Even when you were here you were already gone

Emi and I had the best time yesterday: I just borrowed a Nikon FM2 from Charlie Chu, and she has been photographing with her dad's old camera for a while, so we went out together on a 3-hour walk around Portland and she showed me a few things about taking a good photo.

The weather was GORGEOUS. I sunburned my shoulders! It was the first warm, sunny day in a long time and everything looked good.

We explored a couple of piers at the waterfront and saw geese, boats, dragon boats, and a great blue heron. Let's do it again!!!

You have been cloudy, distant, dark; I'm thinking of Noah and the ark

9 new Between Gears pages this week!

I just drew the last November page, and hit the 100 page milestone!! WHOOHOO!! Just 172 left! Ha ha....

I've been hitting a lot of milestones lately. I went to my last Pi Phi chapter last week, took my last test on Tuesday, turned in my archival thesis copies today, and have my last day of class (EVER!) tomorrow! Exciting times, exciting times.

Consider this the calm before the storm of new art that will come after I move home and get set up there. :D Priority 1 will be finishing Between Gears. I start a BIG project in the middle of August, and would really really really like to finish BG before I get taken away by that. It's a pretty daunting race against time--I have to make 17 pages per week for 10 weeks to finish in time. But if you know me you know that's exactly the kind of challenge that gets me psyched to work :P

Oregon is being a beez this spring/summer. May was a bust, raining or cloudy all but a handful of days, and June is off to the same start. Even for Oregon, it's ridiculous and depressing. CHANGE!

EDIT: Oh HAY! Did I ever mention that my thesis went really well??? IT WENT REALLY WELL! I passed with distinction, which is the best you can do. It means that out of the honors college theses presented this year, mine was in the top 10%!

Get it on! Get it on! Get it on! Nothing to fear

It was SO HOT in Eugene this weekend!! I was sticking to my desk so badly, I had to give in to the impulse to go for a walk by the Willamette and laze around on the lawn with a book. It's great to need sunglasses and shorts again.

If I have learned one thing about myself as an artist this year, it's that I thrive on deadlines. Creativity honestly comes easiest when I know exactly how much time I have, and it looks challenging. To tap into that drive for my summer projects, I've calculated approximately how many units of work each project requires (about an hour each...units of work could be "scan a page" or 2 units of work for "pencil a page"), and the total for all projects. Then, I can divide the units of work remaining by the days remaining and set a daily goal to get everything done. A little OCD, but excellent for my motivation. I love the feeling of racing or 'beating' a daily goal. Right now, the daily goal is 4 units of work, so I inked one page (2 units) and penciled one (2 units). Now I'm going to smack that daily goal down with another ink! >:D

I've been job-searching more fervently as we reach the one-month-till-summer mark. I applied for 2 receptionist jobs this weekend, and have considered a wide variety of other jobs while cruising Craigslist. Dental hygienist, waiter, bartender, graphic artist, painter...ice cream truck driver??

Yup. I could be that creeper handing you or your kid a choco-taco this summer. :P


I don't really mind what I do, but I'd like to know what I'm doing before too long!