Feeling Grateful and Updates

Updates First:
-Cinci Dance Festival 2010 is a no go.  Not enough people getting their "shit together" from the other companies as Mario put it.
-I am not taking summer classes till Mid July....because....I need a break.  Which means I better get my ass in gear for Tuesday night time trials in Cleves because I only have May, June, and Half of July to do them.

Feeling Grateful for the following People in my life.
Again I realize how petty I've been about people not recognizing my friendship so I thought I just might give shout outs to the people in my life I am grateful for:

Ryan--for making sure I relax and just chill out.  For loving me and for being with me.  For making me laugh.

My de la Dance Fam:
Mario and Meridith--because they are nuturing A.D.'s.  Because they take genuine care and interest in their dancers and for pushing them beyond what they (the dancers) think they are capable of and bringing out the very best in their dancers.

Amy H--because she is strong and beautiful.  Not just as a dancer but as a person, more so than I ever realized till recently.  She is resilient

Kevin--because no one rocks glitter like he does and he just good natured to be around

Tara --sweaty bitch #1.  Grateful for her because she actually told a ballet director in SC to fuck off when he told her she weighed too much.  Because she is supportive and encouraging and inspirational to be with in class.  And she is just funny as hell.  And she has the cutest son ever.  And she is one of my favorite friends I have made as an adult....love her.

Amy G-- sweaty bitch #2.  Potato, potato.  Because she is "mexican by injection"  Haha...no seriously, because she helps me deal with my mommy issues and again makes me laugh.  And because her husband and her  showed Ryan and I what real Mexican food tastes like.

Other peeps:
Judi--just read her latest post about her past life you will begin to understand why I find this woman to be a straight up badass and down right amazing!

Carrie K--because it takes a special person to be friends with for 20 years, but, even more special because she has been friends with me for 20 years.  Ha...to many stories...not enough time.  Also because she breaks the Cincinnati standard:  yes she got married at 24 and married her high school sweetheart, but, there is no housewife / children in the picture yet....thank god.

Bethany--my cousin, bc we are peas in a pod (aka the Artsy misfits of the Siconolfi family).  I miss seeing her tons.

Midgie--from XO Pi Alpha Chapter--for always ALWAYS telling it as it is and for being there for me always...regardless.

I am sure there are more, but, I dedicate this post to the positive people in my life because you are the only ones that matter.

The Bucket List

I am bored and I don't want to do homework.  I've already baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

My Bucket List:

1.  Attend a real Art Auction at Sotheby's or Christies in NYC or London (because Park West Gallery isn't the same).
2.  See ABT dance one season at the MET in the Spring when they bust out all the good classic ballets.  (ABT--American Ballet Theate....MET, Metropolitan Opera House NYC).
3.  The Louvre in Paris....no explanation needed.
4.  The Vatican (aka Michaelangelo CENTRAL)
5.  African Safari (my dream photography experience).
6.  Surfing in Australia
7.  Diving in Hawaii and Australia (though I would need a Scuba license and lose my fear of coral reefs, but, that is neither here nor there).
8.  Backpack through Europe
9.  Study Art in the Italian Countryside (there are programs where you can do this too).
10.  Go to THE holy city:  Jerusalem (so much culture, but, WAY too much fighting).
11.  Spend at least a month in an Ashram in India (I'm going to save this for my mid life crisis).
12.  I really want to go to New Zealand, because it looks beautiful!
13.  Just like backpacking through Europe, I want to go play in South America so I have a reason to be shaking my booty (I love Latin dancing).
14.  REALLY REALLY REALLY want to learn to dance Spanish Flamenco
15.  Watching the Olympics makes me miss the Pacific Northwest more and more....sorry Ryan, forget Colorado, I think we should become Ex Pats and move to Vancouver---you get the mountains and Victoria is just a 2 hour ferry away from the hipster art scene and the beach!
16.  I want to go bungee jumping.  Again.
17.  I want to go Ziplining again in: Costa Rica, where it boasts the worlds longest zipline (I've seen it, but, I went ATVing in the mountains instead), and in Ketchikan in the Alaskan Rainforest.
18.  Whale Watching (Alaska or Hawaii can provide this).
19.  Swim with Dolphins (again Hawaii can provide this....along with Hiking up a Volcano)
20.  Walk the Great Wall of China
21.  I have never been to Washington D.C.---but I really just want to go to the National Mall/Smithsonian
22.  Hike the Grand Canyon again (I did this when I was 12 and I don't think I appreciated as much as I should have).
23.  White Water Rafting (and according to Ryan, I may be able to cross this off this summer).
24.  Learn Italian
25.  Cook Indian and Morrocan
26.  Meet my Olympic Heros, Carl Lewis (fo shiz), the Magnificent 7 (1996 Gymnastics team), Kristi Yamaguchi, Apollo Anton Ono (damn short track is sexy), Paula Radcliffe.
27.  Meet Gerard Butler, Michael Crawford and any man who has ever played Phantom, in Phantom of the Opera.....sigh.
28.  HAVE A BIG KITCHEN (this will be my pre-req for a house...along with a 3 car garage....for Ryan's and My bikes of course)
29.  Publish a book
30.  Dance on a big stage in front of a big audience.

Incredibly YUMMY Discoveries:

1.  Spaghetti Squash with Pesto (AMAZING...and I don't feel bad because I am eating a veggie, not real pasta.  GENIUS)
2.  Almond Milk, Oatmeal, topped with Honey Crunch Wheat Germ (good morning Fiber).
3.  Greek Yogurt (yummy), with McCabe's Granola (because it is low in sugar), with Honey. (Good Morning Protein).
4.  Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow/Moose Poop.  Whatever you call it:  Chex Cereal with PB, Chocolate, and Powdered Sugar (the not so nutritious option of this list).

Other "Yummy" Discoveries:
1.  My printmaking professor from last semester (who I thought I hated me), wants to put to of my prints in a show at XU and she is pretty sure one of them is going to sell!  That's kind of exciting, here is one of the images she wants me to put in.  It is a collograph, and she already took one of the editions for future classes:

2.  I always leave class on Thursday nights (Multicultural Children's Literature), feeling great about the world and blessed to have had the cultural experiences I've had because they are rare for a suburban white girl from the Midwest.

3.  My professor for Educational Administration is the funniest damn man I have ever met.  He is the superintendent for Newport Schools and used to have that title at Cincinnati Public Schools--I guess you would either be very cynical or hysterical after that appointment.

4.  A lot of the kids at De*La are improving rapidly as Giselle rehearsal trots along.  I am very proud of the kids as this ballet is a huge undertaking for anyone, let alone a first year pointe dancer.

5.  Devianart.com  oh how I have foolishly forgotten thee.  Thank you for being my graphic design SAVIOR!

Photography Lately

I shot some photos at Spring Grove last week...about 250 or so....here are some favorites...untouched by photoshop as of yet....

I love that statue...already started making alterations in photoshop.  Ryan told me it is creepy looking.

My Art Girlfriend Emily came with me...I call her my art girlfriend because despite being a sorority girl, she was one the best friends I made at DAAP...she is a total GDI (god damn independent as we called them...the people who aren't in greek life).  My bestest art buddy.  She's back in grad school too becoming and art teacher.  Love her....many hours in studio together (sometimes crying), nights getting drunk (in Chicago), and trying to sound so utterly cool in the art world....oh and getting drunk at the CAC (Contemporary Arts Center), eating endless amounts of sushi.  I love this girl.

These photos were taken for De*La Dance company promotional photos for Giselle.
Images shot on a Canon 40D with a Lens Baby Muse lens

Things that I am LOVING right now:

1.  My brand new computer (well okay, my computer is 6 months or so old...but I love it).  The 24'' iMac
2.  Philosophy make up and facial cleansers
3.  Adobe Creative Suite CS4 is now installed into my brand new computer!  Yay!  All I have to is start playing with it and have projects lined up already:  Logo for BAM, De La Dance Company, amongst some of my own logo building for me
4.  My new bike....still excited to ride it...can't wait for this crappy weather to ease up!
5.  Ann Taylor, where I am currently employed.
6.  Mari Winsor Core Reformer Pilates....ouch.

A Few Good Men...

It is with total irony that I am writing about my dear friend Billy after writing about my professor who passed a few weeks ago.  Billy is one of the greatest friends I have ever had in my life and his friendship came to me at an important time in our lives I guess.

Billy and I met working at the YMCA as lifeguards.  Billy was kind of the interim aquatic supervisor our freshmen year of college.  At the time, he was attending Miami Hamilton (I obviously was at UC) and we worked together all the time and even played volleyball together with the aquatic staff at Y on Wednesday nights.  He was single that year and I was dating this loser pot head (because I thought it was the artsy thing to do...you know...date a pot head).

I can't really describe our friendship I guess.  He was just there for me.  He was the first guy outside my family to treat me with respect and it was just easy to be around him.  He was with me when I decided to break up with the loser pot head because he told me I deserved better.  He was there for me late at night at Mt. Echo while I drew a nightscape of the city of Cincinnati until 2 am for my Freshman Portfolio review.  Hell...he got me drunk when I did not receive the grade I wanted on that review (it was pass/fail...and I passed but had a lot of negative remarks to go with it). I think importantly, he was there for me when I lost my Grandpa Ed.  I had not really experienced death in my life with that much impact until that point because I had only lost my Grandma Edie at the age of 3 when I couldn't really comprehend it.  We would spend nights that summer just talking in our parents basements, eating chicken wings, and drinking beer we were supposed to have as 19-20 year olds.  My parents, sister, my aunt, and a few dance people who met him love him.  I love his parents.  I think his bride is wonderful.

The thing that sucks is that we have not SEEN each other face to face in 5 years.  We chatted over IM.  He transferred to NKU and joined a frat and I joined a sorority at UC.  We had our own separate lives.  I quit the Y just 3 months after he did and we went on our ways I guess.  It was just all but too funny that I ran into him tonight when I was leaving the mall tonight.  I was driving and he was walking to his car and we both just looked at each other and said "holy shit."

I left my car running and jumped out immediately to run up to an old friend.  I probably could have tackled him with my hug.  It has been so long that I have had tears of joy and this is all but perfect occasion.  We talked about our lives and our significant others, jobs, school, and other such things.  Our parents (whom Ryan and I live down the street from his parents no joke).  Billy is like a brother to me.  I love him in a different way than Ryan I guess I can't sometimes explain.  When we were talking about Ryan, the first thing he said was, "does he treat you right?"  Of course I answered "Of course."  I then followed it up with, "I dated a bunch of jerks before him, but, I always knew good guys existed because I had a friend like you."

It is significant that I follow up my tribute to TC with writing about Billy because he helped me survive TC.  I only hope it is not another 5 years before we catch up again (but, we both promised that wouldn't happen when we said good bye tonight).

This is was the biggest uplift I have had in weeks and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Fallen Hero

My very good friend Emily, sassy little roller derby girl and fellow painter and studio buddy during our undergrad years at DAAP put it best:  DAAP has lost a hero today.  I think if I heard this statement 7 years ago, I would totally disagree.  Seven years ago this week marks the end of my very first quarter in college.  I had finished some art school basics:  Basic Drawing 101, Methods and Concepts 111 (basic design really), Art History 101, English 101, and Current Arts Forum.  It is really funny for me to look back on my freshman year now, older, wiser.

Corbin, cigarette in hand, in front of his work.

But like I said, if you were to ask me if Tarrence Corbin was a hero 7 years ago, I would say hell no!  But Emily is right in our conversation about his passing this past week (after a short struggle with cancer unfortunately)  TC (as we call him, or Tarry, or just plain Corbin) was the deflate-er of egos.  He toughened artists up.  He made them strong.  Of course me, always an emotional mess, the first time he said my work was shit, I went out to my car, cried to my mom on the phone, and asked if it was okay to transfer over to Marketing or something.  And then she said no, because they must have let me into one the most prestigious art and design schools for a reason.  OBVIOUSLY today I have a BFA...so I stayed.

One of my favorite pieces by him from the late 80s.

What were once tears in the first quarter turned to pure frustration the rest of the year for my dire need to impress this man (which of course I did, he was the first to buy a work of art of mine.)  What we all call now, Corbinisms, are just a way of making everything work in art.  "Make it tight and right."  Every morning, at 8 am, he would walk in and say, "Its a beautiful day."  Even if it were shitty out.

A fruit study, done in the pointillism technique by me, for TC's Class.  The first drawing he ever bought from me.

Out of all of this, besides making me a tough person to criticism, he showed me a softer side of him that I will never forget.  The morning my grandpa Ed died was the morning of a critique in class.  I couldn't miss that but I felt awful and sad and went anyway.  Luckily, at this point in out friendship, Emily could read me well and knew something was wrong, so she asked.  I told her my grandpa had passed (after a 7 year struggle with Parkinsons), and she told TC.  He came up to me and said, "Girl, life is so much more important than art.  Go home, be with your family.  I will not let you stay in class today.  If you want to talk to me about your work in the critique, call me when you are ready."  Of course I called the next day and he said it was horrible....I ended up redoing the piece.  For one small moment, he was this human being, not this painting GOD before me.  That moment, that morning, has always kept TC in a special spot for me.

Yeah, he was a tough teacher.  In fact, I found myself later avoiding his classes but I couldn't help it.  I started my DAAP career with him, and, I ended it with him in a specialized studio on Mural Painting (of course was his forte).

Another pointillism project.  TC loved this quality in my drawings.

When we all got the news of him being ill this summer, I was shocked but not surprised as one of the many Corbinisms he has is "Smokin and Jokin."   Damn did he like is Marlboro Reds!  All we knew is that he was too sick to teach this quarter.  I got the news from Janie, a photography professor and one of my senior thesis advisors, last Thursday.  I literally sat in front of my computer and said, "WHAT!"  And then I cried.  This man drove me to perfectionism is my craft.  He is the reason why I hate bringing shit to critiques....he taught me better than that.  For the many times I may have said his name in vain that first year, I wish I could take it back and do it all again.  The man was amazing.  He took bright eyed bushy tailed freshmen, usually the best artists in their high schools, and put them in their place.  He did not sugar coat:  "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit."

Black and White Pastel drawing (done in TC's class).  Study of Glass and fabric.

This one is for you Tarrence Corbin.
I am a better artist and a tougher person if it weren't for you!
May you rest in peace.