BUB

I went to one of my favorite places yesterday: the art supply store. The one I frequent is Blick on India Street in Little Italy (the photo above is some graffiti art on the side on the store that I kind of liked). There is something about aisles of pigments, brushes, charcoals, and canvases that makes me feel all tingly and giddy. I don't even know what most of the stuff is, nor how to use it. I like to walk down the paint aisle and look at all of the completely saturated hues before they've been diluted, mixed, and spread across surfaces. I also like the brush aisle because it kind of looks like a field of wheat or something with all of those bunches of brushes sticking out of various containers. They are all sorts of sizes and shapes and are really really soft to touch. (Can't you just see me wandering through the store touching EVERYTHING... like little kid?) I don't know why I like them so much; I'm really not very artistic at all. I think I'm too analytical and systematic to just create things out of just pure ...whim. I usually need more structure than that (note to self: work on artistic spontaneity). So the painting materials totally intimidate me, and when I walk slowly down the aisles staring at all of the different tools, I don't really feel inspired to create, I just like being there...

I only needed to replenish some supplies for my drawing class this semester (that tiny pencil-style eraser is still eluding me). But I always cave at the art store and buy something "artsy" that I really just don't know what to do with, but maybe, just maybe, will inspire me to spend more time pursuing visual arts. So this was my purchase this time:

It's called BUB. It's basically this slightly creepy, kind of kitschy, art-doll-thing. It's a miniature BUB (only about as big as my hand) and the box advertised a mystery prop which turned out to be a spear. It's one of several characters, the original one is called Munny. You are supposed to customize it...draw on it, paint it, make clothes or props for it... Here are some Munny's that I thought turned out pretty cool.

Yeah, the buddha one is my favorite too.

So these are a little ambitious, I'm not sure I'll get this intricate with mine, but we will have to see... I was thinking of doing a Maori themed one (inspired by recent talks with Nhu about traveling to New Zealand, and discussions about indigenous tattoo practices).

I had my first art history class of the semester today. I generally like classes that leave you with more curiosity than you came with. I think this is going to be one of those classes. Tune in later to find out...