4th of July Pictures

While we spent most of the day packing, we took a break to our friends' rooftop patio to watch the fireworks. While we were waiting, we watched a stormcloud slowly pass by us (we did get rained on but not for very long). Ahh, it was reminiscent of my days going to the National Mall for fireworks, where it rains almost every year at some point on the 4th.

A great shot of Lake Shore Drive from the 38th floor...




We were so high up the fireworks seemed below us (although also they were far away). These were the Montrose fireworks.





The cloud (you can even see it raining on the lake).





It almost seems like you can see up into the suburbs from this view. It didn't come out well in the picture, but when you looked in this direction you saw at least 10 other sets of fireworks going off at the same time. It was like watching popcorn pop across the city.





These are the fireworks from Navy Pier.



What a great last night in Chicago!

When we arrived in Chicago it was a Wednesday night and Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday night. As we drove in on Lake Shore Drive we were greeted with fireworks. So on our first night and our last night in the city we saw fireworks. :)

We made it (phew)

Box mountain was transported from Chicago to New York. Finally.

In fact, there are so many boxes we can barely move around the apartment. Literally, we have to scale box mountain to go to the bathroom or to the kitchen (the worst of it is in the kitchen actually). This apartment is significantly smaller than our last place and even though we got rid of most of our furniture we are quite challenged by the space! The cable guys came this morning and almost cried (haha).

While we were moving they were still painting and finishing up the bathrooms so that was interesting. It's not like we had anywhere to go, we were sitting on the street in the truck - idling, because it was 100 degrees out and we were overheating, so we just unloaded around them. Good times.

Today I go to IKEA to purchase all of our furniture and then wait around for them to deliver it. Oh yeah, and move things around and unpack things so we can fit it in. OY.

Freedom

I was kind of in a rough situation for a while... I made this painting in response to the cautious feelings of freedom that I felt when I thought I saw a light at the end.

Proposal Submitted!!!

I have just submitted a proposal to present at a conference in New York this November!

I've proposed to do the same workshop I did as my thesis presentation back in May. The workshop went really well and I got a lot of great feedback, so I am excited to have the opportunity to do it again (and make it even better). Plus maybe I will get more time - the biggest complaint was that an hour and a half was not enough time.

Also, it should be noted that I submitted this proposal during the second night of my move to New York. Yes, it is taking three days and two nights to get to New York. We are in a hotel room right now with the animals. It is a hectic time for us all.

In honor of leaving Chicago, here is a picture I took with JewishGuy's iPhone last summer when we ate at the restaurant in the Hancock Building.

Stress (and avoidance)

This was the last painting I made in the series, actually. I made it during the packing and moving process.

Art Therapy (for me)

This semester I went to an art therapist regularly for a few reasons... 1) I was having a really hard time with a lot of things relating to school, so I needed some support; and 2) I am an art therapist so I'd really like to know what it would be like to be a client.

Because I'm an artist I didn't use my time in sessions to make artwork. I used the sessions to process the work I made at home or in other classes/situation that I felt related to what was going on. I also decided that I would use the time in one of my classes this past semester to make art for my therapy sessions - in this class we were supposed to outline a project at the beginning of the semester and work on it consistently during class. I decided to explore myself through art making.

July 1 was my last day because we are moving this week, so we put up all of my artwork on the wall and talked about it. I didn't put it up in chronological order, but rather the order that seemed to make sense visually.



The pieces at the bottom are print-outs of large scribbles I did at my internship (many of which I featured here).

I think I will show some of the paintings from this exercise throughout the month, especially if I can't think of anything else to write about!

Being a client was an interesting and educational experience for me. We took a narrative approach, by that I mean I identified characters I play in different situations and really analyzed them (instead of analyzing me). I learned what some of these characters feel like when I'm playing them, when/why they show up, and how they affect others. Well, mostly anyway. It didn't feel like it was enough time to really get into it! But you can see the characters showing up in the paintings and interacting with each other, which is really cool.

I'm definitely glad I had that opportunity and I can't wait until I actually get to see clients again...

July 3

I have to quickly post before it's midnight. Shabbat ends so late that it's hard to stay on top of things!

Yesterday I went on a Segway tour with SportyJew (JewishGuy's sister, my sister-in-law). I have been wanting to do one of these for a very long time. Segways seem so awesome and - guess what - they are!

This is a photo of all of the Segways lined up when we had our 10 minute break (it was a 2 hour tour).



I guess you could say, in a way, I saved the tour for the very end of my stay in Chicago... Leaving on Monday!!

Button Flowers

For our wedding, we had felt and button flowers commissioned from Princess Lasertron (aka Megan Hunt). I am so happy that we did this - not only did we get beautiful, unique additions to every bouquet and centerpiece, not only did we support an independent artist, but also we have fun little reminders of our wedding around the house in little vases. I definitely recommend having some non-fresh flowers in weddings because you can save them or give them to guests / bridesmaids as presents.






Other things we were able to save from the wedding: kippot with our names in them, and a copy of the booklets we made ourselves that served both as place cards and helped explain the ceremony to our guests. There's a lot that goes on in a very short period of time in a Jewish wedding ceremony (well, it's short if you leave the explanation to the booklet and just go-go-go!).




We also had bentchers made for our wedding (of course). They are little prayer books that have the blessing for before and after meals as well as some songs. We have a ton of these left over, actually! But it's great because now when we have people over for meals we have plenty to go around.



I love that a lot of the things we saved from the wedding show up in our regular, every-day lives. :)



(Photo Credit: Amy Raab Photography - our fabulous wedding photographer!)

Canada Day / Good bye Chicago!

Today we're having a good-bye party (for ourselves haha) and it turns out it's on Canada day. So I made a Happy Canada Day banner, complete with iconic Canadian things (hockey sticks, beer, mounties, a moose and a beaver) to put up at our party. I mean, it's not like we're going to put up a good-bye banner for ourselves! Anyway, JewishGuy is Canadian, so it had to be done.

The Art Room

I wrote about how moving makes you take inventory and how I am sad over the loss of our books, among other things (though it's an important purge). Recently, we also gave away our couches and coffee table, as well as JewishGuy's office furniture. We're giving JewishGuy's sister our dining room furniture to hold on to for an indefinite amount of time. We will arrive in New York with... what?

Having my own art room has provided me with the space to collect a large number of art supplies, especially over the course of the last two years. I've always had this cart:

(This picture is from 2005, when Lilly was a baby, but already a budding assistant)

This cart contained basically all of my art supplies until grad school, when my art room became a new frontier for all kinds of media I hadn't much explored before: screenprinting, fabric dying, small found-objects sculptures, fiber art (crochet, embroidery, felt sculptures, etc). I began making stationary and small books last summer, and had a whole shelf dedicated to that inventory, plus what I collected from others. Before this art room, my art cart mostly had supplies for linoleum cut relief printing, collaging, and painting (acrylic). These supplies, too, exploded - even before the new art room - as I bought more magazines than I could handle, bought new linoleum blocks, and collected a massive amount of acrylic paint for the mural project that inspired this blog.

When we moved to Chicago I had the art cart, a folder of paper and prints, and maybe a box of miscellaneous supplies. Packing up the art room now took at least 8 boxes, some of them very large.

Our apartment in New York isn't very large. It could sort of be considered as being a two bedroom, but one of those bedrooms is very narrow and long, which makes it practically impossible to use as a bedroom. The last time we had a two bedroom apartment (in Houston), the spare room became JewishGuy's office, where I kept my art supplies and a small table to sometimes make art on. Now the second room is going to be my art room, with a small table for JewishGuy to put his laptop on when he's at home.

I'm going to buy a new, fold-up drafting table. I've already imagined how I can set up the space for optimal use of the drafting table while still having a place for my computer - I have a desktop now (old school!) so it actually needs a permanent place to sit. I imagined where the plants would go and where I would keep my art supplies so they are within easy reach of my seat.

I'm so excited!



(This month's theme is "saved.")