Archive for the ‘life’ Category

Back in Black…or green…whateves, I’m BACK!

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 11:39 pm

Well hello! Come here often?

Yes folks, it’s the not-so-infamous Devin, ready to get right back into it. Finally.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted here for ages. But now that  my graduate thesis show has come and gone, I’m making a come back! Risen from the dead in a way…the death of one version of me having come from grad school.

All the hard work, all the labor, all the tears and frustrations and small victories led to something I almost can’t recall doing anymore; A THESIS! – MY Thesis…holy shi*t. But thank goodness IT IS DONE!!!

Grad school was such a strange experience. In the three years I was in graduate school, I’ve learned some incredible things about the world, art, my friends and family and most importantly about myself. While in retrospect I can appreciate some of the many ways I was forced to grow, I can also honestly say – I don’t miss a damn freaking thing about grad school other than the people in the program that I liked. And the list of those people is rather small. That being said I met some of the most inspiring, intellectual, kind hearted and good natured folks you could ever hope to meet.

Over the coming weeks/months/years I’m sure I’ll come back and reflect on that period of time in my life when everything was just constantly GO GO GO GO GO and remember the good times and the bad with a knowing smile – I SURVIVED MOTHA TRUCKAHS!!! I SURVIVED!!! And I’m better for it, to be sure. But again, the school part? I don’t miss a single moment of it.

So, after the graduation ceremony and the thesis show I still had one credit to satisfy which I finally just finished two weeks ago. HOT DAMN FOLKS, it feels amazing to be free again. But even though I had that one (big) credit to be working on, I was still able to find ways to enjoy myself – primarily through small food adventures and beach volleyball! That plus work was about all I could take on while working on my independent study but now that it’s all over over for real, I’ve been just DIVING into life again! I watched the entire series of The Dollhouse last week and have taken out most of the first season of True Blood, getting ready to move onto season two…just feeding my glutenous film/tv self and loving every second of it! (Thank you for being the best invention ever Netflix – I heart you).

The other appetite I’ve been feeding is, as I mentioned above, my appetite for fooooooood. Yummy yummy food. I can guarantee in the coming months you will be seeing many posts regarding food.

You will also see posts regarding my current marathon goal (three marathons back to back), posts about upcoming creative endeavors (because now that I’m DONE being bossed all of the time I actually feel creatively inspired again and therefor want to CREATE again) and probably more of the same ole same ole daily grind chit chat.

So for now I’ll keep this on the shorter side (for me anyway) and leave you with some fun pictures of the delicious and sometimes goofy “meals” I have found myself partaking in recently. I’m looking forward to getting back into blogging again as I have truly missed it (and the interactions that were caused by it) tremendously.

Hope this message finds you all happy and well!

Peace, good cheer and joy!
Flower Power Devin ;)

THESIS SHOW OPENING!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 4:24 pm
devin-magazine-postcard-front

THE TIME HAS COME MY FRIENDS!!!

THIS FRIDAY, April 23rd, 5PM – 8PM(ish)
1104 S Wabash
2nd Fl – Center for the Book & Paper Arts Gallery
Chicago, IL 60605

(lots of parking lots, street parking available & one block away from the Roosevelt Red/Green/Orange line stop!)

DEVIN MAGAZINE is ready to be LAUNCHED!

The project I’ve been working on (and freaking out over) for the past several months has finally come to fruition and I’d LOVE for you to see the fruits of my labor!!!

Please join me for wine, cheese and much merriment as I celebrate this momentous occasion with 13 other incredibly talented artists as we all debut are work together in one very exciting show!!!

I promise to look as fabulous as possible and cannot WAIT to see you there!

IF YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS DATE – there will be a second “opening reception” FRIDAY, MAY 14th from 5 to 8:30(ish) as well, which I’ll be posting another event for!

CHEERS AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SHARING THE HAPPINESS WITH YOU ALL!!!

XOXO,
Devin

“Goodness gracious, what a night.”

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 11:28 pm

Well, I made it through phase two…now onto phases three and four of the thesis monster. It looks like there is one pretty obvious grammatical error in my mag thus far, but nothing so horrendous that I’ll loose too much sleep over. I hope.

Ivan, technological guru and genius friend of mine, saved my white girl ghetto booty yet again with all his technical know-how and a saint like patience by helping put the actual thing together in programs I’ve never used before. InDesign…I WILL learn you and then I’ll smack you around like you’re my bitch! Ya HEAR ME?! Ha. InDesign was smacking ME around like I’m it’s little bitch. DAMN!

Photoshop was also having it’s way with me. DAMN ADOBE AND THEIR AWESOME PROGRAMS! They are so wonderful and powerful if you know the language to unlock their goodness, but if you don’t speak the language, don’t know the symbols or what you want to do is actually called, then it’s a real pain in the ass to work in their programs. I know, I’ve been struggling with them for weeks now.

I do know them better now, but not well enough, not at all. This summer I hope to learn more however. I like the idea of what I’m working on and want to continue it, but definitely need to be able to do this sort of thing without the help of my dearest friend. He needs a BREAK from MY SCHOOLING! lol. Sad…but true.

In fact, ALL of my friends and family need a break from my schooling. It’s amazing I still HAVE friends to be honest. I mean, I have lost some, that’s become increadibly obvious lately, but those that were true to begin with (or at least who cared about me as much as I cared about them) are still in my life and happily waiting for me to be done with the madness that is my MFA and to get back to living again.

Ah…living. Watching tv without guilt. Going out on a Thursday night. Hanging out with my friends. Spending time with that someone special. Spending time with my little babies! So far in this process I’ve definitely lost two solid friends I can think of immediately and I’ve successfully killed four plants I had for over 6 years each. [sarcastically claps to self] Well Done Devin. *sigh*

But I will be emerging from this program and experience with some incredible gifts and knowledge. I’m so much stronger now than I was before all of this happened. I appreciate that.

But right now, more than anything, I appreciate those friends of mine who have really stuck by me through this process. Those people who were there for me, not just in my times of need, but in times of joy and also in times of their need. I have a long list of people I need to thank, but for starters I have to list a few people who have been hearing me bitch, cry, moan, complain, doubt, suffer, rejoice and dream the most. Of course I’m going to mention Ivan. He’s been up with me these past several nights (weeks) putting in full days at work, freelancing on top of that and then helping me into the wee hours of the morning on the actual set up of my project. Amanda is someone I work with and someone I just really enjoy the company of. She reminds me of my older sister for so many reasons which totally rocks. She’s also listened to me stress like few others, and despite that has remained enthusiastic and incredibly helpful in the production of my magazine. She and Ehren have both been doing heavy editing on my work which has saved me from myself countless times. THANK GOD FOR SMART EDITORS!!! Haley is also someone who needs to be mentioned. No matter how much was on her plate, how much she was doing, even if she couldn’t actually help me with something, she always responded to my emails, texts and phone calls. That’s kind of a big deal as I’ve learned these past few months that it’s a huge pet peeve of mine when people do even respond with a “hey, I got your message, sorry I can’t write more…” Just urks the hell out of me. If I ever do that to you, please let me know. Remind me. Say, “Hey bitch, why didn’t you respond within a couple hours of receiving my message?!”

Finally I gotta mention two more peeps…my sister Terra who has been so unbelievably supportive it makes me tear up. Whenever I was flipping out about not being good enough to smart enough or if I would graduate or not, she would jump right in with “YOU ARE THE BEST DEVIAN!” and you know what? I really think she means it. And that has meant sooooo much to me. Because when I can’t believe it myself, it saves me from total doubt when those most important to me believe it for me. And last but not least would be my special someone. Man oh man. The madness he’s been put through with me. I know he hasn’t bolted for the door simply because he’s known me for years and obviously that’s long enough to know that my recent behavoir is not my norm. But seriously….how many times have I just gotten silly about the dumbest possible things? Too many lately. I have someone who supports me in any way he can and does so without complaints. He believes in me even if he doesn’t fully understand what I’m trying to do or trying to say. He’s honest. He’s committed. He makes me laugh and when I need it, he gives me the best hugs.

If you know me, you know I’m not little miss hugs. But from certain people, a hug is just what I need. Thanks baby…you’ve been awesome throughout this process. I know you can’t wait for me to be done with this program and have my life get back to “normal” so you can have your “normal” less stressed out and overly goofy girlfriend back. Soooooon right? In the mean while, I’m gonna continue to beat this bitch and GET ‘ER DONE!

Anyway…the list of those to thank is long…but I had to mention the few who have really helped me out the most (and by the most I mean like woah crazy amounts of help, love and support). Ya’ll rock and I look forward to giving back to everyone just what they have given to me and more.

Post card for the show coming tomorrow: in the meanwhile, *the date* is: April 23rd @5PM at 1104  S Wabash, 2nd floor – keep that in mind.

THESIS MOTHA FUCKING SHOW OPENS!!!! Be there, or be s q u a r e !

YAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

By next Friday, I’ll be a very very VERY happy camper! WOOT!

Ciao!

Whataya Want From Me?

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 5:56 pm

A few things:

  • Thesis is starting to get finished up. Install for the show happens over this weekend into the beginning of next week. I’m almost there…I can see the light at the end of this tunnel…I think.
  • I heard this Adam Lambert song a month or so back, when things are school just REALLY started to come to a head. I felt it was sooooo appropriate for how I was feeling. It became my secret anthem (because yeah, I was sort of ashamed to admit that I liked an Adam Lambert song or that I might possibly be this anxty).
  • TK told me to watch the video after finally hearing the song I had been talking about as my song – just watched it, and yeah, gonna have to just suck it up and admit that Adam Lambert is pretty damn hot. He’s a man, who looks like a woman, and screams when he sings, he he’s a man, but I know he’s gay so he’s an even cooler man because he’s got style…so yeah, Adam Lambert = hot sex in my book right now and if he were a woman or a straight man, I’d totally get with that! lol.
  • This song is soooooo what I sometimes want to say to the “powers that be” in my program. That and I wanna flick ‘em off. And, I’d like to tell a few people to stuff it where the sun don’t shine while I’m at it. Of course, I’ll never get this opportunity in real life so I am reduced to either hold it in or blog about. Clearly, I’m choosing the latter…

Anyway…thesis…yeah…that motha fucka of a project is FINALLY coming to fruition. Tomorrow the mag is OUT OF MY HANDS and I move onto other finer details of the installation space. Big space to fill…down some items I was going to use to fill it, what’s a gal to do? Speaking of install…who wants to help me install this weekend? Saturday? Sunday? Anyone? Someone? Hit me with a message if you’re available cause I could really use the help! THANK YOU!

Details on the thesis show will be posted tomorrow most likely…when I actually make my promo postcard. Ha, so behind on that…oops! Maybe it’s because I WASN’T SURE I WAS GRADUATING THIS FREAKING YEAR…ugh…loooooong story that ya’ll can expect to see the light of day in some creative way in the damn f’ing near future. Oh man…the characters I’ve met these past few years…yes, I will NOT go easy on you jerk faces. Not. One. BIT! I’ll show you the same “curusies” you’ve shown me. :) Ah…sweetness.

I know I sound grumpy, and I kinda am, I’m burned, I’m soured, and I’m plain tired from only getting about 2 hours of sleep each night these past few days. But truthfully, I’m excited about my project and where it’s taking me and where it’s going especially when I’m free of the bondage that has been grad school and the hierarchy that exists in before mentioned institution. THANK GOD FOR FREEDOM! So yeah…it’s all good, especially once I walk across that stage and get my diploma and drink my sorrows away while dancing and laughing and chatting it up with my friends. YEP! GOOD TIMES ARE AROUND THE CORNER…I can almost taste them!

Anyway…for your viewing pleasure; feast your eyes on the oddly feminine looking Lambert and his deliciously anxty song. This is dedicated to all the people in my program who clearly were not listening to what I said I was aiming to do and going to do when I initially pitched my thesis project. To you I ask, whataya want from me followed with a timeless, SUCK IT NERDS!

Thank you. ;)

beacuse it’s an important message and it’s beautifully shot.

Sunday, April 11th, 2010 1:47 pm

And I’m still M.I.A…

Friday, March 12th, 2010 6:37 pm

I’m still madly (more like frantically) working on my thesis project. It’s getting there, but I’m not really close enough to done yet to relax. The work itself will continue well on into the summer even once I’m technically done with school, but by that point the first phase (the thesis installation and initial book) will be done and I’ll be able to work on this at my own pace without others putting their 22 cents in about the work and messing with my head! lol.

Really, I just wanna be creating and doing my own thing, no longer listening to ANYONE and just plain experimenting, experiencing, learning, growing, messing up, making happy accidents and producing my own work without any regard to what anyone else thinks! I don’t want to worry about a show, selling my work or making money off the work, I just want to be able to breathe again, be normal again, stop being such an emotionally goofy girl and give my man a break from dealing with the sensitive silly I’ve become during this process. I’m close. Very close. And once I’ve got the thesis part of it done, and can start to breath, sleep, eat, exercise and LIVE again, I’ll start to get back to where I was a few months ago – totally happy with myself, my life and my situation and in absolute creative peace. I’ll be able to laugh again without feeling guilty for enjoying a free moment when I should be working on something. OH MAN. It will be great.

In the mean while, I’m finally starting to gain some real momentum. Hopefully this will get me through to the end of this phase of the project and I’ll continue to love and grow with it. And at least I can say that I’m starting to collaborate with some really talented and creative people that I look forward to working more with under less pressure and with more time. WOO HOO. SUMMER, you beautiful bitch, you’re so almost here!!!

Anywaaaaay, in those few moments I steal for myself or take to prep for the day at hand I find myself listening to music to help pump me up, psych me into and get ready for the photo shoots I’m doing for my thesis project.

Marathon season (and thus training) is also almost upon us and often times I find the music I use to pump myself up for a photo shoot is the same I might use for a tempo run or a race.

It got me thinking that I should share that music with you all from time to time. So here is the first of the songs I’m obsessively listening to on repeat. I have been listening to it for months and I just don’t get sick of it! It’s got a GREAT beat, great bass, great keys, synth…it’s got it all. Oh yeah, and lyrics? Totally rock.

Sweet Disposition
by Temper Trap
Please, to enjoy…

thesis student missing in action…

Friday, February 26th, 2010 1:48 am

Dear Lovely Readers,

I am currently in the thick of IT. It being thesis, and it also being a bitch! Thesis is pretty much consuming my life, my mind, my thoughts, my dreams my everything. It has become all consuming as I’m sure many of you out there can totally relate to.

I am busting tail to make this thesis even better than I imagine, but it’s gonna continue to kick my butt pretty solidly until end of April when the show opens. I’ll be sure to post a few tid bits here and there about it to make sure you are up to date and in the loop. I mean to post some back dated fave fives, but not sure when I’ll get around to them.

I do want to let you in on an exciting promotion I’ll be running soon. You can purchase my thesis book, Devin Magazine, for $12 when it goes on presale! That saves you $3 a book! I’m not up and ready for the presale yet, but by mid March, I’ll be letting you know how to get in on that action.

I’m very excited about the work so far, and despite the recent onset of sleepless/restless nights, panic attacks and emotional breakdowns, I still maintain a sense of happiness over what I’m setting out to do and what I’ve accomplished thus far along the way!

More info to come on what my thesis is actually about but for now I must try to capture a moment of sleep before I try to end my work week and dive into a craaaaaazy weekend of thesis thesis thesis!!!

Cheers my dearies,
Devin

PS- I leave you with a doctored photo from tonight’s shoot. Photo shot by Kevin Valentine, edited by yours truly. Hope you enjoy!


Favorite Five; Day 74

Sunday, January 24th, 2010 11:49 pm

Today’s fave five were:

  1. Getting to sleep in after sleeping veeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyy soundly. Woke up craving PANCAKES!
  2. Having the perfect running partner to motivate me to get out the door for our run, devising the perfect plan to get our run in, hit The Bagel in Lakeview for PANCAKES, Starbucks on the way back for a Signature Hazelnut Hot chocolate all in time to be back by the start of today’s football games! BRILLIANT!
  3. Adding a new fishy friend to the mix – her name is Black Eyed Susie (Susie for short). She’s the cutest little speckled fancy gold I’ve seen in a long time. One of her eyes is white around the rim and the other is black around the rim thus the name. Currently she’s living with MU’s fish, but I kinda wanna bring her to work to live with Tangerine (my totally awesome Betta). Time will tell if that happens or not…
  4. Meghan having nine lives. I got a phone call from her today while she was being taking to the ER in an ambulance. Her message, “Can you meet me at the hospital? I think I’m ok, but want to make sure. There isn’t any blood. IT WASN’T MY FAULT DEV!!! It wasn’t my fault!”…Aw Megion!!! She is FINE – totally ok, but very lucky. Her car took a big ass hit. Some new driver clearly should not have his license for he was headed north bound, than in an attempt to make a U Turn heading south bound, freaked out, popped the curb then (my assumption here) hit the gas instead of the break which propelled him forward while still having the wheel turned causing him to crash straight into the drivers side of Meghan’s car. She got some pretty bad whiplash and will probably have a bruise on her left hip in a couple days time, but no cuts or anything worse fortunately. The car? Not in such great shape. Poor Meg…She kept giving me lip about if I was ok…apparently I was a little flushed in the face. Uh yeah…won’t/can’t deny it. Hearing my baby sister is in an ambulance on her way to the ER after a car accident sends chills down my spine. In the moment I was fine – hopped into action, called Terra to inform her of everything I knew, got to the hospital and was fine. Late on tonight? Eh…maybe I wasn’t quite so *fine*. I keep repeating, just so happy it turned out the way it did and no serious damage was done to her skinny little body!!!
  5. Coming home after what ended up being a crazy night dealing with ER stuff, making sure Meghan got to fill out the report with the cops, waiting for her car to get towed and then taking her to get an el pass for the week, I was exhausted. So I kinda treated myself to an 830 calorie McDonald’s meal. OH SHAME ON ME I KNOW…I couldn’t help it. Then I noticed I had missed a fun piece of mail, another swap-bot swap! Thank you Sam Jowers!!! My “La Muerte” 2 of spades is AWESOME! I absolutely love it!!

    "La Muerte" APC by Sam Lowers

Snail mail and why it rocks!

Monday, December 7th, 2009 11:10 pm
everybody loves to recieve letters in the mail...here are 4 b-day cards I got all in one day!

everybody loves to recieve letters in the mail...here are 4 b-day cards I got all in one day!

You know, I’m one of those lucky people that has not one, not two but at least THREE wonderful close friends in my life who send me SNAIL MAIL. That’s right, the actual kind of mail you must go and get stamps for and hand off to a US Postal services person to be hand delivered to your door step. Yeah, totally awesome!

So I must address these three wonderful and amazing people (especially since they might be three of the six people I know actually READ this blog, ha ha). Ivan, you’ve been sending me snail mail the longest – I’ve got boxes full of hand written love from you. THANK YOU FOR KEEPING IT UP ALL THESE YEARS!!! Hillary, lady, you and the pen make magic happen on paper. Your words flow like honey from the comb – sweetly and liberally. I LOVE all the postcards and letters you’ve sent to me from various parts of the world over the past few years we’ve known each other!!! And last but not least to Lindy, my newest friend and incredible spirit – you have sent me more letters in recent months than any bill collector has – WHAT A GIFT!!! You’ve sent me inspirational reminders, overwhelming love and support and super girlie goodies that make me smile from ear to ear!! I love and appreciate that you each (and the others of you so kind to send the occasional written correspondence) have taken the time out of your days to send me something special.

It really IS something special to open up your mail box and find something intended only for you in there! And recently I have RECEIVED SO MUCH LOVE IN MY MAILBOX!!!

I don’t know HOW I missed it, but there was a box waiting for me downstairs towards the end of last week. Inside I found the LOVELIEST GREEN SCARF, hand picked for me, by my dear friend Lindy!!! OH HOW I LOVE THIS SCARF!!! Thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!

Then today, after picking up a package of goodies from FedEx (items I had ordered for a current project) I discovered FOUR cards in the mail for me for my birthday. THANK YOU IVAN! I never ever would have expected a paper pickle in the mail – but there it was, and it made me laugh!

It’s such a time consuming thing to hand write out a letter. In fact, in the past, when I HAVE sent snail mail, there were a few times I typed it up on the computer and then printed it out to send. There were always a few good reasons for this I thought. One, I am a horrible speller and I didn’t want it to have glaring mistakes throughout the letter. Two, my hand writing isn’t amazing. It’s not bad, it’s definitely legible, but it tends to change between three different styles of type by the time I’m done with two pages of text. Weird. Three, I just haven’t been good about making the TIME to send out letters as I should. I know how much I love them and am sure everyone else would love them just the same, yet I don’t send them. WHAT GIVES? Laziness be damned, those cards I’ve gotten with certain people in mind GO OUT THIS WEEK DAMMIT!

Anyway, all this makes me think about the whole idea of correspondence and how we all communicate today with one another. Electronic communications have become such a HUGE part of society, the old fashioned ways of communication have almost gone the way of the Dodo bird! Between phones, text messages, online chat rooms, message boards, blogs, facebook and twitter – we’re all so socially and electronically connected that we get bits and pieces here and there and think we’ve got the whole story, when really, with someone like me, you haven’t heard ANYTHING yet…well, ok, I DO facebook a lot, but still, I only offer up vague inclinations to what I’m thinking about. My status updates could be interpreted a hundred different ways depending on how much of my life you are really privy to.

And I find it almost a little bit sad in a way. I LOVE facebook, don’t get me wrong, it’s my constant friend and companion that keeps me sane sometimes when silly little things would like to do otherwise, but it’s also made me even more lazy about reaching out to those people I haven’t been in touch with as often as I’d like. I used to pick up the phone and call people at least. I’d send more emails, and yes, I even sent a few more cards and letters. I think while things like facebook and twitter DO connect us with those we have completely fallen out of touch with, they also keep things at this weird “status update” or 140 character count level, and no more.  They offer us a glimpse into something, but never really reveal much beyond that taste or snippet.

And they certainly do not offer the intimacy and special feeling provided by sending someone a personalized letter. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t open up my facebook homepage and get all twitterpated (sorry, had to) at the site of an “inbox message” or “wall comment”; at least not the same way I would from finding a handwritten letter addressed to me.

After this week of amazing treats in the mail, I think it imperative I do not further add to the loss of such a wonderful tradition and method of correspondence. I vow to send at least one card or letter to SOMEONE every two weeks. It’s a start at least. Once I ease into that, I’ll try to make it at least one handwritten item sent to someone once every week. I’ll do my part to keep the US Postal Service in business, and more importantly, to give the love and smile back to my wonderful friends and family who so generously keep me in mind when they think to send some love through the mail.

After all, isn’t giving back the only real way one can become open enough to truly receive the gifts life has to offer? I’m just sorry I haven’t been better about my correspondences these past few years; everyone I know deserves better than what I’ve sent out.

Again, I must reiterate thanks to my lovely friends who have (and continue to) send me real tangible letters…it absolutely makes my day to receive them!

Happy (hand)writing everyone!
Devin

HaPpY bIrThDaY to ME!!!

Friday, December 4th, 2009 5:36 pm

Hey all you local Chicagoans…do we know each other? Do you read this and are we friends?

Well, if so, continue reading on! It’s super dooper late notice, but I’ll be continuing the birthday celebrating along with other December babies TOMORROW NIGHT (that’s Saturday Dec. 5th) with some rock’n good times. First stop: Diversey Rock’n Bowl at 9pm for some fun on the lanes! After a couple rounds of bowling we’ll be heading to Trader Todd’s for, you’ve guessed it, KARAOKE!!!! We expect to be getting there around 11pm!

I know it will be wildly busy there, but I always love me some drunken singing and of course, that wildly insane drink The Pain Killer! WOO HOO!

Don’t know what I’ll be wearing…might keep it “low key” or I might just rock something overly formal for the occasion – why not right? It IS for birthday celebrating isn’t it?

So come one and come all! Bring whom ever you’d like to bring with ya! If we haven’t met before, be sure to introduce yourself!

My appologies for such an informal and last minute invite, but I didn’t know the details till yesterday.

Cheers and make merry! Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GIRLS APRIL AND MEGHAN!!! WOO HOO!!!!

XOXO,
Devin