October the 21st: Long day
Whew, my sense of time always gets messed up when I go on a trip and that seems to include when I go home now, lovely. Of course, being home means that I have comfortable places (plural!) that I can stretch out and read which does take a lot of time that back at my dorm I would probably use for watching stuff instead. Definitely my least favorite part of being in a dorm, I have no good places to read and I hate going across campus to reading in the library or student union and I have yet to find a good reading place outside. And, considering how much reading has been a part of my life since I was 8 this is quite annoying.
So, did reading today (got sucked into re-reading Leviathan) but the first thing I did this morning was the interview at Williams-Sanoma. Again, it sounds like they have everyone they need for the Christmas season but they'll keep my stuff on file in case someone drops and I would really like an extra job (even if it's still minimal wage). Mom and I are just thinking about when we'll visit family and all that good stuff, I keep forgetting that it's strange to have all your relatives out of state so you can't make a quick little visit over the holidays. Certainly puts me in an awkward place when it comes to jobs but the fact is that I barely see my extended family as it is so I would like to see them before I write every single one of them off as boring. After that it was off to Jo Annes for fabric for Carol's dress where I apparently amused the employees when I said I was sewing just a dress. Maybe I should've clarified that it was a 1920s dress (so, super simple) but "She says just a dress!" seemed to amuse them, maybe I looked extra young today and they thought I was going to be surprised by how hard it'll be? Not sure I like either of those explanations come to think of it...
After that I got home and mom mentioned that the local college art museum she docent-s at had some photos there including some real Ansel Adams prints. Ansel Adams is one of THE iconic American photographer (probably the best known American, and one of the best known in the world, landscape photographer) and I knew my teachers would kill me if I didn't take this chance and see them in person. So we trundled off (and my mom loves to get me to see art, in my defense it's still much easier to do than get my brother to read) and ho-ly cow. I hadn't been too impressed when I saw the photos before in textbooks and coffee table books before. Sure they had nice subject matter but they just didn't look nearly as amazing as this one did in person. It was Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (so one of his most famous works as well) and it was on this good sized gelatin print as well and just looked beautiful. So clear, so detailed, so BIG, and now I have to admit that I really appreciate all his photos. Saw photos by some other photographers as well (Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother, one by Berenice Abbot, and two by Aurthur Rothstein, the first and last were big FSA photographers and Abbot was an ex-pat who worked with Man Ray I believe and she was a big supporter of Eugène Atget whose work I love, thank you History of Photography class for that info dump!) so it was interesting (well, that and some surrealist pictures by an artist named Anne Coulter I think, they were WEIRD). Actually, the other night I was showing my mom all the photos of the mountains in full color and she said she could see me developing a photographic style. It's true that she's been able to identify my art style since I was nine or so and she does help out at the art museum and there are radically different photographic styles in the world but it's still scary to hear that I already hear a style when I'm still trying to figure out what it is (starting to think that I'm a bit of a minimalist with a taste for the surreal who leans more towards straight photography than pictoralism, could be worse, I could be a cubist and oh so confused with myself).
Pretty quiet after that but tomorrow will be busy as well. Sewing, photography and author visits oh my!
So, did reading today (got sucked into re-reading Leviathan) but the first thing I did this morning was the interview at Williams-Sanoma. Again, it sounds like they have everyone they need for the Christmas season but they'll keep my stuff on file in case someone drops and I would really like an extra job (even if it's still minimal wage). Mom and I are just thinking about when we'll visit family and all that good stuff, I keep forgetting that it's strange to have all your relatives out of state so you can't make a quick little visit over the holidays. Certainly puts me in an awkward place when it comes to jobs but the fact is that I barely see my extended family as it is so I would like to see them before I write every single one of them off as boring. After that it was off to Jo Annes for fabric for Carol's dress where I apparently amused the employees when I said I was sewing just a dress. Maybe I should've clarified that it was a 1920s dress (so, super simple) but "She says just a dress!" seemed to amuse them, maybe I looked extra young today and they thought I was going to be surprised by how hard it'll be? Not sure I like either of those explanations come to think of it...
After that I got home and mom mentioned that the local college art museum she docent-s at had some photos there including some real Ansel Adams prints. Ansel Adams is one of THE iconic American photographer (probably the best known American, and one of the best known in the world, landscape photographer) and I knew my teachers would kill me if I didn't take this chance and see them in person. So we trundled off (and my mom loves to get me to see art, in my defense it's still much easier to do than get my brother to read) and ho-ly cow. I hadn't been too impressed when I saw the photos before in textbooks and coffee table books before. Sure they had nice subject matter but they just didn't look nearly as amazing as this one did in person. It was Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (so one of his most famous works as well) and it was on this good sized gelatin print as well and just looked beautiful. So clear, so detailed, so BIG, and now I have to admit that I really appreciate all his photos. Saw photos by some other photographers as well (Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother, one by Berenice Abbot, and two by Aurthur Rothstein, the first and last were big FSA photographers and Abbot was an ex-pat who worked with Man Ray I believe and she was a big supporter of Eugène Atget whose work I love, thank you History of Photography class for that info dump!) so it was interesting (well, that and some surrealist pictures by an artist named Anne Coulter I think, they were WEIRD). Actually, the other night I was showing my mom all the photos of the mountains in full color and she said she could see me developing a photographic style. It's true that she's been able to identify my art style since I was nine or so and she does help out at the art museum and there are radically different photographic styles in the world but it's still scary to hear that I already hear a style when I'm still trying to figure out what it is (starting to think that I'm a bit of a minimalist with a taste for the surreal who leans more towards straight photography than pictoralism, could be worse, I could be a cubist and oh so confused with myself).
Pretty quiet after that but tomorrow will be busy as well. Sewing, photography and author visits oh my!