High Contrast Grey.

Sitting at a café in Montmartre as Jessye finally gets a break and writes a few postcards. Sacre Coeur peeks up above the buildings in the mirror. For as French as this café was, for whatever reason, the two times we went there they were playing Mexican music. The first time we arrived, we stood in the doorway waiting for a table and then the tiled floor opened up and a small elevator with a crate of cola surfaced.

Jessye at our favorite Parisian bar. Coffee and cognac. It was great having her come and visit. It was as if we hadn’t missed a beat while I have been in France and things were just as if we had been together this entire time. In our French bar and café hopping we came up with the pipe dream of taking back the idea of these beautiful French places and opening up an ex-pat French café that also serves alcoholic drinks, like café calva and vin chaud.

I finished the painting of the girl and her accordion enough to take it in for the critique in painting class. I still kind of want to darken the background a bit more to make her stand out more as well as add detail to the ‘speaker’ on the accordion, but perhaps I also just need to be finshed before I ruin it. The critique was a bit of a disappointment. The reactions from all the other students was that it was kitsch and not a true represenation of France. The professor added in that it was painted well, but in a style that has been outdated for almost a century. Again the language barrier prevented me from defending myself adequately. Although after class I went up to the professor to ask if he had any recommendations on contemporary artists I could look up, which I hope helped him see that I am not an idiot.. So now I would like my next painting to be a bit more ‘modern.’ I have another piece of cardboard in my room that I think I would like to use of this new idea, but as ...

Jessye came to visit me for a week and while this town is rather boring we at least found one day to run away to nowhere for a little picnic.

Jessye got a hold of my camera this past weekend. Perhaps my lipstick too, but it may be her’s. I’m not sure…

and so marks the end of working on my personal artwork while I finish out this semester… I just put these last two works in a juried show at university and I should find out Monday if they make the cut. I am feeling a bit nervous because I worked the process of getting everyone’s piece processed for the show and it seems that the quality and style of work is all over the place, so I am not sure how my work will be received. Definitely not the selection from the last juried show I was in in Billings..

I went out and found a new warmer scarf today since the weather has been turning and the beginning of snow has started to show up, although thankfully it has yet to stick or not melt immediately upon contact with the ground. I was looking for something that was a solid dark grey but was not having any luck, but then I found this scarf that is a combination of black and a dark tan that I thought paired the brown leather cap that I wear all the time very well. Read all of this as further procrastination. I have three assignments due tomorrow and I really just want to not do them and crawl into bed with a French film. Read this further as I need to brew a pot of black tea and just get to work, because it would seem that my sleep schedule is just not going to be anywhere near normal as we get closer and closer to the end of the semester.

October seems to be a month from hell in trying to get all my school work done. The largest, figuratively and physically, for the moment is a steam roller print for my print making class. Next to that though is filling out all the information for studying abroad. I just reread the application again today and realized that I have to write a paper for each of the four schools that I choose as to why I have chosen them. Meh. Today my plans were to do groceries and work on my print. Which I accomplished with a skinny flask of absinthe in my vest pocket, although it did eat up a huge chunk of my time. At one point I followed Robert, who was working on his print, over to the Butterfly for a little break. It can be an interesting experience sitting there as they close. Today I noticed that Javier has named his guitar Stella, or at least that the name Stella is stickered onto the head of his guitar.

I don’t like flash very much, but I think that if I develop this as a lithograph that it will help counteract. I think that I will compile some of my already compiled pictures of accordions and bohemian kids for developing. Perhaps Cassandra on the porch can be put into a Nat Sherman fag box as an old pocket photo box. Meh, I really just need to get this done and over with and stop trying to over think the assignment.

I can’t seem to think up ideas for the upcoming final for my alternative process photography class. So, self portrait with my old mustache drawn back on it seems it may be (while listening to Doctor Who radio shows).. Then again that might just be me finishing off two bottles of white wine from the salmon and French lentil dinner that I made Stephanie and myself last night.. Time to probably throw in my accordion, and perhaps my new pipe I got cheap yesterday from the antique store just down the way from Stephanie’s place.

House party at the Spruce Street house opening with Javier playing songs on the guitar, organ, and accordion as we all sat around on the floor gently rocking back and forth to the music. A cover of Nantes by Beirut.

Red eyed. Tired. Waiting for the vegetarian chef because Olivia didn’t like eggs. She was prepared a once-in-a-lifetime Beth’s meal of a fajita. She drew them a picture of Montana to say thank you. Colored it brown.