OTM #10: Art Begets Art

katelynski 2 Comments

Hello, all! Deviating from my usual format – I won’t be in my own doodles today! In the midst of finals week, I bring you these microscopic art studies I’ve been doing in my free time. So much inspires me as of late; the outdoors, music, my friends’ artwork, and especially film and television. It’s so easy for me to become deeply moved by the simplest shot, the simplest color composition. As I study for my final exam tomorrow, I continue to find myself inspired by things around me. I wish I was done with my responsibilities so I could retreat to my own little world to create and dream, but for now, I’ve been creating quick shortcuts to “getting the sillies out” (AKA making small drawings that keep me motivated)!

My favorite show, Better Call Saul, is in the midst of its final season, and I’ve been itching to make all sorts of fan works. As a way to placate my high emotions, I’ve been taking screenshots of interesting color compositions and moments from the show and making quick paintings of them! They’re not super advanced or detailed, but that’s the fun in it; I’m making my own digital diary of sorts. Just scribbling out the bone structures of art pieces. It feels low pressure, in a time where pressure is in high supply. As an artist, I think it’s all too common to expect your best ideas and executions at all times; however, I think it is so much more important to free yourself from this and learn to love your “bad” pieces, learn to stop caring a little. Make little sketches, just let all your creativity and inspiration flow onto the page! Keep moving forward and love your art for what it is, mistakes and all (this goes for things outside of art as well, there is always time to improve!). Have a lovely week!

Scribble #24: Pretty Good Year

Sydney Braun Leave a comment

“They say you were something in those formative years.”

This is my last blog that I will be creating while here in Ann Arbor for this academic year. This year has been a rollercoaster ride for me. I remember during my rough first weeks of the academic year back in August and September 2021, I wished that if I closed my eyes, I would open them and be here, where I am now, at the end of the year and heading home. It didn’t work, thank goodness. I would have missed so much if that had happened, but the year seems to have gone by just as quickly as if I had.

“Hold onto nothing as fast as you can,”

Time sure does fly when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?

“Well, still, pretty good year,”

Here’s to the karaoke nights where I sang until I lost my voice. Here’s to the yoga breaks my friend and I would take to break up our studying. Here’s to all the times I wanted to cry but didn’t have the time or energy to spare. Here’s to the windows-down drives to McDonalds, even though it was freezing outside. Here’s to sitting on my friend’s floor, talking with her so late into the night that I nearly fall asleep there. Here’s to achieving my high-school goal of becoming a tour guide for my university. Here’s to the therapist appointments that helped me realize that here – right now – is what my ultimate form of happiness can feel like. Here’s to calling my housemates every time I accidentally lock myself out. Here’s to forgetting to journal but being able to keep up with this blog, so when I look back at my sophomore year of college I can see a bit into my mind. Here’s to me and my friends making cardboard cutouts of celebrities with our leftover printing money. Here’s to making new friends and finding my people. Here’s to never really being alone, even when I’m across the country from my friends. Here’s to finishing my sophomore year at the best university in the world. Here’s to coming back in four months. Here’s to the present, and here’s to the future.

“Pretty good year.”

Listen to Pretty Good Year by Tori Amos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abvktnzBUkU

Academia Jukebox: Streetcar

thimai Leave a comment

I decided to try something a little different from my usual comic format with this post. Streetcar is one of my favorite Daniel Caesar songs, it’s a beautiful rendition of Kanye’s Street Lights, reminiscing about passing time. The mix of vocals and lyrics puts such an aesthetic image in my mind of late night city drives (which I tried to illustrate). At the end of my first year at university I relate a lot to the idea of slowly making your way to an ultimate goal. Though I might not know my exact destination I’m certainly on my way and looking forward to where life takes me!

PONDERING ANN: VIII

Thomas Griffith Leave a comment

WERE I TO WAKE 

 

In my memory lives a vast oak 

hanging one low, peeled branch— sticking out like a sore thumb

upon which a thrill seeker once tied a muddled rope swing. 

My brother who is not my brother 

but an old friend tethered at the soul 

skips rocks across the bank of the Dead River. 

We rode our bikes there after class, 

his a rusted Schwinn and mine 

a no brand hand-me-down. 

There is an innocence in not thinking twice 

about whether a thrown stone 

might thrash a friend cascading from above. 

Some time has passed now 

and we haven’t talked in a way that matters 

for too long a while. 

Were I to wake on this vacant night 

it would surely be that I dreamt of the way 

two stones never skip the same.

Manifestation Monday: Money

Sierra Iverson Leave a comment

Hello everyone! I have decided to experiment with a different topic for the last couple weeks of the semester. The new theme I will be working with is the theory of magical or metaphysical properties of different naturally occurring objects that can be used in manifestation, prayer, or spell work.

Today, I made a digital painting showcasing a few highlights of items that work well to manifest abundance and financial security. These include: wheat, pomegranate, citrine and adamite crystals, basil, almonds, coins and Jupiter placements (days of the week, zodiac, etc.)

Happy Manifesting!