Fotos! Art continues...

Well, my prof approved my sketch, so I went ahead and cut it out. Imagine four hours of becoming intimately acquainted with the connection between a little knife and a piece of paper. Yeah, thank goodness for Barenaked Ladies and Lady Gaga.

Art

My latest art project. If my prof approves, I will be using this for a block ink printing piece.

A Tree House Made of Seashells with Princess Beds

The ceilings are a spread of seashells. And the myriad archways are lined with sky-blue mosaic tiles that lead you up stairways, along hallways, and up a ladder to the terrace room that overlooks a mini-paradise: lush gardens and intricate architecture framed by garbage-laden dirt roads and sprawling concrete homes. It is an artist colony, a resort, a tree house made of seashells with princess beds, as Kate put it, thanks to the beautifully draping mosquito nets. A magical locale that exudes tranquility and begets creativity. It is no wonder that the gardens along the pathways are bespeckled with gorgeous contemporary and traditional art pieces all nestled into the scenery; they are proof of its inhabitants’ open minds and hearts.

I spent my weekend here, in company of the fifty or so other students on my program, and partook of batiking and dance classes. A calm city somewhere south of Dakar, Toubab Diallo overlooks the ocean and attracts a certain brand of tourists as a means of supporting the artist colony and the local craftspeople. Of the bookend bus rides on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon and all that came in between, there is one moment that deserves verbal recreation:

We overlook the ocean, damp from the sweat of dancing and hearts racing with the thrilling thought of racing down the beach and plummeting into the sunset salty waters. And we go, smiles extending farther than the beach itself and cries of excitement turning into song as we twirl and tumble into the water. Crash! Swish! And we’re overtaken by a warm tide and embraced in its tumultuous churning. Coming up, we experience the final wisps of daylight’s pinks and yellows fading into lightning. And the rain comes forth, pelting from behind. Is that rain or sand? It’s hard to say. Is that salty or fresh? We are all wet, so we can hardly tell. On the beach, a beautiful man with short dreads plays kapoera with our friend and we come forth from the water, clapping and dancing, ready to join in the acrobatic martial-arts dance that has already begun. He was our dance teacher and now he is our kapoera companion, but the warmth and crash of the oceans beckons us back as a cool wind whips up. I stand in waves, and waves, and waves; arms raised to the darkness and the flashing, crinkly lightning. My toes pay homage to the magnificent sand and my calves are sustained by live-sustaining waters; and I free-fall back, am caught by a wave, and die happily. --- Who needs words when you have the ocean? Song bursts forth necessarily and the tune has never been heard before –because it is one of the heart, the senses, the cheeks, the eyes. These are the moments that one lives for. I give it to you with all my heart. May the sounds or rolling water imbue you with an urge to dance melodiously.

Peace and love,

Jocelyn


Sept 27, 2009

Beautiful París

What is Paris? The city of romance? The capital of France? That one place where they have that cool tower? The international city? Or all of the above? My experiences fit into all of these categories and more.
I’m guessing the first thing that pops into your head is, “The city of romance? What hot French guy did Jocelyn run into this week?!?!” Well, to tell you the truth Caitlin, I did run into Pierre! However, he was a middle-aged college professor with an excellent English accent who helped us get around the city and in no way created a romantic atmosphere! The crepe man, on the other hand, was workin’ it! So, a few friends and I were in dire need of some crepes on our last night in Paris and, so, stopped at one of the many crepe stands to splurge. One of the other girls ordered first, and the first sign of our evening’s entertainment came when the man spreading out the batter for her crepe asked her if she would like extra chocolate. The next question, however, had us doubled over laughing. The seemingly sensitive crepe man looked at her in all seriousness and asked: “Have you ever had a French kiss?” She turned bright red, looked at the crepe she has just bitten into and says, “This is a really good crepe!” Him: “But have you?” Her (to me): “Isn’t this a really good crepe?” Him (in all exasperation): “You haven’t answered my question!” Her (to the only boy in the group, under her breath): “Will, will you pretend to be my boyfriend please?!” Meanwhile, the rest of us just gasped for air mid-laughter. :-D In the end, she gave him a kiss on the cheek goodbye and we made off with the best crepes ever!
Aside from its ever-romantic air, Paris is certainly diverse. It has a huge black population and many Asians, which contrasts notably with the comparably homogenous population of Spain. But the tourists also make for a diverse, interesting city. Friday night, Martha, Maurício, and I –two Americans and a Brazilian- find ourselves accompanying a group of Mexican guys around the city and comparing the Spanish and Mexican eating schedules, among other things. An hour later, I find an Indian family, strike up a conversation, and discover that I was just in their hometown of Bangalore this Christmas! The Korean artisan cut out my profile in paper, the French man served us dinner, and the rest of the exchange students from the Philippines, Australia, and America joined us shortly thereafter. Can you imagine the amazingly interesting conversation that springs from such a varied group?! Over dinner on the first night, we got to hear all about Veggymite –the Australian equivalent of our peanut butter which is immensely popular, eaten on bread, apparently made up of vitamins, and of an unappealing grey appearance! Needless to say, peanut butter sounded better to most of us compared to that unidentifiable grey substance. Note to self: taste Veggymite when in Australia.
So what did I do while I was in Paris? Well, I certainly walked a lot, so that might have worked off the calories from the crepes and French pastries, but I doubt it! I ate this delicious raspberry tart on the second day which was indescribable, but lets not get too far off topic here! We were talking about the walking. Walking and the metro made up our major means of transportation and got us everywhere from the Louvre, the Picasso museum, the Rodin museum, the Arco de Triunfo, the Notre Dame, and, of course, the Eiffle Tower. The highlights were, of course, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Eiffle Tower, although I only went to the second platform of the tower and not the top. Incredibly enough, we spent less than two hours in the Louvre, which is a great treachery in my opinion. We saw the Venus de Milo and Monalisa as a group before we were set loose in that immense museum to more or less fend for ourselves. I had just enough time to seek out a favorite statue of mine called Eros and Psyche before I hit up the gift shop for a minute and met the group again. *sigh* I think I’ll need to go back for longer with my dad over the summer. The Notre Dame is most interesting from the outside and when admiring its splendid stained-glass windows. And just in case everyone is wondering, I have an affinity for Renoir and Van Gogh out of all the impressionist and post-impressionist painters. I´m not a huge fan of the painting from the Renaissance, but I love Michael Angelo´s sculptures –the most perfect being his David- and Tiziano uses some beautiful colors. How about you guys? Who do you prefer?
Our first introduction to the French people was our waiter on the first night. A loose, handsome man with flourishy mannerisms and aloof posture, an eruption of giggles sprung from our table of girls shortly after he walked away for the first time. When I get back, ask for my impression of him because it is beautiful. Everyone else was admiring his blonde hair, jaw line, or forearms, but I was just amused by the way he carelessly organized the straws in the used cups. When a friend pulled out a camera so that she could show some of us pictures, he even said, “Oh, you want a picture? I can pose nude!” I dunno; all these Paris guys certainly have their one-liners!
All in all, I really enjoyed spending time with the other exchange students and sharing our experiences. Some of them have not been as lucky as me and others seem to be even better off. For example, one girl feels isolated from her haughty classmates and has no one to go out with on the weekends. She feels that her entire opinion of the Spanish and their culture has been ruined by this experience. On the other hand, another guy went on a trip to Scotland with his family, has a great group of friends, and gets along well with his host brothers. The reasons why everybody decided to come to Spain was as equally varied as what they got out of their experience. Everyone comes to learn Spanish, but some come for a change of scenery while others come to escape bad situations at home. Others come to find themselves and still others just want to have fun or discover the culture. Most everyone loves travel, but that is the extent of our shared interests. Some like theater, others do sports. A couple girls realized their shared interest in Arabic whereas another few recounted experiences from their rock bands. You just can’t categorize exchange students. Ultimately, all of us end up being outgoing, but we don’t all start out that way. The need for survival quickly draws out a more forthcoming person in each of us. Everyone is friendly and no one went home without a new list of emails or myspace names. Yes, we do speak English among ourselves, but it was refreshing to whip out those classy vocabulary words after a few months of sitting there collecting dust on the back shelves of my mind. All of us were tripping over our English for the first few days, and I kept on saying Gracias to the French store clerks. Worse still, I almost used Merci on the panadería woman this morning! Oy ve!
At any rate, Paris is a beautiful city, just as everyone has told you before. The river bridged by ancient stone majesties, the avenues lined by lovely tall trees, and the French baroque style buildings standing strong in proud symmetry all blend into one astounding landscape peaked by far-off sky-scrapers and towers. It is one of the most beautiful cityscapes I have ever seen, second only to Granada with its alit Alhambra at night. Paris is reminiscent of Barcelona, but the people and the ambiance is very different; Barcelona is more relaxed. But compared to New York, Paris is as relaxed as peaches! New York certainly symbolizes the work, work, work mindset of Americans. The French have flair and fashion, the Spanish feel laid-back, and the Americans have their progress. Well, that and our reputation of being big in every respect –big buildings, big cars, big country, big everything! Paris is great and all, but Granada takes the prize in my opinion, and Barcelona, New York City, and San Francisco all stand out along side Paris. I guess I should also see Paris when there isn’t so much rain and cold weather.
At any rate, I could go on and on about the daily schedules, which included getting up way too early, getting back to the hotel rather late, sleeping very little, and playing the “hurry and wait” game since it is so difficult to travel with such a large group. Let me know what you want to hear more about and I´ll be sure to rant about it to the saturation point.

Well, much love and thanks for reading! You have no idea how much you increase my feelings of self worth by taking the time to catch up on my life!

Besos,

Jocelyn

This is for you, Mom:

I love you.

Thanks also to MJ for her lovely photography skills!

Photos: Random images of goodness!

This piece is an interpretation of another set of objects that we drew. We were told that we could repeat any of the objects (a tall, china par, a fat, clay jug with a handle, a normal glass cup, and white, paper boxes) as many times as we wanted. We could also mix up the textures, give everything movement, but we were required to give everything volume. I put the texture of the glass on the jug and the texture of the jug on the jar. Good times!)These lovely little climbing tools come from Juan Ignacio´s house. They take little cylindrical pieces of lead with thin loops of cable (that they make themselves in the molds seen below) and, when they are up on the mountain and can´t find any other piece of gear to fit into a strange crack, they hammer these into the shape that they need and place the gear!

A little bit of what I´ve been doing here in Spain over break: reading this cool science magazine, finishing commentaries on spanish texts for Spanish class, and using those three dictionaries to help me do it! The magazine is fun, but the commentaries get a little tedious.

A store in Malaga!:

Posters in downtown Malaga notifying about the upcoming bull fights:

Bull fights: an interesting topic that strikes up a lot of controversy in Spain right now. The youth are almost unanimously opposed to the bull fighting, but many adults still honor this tradition. It doesn´t hurt that these fights bring in a lot of cash from tourists either. I´ll devote another entry to this topic.

The Mona Lisa :: La Mona Lisa ( La Gioconda)

Have you ever wondered "What is so great about the Mona Lisa? A lot of hype over a chic with a weird smile." I have too. But read this, and delve into the mind of one inspired critic:


"The presence that rose thus so strangely beside the waters, is expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years men had come to desire. Hers is the head upon which all "the ends of the world are come," and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed! All the thoughts and experience of the world have etched and moulded there, in that which they have of power to refine and make expressive the outward form, the animalism of Greece, the lust of Rome, the mysticism of the middle age with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves, the return of the Pagan world, the sins of the Borgias. She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for strange webs with Eastern merchants: and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as Saint Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelids and the hands. The fancy of a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand experiences, is an old one; and modern philosophy has conceived the idea of humanity as wrought upon by, and summing up in itself all modes of thought and life. Certainly Lady Lisa might stand as the embodiment of the old fancy, the symbol of the modern idea."
-The Aesthetic Movement: Walter Pater on the Mona Lisa
The Renaissance (London, 1893). Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980, pp. 98-99.

We read this excerpt -in spanish, of course!- in my art history class. It struck me as so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you.

Photos: My art, climbing and Host mom!

More art from my classes, drawn with charcoal and charcoal pencil while observing the objects.
This is the route that I described from Mula. I LOVE THIS ROUTE!!! Note the excellent upper part. The little crimps are shaped like hollowed out raindrops and mold perfectly to the fingers. I did this route in many pieces, partially because I kept going off route and cliping on the other vias!

My host mom! ¡Que guapa! I am very lucky that I have a host mom who treats me as one more daughter. On top of that, our communication is very open and she cooks beautifully! What more could you want?!

Photos: Climbing, Watercolor, and Other

CLIMBING!!! (Note: I did not have any climbing partner today, so I made do as photographer and climber as one!)











ART: This is the first piece of art that I have posted which is not for my class. I decided I wanted to play with watercolors (aquareles, in Spanish), so I started this on my own.









A quaint house:











LOVE OF MY LIFE! This is a climbing structure on the beach that I pretty much love! There is one every mile or so along the beach. *choir of angels singing* :-)

Photos, fashion, art, and Friends

I little more of my art. The brown one is a stamp that I made by etching my drawing into a piece of plastic, spreading paint over the etched suface, wiping away the excess paint so that it only remained in the grooves, and then putting it through a pressing device to transfer the paint to the paper. It was actually a little more complicated than that, but whatever!

The drawing of the fabric is charcoal done while studying a smaller, back and white photocopy.

Those three crazy ppl are my friends! The guy is JuanAn, the breakdancer I told you about! The one in blue is Isa and the one in red, Paloma.

The other photo is of my host sister, Janire. I took it to give you an example of the fashion here in Spain. Currently popular is bellbottoms, short jackets that end above the waiste, thick decorative belts, and layered hair, among other things. Also popular is this sort of bracelet that connects into a ring on your middle finger, usually with some sort of butterfly or something laying accross the top of your hand. A small percentage of the teenage girls actually glue a single white rinestone to one of their side teeth so that when they smile you have to do a double take before you realize that they are not from a cheezy toothpaste add! Most of the boys have mullets (I know, girls. I can see you cringe!) and a lot of them have their hair spiked on top. The grunge pants look is in, as are highlights in the hair. I will bring photos as they come.

I Share My Art With You

I want to share my art with you. As I spend several hours every day working on my art, I am constantly producing something. Below I have included two sketches done with charcoal. I drew each compostition while observing the subjects. The one on white was my first ever (aside from a charcoal drawing I did of an empty box in 8th grade) and the one on green paper was my next one. The assignment was to draw the objects using only lines -no blending. I was instructed to use the tones of the paper in conjunction with the while and black.




Below: The view from our kitchen one lovely morning!

On the bottom: This is the sybol of my life: