TFLN.

Before I actually have you all fooled into thinking that I am in fact doing my school work, here are a few Texts From Last Night like I promised you!

(720) Just lost my virginity while listening to rick astley. torn between horror and jubilation.


(971): I have two black x marks on my hands.
(503): Yep you got cut off last night after a stripper bent over in front of you and you screamed very loudly 'I can see your soul from here'
(971): damnit I wish I could remember that.


(678): I read the police report. You asked the cop if you could use his in-car computer to update your facebook. No way to ge out of a DUI.


I realize that everybody has different TFLN taste, so bear with me if you don't find any of these funny. At least one is bound to make you laugh! More to come, friends.

-LG

Deadline.

I don't have work or class on Friday so I'm giving myself a deadline of sorts. Since it's been a few weeks since I've produced anything (note to self: starting a demanding job right after declaring increased production is a terrible idea), then I have to sketch/paint/charcoal/draw five things at least one thing on Friday. And catch up on my school work. And catch up on my sleep. And catch up on my life in general. Now that it is out on the world wide web, I have to do it! If I don't, I want a thousand mean comments. Deal? Deal.

On another note, I'm gonna do an outfit post today, even though I waited until just now to take the pictures. I need to start taking them at the beginning of the day before my makeup melts off and my hair rebels. So for now maybe just ignore everything from the neck up. This is one of the few times I'm happy about the crap quality of my pictures.

New Sparkle and Fade sweater from Urban Outfitters, on sale for $32. I only ever shop the sales there cuz I'm not gonna pay $100 to look like I just rolled out of a dumpster in my toddler sister's dress. It is true, I love to look at all the pretty goods hanging on their racks. But at the same time, just walking near the entrance of an Urban Outfitters makes me angry because it's one giant contradiction. The amount of money you pay there to look like you got dressed by your blind, drunk, touched-in-the-head cousin is just a little bit ridiculous. However, I'm a huge hypocrite because sometimes it's fun to look like a malnourished street urchin. So that's all I have to say about that.

Target brand Doc Marten imitation boots from years ago.

F21 high waisted gray skinnies.

H&M lace top.

Urban Outfitters sweater (which, for the record, I bought because it actually does keep me relatively warm. I was dying at work). 

I was gonna say that the outfit/I look better in person but this hasn't been confirmed. I know my hair is making everyone jealous, though, so if anybody wants a tutorial on how to tease the crap out of your hair, hairspray it to high heaven, and pull it back in a bun to make it look like there's some volume under there, let me know. Unfortunately I still haven't quite pinned down how I get that awesome static cling effect, but I'm working on it. So far this is the formula: 1. wake up 2. stare at self in mirror 3. static. 

Now I am off to do some reading and get ready for Tuesday! Adios all.

-LG

Updated.

I added a new piece to my Art page. Here's the whole image, but there are detail shots on the page:

I made this for my biology binder the semester before last. It had been my goal to do one for each of my classes but I'm sure you can guess how that turned out. At first I wasn't sure where I was going with this. I generally don't start out with an end product in mind, just an (very vague) idea. So by the time I'm finished with a piece, I'm just as surprised/confused/weirded out/delighted as anyone else. The inspiration here was medical drawings. I'm not sure why, but I love anatomical drawings. It seemed appropriate for Bio, so I referenced a basic picture of the muscles and a basic picture of the skeleton. Before I knew what was going on, I was writing words inside the muscles. Voila! Binder art. As far as how my pieces turn out, I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I know I mentioned earlier that I'm drawn to the surreal, and love the work of MC Escher and Salvador Dali. But a lot of the time my work comes out somewhat creepy and dark and I honestly have no idea why. I'm not even drawn to other artists' creepy work for the most part. But I'll get an idea in my head and then suddenly said idea is missing eyes or arms. I dunno. Sometimes it's intentional for symbolic purposes, but the majority of the time that's not the case. If I figure it out, I'll let you all know. Oh and I'm also adding a pencil sketch to the Art page so check it out! 

Lace It.

Today was a busy day. I had work from 8 to 12, then class from 2 to 7. And it was hotter than blazes! It's been really inconvenient actually, because I have to dress for the frigid morning temperature for my commute to work. I was going to snap a picture when I got back but my face was melting off and I only had 40 minutes to eat, change, and fix my friggin hair (more on that business later). Oh, side bar, our neighbors are throwing another beerpong tournament. This must be the semifinals. As I was saying. I wore my pair of black jeggings from Jessica Simpson (tights underneath for extra warmth), my nude American Apparel body suit, and a button up, long sleeve, lace blouse from H&M (5 bucks on sale, holler!), a gray asymmetrical sweater from F21 years ago, and on oversized blazer (thrifted). I'll wear this outfit again and when I do, I'll take a picture. So I realize that wearing nude under lace is an open invitation for curious glances. Okay. But the look of unabashed concern on some of these people's faces! As if they wanted to either run away in embarrassment or tell me I forgot my bra. This is San Francisco! A city where hairless men walk around in the Castro wearing assless leather chaps. You'd think my optical illusion of an outfit would be old hat. Not only that, but do I look like I'm trying to get arrested for public nudity? Curiouser and curiouser. I will say that however controversial, this is not one of my more dangerous outfits. I finally had to retire my "Hugs For Sale" T-Shirt. 99% of the time I forgot I was wearing it, so when perfect strangers would approach me and say "how much?" my offense would be so great I would have to resist the urge to slap them across the face. I am not a lady of the night! Barely avoided many an assault lawsuit. But until someone says "nice boobs" to me while I'm wearing this outfit, I shall continue rockin' it. 

Today was my last day of class for the week (4 day weekend, people) and the combination of 3 hour long back-to-back night classes and working every spare minute has resulted in a bone-breaking exhaustion. It's gotten to the point where on Tuesday I left my class early for fear of yelling in my sleep. I could not for the life of me stay away awake and was honestly concerned that I would start yelling at the professor during her lecture. She makes it hard to stay awake regardless of my massive sleep deficit, being that she looks like a legless deer in the headlights. I sympathize because of course she's nervous. She's a new teacher (for the record, I'm not a fan of getting young inexperienced professors) and our education is in her hands. But that's just it, our education is in her hands! If she goes down, we all go down. No pressure. But I digress. Even though I'm running on fumes and most likely hallucinating the majority of the time, I'm really enjoying myself. I actually feel productive and active. I feel like wheels are starting to turn and things are starting to happen. Not necessarily because of the specific job I have or the specific classes I'm taking, but because I've opened myself up. Everything is falling into place, like a game of tetris. Minus the impending doom of the tiles touching the top. You get what I mean. I need to sleep now, before I pass out on my keyboard. Goodnight all!

-LG

PS all I was gonna say about my friggin hair is that lately it seems to have lost a lot of the body it had when it was much longer, making it fine and slippery. On top of that, my bobby pins (which are more valuable than gold to me) have also lost their previous gusto for holding my hair in place just so. It would appear that bobby pins can wear out. I didn't know this until today when my slippery, fine hair continued to fall out of my lackluster bobby pins. I mean I knew that bobby pins can get stretched out in the sense that they're just a giant "V". But apparently they can get loose as well. It's kind of hard to describe. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. 

PSS I said "bobby pins" 4 times in that one paragraph. I am impressed.

Knotty Is Nice.

This is a preview post for something beautiful to come! I'm really, really excited about this and can't wait to share it!

A Change Of Heart.

I was thinking about what I said a few posts back about how recently the sun has been making me feel out of sorts. And I've decided that it's really not so bad. In fact, it's been kind of nice. You might say I've been warming up to the sun. HA! Pun intended. The nice weather was my savior on Monday morning when I showed up for work not one, not two, but FOUR HOURS EARLY! "Wow Lauren, you're incredibly punctual. And apparently you have no life". I am, in fact, very punctual. But the schedule was changed Sunday night without my knowledge and my 8am-12pm shift got changed to a 12pm-7:30pm shift. Since I hadn't eaten yet I went in search of breakfast. I walked east on Fulton toward Divisadero hoping to find something that wasn't a mini-mart or liquor store. I finally did a block or two up from Fulton but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called! Some reviewer I am. Anyway, I ordered an omelette and it was the strangest omelette I've ever had! Still very good, but it almost had the texture of moist ciabatta bread. It was italian sausage, cheese, and veggies. I attempted to read the newspaper while eating my breakfast because I would have felt that much cooler. Unfortunately I've always only been a comics kind'a'girl and they were nowhere to be found in this particular section of the New York Times. So that was a bust.

I had been hoping that getting breakfast would shave a considerable amount of time off my wait but it never takes as long to order, eat, and pay for food as I think it does. I decided to use the next few hours to take a walk in the beautiful sunshine (at this point I had welcomed with open arms the spring-like weather) and take some pictures of interesting houses. Unfortunately the majority of the pictures I took were either terrible, blurry, or both. That being said, here are a few that made the cut (barely):

A portion of the mural on a wall in the cafe. The colors inside were so warm and bright. A lot of very vibrant reds and yellows.

Tile mural on the outside wall of a Starbucks on Masonic. It's even prettier in person.

Sunshine filtering through the trees. I love this time of morning when the sun is out but the air is still cool.

Beautiful stone driveway. You don't see a ton like this in the city.

Sunrise on Fulton. To the immediate left is Saint Ignatius Church on the USF campus. Which brings me to my next point: my new job! I wasn't sure if I wanted to advertise where I'm working, for privacy purposes, but seeing as I'm pretty sure the majority of people viewing this blog are people I know, I figure it's okay. I'm working as a cashier in the USF bookstore during the "rush". The beginning of each semester is a college bookstore's busiest time so they hire temps like myself to ease the load. And I have to say, I am loving it! The people I work with are so nice, and while it is busy, I never feel hectic or stressed or under pressure. This could be due to the fact that the USF student population is about one third the SF State student population, so "rush" at USF is a slow day in my neck of the woods. Regardless, I really enjoy this kind of retail and think I may have discovered a new skill. I've always loved working with people on a professional basis, but I think this job is making me more outgoing in general. I've been smiling more and there's a new pep in my step. However, I have been having to fight the urge to say "I love you" after every transaction pahahahahahaha! Before you think I am a total and complete Creeper McCreeperton, let me explain. When I say goodbye to my loved ones, I usually finish it off with an "I love you". It's become a pavlovian response to the end of an interaction and I have literally had to bite my tongue to keep myself from professing my love for perfect strangers. I think I have a handle on it now, though, so don't you worry.

I know it's supposed to be a temporary job but I really hope they keep me on because I enjoy it so much more than I expected. The only downside is the commute (one hour each way) and the bus fare ($2 each way, which adds up). Plus I'm exhausted because I wake up at 5:40, go to work, come home, go to classes well into the night, come home, try to pass out, and find that I can't because all of the things I couldn't think about during the day suddenly come rushing into my head. That and we seem to have gotten some new neighbors above us who apparently think Tuesday night is perfect for a beer pong tournament and a friendly game of Toss The Elephant And Drop It. So you wonder how I've been getting through my long days? I will share with you my secret to survival...

Perhaps some of you are familiar with this amazing website. Perhaps not. But now there is a book. Portable hilarity that has had me crying for two straight days. This is not a plug for USF Bookstore products, I swear. I discovered it Monday, and when I got there a few minutes early on Tuesday I pulled it off the shelf to kill some time. Well, needless to say I embarrassed myself cracking up in a bookstore that I thought was empty but was in fact full of construction workers. Typical. I keep wanting to bring it with me to class and on the bus but that would be a terrible, terrible idea if I ever want to make friends again/convince people that I'm not touched in the head. I think I'm gonna start sharing some of the contents of the book with you all because it's too good not to spread around. I must get ready for class now so I bid you all adieu and I promise that there will be more artistically driven posts in the near future! Hope you all are having a magical Wednesday!

-LG

To Live Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure.

"There's a current in her skin

Behind her eyes

It drives forth from her feet

From her thighs

She's grown from the circle 

Of mother's arms

And with a girl's naiveté

Holds woman's charms.

Her body is her weapon

Is her hold

Her body is a prison

The holy fold.

Come hither eyes

Shy away from the advance

Beckoning fingers

Hide behind their hands."

-LG

Over the past few years, I've become hyper-aware of change and of shifts in my paradigm. While it used to take weeks or even months to register that my point of view was significantly different from how it had been before, now it's an instantaneous realization. With my 20th birthday looming, a lot of the changes I've been so aware of are those pertaining to maturing. They're little, almost silly things. But I find that I associate them all with my mother. For instance, learning how to actually do my hair and makeup, as opposed to winging it like I did before (or not doing it at all). And investing in the quality tools to do these things as opposed to whatever I could find at a moment's notice. Growing up I watched my mom "put on her face" and style her hair and I learned all of my grooming habits from her. I love how these traditions get passed down from generation to generation and it's been so strange to be so aware of the fact that the torch has officially been passed. And while the prospect of growing up and into adulthood is always exciting, I've been feeling incredibly conflicted. It's an awkward age. I have the body of a woman but an attitude and outlook on life that is still very childish in a lot of ways. I have the innocence and unadulterated confidence of a child that hasn't been broken yet by the fear it sometimes is to be a woman. But I am present for and observant of that breaking, and it is...sad. I want to express the aspects of myself that I find beautiful and in turn I'm punished for it with lewd comments from strange men. And no matter how much I come to anticipate this extreme invasion of space, this appalling and frightening behavior, I will never understand how some people think this is okay. I have to arm myself with indifference each day before leaving my home. This constant defense sucks the colors from my day. I'm not left alone to enjoy celebrating myself and feeling comfortable in my skin. Being punished by perfect strangers in turn makes me feel the need to punish my body for calling so much attention to itself.   Someone asked me "well what do you expect?". This question alone was a slap across the face. So I'll tell you what I expect: I expect to be able to feel safe and secure in my own skin. I expect to have the freedom to leave my home every day and not feel the need to anticipate every stare and every comment made by those with no sense of boundaries. I expect to feel exultant in my body and vitality, no matter what the size and shape, instead of ashamed and embarrassed for being so colorful. I don't want to draw lines in the sand between me and my lipstick and them and their depravity. Because those lines will spread and thicken until I find it necessary to defend myself against all others instead of just against those individuals who act to invade my space. And let me tell you from experience, living your life in a constant defended state is exhausting and is in no way worth it. 

But while I wait for an ideal world to materialize, I will continue trying to navigate the choppy waters between childhood and womanhood; between the natural inclination toward the flesh and the comfort of our innocence. And as there is no map, no compass, and no northern star, I will take comfort in the sheer adventure that it is to be alive.

-LG

PS If anybody uses the recipe from the previous post, please let me know how it goes and if you made any clever changes to it!

Someone's In The Kitchen With Dina.

I have just a few minutes before I have to rush off to my first class of the semester but...'Tis recipe time, my friends! As I mentioned in the previous post, I made roast vegetables for my mom's birthday dinner. It is incredibly easy and incredibly tasty and there are about a million variations you can choose from. I'll stick to the easiest one I know: Balsamic Roast Vegetables. There are a number of different vegetables you can roast, but to simplify things I'll only include in this recipe those vegetables that all take the same amount of time to get nice and tender. I'll tell you how many of each thing to use but it's pretty arbitrary. It all depends on how much you want to make and how much you like each kind of vegetable.

(Ignore the whole tomatoes in this photo. They were not used)

You Will Need:
-Medium sized squash (green and yellow), 2-3 of each color
-Cherry tomatoes, it's up to you how many you use. I'm gonna say about 25 cherry tomatoes. You will not be cutting these.
-2 bell peppers, of two different colors (for color and flavor variety)
-5 whole carrots (you can use baby carrots as well, but in my advanced culinary opinion, whole carrots are prettier)
-Small, white whole mushrooms. About 20-25. You will not be cutting these up.
(Sorry for the random numbers. You'll see when you make this that it really depends on how much space you have and how hungry you are. It's nearly impossible to get this recipe wrong/to mess up)
-Large ziploc bags
-Balsamic dressing
-9x13 glass pyrex pan (the more you make, the more pyrex you need. The more the merrier!)
-Large spoon/serving apparatus of some kind

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Wash your vegetables
3. Cut off the ends of the squash. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Cut halves into wedges. Chop into pieces about 1/4-1/2 inch thick (no need to be precise, just don't cut them too thin as they lose a considerable amount of volume in the oven). Set aside.
4. Peel carrots. Cut into thirds. Cut those thirds in half lengthwise. Set aside.
5. Cut off top of bell peppers and remove seeds. Cut into strips about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Set aside.
6. In a bowl, mix all of your vegetables together. There's going to be a lot so either you will need one large bowl or a few smaller ones. Either way works just fine.
7. Start spooning mixed vegetables into ziploc bags until about 3/4 full. You can use one bag over and over again or a couple, this is up to you.
8. Pour balsamic dressing over the mixed vegetables in the bag. It will be a few tablespoons worth, but the point is to get all the vegetables well coated, so too much is better than too little. This is like marinating meat.
9. Close ziploc and shake the vegetables in the bag to get all of them as evenly coated as possible. This takes all of 30 seconds.
10. Pour mixed and marinated vegetables into your pyrex dishes about 3/4 of the way full.
11. Cook at 400 for 30 minutes or until perfectly tender and juicy! Let cool for a few minutes.
12. Enjoy!

For those of you who don't like balsamic, that is perfectly fine. Basically what the vegetables need is olive oil to coat, and whatever herbs you want. You can keep it basic with salt and pepper, or do like I did for my mom's dinner and add herbs de'provence (or whatever herbs you happen to adore). My personal favorite is roasted beets with rosemary. They take 1.5 hours because they're so dense and fibrous, but the rest is the same. Peel them, slice them into thick wedges (about 6 per beet). The only difference is that you want to put them in tinfoil with the rosemary inside, seal the tinfoil lightly, and then roast in the pyrex. Anyway, my point is that you have free license to experiment and try different tastes. Or try other salad dressings, it's completely up to you. Cleanup is easy, the vegetables are good hot as a side dish or cold in salads, and you can experiment with a lot of different veggies. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that the more dense and fibrous the vegetable, the longer they need to roast. This means putting them in the oven before the others and mixing them after they're all done cooking. For example, we had pearl onions and brussel sprouts in our mixture. But both of these needed to go in about 20 minutes before the rest, and the sprouts needed to boil on the stove for about 5 minutes prior to being marinated. So if you want to keep it easy, stick to veggies that are all about the same. And keep the colors interesting! The colors are the best part!

And voila!

Roast Veggies!

Ours was a little orange for my taste. Had I been the one doing the shopping, I would have picked up a red bell pepper as well as an orange one since we already had carrots. Or perhaps thrown in more tomatoes. Alas, father did the shopping. And I'm pretty sure this picture was taken pre-roast, unfortunately. But you get the idea. If anybody has any questions or if this recipe was unclear, let me know! Bon apetit!

-LG

Roasting in January.

First I am so excited because Magda over at Art Monqui has featured a pencil piece of mine on her blog and I am honored! She is successfully doing what I someday hope to do and that is to showcase San Francisco artistic talent. I definitely look to her blog for inspiration and highly recommend that you all go take a look at some of the other artists walking these concrete streets of our fair city.

I have to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight since I have to wake up in 5 hours to get ready for work (in case some of you hadn't noticed, I've been pulling all nighters for the better part of a month). But I wanted to share with you a little preview of the roast vegetables recipe to come!

I'll be posting the recipes with pictures tomorrow! Sleep tight, all.

-LG

Pages.

I'm working on getting pages onto the blog. Right now I have an Art page and eventually I'll have DIY, establishment reviews (antique shopping, thrifting, restaurants, book stores, etc.), and perhaps an outfit page, I'm not sure yet! So once I get more content it will be easier to fluff up the pages.

I also wanted to announce a list of reviews I plan on doing soon!
-Ambiance
-Chronicle Books
-Past Perfect
-The Other Shop

I know I've mentioned 3/4 of those already but I want to try to interview the proprietors (I'm a terrible interviewer so we'll see how that goes) and talk about what they currently have in their stores. These are some places that I love to visit and I want to spread the wealth around so I'm hoping that by doing reviews on here, my favorite places will get more foot traffic.

 We'll be celebrating my mom's birthday tonight so I get two family gatherings in one weekend! I'm gonna be roasting root vegetables with herbes de'provence which will be delightful. I also want to do some with lemon and rosemary so I'll let you know how that goes. Roasted vegetables are some of the easiest things to make so maybe I'll post the recipe/process tonight or tomorrow!

Enjoy your Sunday!

-LG

Art Star.

"I got a dealer in Tokyo
  I got a rep in Paris
  I got a agent in Cologne
  Shit, I got a gallery in New York!"

So here it's been how many weeks now and I haven't even posted any of my own work yet. I thought I would share a few pictures of what it was I had interviewed at the gallery with. And I just uploaded these in a random order on accident so. Not everything I brought in is pictured and not everything pictured are pieces I brought in.

"God Is An Indian Giver". Pen and ink.

 I did bring this one. For those of you unfamiliar for the term "Indian Giver", it means somebody who gives a gift and then takes it back. I have no idea what the origin of the phrase is but I remember using it a lot as a kid. I drew this after a classmate of mine died in 2009. His mother had also lost her daughter years ago and I was immediately struck with the thought "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away". 

Acrylic.

I did this in 2009 and referenced pictures from a photo shoot I did of my boyfriend. I didn't bring in this piece but I brought in the original pictures from the shoot. I never necessarily finished this one. There was detailing on the ear I wanted to do and I wanted to clean up all the chalky marks that got left on it. So many plans, so little time.

Pencil. 

I drew this in 2008. He's a fictional character and I honestly couldn't tell you the inspiration. 2008 was a rough year so perhaps that's what I was channeling. I also didn't bring this one in because I can't find it anywhere. He grew legs and ran off.

Charcoal.

This is one of the more recent pieces I have. I either did this in late 2009 or early 2010, I can't remember which. I did bring this in.

"Oh the Places You'll Go"

Pencil. Very large format.

This was in 2009 I believe. We had a self-portrait assignment in art and I decided to draw a world map over the top of myself. I placed a push-pin and flag on Ireland, a country I dream about someday visiting. The flag on Italy was arbitrary because I felt like only one flag was awkward. But after drawing two I thought it was even more awkward. Oh well!

"Of All the Wild Beasts of Land or Sea, the Wildest is Woman".

Pencil.

This was December 2010. She's not finished in this picture so the face and hair hadn't been completed yet. I didn't bring this one in but it's recent so I thought I should include it.

Charcoal. 

2008. This was done during a figure drawing class I took at Academy of Art in the summer of 2008. It is definitely one of my favorite mediums and figure drawing is right up my alley. You get used to the naked models in about .05 seconds (or at least I did). I recommend figure drawing to anybody looking to improve their basic drawing skills. If nudity is uncomfortable for you, you can find clothed figure drawing classes as well. I did bring this in.

Pencil.

2008. I have a thing for hands and trees. 90% of what I draw includes either trees, hands, or both. In this case, both. In real life this picture is much more gray but in order for all the details to be visible, I had to darken it a bit on the computer.

Watercolor.

2011. I'm still very new to watercolor. If I'm being honest, paint freaks me out. And when I do paint I stick to black and white/monochromatic color. There's a blurred picture of me on my cell phone and I wanted to see how it would look on paper. This is really more of a sketch and would need a lot more work to be considered anything but. But I dunno, I like it. I did bring this in to the gallery on a last minute impulse and he actually ended up liking it. I might try to do more like this in the future. It appeals to my surrealistic self.

Charcoal.

2008. This is from the same figure drawing class. I do not know WHY it is upside down. I tried a few times to fix it but no luck. Oh well, a hand upside down is still a hand. I did bring this in, and this is one of my favorite pieces to date. See? A hand. 

Charcoal.

2008. Another from figure drawing. I didn't bring this in because it's very large format and traveling with charcoal is a pain in the tuchus. Plus it's already mounted and it was raining that day and the list goes on and on. But this particular guy was hilarious. He was the only model who brought props. He had gladiator armor and weapons and helmets and a leather skirt which was my personal favorite. In between the longer poses the models get breaks to stretch their legs and this guy liked to walk around and see the work the students were doing. So he threw on a backless apron of all things (typically the models would wear robes or sweats and a sweatshirt during break). I realize he was sitting naked in front of me for 2 hours, but for some reason partial nudity of the bare-ass sort is so much funnier than full frontal. Anyway, I chose to do an exaggerated portrait of him because I didn't want to draw his costumes and because his face needed to be chronicled.

Anyway, those are all the pictures I currently have. But as I begin to do more work more frequently, I'll post pictures. I'm thinking of doing pictures of works in progress too because I always love seeing other people's pieces before they're finished. 

One of the aspects of my work that I'm self conscious about is the fact that I don't seem to have one particular style or vision. In my mind, anyway. Especially when I go into a gallery and I see 4 pieces someone has done that are all different but they are obviously all done by the same artist and all follow the same theme. I get it, obviously you want to show cohesive pictures so that viewers and prospective buyers can get a good idea of your work and who you are as an artist. That's the very reason I want to wait until March to show anything. But still, it's intimidating. I know I'm still young and have plenty of time to fall into my niche but I've always lived with a sense of urgency. Somewhere in the white noise of my life there has always been a ticking clock. And it's no different here. Now that I've gotten the ball rolling on pursuing art (and it is rolling, let me just tell you), I've felt even more rushed to hurry up and settle into my style. And I haven't even been trained yet! I'm not sure if I've said this already on the blog, but I'm changing my major to Fine Arts (currently it's Communication Studies) and I could not be more excited. But I'm nervous and worried that I'll enter the program and meet all these amazing individuals who have clearly already found their voice. So for anybody else out there who feels these insecurities, whether it's in art or education or work, here is what we all have to remember: patience. Be patient with yourself. In every second of every day we must be patient with our process. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are human beings. We are going to be growing and changing until the day we die and all we can do is enjoy the ride. So here's to the ride!

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.

My day started at noon today with a call from my sister asking if I would like to accompany her to Forever 21. Is this even a question? Of course I want to come. Did I need anything? Of course not. Did I spend money? Of course I did. But I actually followed one of my rules this time! This time of year, when it's cold (theoretically speaking, since lately the temperature has been in the 70's and 80's), if I'm going to buy something it has to be weather appropriate. And not only is this jacket incredibly warm, it is one of the softest things I have ever laid hands on. I want to cuddle it.

They also have it in brown, but everything else I own and wear these days is gray, so I can't break the pattern now. 

I love the stitching on the back. It reminds me of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's album cover "Show Your Bones":

Then I bought some things that have nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with being awesome. I bought some accessories because every time I get dressed I think "wouldn't it be great if I had...". So now I can think "isn't it great that I have...":

This necklace in particular excites me because typically bib necklaces like this ride too high on the chest and rest right under the neck, which I don't like. I like pieces that dangle and drape and leave the neck bare because a neck is an accessory in and of itself. And this necklace is the perfect length. I have a beautiful one (also from Forever 21 a few years ago) that's solid silver leaves. And I love it but it's not long enough so I never wear it. Plus it is super loud. I sound like a marching band when I wear it.

These aren't new. I got them over summer but I wanted to share the picture because I wear them basically every day. This all goes to show that when it comes to me and my accessories, the bigger the better. I can't wear daintier, more delicate pieces or stud earrings. I love big heavy stones and huge, gaudy cocktail rings. There were about a million more rings there that I would have loved to get but we were on a time constraint so I resisted.

Next on the agenda was my sister's engagement party! I have been looking forward to this all month and it was such a wonderful time. It was at Massimo's in Walnut Creek and the servers there were so nice and so attentive. It was hosted by her best friend who did a beautiful job with everything. It's always hard for me at gatherings like these to get around and say hello to everybody, and I don't know about you but I love family gatherings. I love my family and all the people we've surrounded ourselves with over the many, many years. When I see them all, especially in one room together, it's like watching time passing in reverse. At the risk of sounding trite, it's how I imagine heaven must be. Like the end of Titanic when everybody is on the ship again, young and happy. Perhaps a corny example, but it gets my point across. 

When I was packing on Friday morning I was in quite the hurry so I just sort of ran through my closet tossing random odds and ends into my suitcase. When I was trying to get dressed today I realized what a horrible job I had done at editing my selections. I had some pant options and some top options, but nothing that could be combined. What the hell, Lauren. But I borrowed a top of my sister's and voila, harem trouser fabulosity!

I take awkward pictures. Deal with it. 

Leopard print silk trousers: H&M (On sale for $10. Holler)

Shoes: Steve Madden via Ambiance on Union (Also on sale. Holler again)

Studded stripes gray tee: Forever 21 via Kaitlin's closet (Fo' free)

Close up of the pants.

Closer up of the pants.

The cream background of the trousers was a smidgen too warm for the cooler gray tee, but as my mom said (and as is usually my motto when it comes to style/fashion): "You can do whatever the hell you want". Amen sista. And I'm serious. A lot of people ask me how I come up with certain outfits or how I think to put certain pieces together. Step 1: Throw the rule book out the window. The easiest way to dampen your own creativity is to come up with a lot of reasons for why you can't do something. By all means, flatter your figure and skin tone. But remove "can't" from your fashion vocabulary before you find yourself living in sweater sets.

 By my standards, this outfit was pretty tame. It was all in neutral colors and the silhouette was as basic as they come. But I guess leopard print harem trousers are a little out there for some. Huh.

-LG

Fkhdkskjn

I'm trying to figure out how to get larger images on the page but in the meantime, clicking on them does the trick.  Just kidding, figured it out! Yay!

A Few More.

So, so very typical. 

Out to Frankie's. Wearing: Dolce Vita lace up boots, F21 high waisted jeans, police tee, thrifted black blazer. Oh, and a sweet comb over. 

PS This is off-topic, but I just wanted to say that commenting is enabled for anybody and everybody. You don't have to be a member of bloglovin' or a follower of the blog. And I will get back to anybody who comments!

-LG

It Sheds Like Fake Fur.

That's right folks. I have DIY'd that thrifted velvet shirt from a few posts ago and she sheds like a motha. I cropped it the same way I did the Police t-shirt except it's more dramatic because the back of the shirt falls just below my butt and the front is up around my hips. I cut out the neckline area and replaced it with some dark blue chiffon. This was risky! I have never attempted such a thing and I liked the shirt as it was so the alteration was actually completely unnecessary. But I don't hate it and it's actually starting to grow on me! But I hand sew everything because while I have a beautiful sewing machine (I named her Heidi), I'm still frightened of her. So this took me foreveeer. Plus I was watching TV while I did it which makes everything take longer than it should. I haven't tried it with a bra yet, I've only ever worn it with my American Apparel body suit. In addition, the seam puckers a little/doesn't lie flat. So basically I don't have a very good idea of how it fits. That is okay because when it comes to this type of project, I am lazy. As Tim Gunn would say, I'll "make it work".

I would take a picture but as you already know, the camera on my phone sucks, and as you may not already know, the lighting in my apartment sucks even more. I know, my lack of decent pictures makes the fashion portion of this blog a bit of a failure! Eventually. It'll get there eventually. I'm thinking about wearing it to my beautiful sister's engagement party this weekend and if I do there will be pictures!

On the art front, I have an update about the gallery excitement I talked about earlier this week. I decided that if I'm going to show pieces and try to sell them, I need to do my best work. And 12 days wasn't long enough to make 4 pieces to the best of my ability. So I'm going to take the next month and work on a small series of pieces and see about being a part of a show in March. At this moment I want to call the series "Rapture" and I'm thinking of doing all 4 pieces in a different medium: acrylic, pen and ink, charcoal, and pencil. But that might not be a good idea because it could take away from the cohesiveness of the series. Thoughts?

Anyway, it's practically midnight and I still have to clean the apartment before I go home for the weekend so that my roommate can go on believing that I'm a relatively clean individual. Off I go!

-LG

The Girl's Got Gams.

As promised, here is round one of the shoots with Chelsea! I'm starting with some of the pictures I took of her.

This third one is my favorite. Her skin is glowing against the red of that jumper. And in all of these pictures her legs go on for days. She was channeling a 1970's disco queen in these shots. The next set I took of her I plan on using as reference photos for an art series I'm going to do, but more on that later. 

I'm obsessed with this one. The light on her neck gives it this eerie, distended effect which I love. I'm primarily a surreal artist and this is the kind of neck I would draw.  

The other thing I love about these pictures is the angle. I stood on a chair above her which really exaggerates the shape and size of her back and head in relation to her waist.

More to come in a later post!

-LG