Last Day in Ballyvaughan!

So, it's finally here! My last day in the Burren. It's SO SAD!!!! We had our last disco at Logue's last night and all of the BCA faculty were there dancing it up with us! We all had a blast and it was so fun to hang out with everyone for our last hurrah.

Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen chatting with my lovely fellow Orchard house residents and thinking about how much I'm going to miss mornings with this crew. I'm going to make a short list of things I'm going to miss about this place:

-Having my biggo studio and sharing it with the lovely Casey Mason

-Orchard house morning chats

-Always having someone in the house to chill with

-Ace of Cakes, Bondi Rescue, Dance Nation, and the Flava channel

-Liz's cookies, cakes, and bread!!!

-All the LAUGHING

-Loretta and Maggie's funny voices

-Erica's obsession with beards and double chins

-Seeing rainbows outside my window

-Maggie and Emerson playin' guitar and singin'!

-Hearing the chickens clucking, the rooster crowing, and the cows moo-ing (okay maybe not so much the cows =P )

-Walking along the Burren Way to school jamming to my bumpin' hip-hop music

-Meghan, Alyssa, Tilly, and Liam's laughs

-Dancing at Logue's Discos to DJ McCormack/Brendan's ridiculous music

-Power stance, slack jaw, side eye, side smile, and dare I say it... thrusting

-Abbrevs with Hannah Hill

-Living with a bunch of crazy ARTISTS!

The list could go on, but I'll stop boring you, haha. Now for a short list of things I'm excited to come home to!

-Walking down the street to get Panera and Coldstone with my sister!

-Living at 40 Florence with the lovely Samantha, Lexa, and Hannah Berry

-70 DOWNING

-Being ISA publicity chair!

-Seeing my family and all my friends at home and at Clark

-Being in Topics with all my wonderful art major friends

-ISA events! GALA!

-Getting an internship in Worcester for the summer

-LIVING in Worcester for the summer

-Visiting Boston

-A variety of choices at the grocery store

-Having an ATM readily available at all times!

-ICED COFFEE

-Going to the GYM

-Snow!

-Being in the warm sunshine

-Sonic Trips!

-Being 21 in the states! (going to Downtown Ft. Lauderdale with Nacole!)

-Rhode Island with Molly Burman!

-Being in a familiar place

Again, the list could go on, but I'll stop there. I'm so sad this is coming to an end but I'm so excited to travel and I am so happy I've had this experience. It's been one of the best experiences in my life to date for sure. I've learned so much and I'm about to learn even more in the next three weeks. So my bags are packed, my itinerary is VERY detailed and printed out, my maps are mapped out, and I think I'm ready to go. Over the next three weeks I will be:

-Getting my last fish and chips in Ireland

-Meandering through awesome art museums

-Spending time with Casey and Hannah in London

-Checking out Inverness with Sarah and Caitlin

-Staying with Hadley in Stirling for a weekend

-Venturing into Bath or Straford Upon Avon with Hannah

-Eating amazing food and having the time of my life in Paris with my wonderful Aunt and Uncle

-Visiting Brussels for a few days

-Then finally making my way home to South Florida

Craziness! Well, wish me luck and hopefully I can update soon!!!! =)

Final Exhibition!

So as I said before this past week has been solely dedicated to setting up for our final exhibition. It was a pretty sad week watching everyone clean out their studios, but it got exciting once everyone got everything up. I'm not going to lie, I got a bit stressed at some points working around a bunch of other stressed out people. Conclusion: artists should avoid being around other artists during an exhibition hanging haha. Aside from all of that, everything went up pretty smoothly and we were ready for the opening! Before I get to that, here are some photos of the setting up process:

Erica chillin' in mine and Casey's work space

Empty drawing studio!

Me sitting in my almost finished studio space

So we got everything all cleaned up (including as much of the floor as possible, haha) and we were ready! Here are the pictures of mine and Casey's finished studios (minus the chairs):

Hannah's rock quilt!

The opening started at 5 pm and it was so nice; there were tons of people there and some of us actually sold some work! I didn't sell anything but hannah sold three of her paintings which is pretty impressive, I think. It was really great to see everyone all dressed up and to see our work hanging all nicely in the studio spaces. It was also really nice to see the MFA's work and how they set up their gallery (they had been working on it for a good couple weeks before we started getting ours together). Anyways, it was fun, and here are the pictures =)

Kate coloring in Casey's coloring book pages

Studio mates!

Me, Casey, and Hannah with Hannah's rock and hair quilts.

Some of Hannah's paintings

Casey's main works.

And mine.

Erica's studio

And Mandy's rubbings.

Here are some photos from the grad students' works:

Maurice's Confessional. In one side was a bathroom that you could walk into, not sure what was in the other side but there was a peep hole in which you could look into. The door with the peep-hole is labeled private.

Beka's interactive art. Her work is participation based and she goes out into the city and involves the public in her activities and records the reactions and interactions she gets.

Above and below: Emily's work. Her paintings are mostly about the human condition, focusing on the woman.

Angelalynn's performance art piece:

and below are the fragments of her other performance pieces.

Above: More of Emily's paintings - these dealing with human intimacy

Simon's paintings

So those were some of the works in the grad students' gallery. I was very impressed with the work they showed and how they displayed it, I thought it was very successful and I very much enjoyed viewing it.

After looking at all those I set out to wander around our own undergraduate exhibition including the barn, the fishbowl studios, and then back to my own upstairs studio.

Maggie, my lovely roommate, and her giant painting

Above: Emerson's painting and Erica's choice portraits

Below: Emerson's portraits and paintings

My friend Tilly had some works that I thought were thoroughly interesting. Her art this semester was task based so she designed tasks for herself to do for 20 days and then afterwards she designed a month long task project that involved all of us! Those two books are the collections of all of these tasks.

My friend Sarah in her very colorful artwork display

My friend Meghann and our sculpture professor, Onya, in Meghann's studio

Above and Below: different views in the barn studio

Once getting some of those shots I finally went outside to hang out with everyone. It got really cold though after a while and we were all about ready to go home and get ready for the celebrations at Logue's later!

Kendal, Alyssa, Meghann, and Me

Top Row: Sarah, Loretta, Meghan

Bottom Row: Kendal, Alyssa, Meghann, and Me

Erica, Me, and Kate

Everyone outside!

Hannah coloring her FIRST coloring book page, EVER!

After all of the exhibition opening fun we found out there was going to be a disco at Logue's. Obviously we all went, what better way to celebrate our opening!? It was a lot of fun but got a little crazy towards the end so Mandy and I left a bit early (and by early I mean around 1 haha). It was a lot of fun though and overall that day was really wonderful.

Alyssa, Maggie, and Me

Hannah, Me, and Casey

Erica, Hannah, Me, Casey, and Meghann

So yeah, that's about it for that day. This week is the final stretch and it's SO SAD. My friend Kate is leaving today, my friend Alyssa is leaving on Wednesday, and the rest of us are out of here by Friday or Saturday! I cannot believe it's almost over! Today I'm mainly getting stuff done. I had my final critique this morning and it went REALLY well. It was very helpful for the future and gave me some great input on what I've done since I've been here as well as what I should consider as I continue on with everything. I really do think this semester has prepared me for moving on and I'm really excited to start doing some new art next semester.

It's such a beautiful day outside today I can't even STAND it. I'm really hoping the weather stays this nice for the rest of the week! I'm going to TRY and make it out to the Cliffs of Moher sometime before I leave because how could I not, it's right down the road! Other than that, I have to finish up my Irish Studies paper that is due on Wednesday. I'm going to be spending the rest of this day working on that, organizing my things, packing my giant suitcase, doing laundry, and writing a few last post-cards. Also I'll be going to my friend Kate's house to say goodbye. There is a lot to do this week, but I'm ready to take it on. I'll be leaving for Dublin on Friday and I'm really excited to start my traveling adventure! Other than this, I'll update a bit here and there, but I probably won't do another big update until I get to Scotland, or maybe Paris, since I won't have a charger or a lot of time to be wasting on my computer.

Anyways, I need to get back to work. Until next time!

Studio Clean Up

Aaaahhhhh cleaning out my studio is so sad!!! Especially since my studio-mates cleaned theirs out even earlier than I did.

I started taking my wall full of pictures down yesterday, it was pretty darn sad. Finally I can start actually cleaning out my studio since my paintings are now all finished and I am currently here now painting the walls white and organizing my stuff. Tomorrow I'll hang my photo prints and start putting nails in the walls for my paintings so hopefully I can have Friday to do as I please. Our opening is on Saturday and I'm SO excited to see everyone's work up all nice and fancy!!! I still have some photos to edit for my final photo project (the one in which I'm photographing the familial relationships within Orchard House, aka the Orchard House Project) and print a few of my night shots that I will be putting up in the exhibition. I'll probably do those tomorrow as well. Also, the klutz that I am, I broke my table moving it around and my jars of turpentine (paint thinner) sludge crashed onto the ground spewing the sludge ALL over the floor and my newly painted white wall. It's alright though, Robert heard the commotion and came up and fixed my table and I wiped up the sludge from the floor and re-painted the wall, haha. Oh my. Here are some more sad pictures of the "clean" studio spaces haha.

Spilled Turp - not as bad as I made it seem, haha.

My empty side

Casey's side with work up for show

Mandy's side with some work up for show

Anyways, everyone around here is buzzing about, busy as can be trying to get their stuff up. Surprisingly I am not stressed AT ALL. That's like... the oxymoron of me haha, but it's true! I think this is much more of a fun thing than a serious life or death thing so it's easier to be less stressed. Anyways, just thought I'd give you all an update on what's been going on!

Short (Sort Of) Update

This past week has been pretty busy for everyone including myself, especially this weekend. I've finished my painting of Alyssa but I still have to tweak a few things on the other three paintings. I've also printed my Atmosphere series for our exhibition and I'm planning on printing my night photos as well. Hopefully I will be able to sell one or two or maybe more so I can have some cash for traveling, but who knows. Wish me luck though!

Nothing too exciting has happened lately other than getting work done. I have, however, been working on my travel Itinerary in my spare time. So far these are my plans:

Dublin: April 22-23

London April 24-27

Scotland: April 28-May 2 (tentatively with my friends Sarah M and Caitlin R as well as staying with Hadley)

Wales: May 3-4 (tentatively with my friend Hannah)

Paris (with Aunt T and Uncle J) May 5/6-9

Brussels with them: May 10-12

HOME: May 13

I've already reserved my hostels in Dublin and London AND my Britrail pass from my wonderful Aunt and Uncle has arrived in the mail. I've also pretty much mapped out my plans for sightseeing and such for Dublin and London, next up Scotland and Wales. It's been really fun planning everything, but also very overwhelming since I'm doing most of it on my own. It's kind of scary making decisions about travel without confirming with someone else but I'm slowly getting over the fear. Nina has also helped me figure out what I should see while staying in London and since I'll be with people most of the time it won't be to hard to figure things out. Mostly I'm just super excited to start my new adventure.

Right about now I'm at the point where I'm ready to start organizing my things but it's a little early on to do so. I still have to figure out how I'm going to ship my giant suitcase home before I travel. It's going to be wicked expensive, so I'm worried, but it's absolutely impractical for me to carry two suitcases and a backpack with me traveling.

Lastly, I'm going to be really sad to leave all my friends here at BCA. As much as I desperately miss my friends from home and Clark as well as my family, I've really bonded with the group here and there is a good number of them that I'll be sad not to see anymore. It's hard to go from living with a group of people for a semester to not seeing them again for who knows how long. I think most of us will stay in touch though, at least I seriously hope so. With technology the way it is, I find it hard to believe that we wont. =)

Kay, well I guess that's all for now. This week I have to finish up printing and editing by our last studio day on Tuesday. After that it's just cleaning up, re-painting, and hanging for the exhibition. Busy week!!

Charleville Castle Photos

Finally, photos!

So first up are the interior and exterior photos I did for my self assigned project. I was mostly focusing on interiors in which the mood of the space was determined by light. Like I said before, it was a lot of fun since the light was so beautiful in the building. I've also included some of the exteriors I took just so you could get an idea of the size of the buildings and what they looked like on the outside.

In the basement

The dungeon

The castle!

The inside courtyard of the dilapidated stables

Inside the stables

The exterior of the stables

There were a couple nice cats and a really nice dog that live there too =)

The Entrance

The Ballroom, where we spent the night. This room had incredible light due to the giant windows.

The lovely colors of the sunset

So the staircase is supposedly one of the most haunted places in the castle. Back when the building was owned by royalty, one of the Earl's daughters, Harriet, fell to her death from the third floor and she is said to play games with people. I didn't have any encounter with her, but this photo below pretty much depicts how most of my group felt about the staircase, haha.

This is the other most haunted room in the castle, the library. I found this room to be my favorite, actually. The setting of the room was cozy and the lighting was straight out of a Vermeer painting. Gorgeous. I spend a good amount of time in this room. I also spent some alone time at night in there, no ghosts though.

View of the staircase from the library

The upper most level of the castle is mostly in shambles. The owners are doing renovations, but since they only have volunteers helping there is only so much they can do. It's pretty bad up there, but the lighting is still wonderful.

I have to admit, of all the scary places in the castle, this hallway scared me the most. Why? Because the floorboards felt so loose! While my classmates were nervous about paranormal activity, I was afraid of falling through the old, antique floors, haha.

View of the top of the staircase from the nursery. I didn't take any photos of Harriet's nursery because it is a MESS and a half. The owners, in my opinion, really need to work on spotlighting a few places and making them look nice, especially the ones that hold so much history.

The view from where Harriet fell.

One of the best trees I have ever seen. It's right at the entrance to the castle driveway and it's pretty much the best climbing tree ever. I climbed it, and I approve.

As I said in my previous post about the castle, I took some portraits and self portraits as well, even though they weren't in my agenda. With all that gorgeous light, I couldn't help myself, haha. So here are the self portraits:

And here are the portraits:

Oh yeah! My friend Caitlin (oh, did I tell you btw that there are 4 Caitlins including me?), anyways, she made this dress from scratch without a pattern. Her assignment was to wear the dress around the castle for the entire time and have other people document her in it. (She also took some pinhole photos of herself with it on). Of course once I started doing portraits I had to photograph her. Look at that light! Anyways, I'm incredibly impressed with her workmanship with this dress, it was gorgeous, and so is she!

To finish up this post I took a few fun photos, though I wasn't carrying my camera everywhere I went so I don't have that many.

Dinner in the haunted kitchen.

Maggie and Mandy being polite and fancy =)

Zombies!!!!! For Shawn's zombie project. They looked so legit!

(From left to right: Emerson, Mandy, Meghann, Alyssa, and Hannah)

Aaaand some hair braiding in the morning.

Yup, so overall I would say it was a successful trip! I hope you guys like the photos =)