Prints

This first print is a linocut block print. The lighting is off; it's really all black and white.

The next three are monotypes. Monotype printing is my favorite technique- combining etching, painting and drawing you can really create amazing images. It's quick, spontaneous and doesn't require cutting out pieces of plastic with metal tools that eventually slip and jab into your hands. However, it does leave your arms stained with ink for the next two days no matter how hard you scrub your skin.




I'm pretty sure my cow print was inspired by my run in with this lovely scene at the Sennaya Market the other day:

yup, that's a cow snout just plopped up on the counter.

Out of the last 25 days that I've been here in Petersburg, only 7 have been sunny. 5 of those occurred within the last week, so it's been tough to anchor myself down and record anything in my blog. My hot water was turned back on long ago, followed by heating! Last week was brutal; in a sense it was the coldest time of the year. The temperatures dropped to the low forties, yet the city-controlled heating hadn't caught up. At home I sat huddled up under blankets, drinking copious amounts of tea and re-reading A Moveable Feast.

This morning I went to the printmaking studio and we worked on Monoprints for three hours. I'll put some photos up soon of the work I made today. After suffering from what Adam called "art block" all last week I was relieved to be productive in a studio again.



I met with the editors of the St. Petersburg Times last week and on Monday I'm going to start coming in and help edit articles before the paper gets sent to the press. After spending last year writing about Anna Politkovskaya, I've been anxious to learn more about the state of journalism in Russia. I'm hoping that this editing gig will help put me in a mindset to frame what I'm learning about for my project into articles to submit to the paper.

On that note, I went to a really great artist talk last week. Pavel Shugurov spoke to us about his project 33 plus 1. Although he is regularly employed to paint murals on buildings, in restaurants, cheesy pool backgrounds, etc.; his personal art ranges from installations to ceramics, drawing, painting, video art and artist books (!). After causing too much confusion by trying to explain to his friends why he couldn't narrow down his identity as an artist ("I'm a painter," or "I'm a sculptor") he created a web-based artist community featuring a cast of fictional artists each representing one aspect of Pavel's portfolio. Pavel showed us the matrix he had drawn up organizing which parts of his own persona belongs to each artist. He mentioned that his project has caused much confusion- such as the time 6 of the artists in the 33plus1 community were invited to do a collaborative installation tour and having to explain why he only needed one of the 6 bus tickets reserved for him.

I finally received my "golden ticket" to Russia- my student ID. The photo this time around is great, entirely due to the fact that the woman working at the Kodak store on Nevsky made sure that I went to the mirror and properly preened myself for my ID picture before she would take it. So far I've gotten a discounted gym membership (nothing beats post-soviet style aerobics), a balcony ticket for a symphony concert for 30 roubles ($1.20), and free admission to the Hermitage. What a country.

dog show.

dog show, originally uploaded by laurichka.

Walking down Nevsky on my way to the Bobrinskii palace for an art lecture, I spotted the leather-clad lady you see in the photo with her one-woman dog show on the street.

water water everywhere but not a drop in my sink.

These last few days have been disciplining me in the ways of convenience appreciation. About four days ago I woke up and made my way groggily to the bathroom to turn on the shower only to find that the faucet could only summon the equivalent of a "dry heave". Our hot water had been shut off. I wasn't about to risk taking a cold shower- even though the temperature outside has dropped the heating hasn't been turned on city-wide yet. I awoke a couple days later to find the same sound coming from the cold tap as well. Luckily that only lasted a day.
Our water's been shut back on and I'm fresh and clean, but still waiting to hear back about my computer. Last week my computer went through an identity crisis and decided to wipe it's memory out and start over anew. I would switch on my mac only to find a folder icon popping up on the screen switching between icons of a question mark and a finder face. Luckily through the spread of globalization and popularity of the ipod a bunch of re:stores have popped up around the city and they directed me to someone who is certified to fix computers.
I've hardly thought about everything that's been wiped out by this computer mishap. Thankfully I saved my senior thesis to my external harddrive- that would be a lot of re-typing if I ever wanted to print that out again.
Anyway, that's why I've been behind on email. Anyone know of a good program to rip music from your ipod onto your computer? Let's keep our fingers crossed that i'll have a functioning laptop in a couple of days....


Pictures of the apartment and Petersburg are coming soon. Also- i had my first printmaking session on saturday! We made linoleum cut block prints. I'll throw a picture of that up on here soon too.

Living downtown St. Pete is so bougie. I live right off of Nevsky Prospect- made famous by itself and in a story by Nikolai Gogol. He writes something along the lines of "Nevsky is better than any phone directory one could purchase, someone living on one side of Petersburg will run into an acquaintance they haven't seen in months living on the other side of petersburg." I always find this to be true and last night ran into my darling friend Yana while wandering the streets with my American friend, Vanessa. In this last summer she's become a regular down at Dacha, Fidel and (there's another one, but the name escapes me now. They all blend into one another) and everyone there knows her name. The Produktii* on the corner even sells her and her boyfriend vodka after the curfew of 11.
As for me meeting people- I might have to change my name as it's hard for anyone to understand me. "gloria? Nice to meet you. Gloria! " "No, no, it's Lauren. LOREN, LO- Ren." Maybe I'll just start telling people that I'm another Masha. People either mishear me, or when my Russian friends introduce me they're confused such as Vova last night "Lauren, that's seriously your name. Why did your mother call you that?" "Oh, well, I'm american." "Oh, American? I see."

Yesterday as I walked to the Bobrinsky Palace to meet up with administrators I only knew through emails I saw a stray cat sitting in the entrance of a courtyard. Standing next to the cat was an old man wearing a basball cap with "cat" embroidered on it. It was like walking by the punchline of some kind of joke I'm not sure I understood...

*convenience store

made it.

I've arrived in Petersburg safe and sound, and everything so far has been a jetlagge and deja-vu inducing chilly blur. The rain and autumn chill has already set in here in Petersburg- so much for any hope of a Russian summertime.
When you fly a lufthansa flight there's a period after they've served dinner trays and before they start the movie when you're subjected to an in seat exercise video. The star of the film is the most awkward and uncomfortable looking computer generated man in a sea foam sweater and matching socks. Maybe you've seen this. I'm always worried that between bending over and sitting up that the little man is going to pass out- apparently these are tough movements for him as his eyes are always bugging out of his head and the designer decided to emphasize his breathing. I can't watch it without feeling a bit queasy.
On the plane they played a movie with "Dr. mcdreamy" (i forget the actor's name) as the lead role. As far as i could tell it was a remake of My Best Friend's wedding without the charm of Julia Roberts and that lobster restaurant scene everyone loves. A bad movie for sure, made entertaining by my faulty sound system that was playing the soundtrack for another film on some of the channels, and the right soundtrack a half hour ahead of the movie on others. The flight attendent revealed to me an empty seat in the front row with plenty of leg room next to a couple with a darling baby who shockingly didn't cry at all. Even a shorty like me was feeling cramped in the back!
A short layover in Munich (i've spent too many hours in the Frankfurt airport by now so I try to avoid it if I can) and then a plane ride i slept through to Petersburg. When we landed i was reminded that Russians always applause when the plane makes it safely onto the ground, and that they're ferocious about cutting in line at passport control.

***

I was able to get in touch with my roomate Zhenya as I arrived and headed straight to my new apartment. Zhenya and I live right on the corner of Caravanaya and Nevsky Prospekt- an amazing location. I am in awe over the size of the room I'll be living in. My room is too big for one person, it's pretty much the size of Ryan and Greta's Denver apartment and has two шкафы (that's wardrobe for you non-russian speakers out there).
I'm at Smolny now taking care of registration. All you Smolny alumni will be thrilled to know that everyone's favorite blonde cafe worker is still here. I saw her coming out of the bathroom when i got here this morning, where i'm sure she didn't wash her hands (i caught her walking straight out once, not even pretending to wash her hands!)
Anyway, Bryan Billings wants to get a snack from the smolny cafe. I'll probably opt for something that comes in a wrapper.