German Expressionism

Welcome back to school and ordinary life everyone. How are we all holding up? I sincerly hope you are all doing better than me. This Monday was so horible I had to come home and paint my nails chrome to make myself feel better… Im not a nail polish person, much, so this should tell you how bad it was.

Seriously, from waiting for the bus for half an hour, to lugging all my stuff around school… why do even the light books seem heavy after the dog days of summer???

Anyways, I think it’s just that I’ve got a really bad monday schedual… come to think about it I don’t htink I’ve got one good day. I mean who want’s to start off the week with a two periods of Chemistry and then another two periods of Geography (which would be fine if we didnt have the teacher we have… snooze FEST! except you can’t snooze cause he’s HYPERACTIVE!!!) then I have double Art… which could be ok except for two things:

1. The Harpies

2. The Expressionists

Ok so the harpies are a group of girls I have in my class, some of whom read this blog, though its no secret that I call them this and my teacher has actually agreed and started as well… Seee… if you know ancient greek mythologyu and know them, then it makes sense. Because they are so loud and screachy and then shit all over your food.

Ok so maybe thats a bit harsh… let me explain… So there’s this group of girls, who I have no hard feelings against, and can get along with each of them individually very well… but one of them alone is able to reach the decibell capacity of my ears, so I dread having them all together. Ok so four teenage girls. Sociallites, which we all know I’m not, who love to spend their time TITTERING away. Seriously, they even admit it, when I say they screach, they SCREACH!  So I’m in a bad enough mood by the time the first bell rings with a head ache and ringing ears, and then one of them or the other comes over and leans over my shoulder for half an hour before screaching “OMG i LOVE IT!!!” seriously, without fail, those words. Or else, it might be ‘OMG THATS AWESOME! ITS LIKE SO AWESOME!” which, sure thanks for the praise and all, get on my nerves. Or as my favourite Greek saying going “Kanei tsourekia ta nevra mou!” (braids my nerves). Not only is it the lack of elloquence or the invariability of the “compliments” or if its the high pitched tone of the voice or the colloquial manerism in which it is said… I dont know which but all to gether they make me feel as if its not such a compliment. It certainly doesn’t feel sincere, though I don’t know if it is, so who am I to say? That’s the shitting on you food when your starving bit. Because whether you think what you’re working on is utter crap (which for me it is alot of the time) or if you think its actually pretty good for once (which it can sometimes be) it just makes me feel more crappy about the work. Either that they’re taking the mickey out of me by sayin that something that is crap is good as though I don’t know the difference, or by saying that something is “good” (air quotes= not so good… crap) when I actually think it’s half decent for once and not fully worthy of the garbadge can… 😦

Maybe worst of all though is how horrible they seem to know me, after all these years… I mean they KNOW I’m clausterphobic, and I make a point of telling them that and how that’s why I don’t want them to lean over me… Instead all they do is take a step back, which in a way makes it even worse, knowing that their there but not RIGHT there… you know when not knowing is worse than knowing… and second of all… they KNOW that I HATE Compliments because they all seem insincere to me. oK not all… I can tell some real ones, but they still make me feel really self conscious… so all in all I end up feeling like they are attacking me… making me feel bad about myself…  which wouldn’t be entirely possible seeing as there are only about 8 girls in the class and two boys and the boys are both quiet and the harpies make up about 5 of the girls… And incase anyone should read this, you know, I shouldn’t even have to say, that I don’t feel that way about you guys… I just can’t stand being in a room where I’m supposed to be expressing myself but end up feeling oppressed anyways, for two and a half hours a week with you guys…

I don’t think you read this anymore though. I’m not interesting enough. XD

Have you guys ever felt personally assaulted and attacked by a group of people that you used to consider friends? Silly question, I know. How about having been attacked and not having known why? I odften get callled out when I actually voice my oppinion. Any advice on how to deal with people when they treat you lik that? I try to just keep my cool rather than blwoing my top, but then my indifference to their oppinions on my oppinions get me called out as an emo, even though, my love affair with bright vibrant colours and desire to keep my hair out of my face would depict me as anything but…

ok so what makes art lessons even worse right now is that we are studying German Expressionism. I mean, I like seeing it sometimes. I like how it can make me feel what the subject felt, which is moer often than not despair and greif and hunger and such… but I just don’t enjoy doing it. I mean who likes doing something that they know they aren’t very good at and don’t enjoy? As an exercise we took pictures of ourselves in a german expressionistic pose and printed out many copies, tapped them to the windows and drew on the back with bold black lines to eliminate the details and lines we didn’t want (cause our final aim is to transfer the image to a piece of lino and do a lino cute of it, which you know I love…) And so I started off with some pictures of notme 😛 One was this indian woman which I thought was really interesting, though the printer faded the ink on the most interesting section so I couldn’t really do it well, and a piece of Mother Theresa, I think it was… So these two wrinkly old women (no offence…)

And one of them actually looked pretty good… but then one of the art teachers ruined my finally lifting spirits (I had to sit on a desk too, to get to the window 😛 ) by saying that I couldn’t use those in my lino cut because I didn’t take the pictures… And when I told him I really didn’t want to do one of myself, he said, well then go and find someone in the room and get them to pose and take a pictuer of them and do that… NO BLOODY THANK YOU… I’LL SUFFER WITH A SELF PORTRAIT THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! lot of bloody help he was! I’m not about to ask someone in my art class to pose for me, especially when I’m the one with the camera phobia. I mean its just mean to not like something and so inflict it on someone else… Would you?

So for the time being, since there were only another 30 minutes left in the class and it would have taken longer to take another picture and print it in the dodgy printer… so I stuck with the others that had been printed already. The teacher who had told me off though, had been working on a picture of me since the begining of the lesson. See how come his turned out so good and mine turned out like crap? I’ll have to put up a pic of mine and his. His was much nmroe expressionistic than mine. Mine was just fail line drawing…

Does anyone have really strong feelings on post WWI german expressionism? It’s kinda love or hate so who loves it and who hates it?

Any ideas, other than earplugs, to improve the art lessons?

sigh…

I can’t stand writting such a wholly negative post so Imma change the topic.

Has anybody read the book “Shiver” or any of the “wolves of Mercy Falls” series or any other book by Maggie Stiefvater? I really love her writting. She’s great. I loved shiver. It really touched me. Ten times better than the twilight craze. I actually cried durring the last chapter, and I don’t normally cry for movies… and even though it was just comfortably predictable.

Well even if you haven’t please go on Amazon and read the first few pages and then join the page on Facebook that is trying to get it made into a movie. It really should. It would be an awesome movie, though the book was just plain incredible.

Are there any other books that you would like to see made into a move? I normallyu refrain from wanting a book to be made into a movie, if its good. otherwise i the idea is good but the writter wasn’t all that great, then I say sure, but normally the movies just ruin it. With shiver though, i just think it deserves to be made into a movie! It was so great it deserves the publicity! Kudos Maggie!

Dancing in the Rain- Take two: a Photo Essay

These are the photos I wanted to upload into the last post but couldn’t. All for the better. I think it was too long anyways ;P

Ok, it doesn't look soo good as a picture and I couldn't scan it

Still trying to find out possitions and how much ink to use. At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted a solid silhouette or more of a care free line drawing feel. The great thing about printing is that you put a huge amount of effort and time into just one piece and you can make endless coppies and go back into it again and again without damaging the origonal so you never have to worry about loosing something that was good due to a mistake. These were made from the same thing even though they were in two diferent positions. I had acutally forgotten to put ink on the socond leg for the right one 😛 (shhh, just between you and me ;P)

The result of too much pressure or two much water.

Here the problem was not enough pressure, and that the cuts weren't deep enough

Another failure

This is the metal version

The one on the left wasn't very deeply cut.

The passerbies in metal

We had to do research. This is mine for the Dancer. I looked at different poses and styles, real life, photos, paintings and so on.

Stumbled across this pic and my mind was made up on what to do. You can see my pencil lines as I got the feel of the dancer, and though I used a lot of other pics to get the view right, this picture and its saying was the one that really made my mind up between this idea and another which had more of a musical theme

the first generation of my final piece. THis was with no preparation or research... hence the very wonky lifted legs and right angle arms.

The final piece. Don't quite know what to call it. The idea was supposed to be that it was a collage, hence the torn pages and the paper mache background. It was supposed to show all the bits that make up our lives. The entire thing, minus the time I spent working on the prints and getting them right, just putting it all together took over 10 hours. I just wish I could have gotten the dancer better. I'm thinking of taker her off and just doing it again via painting... what do you think?

A close up on the engraved pieces of the final piece

The second half of the skyline rubbed off when I put another layer of the paper mache over…  I should have used the proper ink, but its very strong and you can’t use it bare handed, For the passer byes I used it, and so they turned out well, The dancer however, as you can tell I could only use ink, not printing ink because we only had black. So the ink from previous layers dissolved into the paper each time I re-wet it.

3 photocopies with different brightnesses. It was of the "dancer" at an early stage. I used the dark setting to see if I was cutting deep enough. You can see there are parts where you can hardly see cuts like on the lifted theigh and the bodice. I knew I needed to cut deeper there and on the face. The supporting leg was deep enough

This was on of the first etching prints I did, about six months ago. It actually wasn't bad, and the prints came out quite well, but because we were just experimenting with prints we were using a really tough card like material that was coated thinly in metal leaf. You can see bits where I wen't so deep to get it the darkest possible that the leaf actually came off. Unfortunately after a few times and a few washes the material kinda started disintegrating. You'll see some prints from then later

The first attempt on putting the violin print through the press. I still needed to experiment somewhat to find the right amount of ink and the right depth. As you can see it didnt yet include the lightest of lights and the darkest of darks. Also the edges were fuzzy from where I was too scared to go very close to the image.

I think this was the best version I got of it. I had some more but its hard to tell from pictures. Anyways its still pretty good. If I had still been able to work into the origonal it could have been much better, but it was still better than the last one!

I did a drawing of my violin observationally in charcol, then i made a photocopy so I would not damage the drawing, and then I held this onto the sheet I was using to make the print. Lightly with a pencil I redrew the picture just strongly enough to leave an imprint on the bottom sheet. Then I used the needle like tool to scratch the design in deeper.

This is the quality of print I got from that same piece after about 10 prints. The upside of metal is that though it might be a lot harder to work into than whatever this was or wood is that its alot more durable and lasts through many more turns through the press and a lot longer. This was after coming back to this piece after about...6 months.

No its not that the camera was shaky. the picture isn’t blurry. The material i was working on disintegrated from soaking up too much water and after being pressed too many times. It lost its sharpness. 😦 a shame too! cause it was actually decent!

This was from when the print was still good. I thought the brown might come out well on the blue paper... not so much...

Now another type of print. You can take a piece of linoleum and make what we call a Lino cut. This works the other way to what you saw above. Here you take a knife and cut into the linoleum so its backwards. What you take away will be white, or the collour of your background. But its excellent for exploring different textures What you don’t touch at all will be darkest and the deeper you cut the less ink gets on it so the lighter and hence the deepest is the colour of the paper you press it on. You also use a different consistency ink for this type of printing. Because  you don’t put it through the printing press and only use your hands or even a dictionary 😛 (but shhhh! Don’t tell the English teachers!) The type we used above was thinner though the one I used for the passing men was thicker even then what we use for Lino Cuts. Enough chit chat though! You want to see pictures! (or at least you should if you are still looking at this post after so long…)

The brown one is the linoleum. The whit is the picture I drew first to see what I wanted to draw. Its hard to see what it will look like when you are working with lino. It was supposed to be a tree though. ANd this was from when I was...12 or 13 years old.

5 trees. Each a different colour (or three) and with different colour backgrounds.

Yellow tree, black background. My favourite. At this point you can see the poor quality. I wasn't very experienced with the lino or the knife, though I can proudly say Im the only one who didn't cut myself that entire year! You can see my inexperience by the lack of inbetween the inky and inkless.

Even when we were specificly told to do something regarding land (trees) as much as I love forests and trees and nature, i just cant go a tpic without somehow tying it to the sea. My teacher at the time laughed when I produced this. But hey! I thought It looked like an anemoni like this! (yes... i spelt it wrong :P)

For this section (it was this year) our teacher brought in real fish and we had to do observational drawings. not thee best smelling lesson. from our drawing we had to make a lino cut. on top is the print when i had only done the fish. i later decided to go back into print and make it a fish swiming in a stream. However I never finished it becasue this was a different type of linoleum and MAN was it hard! I litterally used a blowdrier to partially melt it before taking the knife to it!

Well thats about it. All the prints I have done so far.  Hope you enjoyed!

Feel free to ask any questions, though I’m no pro I seriously could have used someone to ask questions to when I was travelling these uncharted waters… 🙂

Dancing in the rain

Yes, that is one of my favourite things to do. And one of my favourite sayings.

However this year I took this to a whole new level.

When I first started this blog I had just started etching and engraving. Now I love it. Though I haven’t done any lessons and have done very little, I have a wide assortment of  drawings and sketches that I hope to re do onto sheets of metal so that I can make etches of them so I can make prints of them.

I’m very fortunate to have an art teacher who has been trained in the fine arts and who supports each of our individual talents. This year, I chose to use some of my etches in my end of year exam. They weren’t exactly of a high standard, and mostly just looked like line drawings on a sheet of metal, though I didn’t have all the necessarily equipment and only had 3 sheets of copper to work on. what we did have was left over from when our teacher tried to get his students into etching some years ago. As no one was interested he didn’t order any equipment, but now we have a printing press. He’s promised me that when we go back in September I’ll have more colours of printing ink, more utensils and a wider selection of metal sheets and sizes. We were thinking of also getting the masking and chemicals that some engravers use.

See there are many different ways that one can make a print. They all revolve around different textures and heights by either adding or removing material. When we made relief prints in class, I took a painting I had made of a forest and stripped twigs of their bark and crushed leaves to re-create the image from natural materials. It didn’t actually work in the end as I could not apply ink to my work without taking off a great deal of the leaves and then if I did managed to get ink down, it would be too fragile or thick to go through the press. In the end I like it as it is. I sprayed it with some spray mount I got off one of the teachers and it gave the leaves a wonderful frosted effect besides sticking them down more securely.

I really like working with natural materials to make any sort of art, and that’s one of the draws that Indian and Native American art has for me. The vivid colours and the shapes all using and inspired by what they had around them. An artist from today’s world would have to lug around canvas, brushes, paints, pallets and even water containers if they wanted to do an observational drawing of a landscape. A native American artist in pre collonial times would be able to go any where with no supplies and find everything he needed to make a masterpiece. I find the concept enchanting, and would love to learn some of their art, but unfortunately the opportunities have yet to present themselves.

So I thought I would finally put up some more pictures. Some of my engravings and some of the relief I made.

But first, lets clarify the difference between etching and engraving. An Engraving is made by simply pushing away the metal and smoothing out bits, using an instrument to push it off. The technique can be rather complicated, and the traditional way is extremely complicated. The right hand is supposed to hold the tool and stay still and the left hand, with the help of a round pillow underneath the metal, is supposed to move the metal to make the shapes and design. I really dont have that steady a hand and would never be able to accomplish this. Which is why I love the modern meaning of artist. It means you can do whatever you want. No one can tell me I’m doing it wrong (though I know I am, I simply can’t do any better at the present) and you can invent your own way that works for you. (oh, and in engraving you can work on wood as well… or any other material for that matter)

Etching is slightly different and much easier. In etching you coat the metal with a film of masking. Artists use masking all the time to cover a piece or section of a work, which they want to preserve while working into another. Its particularly common in water colour painting. If you want to keep one area white white (or a certain other shade you have) but want to do a wash to deepen the other colours you simply put a mask on and then rub it off once you are done and it is dry. The masking an etcher would use would be much stronger though, and chemically based. They would then take a tool and pull away the mask fromt he areas they want to deepen and so make the design. Next they leave the metal in an acid to corrode the exposed area. The mask keeps it from being corroded evenly, so that you only get the indentations you want. An artist might have to repeat the proccess many times to get the fluctuations in texture they require.

Another huge difference between the two is that and engraver can smooth out his work and so “erase” a mistake or flaw. An etcher has to watch his work constantly while it is in the acid. If the acid cuts too deep the entire piece is ruined.

Both, however, can be used to make prints by coating them with printing ink and rolling them through a printing press.

My technique is more similar to that of an etcher save the acid and masking. The only thing I dont like about engraving/etching is the noise. Its horrible! Imagine nails on a chalk board or a knife on a plate constantly for half an hour, an hour, a day. Also, because I’m only using a tool, or on occasion a mechanical tool, it takes a lot of muscle, and so is very physically and emotionally draining. You have to be patient and move slowly enough that you wont make an irrevocable fault, but with enough force that you will actually make a cut. The tools slipped away from me numerous times. THe fortunate thing is that you can prevent these faults from showing because after you coat the entire piece with ink you take away the majority so that it is only held in the groves. You have to wet the paper you are imposing your image on so that it takes the ink out of the groves.

The hardest parts of what I was doing was getting the right amount of ink off, or rather leaving the right amount on and where I wanted it. The other variables that it took a bit of experiences and mistakes to get right was the amount of pressure on the press and the wetness of the paper. Too wet or too much pressure give the same effect and take the ink all over the place so you just have a blob and not an image.

Anyways, to get to the point of this very long, very big post, I decided to make my Exam piece “Dancing in the Rain”.

And as it turns out, I can’t upload all the pictures I had to show, so I’ll upload them as a photo essay in ‘Dancing in the Rain- Take two”

Cheers!

3 down 3 to go

Nearly there… ok half way there with a week end in between. Exams, thou shall not conquer me! (and advice to anyone who stresses over a test: Exams shall not conquer thee!) Seriously, its only an exam. Its not the end of the world (yet- when you are in grade 12 then you can stress. but still guys CHILAX!) and sorry to break it to ya Stressermans (hehe pun because I’ve been doing history revision on my Germany Depth Study- and yes, i know i spelt it wrong to fit the pun…) but the world? this lovely little planet we live on? Yeah it keeps on turning weather you make a booboo on your test, break a nail, hand in a homework late or for some of you *gasp* even if you make a, dare I say? Fashion Faux Pas!?!?! dun dun duhhhhhh!

Well anyways, we just finished a very long day of art exams. Six hours today, though next year it will be 10, TEN, hours of art work for our exam… swell… Ill put up a pic of my piece, though I didn’t manage to finish it yet because I had another exam that I had to do aswell for art of the day, and I missed some of the other lessons we used before the exam to work on it for other exams too. But luckily, I am granted extra time.

ANyways, tomorrow is another day packed with three exams, but monday, thankfully, I only have one in the morning, which means I can walk home (my sister will be joining me two hours later) but no rest for the weary. Oh no, I have MORE to revise. History and CHemistry. I know I;ve said before, but once again, my two most stressfull… most ANNOYING becuase they are so fiddly (if you get what I mean) subjects. They are both just sooo tedious and revision for them is sooo… tiring not to mention boring. Its practicly an invitation for your mind to wander…

Oh well at least I have the weekend! Right? I also have two halves of books to re read. Well on half and one very short one to skim read. I have a pretty good memory for books (I like to think that I have hardly forgotten a story- yeah maybe i forget the title, author or cover but the story sticks with me- since first grade when they read us “Poppy and Rye” by Avi. I Loved that book and the others that followed or preceded it.)

So really, since I have actually read both books unlike most of my classmates (ok half of my classmates) and understood them on a deeper level and done all the work I had on them myself, I have ALOT less work to do for the English Lit exam.

BTW the books are two really borring really depressing really… not-so-nice-I-can-understand-why-they-didnt-want-to-read-them, type books. They are “The Hand Maid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood (Gah what a horrible book- though I realise that I actually find reading distopian fiction gratifying and strangely enjoyed it on some level. I think I liked the deepre material, the historical refrences and the fact that it actuallly engaged my whole mind. It was however a good book to use to put me to sleep where as normally reading invigorates me, I sleep better after being aptly depressed by Ms. Atwood. Thank you for that!) and “ETHSN FROME” by Edith Wharton. ANother horrible, depressing, WAKE UP people books. Its one of those books where what happens is so obvious and the characters are soo bloody annoying (especially Mattie) that you just want to jump into the book and SLAP them and scream at them to wake up and smell the coffee. He loves her, she loves him, he is married, she is stupid, wife is sick, well not really just wants attention for once in her life, actually the only character i empathise with (think I might do the empathy question in the exam…hmmm…) But I still want to slap her too… no i dont. Shes too skinny and frail and sickly, if i did she woudl probably have an heart attack….

I also want to tell Wharton to wake up and get out of the marriage she was in when writting the book becuase her character really is Ethan for thats the position she is in.

Except I’m not crazy, and she is dead, and I believe in living in the present.

Ok, I better go refresh myself on my biology for tomorrow.

Nighty night everyone. Don’t let the bed bugs bite!

(that reminds me… I woke up today, to find my dog, on my bed (which she isnt normally becuase I dont let her) licking, no not my feet, no not my hand, no not my face… but my arm pit… seriously what goes through her head? it doesnt even make sense! Normally she has a fascination with my legs. And my mom had called my phone cause she had already left, and she actually said “Honey, you sound confused whats wrong did I wake you?” I said yeah she had woken me, but what I was trying to figure out was why the hell my dog was licking my armpit… shes never done something so disgusting before. Ok she licks my moms feet, but I understand that somehow even though they smell wretched! But Ive never heard of a dog licking an arm pit. Whats worse though is that she then preceded to try and lick my face… MEGA SUPER EeEeEeEeEeEeWwWwWwWwWww!!!!!!!! No way was I letting her get anny where near my face after that. it just felt sooo… well, ew. I cant think of another way to put it. I mean I had just taken a shower too so its not like I was all sweaty but still, its just the idea.

Anyways I felt really bad after that cause she looked heart so down heartened when I pushe her away from my face that I just had to give her a kiss on her head (she has this spot ont he top of her head that is perfet for pecks) and give her a nuzzle. I try to treat her like a dog. So I nuzzle her head under neath my chin, mixing our scents if we had scent glands (she does, I dont) but she still seems closest to me of the family becuase the rest treat her as a pet not a peer, and a daughter and a sister and a niece and a cousing both older and younger al rolled into one….

Ok now I really am exhausted.

I hope I dont find her licking me there again tomorrow morning… :S

Well thats Annoying!- Life just gave me Lemons…

I spent about two hours last night writing my first post…only to find out this morning, that I don’t think it actually posted!!! Isn’t that annoying???? Oh well I suppose its for the better. I went off on a bit of a rant.

So I’ll Just tell you a bit about myself… First of all, Hello Everyone… or anyone.

My Name is Mirella Rosaria. Most people call me Ella, or Ella Rose for a totally abbreviated version.  I love my name. It was my grandmother’s. I look like her, and was named after her from birth. I have light eyes, pale skin with freckles and light hair. SO light some people call it blond even though I call it “hair coloured hair” (to quote my favourite Madeline L’Engle book). Needless to say I look nothing like my twin sister, who has dark hair, skin and eyes just like the rest of my family. I live in New York, just a 45 min metro ride from Grand Central Station. But despite that both my parents have Mediterranean backgrounds. My father is Italian, and moved to New York city when he was young, though he would spend the entire summer back in Italy and whenever else he could. He met my mom, a Greek Canadian living in Montreal when they were both going to University in Vermont.  They moved to the Suburbs when they got married, wanting my brothers and sister and I to have a child’s life.

Anyways so a bit more about myself:

• I am 16 years old

• your not so common teenager

• LOVE :

1. BOOKS
2. DANCING
3. MUSIC (making or listening :P)
4. ART (photography, paint, charcoal, pastel, and as of most recently engraving)
5. WRITING

That said, I write anything from poems to short stories… maybe I’ll post some here sometimes to get some objective feedback. I also dance any style, though most people forget that and think I just do Ballet and Jazz. I also play instruments… well violin mostly though I used to play piano, flute and drums as well (see I forgot that in the last one…). As for art… Well I take photographs, but so does most people now adays… Therefore I also sketch, paint, draw in detail, use pastels, and make engravings which i can then copy using a printing press… That last one was newly discovered by me and I LOVE IT!!! I never knew I would like it so much… but i get to involve drawing, with ink with paint… because there is nothing like working back into a print with water colour or oil paint…

So now, item de jour…

I had intended this blog to be a creative outlet, for me and you readers alike. We can share poems… story ideas, even art work if anyone wants to scan… talk about our favourite songs from all styles of music… but I also thought… since I bake a lot! y’all might like a few recipes…

So today, since life gave me lemons with this post… Im making lemon squares. Will get the recipe for you all later. And if anyone ever wants a recipe for something in particular, let me know in comments and I’ll see what I can find!!!

cheerio world!