'tis the season

hey y'all...
well i had postponed putting this image up for fear that i would spoil the surprise but this season i haven't been able to keep anything a secret. my dad sort of challenged me to do a piece of artwork for him for the holidays... and i don't really think he expected me to do it. (we both have a classic case of fear of failure and procrastination)... but i did a portrait of my great grandmother (his grandmother), in the technique i learned from Chris Payne this summer at the Illustration Academy
so here it is, poorly photographed, but its all i have at the moment...


also, i've been busy making some more winestoppers for friends to give as gifts. its been a lot of fun and i hope to keep it up.

other than that, my life has been dedicated to building my nest in chicago. it seems to be shaping up nicely.


once i get back i'm going to get busy and start drawing more and planning a theme for a show, possibly. but in the more immediate future i will be in a frenzy producing my first collaborative project with my hetero-life partner Abbe Ertel Jr
We're putting together a zine called "Freckles Without Faces".
Keep your eye out for it in early 2008.

lets talk about seperation anxiety shall we?

here is a relic from my deep and sordid past. it was a dark and gloomy mother's day and i was overcome with such a great fear of abandonment that i couldn't even finish spelling words properly. i just thought this might enlighten you as far as knowing me as an adult...

//i'm cold

the very first thing i did today was stick my finger in louie's poop, when i was picking it up... IT WAS AN ACCIDENT... and i made the mistake of trying to get it off with snow, and i ended up making a pinkie poop popsicle. its almost ok to start your day like that, because it can only go up from there...



really, it was a fine day. i battled traffic and the weather to make it into the city to go to the apple store to find that they no longer make the power cord to my powerbook that isn't even that old... bah! planned obsolescence... on to more important things... i have some current international press in a Canadian magazine called Maisonneuve. I don't know where you can get it in the states, but this is what it looks like in print y'all...



and i also was commissioned to come up with a design for the Sidewalk Arts Festival 2008. i don't know if its been chosen yet, but i was glad i got to submit something. i had to abandon the project because it came up right before i moved, but luckily i got an extension. i'm happy with how it came out, which rarely happens.



i like life here so far. its still strange because i'm trying to shape my days... i'm dedicating a lot of time to making presents and being a diligent housewife to myself. other than that i drink a lot of coffee and watch too much tv with my sister. i try to remind louie that we are so lucky. it would be so much better if i could eat some of cameron's curry while danny tries to poke inappropriate places on people with christian nuzzling opal with his face, with lauren and martha playing music on the couch, in my house...talking about everyone that we love on both coasts and how famous molly is going to be, while we get ready to go see chelsea and hayden and angelina at an unsolved mysteries show... piece that together however you feel. i love you people...

things to be thankful for:

1. an aching heart, because that means i'm loved by precious people spread out all over the place.
2. the most perfect animal companion any could possibly imagine
3. a roof over my head in a new city that has more to offer than i am capable of comprehending
mcsweeny's/dave eggars store front for his writing workshop one of the many neighborhood churches, but this is the most beautiful one
my bedroom

4. relatively good health (sense of sight, touch, and hearing is all you really need)
5. getting myself to draw being my biggest daily struggle
6. parents...period
7. being able to see my sister everyday


that's all i can think of at the moment.
i've been having total brain malfunctions lately... i need to read more, actually, you know, i need to draw too... less typey more worky...

Sweet Home Chicago

i'm here i'm here! i've been here for a couple days already and slept in my new apartment twice.

its... well... i don't know what it is yet. i'm in the meta-transition, meaning, i'm in the thick of not having a routine, not having showered in a couple days because i haven't bought shower curtain rings... so many tiny details i never considered.
so the drive up went really smoothly. i drove behind my dad up until spartenberg, NC where we met his BFF Bill, who put my car on his trailer. we had to eat at cracker barrel which was a huge blow to my ego. but after that it was smooth sailing. and the most beautiful changing trees i have ever seen... louie slept the entire way.


once we finally made it, things seemed to be going great. the next morning my sister and her husband helped my dad and i unpack our cars and it took like 30 minutes. i was expecting much more of a nightmare. we ran a million errands and bought a bed and all that...so to celebrate, my sister and i went to pick up delicious carne asada burritos from La Pasadita that is right by my house (they have 3 locations on the same block). So we parked and ran in, came out 5 minutes later to find a boot on my car

what a racket, we had to pay $115 cash for them to take it off. (guh!)

but after that i went to get a tv and some other things with my dad and sis. then we went back to my place to start setting things up... I took one of my Joe Sorren prints and placed it on an exsisting nail on the wall and it looked perfect! Right up until i turned around and it went crashing to the ground... glass everywhere...I was so sad, however it will be repaired.

later, out of nowhere i heard a car alarm go off, so i ran to the window to see if it was my car, but it wasn't... there was some kid scurrying away after smashing my dads car window...

{{Sigh}} it could have been worse... just material things...

so now i'm in the process of accumulating seating. i have lots of tables but no where to sit. my sister decided to improvise... (she's sleeping soundly, for real)

so, i'm just organzing and daydreaming about my new routine. it won't be sturdy until after the holidays i'm afraid. my mom comes in on wednesday and thats when the real decorating will begin. but they don't leave until after thanksgiving... which is actually really nice and comforting.


ok sweety babies. i will post more once things start to take shape. i love and miss you all. its so nice that we are sprinkled all over the place. if we can't be together at least we are all broadening our geographical spectrum...

and i swear i will post new drawings and things soon...

so...

i just thought i'd share what my last few days have been like, in the midst of all this packing that i'm struggling to make progress with...
yesterday, i packed, and napped a lot but we went to the Coastal Empire County Fair last night. it was so magnificent and i couldn't believe i had never gone. well, it was magnificent for like an hour, then i stopped going on rides. but nevertheless, i was thoroughly entertained.

it looks like i'll be heading out next friday folks. so...

p.s. i just updated my site again...

So, my week back in Savannah was actually really good. For once I had a lot of things to take care of, which diluted the overwhelming anxiety I had concocted about going back after my NY getaway... I did a piece for a magazine in Montreal called Maisonneuve that will be in their food issue. I had to illustrate the beginning of a story about a feast, and the few characters that it involved...


It felt so good to work. The pace was good and the art director was great to work with. I hope to start a good relationship with these folks...Now i just have to finish Cam's illustration of his ma for his first manly tattoo...

There's good momentum... Now I wait til I embark on my journey to Chicago on Sunday... the weather will be unseasonably warm, as it is everywhere it seems, so an apartment hunt will hopefully be an adventure and not a miserable disaster...

I'm so sick of crying wolf. That's been my motto lately, "crying wolf". I told too many people that i was moving a long time ago, without really investing anything in that lofty decision. But its real now. I swear. God, i hope so. There's a lot weighing on this trip and I'm trying not to buckle under the pressure. I don't even know if I'm going to be around to celebrate the Halloween festivities. I so badly want my costume idea to materialize, and it would be especially grand to debut it at the M.I.A. concert in Atlanta. (Think, skin tone body suit, gem belly, and a color weave that stands up on end)...

i'm a little impatient and have lots of time on my hands, seeing i'm back in the nest for the night (my parents house). we just went to see michael clayton. i'm an optimist, and i liked it. i go into theaters hoping to emerge a more inspired person...most of the time i do, the amount of time it lasts, varies...
i got back from brooklyn yesterday and i only have the photos from my phone. got some good ones from my little digital but will have to show them when i have the proper cords and things to upload them... here's what i have so far...
when i first got there, i was a bit miffed because i was under the illusion that i was going to get to escape the heat and be able to actually experience a season other than HOT. but it was shorts and tank top weather. it eventually rained A LOT, and art and i got stuck in it one night, so it eventually cooled off... (photos to come).

i stayed with luke the first couple nights and spent some time in williamsburg... the rest of the time i was with artemis in greenpoint, with she, howard the cat, and the polish bakery directly below her...we walked a lot, to the point where my feet began their rebellion... pounding the pavement did not agree with them... but i dealt with it. we only went out a couple nights. once to and "unce unce" kind of place for the Ruff Club party... then the next time to Union Pool in brookyln...much more low key, SCAD alumi central, but the guy with an afro and glasses from TV on the Radio was there too, so it wasn't so bad... we also saw Darjeeling Limited, one of those i emerged from feeling happier than i had going in. good color palette same wes anderson goodness as always...

artemis and i also went to chelsea and saw a ton of galleries. we went to gagosian and about 10 others all on one street. Some noteworthy names were: Paul Noble Max Toth Curtis Mann Jules de Balincourt Friedrich Kunath

you wouldn't be able to tell from the picture above... but it smelled like delicious fresh baked cookies and things wafted through the air. i was tortured by delicious pastries for a majority of this trip. and now i'm hooked on pinkberry... and reaffirmed my love for bagels and thai food...

overall the trip was great. i got to be with people i hadn't seen in a while, spend time with newly transplanted julia, but as far as being on the hunt for my new home, i reached some clarity that i hadn't expected. by no means am i disappointed to have felt like that wasn't the place for me to move. i'm just excited to have gotten the chance to check it out. next week on my vision quest...chicago...

"be a good animal and move freely, unencumbered with thoughts about where you should be and how you should be acting..."

I'm up and now I just have to wait until my aunt comes to pick me up to take me to the airport 2.5 hours before my flight. It will only take us 0.5 hours to get there. So, my day is already dedicated to waiting. This is fine for me today. I've been stewing in Savannah waiting for this trip and today has come and I feel calm now. I need to shake things up. I have no expectations other than to have a good time and become a sponge. I need to find peace in being an observer...and just let things be what they are and not be judgemental.

I want to be a good animal.

Afternoon Buzz..

I usually limit my coffee intake to a morning cup to get the day going... but I had more today. So i feel compelled to update and expose my new things. I've been working on some drawings for my friend Jon who wrote a feature film and is using an illustrated book to summarize his script, for his package he's sending out to producers. We'll see what happens...here are a couple:


Also, in the midst of trying to get a grip on my life overall, I realized i needed to change things up with my work. My process, my drawing, my lack of painting. I need all of that to be pushed up to the top of my priorities. Its just so hard to know where to start. I have been needing to just do SOMETHING. I think about drawing and painting a lot. Maybe too much. So i decided to use what I had and just paint. It was/is still a mess. But it felt great. And as I was going I went through a range of emotions. Feeling frustrated that it wasn't beautiful just by putting paint to paper. Ha, i have to laugh at myself for that. Being stuck in a digital world has spoiled me with instant gratification. I think learning to be patient may do me some good overall. It is what it is, that's all i can say:




And to my delight, I got the three little paintings i bought in Jackson, WY at the Lyndsay McCandless Gallery by Jenny Kostecki. visit her blog
There were a series of 9 and I would've liked to have had them all, but come on...

3 seemed like the right number... They came at the right time. When i was needing a little boost and inspiration...Now I have to find the right spot for them.

so long summer

well, finally... i'm a bit of a noodle and i had totally forgotten my password to this blog. so i avoided it. plus i've been on the road and finally have time to dedicate to blogging. so here goes. this summer has been pretty epic. this illustration academy kicked it off and put me on a good roll for the rest of the season. since then i've gotten work from Time Out Chicago and have a good list of new projects piling up. I'm going to work on some illustrations for a friends feature film... and i've been making some new things... magnets actually:

but i took some time off and i hit the road with my boo. he picked me up in chicago and we headed west. he moved to los angeles, you see... and its left me in a pickle. but our trip was epic. we made it in good time and had a good last week together.

now i just have to figure out how much longer to stay in savannah and where to go from there. i'm thinking san francisco or possibly LA, but it scares me.

jeeeez

its been way too long i know. it seems like i've neglected this here forum, but really i was just having password trouble. its a whirlwind these past few months, if your curious you can catch up here: http://courtiesue.livejournal.com/
but here's a brief synopsis...
debated my life events. fell in love with a boy... had to leave him behind briefly to pursue my illustration fantasy...was ripped straight out of my comfort zone...had the best work ethic of my life. met amazing artists and actually made friends...came home to continue my life's debate. where do i go next...

eureka, my education hasn't gone to waste. i learned how to do simple animations like three years ago and never really put it to use... and lately i have had the urge to experiment... here are a couple i've done lately...
this is my dad's pal flip... doing a flop in the amazon if i'm not mistaken:


this was taken at chik-fil-a, it was the biggest cone i've ever experienced

omg its been a while

since this thing, this blog, is an attempt to abbreviate what happens in my life, i figure its ok to use things like "omg" in the title.
so right, the last time we met i had just gotten back from LA. a lot has happened since then and i kind of don't know where to begin. how about backwards?
as of this very moment, i am heading to american apparel where i have worked for 7 months. in my book, thats kind of the longest job i've ever held down. nevertheless, i'm going into work today a little more relieved that usual because i know my time is limited. as much fun as working retail with a bunch of friends has been, its time to move forward. i've been thinking a lot about how i've been worrying about missing out on life as i know it, in savannah. god forbid i make a life for myself somewhere else. an oppurtunity came up which i was apprehensive to address... my dad suggested that I apply to the illustration academy. it's an elite gathering of some of the most talented illustrators in the world that formed a 2 month school for people who like to draw pictures. I really just didn't think it would be possible for me to uproot my life in the amount of time because it starts at the end of May. How could I possibly leave everything so quickly!

Well, now its more of a matter of how to get all my shit in boxes fast enough. I applied and got accepted which feels like a great accomplishment already because they only accept 65 people. I don't know what its going to be like, who is going to be there, but I know I will be drawing for a majority of everyday. Something inside of me just snapped out of the haze and realized its ok to leave something great behind.
Now to back track a little... I had a piece published in Time Out Chicago recently:

It was for an article about people who worry too much. I got to work with a friend in the art department and I cranked out the work overnight right before I hopped on a plane to go to Costa Rica with my dad. We had a ridiculously great time catching sailfish and soaking up the sun. I caught my very first sailfish on a fly:


This experience, i wouldn't say was the cause of a very impulsive act i performed after I returned, but it more so, solidified my commitment to the action. I got a tattoo of an illustration my dad had done in 1991 which I later and happily discovered my mom had collaborated on.


i apologize for the photobooth pic... i sometimes find them overly indulgent. but its useful for this purpose....
I kept having dreams or nightmares more or less about what my parents were going to say when they saw it... Luckily, it went over well... I think the initial shock has warn off and they have gathered themselves and settled with the idea that i'm THAT daughter... with the tattoo...
More soon...

Left Coast Adventures

MMMMk... I'm firmly planting myself back in Savannah, for the next few weeks at least. I've had enough of this traveling bidness for a while. My jetsetting tour ended officially today. I had the longest shortest trip out to California for the "Fully Blown" group illustration show.


It turned out to be worth it though. I had some predictable anxiety about traveling with my parents and had a few embarassing "Mom! Stop!" moments... but the show itself went smashingly. It was a good feeling to go somewhere foreign and feel connected to people through the work on the walls. I was really impressed with most of it. Forgive me, i don't know who did what... but here are a few snaps I got:



one of my favorites


Not only did it feel good to have my parents there, but Abbe, my hetero-life partner took the trek to Riverside, CA. We've been seperated against our will for the past 7 months, but it was as if no time had passed.


I met a few choice people who I hope to communicate more with on future projects. Rusty put the whole show together and had some stellar work right next to mine. Breanne was a sweet bird that has a printing company out in Portland that I will hopefully team up with in the future. It was good motivation and I've got some ideas in the vault that will hopefully materialize sooner than later.


here's me in my corner:

someone else in my corner:


i barely have the energy to explain the bullshit we went through to get back east. but know that my ass is dragging.