Gillian King: Big Stretchers and stuff

Today is another busy day filled with FLESH posters to print, calls to make, sculptures to build, class prep for the class I teach tomorrow, AND one of my thesis advisors, Cliff Eyland, has organized a visit between a few of the painting thesis students and some architecture masters students for today! Apparently the architecture students are interested in seeing our work so I'm hoping the visit turns into a crit of sorts with an architecture perspective. It should be interesting! Of course I'll have to clean my studio first - right now no one but me can find their way through the space past all the 'palettes' (actually just wax paper), brushes,and art books all over the floor...

Speaking of books! I'm reading the greats book right now - How To Survive and Prosper As an Artist.

I would recommend it to anyone who plans on making a living or atleast part of a living from creating. It's the first book since Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut I can't seem to put down. Caroll Michels gives great advice on everything ranging from marketing to pricing to how to prepare for a studio visit. I know all parts of this book will apply to me at some point in my life so I'm busying trying to soak it all in.

And I briefly touched on it yesterday but I found out my submission was accepted for the Gallery of Student Art (GOSA) and I will be having a show there in the spring! The exact date is TBA but I will announce it and it will be posted in the 'news' section of my website shortly. Fun fact about GOSA: the Gallery of Student art receives the most traffic in the entire city! Once you think about it, it becomes less surprising because it is located in the middle of University Center at the U of M - the hub of all activity at the university. The April/May sections in my agenda are filling up scary-fast. I've got three shows to prepare for aswell as my final crit... woah...

Lauren's dad also helped me set up the 9x12ft stretcher in the art barn last night!

Lauren and her dad with my stretcher

It is a monster... but luckily it is built so it can be taken apart into four 'smaller' stretchers, 4.5x6ft each. I've told myself I can't start on it until after my next crit mid-february because I have a habit of getting really excited about new ideas and starting new things before fully completing previous projects. So on my list of things to do before starting 'the monster' I will finish all my paintings from the beginning of the year, glaze and fire my remaining ceramic pieces, and figure out a pump system for my new breast milk fountain.

And here's the latest progress on the breast milk fountain - I've decided to give the women four breasts each to reference cow's teats and I am currently sculpting heads for the figures.

I also bought a pair of earrings off my friend Cara, aka MidKid, who is a first year school of art student and our newest member of student council. Check em out! She custom made them with maps of Manhattan and Osborne village in Winnipeg - two places very close to my heart :)