doctors did things to you and then it was not your body anymore

Farewell to Arms...so wonderful.

love.lauryn.

Merry Christmas Baby

It's Christmas eve and my sister and I are watching Elf before we go to bed [our annual Christmas tradition]. Whenever I watch this movie, I always wonder if the Narwhal that pops up as Buddy sets out to New York is a real animal. Every time, without fail, I ask whoever I am watching the movie with if Narwhals are real. To my disappointment, no one can ever truthfully answer my question. This time I decided to satisfy my curiosity once and for all-by 'googling' it of course. My conclusion: Narwhals really do exist outside of Christmas Land.

According to Wikipedia [a completely reliable source], the long horn is actually a giant tooth that grows from the Narwhal's mouth and grows to be around 10 feet long. That is half the length of the Narwhal's body which grows to be 23-26 feet long. Watching a whale swim around with a giant snaggle tooth is definitely something I would love to see before I die. So it's Christmas eve, and I learned something new. Merry Christmas darlings

love.lauryn.

Wormy

Here is the finished product! I know it's a little rough, but this is my first piece of video art ever :] Who knew a 1.5 minute clip would take 12 hours to make? Not it...

love.lauryn.

Apple Band

Tonight was pure insanity if I do say so myself. I spent the past 6 hours of my night/morning creating and documenting scenes for a stop motion animation project I am doing for my 4-d class. Meanwhile, my dear, dear friends blew up whales & dipped things in beans. There weren't many parameters to this assignment. In fact, our professor let our peers set them for us. Over Thanksgiving break, we each thought of 10 random objects or ideas to base a video on. When we got back, we all switched lists with someone else in the class and were told to construct a video incorporating each and every word. These pictures might give you a little taste of what I came up with. Things get kind of crazy at 2 am and I become delusional. I must say, gluing miniature instruments to a band of fruits is a first for me. As is stop motion. We'll see how the final product turns out... If i learned anything tonight, it's that apples sure know how to jam and nobody uses cotton balls anymore.

love.lauryn

Riga Girls

The following is my final project for Photo 1. We were told to use any song as title and inspiration for a photo series. Below is my artist statement, followed by my photographs and the song that inspired the piece.

Women have been permanently tainted. After years of propaganda stating that plastic is perfect, we have been conditioned to cover up natural beauty with a shiny and manufactured exterior. Slightly crooked nose? There's surgery for that. Lips too thin? They can fix that too. But what happens after all of these modifications take place? Are we as females finally "beautiful?" In truth, we have become the opposite. We can not hide behind that facade forever. Eventually the same insecurities that led us to ‘fix’ ourselves will resurface and the straightest nose in the world isn't going to bring solace.
Through a series of photographs, I attempted to represent the effects of the inadequacy women see in themselves. The storyline was inspired by a song titled Riga Girls by The Weepies. Just as the Riga Girls of the song, the women in my photographs can't "learn to love what [was] sent from up above." Perpetually disecting what they were given and longing for what they weren’t, they convince themselves that perfect beauty will bring them comfort. However, caught in moments of time, their expressions and gesture betray them. Each one is caught in a state of longing, insecurity or act of comparison. Even after her “transformation” she still can’t seem to fit perfectly into the frame. Her face sits askew in the picture of perfection.

love.lauryn.

McArtist

Last night, I was informed of an artist named Grady McFerrin [thank you Luke Caldwell]. After looking up his website and perusing his portfolio, I have decidedly fallen in love with his drawings. I know they walk the line of cliche hipster randomness that has become oh so popular recently, but still I can't help but consider them different. My favorite aspect of the drawings is the color. He uses the most beautiful hues which complement each other so well. There is a perfect balance in each piece between antiquity and boldness. The color's neither fade into blah or give your eyes a visual seizure. I respect that balance because I understand the problem that color presents. From experience, mixing and combining colors into a cohesive whole is sometimes the most difficult part of a piece. So thank you Grady McFerrin, I commend you.

love.lauryn

[one of my favorites]

wanted dead or alive: my motivation [reward offered]

I am apathetic, this is true. I don't possess will power. I rarely finish what I start. I've searched everywhere I can think to look and have come to the conclusion that my motivation has been misplaced. It is lost and forgotten, MIA if you will. In fact, who knows how long this blog will even last. My money is placed on the bet that I will grow too tired and lazy to update love.lauryn. after the first couple of weeks. Like everything in life, the novelty will eventually wear off and the paint will begin to peel. About that time, I'll move on to something new and more exciting, like usual. The unfortunate thing is, although I have given up trying in many areas of my life, I am somehow able to do things with considerable ease. For example, I have missed over 15 sessions of my Art History II class, but have yet to receive anything below an 85% on any one assignment. This presents a great problem. There are no real consequences for my apathy, hence no changes occur. I need a good failure to whip me into shape. In fact, I am asking for a degree of failure. Please and thank you.

love.lauryn.