This weekend marked another successful Wayzgoose print festival at King’s Books, one of my favorite things to look forward to during spring in Tacoma. My housemate and I arrived this morning just in time to see the traditional steam roller print taking place, with a beautiful design carved by Tacoma’s own guerrilla art group, Beautiful Angle!
Image courtesy of Beautiful Angle’s Facebook page
SENIOR ART MAJORS TURN IN THEIR THESIS PROJECTS ON MONDAY!! AHHHHH!!
I’m one of those panicking art major seniors. (Which means I’ve basically been living in the studio, along with my fellow majors.) But all is well! The projects are coming along nicely, and everything is falling into place. The senior show is fast approaching, with the reception on April 27th (including food curated by yours truly and fellow senior Rachel Kalman). The PR committee put together this fab poster to advertise the show, featuring all the art seniors!
As my final semester as a Puget Sound student comes to a close, I thought I’d post about one of my favorite things I participated in as an undergrad: Ubiquitous They Sketch Comedy. This group is my family away from family. Every semester, we put on a comedy show written, directed, and acted by students. Tech week is terrible, being in Rausch’s tiny theater 6 to midnight every day… but in reality I love every minute. Getting to spend so much time with such genuinely good and funny people has defined my Puget Sound experience.
BUT ENOUGH WITH THE CHEESE. Let’s get to the funny stuff. Here’s a look at my final sketch show with UT Sketch Comedy — UT Presents: I ate a nickle!
The fantastic poster advertising the show, designed by senior and sketch mom Michelle Leatherby
It finally feels like spring! So to celebrate the change of weather, here’s some photos from our week of sun.
My cute friends Maia Raeder, Carly Brock, and Rachel Kalman enjoying the sun and a cancelled class!
Maia (my housemate and pal!) & Maddie 🙂
Every semester, I’m lucky enough to be able to put on a sketch comedy show with my family away from family, Ubiquitous They. Last semester, our show titled “UT Presents: Living in Garbage” was a huge success and featured something a little different: a video sketch!
Our awesomely gross logo for the show’s posters, courtesy of Michelle Leatherby
Fellow senior Michelle Leatherby wrote a sketch titled “The Real Oregon Trail” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. The script features some colorful characters making the trek out west with one twist: it’s a reality show. So the cast and the camera crew hiked out to China Lake Park and got shooting, costumed and all. Here’s some photos from filming!
Jedediah (Darrin Schultz) and Beth (Sophie Schwartz), the parents of the group
Just before fall break, I finished my second printmaking project of the year. I’ve done some work with relief printmaking before and wanted to experiment a little bit more, so for this project I worked with speedy-cut (a rubber-like substance perfect for carving) on a medium scale. I chose to do a monoprint series that addressed the theme of femininity. I’m very interested in the classics (I would be a double major if I had time for the language requirement!), so I worked with figures from Greek mythology. In particular, I chose to represent two women of Ancient Greek mythology that represent different sides of femininity for me: Persephone and Artemis.
My carved and inked plate of Artemis with my first test print
Earlier this month was Discover Puget Sound here on campus, and it was quite an event! Students interested in the school came to explore the campus and learn a bit about us. I joined some 250+ prospective students and their families for a delicious breakfast buffet featuring breakfast quesadillas (that’s right, breakfast. quesadillas.), a campus tour, and an address from our very own President Ron Thomas so I could take some pictures and show you what you missed if you were unable to attend!
Registration on its own was an event, the SUB flooded with eager students and families and the piano lounge was all abuzz with anticipation (for me, it was anticipation of those breakfast quesadillas!!!). I remember quite clearly my own first visit to campus and the mix of nervousness and excitement that went with it. It may feel like you’re the only one with a thousand and one questions concerning college and all that goes with it, but I promise, you’re not! Every single Logger in the Student Union Building that day could tell you the same. Seeing all the prospective students getting checked in and ready to attend this Discover Puget Sound day confirmed that it was sure to be a good one.
Admission counselor Andy Marshall giving some info at check-in!
Next it was up to Upper Marshall Hall for breakfast and mingling. Did I mention there were breakfast quesadillas??
Upper Marshall Hall was packed!
Next, the group made its way to Schneebeck Concert Hall for a word from the President, lovingly referred to by students as “Ron Thom,” and a lovely performance from Puget Sound’s a cappella group, What She Said.
What She Said performing
Ron Thom and James Miller, director of Admission
While my stomach was most pleased with the breakfast buffet, I do have to say that I was particularly interested in President Ron’s speech. Having called this campus home for going on four years now (senior year, yikes!), hearing what he had to say to prospective students was really something. It wasn’t necessarily what one would expect; while there was some plugging the school as a potential home for all the students present, what was really interesting is the importance he placed on it being the students’ choice. Yes, Puget Sound could be your home. But in reality, it could also not be. Ron provided a lot of perspective by reminding the students just what makes a “good” college, and what kind of students typically find their home here at Puget Sound. I found myself moved by this because I absolutely remember the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the big college decision, and I am so thankful and happy to have found my home here. Had I been able to hear Ron’s speech when I was visiting schools, I know it would have relieved a great amount of the stress. It wasn’t fluffy, it wasn’t frivolous; Ron did a great job giving a realistic expectation of what this school is and what it stands for with just the right amount of touching home talk.
Ron Thom and James applauding What She Said while the crowd is mid standing ovation!
All in all, the day was an absolute success! Following these events, there were many prospective students in my classes, all the way from computer science to art history. (And while I made my lazy senior way to class, I made sure to give directions to the near-panicked prospective students who just had no idea where Thompson Hall was, assuring them that it was okay if they were a few minutes late, like me. [Shame on me.])
And that’s what you missed at this Discover Puget Sound day 2015! If you’re a prospective student hoping to gain some perspective on whether Puget Sound could be right for you, I highly encourage attending the next DPS day. Until then!
Finally! It’s almost time for my favorite holiday: HALLOWEEN!! So to prep for the weekend festivities, a few friends and I gathered for a pumpkin carvin’, hot buttered rum makin’, pumpkin seed roasting’, scary movie watchin’ extravaganza.
First stop: Safeway to go pumpkin pickin’!
My buddies Billy and Nate pickin out their pumpkins… what cute faces!
We brought our haul back to my house and began carving!
Here’s how my pumpkin turned out, all lit up in the dark on my porch: The Hylian Pumpkin! (Based of course off the Hylian shield from Legend of Zelda)
Not bad, eh? Here’s my pals and our pumpkins: a spooky crow, the Hylian shield, and a skull from Heart of Darkness.
Following pumpkins we watched The Thing and baked the pumpkin seeds, the best part, in my opinion.
Delicious!
Can’t wait to show off my costume this Halloween! You bet there’ll be pictures of that too. Happy Halloweekend!
Fall break has officially begun! But before I was able to celebrate my future four day weekend, I had to make it through midterms. So in order to cope with the stress of little sleep and enough art history flashcards to make your head spin, my buddy (and fellow UT Improv co-leader) Dylan and I took a trip to the Metropolitan Market.
I know what you’re thinking. A minivacation to a market? But trust me, it’s so much more. It’s a wonderland. An expensive wonderland for a college student, but a wonderland never the less. We went with one mission in mind: stress relief sweets. Our mantra? Treat yo’self. You see, it was also the anniversary of perhaps the most important Parks and Recreation episode of our generation.
So, we treated ourselves. Dylan went with gelato while I reunited with my one true love… The Cookie. That’s right, THE Cookie. I’d explain to you the simple perfection of this baked beauty but no words can do it justice. It’s basically the most wonderful combination of all things chocolatey and delicious, just gooey enough in the center to melt away all stress and sadness. Basically heaven incarnate in a cookie. 
Next on the list? Beverages. An easy choice too, since no normal human can resist chocolate milk. (Unless you hate chocolate milk, which is totally fine ’cause that’s your opinion. I mean, you’re wrong, but y’know. It’s fine.)
With sweets in hand, we made our way out into the cool autumn evening. Before enjoying the spoils of our adventure, however, we couldn’t resist the neat little photo opp set up for us just outside the market doors. Dylan blends in perfectly.
Taking a little break amidst the tests and essays was well deserved and necessary, and now we’re free, with a lovely first day of fall break before the second half of the semester picks up! Here’s to that lovely turn of phrase, treat yo’self!
This semester, my upper level printmaking class allows for a lot more freedom and experimentation, which means new techniques! The first project we worked on involved a method of screen printing called photo screen printing. I designed an image digitally and then printed it onto a transparency, coated my screen in an icky substance called photo emulsion, and then exposed the image to my screen with a machine that uses concentrated light. It was basically a bunch of cool chemical nonsense that I honestly still don’t completely understand, but it ended up perfectly exposing my very intricate image to my screen! This method is super useful because of it allows for lots of detail and a screen that can be printed and washed many times. I decided to do some test prints with just black ink before I worked on my edition.
My image and black ink, pre first pull