.
And that’s all folks. See you at the end of the month (also I chopped off all my hair) ok byeeeeeee.
GIANT LOTTIE 🍔 lovelove