At the beginning of very month I recap the last 30 days in my life as a visual artist. September was particularly eventful. My efforts of job hunting for a full-time job in a creative position with lots of responsibilities has finally paid off. Since graduating from art school in December of 2008, I've worked lots of odd jobs and a couple of part-time positions while I applied to over 200 jobs. Now I have a really sweet full-time job as a custom framer at The Framer's Workshop in Berkeley, CA.
I've had my eye on this custom frame shop when I was still working at Michaels Arts and Crafts. The Framer's Workshop is a certified Green business, they have low turn over, cut their own mats and mouldings and they have the option of custom or DIY framing. Could it be a better fit?
Typically I share more than a few paragraphs and include photos showing my creative endevours, but I'm exhusted. I came out to the East Bay for an inteview at the frame shop, was offered the job that week, then moved out to the Bay three days later. I have my own apartment and studio space.
September involved starting a new job, moving and starting the Fall semester. For my local friends, I'll soon be rested enough to make a coherent converstation and have time to get together. I can't wait to catch up! I am so thrilled to be back in the Bay! I am oh so content, happy and tired.
Welcome to another HITS, Happenings in the Studio, where I share what I accomplished as a visual artist over the last 31 days. For the month of August, the majority of my efforts went towards creating a commission of wack-a-doodle lanterns lit with LEDs. Right now there are five completed lanterns, three in progress, with maybe a couple more smaller lanterns needing to be constructed. Thank you so everyone who helped me: my uncle Mark and his three girls, Celeste Flores and Ian Southwell. I really appreciate all of your help and support.
The results for Augusts’ goals:
1. Challenge: Find full-time work in the San Francisco East Bay.
Result: I applied to many jobs in the creative field, several of which were an ideal fit. The interesting thing is that they were in a particular niche I hadn’t thought of working in. The fun part of job shopping is thinking of the possibilities of where I can use my creative skills, particularly in a challenging jobs that have the potential for travel. So far I haven’t secured a job yet, but something is going to work out.
One such job that is in an interesting niche was for a Green company who sells LEDs online and over the phone. They have a beautiful website that has a very helpful section on learning how to wire your own lights. As you know I adore incorporating LEDs in my sculptures and being self taught, I love this company’s DIY attitude.
Another intriguing job that I applied for was to be an administrative assistant for a company that designs traveling exhibits and museums all around the world. Most of their projects are for children’s museums, which is preciously my cup of tea in that I approach art in a whimsical manner, often incorporating vivid colors and kid’s toys and encouraging my art to be played with.
This summer I’ve followed the arduous process of applying for work with the state. After taking the two hour test on reading comprehension and long hand math, I received the results only a short 4 weeks later. Here they are: out of 7,914 test takers, only 2,789 scored higher than me. I got 90 % correct, which did momentarily wound my ego, but then again, I can do all of the required math if I was aloud to use the calculator that’s on the computer. The next step is to wait for the state to send me applications for jobs. Given that there are 1,000s of people who scored better than me, I am not very hopeful in getting a job.
2. Challenge: Secure an apartment in the San Francisco East Bay.
Result: My charming, sunny apartment is almost done being built. It’s all about the power of networking; my landlady is a friend of a friend. I’m moving here in a week or two, just as soon as the final inspection takes place. I don’t want to jinx anything, but it is the most adorable apartment and I still can’t believe I get to live there.
I have all sorts of plans for the apartment. I want to have dinner parties. One in particular event I want to host will be at Halloween time, involving Coraline. The book is pretty short, so it can be read in an evening. I thought it would be fun to have friends over to read the book together; each with our own part. Of course there would be festive cupcakes in the shape of rats.
3. Challenge: Register for online Fall classes at Laney community college
Result: The hardest part about signing up for classes is picking only two classes amongst so many exciting options, like a Green carpentry class, salsa dancing, making art from objects from nature, and learning to manage an art gallery. I decided to take another class that shows how to design an online class, since I really liked the teacher from the summer session and how she organized the class. For my other three credits, I am taking a class on how to be a better manager, which will help me not only manage other people, but myself.
4. Challenge: Complete and install the lanterns
Result: Having no idea how involved this project was at the onset, it has taken me on an exciting journey evolving from ‘some type of art that hangs over the bed that has lights set to a timer to simulate the sunrise,’ to ‘suspending 100s of bouncy balls and slinkies in the shape of a mandala,’ to its last form of ‘Chinese lanterns made from ribbon and plastic components that are lit with LEDs.’
The majority of the lanterns are installed in my art patron’s bedroom, with a couple of them lit. Despite constant revisions to make the process faster, it takes a huge amount of time to create the lanterns, which is why, even with the help of three of my cousins and my artist friend Celeste Flores, the lanterns are not finished. To finish this installation is one of my top priorities for the month of September.
Random bits of News
Another thing to note this past month is that I had an unexpected review of my art by the Examiner. (Click to read the article.)
I am completely hooked on Acoustic Long Island, which is a free podcast of indie singer song writers. These musicians have accompanied me in the lantern making process, to which I owe them thanks. My new favorite song is by Rosi Golan about meeting a guy in Paris. It get stuck in my brain and makes me smile. Thank you Cactus for getting me hooked on ALI!
I got to be the personal shopper for a friend in choosing the fabric for her new curtains and table cloth. It was so much fun exploring the fabric store with her seat cushion and a metal butterfly to match to the fabric. I loved the creative freedom and her trust in my judgment. Another lady is going to sew everything- I can't wait!
Food Blog I divided up this blog and moved all of the food posts to it's own site called Surprisingly Thankful. If you are looking for a good recipe, advice on living gluten and dairy free, go check it out.
Books Typically I read up a storm, but as you can see a lot of major transitions are going on, so I'm trying to focus on them and not on books. However, I did manage to sneak in a quick read, Rascal by Sterling North. This book is one of my all time favorite kids books.
For the lantern project I referenced four San Francisco library books on lanterns, braiding and making art with plastic. I wish I started with them, they would of made life a bit easier. Ideas for lanterns keep swirling around my mind and sketch book. I think I am going to explore this theme for a little longer.
1.200 braids to twist, knot, loop, or weave by Jacqui Carey 2.Paper illuminated by Helen Hiebert 3.Magic Lanterns by Mary Maguire 4.Fantastic recycled plastic by David and Robin Edgar
Creativity Jolt One night I was feeling unbalanced from the lack of creative work, so I made a list of every material, subject matter and started project I want to work in. From the four pages of ideas here are some that I am most excited about:
1. Revisiting my Braille boards and make a series of action figures stripped of their sticker and facial features and attach their torsos to boards with Braille.
2. Experiment with shrinky dinks and see what I can do with them.
3. I want to quill in unusual materials in unexpected ways, like this artist.
4. My mom got me hooked on mod podge, which is a clear paint that is a 3 in 1 undercoat, glue and top coat. It's non toxic and inexpensive. It's used for attaching paper to things like covers of books, but I want to push it and cover buttons with paper and see what else it sticks too.
In closing for this super long post...
September is going to be a big month of moving, school starting, hopefully starting off at a new job, and finishing the lanterns. Thank you so much for reading. As always, I love to hear from you. You can leave a comment or email me at elizabeth at elizabethsymington dot com.
I’ll see you October 1st for the next HITS, Happenings in the Studio.
To get caught up on my life as an artist, you can read and watch videos of my art. Here's the HITS table of contents.
Welcome back to the Happenings in the Studio, AKA HITS, where I recap what goes on each month in my life as a visual artist. I cover real quick non-art related events to give a sense of where my time goes, but mostly focus on my current art commissions, writing gigs, struggles, thoughts and the like.
J.O.B., Housing and College (yes, I couldn’t stay away)
June was unusually busy with things other than art. Lots of major transitions are in progress. For one my U.S. Census job ended, leaving me on the job hunt again. Since my network of artists, favorite places to buy art supplies and there is a much larger art industry in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am focusing most of my job shopping out there. With that comes apartment hunting and getting new studio space. I am not excited about packing again, but living in the Bay does make me all giddy.
Another huge change is that I am back in college! My entire paychecks were going to my repay my student loans, not giving me any headway. So I enrolled for an online class at the community college of the East Bay to put off my huge payments. So far the class that I am taking is incredibly applicable and helpful. It is showing me web tools that help teach and create community. By the end of it I will have skills I have wanted to learn for a while like how to make podcasts, know the ins, outs and applications of Wikipedia, and how to more effectively use Google Reader.
In fact, the first assignment for Summer school was to make a survey using Google Docs, which automatically puts the answers into a spreadsheet! As you know I use spreadsheets daily (literally). I feel a tad disloyal to Excel, but they just don’t have all the features of Google Docs. I made a survey for this blog. It would be very helpful and encouraging if you would please take a moment to fill out this survey for this art blog. I would really appreciate you taking it. :-) Thank you!
Paper Lanterns
Typically I show a slideshow and/or video of what I have created but for June I have nothing much to share. I’m still conceptualizing and problem solving how to best create paper lanterns wired with LEDs to hang over my client’s master bed. More about the art process and thinking that goes behind making art installations.
I did get to meet up with my artist friend, Celeste Flores and art patron, Andrew, to talk art. It is so encouraging being around fellow artists and art lovers.
New Website of hot places in Sacramento
My Aunt Jenny asked me to join her in reviewing our favorite places in the Sacramento area. We are still compiling posts before debuting. For a sampling, I’ve written about a gluten free and vegan restaurant, traveling by train, where to pick up illustrated kid’s books in Braille, and several day trips of San Francisco’s Marina District with a google map plotting out the trip.
Inspiration/motivation: books, films and TV series
I’ve already spoken several times about the book that I got for my birthday called Crush it! By Gary Vaynerchuk, so I'll leave it at this- go read it!
My textbook for my Summer class is called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I’m learning all sorts of helpful things about RSS feeds, blogs and Wikipedia. It is written in a lively and upbeat style. Thank you San Francisco library for carrying this book. :-)
Besides designing paper lanterns, I watched Wild China, a documentary filmed by the same incredible folks who created Planet Earth. Stunning cinematography and some animal behaviors never caught on film before. My paper lanterns have a lot to live up to. Wow.
I'd eagerly awaited the Sacramento French Film Festival at the Crest Theatre and I was very surprised in a bad way. None of the films were rated and they were way more depressing, shocking and unnerving then I was expecting. After watching the short films I didn't feel like running off to France to drink absinthe and to paint. However dinner with my family and Celeste at Crepeville was wonderful, as was the coffee at the Naked Lounge and sweets from Ginger Elizabeth's chocolate shop. Plus the venue was adorable, old fashioned, smelt like real popcorn, and had sculptural wall sconces taller then me.
To read my thoughts and books read for this year, here's my 2010 booklist.
July goals:
Find a full-time job and an apartment in the Bay Area
Finish creating and installing the paper lantern commission
Finish the last four weeks of my online class and apply what I learn to better market my art and put the new skills towards creating a stronger community for my blog.
Continue typing and take typing certificate (Since May I have sped up from 35-50 WPM. My goal is to test at 50.)
Daily eat papaya, ginger tea, raw cabbage, steamed beets, take calcium, ginko and practice yoga
Welcome to HITS, the Happenings in the Studio, where I share what went on in my life as an artist. May was very unusual for me, in that I didn’t spend much time in the art studio. Instead I worked at my temporary Census job, applied to about 25 jobs, and I celebrated my birthday!!
As far as the artsy stuff goes, I made a prototype lantern made out of bouncy balls and crafted a thank you card out of a cheerios box, green straws and blue, plastic monkeys.
I was on a reading frenzy and blew through 26 gold medal Caldecott books and eight silver winners. That leaves eight gold winners left to read! There are still lots more silver winners to read since there are anywhere from zero to five books chosen for each year dating back to 1938. I have discovered some new favorite authors and illustrators. And I have decided on the topic for the book I am going to write. It's going to be a book of lesson plans centering around the award winning picture books and art, reading and writing. Once it's all put together I am thinking of teaching the class too.
My ears were treated to three concerts by my talented cousins. I don’t know how to play any instruments, so I am mystified hearing musicians perform. How do they do that? One of the songs is featured on the May HITS video.
My Aunt and I are collaborating on a website. It is going to be awesome! You’re just going to have to wait until June’s HITS to hear more about it.
Hello,Welcome to the April Happenings in the Studio (HITS), where I recap what I did as a visual artist for the last 30 days.
At the beginning of the month I had a henna party for my cousins, where I touched up one tattoo that I did in March and painted two tribal tats for my 8 year-old cousin. I wish I had photos because she looked so cool with them on.
I’m transitioning over from my custom framing job to doing full-time U.S. Census work. It is so nice having more hours, higher pay and a flexible schedule.
I spent a couple of days in the San Francisco Bay Area fellowshipping with fellow artists and making art. One morning I helped my friend Celeste Flores with making a rubber mold of her dancer, so she can cast it for a film. Part of the time I assisted Philip Krohn with his stop motion film starring plastic bottle caps. And I installed my bouncy ball curtain!
For more details about the curtain click here. All of the stunning photos of the bouncy ball curtain are by Luke Goodman.
Now that the bouncy ball curtain is completed I’m working on my next commission for the same client. It is going to be lanterns made out of bouncy balls that hang around the bedroom. I got the idea for stringing the bouncy balls on wire after hearing about gummy bear chandeliers. For now I’ve made paper stand-in lanterns to get an idea of how many I need to create and I’ve researched different designs for lanterns.
This gummy bear chandelier inspired my current project of bouncy ball lanterns.
Of course I had to skewer my own gummy bears just to see what it’s like, plus I want to see if they get brittle. So far they are a tad dry after sitting out for a week.
Enjoy the new work in the below video. I'll see you at the beginning of June for the next episode of HITS (Happenings in the Studio).
