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.

leave a comment, eh?

Well, I made it back to Savannah after my stint in the arctic. It's amazing how quickly you forget what living with seasons is really like. But I managed to enjoy myself.

I got to do some quality time spending with my family

On Monday I went to the Field Museum with my parents. I hadn't been back there since I was in high school I think. We would go there for field trips and have to fill out worksheets. It was the best time to flirt with boys and have an excuse to eat vending machine food on the bus. Ahh... to be young again.
So it went like this...

That's my cute mom
Handsome dad taking photos for reference for some artwork he's doing for Columbia sportswear. (he has his own signature series of shirts coming out in 2008)





this guy reminded me of an American Idol contestant from Seattle

The rest of my visit was spent doing whatever I was told. When I go on these quick trips I am stripped of all my rights as an adult. I have no car and am trapped in plans that I have not made for myself. Not that I really mind that. I had to go to my late- great aunt's apartment with my mom, aunt, and grandmother to distribute the rest of her things. She was a lonely old lady who lived longer than most, and was a virgin. eeeeesh. I had no relationship with her but going through her things enlightened me a little bit. My mom found an album of photos of her from a baby up until her 40's i would say... and only knowing her in the last 23 years of her life put me at a disadvantage. There was so much life in those pictures. It's unfair of me to assume that this woman had no life. The photos were incredible, the style she had was so unexpected. She rarely smiled but part of me wants to think it was her schtick. Anyway, here are the views from her building, this is a couple floors above her place, in my grandmothers apartment.


Good ole Lake Michigan...
Hopefully I will get my hands on some of those photos to share with the world. Until then I am going to be diligently working retail and on more pieces for the show.

no-tox

if you haven't heard already... i lasted about 4 full days on the detox. it was certainly a good experience but didn't know what i was doing to my body. i started to feel strange and malnourished. I think the cleansing part of it was really helpful but it was hard to stick to basically an all vegan diet without having any knowledge about it. i might start back up again after doing some more research. i dropped a couple pounds which felt great, but just like beyonce, i packed most of it back on in a matter of days. it's ok, i feel good. i don't feel like i quit or anything... josh lasted a little longer than i did, BUT he retoxed way faster than i did with a healthy portion of bike race/day long trip from homemade absinthe.
more importantly, i've been doing some artwork for my dear graphic designer friend Devin. It's for a poster that we are going to print for a band coming to town called the Dark Romantics. They are playing at the Sentient Bean sometime in Feb. Look for signs with this on them:


til next time y'all...

Day 1

So, day one wasn't that bad. I woke up and had my first big challenge of going out to eat without actually eating all of the delicious food around me. Luke was headed back to Brooklyn so I couldn't pass it up. I had tea, he had eggs, bacon, pancakes, all that good stuff. When we got home, Josh had already taken the plunge into to our morning drink combo. Its one cup of this tea that Josh had brewed overnight consisting of:

Some red clover, cascara sagrada (bark), dandelion root (more bark), uva ursi leaf, burdock root, licorice root, yellowdock root, senna leaf, and pau d'arco bark.
But once it's all brewed together it looks something similar to gutter water. I imagine it doesn't taste much different.

My minimal sense of taste comes in handy for that one. The second drink is a combination of psyllium seed husk, which basically exfoliates your intestines

combined with Bentonite clay, which takes care of the rest of whats in there, thats where the term flush comes in handy... And the word is that its super important to be drinking water all day or else these flushing drinks can have the opposite effect... Nah'mean?

Speaking of flushing, I've started to spend more time here...Josh had prepared me for that and it didn't really hit me until later in the day.

So throughout the day, i had both drinks, some tea, banana, rice crackers, cashews, an orange, and rice with kimchi... surprisingly, i didn't feel starving. I did however give the challah sitting on my kitchen counter a good stare before i walked out of the kitchen.

Starting tomorrow...

Everything is going to be turned upside down starting tomorrow morning. My lovely, 31 year old, tea drinking, bike riding roommate, Joshua, and I are doing a 3 week body clense/fast/organic tonic regimen. No, this ain't no Beyonce fad diet. I'd like to consider it a favor I'm doing for my body.
For the first week were are going to be getting used to our new eating routine. It will consist mostly of different roots, barks, and things you would find in a bag of mulch. This is going to take some getting used to because I've become comfortable with my carb addiction(i.e. cereal, toast, fried anything, fruits, etc). We'll be able to enjoy some things like unsalted nuts and rice but for the most part we will be nourished my an infinte amount of tea and tonic consisting of maple syrup, lemon juice, more bark and roots. In the middle of the second week there might be a day or two of fasting. Never in my life would I consider doing this if I didn't have someone else to experience it with. Josh has done it before and said that there is a point where the toilet is more of a safe place and to expect some adult onset acne. Why am i doing this you ask? I guess for the most part, I want to have a healthier relationship with food. I've gone so long without really being able to taste much (due to my allergy condition) that I just rely on texture and don't really know how to enjoy food anymore. Even if I eat something delicious I don't know how to know when I'm satisfied. I just want to keep putting food into my mouth because I've become more soothed by the action than the actual fare I consume. So as of this moment I am saying farewell to some of my dearest friends: dairy, meat, sugar, refined wheat, gluten, partially hydrogenated oil, & alcohol. We've had a lot of good times. Here are a few of them in this past week:
Our feast of buffalo wings, that we traveled all the way to the most tourist infested part of town to pay a mere $.30 per wing...

Then there was Christian's delicious birthday brunch that we cooked at the house, great fruit, eggs, pancakes, the works... and Luke, my favorite boy roommate of all time was there with us all the way from Brooklyn...

Later that same night, we ate at my preferred establishment, Juarez...mmm queso... (highly unnatural pose in this picture)

After seeing our friend's folk show, we got a little antsy
Then we indulged in my hard day's work of baked goods...

And finally tonight, I got to eat my last good meal with new friends Skip and Christy. She cooked her own birthday dinner for us all. Great salad and curry tofu (aka pizza soup)... and birthday cake, again...

Looking back it seems that I do in fact know how to enjoy food. I will not, however miss having to make the decision as to what or where to eat every day. But I do spend most of my time with my closest friends over meals, that I will surely not cut out of my life. I will just be the asshole at the table that orders hot water and lemon...