New Setup

This week my parents and I went off and got me my graduation present. So I have a new setup now!! 

This motivates me to clean the studio a bit. My table is messy as well as the rest of the room. Old art work everywhere and shit. I think I'll occasionally work on it this summer, been wanting to clean it up since I came home from college so I could have room to continue yoga. I realized how much I missed doing it when I took the P.E course last Fall. It really helped with my hypothyroidism. It gave me energy and helped me through the week since it was on a Wednesday. Now that I have a bit more energy I would be motivated to do it on my own. I have applied to one job where I couldn't imagine it being more perfect for me so now I'm doing the waiting game. I've just been working on my musics and researching -- playful things, taking a bit of a break on art and design related stuff. :-) 

I found this interesting website that focuses on protein and how it reacts to music. Apparently it sings when it reacts or is in the presence of music: http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~dr.fuk/IndexE.html.

Well I'm done.

I finished my last and final semester of college. I can't believe I'm saying that really.
I've been through so much to get to the point I am where I am, I'm surprised at how well things have turned out.

I'm tempted to wait on applying for jobs because this past semester was a hard one on many levels. I'm really ready to just kick back and enjoy the summer months on cape cod not having to worry about school at all and just let my mind relax for once.

I do have a few options though that I'd like to pursue:

- I've been eyeing the Program in Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) degree from the MIT Media Arts and Sciences lab.

- Heading off to Taos, New Mexico and get a degree in Earthship Biotecture and getting involved with that community. Completely building sustainable housing from recyclable materials.

- Or going into the blossoming field of semiotics: Semiotics is the general study of sign processes, or semiosis. Semiosis makes the world meaningful. The University of Tartu in Estonia is the one of the world's centers for Semiotics.

I've also been contemplating on how to continue my research. I'm a bit of at a stand-still with it. I guess I just need to plow forward and see where it will take me. Maybe see if there are universities out there that study the esoteric, or something. We'll see what happens yet... I'm kind stumbling in the dark with it though.. I know where I'm going but I don't know what I'm looking for... Truth, sure... but as the quote on my website says, truth is contextual and changeable and dependent on point of view.  It depends on everything, where the successes come from and how I will get there. Also the main goal... well, I'll will reveal that sometime down the line especially when I start working on it.

I suppose for now I'm going to focus on trying to get hired somewhere and start building my studio. Definitely need a place to call mine :-)

We'll see. but ... time to enjoy my last week here at Moravian and in Bethlehem, Pa and enjoy the festivities.

Suit of Pentacles - the Design Process

To me, the suit of pentacles represents the design industry to the fullest. You have....
the ace of pentacles
which is the sprout of a new idea for the design, got the job

two of pentacles
is a critique via the professor (or client) about your ideas on paper, the design is young, a balance of thought is exchanged that will materialize (on paper) into the design

three of pentacles
represents the transition from ideas on paper to the computer.

Four of pentacles
represents a solid foundation of the design - not necessarily finished but a good start, its secure, you've got all the basics covered, go for it.

Five of Pentacles
represents advice given to you but you may not be necessarily open to it, I see creativity a divine force and in the five a pentacles there is usually two figures avoiding a church - so perhaps this may also mean avoidance of creativity? Not using it? Lack of Inspiration?

Six of pentacles
represents moving on, finally getting ideas worked out an materialized on the computer you may have a comp (prototype) done. You have the ideas down, a good foundation, you took the advice finally, saw the "light" got inspiration.

Seven of pentacles
you are stepping back, admiring your work, you may have one final individual critique from the professor

the eight of pentacles
is getting the details, emerging yourself in the work figuring out the details, the presentation, being OCD about the design, praying you won't mess it up... that one more hurdle before you move on to.... THERE IS a design (pentagram) on the pentacles and we see a craftman working dilgently on it.

the nine of pentacles
where you can finally say "AHA! I am done!" this may indicate a project being done early where you may feel "bored" and "Laxed" about it and you can finally sigh with relief. I see a waiting period with this card.

The ten of pentacles
is a transition from the journey of the numeric suit to the court cards. You may be taking the design to the final critique or to the client.

Page of Pentacles
Represents you in the final critique. You are the designer who emerged from the numeric suit. This page is all about concentration of communication, he reminds me of the ace of pentacles, but instead of sprouting a new idea, he may take advice from the client. He is the page which the knight "picks" on. In medieval times, I believe pages are the figures that help knights prepare for battle. You've been through a tough journey already but you emerged a designer with a project ready to be handed to the client ...

Knight of Pentacles
After the final critique you are back at working, head first into the design making the changes the client wanted - they may even have set a date. You are now battling and fighting the changes, it is a slow process. I see this night being slower getting all the details straightened out and fought rushing against the time frame.

Queen of Pentacles
Win! You completed the design. You handed it in. You presented yourself well, you may have gotten your cheque already - or you may have gotten samples of the product. But since queens are usually seen as a secondary in the royal hierarchy the queen may represent you, since in the design industry its all about what the client wants (king of pentacles).

King of Pentacles
The client got what he wanted, He has your design, He may have reproduced it in 3d form (posters, packaging, etc).

Mitt Romney Invasion

I have been watching the Republican campaign closely. I'm not one for politics. I try to stay out of them as much as possible, unless it relates to something I care about... (I guess most people are like that??). Anyway, last summer I was busy doing an esoteric study of sound. There's a small esoteric community called the EVP / Reverse Speech community. I believe I have written about the reverse speech research in the past. They believe that the manifest world is a mirror, a reflection of the world above, or the astral world. In my post, "The Concept of Images" I talk about the esoteric meaning of an image and perception. The EVP/RS community believes that the world above is the Universal Mind (Wilcock calls this the Source Field). The Universal mind has two parts, just like the human mind ... these two parts are called the Mother and the Father; the Father is obviously God and the Mother is the Goddess (if you will). In mysticism, it is taught that the manifest world is created by a group of egregore thinking entities who have imprisoned humanity into this matrix of light, sound and form. They imprisoned us because we contain all the knowledge within ourselves and they want to take this power from us... and so they appear to us as a God because they are in control of this reality; but in reality, we are shut off from the Universal Mind which in essence is the "Real" God (if you will). So in essence, when you RS you are revealing voices (or spirits) from the astral world (or universal mind). Man was made in the image of God (or astral form).

Reading up on the library of knowledge that the EVP/RS community has collected from doing RS it became aware to me that RS can, if done correctly, be a form of divination. If you have created a deep connection to the people on the other side, you will begin to get clearer answers. But as always, there are beings and such on the other side that will manipulate your words so the message will not get across. In my experience, I have done RS where the entire sentence of what I recorded was manipulated and changed to something completely different from what I originally said!

Last summer, knowing that the election was coming up, I wanted to see if I could get any information about the election. I had read rumors within the esoteric community of some staged events that could lead up to a World War III (of sorts). I decided to try to see if these rumors were true, and if it could have any affect on the election. I recorded my thoughts and when I was going back through the audio I had said the word, "Invasion" and in the reversal it actually became, "Mitt Romney". I'm thinking, a Mitt Romney invasion? Why? Then I though that perhaps Mitt Romney would have a huge impact on the election... somehow.

Then when Mitt Romney swept through the nation winning the Republican vote for a lot of major republican states, I again thought back to that RS. And, I was, personally amazed how that message got through. Yes, indeed, a Mitt Romney invasion of sorts did happen.


For what its worth, here's the recording:
http://www.kglyphics.com/files/invasionmit.wav

As a note, the first word is the word recorded and the second half is the reversal.

Daily Draw: 04

Today: Knight of Swords
Tomorrow: King of Swords

Today, as expected, was mostly about communicating. Whether it was through email, or via the communications presentation, it was a day definitely ruled by the Knight of Swords. Although, I see him more of a knight who thinks outside of the box, whereas the king might be a bit more conventional.

Tomorrow, is the King of Swords. I plan on finishing my photography project as the critique is tomorrow.

Daily Draw: 03

Today: Page of Pentacles.
Tomorrow: Knight of Swords.

Recap: Totally a Page of Pentacles day! Busy, busy. I think pages tend to be a busy be type personality. Which, is surprising as, pentacles are slowwww. But the pentacles manifested as completely physical things. I.e: I received two packages, a business proposal, studiosouth related messages, dropped off 3 posters and my senior show stuffers, etc. Yes! I may have a potential client, though we haven't exchanged a lot of emails yet. I'm still waiting to hear back about what they are interested in. Today was totally a page of pentacles day. I would say pages are about manifesting things of a physical nature that you may or may not be expecting.

Tomorrow? Knight of Swordssssss.
The knight of words. Fast communications. Only thing that it could be referring to is that we're having a speaker come in tomorrow in Interactive. He'll be talking about creativity, and thinking out-side the box (!).

Daily Readings: 01

I've stopped doing daily readings since I was a sophomore. But I feel the urge to do them again. I seem to have forgotten some of the personal meanings I've attached to the cards.

To start, my daily reading for tomorrow is the Ten of Swords.

In numerology numbers end at 9. And the new number cycle begins again at 10. Kabblistically, Number 10 deals with the inTENsity of some event or moment. 


All I plan on doing tomorrow is getting my work ready for the show. Ten of Swords is Tarot's way of saying that you've hit rock bottom. It is the Lord of Ruin; an unexpected, shocking and traumatic upheaval. Not the best card when I'm supposed to be getting work together for a deadline. However, perhaps that the Ten of Swords indicates the end of a cycle; as mentioned before. In the present position, this card is a confirmation that you are turning a corner and leaving behind one of the worst chapters in your life. Keep a mental image of that golden sky rising … your world is about to get brighter, as it hardly could ever be any darker than some recent dramas you have encountered. Perhaps putting together my work for the senior show is a sign that after tomorrow things will get brighter than they have been.

I sure hope so.

Honors Posters

As part of project manager for studio south I had to make sure 20 something posters were printed and designed within a month. Last year we got about 27 posters in a span of five days and was so disorganized I didn't know anyone's skills so I had to do most of them to make sure the students' got them. This year we got a bit more organized and was a lot less stressful. It was rough at the end as one of the designers claimed they didn't get the schedule of dates for the project... and threw the poster together last minute. Above is the poster I did, sorry it the picture is a bit blurry I took it with my ipod. :-)

Zombie Crawl '10

I love this picture and all of its sillyness. Zombie Crawl '10. Taken by Yours Truly.

Phew!

Well I might be able to get some kind of a break soon. But considering I'm taking 2 photography classes, my available time is very limited these days. The epic honors poster project is over and completed with very little hassle this year. There was some drama but it has been put to rest. Phew!

In my historic photo processes 2 class (or as the department says, Alternative Photography 1) I am doing two processes. The kirlian process that uses high voltage to photograph the energetic pattern of an object and anthotypes that use the chlorophyll in plants to make an image. The anthotypes I might end up doing towards the end of the semester just because it needs live material to make it work and its winter right now.

My other photography class is just an intro to traditional black and white photography. Its been going well so far just been a bit frustrating getting the focus right.

I haven't really had all too much time to do a whole lot of new research but I have been conceptualizing about a huge project I've been dreaming about for months. This project I am serious about doing and hope to work on once I graduate in my free time. One of the things I loved about learning in college was learning the processes and thinking behind projects we do here. As a kid my projects never turned out the way I imagined because I never had a good process for them. I also love that I see Design principles in every day life. It makes it easy for me to connect what I am learning in college to things in every day life.

Last evening I was in the graphics lab finishing up honors and I was looking on my external hard drive for photos for my historic processes class and I found an old document on the Sumerian language stored on there. Don't ask me where I found this. Probably in on of my research expeditions. But, boy, is the Sumerian language complex. Every letter and vowel is an actual word or phrase in the language, differentiated by an accent to mean something else entirely! Yikes. But I learned how to say, "Hello my name is Kristi" in Sumerian. Silim, mu šè Kristi. Which really means, "Hello, Call me Kristi."

John Legend is coming to school and I was asked to do a poster for the event. Kelsey King drew the illustration I colored and put the typography.

Sad Week

For some reason the events of last weekend have struck me differently than I think I expected. They have reactivated some of the days during high school when whenever the vice principle announced the death of a fellow student due to suicide. One day, once a year in high school we learned about a death of a fellow student. Those memories came back and hit me like a brick when I heard about Kirsli's tragedy. The feelings of being shocked and the sadness; feelings of confusion and feeling a bit lost.

Its the same kind of emotions I think. While a fatal accident is not the same as a suicide, the emotions created from such an sudden event are the same I think. While I never was friends with any of the people who committed suicide, it affected the people around me.

One kind of lives in a bubble and they go through life thinking that how can anything puncture that perfect bubble that they have built around themselves. And then something so sudden such as a suicide or fatal accident pops that bubble and shakes and shatters the very foundation of your life. I know, I've seen it; several times before. Its not pretty and its very difficult.
 

Student Union Internship

So because the academic administration messed up my senior year, I was forced to do an on campus internship. I live six hours away from school and I don't have a car on campus cause it costs like $230 a year for a parking pass. I wasn't planning on coming back senior spring semester so I didn't buy a parking pass. Now I'm back, and really don't mind being back, but at the same time I could be doing an off campus internship somewhere.

Anyway, I decided to do an on campus internship because A) I needed courses to be considered a full time student and since I basically took everything I'm doing this internship and 2 photo classes. B) To brush up my skills even more...

So one of the things I'm working on is doing graphics for an event that the Student Union here is putting on. This year is its' 50th anniversary. They are celebrating by having a 60's themed event since it was built in the 60's. I was like, "Oh great. 60's so over done..." so since its in March I decided to go with the flower power kind of theme.

I'm hoping to do a more fulfilling internship during the summer somewhere if I don't get a job right away.

Yay new semester!

So, its a new semester and lots has happened since jan 10!

I took my French CLEP exam and missed it by 4 points so I have ended up signing up for French III which I haven't been too happy about as I've got my senior art stuff to focus on. 

I'm still fighting to get the credit transferred and there's a big possibility that my Umass professor may just up the grade so it will get transferred over.

And so now I am having my hypothyroid medication adjusted and they doubled it. So I'm like wired without having caffeine. Its a weird feeling. Anyway, also been experiencing a bit of a second spiritual awakening (lol) as everything I thought was normal with me has been a slow on coming symptom of low hypothyroidism and who knows how long this has been going on for. As long as I've been alive possibly.

Stupid low hypothyroid messing up my childhood ... heh...

Anyway, perhaps I'll lead a relatively normal adult life now that I've got energy and my brain back. It causes mental dullness/confusion so it may or may not have caused my supposed mental disability (!) I don't know.... I don't know anything anymore about myself...

I'm excited to switch my focus a bit more to my photography classes though it seems that I have a nice balance of photography and graphic design stuff to do this semester. I'm excited especially with this new found energy...


I also figured out a way to make that visual language I had in mind. Just gotta figure out how to do it.

Finally!!

So I have finally time to sit down and write a decent post. Been awhile.
What's happened this month? A LOT.

The week after thanksgiving I began to feel sick. Loss of appetite, extreme weakness and fatigue. I had it for the entire week and went to the health center by Friday. They tell me that I have Viral syndrome basically a virus that hasn't manifested yet and told me to sleep and rest over the weekend. Well I did that, and kind of got better, but it didn't really go away. While I was at the health center I made an appointment with the doctor for Monday. Monday I go see him and he tells me its anxiety and then tells me I should go to the hospital Tuesday morning to get an AKG, heart monitor and bloodwork done. I flipped out since this was now during the final week of classes and for me, all of my art finals happened in about a span of a week.

I broke down at the health center cause I could not deal with something like that. I don't know the area of Bethlehem all too well, since I don't have a car, my travel distance is kind of limited to the campus distance. I had a whole bunch of projects to do in a span of five days since that monday and it wasn't that I didn't feel like I could not do them, it was my sickness stressing me out even more because I had no strength to work on them. Bad day that monday? Yes.

My portfolio seminar class was supposed to go and have a book making workshop that afternoon but thankfully it got moved. But I couldn't make any decisions myself since I had pretty much lost my mind. I went to my prof for that class and got a bit of an extension and found out that our final critique time wasn't until Tuesday of finals week. Phew, I've got the weekend to work on the book.

I decided not to go to most of my classes that week, since I had no strength whatsoever. I ended up not going to the hospital since I couldn't think straight and really didn't have the time during an already crunched schedule, so I waited until I got home.

I finished my art finals and studied for my sociology final which I got a B- on. But then I was handed back a book review and was accused of plagiarizing that paper!! FOR REAL. As a hobby researcher I should know better than NOT to plagiarize! I got an F for the assignment but not a Zero, but anyway, I didn't get another F because it was combined with a presentation that my group got an A on. I SWEAR my professor had something against me. He was one of the most arrogant professors I have EVER had. UGH. But thankfully I passed sociology. After the final, I broke down again in my room about the accusation and I couldn't do anything about it. I had spoken to my prof right after the final since he was going on Sabbatical and he said to me, "There's nothing you can do about it now". I emailed the deans and they couldn't do anything about it either since my prof didn't file charges for it. So he won either way. FUCK HIM.


And no, I didn't plagiarize. I wrote those 5 fucking pages myself, granted there were a few things that were incorrect fact and grammar wise, but it probably felt disjointed because I wrote it while under severe anxiety.... sigh.

So. I finish the semester with a straight B+ average except for sociology which I got C-.
I go home and do the bloodwork and they tell me that I have an inactive hypothyroid, so now I am being medicated for it for the rest of my life. Yay for getting my energy and life back??

Cape House Ornament

I had made quite a few of my gifts this year. I got a print of one of my photos for dad, made a necklace for my grandma, and one for my mom. I also busted my ass off this ornament.. its the cape house. My dad and I decided that she needed one so he helped me cut it out of wood and I painted it and decorated it.

On the tree :)
Just a bit disappointed that she never actually said she "loved it". She was really happy with it and was pleased by it.

Maybe I expect too much from her.....
sometimes I feel like she takes things I make for her for granted, which usually makes me not want to make anything at all..she seemed to like this starfish bowl I got her more. Sigh.

dealing with a lot right now... update soon.

But, Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year!

Busy with finals.
I probably won't have much time to update all next week, so sorry for the lack of posts recently.

I went to the doctors on monday and they told me I had symptoms of anxiety and wanted me in the hospital tuesday morning.

At the time of monday morning, I had a bunch of work still to do but didn't know that my portfolio was move to critique time which is next tuesday.

Last week I had to make sure I get 2 5 page papers done and turned in, a half hour presentation, 3 design projects, a presentation/design project on war on propaganda and a 15 piece portfolio book printed and bounded. all this done in about a week.

Yeah. Thankfully I got extensions but I just couldn't handle  it...

New Self Portrait

 

I took this awhile ago and decided I liked it as I was going through old photos of mine for a design project I'm working on right now. 

I have roughly an hour or so to complete it... 

But this is obviously a reflection. 

My face isn't that proportionate so one side of my face looks completely different at a different angle which I find to be a bit of an eye sore and causes me to not be photogenic at all. But, artistically it can create cool effects like this. 

Myself as two people, almost.

Amnesty International Poster

Oh my. This was a poster for a competition that we were required to submit to for Amnesty International for my Artists as Activists class. We were supposed to have done this as a group project, but two sorority girls (who have no design experience what-so-ever) took over and didn't really want to work with anyone who had experience. They had their mind set on one design, and you can't create an effective poster based off one comp/sketch. 

I think one of them may have been a design minor or something, but still just because you take a design class or two doesn't mean you're a designer =/

But I ended up taking what was discussed in class because I thought we were doing this together and no one liked my version (lol). Honestly... sure we all have opinions but we needed to work together and that's what was not happening. 

So this is what I came up with.