Tackling the classics

This year I've made a couple of New Years resolutions. One of them is to read more of the classics. The book Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan looks at the 50 greatest hits of classic literature. For each of the books discussed the book has a kind of cheat sheet with these topics: The Buzz, What People Don't Know(but should), Best Line, What's sexy, Quirky Fact and What to Skip.

The book starts with The Iliad by Homer. So tomorrow I am off to the library to check this one out. I only plan on reading one classic a month. I am a fan of fluff novels and need time for those. So please leave you comment below and let me know which of the classics listed you think I should read.

In case you were wondering the other classic books discussed are as follows.

1. The Odyssey
2. The Old Testament
3. The New Testament
4. The Aenid
5. Metamorphoses
6. Beowulf
7. Inferno
8. Paradiso
9. The Decameron
10. The Canterbury Tales
11. The Faerie Queene
12. Hamlet
13. King Lear
14. Macbeth
15. Don Quixote
16. Paradise Lost
17. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
18. Pride and Prejudice
19. Faust 1 +2
20. Eugene Onegin
21. Pere Goriot
22. Jane Eyre
23. Wuthering Heights
24. Moby Dick
25. Bleak House
26. Great Expectations
27. Madame Bovary
28. Crime and Punishment
29. The Brothers Karamazov
30. War and Peace
31. Anna Karenina
32. Middlemarch
33. The Wings of the Dove
34. Remembrance of Things Past
35. Ulysses
36. The Magic Mountain
37. The Trail
38. To the Lighthouse
39. The Sound and the Fury
40. A Farewell to Arms
41. Tropic of Cancer
42. Native Son
43. The Man Without Qualities
44. Lolita
45. Giovannis Room
46. One Hundred years of Solitude
47. Gravity's Rainbow
48. Blood Meridian
49. Beloved

Photo a day

This year one of my many resolutions is to take a photo a day. I tried this last year, but my DSLR mysteriously broke, in February, and I got off track. I am using the Becky Higgins Project Life. If her digital version had been available I probably would have purchased it instead. The regular paper kit arrived today and it really is great. The graphic design is snappy and the project layout is handy. If you are interested you can purchase the kit on Becky Higgins' website. The photo above is an example of work from Beck Higgins website, not mine.

Styrofoam Cups

Untitled, 2003
Styrofoam Cups, Hot Glue
6'(H) x 20'(W) x 19' 2"(D)
Ace Gallery New York

Tara Donovan

I found this work wonderful and inspiring. I absolutely LOVE it. How much fun would it be to make this?! Here's a link with more photos by the artist.

Ebook

I really want this ebook.

http://www.ellapublishing.com/catalog/ebooks/vintage-hip-christmas-crafts

Corsage Tees

This isn't my idea at all, but I thought it was worth sharing. It comes from that darling designer Elizabeth Kartchner. I love her style. She appeared on Studio 5 demonstrating how to do this project. so have a look and give it a try. http://studio5.ksl.com/?sid=8369323&nid=58

I'll post my attempts later.

It's tedious , but I have to keep doing it. So everything I've made in my classes lately has been complete rubbish. The theory is that I'll improve with time, but I'm not seeing it yet. I am looking into applying to a 4 year University and the portfolio review has me worried. Luckily for me several of my current instructors are working to help me along...limp limp

Worth checking out

Some days I take my sweet little boy over to B&N to play while I peruse some way too expensive for this art student to buy magazines. I HAD to buy this one, meanwhile hoping husband doesn't notice the expense. This one is great! I have found that I really do love a lot of the Somerset Studio publications. I need some inspiration and this one was just the ticket. Look at the layout on the cover! I recently visited the local art museum and several of the pieces of work in this magazine are better than what I saw. Most of the artists in the publication are female so maybe I connected with them more, I don't know. I have to keep journals for two of my classes, Design and Ceramics, so I needed the extra spark! The fruits of my labor to follow later this week.