To same me the time of posting to several diff blog sites where at each I'll have a few people who I wish to remain in contact with, I have created an RSS feed for my more "art work" related posts.

If you are interested, please add kinnareerss to your friends list for more those updates (OR just go the actual blog: http://kinnaree.tumblr.com/). I still check back to my friends page and will use this account to leave comments and write more personal "locked" entries.

Love,
-Gabi

This is taken from theremina 's post on her experience running into a group of irrationally hateful Prop 8 supporters here in the Bay Area.

"As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of the flood, storm and avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and the wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can."

-John Muir

At a size of 1,200 square miles of pristine wilderness, there was much more within Yosemite than Nick and I could see or do in any single trip. Forests, meadows, lakes, waterfalls, ponds, granite cliffs, trails and roads, I honestly wanted to cover it all but had no idea of how dauntingly huge the park really was. I haven't been to Yosemite since I was a kid when I was chauffeured from activity to activity and given plenty of entertainment material in the backseat of my parent's van. Now, as the driver crossing hundreds of miles to get to and travel around within the park, I truly appreciate the enormity and grandeur of it. Because there can be no end to new and awe inspiring experiences there, Nick and I are determined to return. That said, I want to share a bit more about this past trip (other than being stupefied by Yosemite's size haha).

( Picture Heavy Post Under Cut )

Figure drawing class required that you take a "master work," something from the direction you intend on going (ie: classic oil paintings for fine arts majors) and make a "master copy" of it utilizing charcoal as the medium (mine was 24 by 30 inches). I chose the character art for Embla by Hyung-Tae Kim:




Ok... slept from 7 till 10:30pm >.> Time to watch serei no moribito! yay!

I spilled apple juice on my tablet. I saw it happen, almost as if in slow motion. The cup poured, not into the easily cleaned plastic surface but right into the shortcut buttons. All sorts of finals projects still need working on. I don't know what to be more distressed about, the $400 tablet or the effect this is going to have on my grades/finals week work load squished into the lab hours schedule. Fuck you apple juice. Fuck you, Gabi!

Nick and I opened it and wiped down the inside. It is unplugged and drying out on top of one of the bookshelves. I hope to go it works after it dries. fuckfuckfuckgoddamnit

I originally sent this to my friend Nicole, who in high school got nicknamed the "Tea Beast." It is a rap about tea and is totally awesome. Enjoy! :D

Sorry, I had to do something "for me" last night. Now on to... muscle overlays ;_; blaaaaaaah

Things that I love:

The upside to eczema: nightly lotion rub downs from Nick <3
Blue Danube's B.L.A.T. sandwich and Greek yogurt
Green Apple book store = art books - used and thusly cheap (yay!)
Chilled fruity white wine (gurwetztraminer)
Apple Blossoms from Trader Joe's
Blue Bottle Coffee roasted yesterday, "three africans," ground few minutes ago and brewing as I type
Velum paper / Personal light box
New (better) electric eraser (old one broke D:)
Wacom tablets
Having a clean apartment
My comfy nike sweat pants
Laser printed versions of my digital homework <3

Things I'm Annoyed With:

Not being able to do everything I want to do right now. I mean, there is so much I wanna do right away!! (and here I'm writing >.>) and I can't do all 5 million things at once. D:
Inking in photoshop.
OMG portfolios DUE DUE DUE MON DEU DUDE!
Having to sleep. SUCH a waste of time omg.

 
I've been getting stressed out about my workload. But now I realize it's drawing/painting/creativetimes, and not accounting and I feel SO MUCH BETTER. KK off to draw! weeeee.....

...that was sarcasm. >.>

I call this one: A Portrait of AAU ...Kicking My Ass :D OK, not really.

I watched the two newest/leaked Avatar eps with Nick over dinner and somehow my drawing of a dude turned into Azula in a latex suit. haha latex. love it.

I dunno, maybe I'm crazy... and kind of a hipster (ee gads no! a crazy hipster!) but, my friends, I must confess that... I am in love!

Since it opened, I have regularly patronized to the Blue Bottle Cafe for my latte and general bean juice needs... as many as 3-4 times a week. Also, I love the fact that I can pick up beans roasted only a day before (!!!) and bring them home to be fresh ground at my leisure, and french pressed for a full and delicious flavor. If SF has imparted any kind of strange hipster-ness upon me, it would definitely be this obsession I now have with coffee.

I must admit, though, my love had very early beginnings. At the mall near my home (the Santa Ana Main Place Mall), there was a specialty coffee shop that was long and narrow. It lead you through from the main shopping area to the food court ...almost like a secret passage! When inside, not only were you completely surrounded by delicate tea sets and fantastic colorful mugs, you were also immersed in the smell of coffee. Various roasts were stored along the walls and the smell could almost overwhelm a person. Often my dad would walk through, all too briskly, as a short cut to the food court. I would lag behind, feigning interest in a pretty cup or tea set so that I might linger within that warm comforting atmosphere.

I did not get to try coffee until I was in the 7th grade. After mass, outside under the arbor of my church, they sold coffee and donuts to fundraise for St. Columban's service organizations. Thinking coffee to be a more pure and intense form of chocolate, I had a crack addict's craving to get my hands on a cup. Obviously I now realize the cocoa bean and the coffee bean are not one and the same, but at the time I was misinformed. At 12, I had already developed a taste for extremely dark chocolate, liking to suck on small pieces of bakers chocolate when making cakes with my grandmother. So to me, coffee seemed a natural progression at the time.

I was out of the service early, as I was part of St. Vince de Paul organization and I had to be prepared to collect donations at an assigned door when mass got out. A classmate, Gloria Marufo, had slipped out on church early and was sitting by the food spread. She, an anomaly in my sheltered life, always more learned and experienced than I, sat casually by the donuts sipping a Styrofoam cup. She had informed me that, "Of course it was coffee!" and looked at me like I was such a kid (which of course I was). But I was emboldened by the casual way she sipped her drink and thought to myself, "If Gloria can handle this elicit adult's beverage, well... so can I!"

Coffee had been forbidden to me given it's high caffeine levels and the fact that I was already an extremely hyper active kid. Of course, that made the allure all the stronger. I was exhilarated when the old church lady did not stop me (I half expected her to) as I paid my dollar for a cup. I turned to the urn of coffee. Next to it sat the hot water urn that only a week prior I had been wholly content to pour from for my 75 cent Swiss Miss packet. This week, I had decided, would be different.

And it was, I immediately spat out the bitter product of what had to be week old coffee grinds left out to dry in the hot desert sun. Gloria laughed at me and pointed to the box of sugar cubes and packets of creamer. Logically you would think I would give up on something that was both vile and forbidden. Instead I became more determined, I would like this drink and train myself to enjoy it unadulterated. In the mean time, I plunked in 5 cubes and several creamers so as to make it bearable.  

And thus marked the beginning of the end. After 12 years, two barista jobs and countless dollars spent, I can only say my love of coffee has grown into... I'm not sure what haha. But yeah, the point of this post was to state I'm going to BBC for brunch with Nick, and as usual, I'm super excited about it. I wanted to go on about BBC and it $20k coffee syphon bar (from which I plan on having a pot in a couple of hours), but I guess I'll do that later when I'm much less tired and delirious from my reveries down memory lane.

( Picture Heavy So Click Here )
Industrial Art Classes at The Crucible:


Am thinking either wood working... or glass? or... brass? ahhh I dunno. Ultimate goal: Being able to weld and make steam punk googles XD Foundry & Moldmaking sounds so cool! Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding... There are FIRE DANCING CLASSES. wow. just wow. (I love the bay area). Anyway, Nick may take whatever beginner class I take with me. And um, Char? Would you be down? I know we talked about taking some kind of art class together at some point.

The Crucible's 2008 Fire Arts Festival



I am also taking Color and Design this summer. Basically, in my mind it is going to the Alchemy of Color!</div>

"Color Keys King David by homarusrex"

I plan on doing a swimming class as well a dancing one with Nick for YAY personal fitness. The loss of running er.. well I ran yesterday and well, gah OK there is a lot to say about all that so I'll save it for another post.

Also on the list: PAX and Comic Con. No explanations are needed I'm sure.

Wow, lots of plans I need to get the ball rolling with all this stuff.

I know the term isn't over just quite yet, but I don't feel I'll have it in me to do this during finals and in the OMG FREEDOM! period I'll be experiencing between then and the start of summer term. Anyway, I don't feel like I've let you guys in on how I have progressed here at AAU. Since I don't often post my day to day drawings, you don't get to see my more traditional stuff. And even I have not, prior to this post, really looked at new and old works juxtaposed. More often than not, I post stuff that is digital since it much easier. But I feel like I have progressed so much these past two semesters and as far as digital illustration goes, that hasn't been much reflected. Knowing anatomy and drawing it in traditional mediums is a completely different kettle of fish from doing so on a computer. So far my photoshop/painter skills lag way behind what I can do with graphite and charcoal. Anyway, I feel like sharing: Yes!!! The switch to AAU has been worth it and I can't imagine this not continuing it to be so. And here is the evidence:


This is my absolute favorite model. She is also the very first one I had in my very first figure drawing class at AAU. Here is the very first picture I ever drew at AAU:


QUITE the difference. I do feel I'm getting my money's worth. Now I need to work on being a more diligent student. Just to let you know, I'm more of a C grade student in comparison with my peers. *sigh* Gotta work on that.

In lieu of being more productive with my time, I mashed together a short video:



The clip is from that glorious night of Sushi and Rock Band debauchery but a weekend ago. Roger is on the guitar (or was it bass ..?) and Aimee is on drums. Nick's arm also briefly appears! /cheer :P

I hope you can garner some amusement from these; I know I did when making them. Also, film majors, pls excuse the crappy editing ...as I am in illustration and know nothing of this alien FCP interface.

Also, some recent photos from the movie night with Jeannie (phoenixdown7  ) and another Rock Band night w/ Matt (zebe ) over the Mike/Andy/Jo's mansion!

You know how awesome it is when a group of great people get together (why is getting together so hard) to do something fun? Yeah well.... I haven't done that in a while. Also, I have not been an "organizer" of such a get together for years... YEARS! So I asked Jeanie if she wanted to see a movie... and then I thought why not ask Katie Monica as well? And then Jo happened to call me and so what the heck I asked her as well. Jo invited Anna & Andy, which is cool too... and Nick obviously is going. So yeah, fun movie, awesome company, sounds like good times!
How hot is the bounty hunter??? zomg!

Also: I picked up two WoW books b/c u know.... I love the story line. <333 So far: pretty freakin awesome. Also Awesome: This PA Comic: