Conference Success!

I recently got back from the 2011 American Art Therapy Association conference and what a great and successful conference experience!  The picture is of my table at the craft fair that I shared with someone from my program (I'm on the left with my pottery).  It was a pretty successful craft fair for me, and I made enough money to pay for almost half of a replacement camera off of selling my pottery alone.

Selling my pottery was really motivating for me - I charged more than I thought I should, and people seemed to think these were reasonable prices.  It was great because I think I would otherwise very much under-charge for my pieces.  Four bowls broke - four great bowls - so that was money lost, but I brought home the shards to use in my garden, so at least it doesn't completely go to waste.  Also some people took shards for their own art work.

I also presented my thesis again.  I actually had a decent crowd even though I was scheduled during the lunch hour and across from the Town Hall meeting.  People asked really nice and supportive questions, no heckling (which can happen, even from a crowd full of therapists, it's surprising).  My thesis (and a handout summarizing my presentation) will be up on my website soon so that people can access it and cite me in their work.  In general it was great to get my feet wet in national presentations, and I've got two proposals in the works for next year.

(What am I thinking?? I'm also planning to take the ATR-BC exam at the conference next year?? Clearly I am insane.)

A presenter is me

I've just been accepted to present my thesis at the 2011 American Art Therapy Association Conference!  How exciting!

The presentation is mostly going to be the same as my thesis workshop (minus the workshop part), but I might add a few slides to include questions/considerations that were brought up the first time I presented.  It's a 30 minute presentation, so not a full length "paper" presentation but rather a digital poster.  I was a little intimidated to do a full hour by myself, so this is the right amount of time and probably the right size crowd for my first solo professional presentation!

This, along with a presentation I'm doing next month with my supervisor and other intern at my site will help flesh out the "PRESENTATIONS" part of my resume - which is currently not there because I've only done the one.

This year's conference I'm planning to be all over the place.  I'll be selling my pottery in the marketplace, displaying work in the digital gallery, presenting, and will maybe even submit a 60 second film to the short film festival.  That along with going to presentations, the art studio, and maybe a workshop.  Because it's not too far I'll be there the whole time, instead of showing up Thursday afternoon like the last conference (Thursday morning seems to be the best day for presentations).  And I'll be throwing business cards all over the place because hopefully I will be looking for a job either in December or January once I finish my license.

Excited!

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.

My installation

The gallery is open now so I thought I would post a picture of my installation! This is the final piece to my thesis project, all of my work (including the poetry) all in one place. PHEW!

Sneak Peek!

I installed my piece in the show today... it took 5 hours, yes, five whole hours, but it's done. Installed and done. It looks so good. It's all of my thesis artwork and poetry in one place, grouped together and everything. If you've read my thesis, you'll understand it more than just seeing it on the wall, but I think even just seeing it on the wall will be interesting. The poetry will invite people to become intimately involved in my pieces, not just letting them view them from a distance.

Can't wait to see what everyone's stuff looks like on Friday!!!!

Thesis Readers Thank You

I am doing termination pieces for EVERYONE UNDER THE SUN. For real. I've done so many for so many clients, I've done some for coworkers, some for teachers, and now here are the pieces for my thesis readers.



These are about 7.5 x 10.5. I've been using this fancy paper for the termination paintings and the paper really does make all the different with watercolors. Wow.

These paintings I'm making for people are about how I feel about our relationship. Some of them have poems on the back, some of them have messages, some of them don't say much of anything. They're for the receiver to interpret how they want.

I'll post more termination objects after they're revealed to the people who will receive them... as I'm pretty sure my thesis readers aren't reading my website, I think it's safe to post these (I will give them to them tomorrow and Thursday).

My thesis has been submitted!

(Spring in Chicago, so pretty!)



Today was a crazy day. In the end, I submitted my thesis. I ruined the ending, but that's okay.

I finished editing my thesis last night for reals. Then, this morning, I realized the title page was wrong. Okay, I can manage that. I fixed the title page in the PDF, saved it to three different places (email, CD, data stick), and left for school to print and turn it in. Printing happens, not to big of a deal, I have the forms and everything, I'm done done done! Right! I'm so happy.

I go to the office to turn it in. No, they say, we won't accept this without signatures from your readers. But it doesn't say in the manual that you won't accept it without signatures! We won't accept it.

I was really upset. I had to sit down for thirty minutes to compose myself. I reserved only a small number of brain cells for this activity and I didn't have enough brain cells left to manage turning this in next week. It has to be done today.

I went back to my thesis advisor and got her signature. I ran to the train and went up north to my internship site to find my second reader and sat outside her office while she was in a meeting so that I could get her signature. I then raced back down to school and sat outside the classroom waiting for my other second reader to get to class to sign the paper. She signed.

Then I went upstairs armed with two copies of the signatures and forms and thesis and extra envelopes and paperclips in case what I had wasn't good enough. It was. I turned it in.

Okay that doesn't sound so crazy but it sure felt crazy.

Next up, thesis presentation on Tuesday!

Thesis Scribble 3

I investigated the hole on the right (surrounded by orange) in this art piece and this plant art piece.

Thesis Scribble 2

This scribble goes with this art piece and this art piece.

Thesis Scribble 1

FINALLY my scribbles are scanned in and ready to be viewed by the general public (both on my blog and in my thesis).

This scribble inspired first this art response and then this response. You can see I focus a lot on that giant red bubble.

Thesis art

It's funny because I thought this was the ugliest piece I made, but it's the most interesting to photograph.

Thesis art

This one kind of looks like a little angry monster.

I wrote about how the mesh is embedded in the clay, like an embedded collar on the animal neglect TV shows. The more you try to pull it out the worse it gets.

More thesis art

Surprise, I'm sprouting a plant as part of my thesis!

WOOHOOOOOOOooooo

That's it, I have a draft of every section of my thesis! It might be really rough, it might be kind of badly worded and maybe not so full of content, but every section has a draft. Now I'm just doing revisions for the next month and then it's DONE.

DONE DONE DONE.

I mean "just" doing revisions... that is a major process. But the point is, revisions only, not writing from scratch. That's easier, I think.

Thesis art

Out of context, but still interesting.






This piece was made entirely out of garbage and 12 cents. A cut up piece of a plastic jug that used to hold method cleaning solution (so it's non-toxic), tissues, a green wax protective cover for shipping a wine bottle, and some pieces of white tissue paper. The outside is painted with acrylic paint diluted with lots of matte medium so the light shines through. The piece is balanced using 12 cents :)

Who knew I would love making sculptures as much as I do...

Thesis art

More thesis response art out of context.




This was made with model magic, then painted, then tied together with white yarn.

Thesis art

Here is one of my response pieces...




I might post more response pieces but I like this one so I'm posting it out of context haha.

It's a latex glove filled with water (don't worry I double-layered it) and then I colored it with markers. It's jiggly and delicate.