leaf within a leaf

I was walking to school, and I noticed these leaves on the sidewalk, they both had images of leaves within leaves on them. New England is famous for its colourful fall leaves, but I never knew this kind of leaf existed. I thought it was very beautiful and a creative thing for mother nature to do. is that a corny thing to say?

Cape Cod is not odd, it's not flawed or gnawed

Wow, it's been a week since I last posted! I think that is because I am parts exhausted/busy/defeated/and was sick last week. Sorry for the delay, dear readers. After some more tough critiques and a crazy work load, was I ever happy to get outta town last weekend. And so the brits and I (Rory, Niki and Anjali) all pitched in and rented a car to go to Cape Cod. I was the driver, and although we ordered an economy car, we got an SUV.


Cape Cod is something like 2 or 3 hours from Providence. The main town, Provincetown was begun in something like 1626, and the pilgrims stopped there on their way to Plymouth (very old place!). It was a windy place, but the town was very cute, a lot of old houses with grey weathered shingles. Also, Cape Cod is the gay-folks mecca, so there are rainbow flags and middle aged gay couples everywhere, the most I've ever seen in one place. Also, lobster is huge there. There are pictures of lobsters everywhere, but the funny thing was, even with all of the advertising, and saying we would love to eat some lobster so much, we didn't. I guess we forgot.


I did eat some salt water taffy, it was delish. I think that's another thing Cape Cod is famous for.

But the one thing I didn't know is that Cape Cod is beautiful. We stopped our SUV at the side of the road where there were a bunch of cars parked, and made a small trek through a thin band of forest, and then the trail turned to sand!


And when we came out of the forest was the most bizarre landscape I've ever seen: mountains of sand, with dips and bowls and grasses growing out from the sand. I haven't seen anything like it and it felt like a moonscape or science fiction setting. It was really beautiful. I think most of Cape Cod is made up of sand.



It was a great day, and sooo nice just to get away, sometimes cars are so underrated. We all agreed that our car was freedom! All in all, it only cost $20 each to rent the car (we rented it for one day, but got it for Saturday and Sunday) and for gas, totally worth it.

One of risd's cafeterias, the Portfolio Cafe

RISD has at least 4 of its own cafeterias/eateries that I know about. The Portfolio Cafe is located in the same building as RISD's library. Actually, I can't say I've ever eaten there, because I don't go to the library that often, because it's across the river, and a little out of my way.

It always has a salad bar, freshly baked pizzas, a daily special and other things like burgers and fries, a soft serve ice cream machine where you can add bits of cookies and m & ms also. And today, and it seems like often when I look, it has a grains bar:


I've never seen a grains bar before this, with buckwheat and spelt salads and such, but it looks really healthy, and I think it's a great idea, but I still haven't tried it.

Here is the overall view of the portfolio:


They also sell some groceries like milk and cereal, because also in this building are several floors of student apartments. I've never been in them, but as far as I can tell, they are pretty chichi. I think that is why the food in the portfolio is a little more expensive than at the main cafeteria, the Met, to serve the more chichi risd population, but that could be just my opinion, I really don't know why.

I was there at around 2pm, so that's why it's pretty empty, but it's usually much busier around lunch and dinner. But I just ate my packed lunch from home.

Providence Athenaeum Library

The Providence Athenaeum Library was built in 1753! And it's just a regular library, in which my risd student id card will allow me to check out books. There's quite a large children's book section, which is good for doing research on kids books, and getting inspiration.


This library is older than Canada and so the fact that I could take books out of it was surprising! But after a couple visits, it just seems normal.


The athenaeum is right on the edge of the risd campus, and across the street from the supreme court. I took out the novel "Kalooki Nights" just this morning.

the shutters of providence

When I first came to Providence, I was fascinated that the houses had real working shutters! The only shutters I had ever seen were like on this mobile home:


faux shutters screwed onto the side of a house's windows, emulating the look of the all-american home.

So when I came to Providence, I finally saw shutters that actually seemed to have a purpose, which actually worked at some point, that pivot and close when needed and weren't just ornament. But who knows, maybe even the working shutters are all about ornament, I still haven't seen any closed yet.

But I guess these houses in Providence are the original American homes that all other homes aspire to look like, down to the fact that people will attach things that look like shutters but have absolutely no use at all.

Illustrations so far

I'm really enjoying my children's book writing and illustration class, it's called Picture and Word. Here are my illustrations for that class so far.
One of our first assignments was that we were given a name of an object, and then we had to create a character out of that object, write story based on that character, and create a finished illustration (all in one week!). My word was "wrench". I really liked how my story turned out, but I did my illustration in acrylic, and wasn't very happy with it:


An assignment two weeks ago was to write a story based on a childhood memory and then do a finished illustration for it. I couldn't think of any memories of my own that could add up to a story with a beginning middle and end, so I used my brother's memory that he told me one time, of how he followed the cat because he wanted to see where it went, and they ended up sleeping in a prickle bush. Also, we had to make our main character an animal. So I had to make my brother into a bear.


So much work went into creating that bear character! I had to do a lot of sketches based on images of real bears, and then the trick is, to simplify from the realistic, that's what my teacher said, and it really works! Here's the final illustration of that:


But the bear was a little too old (it should be the age of the kids reading the book), and my teachers felt a bear mixed with a cat was a strange combo, so I had to make it back into a boy. So then I did a sketch of that with tracing paper, but the boy was too old, so I had to enlarge his head to make him younger, so many things to think about!


Last week's assignment was to take one of three fairy tales and make it our own. Somehow, mine ended up being about Stanley the Lonely mosquito, which I somehow got to out of Litttle Red Riding Hood. I really enjoyed working with collage and watercolour for this one (it's a mosquito talking to an elephant):


This week we have to write a non-fiction story, and then do a finished illustration for it. It is definitely a lot of work! Plus I have two painting to start and finish by Thursday, yikes!

a Providence side alley

Just a shot of what I see when I am walking around my neighbourhood. This is actually between my usual coffee shop and school.

only in america - soap box race

Yesterday in Providence the Red Bull Soap Box Race was held. Teams of about five people each created a car that was run by gravity only. Each team performed a skit before they pushed their car, with driver, down the steep streets of college hill.

Some teams spent $1000 - $3000 on their cars. All of the participants wore costumes.
Here are some of the funnier costumes:

This road kill team came in 4th, I think.


The winning team was "the Good the Bad and the Nerdy". They had a calculator for a car. The judging was based on creativity, showmanship and speed. The Nerds were speedy and funny.


This was the Canadian entry, Canadian Beaver (hardy-har):

painting project #2

My first painting assignment got pretty trashed in our first crit, so I wanted to redeem myself in my second assignment.

I re-did the project of making a painting that makes a statement. My idea was to make a painting of the banal moments that make up the destruction of the world. I was thinking that it's not really one crazed person wanting to destroy the world like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, it's just people doing their jobs, going to meetings, determining how to maximize profit. So that's what this painting was about. As for the crit: they liked it, they really liked it. I really enjoyed painting it, too.

Detail (a little blurry):

It's oil on canvas, 40" x 46" (approx.)

It's a very tough schedule, for my painting class we have to paint one painting per week, and for my children's books class, we have to write one story & one illustration per week. It feels as hectic to me as foundation year at ECI.

Avon Cinema

The Avon Cinema is Providence's other excellent independent cinema. So far I've seen about three or four movies there already. Last night I went to see Jane Austen Book Club. It was quite good, I liked it.


The best movie I've seen there, and right up there with the best of any movies I've seen, was called Live In Maid. You can watch the trailer here. It is an Argentinian film which somehow reflects world and Argentinian politics/economics solely through the depiction of two women - one is the live-in maid of the other woman.


I had never even heard of this movie, and so I think that's why the Avon cinema is great, because they show excellent movies that get little exposure.

Also, the decor is cool. It was built in 1943 say the people in the photo below.

safe ride safe walk

They have this good thing here, called Safe Ride and Safe Walk. Safe Ride is a bunch of vans that drive around the campuses of Brown & RISD, after a certain time, and students can catch it, for free, and take it home. After midnight (until 4 am) they will drive you directly to your door without going on a circuitous route. Sweet! I used this on Wednesday night when I was at my painting studio until 2 am. Ahh, it was nice instead of walking 25 mins. home. alone. in the dark.

Here's the safeRide driver writing down in his book that he took me home:

But a lot of times I cannot coordinate with the RISD saferide for some reason, so I usually just end up walking home because it's faster than waiting. in the dark. alone. So this is when safewalk comes in handy. It's a job for Brown students. They work from midnight until 2am walking students home safely.

The other night while walking home at around 1am, I got a safewalk home with two Brown students, David from Ohio and (woops, forgot your name, sorry) from Pittsburgh. It's nice to be walked home so late and to not have to feel freaked out. Also, it's nice talking to some new people.


Oh yeah, the reason I was walking home so late on that night - Bloc Party concert! It was an excellent show!

breakfast club

Yesterday, Anjali and Nickie (both from England) and I decided to meet for a mid-week breakfast, an informal breakfast club. Usually the exchange students will meet on weekends but it's good to connect during the week too.


We decided to try Louie's. I've found that most places around Providence as well as cafeterias on campus have vegan selections, which was a nice surprise to me. I'm not vegan, but I try to avoid greasy stuff. Louie's is a greasy spoon breakfast type of place open from 5am to 2pm everyday. I was happy to find a bowl of oatmeal with fruit on the menu as well as scrambled tofu, pretty good for a greasy-spoon type of place. My order came to $3.50.

Nickie and Anjali both got pancakes, turns out pancakes are quite exotic for the European exchange students, a real American breakfast. As for reviews, the pancakes and bacon were pretty trashy but my food was not too bad for a greasy spoon. We met at 9:30am and already people there were drinking pitchers of beer. Wow!

cable car cinema

Providence has two excellent independent cinemas, and at least one multiplex in the Providence Place mall downtown. So far I've seen movies at all three theatres. One of the independent ones is a cinema and coffee shop in one, called the Cable Car Cinema. When I went to get my coffee there, I could see the huge movie reel in the middle of the cafe. One night a few exchange students and I went to see a movie there. The movie itself was pretty good, not so great, "Becoming Jane", but the movie theatre was super. The coffee is pretty good too.



When you walk in, it just looks like a regular coffee shop with fun chachkas, but towards the back is a popcorn machine and doors that open to the cinema.


The seating is unlike any movie theatre I've been to: comfy loveseat-type sofas, perfect for two. Perfect for sitting in like you would when sitting in a couch watching a movie at home, which is pretty dangerous because I found my eyes trying to close a few times during the movie.


It is a great place to watch a movie, and I think more businesses ought to try running an independent cinema like this: part coffee shop, part theatre, I think it works out really well. Also, they have a wonky mirror (Annabel from New Zealand and myself).