The Return of Golden Cats

I've been keeping my hands busy making lots of things lately. Like a whole bunch of new merit badges. And after sewing the up, photographing, and packaging them yesterday, I finally updated my Etsy shop, Golden Cat Studios.

I wanted to put everything up at once. It gave me motivation to work faster and make more. And the satisfaction is much greater when you have 40+ items in your shop. Plus, I wanted to redo the design for everything based on what I had done for CIA's Student Holiday Sale in December, since I liked the way it looked much better. Everything was cohesive. So I redid all the labels, all the branding, everything. And took new pictures.

I also realized that there's a forest in my backyard now. Well, ok, behind my backyard, across the street, and down a path of wildflowers, there's a forest. But it's pretty much my backyard. So I took my dreamcatchers and hung them up in the trees and snapped a few photos. It was fun, minus the mosquitos. We've had quite a few days of non-stop rain, so there were some swampy areas for sure along the trail. Long pants and long sleeve shirts only deter so many before they attack your face. Anyway, click any of the pictures, or click HERE to check out my shop!

What you'll find:

• Almost a dozen dreamcatchers with embroidered fabric feathers
• A dozen and a half one of a kind merit badges
• A few handmade sketchbooks
• The Official Whimsy Scout Handbook
• Pocket Friends Galore
• Marvelous things everywhere

So get shopping! Buy things so I can buy glitter!

Sketchbooks, Part 9

The home stretch. Not quite done, but close enough to dream about mixtapes and bunnies and oceans and pen pals. Ideas were coming together, and I was too exhausted to be stressed.

I wrote my thesis research paper in an afternoon. It was easy once I organized my ideas. And it aided in my concepts to understand the history thoroughly. And it was fresh in my mind for my defense.

 However, better understanding things led me to talk about them differently. And I wasn't sure how I felt. Clearly, I was lying when I thought I figured it out.

 I always went back to breaking down my ideas and asking myself questions.

 And I went back to the stories. I had (have) them memorized. And I also started looking into different writers. e.e. cummings is a favorite of mine. His words make more sense than those that actually make sense. Make sense? It's ok. He knew his writing was confusing.

 Since everything was about the story, the narrative aspect to everything became that much more important. So I decided to structure everything in such a way to reference stories and books and writing and words. My statement was a Prologue. My proposal book was a Chapter Book. (Quote by Ernest Hemmingway. Sometimes I love things he said. Sometimes he bored me.)

 And since I was working with photographs from the 1920s-1950s, I researched writers from those time periods. J.D. Salinger became a big influence, especially since he was influenced by the brilliant F. Scott Fitzgerald, who fit into my time frame. But Salinger's writing structure was closer to my own.

 Fun fact: jackalopes like whiskey. Sometimes I doodle in class, completely unrelated to everything else. But it's rare. Also, I ate a bagel for lunch.

 Sometimes I'm dramatic. Especially after the third allnighter in a week.

 At that point, I do anything I can to keep myself awake and functioning during final critiques.

 Like give myself awards for anything I can. I definitely earned this one.

After this, I started a smaller, single signature sketchbook, dedicated to preparing for my BFA defense. It's pretty boring, but maybe I'll show you a page or two. But for now, that's it.

Sketchbooks, Part 8

 This is the last big sketchbook I filled during BFA year.

 That first page still intimidates me a bit. I find it's the perfect place for your name, though.

 We had a lot of presentations towards the end. A lot of studio visits. A lot of stress.

But when you make it through a VATe (fine arts) presentation unscathed, it feels pretty awesome. 

It feels even more awesome when you reward yourself with [an award for] a good night's sleep. 

 The last few pages were filled with summaries of my ideas over and over. Even in the last few weeks, ideas were changing, and as I tried to nail down exactly what I wanted to say, I kept rewriting everything.

 I wrote a lot of things I didn't mean or didn't want to say. It was frustrating.

 I wrote lists of words. I made flow charts. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote some more.

 And I was so determined to get it right, that I put a lot of pressure on myself. And stopped sleeping enough.

 And then one night, better words came to me. Not perfect words, but the idea was there. Almost.

And I was still learning things about myself. Which gave me more confidence to say what I wanted to say in the way I wanted to say it. Plus, I was too tired to be self-conscious about my ideas. 

I think in order to believe/understand something, I have to write it down from all angles. I did that a lot.

Sketchbooks, Part 7

I think most of these things were on almost every To Do list I made until BFA week. There's always more to do. 

Like Whimsy Scouts... I didn't finish the handbook until finals week (I'll share more about it soon!). And my website... I didn't finish that until BFA week. 

 Sometimes, blank space is necessary between ideas. That way, you can go back in and add more. Sometimes, charts are necessary to remind you that you caffeine addiction is probably unhealthy.

Whimsy Scouts became a nice break from the rest of my ideas. Jackalopes began popping up on every other page.

Who knew this was important? While working with narratives for my rotoscopes and tapestries, I decided to write a paragraph about each person. Character development, if you will. And so I just wrote, knowing that I would limit myself to working with only the ideas in that paragraph. So I wrote, without thinking, only knowing, instinctually, what the story outside the frame would be.

 Nellie's story was basic when I wrote the first sentence here. But then everything came together.

 Gregory's story was fuzzy to me. I had the essentials, but the details didn't come together for awhile longer. I just wrote here, and ended up changing things later. Small things.

 Poor Frank, his story was never told. But that's part of working with installations--you work with the space, and my space allotted for 3 tapestries, not 4. So Frank and his pies will have to wait.

Did you read Nellie's story? Because in order to rotoscope her, I needed to film someone cutting their hair. Guess who that someone was...

Sketchbooks, Part 6

This past semester, I (finally) took a handmade book class.  I learned all sorts of bookbinding techniques, but my favorite by far was the coptic stitch. For a long time, I hated coptic, seeing examples online. I thought it was tacky. But I think that's because they were all hardcover. I much prefer them as paperbacks. With colorful thread. And they open so nicely.

Filling these handmade sketchbooks became more gratifying. I was more aware of how quickly I filled each signature, and it was a nice way to section my ideas. And I felt free to write and draw anything I wanted, especially since it was much cheaper to make sketchbooks. A lot of pages, I realized, dealt with narrative sequence. Flow charts. Storyboards. Maps. Book layouts.

Goals for the next 5 years. I'll repost this later - in text form - for your convenience. 

 Narrative sequence. Ideas for my website. I always have trouble categorizing my work, and I end up with a lot of messy venn diagrams and various lists. Like this one.

 Good things. Good ideas. Good day.

 This is how you write a cover letter. In case you were wondering. I took very good notes during the lecture. Can't you tell?

 Annoyed. Probably with the weather and idiots.

 My traveling scholarship plan ended up being something other than this. But it's kind of cool to look back on these brainstorming sketches, and know that it paid off, that I earned money to travel and make art. In other news, here on the right is a list of Good Rabbit Names. Because I will have at least one rabbit (good luck trying to stop me, Nicholas). I'm especially fond of Millie, Julie Andrews, Presley, and Gertrude.

I've worked in 2 different flower shops. And each time, they gave me endless inspiration. Mostly because I came to strongly dislike cut flowers sold in shops (except for peonies). And so while making bouquets, I'd daydream about wildflowers and wonderful landscapes. I like to keep flowers around me and in my sketchbooks, to keep feeding these narratives.