Art Biz with Liz: SCAD Museum of Art

Sorry for this post being one day late, everyone! I’m currently recovering from a small ailment, not to mention I am still on spring break mode. Speaking of spring break, even though we had a week off of classes, I couldn’t go a week without art! Over the weeklong vacation, I accompanied a group of friends to Savannah, Georgia, where we enjoyed sunshine and a temporary shift away from Michigan’s below freezing temperatures. Savannah was a beautiful Southern getaway, where we admired architecture, did a ghost tour, and walked beneath curtains of Spanish moss. One thing we enjoyed among all the food and activities was art.

We visited the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art and saw an array of temporary exhibitions on views, such as “Morality Sucks,” by Carter Flachbarth (B.F.A., painting, 2020), a series of paintings showcasing a male figure with elongated limbs that reflect the anxieties of current events through various narratives. Another exhibition was a group exhibition called “Icons Only,” featuring icons of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Another exhibit was Barthélémy Toguo’s “Urban Requiem,” made from a a variety of mediums. A neat part of this exhibition was an interactive element, where visitors could write messages on postcards for the artist. This contributes to the themes of hope and activism conveyed through Toguo’s work, which seeks to address sociological and ecological dilemmas. There was also an emphasis on the Black Lives Matter movement and the global events like refugee crises.

There were many other neat exhibitions and works of art we saw. Visiting art museums is one of my favorite activities when visiting a new place, and I’m glad we were able to visit this one!

Industrious Illustrating #3: Pitch Bible Sketches

Hello, and welcome back to Industrious Illustrating! Apologies for being slightly late to the usual Friday posting date.

This week we’re looking at a project that I’m a part of for the Michigan Animation Club at this university. This semester, MAC’s student officers came up with casual semester-long collaborative projects related to animation and visual development for club members to work together on. I was especially interested in Erica’s “Pitch Bible” project. In animation and TV shows in general, a pitch bible is a package of premise, concept art, story, and characters that can be presented to interested parties as a sample of what the proposed project is about.

The specific project we’re trying to develop is a post-apocalyptic solarpunk world where the remnants of humanity encounter intelligent animal and plant people in the overgrown ruins of civilization. We aren’t far enough into the development process to have an actual pitch bible, but I’ve made some character sketches over the past few weeks that I then bounced off of other group members for thoughts and feedback.

The penguin is wearing rags torn off of discarded human clothes and organic material. The lotus person turns the basic body components of a lotus plant into a bipedal creature that evolved to help fill the empty niche left by humans.

A few group members said that the spider mech looked scary and that it’d be even scarier if it could swim. Anyway, the spider mech can swim now.

The lizard person and the pug person were explorations of how humanoid our group members want the animals to look. The old lady screaming about chicken is a key character who drives the conflict inside the human group about whether or not they should consume meat that came from talking animals. She also has a few screws loose.

I scribbled some environment sketches based on concept art I saw in the “Art of Destiny” art books, but I’m not really happy with how they turned out. The pig lady is a potential love interest for a convict character in the human group, and the pigeon is an aviator who could belong to the pigeon air force we discussed as a group.

Other group members made lovely character and environment sketches which aren’t really my right to share without their permission. By the end of the semester, we’ll hopefully have enough material to show for our project that we can present it to others like an actual professionally made animation pitch bible. If not, we still had a lot of fun along the way, and that’s what the process of art should be anyway — fun.

TOLAROIDS: Women

I apologize for the late-night post, but it took me forever to find the photos I wanted. Today, my post relates not only to the 8th of March as International Women’s Day, but also to Women’s History Month. That is why through this post I want to celebrate women I have encountered throughout my life, as well as whatever they do and wherever they are in the world.

My Name is Minette, Chapter Thirteen: Lucy

Minette paused in her reading that night when a hand knocked softly at her door. Rhys peeked his head in, a question on his face.

Minette smiled at him, scooting over and patting the narrow cot beside her. Rhys came and plopped himself down on her bed hard enough to make it sag to the floor.

“What’s going on? Are you alright?” Minette asked him. She peered at his face, trying to see if he was any redder, or had any pocks. “Do you feel sick?”

“I’m fine, Maw,” Rhys teased, batting her hand away. His knee jiggled, making the whole room vibrate with his barely-contained energy. “I just wanted to talk.”

It was her own face and its redness that Minette really had to worry about. “About what?” she asked.

“You,” he said, as if it were obvious. “Are you okay?”

Minette forced a smile. “I’m fine.”

“You’ll be alright with the smithy,” Rhys said, offering her a pat on the shoulder for support. He had such misplaced faith in her. “You’re just as good as Paw.”

It was the opposite of what Minette wanted to hear. “So are you, in your own way.”

“Yes, but this isn’t about me,” Rhys said, and damn it, he was a smart kid, was an arrow aiming for the heart. “Are you scared about meeting someone?”

Of course he’d dig deep and hit a vein of truth. Of course that squinty gaze of his would see right through her.

Minette swallowed down all of her feelings and threw up a nice, big wall, just like the ones circling Droz.

“The truth is, I am,” she said, an authentic wobble in her voice.

Rhys shook his head. “You’re daft,” he said. “Lucy is gonna love you.”

Minette’s heart jumped around in her chest, the blood leaving her head. She swallowed. “Lucy?”

“She’s the butcher’s daughter,” he said, completely frank, unaware of how queasy she felt just hearing about this. “Maw and Paw have been talking about her for weeks when you’re not around. It’s obvious why.”

Minette forced a smile. “I hope you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Rhys said with a grin. “Don’t tell them I told you. Now, will you stop moping?”

“I’ll try my best.”

The Rise of the Band Geeks, Episode 20: The March March

With winter acting like spring for some reason, it’s only natural for our local band geeks to gain enough motivation to start practicing outside.  However, the dangers of the real world do not end where March begins.  Several band geeks have compiled a comprehensive guide to avoiding the threats to musical instruments in the form of a Q & A session:

Q:  I’m from a part of the country where pollen falls in droves for some ungodly reason.  Will pollen damage my instrument?

A:  I’m not really sure about that in terms of practicing, but if you’re allergic to said pollen, definitely don’t practice outside in early spring.  Or mid-spring.  Or summer.  Because summer gets hot, and then you’re sweating and sunburned and don’t even want to do the C major scale to warm up.  Of course, if you leave your instrument outside overnight, then yes, that’s bad.

 

Q:  What happens if a diag squirrel approaches me while I’m practicing?

A:  If you’re on the diag, it’s fine.  The squirrels are in their natural habitat.  If you’re on Elbel Field or inside Pierpont when you encounter said squirrel, run.  It’s possessed.

 

Q:  What happened to all the snow?

A:  Oh, it’ll be back.  Da-da-da-da-daaah da-da-da da-yaaaah da dah.

 

Q:  OK, but what if it starts snowing during practice like it did the week leading up to The Game and most of The Game?

A:  This is Michigan.  It always snows.  If the snow isn’t blowing sideways and you’re feeling antsy, practice outside if your instrument allows.  Nobody will think it’s weird if you start doing Big 10 Entries in the middle of February because they’re too cold.  But it’s March, isn’t it?  It could still snow.  I think.  IDK, I’m not a Northerner.  I’m from Arizona, Hal.

 

Q:  How do we know we’re improving if we’re practicing outside by ourselves?

A:  Focus on your technique, embouchure, sound quality, etc.  Do 69 reps of something you struggle on until you get it right–actually, I’ve seen an online band poster that says to practice until you can’t get it wrong, so do that.  Anyway, did you know today (March 10th) is the 69th day of the year?

 

Q:  Shuddap, Hal!!!

A:  That’s not a question.

The Poetry Snapshot: Last Words

My last words were not perfect.
My last glance was none at all.

Chennai, India

I was trying to race time
from the second you stood up.
But I could not ease my mind
to string together thoughts.

How could I find words for all those moments?
For all the emotions that echo everywhere I go.

There are no perfect last words.

But I think about what I would have said,
if there were.

I would have comforted you
Instead of feel my hurt.

I would have reminded you
sometimes our hands are clumsy.
We drop fragile hearts
we hoped to protect.

But hearts that mend transcend
the love it had before.
It blooms in ways it’s never explored,
reaching the sky to touch the moon.
Stitched together to make room
for new things to adore.

I appreciate you
for the care you show.

I appreciate you
for letting me grow.

I appreciate you
more than you know.

I appreciate you.

Perhaps, my last words were perfectly true.